Hug the Panda

The end of the road...

2007-02-06T21:01:00.000-08:00

Yes folks... it's finally over.
After 5 months of travel, I've moved to Chicago to find a new job, a new apartment, and a slightly new life.

Right now it is a balmy 0 degrees outside and has been snowing all day. Lovely.

Neither Justin or I have a job or a place lined up, but but we'll both find our way sooner or later.

So thanks for reading, and if I head off into the great beyond again, you'll know where to find out about it.

Just in case you were interested, I've posted links to all of our online photo albums from our trip (beginning with the road trip from DC to California, and continuing all the way to Laos). Just click on the link to see them.

Bests,

Maeve

--------------------Photo Links

The road from DC to Seattle

Chicago

Seattle #1

Seattle #2

Portland

California

Nevada

Beijing, China

Xi'an and Chengdu, China

Emishan, China

Vietnam # 1

Vietnam #2

Cambodia

Thailand

Laos

Finally! Internet!

2007-01-28T13:39:00.000-08:00

Dear friends,

I've finally had some time to organize and post up another round of photos.

Here is a link for our Thailand photos. I am working on the Laos photos and hopefully they will be up in a day or two.

So what now? Well after Bangkok we sneakily flew to Guam to surprise my dad on his birthday (the whole "go to the beach at Pattaya" thing was a ruse) and spent three lovely weeks there with family, friends, and the beach.

After returning to the US, I spent some time with my brother and Jessi in Healdsburg, while Justin went to see his family in Nevada. I'm a currently in DC, visiting with friends and taking one last pass at the job market before heading to Chicago in early February. I've already sent off an application or two to a gallery and an architectural firm in the Windy City. I hope someone takes interest soon.

Oh Bangkok, you busy busy beast you.

2006-12-15T07:23:00.000-08:00

After a relaxing two weeks in Eastern Thailand, Laos, and Chiang Mai, we've returned to Bangkok for a few days. This place is a nightmare. Not a place for vacationing at all. Between the constant shopping and very hard bargaining, the rude taxi and tuk-tuk drivers who try to rip you off or refuse to use their meters, and the sheer size of the city... it is just a headache.
We've done the last of our serious shopping, and went to see the huge reclining Buddha at Wat Pho (one of the most amazing things to see... pity it is in Bangkok) and the giant standing Buddha. Tomorrow we head down south to Pattaya to visit Justin's cousin who lives there. Although it is the beach, we are planning on relaxing and lounging around the his house for a few days, maybe paying a visit to the water once or twice, and recharging for our return to Bangkok the night of the 18th in order to get up and head out the following day.
Finally, we'll get in to Guam on the 20th... after a 4 hour layover in Manila.
What a trip it's been.
I may not update until we've made it safely home to Guam...

Clean teeth for all!

2006-12-12T07:28:00.000-08:00

Deja vu anyone? We're back in Thailand again... We took a rather effortless trip from Luang Prabang, Laos to Chiang Mai, Thailand via Laos Air. The other option was being stacked with people, rice, grain, chickens, and whatever else was agriculturally in vogue at the minute onto a barge that would slowly drift to Thailand in three days... or more... depending on the weather. Given the fact that our time is beginning to run out and our waning sense for adventure... we flew. On the plane we met Cyrus, a middle aged recently divorced East-coaster, who became our new travel mate. We settled arrived in Thailand during the King's week long birthday celebration (and the king may just be more popular than Buddha here) and the Chiang Mai flower festival AND the official "Start of the Thai Tourist Season Celebration". The city was completely packed with Thai and foreign tourists... but we managed to find a hotel room after a bit of a search. Chiang Mai is famous for it's night market, a daily affair, and we spent our first night in the city walking down the night market street wondering how many silk ties we really did need (in the end we bought none).
Chiang Mai is also famous for dentists. Seeing as my lack of health insurance and throbbing pain in one of my back molars spelled financial ruin, Justin and I checked out local dentist rates. Much to our surprise and dental joy, they were relatively low. So after two stints at two different dentist clinics I manged to get a cavity filled and my teeth cleaned, polished, sealed and whitened for just under $200 US. I'm sure the cavity came from long overnight train rides in China... the country is really that dirty. After our teeth had been properly assaulted, we searched the city for some painkillers, and fumbled around the Weekend Night Market (a different affair from the daily one) until we found a lady making waffles out of a street cart and called it a night.
We also rented a motorbike and took it up to the mountain top temple of Doi Su Theph, just outside of the city. The ride up is entirely switch backs and steep, sudden inclines so it was a site to see and experience it itself. The temple is one of the holiest in Thai Buddhism, and surrounding the golden central stupa are several sets of large heavy prayer bells... that I had the pleasure of ringing... all of them. The whole place was very noisy and crowded with Thais.
That night we met up with our friend Cyrus and went shopping at the Weekend Night Market. There were generally more Thais than foreigners at this market, and that worked out on our behalf as the prices were then lower. We had a very good time and went a little overboard with the shopping... but you're only in Thailand once, eh?
After Chiang Mai we'll take the night train down to Bangkok for some last minute shopping, temple viewing, and a trip to Ayuthaya, the ancient capital, before flying home to Guam!

Laos... land of the lost

2006-12-09T02:07:00.000-08:00

If anyone feels the need to share my childhood travel experiences in places like Thailand and Indonesia make sure you head to Laos in the next year. Laos really reminds me of Thailand and Bali about 10-15 years ago. To give you an example: when we arrived in Vientiane, their capital, they had just begun to install sidewalks... really. Vientiane was a very quiet city with a midnight curfew still in effect... so we did very little during our time there. There was a large golden stupa, the holiest site in Laos, that we went to see. Legend has it that Buddha's collar bone is buried beneath the stupa.
From Vientiane we took a long bus ride to Vang Vieng, a small town in the mountains that now has only one function: tourism. It really isn't so bad as the town is only composed of three streets, the prices are all very reasonable, and the entire draw of the town is river tours. The river that curves around the town has one 6km stretch that is calm and wide enough to allow for very relaxing tubing. To make things even more interesting the locals have set up bars on the river banks so that you can float down the river, from bar to bar, drinking and eating as you go. These "bars" can be anything from a rather large establishment with several different thatched platforms jutting over the river to relax and drink to one guy perched on a rock in the middle of the river with a bucket full of ice and beer yelling "BEER LAO". The larger bars have trapeze swings. You climb up to a platform and swing out over the river, quite high up in the air really, until you decide to drop into the water. A rather disastrous idea I would think to have at a bar... but everyone seemed to be fine and no one got hurt while we were there. We also did a kayak tour of the river, which included one section where we were again put in inner tubes and using a guide rope we hauled ourselves into a cave that the river ran through. At parts the ceiling was just a few inches above our heads, at others roughly 100 ft. We went about 200m back in the cave in our tubes, it was completely dark with the exceptions of our headlamps, and one of the coolest things I've ever done.
We continued our northwesterly route and wound up in Luang Prabang, the UNESCO world heritage town and gateway into Northern Thailand. Luang Prabang reminded me a lot of Ubud, Bali. The town is fairly quiet but there is a decent amount of shopping, food, and tours all geared to tourists. What surprised me the most was the amount of Thai tourists that were there. We spent our first day in the city lounging around, doing very little. At night the main street becomes a large night market with people from the neighboring hill towns arriving with their goods and wares for sale. Laos silk is really beautiful, and we spent several nights and a fair amount of money negotiating with the vendors. Unlike the Vietnamese and Thais of Bangkok, the vendors in Laos enjoyed old fashioned bargaining with lots of smiles and playfulness that I haven't seen yet on this trip. We got some very good bargains and had a lot of fun in the process. We also decided to splurge a bit and went on a day long tour with a private guide that included an elephant ride, swimming at a beautiful waterfall, and 4 hours of kayaking down several small rapids back to Luang Prabang. The rest of our days we lazed away... Luang Prabang is the perfect down to do that in. If we felt adventurous we went on walks... at one point we followed a French tour group and ended up at the top of the town's central hill to watch sunset from the steps of a temple.
Like the rest of Asia, Laos too is bound to change soon. This trip has been a testament to how rapidly Asia is westernizing and how tourism is becoming a major economy, especially for a tiny poor country like Laos.
Although our trip is not entirely over, I am already starting to count the days until we arrive on Guam just in time for Christmas. Believe it or not, I miss the silly Christmas music played in malls and the lights and decorations that get put up just after (and these days well before) Thanksgiving. I know we'll be there shortly and the time will fly, but part of me just wants to go home now and start the party! Hehe.

I took some extra time out of today to update photos:
I fixed the second batch of Vietnam photos so now they include more of the Cu Chi Tunnels, and added some photos of part of our trip to Cambodia.

Vietnam #2

Cambodia (for now...)

argh

2006-11-30T06:05:00.000-08:00

I just typed up a very long post detailing our trip from Bangkok to Laos, but then the computer I am on went and crashed, deleting the post before I could put it online.

So yes, we are in Vientiane, this city has no sidewalks but decent chicken. Tomorrow we go deeper into Laos.

I finally found an internet connection to attempt to put some photos up. Here is a brief collection from Vietnam.

Vietnam (from Sapa to Na Trong)
Vietnam... some photos from the Cu Chi tunnels... more to come later

Here a wat, there a wat, everywhere a wat wat.

2006-11-22T07:14:00.000-08:00

The last two weeks have been quite interesting. We arrived in Phnom Phen and were whisked off to our guesthouse... a trendy little place with loads of nice people and good food. We only spent the night in the city, and the next morning we were off to Shianoukville to catch up with our Swedish friends at the beach. We stayed in a guesthouse that was literally just a large cushion on a floor to serve as a mattress and a fan for each room. The roof was thatched, the bathrooms were a trek to get to, and we locked the "room" with a padlock. Sadly, a flock of jellyfish (or a school, group, gaggle... whatever the proper word is for a lot of floating, stinging, jello-like blobs) attacked the beach the day we arrived, making the water hazardous. We lounged around for three days with our friends, then took the bus back to Phnom Phen.
In the city we visited (in one day) the Killing Fields, S-21 (the largest Khamer Rouge prison and interrogation center), the Russian market, the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, and Wat Phnom. The Killing Fields and S-21 were the most interesting of the day... there wasn't much to see at the Killing Fields other than large pits in the ground that were once the mass graves of over 8,000 people... but it was very strange to be there. I expected it to be huge and sterile like a German concentration camp but it was a very small area that resembled more of an overgrown fairground. S-21 was a very different story. The compound was a high school before the Khamer Rouge took over, and it really looks like my high school on Guam: cement buildings with open air hallways and stairwells with rectangular holes cut through the cement for ventilation. Before interrogating people the Khamer Rouge took photographs and also made prisoners write a "biography"... some of them several hundred pages long. Then they were chained up, beaten, and eventually taken to the Killing Fields to be executed. Hundred of prisoner's photographs were on display, as well as photos taken by the Vietnamese "liberators". It was a very sobering experience.
After a few nights in Phnom Phen we took a bus to Siem Reap, the town outside of the temples of Angkor. In Cambodian (and Thai) "wat" means temple. We spent three days touring the wats of Angkor. The first temples were built in 900AD... the last around 1400AD. The most famous is Angkor Wat... the king's private (and HUGE) temple. We were up two mornings in a row to see the sun rise over Angkor Wat, and we sat on the steps of the temple every evening to watch the sun go down. During the day we were driven around by our tuk-tuk drivers (Paris and Chiang... the greatest guys) to various temples throughout the 200km temple area. We weren't able to seem them all (we'd need two weeks for that... maybe more), but we did manage to see quite a bit. I can't say too much about them other than that it was the best experience on this trip so far and as an art/architecture nut one of the best in my life. Unlike ruins in Europe, you can climb all over the temples and your experience is only limited by the number of stairs you are willing to climb and ledges you are willing to ease yourself along. Absolutely fantastic.
Today we took three different buses to get to Bangkok. The difference between Thailand and the rest of South Asia is immediately noticeable... paved roads with signs, tall buildings, houses with different architectural styles and BILLBOARDS. The advertisement on the highway from the Cambodia side to Bangkok was just choked with billboards. It feels like the US. We are currently staying just outside of the Kho San Road area... once the "backpacker's ghetto" but now more of a bustling tourist center. The dollar isn't as strong as it was two years ago, so things are drastically more expensive here that we thought they would be. I'll have to limit my shopping... sadly. We are traveling in the company of a Norwegian couple (Aina and Andre) and a Swedish couple (Hedvig and Thomas)... Aina and Andre we met way back in China and Hedvig and Thomas in Vietnam. We've spent most of our time in Cambodia as a happy little group of six, but now in Bangkok we will all be going different ways. Justin and I aren't sure where we are headed just this minute... tomorrow we'll have to do some research and see how difficult it is to get to Laos... and if we'd rather go to Burma and get off the tour circuit that we've been on since Beijing.
Asia's reputation of always being on the bring of technology isn't holding up as neither Vietnam or Cambodia had connections that were not run by a hamster and a wheel. Hopefully, I'll be able to upload some photos tomorrow on this connection... which doesn't seem too poor.
Tomorrow calls for Padthai and some (limited) shopping. Hurrah for Bangkok!

Almost out...

2006-11-08T03:13:00.000-08:00

We've made it all the way down the coast and arrived in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City is just too long to say or type). This place is chaos. We plan to do a short trip to the Cu Chi tunnels tomorrow, some last minute shopping, and then take either a eight hour bus to Phnom Phen or a two day boat trip. Still haven't decided yet....
Here is a very brief summary of our last week or so in Vietnam:
In Hoi An, city of tailors, we spent several days getting things made. The city itself was pretty run down, having just survived a typhoon a few weeks before, and the beach was too rough for swimming as another one was on its way... so we spent all of our time at various tailor appointments. I ended up with a three piece suit, dress shirt, two winter coats, two dresses, a top, and three pairs of pants. Justin weighed in with two suits, a jacket, and five shirts. As usual, the most expensive thing was postage... and we had it all sent to the states so we don't have to drag it with us the next six weeks.
We then took a night bus to Nha Trang, a beach town. It was the off season, so nothing was heavily populated, but it was pretty boring. We ran into our Norwegian friends, Aina and Andre, as well as happy group of Swedes that we met in Hoi An... they made the place much less boring. The city is mostly owned by expats... so the prices can be pretty high.
From Nha Trang we took a long, hot bus ride to Dalat... a town described by our guide book as the "Paris" of Vietnam. It was a hole. We spent one day motorbiking around to water falls and got caught in a rain storm. It was fairly uneventful.
Vietnam is turning out to be rather disappointing as a travel destination. The more and more we see of it the more it feels like a poor man's Guam... or what Guam used to be about 50 years ago. Its just beginning to make me homesick. We are really looking forward to Cambodia!
On a side note, our hotel room has CNN and we are actively watching the US election results. COME ON DEMOCRATS!

Hue... city of something or other

2006-10-30T05:01:00.000-08:00

As we continue our southward adventure through Vietnam we are discovering some things stay the same, no mater where you are in this country.
The first thing is that little children everywhere want to be your best friends. The second is that all noodles appear to be instant noodles... all the "fresh Vietnamese noodles" we read about in our guide book still allude us. Thirdly, every price we (other wise known as "white people") pay is anywhere between 50% to 400% higher and when we point this out, most vendors refuse to give any type of discount or engage in a bargaining game. They'd rather keep their product. It is strange, annoying, and often at times really upsetting. We've also be told we can't go down certain streets, on certain boats, certain places, because we're not Vietnamese. It feels a little... well racist.
However, we have been managing to have a very good time here, as long as we aren't trying to buy anything. We took a bus to the town of Ninh Binh and a motorbike out to an area known as Tam Coc. Here there are large limestone rocks jutting out of the rice paddies, similar to the rock islands around Catba and Halong Bay. We got into a little two person boat and were rowed among them. It was beautiful. Then our guides took us to another pagoda, where a bunch of school children lead us to their hide-out atop one of these huge limestone rocks. When we got to the top they put flowers in my hair and continuously asked us the same questions that every Vietnamese child must have learned in school: How are you? What is your name? Where are you from? What time is it? What is your telephone number?. It was a very good time and the view was incredible. We drove on these tiny roads in between rice paddies and little villages... it was very very nice.
Today we are in the ancient city of Hue... which is proving to be somewhat of a dud. We rented a motorbike instead and left the city, got lost in the rice paddies, and had our palms read by an old Vietnamese woman who had been married to an America. My palm says that I will live to be 79, I will have only one husband, I will not have a good job until I am 25, but when I get that job I will stay with it for 27 years and make lots of money. There are three boys that have loved me, but I have not loved them. That Justin will be my husband and he will be a good one. I will be married at 28... have one son and make my parents very happy. So there you have it folks! It was a blast driving through the little muddy streets with all of the village children running out to say "Hello!".
Tomorrow we are going to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) from the Vietnamese war (here it is the "American War" and the day after we will take a bus to Hoi An, the city of tailors. I still have yet to find a place with a connection decent enough to upload photos :( Hopefully in Hoi An.

Vietnam! Ho Chi Minh!

2006-10-26T08:17:00.000-07:00

So our first week in Vietnam has passed, and we have passed it rather well. After our brief stay in Sapa, we took a night train down to Hanoi. Hanoi is one of the craziest cities I've ever been too.. the traffic alone is complete chaos... but it is really rather charming. We were stationed in the Old Quarter of the city, where most of the hustle and bustle of daily Hanoi life goes on. There is also excellent shopping. The next morning we took a bus, and then a boat to Catba Island, off the coast of Halong Bay. We spent a night on the island, then spent the next two nights on a small boat that we rented out with two other couples we met in Hanoi and Sapa. It was a pretty good time, complete with meals, kayaking, snorkling, caves, and glow in the dark plankton. As restful as our three days at see were, Catba was a bit of a tourist trap and there were a few scams along the way. For example we were told that everything was included, except for the drinks on board the boat. We agreed to this and brought our own stash of water, and bought a few drinks while on board. At the end of the trip we were presented with an outlandish bill to be split between the three couples that included no only the few drinks we purchased, but everything the captain and his mate decided to drink. And they drank quite a bit. It was pretty annoying. But that just seems to be the game when you are a tourist. We came back to Hanoi today to do some light shopping, and are headed off to Nimh Binh tomorrow. I would have pictures, but this computer won't load Facebook for me so I can't upload right now. Hopefully in a day or two there will be pretty photos for all of you to look at. Tonight we are going to nurse our sunburns and enjoy Hanoi.

Sapa, Vietnam

2006-10-20T02:50:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to say we've made it into Vietnam safely and are currently settled in the hill town of Sapa. We rented a motorbike and toured around the mountains today. It is beautiful up here. The people are friendly, the food is good, and the exchange rate makes us happy. Tonight we leave for Hanoi, a big city, but we hear the shopping is good. A whole market just for shoes... or so we've been told. Then it is off to the beaches for some much needed rest and sand.

Photos, Kunming, and goodbye China

2006-10-17T23:05:00.000-07:00

We left Emeishan on an overnight train to the city of Kunming, capital of the Yunnan province. From here we are taking an overnight bus to the Chinese-Vietnamese boarder town of Hekou. We were afraid that Kunming would be just another crowded, smoggy, rude Chinese city... but we were very very wrong. The sky is blue, things are inexpensive, and there is some amazing shopping streets selling everything from tea and jade to nunchucks... we haven't found a justifiable reason to buy said nunchucks yet... but we're working on it.
I finally managed to find an Internet connection that would let me upload photos... so here are three different series of photos from our trip. Enjoy!

Photos of Beijing

Photos of Xi'an and Chengdu

Photos of Emishan

Our bus trip to the Vietnamese boarder should take about 10 hours... putting us in about 6am on the 19th. The boarder opens at 7am... and hopefully crossing won't be too much trouble. From there we will probably go to the mountain town of Sapa for their market with wares from the small bands of hill tribe people that live in the area. Then it is down to Hanoi, then Halong Bay... and then another destination that has yet to be decided.

Horray for Emishan!

2006-10-15T01:42:00.000-07:00

Finally, a place in China that agrees with us.
After leaving tourist and shopper filled Xi'an, we took a night train to Chengdu, home of the Panda Research Center... only to find that buying a panda on the blackmarket would be slightly cheaper than trying to get to see one in China on our own. Apparently, because of the demand the government has upped the ticket price and has required everyone to go through a chartered Chinese tour in order to get to the Center. "Demand", "Ticket", and "Chartered" are all words we can't afford. So sadly, no pandas were hugged or even viewed. The mission of this blog will have to change... any suggestions?
Chengdu was a huge city, of roughly 11 million people, as most Chinese cities are turning out to be. Xi'an had 109 million. We were getting pretty sick of cities, and Chengdu was not turning on any of the much touted charm we were promised by our guide book. We took a small bus to Emishan, home of Mt. Emi, the most important place in Chinese Buddhism. It is a huge series of mountains, dotted with temples and endless stairs for walking up. Most of these stairways were on a 45 degree angle, with little room between their edges and the sheer drop below. We found a wonderful place to stay where the owner speaks English, the food is amazing, and the rooms are reasonable. Named the "Teddy Bear Hotel", the owner, Andy gave us endless advice on hiking the mountain. The first day we took a short hike to a small temple and a monkey viewing area. Like all monkeys seem to be, they were not very friendly. The next day we went to the top of the mountain to see the temples there. As it is so far up it was covered in rolling clouds, but it was beautiful and quite. After the temple we hiked down until dark and spent the night at another small temple. The next day we continued to hike down the mountain and reached Teddy Bear Hotel by 4pm. It was exhausting, our legs are killing us, but it was such a nice change of pace from the cities we have been in. We are taking today to recover and enjoy the hospitality and good food made by our host. Tomorrow we are taking an overnight train to Kunming, and then in three days we will be crossing the boarder into Vietnam.
As of now I am having photos uploading our photos. Hopefully I will be able to get some posted online by tomorrow.

China China

2006-10-09T19:49:00.000-07:00

We've been in China for the last five days and are currently located at the walled city of Xi'an, home of the silk road and terra cotta warriors. China has proven to be a bit tricky... the air is so polluted you can't see 200 ft in front of you and I am suffering with a cold and allergies because of it. We did managed to get away from the smog for awhile with a very rigirous, but beautiful hike between two parts of the Great Wall. The Forbidden City was so forbidden that most of it was covered up for rennovations and we are trying to cope with what the Chinese feel is good hospitality... making us pay for absolutely everything... often twice.
It's been a trying couple of days, but we have managed to have quite a lot of fun. On our night trian from Beijig to Xi'an we made friends with our cabinmates with the aid of our translation book, have been to several markets buying trinkets and pearls, and somehow wound up in the middle of a consumer holiday/food and wine festival here in Xi'an. It was wild. I'm having trouble with my camera, but hopefully will have some photos up soon.
Today we leave for Chengdu, home to pandas, a holy mountain, and a very big Buddha.
Cheers!

Last days in America

2006-10-03T00:12:00.000-07:00

After being wined and dinned by Justin's family in Carson, Reno, and Tahoe, sleeping the day away on a beach, and going to the old west mining town of Virginia City... we've made it to our final US destination: Los Angeles. With Leon, we drove down highway 395 at the edge of the Sierras and passed through pine forests, over rocky streams, and past Mono lake... which should really be on the moon it is that strange looking. We arrived in Tustin at the home of Carolyn, and collapsed. Today we went down to Dana Point for some sightseeing, ran last minute errands, and had a sushi feast. Tomorrow we will run a few more errands, take in one last US English language movie, mail some stuff, and then get ready for our flight. It leaves at 2am on the 4th... meaning that really it leave tomorrow night.
Next update from a location where most of the people don't speak english.

Photos from Nevada and sushi.

Three states and still moving...

2006-09-28T23:13:00.000-07:00

We left Seattle on Thursday, and drove down to Portland to visit Justin's friend Sarah and his grandmother. We walked around the city, went to Powell's, the largest independent bookstore in the US, and ended up at grandma's for a good home cooked meal. Portland is a booming city, with lots of construction sites and a very "alternative" population. :)
After a night in Portland, we drove down the coast, through the small town of Weed, California, and then head south east to just outside of Sacramento to the suburb of Roseville to visit Justin's dad and his family. We spent the weekend doing family things, such as going to Shari's cross country meet, touring the old town of Folssom, CA, and having pork chops for dinner.
On Sunday, we took a roller coaster ride down highway 128, through Winters, St. Helena, and finally down to Healdsburg. Upon arrival, Emmett cooked up a huge rack of ribs and we all had dinner. Later that night Emmett's deer friends showed up. There is a deer, with her little fawn, that Emmett is trying to train to eat figs out of his hand. They're getting pretty close. We spent the next two days relaxing at the beach and running errands. We made mom's Indian dishes, and went to Emmett's winery. Fitch Mountain (where they live) is a zoo. Other than the deer, there were numerous rodents, a raccoon who tried to steal food off a hot grill, and something that stalked me late at night when I went out to get something fro the car.
Currently, we are in Nevada, being feed by Justin's family who are excellent cooks. Last night we arrived to a dinner of baby back ribs, bacon wrapped potatoes (that were roughly, about the size of my head), and garlic bread. Tonight was bbq turkey. Tomorrow we are going to take it easy, go to Tahoe, and on Saturday there will be huge stakes, roasted on a oak wood grill. Nevada, it's delicious.

Here are two new sets of photos from Portland and California.

Ferry Rides, Markets, Sushi, and fun

2006-09-20T23:11:00.000-07:00

For our third day in Seattle, we managed to pack in a much as possible, but in a very leisurely pace. We took another crack at the ferry and just made it on to the 3pm ferry to Bainbridge Island. It was a fun, relaxing ride. We ran around on the top deck until we were too cold and windblown, went under deck to warm up, and ended up on the sundeck for the return ride. The views of the city were excellent. I wish I lived in a city with a ferry system.

After the ferry we went to Pike Place Market at caught the very end of it. We saw them toss fish... and drop one. It was fun to see a market again... DC doesn't really have one and I am always jealous when the cities I visit have excellent markets... The Italian Market in Philadelphia takes the cake. We walked by the original Starbucks but had the good sense not to go in.

Nicole and Chas have a wonderful apartment located right in downtown... just a walk from the ferry, from the market, and from the sushi place we went for dinner. We made it in time for happy hour, so the sushi plates were heavily discounted. Lucky for me we had a nice waitress who brought me a seafoodless feast of rice, avocado, and short ribs with toasted garlic flakes. I think the name of the place was Umi Sake House, and I recommend the happy hour (4-6pm) to anyone who may be passing by. The interior of the restaurant was really well done... Chris and Dad would have enjoyed it. The only strange thing about the place was that it was so "swanky" they soaked cucumbers in the water to give it a "refreshing" taste... it wasn't unpleasant but after a glass or two I just wanted some regular, un-swanky water.

We ended the night with a Bernard Fanning concert at the Crocodile Club, just across the street from Nicole's apartment (once again... that apartment has such an excellent location!). Justin managed to get a interview with him earlier in the evening, and afterwards we all enjoyed the show. He is the lead singer for the Aussie band Powderfinger... and he is currently doing a solo tour. It was a great show and there were a lot of Aussies in the crowd. After bouncing around to the music, we said our good nights and headed home to Woodinville.

Now I may not have explained this yet... but it is well worth the mention. Janice and Jim (James and Nicole's parents) live about 20 minutes outside of Seattle in Woodinville. Janice has a studio that is separate from the house and has it's own bathroom. We have the good fortune to have been given the studio for our visit... it is fantastic. We don't want to leave, it is so comfy. It's really like staying with family back on Guam. We wake up in the morning to the sunlight coming through the sky light, have breakfast in their lovely kitchen, and get a very peaceful start to the day before heading into Seattle. They have a really nice place out here, and Janice keeps a garden, fruit trees, and the studio is surrounded by sunflowers. It's very hard to leave to get back on the road when you've been this well treated.

This morning it was raining (as it has done most of the time we've been here) but we went to Snowqualmie Falls at the suggestion of several people here in Seattle, walked around, and took a lot of fun photos. Then we came back to Woodinville and James and Nicole came up from Seattle. Justin went to see Josh for one more day in the city and the three of us hung out around the house. We had a nice (and delicious) family dinner and spent the night talking in the kitchen, taking photos, and exchanging music. I can't say enough how wonderful it has been to spend time with this family. They were such a big part of my childhood. It feels like nothing has changed... but at the same time I realize how much I missed them after they left.

Tomorrow we leave for Portland, I'll be sad to leave my friends... but I know I'll be back.

Click here for photos from the last two days!

Old and new friends in Seattle

2006-09-19T11:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, after taking care of laundry and such, we drove to Justin's favorite part of Seattle: the Gas Works, a park that is on the former site of a chemical plant. Located on the waterfront with a lovely view of the Seattle skyline, it's a peculiar piece of real estate seeing as there's still a leftover section of the plant rusting in the middle of this grassy area where people normally sunbathe and fly kites. One section of the plant was turned into a playground, and the old manufacturing equipment has been painted bright colors and turned into playground equipment. We had a blast playing around.

Afterwards, we met Josh at Thai Tom's, a shoebox of a restaurant in the U District (near the Univ. of WA, Seattle) that serves world-class Thai food. I had the beansprouts with garlic; Justin ordered the spicy noodles, then proceeded to turn red, sweat and drink from all the glasses of water on the table. It was a great meal.

Josh gave us a quick tour of the UW campus before both of our parking meters ran out. UW has a sprawling campus with some fantastic buildings -- the most recent additions funded by bigwigs associated with Microsoft -- but the cake-taker belonged to the Suzzallo Library. Smack dab in the center of campus, the Suzzallo is nothing less than a cathedral of knowledge. It's gorgeous.

After the tour (and ice cream), we caravaned to downtown Seattle to finally meet up with the Guam kids -- Nicole and James -- and Chas, Nicole's beau. Josh checked out early because he had to get to work at Boeing at the crack of dawn. (Bedtime is 8:30 p.m. at latest. Not kidding.) We took a tour of Nicole and Chas' apartment and then decided to try and catch one of the ferries to Bainbridge for a unique Seattle experience. We rushed down to the docks just in time to see our ferry pulling away without us. So we decided to go bowling instead at The Garage, a hip bowling alley/bar. There we met up with my good friend from high school, Tish, and her boyfriend Nick. A good time was had by all, Chas won the bowling game, but I did manage to eek out two strikes. We ended up closing down the bar and came home in the wee hours of the morning. It was lovely to see my old childhood friends and realize that after 12 years, we could still have just as good of a time as we used to (although this time we all had a beer instead of Kool-aid).

For all the photos of this goofiness and childish behavior click here!

The road to Seattle...

2006-09-18T11:02:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure who I first heard this from, I think it was my grandma:
"The sun has risen and the sun has set, and we're not out of Texas yet!"

The same thing applies to our trip across the western half of this country. On Friday we left St. Paul and drove across Minnesota into North Dakota. Western Minnesota is full of pretty little farms and rolling hills... and once you cross over the border into North Dakota the land completely flattens out. We were greeted by heavy winds that most likely had been picking up speed since Kansas and threatened to blow the car off the road. There were heavy storm clouds most of the way, but fortunately we didn't get much rain. We finally crossed the border into Montana after dark and exited I-94 to go further north onto Highway 2. With 14 hours of driving under our belt, we stopped in the little town of Glasgow, Montana and found a hotel. It dropped to 31 degrees that night.
Saturday morning, we got up early and stocked up on car food at the Glasgow Albertson's. Against all odds, I found a coffee shop/tanning salon/video rental store across the street that made real Italian (Illy) coffee. I was a happy camper. Just outside of Glasgow on a hill along the highway we saw some very interesting sculptures that Justin was nuts about. (His favorite was the Army Ant.) In fact, the entire town was covered in bits of large sculpture including the Tin Man and those weird black tin cut-outs that look like shadow cowboys and wagon trains and such.
We made it to the Continental Divide around mid-afternoon. The mountains in the distance were covered in the first snowfall of the year. We traveled farther north to Glacier National Park (and Canada) and discovered that a lot of the forest was charred black. (We later found out that there had been a huge fire two months ago.) When we arrived at the eastern entrance of GNP, a ranger warned us of a winter advisory on the western end of the park and they were expecting heavy snow. We took our chances and headed into the mountains. It was incredible! And very cold. As we were driving along the top peaks, we ran into heavy fog... we could only see as far as 15 feet in front of the car. We drove along very very slowly. We didn't get to see as much of the park, but the experience of driving along in the fog on top of the pass was amazing. We didn't see much wildlife, only a few deer and squirrels... but after we left the park and drove on the highway along the Flathead River, I spotted a black bear cub on the opposite river bank, playing with river rocks. We didn't manage to get any photos :( because we were in front of a line of cars and couldn't find a place to pull over in time.
We woke up in western Montana at 9am and by the time we stopped for dinner at 9pm we were still in the same state. We made it to Idaho around 10pm and into Washington around midnight. Rather than pull over at a rest stop in the middle of WA, Justin decided to keep on driving, and we made it to Seattle at 5am. 20 hours of driving. Sheesh.
Now safe and sound in Seattle, we are enjoying being pampered by the Ryans, family friends from Guam who are putting us up, feeding us and making me feel like I am on Guam again. We are also visiting Justin's friend Josh - our de facto tour guide - and will be seeing my friend Tish from high school. More on Seattle tomorrow.
Here is a link for more photos from the 2 day drive. And here are some from out first day in Seattle.

Chicago to St. Paul

2006-09-14T09:04:00.000-07:00

We left Chicago around noon, and drove diagonally across Wisconsin and watched the farms turn into forest, then to cranberry bogs, and then back into forest, and finally into farms again when we reached the St. Croix (Mississippi River) and drove into Minnesota. It was still raining when we left, but by the time we reached the little town of Thoma, Wisconsin the sky was blue and it was finally warm again. I wasn't able to get any fantastic photos out of the car window, but I did managed to snap this photo in a grocery parking lot next to a White Castle restaurant. I didn't take it seriously until Justin ensured me that yes, they do indeed serve "chicken rings". EWWW.
We arrived in St.Paul around 7:30pm to the gracious company of Matt, a family friend of Justin's. He has a beautiful home, I'll take some photos today when the light is better. Then Lindsay, my best friend from high school, came over and we all went out to dinner.
Minneapolis/St. Paul has to one of my favorite places to visit. :) The weather is gorgeous today. Tomorrow we leave here and make as much headway into Montana as possible.

Comments

2006-09-13T08:09:00.000-07:00

We are just about to get in the car and leave for Minneapolis. It is still raining. I don't think I've ever seen it rain so hard for such a long period of time in the US. It feels like Guam.
I noticed this morning that only registered users can post comments on my blog. Since most of my readers don't have a blog, I went ahead and changed it so everyone can leave comments. Please feel free to leave a comment, or you can always email me.

Bests,
Maeve

Rain in Chicago

2006-09-12T10:51:00.000-07:00

The drive from Washington to Chicago was rather uneventful. We made it in 12 hours exactly, leaving DC at 10:30am and arriving in Chicago at 9:30pm. The only slightly exciting things were a car in front of us that had its tire blow out and shoot across the road... exciting for us... but not very fun for them. We also spotted a caravan of Carnival rides and trailers, a billboard that read "JESUS IS REAL" a huge old barn with a yellow "support the troops" ribbon wrapped around it and tied in a bow, and a little white barn with bright red letters proclaiming "THIS FARM RUNS ON JESUS POWER". Sadly, my camera was packed in the trunk of the car so I don't have any photos of these strange and to me, slightly creepy bits of Americana.

Here in Chicago we are staying with Justin's friend Maya and her chocolate lab Ninja in Irving Park. So far it has rained and rained these last two days, and doesn't show any sign of letting up. In spite of the rain we met up with my friend Kapa, who recently moved to Chicago from DC to attend the Art Institute for a Masters in Art Management. We went to the Robie House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and took a tour. Afterward, we came back to Maya's looked out on the dreary weather, and finally went off to see Pat McCurdy at the Beat Kitchen. He is an older guy who sings silly songs at a bar that has surprisingly good food.
Here are some photos of the Robie House... (I've used my facebook.com account to post these photos)

I was planning on going to the Art Institute today, but it has been so miserable outside, and Kapa had to go to her first day of work, so I am still inside, playing with the dog. Tonight Justin is hosting a raido show here in Chicago, then, with many friends in tow, we are going down the Daily Grill for what are, atleast I think and have been told by others, are Chicago's best burgers.
By the way, this is what the weather looks like in Chicago today... here are some more photos that were taken on the way to UIC Radio for Justin's show.
Tomorrow morning we'll drive to Minneapolis to visit a family friend of Justin's, and my good friend Lindsay from high school.

Trip Introduction

2006-09-12T10:26:00.000-07:00

So here I am again, traveling. This time with the boyfriend in tow and taking a trip in two parts.
Part #1 includes driving across country (something I've never done) and visiting friends and family along the way. Part #2 becomes a bit more tricky... departing from Los Angeles California, we fly to Beijing, China and then spend the next three months traveling around China and South Asia.

Here is a rough break down of Part #1 itinerary:
Chicago: September 10th-13th
Minneapolis/St. Paul: September 13th-15th
Montana: September 15th-16th (driving through)
Seattle: September 16th-20th
Portland, Oregon: September 20th-21st
Healdsburg, California: September 21st-24th
Sacramento: September 24th-26th
Carson City, Nevada: September 26th-October 1st (visiting Justin's family)
Los Angeles: October 1st-3rd

Part #2 is slightly more tricky. We haven't really planned too much out yet and we're hoping to make decisions as we go. Here is what is "known" as of now:
October 4th (very early hours of the morning) fly out of LAX for Beijing
October 5th: arrive in Beijing
October 8th: depart Bijing for Xi'an to see the terricotta warriors
October 9th: arrive in Xi'an
October 10th: depart Xi'an for southern province of Yunnan
October 12th: arrive in Kunming, capital of Yunnan and travel around
October 19th: cross Chinese-Vietnam border at Hekou
Here is the more tricky stuff. Or visa for Vietnam expires on November 19th, so we'll likely be there for the whole month. Then we'll spend a week or two in Cambodia, about three weeks in Thailand, and a few days in Laos. This is always subject to change.

So that's about it. I am going to try and post as often as possible and include photos whenever I can.

Bests,
Maeve