Pictures from the Great Lakes

The Great Lakes

Niagara Falls and Chicago!

Hello hello!

After Connecticut, we headed to Buffalo, Ny to see Niagara Falls. It took us two days to get there because a concert the night before and a 9 hour drive do not mix well. We made our way into the town of Niagara Falls, which really isn't much to brag about, it was almost hard to believe that something so beautiful could be hidden there. We drove into the park and walked to the edge and were instantly taken by the intense rushing river leading down to the falls. The falls are just as awesome and huge as they seem on tv. If you didn't know, the thick mist from the falls hitting the water below could easily be mistaken for smoke. We snapped some pictures of the falls from above and then bought our tickets, ponchos and sandles for the Cave of Winds walk. An elevator brought us down through a cave and out onto a walk way of stairs that led right under the falls. This was one of my favorite things we have done. I have never seen nor been near such strong, intense, crazy water. We winded around the stairs and path and finally made it to the "Hurricane Zone." Conner stayed back a few feet to take pictures but I got right in the thick of it and got soaked! Pretty amazing! After the tour, we headed to Cleveland where we would stay the night. We were pretty surprised by Cleveland, it was actually really pretty and seemed to have some really cool downtown areas. We got there late and didn't really have time to explore so we just headed for the hotel.

In the morning we hopped back in the car and started the 7 hour drive to Chicago. We stopped in Goshen, Indiana, why? Food, obviously. South Side Soda Shop Diner has won best chili seven years in a row, so of course we had to make the stop. We just ordered one chili because we knew we wanted some famous pie as well. When the waitress brought the chili out, we both looked at each other because we weren't really sure what it was. It came in a classic ice cream sundae glass, with a dollop of sour cream on top and noodles at the bottom. Super weird but very very good. A few hours later we were in Chicago. I loved the city as soon as we got there. Two of my really best friends from high school moved there about a year ago and to be honest, I never really understood why...now I know. The lake, which looks like an ocean, boarders the city with awesome beaches packed with volleyball nets and good food. They live in Lincoln Park, so when we got there we made some drinks on their rooftop and then went to a crab dinner down the street. After dinner, we got some drinks at a local bar and met one of my friends I studied with in Spain. Now, what is Chicago known for?? Deep dish pizza, Chicago style hotdogs and italian beef sandwiches. We had a lot to eat the next few days so we decided to be practical and get the deep dish at midnight. 45 minutes was worth the wait. Conner had our leftovers for breakfasts the next two days.

On Sunday, Alli and Jamie took us to the beach which was perfect because it was so hot. It felt like a resort city, it's hard to believe that it get so cold in the winter. After a few hours, we were pretty worn out by the heat so we headed back to their place and hung out for a while. Next came the hot dog. It was actually Jamie's first time eating a Chicago dog too so we were all rookies. If you don't know, Chicago dogs are a vienna beef hot dog with lettuce, pickles, tomato, spicy sport peppers and mustard (I think it's a crime to put ketchup on it). Satisfied, once again, by food.

On Monday, Jamie and Alli went to work so Conner and I headed off to explore the city. Everyone told us to do the architecture tour so that was our first stop. I'm usually not one for tours, but this was actually really fun. We got on a boat and were taken down the river too see all the different buildings and hear about their history. Might sound boring to some of you but it was really interesting, just extremely hot. After the tour, we got lunch at Billy Goat Tavern. This was an experience. Hard to describe, but just imagine an Italian man yelling at the chefs and forcing all the costumers to get double "cheezborgers" even if they just ordered a single. These crazy places are always the best and I'm glad he made us get us get a double. After lunch we headed to the John Hancock building, one of the tallest buildings in the city. We went to the 96th floor to a bar that's walls were pure glass. This is definitely one of the coolest places to have a cocktail, the 40 story apt buildings looked like anthills from this view. We could see the whole city and lake and it was incredible. We met Jamie down on the beach where she had a vball game. The whole beach was packed with hundreds of people playing volleyball, definitely made me miss it. There are so many runners, volleyball players, kids playing in the water, it's just a really fun city. Alli said that if it weren't for the extreme weather, she thinks everyone would live in Chicago and I totally agree. Alli and Jamie, we love you and thank you so much for letting us stay!

We stayed a night in Madison, Wisconsin and are now in St. Paul, Minnesota. We will let you know what happens next!

Love,
Katie and Conner

East Coast Pics

East Coast

The East Coast!!

Hello!!

It has been about two weeks since we last wrote and since then we have been to Washington D.C, New New York, Boston, Connecticut, and Maine. I'm warning you all now, this is going to be a long one! I'll split it up into cities, that way if you read it and want to come (if you dare) you can easily find your place. Here goes!

WASHINGTON D.C

We got into Fairfax, Virginia on thursday night, which is right across the river from D.C. We were pretty tired that night from all the driving, so we decided to treat ourselves to some take out thai food as we knew we had a long day of walking and sightseeing ahead of us. In the morning we headed out for the Metro around 8:30 and made it into the city. We grabbed a couple of breakfast sandwiches and started our day of exploring. We first went to the Lincoln Memorial. I knew it was going to be big, but I didn't realize HOW big. Walking up the stairs, I couldn't help but think of the hundreds of movies that were filmed on the steps looking out to the Washington Monument. After the Lincoln we went straight to the Vietnam Memorial. At first sight, it doesn't actually look like much, it's not huge like the Lincoln Memorial and there aren't crazy statues like the Korean Memorial but as you get closer and start reading the names on the wall and seeing how many names there actually are you start to understand the magnitude of the memorial. The Korean Memorial was next and I really liked this one. In the middle of the memorial, there were about 12 large statues of soldiers. Surrounding the statues, there is a large black reflective wall that had faces engraved on it. Looking at it is kind of eerie and we were told that at night it's actually pretty creepy because everything is dark except the statues are lit up. Next we went to the WWII memorial. This was my favorite. It's hard to describe but it basically had huge pillars, each representing one state with stone wreaths placed on top with a big fountain in the middle. The Washington Monument was directly in front of the memorial across the grass, so it just gave it a pretty powerful feel. We lingered there for a little while and then made our way to the Washington Monument to snap some pictures. It was already super hot at this point so we figure it would be a good time for a museum. We got our tickets for the Holocaust Museum, the one museum I was most eager to go in, and then headed to American History Museum. I had no idea how enormous these museums were. We had about an hour and half to get back to the Holocaust Museum and we didn't even get through half the history museum. It was really cool through and had so many exhibits I can't even remember half of them. Finally, we headed back to the Holocaust museum. The first thing you do when you enter is pick up a passport id. This I.D tells the story of a real person who experienced life during the Holocaust. At the end of each page, it tells you when to read the next page. At the end of the museum, it tells whether your person survived the Holocaust or not. I have never been so moved by a museum, it did not hide anything. It took you through the war, from the rise of Hitler to the end of the war, showing and explaining both sides. It was hard for me not to get teary, especially when it came to the children's section. The museum just made everything feel very personal. After two and a half hours we were super hungry and tired. We got some sandwiches at a place called Potbellys and then made our way back to the History museum to finish up. My favorite part was the First Lady section because it showed all e their inauguration gowns. By this time, we had been walking around in the heat for about 8 hours so we called it a day.

The next day we headed back into the city and met up with Natalia, Conner's friend's girlfriend. She was amazing and took charge to show us the rest of the city. We went to the Air and Space museum and watched a cool IMAX movie about the Hubble telescope. After that, we made our way to the capital and took some pictures. For lunch we got indian food and brought it to the Sculpture Gardens. This was really pretty and a good rest. We felt like we saw what we needed to see in D.C so Natalia and her friend Manny took us to Georgetown. It was super pretty and cute, but as Natalia said, super stuck up and rich. However, that didn't take away from the experience. She took us to a really cool spot that overlooked the river. We sat for a while and then headed through the town until it was time for dinner. Con and I had reservations at The Palm (thank you Steve!!) so we had to get ready for that and by getting ready, I mean changing in the car in front of the restaurant. We probably could have been a bit more dressed up but once we got our food, we didn't care anymore. It was amazing AND we got to pick any dessert on the menu on the house :) After dinner, we met up with Natalia and went out. It was really fun because we hadn't really been able to go out much on our trip. I got to see my friend Abby, who I studied with in Spain so that was really exciting. Around 2:00 am, we were beat. We have been used to just going to bed when it got dark when we were camping so 2 am was LATE for us. We got home around 3:30am and crashed. The next day, we were so tired, we decided to stay an extra nice just so we could lay in bed, eat and watch tv all day. Natalia, if you are reading this, thank you so much, you are amazing!!

NEW YORK CITY

On our way to NYC, we stopped in Philadelphia. Can anyone guess why??? Philly Cheese Steaks, obviously. Once again, we found the winner of food wars and headed straight to Pat's. They are actually the original cheese steak so it was pretty cool. We were planning on each getting our own, but we didn't have enough cash. This worked out well because we were full after just splitting one. I had never had a philly cheese, so I can't really compare, but it was pretty good. A couple hours later we were driving into NYC. We knew it was going to be an expensive couple days when we had already paid $15 in tolls and hadn't even been IN the city yet. We were in disbelief on how huge these buildings were. I felt like a little ant. We were staying at Rose's apartment, a friend of Conner's from home, so we had to find our way to her work to get the house key. So our first experience in the city? Driving. By the time we got to Rose's work, poor Conner was on the edge of a nervous breakdown. I ran up to get the key while he circled around. When I got back he told me he understands why people are so angry in the city because he feels it rising in him. People just honk at you for no reason. Its craziness. We got to Rose's and just hung out until she was done with work. She lives in the East Village in Manhattan, a really cool section of the city. For dinner, she took us to an AMAZING Italian restaurant, which fulfilled 1 of the four "must eat things" when we were in NY. After dinner, we headed to a bar, where my friend from high school met us. I told Conner at the beginning of our trip that I was bound to see someone from my hometown, somewhere. Well, first night in NY I saw 4 people, only one of which was intentional. One person tapped me on the shoulder the ask for directions on the corner of a random street, it was a surprise when I turned around. The next morning, we woke up and headed to an awesome little New York cafe. We filled up because we knew we were going to walking around a lot. We started our journey to Lower Manhattan, which was 50 blocks in the extreme heat. We found ourselves on Wall Street which was really crazy. As Conner put it, this is where it all happens. We saw the New York Stock Exchange which was flooded with tourists outside taking pictures. We finally got down to the water and hopped onto the Staten Island Ferry. This was really cool because it was free and it took us right around the Statue of Liberty. We got to Staten Island and just got off and right back on the ferry. By this time, we were hungry and hot and knew exactly what we wanted for lunch. Number 2 on our list was a NY hot dog. We went to Grays Papaya and got the recession special. Two hot dogs and a drink for 3 bucks. Pretty much the best hot dog I've had. We needed to be in the shade for a while so we layed down in Washington Square for a little bit. I was so hot I finally had to just go back to the apartment to cool off. We rested for a bit and then met Rose for Thai food (number 3 on our list). For those of you from Chico, this place is as good, if not better that Chada Thai. So so so good. After dinner, she took us to the oldest bar in New York. When you walk in, the guy just puts you at a random table with other random people, a good way to meet people if you're by yourself. There are only two kinds of beer here, dark or light. So all you do is ask for a dark or a light. Pretty simple and really good. We were tired after that so we headed back and fell asleep pretty early. In the morning, we packed up and headed to Connecticut. We stayed with my friend Cheryl and her family and they were more than hospitable. Caminiti's if you are reading this, you are amazing and so generous and we love you. It was amazing to see Cheryl after TWO years.

BOSTON

If Cheryl's family didn't already do enough, Cheryl's brother Brian, who I have never met, housed us in Boston which we are so grateful for. WE LOVE BOSTON. I had been to Boston twice before but I didn't actually remember too much about it. We stayed in the North End, which is basically the Italian part of Boston. It is so beautiful and cute, we both just fell in love with it. Everything is super close together so you don't get the feeling that you are in a big city. The first thing we did when we got there was grab a drink. We walked into a bar/restaurant and found out that they actually weren't even open yet, and their opening night was a couple days later. They offered to make us any drink we wanted because we were their first costumers. After a glass of sangria, we were ready for some good Italian food in Little Italy. Apparently our food was taking a long time (though we didn’t notice) so they brought us a plate of calamari for free and at the end they gave us, and the whole restaurant a complimentary piece of tiramisu…yum! We were super full after dinner so we walked along the water. It was so beautiful and I fell even more in love with the city. The next morning, we walked across the bridge to the USS Constitution. We took a tour of the ship which was really interesting and then headed hopped on the T (Boston’s metro) to Cambridge. The one thing I remembered from the last time I was here was Mr. Bartley’s, which is known for it’s burgers. The line was out the door and there was an old man sitting on a stool, who I think is Mr. Bartley, taking orders. Our burger and sweet potato fries were awesome. We also went to the brewery and sampled some beers, we are just spoiled with Sierra Nevada. We walked around Harvard, we tried to find an empty classroom so we could feel like we went there, but we failed. We couldn’t even get the elevators to work…Chico didn’t prepare us enough for Harvard. After Cambridge, we went back to the apartment and hung out until dinner time. This is where number 4 on our food list in NY came in, and I am very happy it happened in Boston. We went to Regina Pizzaria, which got 4.5 stars on 700 reviews. I have been to Italy, eaten real Italian pizza and this was the best pizza I have ever had hands down. That was the perfect end to our few days in Boston.

MAINE

Our first stop in Maine was the Clam Shack, which was voted the best lobster roll in Maine. First lobster roll, and lobster for that matter, and it was delicious. We drove through Kennebunkport, a beautiful town on the water and looked at the houses. I instantly decided that this was my top 3 favorite places we have been and we hadn’t even gotten to our destination yet. The whole drive to Acadia National Park was beautiful. The park is located on Mount Dessert but we thought the whole island was the park. The boundaries are actually just kind of sporadic through out the island which makes the people who live here the luckiest people in the world. This is one of the most beautiful places I have seen, the coastline is awesome with houses whose backyards is the ocean. Pretty much every house I saw I told Conner I wanted to live in. We got to our campsite at night and just had some soup and went to bed. We woke up around 5:00 am so we could go to the beach and watch the sunrise. We missed it by a few minutes but it was still gorgeous. It was still too early to go to breakfast so we headed down to Bar Harbor and walked along the water. We talked to a local fisherman for a while and he told us where to go to breakfast. Jordan’s was an awesome little diner with super good food and nice people. I’m not sure if it’s all of Maine or just where we were, but I had no idea that they were so known for their blueberries. Everywhere we went had blueberries whether they were blueberry pancakes or blueberry martinis. Our plan for the day was to rent bikes and go around the island but we changed our minds once we saw we could rent kayaks. We headed out to Barlett’s landing to launch our tandem kayak. It was absolutely beautiful out, super calm and sunny. We found a really cool secret beach and hung out there for a long time. We kept paddling around Bartlett Island and then found a little island in the middle of the water. We park our boat and ate some lunch on “our” island. I decided we should buy the little island one day and build a hut. I just can’t reiterate how gorgeous this whole place is. It kind of reminded me of a giant Tahoe but even more beautiful if you can imagine. After about 6 hours of paddling we figured we should head in. We made it just in time because the wind was really picking up at the end so we definitely got a good work out. That night we headed back into Bar Harbor for dinner. We went to West Side Café known for their lobster of course. I loved Maine so much that I told my parents they should buy a house there.

Music lovers, now is when you get jealous. Last night we went to The Allman Brothers Band Live at the Beacon Theater in NY. This was pretty much Conner’s dream come true. The Allman bros were amazing alone but to make the show even greater they brought out Natalie Cole, Crosby and Nash, Phil Lesh and Billy Gibbons. The show lasted nearly 4 hours!

Hope some of you got through this blog! If not, thank for attempting!

Love,
Katie and Conner

Pictures!

Blue Ridge Parkway and Shenandoah

Making our way up the Blue Ridge Parkway and Shenandoah National Park, VA

Hola!

We last wrote to you while we were in Asheville, NC which was dubbed the weirdest town in the U.S. It was definitely a cool town, but I think growing up next to Berkeley gives me a bias view of what "weird" really means. We ate dinner at a mexican/carribbean fusion restaurant called Salsas. It was super good and different than anything I had ever had. Our meal came is a big lava hot bowl filled with chicken, lamb, beef, shrimp, vegetables and a spice sauce. Yummy.

We left Asheville the next morning and began our journey to Virginia via the Blue Ridge Parkway. Our first stop was Chimney Rock, the filming spot of The Last of the Mohicans, so if you have seen the movie you know how beautiful it is. We figured heading to the top of Chimney Rock would be an easy hike, as it was only 1.5 miles up. What they failed to mention was it was 1.5 miles of steep staircases. Apparently we aren't as in good of shape as we thought we were because we were dying by the end. It was well worth it though. The peak was beautiful and over looked miles of green land. When we were at the top, we ran into a couple people who went to UC Davis and were from Yuba City...small world. On our way down, we detoured to the waterfalls which are always beautiful. If you ever get a chance to hike to any waterfall, do it, it's always worth while. After our hike, we continued our drive through the parkway and landed on Lake James for our campground. It was really pretty and secluded, right on the lake. We had planned to stay for two nights, but it was so hot and humid there that we couldn't last more than a day.

We left Lake James in the morning and found some easy hikes along the parkway. Rich Mountain was pretty hike through the forest and up into a cow pasture and then along Trout Lake. Then came Cascades Falls hike which was only about a 20 minute hike but it was really pretty. We hiked down to the falls, took some pictures and hung out down there for a little while. We then continued driving for a couple hours and decided we traveled enough for that day. We got a hotel in Roanoke, VA, ordered pizza and watched a movie :)

The next day we finally made it to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. This park was a lot like the Smokey Mountains except drier. The first night we just hung out at the campsite, played guitar and made hot dogs. The next day we set our on our hike. Old Rag Mountain was the "must do" 9 mile hike in Shenandoah and for a VERY good reason. We headed our around 9:30 am and started making our way up to the summit. The first half of the way up was a normal dirt path hike up through the forest. It was really pretty and we were covered in trees so it was great hiking weather. About a mile and a half into the hike it completely changed. There was no more path, it was all giant rocks and boulders all the way up to the summit with little blue markers painted on the rocks to show us the way. It was like a crazy obstacle course getting up to the top. There were points where I wouldn't have been able to get up if Conner wasn't there to give me a boost. It was super cool and I knew while we were "rock scrambling" that this was my favorite hike so far. When we finally made it to the summit, we found the highest rock and climbed our way up. The view was amazing. This was one of the hardest hikes we have done but it was so fun, I want everyone to experience it. On our way down (no rock scrambling down the other side of the summit) we ran into a ton of wild blueberry bushes. A couple kids from Long Island were close behind us and I handed one a blueberry. Poor guy was really skeptical about eating it, he had never seen a wild blueberry and said he hoped he wouldn't get sick, but I think the pressure of me watching him forced him to eat it. Oh well. We made it back to our car and as soon as we got back to our campsite it started pouring, so for once we actually had good timing with our hike. We decided to treat ourselves to dinner at the lodge. The dinner was pretty good but the best part was the blackberry cobbler for dessert.

Now we are in our hotel in Arlington right across the river from DC. We are here for 3 days so I am super excited to head into the city tomorrow and explore all the amazing sites.

We'll talk to you soon!

Love,

Katie and Conner

Pics from the Carolinas

The Carolinas