Saturday, August 29, 2009

We've got a panter

After a couple weeks off, we loaded Sadie back into the car yesterday for the final leg of our Boston to California trip. We had a feeling she'd be a little antsy again, so I had the camera at the ready to capture her infamous panting face.

As a reminder, this is what our very sane, adorable, not evil cat actually looks like:


And, this is what she looks like when she's telling us how hot she is.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

You like beisbol?



Having lived a block from Fenway Park for the last three years, it became easy to forget that baseball is played outside of Red Sox "Nation." While the Red Sox will still own real estate in our hearts (unlike the Celtics, who are dead to us), we are more than ready to transfer our passions completely back to our real teams -- Dodgers for Trevor, Angels for Ashley. So, appropriately, during our free week in California, we were fortunate enough to visit our old friends in their lovely homes.

A Friday night trip to Dodger Stadium is always an automotive challenge (thanks for driving, Dad!), but once you hit your seat and look out to the field and the mountains beyond centerfield, you are reminded that it is worth the trouble. The Dodgers' pitchers combined for a one-hitter as they topped the Cubs, 2-1. So the Blue Crew did not disappoint and neither did the fireworks (!!) after the game.

@ Dodger Stadium

A few days later we met up with Ashley's parents for the Angels v. Tigers at "The Big A." It was perfectly warm and clear as the two division-leading teams faced off at the beautiful Anaheim Stadium.

Doug, Ashley, and Anita at le big A

We had great seats (Thanks Doug!) for a fantastic game, despite it ending as a 3-5 loss for the Halos. A man a couple rows in front of us got kicked out for saying certain visiting baseball professionals "suck!", but we controlled ourselves and stuck around long enough to take some nice action photos.

Bobby Abreu evaluating a pitch

Hopefully, we will continue to become fans of each other's teams. This was a step in the right direction (it's important to have equal representation) - but if it winds up as a Dodgers-Angels World Series, all progress on this matter will be erased.

P.S.: Over the next month we might also investigate the alleged existence of a San Diego major league franchise.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Ch-ch-ch-changes

By leaving Boston behind and moving to Julian, CA, we're making some big life changes. We're trading skyline views from the roof deck for patio views into the forest, the Patriots for the Chargers (the jury's still out on Red Sox fandom), and "spring" for spring. But the biggest update we're making is becoming car owners. After 8+ years of relying on feet, subways, buses and, when necessary, the genius that is car-sharing Zipcar, this is no small change. But life in rural California leaves us no choice: We are now the proud owners of a 1998 Toyota Camry.


Never have we actually considered buying a For Dummies book, but this might be the occasion, because boy do we have questions: Should we have a gas credit card? Where does the windshield wiper fluid go? How, when it looks so much like so many others, are we ever going to find this car in parking lots? Do we have a spare tire? You need to do what every how many miles? Why does the California DMV make license transfer so difficult? Can you install an iPod-friendly auxiliary cable in a 10 year old car? What kind of bumper stickers are worthy?

Our odometer on our first trip behind the wheel

Despite these obstacles and our initial reluctance, these are exciting times. All of a sudden, we're equipped to do things that previously have been the enviable domain of only our car owning friends. I speak, of course, of long weekends at home, and trips to Target, farmers markets and soccer games. There will also be post-swine flu road trips to Mexico. Look out world!

Monday, August 17, 2009

We're definitely in California now.

What with the packing and the preparations and the road trip, it's been a crazy couple of weeks. We're not quite at our destination yet, as we're not due at camp until next Friday, August 28, but once we get there, there will once again be plenty to do. Until then, we don't have many plans: catch up with friends and family, catch up on sleep, run a few errands, maybe hit up Disneyland and, hopefully, a whole lot of this:




This new life of leisure ain't bad.

Day Seven: New Mexico, Arizona & California

Day 7 miles driven: 705 miles
Day 7 time on road: 13 hours and 25 minutes


Our final day of driving would prove to be another long stretch of American road. First, we took scenic Route 60 (a two-lane desert offshoot of the old Route 66) from Albuquerque to Phoenix. Our goal was to stop in Pie Town, NM, a town totally dedicated to the idea of delicious road trip pie diners...but the town is apparently closed on Sundays. Fiddlesticks.

So we settled on an early lunch at a dirty roadside diner in Quemado, NM, where we sat one booth over from the oldest people in North America. The Mexican food was acceptable, but the art on the wall was certainly questionable.


Through the arid landscaped we trekked, eventually crossing over into the green eastern mountains (?) of Arizona. The road took us up through the winding slopes of Salt River Canyon, where we got some intense vistas of this Grand Canyon Jr... We had truly reached the American west.


We then descended into the heart of Arizona, and FINALLY met face-to-face with our first cacti of the trip. This meant that we needed to blast the air conditioning because it was, oh, 110 degrees without a cloud in sight. Unsurprisingly, Sadie was unimpressed with the dramatic change in climate.



Road trip bliss was achieved near Phoenix as we passed one of our final Food Exit signs: Waffle House, Taco Bell and In 'n Out, all together, an immaculate bouquet of fast food roses. We popped into Mesa, AZ, to visit family friend Collette before our final push towards the Golden State. One more stop for gas, and one more regrettable drive-thru dining experience later, we had crossed the Colorado River and entered California. As the sun set over the San Jacinto Mountains, we high-fived and clinked our Carl's Jr. water cups to a beautiful and epic drive from the Massachusetts bay to the California desert.


We enjoyed every minute of this trip (Well, maybe except those first two hours with the baying cat in the back seat.) - looks like we're road trip people after all. We're supremely grateful to the farms we photographed, the towns that fed us and the people who shared their homes with us. Stay tuned for more news from the western front!

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Day Six: Colorado & New Mexico

Day 6 miles driven: 478 miles
Day 6 time on road: 9 hours and 45 minutes

** We're posting this a day late, as our lodging last night didn't have internet. Apologies to those who've been waiting with baited breath. **

We've really gotten into this road tripping thing. Case in point: Today, we decided our 7 hour / 1 highway drive just wasn't scenic enough – add in a few local routes, tons of scenic vistas, one black cat themed winery, and here we are in Albequerque.

Unfortunately, the day that we took off from driving didn't coincide with the Longmont Fire Department Parade. Fortunately, it did coincide with a pre-parade party on Tyler & Dulcie's porch that involved donuts. We grabbed a couple for the road, and headed south through Denver.


Before the border to New Mexico, we ran into an adorable Coloradan town, Trinidad, where we ate lunch at a pizzeria on its Main Street, which was paved with bricks. Fruit salad was the special of the day – every ingredient (apples, pears, mandarin oranges, goat cheese, walnuts) was from the town's Farmer's Market that had been earlier that day. Colorado is awesome.



One of the best road trip decisions we've made this week was to detour off Highway 25 today – this would have taken us straight from Trinidad in Colorado to Albequerque in probably 2 fewer hours than what we did, but the route we took, along a windy mountain road, then a few miscellaneous ones South, took us through landscape that is the definition of the American Southwest – wide open plains, backed up along the Rocky Mountains.


On the windy mountain road, the official destination according to the highway signs was Taos, a New Mexico community renowned as an artist and hippie destination. We were actually disappointed in Taos – an elderly vacationer's destination if we've ever seen one – but beyond delighted with Eagle's Nest, a lakefront town about 15 miles north.


After Taos, we stumbled upon a winery, which made for the perfect mid-afternoon break. Then it was a straight shot down to Albequerque, which is just about 40 minutes away from the skyline-free Santa Fe, where we are staying at the empty house of one of Trevor's parents' friends. Despite the fact that all we had seen and read about New Mexico was about its Mexican food, when we went to find some place for dinner, we couldn't find a single Mexican restaurant. We did find a microbrewery (of course), and then a tapas place where we decidedly did not eat tapas (Trevor: Crawfish sandwich. Ashley: Grilled cheese.).

We're calling it an early night to get on the road tomorrow morning for our final day - hard to believe that at this time tomorrow, we'll be at our final destination, at Ashley's parents in Indio, California.

A beer interlude

You might not think a road trip is conducive to beer tasting, but that's where you'd be wrong. Beer samplers – flights of 4-7 beers in 4 ounce tastes – are perfect for a pair of beer lovers traveling the country. You get to taste what the brewery has to offer in 20 minutes or less, without worrying about blindly ordering a bad pint, the cat in the car, or getting back behind the wheel. It's good for the road trip budget too – they typically cost $5 or $6.

Great Lakes Brewing Company (Cleveland, OH)



We stopped at Great Lakes because they're one of the country's most renowned breweries that doesn't distribute on the coasts. On our way to Michigan, we stopped in for a quick sample of 4 to see what all the fuss was about. At their downtown Cleveland location, they've got a full-on complex: Restaurant, brewery, tasting room, pub, patio, beer garden and gift shop. It's definitely a popular place for downtown professionals, for weekday lunch and after-work drinks. Somehow at around 3PM, we ran into both of these crowds. The bar has dark wood paneling, and decorations reminiscing about beers from yesteryear.

Beers tasted:
  • Dortmunder Gold
  • Commodore Perry IPA
  • Edmond Fitzgerald Porter
  • Moondog ESB

Trevor's favorite: Dortmunder Gold
Ashley's favorite: Commodore Perry IPA

Overall rating: B+. We would definitely rate this higher if: We had been able to sample more beers, enjoy some of their outdoor seating (the bar area just wasn't our thang), or if they'd had branded bibs in the gift shop (Sorry Tyler & Dulcie!).

Grizzly Peak (Ann Arbor, MI)


We hit up Grizzly Peak primarily for dinner with our friends/hosts, Emily and Nathan. As soon as we heard it was a brewpub, visions of sampler glasses started dancing in our heads. Its one location is a downtown Ann Arbor hotspot. The digs were pretty standard brewpub – same kind of pre-prohibition décor as Great Lakes – with a good amount of space for both eating and drinking. Before we get into the beer, it's important to note that Ashley's mac and cheese was among the best ever tasted – creamy and herby and sharp and delicious.

Beers tasted:
  • Bear Paw Porter
  • Pale Ale
  • Steelhead Red Ale
  • Anniversary ESB
  • American IPA (On cask)
Trevor's favorite: Steelhead Red Ale
Ashley's favorite: Pale Ale

Overall rating: A-. With their rotating beer list and seasonally appropriate food menu, we would be definite regulars at this bar/restaurant.

Katie & Jason's (Pacific, MO)


Who knew that a residence in Pacific, Missouri was greater St. Louis's official tasting station? Aside from the amazing St. Louis-style, white and traditional pizzas that Katie prepared, we sampled some Missouri-made suds, some of which were brewed on the premises.

Beers tasted:
  • Schlafly's Summer Lager
  • Schlafly's Raspberry Hefeweizen
  • Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat Beer
  • Homebrewed Tripel
  • Homebrewed English Brown Ale
  • O'Fallon 5 Day IPA
Trevor's favorite: Homebrewed Tripel
Ashley's favorite: Schlafly's Raspberry Hefeweizen

Overall rating: A+. We're moving in.

Left Hand Brewing Company (Longmont, CO)


We'd had – and loved – Left Hand's Milk Stout before, so we were anxious to see what else they have to offer. Colorado knows how to make consuming local beer awfully convenient: The tasting room serves as a bar, gift shop and package store. The bar is unpretentious and bright, and the barkeep, friendly and Austrian. We paid for a sampler of 6, but wound up tasting 8, either because it was our first time, she likes the beers so much, or because she was flirting with us. 2 freebies? We're fine with any reason. We were there on the release day of their Oktoberfest – is it that time of year already?

Beers tasted:
  • Pro Am Brown
  • Pro Am Brown (Cask)
  • Juju Ginger
  • Deep Cover Brown
  • Imperial Stout
  • Black Jack Porter
  • Oktoberfest
  • Jackman's Pale Ale
Trevor's favorite: Juju Ginger
Ashley's favorite: Oktoberfest

Overall rating: A. The fact that Trevor's choosing a spiced beer as his favorite, and that we didn't even miss tasting an IPA, speaks to the non-wavering quality of their catalogue. Translation: We liked it.

Oskar Blues Brewery (Longmont, CO)


We're longtime fans of Oskar Blues's well-distributed offerings, Dale's Pale Ale & Old Chub. You know them – they're the ones in the can. We hesitated to enter the tasting room, because it looked like a door to their factory – and it was. The neat juxtaposition of their brewing and canning facilities with their tasting room made for the hippest atmosphere yet, which made up for the fact that, after the Left Hand tasting and a large lunch of Mexican food, our appetite wasn't quite as fierce as it had been earlier that day.


Beers tasted:
  • Dale's Pale Ale
  • Gordon (Imperial IPA)
  • Old Chub (Scottish Ale)
  • Whiskey barrel aged Old Chub
  • Doppelbock
  • Mama's Little Yella Pils
  • Bonus: Oskar Blues Root Beer
Trevor's favorite: Dale's Pale Ale
Ashley's favorite: Gordon

Overall rating: B+. Had we not tasted four of these beers before, we may have been more blown away. As is, we were expecting quality, and they delivered. If we lived in the area, we would frequent the room, because its quirky atmosphere is right up our alley. And Trevor would like a job driving their bus:


In addition to these samplers, we did have a few regular-sized beers, including an Illinois-brewed Goose Island Honkers Ale and three local New Mexico brews (Santa Fe Brewing Company's 94 Rock Dirty Blonde and Chama River's Rio Lodo Brown & Jackelope IPA). Ashley also sampled a new Midwest beer you might not have heard of: Budweiser. The start-up operation is trying, but the quality just isn't there yet. Oh, and we also did a wine tasting. Chilled red dessert wine infused with bittersweet chocolate? Actually very good.

This will likely become a regular feature on the blog – 5 beer samplers in a week, imagine what we could do in a year!

Friday, August 14, 2009

Day Four: Missouri, Kansas, Kansas, Kansas, and Colorado


Day 4 miles driven: 860 miles
Day 4 time on road: 13 hours and 45 minutes
Hot and long: Interstate 70

Day four was a long one, that's for sure.

We left Katie, Jason & James hopped up on coffee and a breakfast of homemade bread and zoomed straight through Missouri, with a brief stop outside of Kansas City in Independence, Harry Truman's hometown (Also exciting: Just before Independence is a town called Blue Springs, hometown of American Idol David Cook.) A definite trend is emerging on this road trip, where we'll see signs for something we'd like to check out, get off the highway, and realize it's much too far off our route. Sorry Truman (and Eisenhower, Earhart, Hayes, Boone & Garfield) - we just can't afford an hour long detour!

The Missouri River around 9 AM

Over 750 miles of the trip went straight across Interstate 70 (this is why we need no GPS), mostly through Kansas. We'd been warned about Kansas, and its overwhelming flatness and boring landscape, so maybe we just had low expectations, but we actually enjoyed the views: not-that-flat pastures, windmills, cows, sunflower fields, and awesome advertisements for things like the World's Largest Prairie Dog.


We looped around Topeka for some driveby views of the capitol (and "something real"), and grabbed lunch from a chain named Taco John's. It is much like Taco Bell, but they have tater tots called "Potatoes Ole" which are amazing.


After lunch we toughened up and drove 400 miles of the Sunflower State without stopping. Although we would have like to have stopped by Oz (museum and winery), we settled for some ice cream at our first-ever Sonic drive-thru instead. Thanks for that experience, Russell, KS!

Things that helped us through the long journey through Kansas: "Route 66" by Natalie Cole; AAA guidebooks that taught us about towns that we passed (so that we didn't have to stop and visit); terrible modern rock DJs that we could yell at; the classic driving sing-along "Bohemian Rhapsody".

The Sunflower farms were quite scenic right as we entered Rocky Mountain Time and crossed the border to Colorado. Gaining an hour was a nice surprise because it meant we wouldn't be too late to our destination. The clouds in eastern Colorado ruined our potential sunset vista, but we made it through the last hours of the drive despite the darkness and rain. We were not in Kansas anymore (I apologize).


We've landed in Longmont, Colorado (near Boulder), where we're taking a day off from driving to hang with family - Trevor's brother Tyler, his wife Dulcie and their cat Tac. Beer tasting will continue.

One cool cat

Four days into our cross country road trip, and there's a battle raging in the car. It's not exactly Man vs. Wild, but it's getting pretty heated. Actually, it's not heated at all - and that's the problem. Our cat Sadie, has turned out to be quite the intrepid traveler - she's largely quiet and spending most of her time sleeping. The problem is that she's covered with black fur and requires a car temperature far below what we would prefer.

When it gets too warm - as in, the humans aren't covered in goose bumps - there are three ways she'll react: 1) She'll move to the console between the driver & passenger, and turn around, so that any air coming out of the vents goes over her whole body. 2) If this doesn't work, she will start meowing. Loudly. 3) If relief still hasn't come, she'll start panting. This panting thing is truly the weirdest thing we've ever seen - she opens her mouth and sticks her tongue out as if she's a dog, but it also weirdly looks like she's smiling. Have you ever seen a smiling cat? It's actually pretty creepy. Then we feel guilty. So, most of the time, we wind up trying to keep the peace and the AC flowing - meaning we wind up wearing sweatshirts on 93 degree days. I think it's safe to say we've lost this battle.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

When music dorks road trip

One of our favorite bands is a group from California called Limbeck. They write some awesome songs - a ton of which happen to be about cars and parking lots and traveling. Translation: We've been thinking about blasting them on our road trip since we started planning it. This song is called "Ohio" - you'll never guess where it was "filmed"!




Day Three: Michigan, Indiana, Springfield, IL & St. Louis, MO

Day 3 miles driven: 563
Day 3 time on road: 12 hours and 10 minutes

It certainly doesn't seem like we spent over 12 hours in the car today! This bodes well for our monster drive tomorrow, from Pacific, MO (about 30 miles southwest of St. Louis) to Longmont, CO (about 30 miles north of Denver).

We left Emily & Nathan's in Ann Arbor, grateful for a good night's sleep, and took a quick loop around the University of Michigan's football stadium (having seen WVU's the day before, it seemed to make sense) and grabbed coffee and a bearclaw from a placed called Bearclaw's before getting on the road and heading South.


Pretty much all of our driving to this point had been on main highways, and since we had *only* 8 hours today, we decided to take at least one scenic route. Route 51 took us through farm-laden townships (tomorrow we are definitely stopping for fruit at a farm stand) and one particularly cute Main Street USA, in Dowagiac, Michigan.


South Bend, just over the border into Indiana, beckoned, but we resisted the urge to detour and keep up the blue and gold college tour so we could stay on the road. We were in Indiana for a long time, and didn't stop. Let's just leave it at that, so we don't get hate comments from any Indiana residents out there. After Indiana, we got into Illinois and corn country. And corn country's where we'll stay! Well, through tomorrow anyway.


At this point we were driving along what used to be Route 66. So, just like Jack Kerouac before us, we stopped at an "authentic" "rock 'n roll" restaurant called "That 50s Place" for lunch. Okay, it wasn't exactly 'On the Road,' or even 'American Graffiti,' but it did have some awesome decor.


Having entered the central time zone, we were pleased (and, embarrassingly, pretty surprised) to find out we'd gained an hour, so we used the time to head into Springfield. We did a quick loop around the downtown and Capitol area, where Lincoln was mentioned approximately every 5 feet, but Obama wasn't mentioned once (yet). Some quick Midwestern brews at a sports bar, and then we were back in the car for the final sprint into

We crossed the Mississippi River and before we'd even passed the sign at the Missouri state line, we'd seen the Arch and Busch Stadium - this state really knows how to show itself! (Get it? Because it's the "Show Me" state? Sorry, I just couldn't help it.).


We are staying the night with Ashley's high school friend Katie, her husband Jason, their incredibly sweet 2 1/2 year old James and 2 very cute cats. It's been an evening of homemade pizza (did you know that St. Louis-style pizza is made with a special cheese called Provelle, which is a combination of - we think - Provolone and Mozzarella and sold in slices, developed to be melty but not stringy?), a variety of St. Louis area beers and homebrew, and before we knew it, it's time to once again call it a night.

Not St. Louis pizza, but also delicious.


Tomorrow we do Kansas. It'll be long, and there will be corn, but this is why coffee, mixed CDs and drive-thrus were invented. Catch you again, from Mountain time!

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Day Two: Morgantown - Northeast Ohio - Ann Arbor

Day 2 miles driven: 415
Day 2 time on road: 8 hours and 20 minutes

Well here we are in Ann Arbor at the end of our second day of travel. Ashley and Sadie are fast asleep, dreaming of the potential that Day 3 holds, while I reflect on the majesty of Day 2. The drive today was not quite as long as the first, but that didn't prevent us from some intense bonding with our rental car. We named him Chipper (for some reason)!

The morning found us touring and breakfasting in Morgantown. We saw the WVU campus and ate at Eat 'n Park where we had our first smiley faced food of the trip. Ashley spilled her cup of syrup on the table to ensure that we made our imprint on the town.


A West Virginian at the diner even called Trevor "buddy" after he held the door open for him. First new friend made on the trip! We said goodbye to the generous Orndorff family, but not before a scholarly review of the family photos. I think they are wearing doilies, but I digress.


We traveled northwest, past Pittsburgh and into Ohio. After a comedic five minutes of torrential rain, it cleared up and we made our way to Ashley's dad's hometown (Medina, OH) for a quick stop. It is true Americana with corn fields, general stores, and a million churchs. Ashley was upset that no souvenir was purchased. The idyllic images of the farmland will have to suffice as memories.


A quick jog up to Cleveland allowed us a short lunch at Great Lakes Brewing. First brewery of the trip! Good mushroom pizza.

We arrived at Emily (Ashley's former Tech Target buddy) and her boyfriend Nathan's apartment and immediately starting talking about cats (they have two, including an energetic ninja kitten) before going to a nice brewpub called Grizzly Peak for dinner.

Speaking of cats, Sadie had a great day -- bitchy for the first hour, adorable for the next 7. She enjoys punishing our road maps.

Ashley has admitted that she has an obsession with water towers and how they are a source of municipal pride in the midwest. Trevor is wondering where in this steamy center of America he can locate a White Castle restaurant (still haven't seen one).

Anyway, Emily and Nathan have been very very kind to us here in Michigan and we hope to see a bit more of Ann Arbor before heading southwest towards Missouri tomorrow.

Stay tuned webosphere!!

Not a bad way to leave Boston

Courtesy of a cranky cat who didn't understand where all her scratching and sleeping stations had gone, we were up at 5:30AM on the day of our departure. Hard to be upset about it when we woke up to this: