Saturday, September 17, 2011

WE'RE HERE!!!!

SO, Hope and I MADE IT! Right now I'm relaxing on Hope's memory foam mattress pad while she opens up her rolled up IKEA mattress--purchased this morning at our favorite Swedish superstore!

From Santa Cruz on Thursday, we drove up to the Redwood Forest, saw massive trees and ogled at the windy roads in the mountains. We were planning on camping at a site called Goldbluffs Beach in the National Park--unfortunately, it was full when we got there as the sun was setting. After nervously laughing at our predicament we drove up the road a little farther to another campground...not as cool as the beach but still very nice! After our last night sleeping in a tent, we left in a foggy dawn and hopped on the road. The last leg of the trip was a struggle--partially because of our early departure and also because the end was in sight!

We arrived last night as the sun was setting and became giddy with excitement over the sight of the Space Needle and the drive through downtown. We got to our wonderfully cute house, greeted by Kate our new roommate, and immediately emptied the car, which had been our traveling home these past few weeks.

We're excited to explore Seattle, meet new people and have new experiences. Thanks again to everyone who supported us and followed us during our journey to the other coast!

Keep in touch everyone!

Love and Other Drugs,

Casey and Hope

P.S. Sorry there were no pictures, we couldn't figure out how to post them but we'll post them on fbook.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Our last day off in Santa Cruz

Good morning! Right now we're trying to get our stuff together to leave Santa Cruz. We're driving to the Redwood Forest and camping out on the beach tonight before completing our journey to Seattle!

Yesterday, Hope and I took it wicked easy. We slept in (a little) and then Michael made us espresso. After a little oatmeal and apples with peanut butter, we were ready to go out and walk around. We walked to a lighthouse on the water and watched seals and surfers. Most of the surfers were really good and made the whole thing look too easy. At that point we were anxiously waiting for the fog to burn off so we could see a little sun--which happened around 2pm.  Next we walked a little farther to the boardwalk and sat on the beach soaking up the sun. While we were there a seal swam up to the edge of the beach just letting the tide pull him/her along. We then decided to get tacos and went to to Las Palmas Taco Bar. Both Hope and I had two shredded beef tacos and I got beans with cheese (yumz).

After lunch we walked back to Michael's house and got some stuff to go to the farmers market. We decided to make a salad for the boys since they had made us such a lovely dinner the night before. The Santa Cruz farmer's market was lively and bustling! Many many stands with many many people buying things. We got spinach, a cucumber and an avocado. After stopping at Safeway for garlic, goat cheese and almonds, we realized we were locked out! Alas, we got some good phone calls in--I talked to Shea and Hope talked to her Mom and Dad and her friend Lisa!

The salad was delightful and Hope and I hit the hay early--watching the last episode of Twin Peaks before calling it a night.

More news from the road to Seattle to come!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

:>

During lunch in Las Vegas at a Thai BBQ restaurant, we called Caroline and said...can we please sleep on your couch because we are babies and don't want to camp in the 102 degree desert tonight? And she said yesh. So we drove to LA, settled down at Caroline's apartment in Santa Monica, and she offered us a delicious homemade soup: leeks, potatoes, barley, kale, and some other ingredients I can't remember. It was yums, as was her homemade blueberry pie. We were very impressed by Caroline's culinary skills.
A dog lives in Caroline's apartment who was the cutest. She was small and had gray fur, which looked a little wet, and the most adorable face.  That night, Casey decided to take it easy and get a good night's sleep (somewhat of a challenge the two prior nights) and Caroline and I went out in Santa Monica. We were picked up by her boyfriend, Morgan, who is in a Best Buy commercial and an actor. The night included amazing beer, carpaccio, prosciutto and brie,  meeting up with my friend Bryan and his room/bandmate Vinnie, and chilling at this very dark bar which felt like we were in an underground tunnel.
We left for Santa Cruz the following morning and that's where we are now! Michael was super gracious to let us stay with them. We walked along the ocean yesterday evening (they live a block from the water!) and ate an incredible Moroccan tangine (sp?) with chicken, leeks, onions, currants, cashews, lemons, cilantro, and garlic. Half the time on this trip we eat REALLY well, but when we're left to our own devices, meals consist of granola bars and peanut butter. I think we're both looking forward to resuming normal eating habits.

Hobos

We are now on pacific coast time!
In Zion, we got rained on in the tent for most of the night. It was spooky, cozy, and really annoying. Zion was the coolest place I've ever been. And when we left we headed for las vegas. I was excited to see its ridiculousness and I really wanted to play a slot machine just to be able to say I had gambled in las vegas when I was 23. This did not happen. In fact, our experience there was stressful, anxiety producing, rage inducing, and depressing. One of the many tasks we needed to accomplish on this short metropolitan visit was finding a place to sleep for the night. Our original plan was to camp in death valley, but realizing LA was just 5 hours away and we'd have a place to stay there for free, we changed our mind. Luckily Caroline was willing and able to house us for the night.

To be continued....

Monday, September 12, 2011

Nevada

Oh hai! So, we are now driving in nevada. But I will backtrack to three days ago when we last updated.
The Kirkland museum was cool, it was a building full of his work and the work of Colorado artists and many many pieces of modern design, bringing me back to my history of modern design class in college.... Anyway, the building was also where he made his work and part of his abstract painting process included lying across straps hanging from the ceiling, painting aerially. After the museum, we walked into downtown Denver to check out one of Louise bourgeois' spider. Unfortunately, it had been moved a couple months ago, but we did see an awesome claus oldenberg. It was a massive dust pan and sweeping broom outside the Denver art museum. Yoga was awesome, I think it definitely made a difference for driving the following day. That night we went out for dinner and our waiter made us laugh, unintentionally. Everytime he walked by our table, the earth would shake from his steps. Not because he was heavy but he was running like a MADMAN. he must be pooped after a night's work.
The following morning we hit the road again and stopped in the cute ski town of breckenridge, co for breakfast. We spent the late morning driving through the rockies...sylvia (my car) did a very good job with pushing up those mountains. We entered Utah in the mid afternoon just as the sky started to cloud up. OMG Utah is a beAutiful and breathtaking place, geographically speaking. We set up camp at north campground at Bryce canyon and spent a cool and slightly rainy night on what felt like the top of a mountain (I think it was...)
The next morning we took a hike first along the rim of the canyon, overlooking orAnge rock formations known as 'hoodoos'. We then descended into the canyon (about .5 mi). Most of the people there were speaking German, French, or Italian, which wasn't too surprising as it was the tenth year since sept 11 and I assume many Americans were at home on this day. It was funny to see the Europeans in what they thought would be appropriate hiking gear, including blazers, flats, waistbelts, cute sneaks and manpris (unacceptable for any occasion.) the hike back up to the rim was a great workout. Then we left for Zion national park!
We had bLTs with guac at a little restaurant where there was one young man (age 19?) serving the role of waiter, host, and busboy for 10+ tables. We felt bad for him because some individuals were being crabby and unempathetic. Also, a cowboy came in. He ate from the salad bar.
OK, I will have to update again a little later. Happy Monday!

Friday, September 9, 2011

Note:

Just so people don't think we're uneducated, we write our posts on an iPhone...so sometimes grammar is challenging.

In other news, Casey and I just spent a little time in Boulder, CO, which was quaint. Lots of yoga clothes stores (including prana which is the brand of my yoga mat!) yoga studios, cafes, and hippie artsy stuff. TONS of people were out exercising...riding bikes, weight training, running. It makes sense that Colorado is the least obese state in the country!

Now we are heading into downtown Denver to go to the Kirkland Museum, and a Reiki restorative yoga class. Yay!

Peace out.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

In Denver now!

Well, the badlands were pretty badass. First, we stopped by a shop on the side of the road advertising "feed the prairie dogs!" when we approached the yard, we saw a scattered group of about 30 fat little rodents. They are like big fat blonde squirrels with small tails. We fed them unsalted peanuts, which they devoured, and while I was crouching down to feed one, another one bit my butt. I do not reward bad behavior with unsalted peanuts. Those little guys were Sooo cute!
We set up camp close to the hiking trails, thrilled to not have to take the luggage carrier(which we have named Fanny because it's like the car's fannypack) off the car and to not have to drive seven hours the next day...(most legs of our trip have been 7 or 8 hours of driving) we went hiking, went to WALL DRUG (the opposite of wall st) for lunch. I don't feel like explaining what wall drug is now but you can google it...it's weird.
We saw some bighorn deer on our hike and this morning drove past a heard of buffalo. They were pretty awesome creatures. They look heavy and dense but still so graceful.
We drove to mount rushmore on the way to Colorado..it was pretty awesome. There were a lot of people eating ice cream at 10am.
From there we drove south west... Finally leaving the great state of south dakota and spending 4 longggg hours in nowheresville, Wyoming, passing by a town called Lost Springs, population: 4.
Now we are in Denver at JR's house. We went to chipotle for burritos and passed by a medical marijuana dispensary. Such a novelty.
I feel like there are a lot of anecdotes I'm leaving out but I just cant think of them right now...
Miss you peeps!

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

AdVentures driving in south dakota

On the road in south Dakota now as we have been for the last 5 hours. The sky is huge! We have seen many happily grazing cows, haystacks, fields of sunflowers and corn. We stopped at a rest stop when we first entered the state and spoke with a nice man with a front gold tooth about the attractions of south Dakota...like a palace made of corn. We didn't stop there but have plans to camp and hike the badlands, see Mt rushmore and the crazy horse monument over the next couple days. We won't have service in the national park so will be unreachable til Thursday, when we head to Denver.
I can't really imagine living on a landscape like this... Sparse trees, and no town centers for hundreds of miles at a time. It's been calming to drive through. We're definitely not in the northeast anymore...

Also, we were very sleepy and giggly when we wrote that last post...

Monday, September 5, 2011

Minneapolis

A quick update from Minneapolis. We arrived in St Paul around 6pm, and met a couple kewt cats at Kenneth's house...he has a very nice house with hardwood floors in a quiet neighborhood. we drove to the wedge natural foods co-op, bought some salad supplies and kombucha (sp?) which was not bad tasting AT ALL. Ate at Kenneth's girlfriend, Caitlin's house where she had made a delish potato, squash, and other yummy ingredients soup and ate the salad (spinach, honey goat cheese, sliced almonds, cucumber, with a lemon, garlic, olive oil dressing.) Drank some local brews at Bryant Lake Bowl. We are in Minneapolis at Caitlin's house for the night. Apparently St Paul is boring. Tomorrow morning we head out for the 9 hour drive to the Badlands in South Dakota.
Paige, can u edit this for me?

Day 5: Chicago to St. Paul via the Great River Road!

Hey all!
Hope and I are on the Great River Road in Minnesota! We will be staying with my friend Kenneth tonight before leaving REALLY EARLY tomorrow morning for the Badlands. The Midwest has treated us very well today- Illinois, Wisconsin, and currently the Land of a Thousand Lakes! From La Crosse Wisconsin we hopped on Rt. 61 and have been driving along the Mississippi! We have passed through several cute river towns and have been taking in the beautiful sights of the forested hills meeting the edge of the water.

Last night, we arrived in Chi-town and stayed at my friend Jill's apartment in the Ukrainian Village. After an excellent pasta dinner and some delightfully refreshing cucumber water, Jill took us up to her co-workers house to feed some really big cats! After getting back to Jill's, Hope hit the sack and I stayed up with Jill and her friend Dan debating the institution of marriage and watching Sex and the City. Once my head hit the pillow, I was DONE-ZO!

I'm really looking forward to experiencing a small slice of the Twin Cities and catching up with Kenneth.

More news to come on the road to South Dakota!

Over and Out,
Casey

Sunday, September 4, 2011

September 4- en route to Chicago

We left Toronto this morning after an amazing and whirlwind of a visit with one of our favorite canadians, Elizabeth! It was super fun. We arrived to a homemade feast and met her parents, who were very sweet and accomodating-so nice of them to let us stay in their house! After dinner, we ventured to mississauga, a small city (with a big mall) near Toronto, to see the Born Ruffians play a free show. They played really well, but surrounded by a crowd of Canadian juveniles, we felt OLD!
The next day Elizabeth took us to Leslieville for a delicious brunch (rasperry and lemon mimosas!) and we walked down degrassi st! Next, we stopped by riverdale park, which had a farm in the middle of it with all sorts of farm animals, my favorite of which was a baby Nubian goat.
We drove around the city checking out the university, dundas square, Chinatown, and cabbagetown. Casa Loma (hilltop castle) was commissioned by a rich dude who lost all his money during its time of construction and died a pauper, found with the three dollars to his name in his pocket. It's a huge and elaborate work of architecture overlooking the city.
That evening we went to elizabeth's boyfriend, Alex's house and enjoyed a delicious chicken sweet potato curry over rice with spinach and cilantro on top..yums! We also went to some very hip bars in a neighborhood resembling Williamsburg, Brooklyn. They were called Communist Daughter, which I presume was named after the nuetral milk hotel song of the same name, and Sweaty Bettys. The night ended with dancing at the Drake, which I presume was named after Drake. It was crazy amounts of FUN. And the source of a great hangover this morning.
Now we are on the road! Earlier took a drive through Detroit, and Ann Arbor Michigan. Next stop: CHICAGO

Friday, September 2, 2011

Syracuse, NY (day 1...)

Hello everybody!
Day 1 was a success. We made it to our destination without any major roadblocks (lolz)
Right now, Casey and I are at Marika's place in Syracuse, NY! She just left for a long day (6 lectures!) of Med School. Last night we went to Empire Brewing Co. and drank delicious beer (mine was ginger and lavender white ale and Casey got a toffee pale ale..YUMS) and ate too much delicious food. I haven't seen Marika since we graduated college way back in May 2010, so I was so happy to be able to see her before we head out west. Thanks Marika for your hospitality!!

Today we head north to Toronto, Canada, to visit our friend Elizabeth who we met WWOOFing in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia last summer. We're so excited to see her again! And the plan for tonight is to see a favorite Canadian band of ours, the Born Ruffians...a link to their video, "Born Ruffians- Nova Leigh"

Thank you so much to everyone for the texts, facebook messages, phone calls, and hugs that wished us well on our way. WE LOVE YOU!!