Picture Pages

Sitting. That's what I do now. Sure, I work and don't really ever sit down at work. But, at night. Late. Like tonight. I sit. I sit and look at where I want to go next. What Audi I'd like to drive to get there. And sometimes, like tonight. I look at where I've been.

 I was browsing some of my more recent pictures and realized I haven't posted enough pictures. I'm sure you all are sitting on the edge of your seat, waiting for my next witty story. But, pictures say things that I can't express. So...I'm going to post some of my favorites. I'm not going to tell you where they are from...feel free to guess. We'll make it fun for everyone!

Smarty Pants

The joys of traveling back roads in Wales!

I haven't had the time or money to take any trips lately so I've found myself watching travel shows on TV(which is entirely another blog worthy discussion). I was sitting at home watching Rick Steves' European travels and I thought to myself, "How does he know so much about everywhere he goes?". That lead to me contemplating my ramblings that I do here. What do I really want to share? Do I really want to grow up to be Rick Steves? What is the point of what I'm doing? Am I just bragging about the trips I get to take? Do I know anything about any of the places I go?


I have been bouncing this idea around in my head for a couple weeks now. I've decided what I want to share is the "experience". The sometimes chaotic, disorganized mess that is often called my vacation. I truly admire Mr. Steves and the wealth of knowledge he brings to his shows and books, but I don't really aspire to be him. Don't get me wrong. I'd love to make a living talking to people all over the world, but I wouldn't do it the way Rick does. My goal is to make people smile. That's really what I try to do in all situations(although my kids may not agree). Life is too short to not be happy, and I hope when someone is stuck at home, unable to take a trip, they can go to the internet and finds places like my blog(or any of the other thousands that are probably better than mine) and at least smile about the places they'll go someday. What I really hope I bring to this discussion is approachability.  I talk to people all the time that say,"I can't afford that"...until I tell them how little I spend. There are occasions where I splurge, but I really try to take advantage of travel deals, airfare sales and things like that to see the world. Hopefully, it doesn't come across as me trying to show you how cool I am, but as me showing you that even idiots like me can see some really cool things and do it fairly cheap. If I can do it, then surely many others can too.

Sinterklaas and schwarzt  Peter found us in Amsterdam.

The big question I've been thinking about is "How much do I want to know about where I'm going?". I really love to know about the amazing sights I see, but there is something about stumbling upon things that I really enjoy. There is a blissful ignorance about travel that I love. I fear reading too much info about a place will steer my overall opinion of it. I view it the same as when I watch a movie for the first time. I don't want to know anything about it. I want to watch and let the story wrap itself around me and lead me someplace great. Each new place I go to does the same thing. I get to make my own judgements and opinions, based on what I want to get out of the experience. I like to research some things...how to get around, dangerous neighborhoods, the weather, and a basic understanding of what most people see and do. There is that risk of missing out on the "thing" to do while you're in a certain place, but I feel that is what will make the city "yours". Skip Bourbon Street, pass by the Eiffel Tower, forget the Cliffs of Moher. You'll find your own "thing" and that is what will make the place "yours". The funny thing is that puts me at odds with myself. Here I am, writing about places I go, sharing information. Is this the same information that I would be looking to avoid? I hope not. I hope people read my blog, smile a little and go see the places for themselves to learn more and really let the city wrap it's arms around you and take you for a ride!!!!

Everyday Travels

So, I've decided that not every travel story needs to be about an epic journey to far away lands or amazing road trips. I realized that we all travel everyday and we can squeeze some joy and appreciation of our beautiful world on everyday travels.
Today I needed to run an errand for work which required me to travel Illinois Highway 92. Doesn't sound exciting, does it? Luckily, for me, I live along the beautiful Mississippi River.  It's easy to enjoy quick trips along the tree lined back roads during fall...especially when I get to drive my old Audi.
There wasn't much adventure in my trip today, but I really feel lucky to live where I live! I hope everyone appreciates the beauty that surrounds them.

Danger comes in many forms!!!

The locks didn't work very well
so we added a little extra protection!

Yes, that's daylight...and yes,
that's a coat hanger.
Any questions?

After making up some time on the dreaded interstate we decided to stop in Homestead to sleep. We wanted to make it to Key West, but the hotel situation wasn't looking good and we didn't want to get all the way out there and be stuck spending a fortune. Well, maybe we should have. The only hotel available for under $500 a night within 30 miles was the Budget Inn. Let's start by saying that I'm not overly picky about where I sleep. I've slept in some pretty rough places in Guatemala and Europe. This was by far the most disgusting place I've ever slept. The owners should be ashamed and embarrassed. It wasn't even cheap! $100 a night isn't bad when you feel safe and aren't afraid to walk around bare foot, but this was a $30 place on a good day. We survived, but the whole next day I felt like I had bugs crawling all over me...luckily I didn't! So, it was time to get out of that hell hole and head for  the Keys!

Now that is a tourist for ya!

Traffic wasn't bad heading out to Key West. It took us about 3 1/2 hours which isn't too bad. Unfortunately, we only had time to spend the afternoon in Key West before turning around and heading back to Miami. So, no partying and another day of a lot of dashboard time. We lucked out and had great weather, 85 degrees our two days in Florida and I've got the sunburn to prove it. We got to see a good amount of Key West in a short time and I really liked it. It reminds me of New Orleans, but with a more swim trunks and bikinis! 

Eye contact...remember eye contact!

One of the more interesting places we checked out was a bar called "The Bull" or "The Whistle Bar". It has both names on the outside and I didn't take the time to ask. As we walked in it seemed like your normal bar, tourists sipping a couple beers, getting out of the heat. As we heading up to the third floor things got a little different. There was a sign at the top of the stairs warning about the use of cameras...that usually means you're in for something unique! What we found was a clothing optional rooftop bar. If you've ever been to a nude beach, you'll understand what we were looking at, or trying to divert our eyes from! Of the 7 or so people who chose to bare it all, there were 3 women and 4 guys. I feel that if someone has the guts to let it hang out then we shouldn't judge what the packing looks like. Be proud of who you are! That being said...I'd like to thank the one young lady who didn't make my retinas burn. And to the man who decided that hula-hooping 10 feet in front of me was a great idea...I'll be sending you my counseling bill! As much of an eye opener as it was I'd go back. I like the idea that some people don't care what the world thinks, and I feel  we could all be a little less uptight!

I want to eat my computer screen right now!!!

Now it was time for dinner...so I had to find a good cheeseburger. Sure, most people would choose fish or seafood, but I like cheeseburgers. There is a Cheeseburger Paradise restaurant in Key West, but that seemed too obvious. I checked out some reviews online and people recommended a few places, but I was "feeling it" with them either. So, we did what our ancestors did. We walked around and looked at people's plates. That's the beauty of all the open air restaurants! You can walk down the street and see what the restaurant is really all about. If you're not bashful you can even ask the people for a quick review while they are eating! We found a place called Fogarty's. It seemed they were more known for their fish, but when we walked by Dave noticed a guy eating a ginormous burger! We had to check it out. It was 10 or 12 ounces and delicious!!! I'll give it the "Best Burger in Key West" award...even thought it was the only burger I had. Dave tried some sort of fish...which was good, but it wasn't a huge burger. He won't make that mistake again.

Belly is full, liver is on time out, and we have to fly out tomorrow morning. It was time to head to South Beach! Back to the car to head to the mainland!

Fire in Florida

After negotiating a great rate in Amelia Island we were woken up at 7am by the fire alarm!  Apparently the toaster and a guest had a disagreement about when the toast was done. The toaster won and decided to let everyone in the hotel hear about it.  Surprisingly, most people in the hallway were laughing about.  At least it got us up and out if bed. We've got a long haul today! Our goal is to drive the entire A1A coastal highway today, but with a race in Daytona it might be impossible.

I totally underestimated the time it would take. After 9 hours, we had only gotten to Cocoa Beach...half way through what could have been an 8 hour day on the turnpike. It was great seeing the backroads, but you can only look at a certain number of million dollar homes before they all look the same. So, we grabbed some dinner at Grandpa's Steakhouse. It's an awesome throwback in time! A couple of train cars attatched to a building, same owners for 32 years, and we even got to sit and talk to them. We ate like kings...prime rib and filet mignon. What a great place...right off I-95 in Cocoa. Now it's time to make some time and get on the interstate!

Charleston, Savannah and a liars!!!

Let's start by saying that I should no longer try to stay out all night, skip sleeping, and head straight from the bars to the airport.  It made for a LONG day of travel from Boston to Charleston. Such a long day that Dave didn't make it back out of the room. He might have had a little case of the flu...or he might just be old! So, I wandered Charleston solo and checked out King Street where there is a ton of shopping and some great bars and restaurants. I ended up over closer to the market. I was in the mood for good burger (I'd already had a giant slice of pizza at Giovanni's) and Mo's. It was pretty awesome! The onion rings were run of the mill but good enough! I chugged down about a gallon of Coke, watched the Hawkeyes lose, talked to the wife and kids, and called it a night.

Dave recovered Thursday so we traced my steps and also checked out the aquarium area. We were going to take the ferry to Fort Sumner, but we didn't have the time. They had some great Charleston history at the ferry launch house, so we felt we learned a little something and it was free! We headed back up towards Union Square(I think) and grabbed a burger at Big Guns Burger. Another winner, but when they ask if you want pink or no pink...assume they mean alive or dead. Unfortunately for Dave we both tried alive. I loved it, he could do without the red! As we walked King Street we detoured back into some of the residential areas and then ended up in the middle of the College of Charleston campus. Holy crap...it's beautiful. Don't get me wrong, I love Iowa City, but I'd go to Charleston in a heartbeat! Time to grab the car and head out...but not without another slice of pizza. Andolini's was good, and the people were great, but I'd pick Giovanni's! Chucktown was beautiful, but I think it's more of a couples town. My wife would love it, but it is probably too cool for me. Hip shops, funky restaurants and great bars...what more can you ask for!

Highway 17 runs all the way from Charleston to Savannah(pretty much anyway) and it took us down some great roads. But...it also lead me to something interesting. Apparently, you can call anything a plantation and put a sign on the highway to encouraging tourists to look at it. Even when it's just a regular house with a horse barn. If you call it Cockfield Plantation(which I did not make up) people will stop to see it. Especially, idiots from the North in a rented Hyundai! AND!!! If you have a real plantation, feel free to put a sign out on the highway about it too. Even if there are security gates and privacy fences so you can't see anything. AND...if it's 10 miles down a back road...even better. Wait! There is something better. Actually telling me where I can see a damn plantation! I know it's just a big house, but now I have a mission! In search of the elusive plantation we found a gate open, with a plantation name on it. The lane leading to the hosuse was at least 3 miles long. There were a couple different forks in the road leading to other buildings and one final fork leading to...I don't know. It had a locked gate. So, back through what looked like a field, down the 3 mile driveway and back to the highway! Now, I hate plantations because they are all liars!

As you can guess, we got to Savannah later than we thought and had to cut our trip short. We spent a couple hours and tried their so called "best burger" place and it wasn't half as good as either burger I had in Charleston, but their onion rings were homemade and really good! I won't mention their name, maybe they had an off day. I have alot of those! On a positive note...I had the best slice of pizza so far at Vinnie Van Go Go. Great vibe, good people, crazy busy! Time to get on so we can make it to Miami in time for our flight!

Boston day 2

Day two of our time in Boston turned out to be a long day! We rolled out of bed around 9:30 and then spent about an hour taking care of work issues back home. So, we finally left the hotel after 11. Since we are leaving at 5am we checked our bags with the bell hop and heading out to see the sights of Boston.  We didn't really have an agenda. I like to wander around and see where the city leads me...sometimes I miss out on the so called "gotta see" things in a city, but I often find hidden jems that cater to the locals and not the tourists.

First stop was The Public Park, which boarders the Commons. It's nice and pretty and if I worked near there I'd probably eat lunch on a bench and watch the swan boats. But, I don't work there, so we just walked through. We did get to see a guy get arrested for shop lifting, so that was exciting! I was taking a picture of an old church and realized I was actually getting a shot of the police just starting to question him. I don't know what he took, but it required four cop cars to handle it. Must have been a slow day for crime!

Across the street from the park is Cheers! The actual bar isn't downstairs like it seems like on the TV show, but it's actually a cool little pub. They had a replica set bar upstairs in a hotel lobby, but I didn't really see the point of looking a replica of a TV bar. The bartender got a good laugh out of my drink of choice...peach schnapps and lemonade. All tough guys drink peach schnapps!

 We then wandered over to a little pizza place called Upper Crust. It's a chain around the Boston area and it was ok. Nothing great, but a neat concept for such a small spot. I'd like to run a little pizza place someday...maybe for my retirement job!

I didn't know they were so open about it!

 After our quick lunch we went to Beacon Hill to head towards the State House and start the freedom trail walk. We stopped and talked to a parking meter lady and she told us to walk up Mt. Vernon so we could see alot of great old Boston homes. John Kerry lives somewhere on that street, but he didn't invite us in for coffee. The homes were great and had definete Boston uniqueness.
Btw...an expired meter ticket in Boston is $25. Remember that next time you cry about one in Muscatine!

 All right...enough play by play, you're probably bored. We made it to the State House, started the freedom trail walk and saw alot of cool old stuff. There were a couple things that really stuck out to me. The granary Burial Ground where Paul Revere is buried was interesting mostly because of some of the Puritan headstones that were there. They had a real grim look on life and apparently skull and cross bones were hip back then too! The next place that really intrigued me was the Kings Church(I think that's what it was called, I should really write this crap down!). The had little, sectioned off pews that you used to have to buy. I've been in alot of old churches and I've never seen that before. The church was in amazingly original shape. The only other thing that really made me think was the Holocaust Memorial. There are glass chambers with smoke rising through them and inside they have quotes from survivors and along the entire outside are the victims number they were given when they were taken to the camps.

  

  

 By the time we were done with the Holocaust thing we were ready for a drink and that's where the freedom trail slowed down for us. There are alot of great pubs right near there and so we took a lot of detours. We grabbed another slice of pizza, for only $1.50, and we did eventually make it down the entire trail, but didn't get to the U.S.S Constitution in time to see it up close. It's a pretty sweet boat though! And we had another slice of pizza near the boat. That slice was $2.50...

After the freedom trail we checked out the North End, which is full of Italian shops and restaurants. It reminded me of Venice a little bit. Then we went back to the Fanuiel Hall area and sat and talked to people in the pubs for a few hours.

Pretty soon it was time to walk back to the hotel and get our bags and head to the airport. It was close to 3am and our flight was at 5:20, so by the time we got checked in we didn't get a chance to sleep. I crashed pretty good once on the flight to Myrtle Beach, but Dave barely slept. It was leading up to a rough day in Charleston.

Overall, I really like Boston. There is really good feeling to the city and the different neighborhoods are awesome. We found nothing but nice people and they were always ready to chat and share stories and those stories sound even better with a proper Boston accent!  I had never really thought about how historic Boston is, and it blew me away how easy it was to get around and actually see all the history there is. I'd say Boston might be in my top 3 U.S. cities...New Orleans and New York are the other two.  Just remember to take alot of money if you're wanting to drink, but if you want to eat cheap I recommend eating slices of pizza all day!

Next up...Boston.

It's time to really get this trip moving. Fly out of Chicago and head to a new city for me. Boston! I didn't really know what to expect and I've never really checked out the city to see where the hotspots and cheap spots are. One of the things I discovered...there are hotspots everywhere. It seems that every 5 blocks there is a new neighborhood with another new vibe. I also discovered there are no cheap spots! Here's a little preview of my first day and night in Beantown!

We better have a drink on the flight to relax...

Well, we finally decided to book a room at the Park Plaza in the Back Bay area of Boston. We now know it's not the cheapest area of Boston to eat or drink, but the room was nice for $82. We had a couple hours to kill while we waited for the reservation to show up so we decided to hit the pub down the street. We ended up meeting these two. I know the picture is dark, but it was in a dark bar. This is Brian and Melinda(I think...). He's from Ireland and she is from Scotland.  They got engaged that day in the Boston Commons. What a great Valentine's Day for them! We had a blast talking to them. I think we scared Brian a little...weddings are not for the timid! :) I think it'd be awesome if they actually sent me an invite to the wedding. It'd give me another reason to see Scotland.

We finally left the pub and decided to check into the hotel. Hannah at the front desk was nice enough to give us a few local spots she likes. She was good to us, the prices at alot of the bars were not.  $8 beers and mixed drinks got old fast, but that's just the way it is in Boston. We had a good time and that's what it's all about.

 Guess who we ran into on the way out of the hotel...the Boston fire department. That's usually not a good sign, but it was just an elevator issue. No biggie!

One of the stops for the night...we were hoping to find a snack...

$.99 Pizza! That works for me...it didn't last long. I didn't think I'd get alot for under $1, but it actually tasted good!

After getting a little food in our systems we decided it was time to keep moving. We had a couple dive bars that we wanted to check out. Unfortunately, I decided to stop taking pictures. It'd been a long day, and maybe a few too many drinks before our big meal. TC's Lounge was a great hole in the wall, but I always feel weird when a dive bar actually wins an award for being a dive bar. It seems to me that takes away some of the essence of being a dive bar...but who cares really. It was a good, gritty place with your standard mix of dive bar patrons...the cranky guy in the corner, the guy that might stab you, the grunge kids playing pool and the normal idiots like me!

Well, it was 1am and it'd been a long day. Time to sleep for bit and get ready to hit the freedom trail the next morning!

I'm a little late getting this day posted, but the second day in Boston was rough. And to add to it, we decided that it was useless to get a room for second night since we'd be out til 2am and we had to be at the airport at 4am. I think we're too old for things like that! So...we'll get day two up later and I'll see if Dave will actually leave the room so we can see a little bit of Charleston!