Now that we're back, I've been compiling some stats to sum up our trip through numbers. There are a billion others I could've added, but for the sake of brevity and short attention spans, here are the most important (grouped, sort of, into similar categories):
States visited: 33
Canadian provinces visited: 2
Days traveling: 82
Days living out of suitcases: 123 (4 months, 1 day)
Number of different hotels: 42
Stays with friends/family: 10
Miles traveled: 14,504
Tanks of gas: 43
Number of oil changes: 3
Speeding tickets: 0
Parking tickets: 0
Fastest speed limit: 80
Items lost: 1 (Melissa's iPod)
Times pooped on by birds: 2 (once each)
Fights: 0
National parks visited: 11*
Bodies of water touched: 7**
Most time at a scheduled stop: 5 days (NYC)
Least time at a scheduled stop: 30 minutes (Taos, NM)
Blog posts: 54
* Zion, Grand Canyon, Great Sand Dunes, Finger Lakes, Mt. Rushmore, Badlands, Niagara Falls, Redwoods, Everglades, Blue Ridge, Castillo de San Marcos
** Colorado River, Rio Grande, Virgin River, Lake Ontario, Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico (we saw more than this, but these are the only ones we physically stuck our fingers or toes in)
If there are any numbers you'd like to know that we didn't include, just let me know, and I'll add them in!
We had such a blast on this trip and are so fortunate to have been able to do something like this. We know many people have dreams of a cross-country road trip, and we know how lucky we are that life worked in such a way that we were able to do it. We saw so much of America, and this country truly is great, vast, varied, and beautiful. Thanks to all of you for your support and interest in our adventure!!
And one last post coming soon: getting settled in our new downtown Raleigh apartment
Friday, August 12, 2011
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
A Romantic Anniversary at Keswick Hall
So, after leaving our hotel just south of Philly, we continued south into Virginia. As I said in my last post, I thought we were stopping at Monticello (Jefferson's home) for a few hours en route to our final destination in NC. I was driving along and following Tom's directions, completely unsuspecting. As we neared Monticello, he told me to turn left at an upcoming street, and I was puzzled by the absence of signs directing tourists to the former president's abode. "You'd think they would have MONTICELLO marked better!" I said as I made the turn. I drove down the road for a minute and came upon a giant house with beautiful grounds. But it didn't say Monticello anywhere. I was utterly confused. Tom, reveling in my confusion, finally let me in on his secret. He had booked two nights at Keswick Hall, a quiet countryside resort, for our anniversary. I have an awesome husband.
I was, however, absolutely and unforgivingly blindsided by this news. Me, the planner, doing something spontaneous? It took a few minutes to digest, but once I had adjusted, I was in heaven.
We got there in the late afternoon, so we checked in, explored the grounds a bit, and then spent a few hours relaxing by the pool. I got a pina colada, Tom a bloody mary. Life was good.
We made dinner reservations at Keswick's in-house restaurant, Fossett's, for both nights. Fossett's was named after Jefferson's cook from the White House and his years at Monticello. When we headed down for dinner, we were immediately treated with such hospitality. Everyone in the hotel and restaurant seemed to know it was our anniversary, and they greeted us by name. AND - the food? AMAZING. Some unique combinations of food and flavors (pancakes with lobster and vanilla maple sauce, for example, was probably my favorite thing we tried). Everything was tapas style, so we got a few different plates to share. After dinner, we went to the bar for one more drink (which they gave us on the house) and then called it a night.
The next day, Monday, was our anniversary. We started the morning off with room service, and boy was our breakfast fancy (and delicious)! We had stuffed french toast, blueberry ricotta pancakes, fresh fruit, and grits. They wheeled in a big cart for us, and we ate on our private veranda. It was so luxurious!
After breakfast, we went for a walk/run through the golf course and surrounding neighborhood. Then, we headed to the pool and spent the afternoon lounging around. They have a lunch menu you can order from at the pool, so we ordered poolside and had the most delicious avocado jalapeno pizza and a grass-fed beef burger. Every new food and experience at this place made it even more awesome. I swear - if you're ever looking for a quiet, low-key getaway, this is the place! Click on the link at the beginning of this post to learn more about it.
In the early evening, we headed in and got ready for dinner. We ate at Fossett's again and had an equally delicious meal and dessert. Then, we headed back to our room and opened a bottle of sparkling wine on the veranda to celebrate our anniversary.
Tuesday morning, we packed up and headed to our final destination (for real this time). We'd be spending a few weeks at Tom's parents while we found a new place to live in Raleigh. What a great way to end our trip! Thanks to my awesome husband for delivering big-time and completely surprising me... and I thought we'd be celebrating just by eating dinner at The Melting Pot. :-)
Up next: Our road trip by the numbers
I was, however, absolutely and unforgivingly blindsided by this news. Me, the planner, doing something spontaneous? It took a few minutes to digest, but once I had adjusted, I was in heaven.
 |
| The front of Keswick Hall |
 |
| View of the golf course & grounds from the back of Keswick Hall |
 |
| Infinity pool |
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| Our room had the veranda on the left in this picture! |
We got there in the late afternoon, so we checked in, explored the grounds a bit, and then spent a few hours relaxing by the pool. I got a pina colada, Tom a bloody mary. Life was good.
We made dinner reservations at Keswick's in-house restaurant, Fossett's, for both nights. Fossett's was named after Jefferson's cook from the White House and his years at Monticello. When we headed down for dinner, we were immediately treated with such hospitality. Everyone in the hotel and restaurant seemed to know it was our anniversary, and they greeted us by name. AND - the food? AMAZING. Some unique combinations of food and flavors (pancakes with lobster and vanilla maple sauce, for example, was probably my favorite thing we tried). Everything was tapas style, so we got a few different plates to share. After dinner, we went to the bar for one more drink (which they gave us on the house) and then called it a night.
The next day, Monday, was our anniversary. We started the morning off with room service, and boy was our breakfast fancy (and delicious)! We had stuffed french toast, blueberry ricotta pancakes, fresh fruit, and grits. They wheeled in a big cart for us, and we ate on our private veranda. It was so luxurious!
After breakfast, we went for a walk/run through the golf course and surrounding neighborhood. Then, we headed to the pool and spent the afternoon lounging around. They have a lunch menu you can order from at the pool, so we ordered poolside and had the most delicious avocado jalapeno pizza and a grass-fed beef burger. Every new food and experience at this place made it even more awesome. I swear - if you're ever looking for a quiet, low-key getaway, this is the place! Click on the link at the beginning of this post to learn more about it.
In the early evening, we headed in and got ready for dinner. We ate at Fossett's again and had an equally delicious meal and dessert. Then, we headed back to our room and opened a bottle of sparkling wine on the veranda to celebrate our anniversary.
Tuesday morning, we packed up and headed to our final destination (for real this time). We'd be spending a few weeks at Tom's parents while we found a new place to live in Raleigh. What a great way to end our trip! Thanks to my awesome husband for delivering big-time and completely surprising me... and I thought we'd be celebrating just by eating dinner at The Melting Pot. :-)
Up next: Our road trip by the numbers
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Cheesesteaks and History in Philly
We drove to Philadelphia from New York on a Saturday morning and arrived just in time for a Philly cheesesteak lunch. We'd consulted a few Philly experts for the best place to get one, and the almost unanimous suggestion was Jim's Steaks - a sort of hole-in-the-wall old joint that has a line out the door and around the corner at all times. Well worth the wait - and mine didn't even have meat on it! Tom got a cheesesteak with provolone, onions, peppers, and mushrooms, and I got one with all of that, sans steak. We waited for more than an hour in the sweltering July sun, but it was so worth it. Delicious!
After lunch, we wandered back to the main tourist attractions through some old neighborhoods. In some ways, this city felt like Boston with its age and colonial history. Like in Boston, there is a great focus on the forefathers and the beginnings of this country. There are demonstrations by actors in white wigs and 1700s attire and colonial flags hanging from homes and historic buildings.
After wandering around outside for a while, we went over to the Old City Hall, Independence Hall, and the Liberty Bell. All of the sites and tours here are free (!!!), so we spent some time looking through them all. The photos below show places where the first U.S. Supreme Court held session, where the Declaration of Independence was signed, and where the first U.S. Congress met. Independence Hall was unfortunately undergoing renovations, but they put up a sort of makeshift mesh screen to show tourists what it would look like uncovered. Certainly not the same, but a nice effort.
The Liberty Bell was a lot smaller than I thought it would be - I guess because its reputation is so big, it seemed like it would be a giant, imposing bell. As you can see from the photos, it's only about three feet tall!
From here, we walked down to Philadelphia's waterfront where a Hispanic festival was going on. We walked through it unable to understand anything, split a smoothie, and headed back to our car.
We drove a little south of Philadelphia and stayed for what I thought was the last night of our trip before driving the remaining seven hours to North Carolina. As far as I knew, our plan for the next day was to stop in Virginia at Monticello and then head back to NC to conclude our trip. Tom, however, had other plans...
Up next: A romantic anniversary surprise!
After lunch, we wandered back to the main tourist attractions through some old neighborhoods. In some ways, this city felt like Boston with its age and colonial history. Like in Boston, there is a great focus on the forefathers and the beginnings of this country. There are demonstrations by actors in white wigs and 1700s attire and colonial flags hanging from homes and historic buildings.
After wandering around outside for a while, we went over to the Old City Hall, Independence Hall, and the Liberty Bell. All of the sites and tours here are free (!!!), so we spent some time looking through them all. The photos below show places where the first U.S. Supreme Court held session, where the Declaration of Independence was signed, and where the first U.S. Congress met. Independence Hall was unfortunately undergoing renovations, but they put up a sort of makeshift mesh screen to show tourists what it would look like uncovered. Certainly not the same, but a nice effort.
The Liberty Bell was a lot smaller than I thought it would be - I guess because its reputation is so big, it seemed like it would be a giant, imposing bell. As you can see from the photos, it's only about three feet tall!
From here, we walked down to Philadelphia's waterfront where a Hispanic festival was going on. We walked through it unable to understand anything, split a smoothie, and headed back to our car.
We drove a little south of Philadelphia and stayed for what I thought was the last night of our trip before driving the remaining seven hours to North Carolina. As far as I knew, our plan for the next day was to stop in Virginia at Monticello and then head back to NC to conclude our trip. Tom, however, had other plans...
Up next: A romantic anniversary surprise!
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Friends, Food, and Other Faves in New York
On the afternoon of the Fourth, we drove into New York City from Westport. Lots of residents left town for the holiday weekend, so we didn't have any trouble with street parking. We stayed just a few blocks north of our old apartment - with our friend Meghan on W. 90th Street. It had been about three months since we left New York, and our years living there were starting to feel like a closed chapter. Rather than still feeling like we lived there, it really felt like we'd left and were moving on to the next phase of our lives. We had started looking back on it nostalgically, but as soon as we got to the Upper West Side, all of that went out the window. We felt like we were home! It certainly felt different - we were driving a car, we were on 90th instead of 83rd Street, and we didn't have monthly subway passes. But since we still didn't have a new home, this was it! It felt like we were back - done with the trip - ready to settle back in. But we couldn't go back into our old place! It was a strange mixture of feelings, but we were so glad to be there!
We got to Meghan's and spent some time catching up before heading to the first of many of our favorite restaurants: Cafe Frida. We had some great Mexican food and lamented that this could really be our last time eating there... and then we walked next door to Shake Shack to share a concrete. If you're not familiar, their frozen treats are heaven on earth. The best vanilla frozen custard with yummy mix-ins... we were stuffed! We lumbered over to Riverside Park to snag a spot for the fireworks show. There were five barges shooting fireworks off all along the Hudson River, so we were bound to have a good view. Here are a few shots from that night:
We missed the fireworks our last few summers in NYC, so it was really nice to see them this year.
The next day, we got to experience street parking in a more quintessential New York way. Everyone was back in town, and the street cleaners were coming through. We had to move our car for the street cleaners, but there was no open spot to move it to. We ended up double-parking (which is apparently illegal now, but everyone still does it anyway) and sitting in the car until street cleaning hours were over. However, somebody jumped the gun and pulled back into a parking spot 30 minutes early, which prompted EVERYONE, including us, to do the same - within 5 seconds, the entire left side of the road was full again. Everyone continued sitting in their cars, and 15 minutes later, the street cleaners showed up. We had to jostle back to the right side, and as the street cleaner came through, cars filed in behind it the millisecond there was any space. There was jostling and aggression like we've never seen! A car or two got nudged out and lost their spots... and again, in under a minute, the entire street was full without a single open parking spot. Wow! Glad we didn't have to deal with this on a regular basis when we lived here. We sat in the car until the designated time just to make sure we didn't get a ticket, and then we got on to other things.
Our plan for our first day (and actually most days) was to lounge in Central Park and take it easy. Today was the only day that really happened. We picked up lunch at Lenny's, our old favorite sandwich place, and headed to the park. On the way, we passed by our old building and tried to get a glimpse of what the new inhabitants of our apartment had done. It was so weird seeing other people's stuff there!! They had even more plants than we did on the deck, and we could see our old air conditioner still in the window... so strange not to be able to go up there...
We ate on the Great Lawn, people watched, and played frisbee for a while. It felt like old times, and we had to keep remembering that we didn't live here anymore. After we'd digested a bit, I set my sights on the Belgian waffle cart: Wafels & Dinges (you may have heard of it from Bobby Flay's Throwdown? The waffle guys won!). Tom and I split this delicious concoction:
That evening, Meghan and I went for a run in Central Park. It felt just like old times with my favorite running buddy! Then, Tom and I had dinner at another favorite, Amber, and went downtown for drinks with a few of our NC friends who happened to be visiting at the same time. We had a lot to catch up on - they're having a baby, we've been traveling all over the country, etc. It was fun.
Wednesday, we went to Good Enough to Eat, a favorite brunch spot with better grits than I've ever had in the south. We didn't get a chance to go to our other fave, Sarabeth's. Next time... After brunch, we walked around the UWS and through Central Park. We hung out for a bit on Sheep's Meadow before heading farther east.
From here, we went to Dylan's Candy Bar - somewhere I'd always wanted to visit. The candy is EXTREMELY overpriced, but I had a blast just looking around at all the candy inside. I think Tom didn't mind it, either. We collected a small bag of goodies and were on our way.
After this, we walked to Times Square to visit another NY bucket list spot: Dale & Thomas Popcorn. Unfortunately, we didn't find out until we got there that Dale & Thomas had closed permanently... at least the trip to Times Square was somewhat productive, though - we found a birthday present for my brother there. We'd also thought about going to Max Brenner's chocolate shop, but at this point, we'd walked many miles, and it was getting late, so we went back to Meghan's. The three of us went to dinner at Celeste, another one of our favorites. This Italian restaurant has the BEST pizza in the world. Simply nothing else can compare.
After dinner, Meghan suggested we go down to the High Line. This is a newly-opened park of sorts that runs along old elevated railroad tracks. It's super cool - you can read more about it here. When we got there, it was dark, but there are always tons of people, and it's well-lit. It was quite peaceful to walk around here on a summer night! The pictures we took here didn't turn out very well, so the best way to see what it looks like is to click the link above.
Thursday, Tom went to the New York Times building to visit everyone and have a meeting with his team since he's still going to be working remotely for them. I went to Columbia to visit my old co-workers and participate in a friend's baby shower at the Journalism School.
When I got into the J-school, my old boss had retired my "jersey" in the rafters. His nickname for me was Radar (from the TV show M*A*S*H). He had also posted a picture of my brother, a picture of our cat, a flamingo magnet I brought him from Palm Beach, and a post card we sent him from our trip. AND he made a lemon cake. Too funny. I had a great welcome back and wished I'd had more time to catch up with all my former colleagues! It was great to see everyone.
Tom also had a good visit - he and his boss didn't tell the rest of their team he was coming, so he showed up to a mandatory lunch meeting and surprised everyone.
We reconvened and headed to Brooklyn for dinner with some of our good NY friends. We had some delicious food at the Brooklyn Fish Fry. Then, we took a cab up to Astoria, Queens, to meet a few other friends for drinks at a Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden. We'd never been to either of these places, and we didn't go out of Manhattan that often when we lived in NY, so it was nice to get more of a taste of some other areas. Both of these were very cool, and we had a great time catching up with some other NY friends!
Friday, we had lunch with Tom's aunt and cousin at yet another favorite: Five Napkin Burger. Then, we had dinner with my cousin at Nonna's - our very first favorite Italian spot right around the corner from our old apartment. As you can tell, our days in New York became a lot busier than we'd originally planned. Still, we wouldn't change anything about it - we got to see a lot of great friends & family, ate at most of our favorite restaurants, and got to hang out in our old 'hood. Meghan left Friday night for Bermuda, but we stayed at her place one more night and left first thing in the morning. It was so great to see her for a few days, too, and she was a fabulous host!
Saturday morning, we got up bright and early, took one last stroll through Central Park, and made our way south. Just as we'd started feeling like we were really back home, we were leaving again... it was a sad feeling. We really loved living in New York, and we'll always look back on those years fondly, but we're moving on to the next exciting phase!
Up next: Philadelphia
We got to Meghan's and spent some time catching up before heading to the first of many of our favorite restaurants: Cafe Frida. We had some great Mexican food and lamented that this could really be our last time eating there... and then we walked next door to Shake Shack to share a concrete. If you're not familiar, their frozen treats are heaven on earth. The best vanilla frozen custard with yummy mix-ins... we were stuffed! We lumbered over to Riverside Park to snag a spot for the fireworks show. There were five barges shooting fireworks off all along the Hudson River, so we were bound to have a good view. Here are a few shots from that night:
We missed the fireworks our last few summers in NYC, so it was really nice to see them this year.
The next day, we got to experience street parking in a more quintessential New York way. Everyone was back in town, and the street cleaners were coming through. We had to move our car for the street cleaners, but there was no open spot to move it to. We ended up double-parking (which is apparently illegal now, but everyone still does it anyway) and sitting in the car until street cleaning hours were over. However, somebody jumped the gun and pulled back into a parking spot 30 minutes early, which prompted EVERYONE, including us, to do the same - within 5 seconds, the entire left side of the road was full again. Everyone continued sitting in their cars, and 15 minutes later, the street cleaners showed up. We had to jostle back to the right side, and as the street cleaner came through, cars filed in behind it the millisecond there was any space. There was jostling and aggression like we've never seen! A car or two got nudged out and lost their spots... and again, in under a minute, the entire street was full without a single open parking spot. Wow! Glad we didn't have to deal with this on a regular basis when we lived here. We sat in the car until the designated time just to make sure we didn't get a ticket, and then we got on to other things.
Our plan for our first day (and actually most days) was to lounge in Central Park and take it easy. Today was the only day that really happened. We picked up lunch at Lenny's, our old favorite sandwich place, and headed to the park. On the way, we passed by our old building and tried to get a glimpse of what the new inhabitants of our apartment had done. It was so weird seeing other people's stuff there!! They had even more plants than we did on the deck, and we could see our old air conditioner still in the window... so strange not to be able to go up there...
 |
| View from the north end of the Great Lawn |
That evening, Meghan and I went for a run in Central Park. It felt just like old times with my favorite running buddy! Then, Tom and I had dinner at another favorite, Amber, and went downtown for drinks with a few of our NC friends who happened to be visiting at the same time. We had a lot to catch up on - they're having a baby, we've been traveling all over the country, etc. It was fun.
Wednesday, we went to Good Enough to Eat, a favorite brunch spot with better grits than I've ever had in the south. We didn't get a chance to go to our other fave, Sarabeth's. Next time... After brunch, we walked around the UWS and through Central Park. We hung out for a bit on Sheep's Meadow before heading farther east.
From here, we went to Dylan's Candy Bar - somewhere I'd always wanted to visit. The candy is EXTREMELY overpriced, but I had a blast just looking around at all the candy inside. I think Tom didn't mind it, either. We collected a small bag of goodies and were on our way.
After this, we walked to Times Square to visit another NY bucket list spot: Dale & Thomas Popcorn. Unfortunately, we didn't find out until we got there that Dale & Thomas had closed permanently... at least the trip to Times Square was somewhat productive, though - we found a birthday present for my brother there. We'd also thought about going to Max Brenner's chocolate shop, but at this point, we'd walked many miles, and it was getting late, so we went back to Meghan's. The three of us went to dinner at Celeste, another one of our favorites. This Italian restaurant has the BEST pizza in the world. Simply nothing else can compare.
After dinner, Meghan suggested we go down to the High Line. This is a newly-opened park of sorts that runs along old elevated railroad tracks. It's super cool - you can read more about it here. When we got there, it was dark, but there are always tons of people, and it's well-lit. It was quite peaceful to walk around here on a summer night! The pictures we took here didn't turn out very well, so the best way to see what it looks like is to click the link above.
Thursday, Tom went to the New York Times building to visit everyone and have a meeting with his team since he's still going to be working remotely for them. I went to Columbia to visit my old co-workers and participate in a friend's baby shower at the Journalism School.
When I got into the J-school, my old boss had retired my "jersey" in the rafters. His nickname for me was Radar (from the TV show M*A*S*H). He had also posted a picture of my brother, a picture of our cat, a flamingo magnet I brought him from Palm Beach, and a post card we sent him from our trip. AND he made a lemon cake. Too funny. I had a great welcome back and wished I'd had more time to catch up with all my former colleagues! It was great to see everyone.
Tom also had a good visit - he and his boss didn't tell the rest of their team he was coming, so he showed up to a mandatory lunch meeting and surprised everyone.
We reconvened and headed to Brooklyn for dinner with some of our good NY friends. We had some delicious food at the Brooklyn Fish Fry. Then, we took a cab up to Astoria, Queens, to meet a few other friends for drinks at a Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden. We'd never been to either of these places, and we didn't go out of Manhattan that often when we lived in NY, so it was nice to get more of a taste of some other areas. Both of these were very cool, and we had a great time catching up with some other NY friends!
Friday, we had lunch with Tom's aunt and cousin at yet another favorite: Five Napkin Burger. Then, we had dinner with my cousin at Nonna's - our very first favorite Italian spot right around the corner from our old apartment. As you can tell, our days in New York became a lot busier than we'd originally planned. Still, we wouldn't change anything about it - we got to see a lot of great friends & family, ate at most of our favorite restaurants, and got to hang out in our old 'hood. Meghan left Friday night for Bermuda, but we stayed at her place one more night and left first thing in the morning. It was so great to see her for a few days, too, and she was a fabulous host!
Saturday morning, we got up bright and early, took one last stroll through Central Park, and made our way south. Just as we'd started feeling like we were really back home, we were leaving again... it was a sad feeling. We really loved living in New York, and we'll always look back on those years fondly, but we're moving on to the next exciting phase!
Up next: Philadelphia
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