now home safely

i have been home since about 2.30 am very, very early sunday morning. our trip concluded with sasquatch music festival at the gorge ampitheatre in george, washington. it was amazing.

our final days brought us to grand teton and yellowstone national parks, both of which were extremely moving but would be even more so if the weather had been better and we had more time/energy. it even snowed briefly while we were in yellowstone. i was suprised by the number of stripped, fallen and burned trees in both parks. i suppose fires are an important part of nature, but the landscape seemed barren due, in part, to these giant toothpicks. it also seemed really eerie because of the vast number of geysers emitting gases into the biting wind. we walked up a path to the geyser basin and were completely enveloped in steam. it was odd and smelly, but a really cool feeling. we also enjoyed watching the waterfalls throughout the park and seeing the wildlife. that is, until a buffalo came within a few feet of the car and we decided that was a little too close for comfort. the parks were generally gorgeous but also quite strange. we had to remind ourselves the animals were real- this was reality- and that the steaming landscape wasn't a post-war zone, but a hotbed of geological activity.

idaho, wyoming and montana were otherwise uneventful. we did our last long day of driving from bozeman, mont. to ritzville, wa. the concert was totally worth the hefty ticket price. for music lovers out there, you'd like to know that i was really impressed with arcade fire, manu chao, gabriel teodros, mix master mike and electrelane. i would have loved to hear m.i.a. but she couldn't get her visa; bjork was brilliant but we only stayed for two songs because we were itching to finally get to seattle. i also wanted to actually hear/see mirah and grizzly bear, but other acts overpowered them big time. the long winters, ozomatli, neko case, and citizen cope were all pretty good too.

after making it to my house a few hours after the show, we all crashed for a good amount of time. it felt so comforting to be in my own bed again. luckily we were all enthusiastic enough to clean the car (inside and out!) and go around the city before eating a nice home-cooked meal and sorting through our 5000 photos from the trip that night. i was proud to show matt and laura my home and town, although a lot has changed since i've been here last. i will be home for another week, running errands and seeing friends, before leaving for boston on june 5. after that i plan on getting a job and exploring the city, then returning to school again until december. it feels like a relief to be home, but i can't imagine being here longer than that. this summer should be great!

here are some of my photos from yellowstone (before my batteries died) and from our fun in seattle day:

salt lake city

i'm sitting in a hotel in montpelier, idaho right now, getting ready to leave for a day in yellowstone. we had a nice, relaxing day in salt lake city yesterday. we slept in, drove about two hours to get to the city, did a quick walk around temple square, and then went to the coolest art gallery i've ever, ever seen. 337 is a house in salt lake that is covered, inside and out, with amazing urban artwork. most of it is done with aerosol paint ("graffiti" style, but it's not actually graffiti because it's more than just scrawling on walls). the whole project is absolutely mind-blowing in its size, style and color. the most fascinating part of this is that the building is slated to be destroyed on saturday! apparently it is going to become a business and condos, or something like that. it's a tragedy. anyways, here are some photos from this amazing place:

photo batch #7

these were all taken in durango, where we visited our good friend anne. it is an adorable little town nestled in the mountains of colorado. we had a great time there by going out to eat at a wonderful new mexican restaurant, walking down main street, and seeing anne's home. this is all for today because my computer is about to die, but i will post more about the national parks we have been to soon. enjoy!

photo batch #6

these were taken during the drive from boulder (north of denver) to durango (in southwestern colorado). we traversed some amazing mountains!! the drive was more than nerve-wracking, being so close to many 10,000-foot drop-offs, but we made it to durango in one piece.

photo batch #5

these are at monarch pass, colorado, also known as the continental divide. we took a "gondola" (futuristic little bubble car thing) up the mountains and had a wonderful view that cannot be properly translated into photographs.

photo batch #4

these are from colorado, namely golden. you can see us (including rissa, one of our great hosts) cutting matt's hair and the view of denver from lookout mountain. we are also seen at chataqua park in boulder, in front of the flatirons.

photo batch #3

these pretty much take us through kansas. notice the european feel of kansas city- including the street performer in the background of the second photo.

photo batch #2

ok, here are the next few:

these are mostly through missouri, which surprised us by being the most gorgeous green. pictured are my traveling companions, matt and laura.

photo batch #!

we are in price, utah right now. i'm thoroughly exhausted and have a bad cough, but all's well so far. i will write at some point, but since a picture represents a thousand words, here are the first round of photographs.

we go from pittsburgh at night to our first day of driving, into chicago.

In Colorado now

It is 10 am on Sunday morning, and this is the first day since we left that we haven’t been on the road by 9 or 9.30. I am sitting outside at Laura’s roommate Rissa’s house in Golden, Colorado. Golden is situated in the foothills of the Rockies, on a slope overlooking Denver. It is so unbelievably gorgeous!

Since leaving Chicago— which, unfortunately, we didn’t spend too much time in— we drove all the way through Illinois and Missouri. We took another scenic route through Missouri, which surprised us with its rolling, green beauty. We had lunch in St. Louis and made it to Kansas City by 8 pm. One of our very best friends, Jill, lives in Overland Park, a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri in the state of Kansas. Her home and neighborhood were just like her— hospitable, welcoming, colorful. She took us to the Plaza district downtown for dinner. The Spanish architecture, street performers and fountains downtown really gave it the flavor of a European city. We had a classic all-American meal at Winstead’s, a Kansas City trademark, and topped it off with a HUGE milkshake that the four of us couldn’t finish! We were all pretty exhausted (again), so we went to bed early. The next morning, we had time to look at some of Jill’s family photos and actually eat real fruit (!) before hitting the road.

Driving through all of Kansas and half of Colorado yesterday was quite a sight. We passed endless miles of farmland; the state was decidedly more hilly and green than we expected. We finally all understand why it’s called “big sky country.” We began to see more livestock than agricultural farms as well. Besides getting lost in Topeka and driving on a dirt road to avoid a seven-car collision on I-70, almost all the driving went smoothly. We listened to the most outrageous news report I’ve ever heard on a.m. radio in Kansas, which proclaimed that “the tables are turning…and Asia is eating our lunch,” all in a voice similar to a ‘30s news announcer. We ate another hearty meal at a diner in Salina, Kansas (where the Grapes of Wrath takes place?) and then drove almost straight through the rest of the state.

Colorado has been beautiful so far and I am looking forward to today’s adventures. We are hoping to hike a little, see Denver, and spend tonight at our friend Annalise’s house. Maybe I’ll figure out how to post pictures soon, because I’ve taken literally hundreds so far.

road trip leg #1

so, i am in chicago right now.
yesterday i was in baltimore.
tomorrow i will be in kansas city.

leaving goucher was very sentimental. i felt like we took as long to say goodbye as it did to get to our first destination, pittsburgh. pgh was a pleasant surprise- it was funky, artsy and really cool, from what i could tell. we stayed with our friend maura's uncle richard, who was extremely hospitable. he took us to a nice thai restaurant and then driving to mt. washington (a point on the top of a hill, overlooking the city), the south side (an area with a lot of nightlife...sort of like fell's point), and oakland (the university area). we all crashed around 11, wiped out from moving, driving and saying goodbye.

this morning we found a great, independent, student-y coffee shop on our way out of pittsburgh. we took a scenic two-lane highway (route 30) instead of the highway to get us into ohio. this led us through a gorgeous wooded area in western pennsylvania, a little bit of west virginia, and into an industrial part of ohio. there were a lot of red rock and factories. we took highway 80/90 through ohio for many hours, stopping in mansfield for lunch. we ate a hearty all-american meal and investigated some memorials in a park before it began to pour outside. it was laura's turn to drive after lunch- all highways in the middle of ohio, in poor-visibility rain- and about a minute after making a comment about matt and i being on cop watch, we got pulled over for speeding. it was kind of funny trying to explain why this girl with a california license was driving a car with washington plates and a maryland proof of insurance in ohio. we were just trying to get to chicago...

the drive after that wasn't so bad. we saw lots and lots of flat farmland throughout ohio and indiana. not much to report there. gary, indiana was horrifically industrial and ugly, but driving into chicago was great. i am sick of tollroads already and have developed an admiration for two-lane roads.

my mother's friend lynda and family are being very generous hosts this evening. they made us a great, relatively healthy dinner and chatted for a while, even though they just got back from italy yesterday. we are hoping to see a little bit of the city tomorrow before taking the 9-hour journey to kansas city. this means that we are leaving the house around 6 am and i need to go to bed!!

here are some photos from our adventures so far, hopefully in chronological order:

photos

here are some of my favorite photos from this year. i take hundreds of pictures, so this was tough.