Of course we're talking about beignets (French for fried dough) and the city we're talking about is the great city of New Orleans. Upon arriving it had recently rained and we could already see what sort of drainage issues the town had. Multiplying that in one's head exponentially and you get a pretty good idea of what Katriana, or "The Storm" as the locals call it, did to the city. Driving down one of New Orleans major streets we noticed beads hanging from the trees. Probably left over from Mardi Gras. Turning on to the street where our hostel is located we experienced the sobering sight of boarded up and abandoned homes. We assumed that they were left over from after Katrina and our suspicions were confirmed when we checked into the hostel. New Orleans has tiny streets and parking is limited but the man at the desk assured that we could use the church parking lot across the street because they never returned after the storm. As we walked to our room we noticed the the hostel bore it's own scars from The Storm on the ceiling of the main room (pictures will follow). Currently we are taking time to do some laundry and recharge before we take the French Quarter by storm!!
A note for our loyal followers, stories and updates from the past week should be arriving soon (we hope!) But until then take some time for your jealousy to sink in. After all, we're currently in a city dedicated to two of the most important things in the world...food and music!!
Au Revoir,
Katy and Eric
Monday, May 31, 2010
Still on the road...
Dear loyal blog followers,
We both know that it has certainly been a while since we last posted an update. Our travels on the road have been quite busy lately. For example, on Saturday (May 29th) we traveled nearly 800 miles from Flagstaff, Arizona to Clinton, Oklahoma. Bone tired and weary at the end of the day, blogging is hardly something we are up for. However, we will still post our day by day accounts even after we get back. Not just for your entertainment but for posterity as well. Of course, all of this said and done we cannot leave you a post without listing at least some of the things we've learned since San Francisco.
1. May is considered a winter month in California. (More on that later)
2. Cows are incredibly frightening late at night.
3. Well, watch Deliverance and you'll understand why it's a bad idea to listen to what a GPS may consider to be the "quickest" route to your desired location.
4. To answer your question, no, things are not as bad as #3 would lead you to believe.
5. All in all, we've traveled through Yosemite National Park, stayed in a hotel frequented by John Wayne (back in the day, of course), survived Death Valley, and seen Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, a Petrified Forest, and Katy(!!), Texas. Don't worry - we'll get pictures up when we can.
More to follow in the coming days (tomorrow we're heading to New Orleans),
Katy and Eric
We both know that it has certainly been a while since we last posted an update. Our travels on the road have been quite busy lately. For example, on Saturday (May 29th) we traveled nearly 800 miles from Flagstaff, Arizona to Clinton, Oklahoma. Bone tired and weary at the end of the day, blogging is hardly something we are up for. However, we will still post our day by day accounts even after we get back. Not just for your entertainment but for posterity as well. Of course, all of this said and done we cannot leave you a post without listing at least some of the things we've learned since San Francisco.
1. May is considered a winter month in California. (More on that later)
2. Cows are incredibly frightening late at night.
3. Well, watch Deliverance and you'll understand why it's a bad idea to listen to what a GPS may consider to be the "quickest" route to your desired location.
4. To answer your question, no, things are not as bad as #3 would lead you to believe.
5. All in all, we've traveled through Yosemite National Park, stayed in a hotel frequented by John Wayne (back in the day, of course), survived Death Valley, and seen Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, a Petrified Forest, and Katy(!!), Texas. Don't worry - we'll get pictures up when we can.
More to follow in the coming days (tomorrow we're heading to New Orleans),
Katy and Eric
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Day 6 photos
RV camp in Nevada :-)
It's hard to tell from this picture, but Nevada even had casinos attached to it's gas stations!
It's hard to tell from this picture, but Nevada even had casinos attached to it's gas stations!
Pardon Us (Day 6 - Nevada, Lake Tahoe, and San Francisco!!!)
Please excuse us for the recent delay in postings, there is just SO much to do in the great city of San Francisco. That said, we must update all of you on Day 6 before we get to the crazy details of Days 7 and 8.
Very few of you know what it's like waking up to freezing temperatures in a tent. But, for those of you who do, now is your cue sympathize! In the tiny town of Winnemucca, NV, we found ourselves refreshed, albeit only somewhat, and ready to hit the road for the six hour drive to the city of San Francisco. As we slowly began to drive across the remainder of Nevada, we found that the desert that we thought Nevada would be made only a brief appearance towards the end of our drive through the giant state. We should add is one of only two states that we drive through twice on this trip (Not counting our home state of New Jersey of course). The giant snow covered mountains disappeared and gave way to sandy plains and more scrub bushes. This stint was short lived, however, because we had to say goodbye to the casinos and the desert and hello to the tall peaks of the Sierra Mountains.
To be honest, neither of us have seen much of the country, let alone the Midwest, and when the thought of driving through the Rocky Mountains came into our heads we pictured snow and pine tree covered peaks similar to what one might see in an advertisement for Aspen or the Swiss Alps. The truth is that Denver brought us none of that. Granted, the mountains were snow covered, but they hardly appeared as we pictured them. Rolling into the Sierra Mountains showed us that the images in our heads were not ones of fantasy, but of reality! Before we knew it, we were in the Lake Tahoe area surrounded by mounds of snow and giant pine trees!! Signs for RV parks were replaced with signs for Ski Resorts and dusty Nevada haze gave way to mountainous California oxygen! We were certainly flabbergasted by the sudden change in scenery and quickly pulled off for a photo op at Vista Point. Picking up some fast-food along the way (which got old after day one, let alone day six) we headed down from the mountain and into Sacramento.
After seeing only incremental changes in scenery through the last five states we drove through, we certainly weren't ready for California. After only a few hours in the mountains, we arrived on the border of California's wine country. The snow vanished as quickly as it came, and we found ourselves surrounded by...wait for it...ORANGE TREES!!! Yes, I know what you're thinking...what about the grape vines!? Well, we saw plenty of signs for Napa Valley and its outlying vineyards, but we were actually brought face to face with oranges. Truth be told, we couldn't be happier. Both of us being junkies for good ol' fashioned OJ we took about twenty pictures of the same kind of tree. Overboard you say? Absolutely! But wait til you see, someday for the first time in your life, an orange tree...then you'll understand!
By this time we could smell the noodle shops, hear the beat poetry, and feel the groovy hippy vibes of the halfway point of our trip - SAN FRANCISCO!! Yes kids, we made it to the other end of the country!! What a feeling it was to cross the bay bridge into downtown San Francisco and see the bustling West Coast culture that we had dreamed about so many cold and travel worn nights!! Ok, maybe it wasn't like that exactly. We got there during rush-hour and had to sit in traffic while San Francisco dangled in front of us. Still we'll remember it the first way.
Arriving into San Francisco to an undisclosed location (not to worry you'll have details on the hotel after we've left...after all we wouldn't want the paparazzi chasing us down) we unpacked our bags and admired the certain...uh...charm that the neighborhood had. Not to worry, we are certainly safe, but at the same time we were a bit surprised. Hungry and tired, we picked up a pizza pie and sat down to watch the final episode of the hit TV show LOST. Eric refrained from wise cracks about the show allowing Katy to enjoy it in peace. That was...until it was over. Post LOST we hit the sack and prepared for our trip into the city of Peace and Love. Sadly though, you'll have to wait for details on that until tomorrow!! For those counting the days, we leave San Francisco tomorrow after two and half days of running up, down, and up again the hills of the city. Next stop is Lone Pine, California before our descent into Death Valley.
Bone weary and enjoying the sounds of San Francisco from our hotel room one last time,
Eric and Katy
Very few of you know what it's like waking up to freezing temperatures in a tent. But, for those of you who do, now is your cue sympathize! In the tiny town of Winnemucca, NV, we found ourselves refreshed, albeit only somewhat, and ready to hit the road for the six hour drive to the city of San Francisco. As we slowly began to drive across the remainder of Nevada, we found that the desert that we thought Nevada would be made only a brief appearance towards the end of our drive through the giant state. We should add is one of only two states that we drive through twice on this trip (Not counting our home state of New Jersey of course). The giant snow covered mountains disappeared and gave way to sandy plains and more scrub bushes. This stint was short lived, however, because we had to say goodbye to the casinos and the desert and hello to the tall peaks of the Sierra Mountains.
To be honest, neither of us have seen much of the country, let alone the Midwest, and when the thought of driving through the Rocky Mountains came into our heads we pictured snow and pine tree covered peaks similar to what one might see in an advertisement for Aspen or the Swiss Alps. The truth is that Denver brought us none of that. Granted, the mountains were snow covered, but they hardly appeared as we pictured them. Rolling into the Sierra Mountains showed us that the images in our heads were not ones of fantasy, but of reality! Before we knew it, we were in the Lake Tahoe area surrounded by mounds of snow and giant pine trees!! Signs for RV parks were replaced with signs for Ski Resorts and dusty Nevada haze gave way to mountainous California oxygen! We were certainly flabbergasted by the sudden change in scenery and quickly pulled off for a photo op at Vista Point. Picking up some fast-food along the way (which got old after day one, let alone day six) we headed down from the mountain and into Sacramento.
After seeing only incremental changes in scenery through the last five states we drove through, we certainly weren't ready for California. After only a few hours in the mountains, we arrived on the border of California's wine country. The snow vanished as quickly as it came, and we found ourselves surrounded by...wait for it...ORANGE TREES!!! Yes, I know what you're thinking...what about the grape vines!? Well, we saw plenty of signs for Napa Valley and its outlying vineyards, but we were actually brought face to face with oranges. Truth be told, we couldn't be happier. Both of us being junkies for good ol' fashioned OJ we took about twenty pictures of the same kind of tree. Overboard you say? Absolutely! But wait til you see, someday for the first time in your life, an orange tree...then you'll understand!
By this time we could smell the noodle shops, hear the beat poetry, and feel the groovy hippy vibes of the halfway point of our trip - SAN FRANCISCO!! Yes kids, we made it to the other end of the country!! What a feeling it was to cross the bay bridge into downtown San Francisco and see the bustling West Coast culture that we had dreamed about so many cold and travel worn nights!! Ok, maybe it wasn't like that exactly. We got there during rush-hour and had to sit in traffic while San Francisco dangled in front of us. Still we'll remember it the first way.
Arriving into San Francisco to an undisclosed location (not to worry you'll have details on the hotel after we've left...after all we wouldn't want the paparazzi chasing us down) we unpacked our bags and admired the certain...uh...charm that the neighborhood had. Not to worry, we are certainly safe, but at the same time we were a bit surprised. Hungry and tired, we picked up a pizza pie and sat down to watch the final episode of the hit TV show LOST. Eric refrained from wise cracks about the show allowing Katy to enjoy it in peace. That was...until it was over. Post LOST we hit the sack and prepared for our trip into the city of Peace and Love. Sadly though, you'll have to wait for details on that until tomorrow!! For those counting the days, we leave San Francisco tomorrow after two and half days of running up, down, and up again the hills of the city. Next stop is Lone Pine, California before our descent into Death Valley.
Bone weary and enjoying the sounds of San Francisco from our hotel room one last time,
Eric and Katy
Monday, May 24, 2010
Day 5 photos (part 3)
We went a little overboard with the pictures on Saturday...here are more of Utah and Nevada!
Nevada border :-)
Tunnel!
The terrain started to become more sandy
Nevada border :-)
Tunnel!
The terrain started to become more sandy
Day 5 - photos (part 2)
Funny trees that are definitely different from those in NJ!
We couldn't get over how gorgeous these mountains are
Salt flats next to the lake
It was quite a hike to the actual lake
Eric
Katy
It was cold and windy in Utah
Salt!
Enormous piles of salt at the Morton salt factory!
We couldn't get over how gorgeous these mountains are
Salt flats next to the lake
It was quite a hike to the actual lake
Eric
Katy
It was cold and windy in Utah
Salt!
Enormous piles of salt at the Morton salt factory!
Day 5 - photos
Cool Wyoming mountains! There were holes in the rock!
Snow.
It's always great to see these on the road :-D
Gorgeous view
Finally!
Wow
Part of Salt Lake City
Mormon Temple in Salt Lake (you can't tell from this picture, but there were 9 weddings outside this building at once! Actually, on closer inspection, you can see one of the weddings near the front door)
Mormon Tabernacle! It's oval-shaped
Bummer :-( But we heard them singing from where we were outside anyway!!
Snow.
It's always great to see these on the road :-D
Gorgeous view
Finally!
Wow
Part of Salt Lake City
Mormon Temple in Salt Lake (you can't tell from this picture, but there were 9 weddings outside this building at once! Actually, on closer inspection, you can see one of the weddings near the front door)
Mormon Tabernacle! It's oval-shaped
Bummer :-( But we heard them singing from where we were outside anyway!!
Day 5 - Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada
On day 5 (Saturday, May 22nd), we woke up and headed from our campsite in Rawlins, Wyoming through Utah and into Nevada. Amazingly, as we headed through Wyoming, we encountered SNOW. It started as light flurries, but at some points it was so heavy that the ground had a layer of white on it and ice caked on the windshield of the car (it's incredibly bizarre to see snow on little desert scrub bushes - check out the pictures). We stopped for gas in Wyoming, and the employee inside the store confirmed that it ALWAYS snows in Wyoming in May - we couldn't believe it, though figured that the weather probably contributes to the fact that the population of Wyoming (the 9th largest state) is only 500,000.
Finally, we left Wyoming and entered Utah through ENORMOUS mountains on route 80. We drove into Salt Lake City, parked the car, and visited the Mormon Tabernacle choir. Unfortunately, the choir was closed to visitors on Saturday because they were recording, BUT we were able to stand outside the building and still hear the choir rehearse (they sounded amazing). After leaving the tabernacle, we walked past the Mormon temple and counted NINE simultaneous weddings - NINE!!! - scattered around the sides of the building. We left the city (there's not much else to do there) and headed for the lake.
At this point, we'd seen quite a few cities on our trip: Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, Denver, Salt Lake City. In reality, Chicago was the last "real" city we visited up until San Francisco - Salt Lake City was MUCH more like just a large suburban town with five giant skyscrapers stuck in the middle than a city. Denver was more city-like (similar to Washington, D.C., in my opinion), but neither had the same feeling of being in a city that one gets in Chicago or NYC. Being so accustomed to NYC, visiting what is considered a "large" city in the west was a bit surprising to us.
Alrighty - on to one of the most interesting stops in our trip: the Salt Lake in Utah!! We found out that the saltiness of the lake prevents everything but small brine shrimp from actually living in it, so there were hundreds of birds in the area eating the shrimp from the lake, but not much else. The lake itself is located past a large area of salt flats (basically, a large salty beach with pools of water scattered around it). When we finally got through the flats to the actual lake (it was quite the hike), we noticed the lake was incredibly shallow and (well, we noticed this long before we actually got the lake) smells TERRIBLE. In any case, we had a good time running around looking for salt near the lake, and the view of the mountains over the lake is great.
Leaving Salt Lake for Nevada seemed to take forever. The drive was completely straight, flat, and long, and the mountains in the distance never seemed to get any closer. We did see a few salt companies with giant mounds of salt near the outskirts of the lake, which was pretty cool.
Nevada was a surprise - no less than 50 feet into the state, we encountered 3 casinos. There's not much in north Nevada, but every single gas station had a casino and alcohol in it. With so many casinos, you'd think that the economy would be good, but almost every town we drove through was composed of trailer parks and run-down buildings.
A few hours through Nebraska, we realized that our destination for the night, a state park that allowed free camping, was probably a bad idea. Not only was there no phone number for the park, but it also lacked an exact address. Remembering the dirt road fiasco of Colorado, we called AAA and found a campsite off of route 80. The site was great - we set up our tent on the grass, cooked tomato soup and rice on our propane stove, and got to bed. Miraculously, we survived the 30 degree temperatures, though it started to snow again at one point. It was a huge relief to know that our next destination was a hotel (warm beds!) in San Francisco :-D
Check out the pictures that were added to the Colorado post! Our first day in San Francisco will be up soon :-D
Finally, we left Wyoming and entered Utah through ENORMOUS mountains on route 80. We drove into Salt Lake City, parked the car, and visited the Mormon Tabernacle choir. Unfortunately, the choir was closed to visitors on Saturday because they were recording, BUT we were able to stand outside the building and still hear the choir rehearse (they sounded amazing). After leaving the tabernacle, we walked past the Mormon temple and counted NINE simultaneous weddings - NINE!!! - scattered around the sides of the building. We left the city (there's not much else to do there) and headed for the lake.
At this point, we'd seen quite a few cities on our trip: Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, Denver, Salt Lake City. In reality, Chicago was the last "real" city we visited up until San Francisco - Salt Lake City was MUCH more like just a large suburban town with five giant skyscrapers stuck in the middle than a city. Denver was more city-like (similar to Washington, D.C., in my opinion), but neither had the same feeling of being in a city that one gets in Chicago or NYC. Being so accustomed to NYC, visiting what is considered a "large" city in the west was a bit surprising to us.
Alrighty - on to one of the most interesting stops in our trip: the Salt Lake in Utah!! We found out that the saltiness of the lake prevents everything but small brine shrimp from actually living in it, so there were hundreds of birds in the area eating the shrimp from the lake, but not much else. The lake itself is located past a large area of salt flats (basically, a large salty beach with pools of water scattered around it). When we finally got through the flats to the actual lake (it was quite the hike), we noticed the lake was incredibly shallow and (well, we noticed this long before we actually got the lake) smells TERRIBLE. In any case, we had a good time running around looking for salt near the lake, and the view of the mountains over the lake is great.
Leaving Salt Lake for Nevada seemed to take forever. The drive was completely straight, flat, and long, and the mountains in the distance never seemed to get any closer. We did see a few salt companies with giant mounds of salt near the outskirts of the lake, which was pretty cool.
Nevada was a surprise - no less than 50 feet into the state, we encountered 3 casinos. There's not much in north Nevada, but every single gas station had a casino and alcohol in it. With so many casinos, you'd think that the economy would be good, but almost every town we drove through was composed of trailer parks and run-down buildings.
A few hours through Nebraska, we realized that our destination for the night, a state park that allowed free camping, was probably a bad idea. Not only was there no phone number for the park, but it also lacked an exact address. Remembering the dirt road fiasco of Colorado, we called AAA and found a campsite off of route 80. The site was great - we set up our tent on the grass, cooked tomato soup and rice on our propane stove, and got to bed. Miraculously, we survived the 30 degree temperatures, though it started to snow again at one point. It was a huge relief to know that our next destination was a hotel (warm beds!) in San Francisco :-D
Check out the pictures that were added to the Colorado post! Our first day in San Francisco will be up soon :-D
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Day 4 - Colorado photos
Just a few pictures of Colorado
Denver (you can barely see any mountains from the city - you'd never know the Rockies are right next door!)
Hybrid BUS - woooo!
Rockies
Coors factory
Red Rocks Amphitheater near Denver
The amphitheater is behind the giant slanted rock
another photo from Red Rocks
Horse!! (we have millions of pictures of cows...only about a thousand of horses ;-D)
Neat cloud! (Did we mention the West is flat?)
Rocky Mountains!
Denver (you can barely see any mountains from the city - you'd never know the Rockies are right next door!)
Hybrid BUS - woooo!
Rockies
Coors factory
Red Rocks Amphitheater near Denver
The amphitheater is behind the giant slanted rock
another photo from Red Rocks
Horse!! (we have millions of pictures of cows...only about a thousand of horses ;-D)
Neat cloud! (Did we mention the West is flat?)
Rocky Mountains!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
