I read about the recent recall of all Segways. Apparently, both the Chicago Police and Fire Departments do not really worry about any suh issues, because we saw both using them throughout the day. I've cracked jokes about how officers don't need to be reducing their exercise levels with all the donuts they eat. But, to be honest, every guy I saw on a Segway was fit. They all still looked stupid though. ;o)
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Art Institute - Chicago, Illinois
Our first real stop of the day was at this art museum. If there's one thing i've missed while living in Seattle, it's the lack of really good museums. There just aren't any museums in Seattle on the same caliber as those in Chicago. The Impressionist exhibit is one of my faves here, and below is my favorite painting of all time:
You might recognize it from Ferris Bueller's Day Off...also filmed in Chicago.. :o)
Sears Tower - Chicago, Illinois
The problem with something as big as the Sears Tower, is that its hard to take a good picture of. That's 1450 feet that you have to try and cram into a single picture...talk about needing a wide angle lens, huh?
Exploring The Windy City
It's the first of two full days we're going to spend in Chicago and we're trying to see as many things as possible. I'm just sitting back for this part of the trip in terms of picking where to go in the city. Between all the museums, sights, and - more importantly - the food...there's a lot to do!
Friday, September 22, 2006
Time For An Intermission
We're half way through our road trip and I figured what's a better time to add an intermission for your viewing pleasure. So stretch your legs, walk the dog, take that bathroom break you've been waiting to take, because the second week should only get better!
Lake Shore Drive - Chicago, Illinois
One of the best drives in the world, in my not so humble opinion! I had us detour away from the highway to make sure we were able to drive down it. You get an awesome view of the lake on your left...with the skyline on your right. Just awesome...
Wrigley Field - Chicago Illinois
Passed the home of the worst baseball team ever!!! But, I'm sure some people would whine about me not including the photo, so there ya go.
Miller Brewery Tour - Milwaukee,Wisconsin
There was no way we were going to miss two brewery tours on this trip. When we finally got to the brewery, we had to wait a good 45 minutes to do teh tour because a private party had already reserved the next tour pass...booo. There went our plans to hit the stadium tour afterwards.
The tour takes about an hour and you get three free glasses of beer at the end of it. Sung and I split Pawan's portion. But as we were getting ready to split the last glass, two guys asked us, "Excuse, but can we borrow him?" Apparently Pawan's a pretty popular guy in a place like that! ;o)
The two guys were pretty cool. They were from the island of Trinidad. They told us all about Carnival over there which sounded awesome...hmm..next trip? We'll see!
Miller Park - Milwaukee, Wisconsin
We saw the new Miller Park up close and tried to get into a stadium tour. But to do so, we would have had to waited a good hour and a half for the next one. So, we figured we'd do something else and then maybe go back and do this...but this day was not exactly on schedule as it was...
The stadium looks great though!
Pink Elephant - DeForest, Wisconsin
We found out about a random statue of a life size pink elephant at a gas station along the highway in Wisconsin. We tried finding info on the web about *why* someone would build one. But like all the other quirky attractions we've seen, I think the answer is: To get people like us to visit. It worked!
The Other U Dub
So we had stopped for the night in our 5th Super 8 motel of the trip...only this time we were in Madison, Wisconsin....the state capital and home to their flagship University of Wisonsin. Most of our plans centered around Milwaukee which was about an hour away, but we were hoping to catch something there as well.
We had found out that Madison, WI is actually the birthplace to The Onion , which we thought was very cool and should therefore be a must visit. Sung looked up the address from their website. As soon as we got to the address, though, there was no Onion office...just a UPS store...dang...we fell for one of the Onion's tricks! So stupid! ;o)
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Mall Of America - Bloomington, Minnesota
This is a HUGE mall. But, in the end, it's still just a mall. The inner courtyard is obviously the main difference with all the amusement rides that remind me a lot of Seattle Center back home. But, still something to see! I could spend hours in that Legoland by the way...
Jolly Green Giant - Blue Earth, Minnesota
We really didn't know what we were going to hit in Minnesota other than the SPAM Museum and Mall Of America. But, we caught a sign along the highway that talked about a 60' statue of the Jolly Green Giant. That was enough for us until we also noticed that the town is was in was called Blue Earth. Holy smokes, they have some weird names up here (it wasn't as cool as Welcome, Minnesota though).
My First SPAM Breakfast
Across the street there was a restaurant that totally catered to the SPAM tourist. They had a menu that followed the Monty Python route where every item in the menu had SPAM in it. So we went there so both Pawan and myself could try out SPAM for the very first time.
Result? salty as hell....greasy as hell...but exactly what I thought it would be. :o)
SPAM Museum - Austin, Minnesota
Holy cow this place is so cool! I mean, everyone knows its going to be kinda dumb because...well...it's about a canned meat. How serious can you possibly be about it? We had high hopes for some laughs on this visit and were not dissappointed! The one thing we didn't get though were some free samples. Damn! I guess my first time to try SPAM is just going to have to wait!
They had a lot of hands-on stuff for you to try out. Check out Pawan and Sung getting a little too rowdy during their interviewing process:
Holy Cow! There Are People Around Here!
So it's day 5 and we're starting to see a ton more cars on the road again. Honestly, I already kind of miss parts of Montana and South Dakota! Anyway, our goal for today was to check out some key spot in Minnesota and the try to end off the day over in Wisconsin. Let's just say these two states weren't exactly on our top priority lists. ;o)
Sung's Blogging Too!
I think he tired of the way I was telling the stories, so he started taking matters into his own hands! :o) Check out his blog with all his videos as well in my links section on the right.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
The Hardees Experiment
So once we found our hotel in Minnesota, it was time to go hunting for food...we found a Mcdonald's across the road but there was also a Hardees right next door. Since neither Sung nor Pawan had ever ate there, we decided to hit that instead. I had remembered how Hardees had introduced a huge hamburger to offset the whole diets craze that was going around. Well, it was still on the menu! The thickburger with 2/3 of meat and cheese and bacon. I made a deal with Sung that if he ate the whole burger, i'd call him Thickburger for the rest of the trip. He made it through, but paid the price for it:
oh, and for those of you who are curious, here's the nutritional info for his burger...yowsa! ;o)
2/3lb Double Bacon Cheese ThickburgerTotal Calories: 1300
Carbs: 51g
Protein: 55g
Fat: 96g (about 5.5 Tombstone cheese pizzas worth!)
Saturated Fat: 4og
Cholesterol: 205mg
Sodium: 2110mg
Corn Palace - Mitchell, South Dakota
We had seen some info about a large Taj Mahal type building in the middle of South Dakota being "made" out of corn. Well, after doing some more research we learned that in the city of Mitchell, the locals had an annual custom of decorating the outside of their civic center with 275,000 ears of corn. Each year they have a different design for their decorations and you could see pictures of all of them inside. Neato! Here's a more detailed view of the building so you can view the actual ears of corn in the design:
Pioneer Auto - Murdo, South Dakota
So Pawan saw a sign for this along the highway and wanted to check it out. We were trying really hard to end the long day of traveling somewhere close to Minneapolis, but had enjoyed so much of the quirky stops in South Dakota that we just had to stop there. To say this place was quirky was an understatement though. The guy not only had a large collection of classic cars (including a General Lee car built by the same company that made the original for the TV series), but much more. We saw old tractors, rocks from around the world, old game machines, motorcycles (he had one of Elvis' motor cycles)...and on and on.
He had so much stuff that he even built an old style town where each specialty building had everything you would have found back in the 1900 era...like a schoolhouse, and old dentist's office and even an old bar! This place definitely hit the bar for strange place to visit on a road trip. And, well, come on, it's not like there were a lot more other things for us to still see in South Dakota!
Wall Drug - Wall, South Dakota
Sung had told us even before the trip of how he had heard about this place a long time ago. The basic idea is that this little drug store in the middle of South Dakota decided to advertise itself via highway billboard signs (the pioneer of the idea apparently). But they didn't just use one or two big ones...oh no...try more like hundreds...and apparently all over the world too. Anyway, so as we were within maybe 50 miles of the place, we started to see signs for the place pretty regularly. We even tried to take a picture of all of them, but sometimes, there were so many that we couldn't get them all.
Once we got there, the store turned out to be just as quirky as all the signs we saw. The store is huge now..and, judging by the old pictures, significantly large than the original. They had all the knick knack souvenir stuff. We ate lunch there too and had a pretty tasty buffalo burger...mmmm...
Dinosaur Park - Rapid City, South Dakota
Read a quick blurb about this before the trip, so wanted to quickly check it out. it's basically just a small park up near the highest point of Rapid City. They built the "replicas" of dinosaurs way back in the 1930's for educational purposes. Well, the accuracy of the statues has gone down a bit over time, but this little park still has all the charm from its first day. Definitely a cool 10 minute stop location.
Mount Rushmore - Keystone, South Dakota
So, we knew we had a lot to do this day, so we weren't going to spend a ton of time at Rushmore. When we first got there, we caught a glimpse of the first mountain goats on our trip:
The mountain was pretty amazing to see. The clarity in all the faces is just amazing for something of that size. To be honest, though, we wished we saw this before Crazy Horse if anything, because the sheer size of crazy horse is so much larger than this one. Still a must see though, obviously.
Starting Where We Left Off
We went back to the Crazy Horse Memorial the next morning to walkthrough the museum and get some day pictures of the memorial. We were so glad we did because we got to see a movie that talked about the history of both Crazy Horse and the sculptor of the monument. Both very very interesting stories! We also each got a rock from the mountain that's being carved! yay! Useless souvenirs!
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Laser Show At Crazy Horse Memorial
At the end of a looooong day of driving, we made it to Custer, South Dakota with just 20 minutes to spare before the nightly laser show at Crazy Horse Memorial. Sweet...we did what we thought would be impossible. The laser show was a little disappointing, but we were definitely going to head back the next morning to see the area during the day more thoroughly...
Little Big Horn
We ended up hitting the exit for Little Big Horn while we were still in Montana. For some reason I always thought that happened over in South Dakota...hmm...I need a refresher in American History, huh?
That place is a pretty sad place. I mean you're basically walking on a cemetary, so it's not like you can't help feeling a little morbid walking around there with a camera. But honestly, it really does open your eyes to what really happened there. And it's not something you can really fully get from reading about it in a history book...
For the most part you're just looking at an empty field with tombstones at certain locations that mark exactly where the soldiers were buried after the battle. The battle took place over a pretty large area and in small clusters...the ranger there gave a pretty good accounting on what has been researched to have happened.
How Many Times Can You Cross A State Line?
We were seeing those "Entering..." signs so many times during the car ride for the second and third days that we actually counted.
1. Montana --> Wyoming when entering Yellowstone Park
2. Wyoming --> Montana on road out of Yellowstone Park
3. Montana --> Wyoming on same road as it curved back south
4. Wyoming --> Montana on that same road until we hit the road closed sign on the mountain
5. Montana --> Wyoming when we started backtracking
6. Wyoming --> Montana as we entered Cooke City
7. Montana --> Wyoming as we tried getting out of Yellowstone from a different park entrance
8. Wyoming --> Montana as we finally get back onto I90
9. Montana --> Wyoming as I90 takes us back into Wyoming before hitting South Dakota
yeah...we're done with that state line for a while...
GoGoGoGoGo!!!
So this day became our "Be Like Harold" day. Since we got stuck up near Yellowstone, we weren't sure how the rest of our week's planning was going to go. Ideally we wanted to have enough time to reach Chicago by Friday...but we had a lot of ground to cover. So our motto had to be go go go go go!!! So Day 3 was going to have to involve a lot of driving to get back to I90 and then make our way through the rest of Montana so we could reach South Dakota. All we really wanted to do was see if we could reach at least one main attraction in South Dakota before hitting the hotel for the night.
Cooke City, Montana
We made it eventually to the town of Cooke City (yeah nice try...since when is a city 3 blocks long?) and were very grateful about it...we found a Super 8 motel there that actually had wireless internet access (wtf?). It was actually a very nice hotel...probably better quality than the one we stayed in Great Falls, MT. It was so dark when we got there that we weren't able to see how truly beautiful (man, i've been using that word a lot during this vacation) that area was. I took this photo the next morning:
Monday, September 18, 2006
Highway 212
The temps were now below freezing...the sun was going down fast...there were more and more twists appearing on our road...our elevation was climbing fast into the 8000 ft+ range and to top it all off, it started snowing. it got so bad that our high beams did not help because of the snow flowing towards us which reflected the light back at us. There were also a lot of small bridges in the turns along the mountains that were starting to ice up. But we wanted to get out of Yellowstone and at least reach I90 before the end of the day. But Nature had a different plan and stopped us way short of I90.
It turned out that the final very large portion of the road ended up being closed altogether and we had to backtrack to find a small town we had passed up about 20 minutes back. But the road conditions worsened even more and by this time we were in the lowest gear to help engine brake as Pawan tried maneuvering the curves of the road downhill alongside the mountain back to the town...
Yellowstone Park's Wildlife
We saw quite a variety of wildlife throughout Yellowstone. The most common of those being the bison shown above. What's pretty cool about all those animals is their indifference to human presence. The best example would be the elk in this picture:
Put up random building in the middle in the park? He didn't care...he was gonna chill out whereever he wanted! :o) Now as for our next specimen, the mighty Grizzly Bear:
We were actually behind it to start, but when it started walking away from the road, we started to roll forward and as we were right along side it, he just turned around and headed back towards us. Sung got a great video of it, and I got a couple of blurry shots of it on my camera...hey, let's see how you do if a bear is coming at ya. Maybe I would've been a lot braver if I hadn't seen this earlier that day:
Artist Point, Yellowstone Park
The temperature kept falling and you could see all the visitors shivering as they left their cars to see the viewpoints. But oh man, was it worth it...Yellowstone Park, as a whole, is just amazing and truly beautiful...but if you had to rank the individual "attractions" (ie., Old Faithful, etc.) within the park, this would be #1 in our books. Sung and I had not even heard of this place, but it just had the most amazing views...
For starters, there was a great waterfall that flowed into a small canyon. The walls seemed to have different types of lime deposits on the rock because it ended up giving the canyon a very colorful look (yellow, red, green, white)....literally making it looks like an artist's painting. Definitely a must see if you ever go to Yellowstone
Old Faithful, Yellowstone Park
The day just kept on getting colder from this point. It must've been in the 30's by this point. Lucky for us, we got there about 20 minutes before the next predicted eruption would happen. They actually state that the predictions are accurate to within 10 minutes...and sure enough...about 6 minutes before their prediction, old faithful started billowing water. The whole thing lasts for just about 5 minutes and with it being so cold, most people started walking away before it "officially" finished...what a rough crowd!!
Our only question was: Where does all that water come from? hmmm...
The area around Old Faithful is very developed. Here's a pic of the inside of a lodge that is literally right next to the seating area for the geyser:
For all the work that has been done to enhance the Old Faithful experience, they seem to have forgotten about the food. First we found a Deli shop there that sold sandwiches that looked about 8 hours old for $7...yeah right. So we then found a grill that had better prices but pretty lousy food. Sung and Pawan both got a soup where the noodles weren't even completely cooked...yuck. So, word of advice, either eat before you enter the park or bring your own food.
Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone Park
It's pretty hard to miss seeing these...they stick out from all the greenary in Yellowstone with their bright white coloring. You can see the smoke/gases billowing from different parts of the springs and there's a strong sulfur smell in the air around them...which is a premium if you're feeling especially gassy and just can't hold it in...hey, what can i say...it's natural damnit!
By the way...while checking out the springs, Sung saw one of those "Keep Off" signs...and Sung being Sung decided he would not "respect thar authoritay"...and so I got this picture of him:
Shortly after that pic, we saw signs that said: "Danger: Thermal Area" for the same white stuff that Sung was walking on...hmmm...lucky for him he didn't do any snow angels...
Gardiner, Montana
We hit this small town just outside the Yellowstone Park entrance. They made it look a little "Old West"-like. But the thing that got us most was how friggin cold it turned out to be there...temps in the low 40's. it was so cold, Pawan even had to buy a hooded sweatshirt to help him out. We tried finding a place to eat there but none of the local restaurants were open around noon on a Sunday...kinda weird
Highway 15
I'd have to rank this up there as one of the most scenic drives of the trip...they seem to use some kind of red rock for their highways that just helps enhance the overall view of the drive...we stopped at one turnout to see where an old mission used to be...the scenery was just awesome so if for some crazy reason you find yourself at either Helena or Great Falls, Montana, take a drive on this highway.
and here's some fooling around on our part for your viewing pleasure...
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Not Quite According To Plan
So the plan for us - today - was to check out both Yellowstone Park and the Grand Tetons and then head back out to crash over in Billings, Montana...yeah...didn't happen. After a combination of extremely winding roads and a nice snowstorm, we ended up getting stuck in a random town (Cooke City, Montana) up in the mountains just outside Yellowstone park because the roads out here were closed on us at 8pm. Nice...
Anyway, we'll post more pics and videos soon...right now, we're all about catching up on some rest! Here's a video of that crazy night though...
Moving Pictures! Moving Pictures!!
Sung's been busy, and put together the first two of - hopefully - many videos to come for our trip...hope you like it!
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Fifth Stop: Great Falls, Montana
Think Las Vegas...then shrink all the buildings down to a maximum of 2 stories and less than a block each and you have the city of Great Falls...this ended up being our first hotel stop of the trip...everyone's really nice in Montana, but oh man we were in for a very special treat at dinner...
Sung: "So where do you guys want to eat for dinner"
Pawan: "..."
Jesse: "We're in Montana...I want steak...beeeeeef...it's what's for dinner"
Pawan: "whatever"
Sung: "works for me"
so we ended up driving around and found a restaurant called Jaker's by pure accident...and a blessing in disguise it was...
beer: $2.99
app --> homemade biscuit to die for: free
2nd app --> french onion soup: came with meal
12 oz ribeye with garlic mashed potatoes....oh my god.
I'd go back to Great Falls just to eat at this place...
Or if you're into casinos...
Sung: "So where do you guys want to eat for dinner"
Pawan: "..."
Jesse: "We're in Montana...I want steak...beeeeeef...it's what's for dinner"
Pawan: "whatever"
Sung: "works for me"
so we ended up driving around and found a restaurant called Jaker's by pure accident...and a blessing in disguise it was...
beer: $2.99
app --> homemade biscuit to die for: free
2nd app --> french onion soup: came with meal
12 oz ribeye with garlic mashed potatoes....oh my god.
I'd go back to Great Falls just to eat at this place...
Or if you're into casinos...
The Stop That Never Was: Glacier National Park
So the whole point of driving through northern Montana was to eventually hit the Glacier National Park. But right when we get to the front gate of the road that will lead us in, we find out its snowing pretty darn good up there. Now, we still had another 4 hours drive after doing that loop to get to our eventual hotel stop...and honestly, we wanted to get out during the drive up there to get some good photos of the area which is supposed to be stunning...
aw well..next time, i'll head up there with my snowboard boots and all will be good.
But let me just say this: Glacier Park aside, northern Montana is just beautiful! the drive alone is amazing, with rivers cutting through mountains...valleys carved by glaciers, and beautiful lakes...2 big thumbs up!
aw well..next time, i'll head up there with my snowboard boots and all will be good.
But let me just say this: Glacier Park aside, northern Montana is just beautiful! the drive alone is amazing, with rivers cutting through mountains...valleys carved by glaciers, and beautiful lakes...2 big thumbs up!
Fourth Stop: Paradise, Montana
Oh man, this place is so picturesque! You're basically driving down a long winding road through tall mountains...a river runs alongside the road...sounds like a movie title no?
Anyway, along the drive we came across a small little cafe and decided to stop there for lunch. It was a really neat little joint called Kathy's Whistlestop Cafe. It felt like everyone there except us were locals. The menu gave a history of the town and explained what a "whistlestop" was...learn something new every day! The other thing that got us was how a couple of the buildings had multiple purposes...like the post office was also their casino and a bar...huh? :o)
Second Stop: Post Falls, Idaho
ok, so I jumped the gun on the last post...guess I got too excited about posting with a pic or something. Anyway, our "real" second stop was actually in the city of Post Falls...just outside the big city of Coeur d'Alene. Like Spokane, our main objective was to get a postcard for the state of Idaho. After our failed attempts to find one in Spokane, we decided to hit the local tourist info station in this city. After following a maze of signs that seemed to go in circles, we finally found the station....that was closed...doh!
Not to be outdone, we tried a local Walgreens just to see if we'd have some luck there and we did...yay! all that for a $0.20 piece of paper with a large potato on it...go us! But all was not lost...Sung ended up talking to a nice old gentleman (~79) who looked like a "regular" at that walgreens...just chilling there ala Norm from Cheers. Our favorite quote: "Today's my best day ever! I'm going to hit on girls all day!" awesome!
Not to be outdone, we tried a local Walgreens just to see if we'd have some luck there and we did...yay! all that for a $0.20 piece of paper with a large potato on it...go us! But all was not lost...Sung ended up talking to a nice old gentleman (~79) who looked like a "regular" at that walgreens...just chilling there ala Norm from Cheers. Our favorite quote: "Today's my best day ever! I'm going to hit on girls all day!" awesome!
Second Stop: Cataldo, Idaho
I wouldn't necessarily call this a stop as much as I would a drive by photo shooting...we caught a glimpse of this old mission (Old Mission of the Sacred Heart) from just off I90 so got off the highway to check it out...but, up close, it looked no better than a quick photo op, and they wanted us to pay to go in...nah...we'll save more time for later...but here's a quick pic anyway
First Stop: Spokane
sigh...I've been in Spokane before...and to be honest, once is enough for me. We never intended on checking it out much since we've all pretty much seen it before. We did make a quick stop to try to find a Washington postcard to mail out for a friend of mine, but couldn't find any place that had one. Oh well, guess that'll have to wait for when we get back into Seattle.
We did see a Dick's burger joint there though...I thought those were only in Seattle! ...and after checking out their site, it's supposedly is NOT in Spokane...hmmm...do you think if i pointed it out to Dick, I'd get free burgers for a year? ;o)
We did see a Dick's burger joint there though...I thought those were only in Seattle! ...and after checking out their site, it's supposedly is NOT in Spokane...hmmm...do you think if i pointed it out to Dick, I'd get free burgers for a year? ;o)
...And so it begins
Alright...we're through day one of our road trip, and it's been..well..interesting. I'll try to get in updates at the end of each day assuming we have internet access. But as the first day has shown so far, there are not a whole lot of places that don't have internet access. Hope you enjoy the pics/stories!
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Got my new IPod Nano today
I've gotta say this little guy is sweet so far. I upgraded ITunes as well, and so far don't have any glitches...but I just read an article that talks about a lot of problems with both the new ITunes and IPods. Hmmm...I didn't get a chance to play with it too much just yet, but i'll report back if I find any of those same glitches. But for now, I'm pretty happy with it. I got the 8 GB nano and the new black cases looks hot!
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Sigh...
still having authentication issues getting the new domain up and running...it's looking more and more like it won't be up in time before our trip happens...oh well... :o(
I've added in the BlueDot widget to see how its gonna look...ideally we'll also dot places we see as we go along the trip, but I really have no idea how network connectivity will work out along the way...might have to go on a special diet of Starbucks or something! stay tuned...
I've added in the BlueDot widget to see how its gonna look...ideally we'll also dot places we see as we go along the trip, but I really have no idea how network connectivity will work out along the way...might have to go on a special diet of Starbucks or something! stay tuned...
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