Sunday, March 20, 2011

adventure #1: east coast roadtrip

Since the title of this blog is "Thoughts on Adventures" I thought it was about time to share a little less thoughts and a littler more adventures, so this is my attempt at that.

On Saturday (the 12th) Cara and I left for the East Coast. I guess I should give a little more background about how this trip happened.

A couple of weeks ago I got a text from Cara asking what I was doing the week of the 14-18th. I told her that I didn't have any plans, and she asked if I wanted to go to New York with her and some of her friends. After hearing the details of the trip (stay in Rochester, go to NYC and Niagara Falls) I decided that going was a good idea. But then, the week before the trip was supposed to happen, her friends had to back out. Cory was going to go, but he had to back out as well. So at this point the trip was in limbo. She, jokingly, suggested we go anyway. I agreed. So Cara showed up at my house on Friday, the 11th, at around midnight. And the next morning we headed out.

Our first stop on the trip was Washington D.C. Having never been there before I was looking forward to it. Thanks to Miss Abby we had a place to stay at a friend of her's (Ben). We got some pizza, played some Monopoly Deal, and crashed. The next morning (Sunday) we headed into town. In D.C. we walked further than I have in a very long time. We got to see the Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, WWII and Korean Vets monuments/memorials. Throw in the White House, Capitol, Museum of Natural History, and Air and Space Museum you've got a pretty full day. My favorite was the FDR Monument. Dude had some phenomenal quotes about love and justice towards your fellow man. At around 5 we were feeling pretty wiped, so we headed back to Odenten, Maryland and went to church with Ben.

The next morning we left the D.C. area and headed north to Philadelphia. While in Philly we toured Independence Hall (sweet), saw the Liberty Bell, toured the Philly Mint, and saw Ben Franklin's grave. We also had a cheesesteak, which was tasty. After hitting the spots we headed further north and crashed in Edison, New Jersey. Which is, by a funny coincidence, the home of the new offices of Royal New York, the coffee importer we use at Humphreys Street.

On Tuesday morning we got up early and headed to the train station. We missed the first train we could have gotten on into NYC by about a minute, so we had to wait a bit for the next. And while getting on the train Cara dropped her train ticked in between the train and the platform, it was like a movie. But thanks to her being a girl, she didn't have to buy another one.

After a hour ride we were in the Big Apple. We saw the Statue of Liberty, which was kind of a bummer. Then we grabbed some Indian food and went to a sweet coffeeshop. After that we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was amazing. It's so cool to get to see, in person, famous art that you've always seen photos of but never had right in front of your face. They also had an intense Egypt collection, and a new collection of guitars. After a walk through Central Park we caught the subway to Times Square and walked to Penn Station. Another hour-long train ride and we were back in Edison. We hopped in the car and drove a couple hours north to Cromwell, Connecticut (our second unplanned stop of the trip). While in Cromwell I wanted to get a drink to celebrate my Birthday (which it was), so we went to O'Leary's Digger Mc Duffs Tavern. Which was everything you want out of a bar in the middle of a state you've never stayed in before.

The next morning we jumped back in the car and drove the last couple hours to Boston. While in Boston we stayed with Carson, Joel, and Chris. All of which I worked with at Brookwoods, and I went to Belmont with Carson and Joel. It was great to get to catch up with them, and just like old times. And Cara didn't seem to mind listening to how great camp was. We even may have convinced her to think about working there this summer. 

 While in Boston we saw Harvard, the Freedom Trail, went to Mike's for a pastry, had some seafood, went to REI and H&M, and had two family dinners. It was a perfect time.

But as all good things must come to an end, so did our time there. So we left Boston on Friday morning and drove towards Columbus, Ohio. As luck would have it one of our gas stops happened to be in a town with an Applebee's, which Cara had a gift card to, and during the KU game. We stopped and had some dinner and watched the Jayhawks play some decent ball (for the first 3/4, it was getting late so we needed to leave. And they were up by 20) and got back in the car. We arrived in Columbus around midnight and got to hang with Chris Gatton for the evening, which was great. We got up late, and stopped for a couple of hours in Louisville on the way back to Nashville so that we could see Hannah.

We got back into Nashville around 7, and as it was the last stop on our trip Cara wanted to experence it for all that it was. So we picked up the roommates and Miss Abby and went down to the Big Bang and hung with all the crazy Bachelorette Parties. 

Cara left around noon today, and then I resumed my "normal" life. Though I don't think things are going to go back to the way they were. More on that tomorrow.

Luke
Luketlancaster@gmail.com 

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