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!

Chicago Baby!

We made the 3+ hour drive from Iowa to Chicago and now we have a couple hours to kill until we fly. Time for lunch and a cocktail!  Dave decided we should try a Moscow Mule...let's just say Goose Island Brew Pub is a great place for a beer! The Mule isn't working for me.

The time is near...

I've got less than two days until I head out on my first blogged journey. We will start in Boston, then head to Myrtle Beach where we will attempt to drive to the Florida Keys. We will then fly to New Orleans to take in Mardi Gras(for my 10th time!!!). I was really hoping to find an older Audi to buy and drive for this trip, but no luck.I hope the trip is as good for you as it will be for me. If you get bored...let me know and I'll try to hang out with some more exciting people!