Suitcases

Arizona Holes Tour

2007-06-09T09:11:00.000-07:00

So we're back in LA, but first a retrospective of the Arizona Holes Tour we went on the last day of the trip.

Hole #1: Meteor Crater

Long story short, this is a crater made by a meteor. In the middle of the desert. When we went, there were 60 mph gusts of wind, so we couldn't stay outside for very long. Except Christina, who looked like this for the rest of the trip, basically:

Hole #2: Grand Canyon

Even bigger hole; made by river; long time; still windy.

And here is a myspace style self-portrait, if you were concerned that there haven't been enough team-shots on this blog:

After the Holes Tour, we realized that, due to the wind, we couldn't camp or hike in the GC, so we packed up for a quick, eight-hour drive to LA. We saw Fred Flintstone's house:

and flew a kite in Needles, CA:

And once in LA, we went to the Getty Museum to see Tim Hawkinson's new Überorgan, which was neat:

and then saw my sister graduate from high school!

The End. For now...

tiiiiiiiiired blogging

2007-06-05T21:39:00.000-07:00

we are in Flagstaff, AZ! Yesterday we were here:

They said on their sign that they had wi-fi, but not enough wi-fi for blogging unfortunately. Yesterday we went from Texas to Santa Fe. There was a huge crazy thunderstorm.

Santa Fe was cute and had lots of nice stores and yummy food. In the morning we went to the Taos Pueblo. Nick learned about it in art history class because the houses match the mountains.

We saw even more Native American ruins in Aztec, NM.

Then we went to 4 states at once.

Arizona looks different than anything we've seen before.

And that brings us here, to our gold room in Flagstaff.

get your kicks

2007-06-03T18:58:00.000-07:00

(this is nick, posting from christina's blogger, because she is too busy watching the totally sweet thunderstorm outside)

So today we left Tulsa and finally joined up with famous Route 66, the Mother Road, the Free Road, America's Main Street, whatever you want to call it. Having been on big interstates so far, it's nice to finally have some scenic two-lane roads.

But before we left Tulsa, we drove by Oral Roberts University, home of the world's largest praying hands (probably).

After a bunch of scenic driving, we ended up in Amarillo, Texas, home of Big Texan Steak Ranch and Motel, where we ate and are staying this very moment.

Here is a Frito Pie (fritos, cheese, chili):

And here is our room (note the saloon swinging doors to the bathroom):

OK

2007-06-02T20:07:00.000-07:00

Nick can't figure out how to connect with his name to blogger anymore so all of the next posts will be from me. MUAHAHAHA.

Today we started out in Memphis and went to Graceland. Elvis was a pretty crazy guy, as many of you know, and his house is full of crazy tacky stuff.

We can never have enough famous people museums, so we went to the Bill Clinton Museum when we got to Little Rock.

Now we are in Tulsa, Oklahoma. A lovely, flat state.

Memphis!

2007-06-01T20:39:00.001-07:00

Well we just got here and it's night time so nothing from Memphis yet, but we did see a lot of interesting things in Tennessee today.

The best part was probably finding the Beef Jerky outlet this morning. 200 kinds of jerky!

Then we walked around in Knoxville and had a lovely vegetarian (gasp!) lunch in a trendy part of town. Also we didn't litter.

Then it was on to Nashville where there is live country music in every bar, a bar in every building, and a dog on every horse:

we're baaack

2007-05-31T19:16:00.000-07:00

1. Parking in Boston sucks
2. Road trips are fun

So we're bringing the car back to LA, a year after we brought it out in the first place. We left this morning, and want to get back by next Thursday night, in time for my sister Claire's graduation. A little faster than last time, but there's always time to blog!

We left Sudbury this morning, and are spending the night in a Holiday Inn in lovely Roanoke, VA.

Some highlights from the driving day:

Me falling asleep

Dinosaur Land!

Bora Bora!

2007-01-21T20:55:00.000-08:00

oh my goodness we are entirely caught up on videos!

Summer Vacation Videos, Part 3

2007-01-21T20:51:00.000-08:00

Sweden!

Summer Vacation Videos, Part 2

2007-01-21T19:13:00.000-08:00

Greece!

Summer Vacation Videos, Part 1.5

2007-01-21T13:28:00.000-08:00

Our synchronized swimming movie from Italy that you may have seen.

Summer Vacation Videos, Part 1

2007-01-21T13:25:00.000-08:00

At long last, the video of our trip to italy!

Did you think we were gone?

2006-08-04T12:42:00.001-07:00

Well if you did then you would be wrong. We are just in italy. There is much more to come when we are not in a trendy internet cafe in Rome. ciao!

the wrap-up

2006-07-28T14:30:00.000-07:00

So we made it home last friday and have been very busy doing lots of crap that you don't care about but also wrapping up our videos and photos for one last entry about the road trip. Here it is!

First our faked coming home video:

And our cool collage of all the "welcome to our state" signs. Can you figure out which ones are missing?

And that's it! Don't fret, when we get back from Europe there will be much much more! Au revoir!

So...

2006-07-24T21:17:00.000-07:00

We got back to Massachusetts on Friday and wanted to make a big huge final post with all of our video and pictures, but then we fell asleep for four days instead.

Actually, we found Christina her apartment, but here are 4 videos we made in the meantime! (Note: this is not the final post, although it is big ad huge. We'll put in a proper final post from the road trip soon!)

First: Chicago

Fun times at the Museum of Science and Industry, Millenium Park, other things.

Second: Indianapolis

We didn't take a whole lot of video, but we got to drive around the track they race the Indy 500 on!

Third: Car Trouble

The car wouldn't start! Leslie fixed it with some help from her dad. (Norwalk, OH)

Fourth: Niagara Falls

Canada is pretty sweet.

Howdy!

2006-07-19T07:13:00.000-07:00

Post-Chicago things have gotten a lot quieter, but not less fun! We spent a day in Indiana seeing the sights including the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of the Indy 500. We got to take a tour on a van that drove us around the oval and everything.

We also went to New Haven because we're suckers for photos of things that remind us of Yale.

After Indiana comes Ohio!

And the home of our good friend, Leslie Root!

We went swimming in Lake Erie (you might recognize the man fighting biting flies on the right from this post. He is still MIKE CHAN!!! and is visiting his girlfriend at the same time we are!)

And played miniature golf (this is where I got a hole-in-one!)

And yesterday we spent all day at Cedar Point, "America's Roller Coast"

We went on the #1 and #2 rollercoasters in the world, according to this guy and also one really crappy one where the only thing we got out of it were these 3D glasses.

And here are some other pictures of roller coasters because they are awesome.

Now we're off to Canada! ttyl!

Chicago!

2006-07-16T08:19:00.000-07:00

And here are some pictures from during Chicago:

What are those things in front of the skyline, you ask?

Those are me and Christina...on Segways! We took a Segway tour of the lakeshore, and they are so fun. If anyone has one that they would like to sell for less than $5,000, then I'd get it.

We got to see these corncobs that might look familiar to some of you:

And now the obligatory list of Chicago touristy things...

The Art Insitute

The Bean in Millenium Park

Museum of Science and Industry (and our first thermal imaging on the blog, I think)

and giant pizza (stuffed from Giordano's)

And now we're actually caught up!

pictures from before chicago

2006-07-16T08:07:00.000-07:00

After we went to the world's biggest mall and hung out with Chris Lange:

we went to the Wisconsin Dells and went to America's largest water park! Then we decided we hadn't had enough "biggest" things so we went to Wisconsin's largest tourist trap, The House on the Rock. It was full of really creepy dolls and weird collections of things:

It also is home of the world's largest merry go round, which has something like 300 figures, but you can't ride on any of them. You can, however, take very artsy pictures of them as they spin around:

We then saw the world's largest six pack, but didn't get a good enough picture to post, so we'll just tell you.

That's all of the world's largest things that we'll see I think, unless we get surprised by something in our last few states!

another movie!

2006-07-15T21:37:00.000-07:00

Hello! We just left Chicago, which was wonderful, but had very bad internet. Now we are in Indiana and decided to catch up on videos! So now we're caught up! Here's stuff from the badlands in South Dakota. Chicago pictures/movies will come...eventually.

America!

2006-07-12T15:41:00.000-07:00

While traveling across the center part of the country, Christina and I have gotten to see some things you would never see, except in this fine country. So, we've put together this tribute to America, featuring such americana as rodeos, tractor pulls, giant malls, and dinosaurs.

p.s. the Wisconsin Dells are fun and crazy, also full of waterparks.

we forgot iowa!

2006-07-11T08:34:00.000-07:00

You might think that iowa would be easy to forget, but no! Iowa is great. We were eating at this chinese restaurant and sitting right behind us were four blonde children and their blonde Mommy:

"Mommy! I want to sit on the tractor!"
'No! Me! I want to sit with Daddy!"
"Is we having a tractor race?"
"No honey, we're having a tractor pull"

So basically eavesdropping is the best thing ever. We got to see a tractor pull!

For those of you who have no idea what a tractor pull is (because we certainly didn't know and thought it was when two tractors are tied together and pull each other in opposite directions until one dies), basically a tractor is attached to that big red truck which has a mechanism that gets heavier over time. The farther you can pull it, the stronger your tractor is and the strongest tractor wins!

2006-07-11T08:14:00.000-07:00

So, another late video, this time from Yellowstone! (We're catching up!)

Yeah, it actually hailed a little while we were there, but that didn't stop us from checking out all the crazy hydrothermal sights.

Stay tuned for more video from your favorite road trip, ours.

in other news

2006-07-10T20:47:00.000-07:00

Besides looking at really big animal statues, we have been pretty busy. We realized that we have pictures that go all the way back to Wyoming, and we have now been in four new states! Here is a little taste of what we have been doing, in as good as I can remember chronological order.

1. So we're in the middle of Wyoming, which is mostly just flat and dry and ho-hum. We need gas so we pull over at a gas station.

"Hey, all these bikes are in the way of the pump!"
"Wait, I think they're on the habitat trip"
"Do you think they're from Yale?"
"Hi Erin!"

So yeah, we ran into the people who are biking across the country from New Haven to San Fransisco, including fellow Trumbull '06 buddy Erin Dress! Wow!

2. From flat Wyoming we went to flatter Nebraska. Nebraska, however, is anything but ho-hum. We hung out with Costa on the ranch and he took us horseback riding!

That was a lot of fun, but I had a very ornery slow horse and a very sore bum the next day.

The rest of the exciting things that we did in Nebraska are all going to be in the video that will happen soon. But not soon enough.

3. From Nebraska, we went straight North into South Dakota, where we had our last bout of internet. We looked at this rock that has some faces carved into it.

And we had a really great campsite in the Black Hills National Forest.

We also did things like go to a water park, go down an alpine slide, play miniature golf, and pan for gold, but those don't photograph nearly as well.

4. Also in South Dakota, we went touristing at Wall Drug, a ridiculous general store pretty close to that mountain with the faces carved into it. We even mined for gems!

5. From there we headed to the Badlands, a crazy national park that looks kind of like mars, full of spiky and colorful rock formations and rainbows. I'm not sure if there are rainbows on Mars, but whatever.

6. We drove faaaar (still in SD, that state is BIG) to get this picture. I think it might have been worth it.

7. In South Dakota we also made our first friends while camping! The first night at the lake we talked to some people from Pennsylvania, and in the Badlands we chatted with a couple from Santa Cruz that noticed we had a California license plate. At the edge of South Dakota where it meets Minnesota and Iowa, we met a bunch of people from Sioux Falls who were taking their new camper out on its maiden voyage.

They were very friendly and invited us over and told us that when we write our book about the trip we should mention Mike, Barb, Beth and Darren and how nice people from South Dakota are. It's true, they were pretty nice and this is sort of like a book, right?

8. Also, we cleaned out the car! It used to look like this:

We don't have an after picture, but trust me, it's better.

9. And now we are in Minneapolis! Because we are getting really good at coincidences, we ran into another Trumbul '06er at the mall today, Chris Lange! Wow!

THE WORLD'S LARGEST BLOG

2006-07-10T20:38:00.000-07:00

Just kidding, this is not the world's largest blog, but we just spent the day at the world's largest mall and are very excited about large things. The Mall of America is so big, it even has an amusement park in it!!!!

On that note, here are some pictures of very large animal statues, some of which are the world's largest.

PHEASANT:

JACKALOPE:

ANOTHER JACKALOPE:

PRAIRIE DOG:

ANOTHER PRAIRIE DOG:

Just kidding again! That last one wasn't a statue at all, it was a real prairie dog, eating a peanut that I fed it! I do think it might have been the world's fattest prairie dog so it's still legit.

last one for the day

2006-07-06T16:22:00.000-07:00

we're pooped after three videos today, and not enough pie. we might be going to swim in a lake later if it's not freezing out!

Enjoy the Lewis and Clark Trail, or as it is sometimes called, "The Jerky Trail."

and another

2006-07-06T15:46:00.000-07:00

this one featuring Rita!

They're baaaaack

2006-07-06T12:39:00.000-07:00

So, it's been a while since we had a video on here, but we're taking a slow day in Rapid City, SD to bring you a video from...

Seattle!

Yeah, it's late, but here you go. Enjoy!

Oh, and by the way

2006-07-03T07:43:00.000-07:00

Nick got a haircut.

Before:

We were so excited to buzz it all off, we even went to Wal-Mart to buy the clipper, because there aren't too many retail options out here in Wyoming.

During:

maybe we should have left it like this? No! Onward!

After:

I think he looks cute, but then again, I'm probably biased. What do y'all think?

Red States Are Pretty, Part II

2006-07-03T07:15:00.000-07:00

What about Yellowstone, you ask? Well here we go.

Yellowstone is a really crazy place. First you're driving through this neat mountainy forest and there are rivers and deer, the usual but then! it starts smelling like rotten eggs, there's steam everywhere, and little boys are falling through the thin crust into hydrothermal active spots!

Regular out west stuff:

(we actually hiked to take that last picture! It's a "natural bridge")

AND CRAZY HYDROTHERMAL ACTIVITY:

We even walked around in the rain to see some of the fun hydrothermal stuff. Here are the terraced hotsprings, and proof that we were out in the rain and are not total wusses when it comes to nature:

And of course, Old Faithful.

However, Yellowstone doesn't have just nice scenery, it also has BISON!

It also inspired us to feats of culinary magic. yumtastic!

Isn't nature great?

Red States are Pretty

2006-07-03T06:50:00.000-07:00

So, from a motel in Shoshoni, WY, here are some pictures of the pretty scenery on the way here from Washington, through Idaho and Montana.

This is the Columbia Basin in Washington; Christina slipped on a rock and bruised her butt here.

Flaaaaaaaaat.

Hell's Gate, ID. We camped and had a picnic on this river. Hell's Gate is much nicer than it sounds.

Our first rain came in Idaho, but everything was still pretty as we followed the Lewis and Clark Trail along the Clearwater River. Yes, we drove on this road for 77 miles without a single cross-street or gas station.

More of the road.

Gas is so cheap! You can see why one might still vote Republican in Montana.

In the flatter parts of Montana, you can see big mountains in the distance under dramatic clouds. Makes for some easy artsy fartsy photos.

Or artsy fartsy photos with Christina in them!

We drove down a big stretch of highway that was not actually highway but actually gravel, which clanked up under the car, and when a big pickup truck passed us, we got this fun souvenir:

So, now we're in the middle of Wyoming, and the roads here are also majestic, where the Rockies meet the Great Plains (or something like that).

It was so flat here, and we drove into a thunderstorm on the plains. Christina made me take the GPS off the windshield in case we got struck by lightning. Luckily, as I learned from the Electricity! show at the Museum of Science in Boston, the metal frame of the car protects you from lightning!

Also, if you're ever in Cody, WY, go to Mustard's Last Stand, a hot dog place where Christina got a hot dog with RANCH DRESSING and BACON on it. Also, there is elk jerky.

pictures!

2006-06-29T17:38:00.000-07:00

(we go so crazy when we haven't had internet for a few days)

Here are a bunch of pictures from around Washington!

Picture 1: Our first campfire! We finally bought firewood from the Boy Scouts and made smores.

Picture 2: The seat cushion we threw away! The car had been smelling for a few days randomly, and we couldn't figure out why. Turns out the cushion Christina had been using to make her tall enough to drive was soaked in cat urine. Thank you my garage at home for holding both old cushions and ornery cats!

Picture 3: Christina in a tree at the Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park, Washington.

Picture 4: Ruby Beach, Olympic National Park, WA. We had a picnic and cooked on the beach. It was fun!

Picture 5: Deer! At the top of Hurricane Ridge, also in Olympic Nat'l Park.

Picture 6: The view from Hurricane Ridge. We climbed a mountain to get this picture!

Picture 7: A tsunami warning sign from Dungeness, WA. Whoaaaaaa

Picture 8: Rita's house! We got to swim in a pool and stay in an adorable little guest house and have delicious dinner and hang out with Rita and her parents and her chickens and her dogs. It was pretty great, and you should all go to Peshastin, WA because it is very pretty.

There is more to come!

CATS!

2006-06-29T17:13:00.000-07:00

So, off the highway just inside Oregon, we passed this sign that said "GREAT CATS WORLD PARK" on it. We pulled over right away and this is what we saw:

greetings from Montana

2006-06-29T17:05:00.000-07:00

Who would have thought that it would take us till we got to Montana to find wireless internet again? So a lot of days, four states, and one time zone later we bring to you...a movie about crap you can do between San Fransisco and the Oregon border! More to come shortly, aren't you excited? I sure am!

Also

2006-06-25T11:29:00.000-07:00

Because it wasn't awesome enough that Nini took us rafting and let us sleep in her tent, she also sent me the great pictures that they took of us rafting!

Many super thanks to Neeners! everyone should go out west! It's great!

becaue who knows when we'll have free wireless internet again

2006-06-25T11:16:00.000-07:00

We're leaving Seattle today for the Olympic peninsula and must blog!

We have been staying in Nick's sister's godmother (Katherine)'s house which is lovely.

We did a lot of the Seattle touristy things. We saw the sunset from the top of the space needle!

We even went on the ridiculous ride in the park under the space needle that flings you around so you can see the skyline upside down and a hundred feet in the air!

The next day we went down to the market along the waterfront where dudes in waders throw giant fishes back and forth to the amusement of dozens of tourists with their cameras ready.

Then we took the water taxi across the sound to West Seattle, where we just sat around looking at regular Seattle and playing with the toys we won at the arcade.

Then Nick took me to the crab pot for birthday dinner! We got an ocean feast and I even got to blow out a candle.

All in all, a good time and a great birthday. Thanks to everyone who sent birthday wishes! 22 is cool so far.

rafting! (and some other stuff, bunnies, etc.)

2006-06-23T17:48:00.000-07:00

So yesterday we went whitewater river rafting on the White Salmon river in beautiful Husum, WA.

The river looked like this:

and our guides looked like this:

Christina's friend Nini from high school and her boyfriend Chris! The river was lots of fun, and Christina went over that rapid in the picture holding on to the front of the raft like a cowgirl at a rodeo.

In more extra-niceness, Nini and Chris let us stay in their tent for the night, next to a lovely creek:

It looks suspiciously like our tent from REI, but is more comfy and more next to a scenic creek.

The tent was also near a bunny hole. Look!

On our way to Husum, we found the real Yale.

Har har har.

Oh yeah, and Christina went through a fast-food drive-thru for the first time ever. Look how excited she is!

We also saw a bunch of waterfalls on the way out of Husum, along the Historic Columbia River Gorge Highway, gorgeway, something like that. This one was nice:

And now, we're in Seattle!

Maybe there will be some sort of video about it...

Time to go look at the Space Needle!

p.s. It is Christina's birthday tomorrow, so if you forgot, you should email her presents.

California 1

2006-06-21T16:34:00.000-07:00

Most of what we did after San Fransisco and before Oregon was drive around on the beautiful and windy California 1, so we made this sappy sappy sappy movie about it. All the exciting things we did on this stretch of road will be in another movie when we have another three hours to kill.

and a bonus

2006-06-21T10:41:00.000-07:00

here's a little olde timey video from the arcade at the Winchester Mystery House.

San Francisco!

2006-06-21T10:12:00.000-07:00

hey everyone, here's a little video about our big day out in San Fran.

The introduction song is from cousin/host par excellence Nina Jo Smith; you can buy her cd here.

wooo eugene is so great

days 6, 7, 8, and 9

2006-06-21T09:53:00.000-07:00

Hello! We are in beautiful (ok, maybe beautiful isn't the right word. The prettiest part of Oregon so far has been the highway, no fooling) Eugene, Oregon, using the Days Inn FREE WIRELESS INET.

We have a lot to talk about. We went to San Fransisco and it was pretty awesome.

After that we went to a campsite that had more mosquitos/foot^3 than anywhere I've ever seen.

But the next night we went to the most beautiful campsite I have ever seen.

Did you know that some California State Parks have FREE WIRELESS INET? Well, we didn't go to one of those, but we did finish up our San Fransisco movie while we were camping that night. We are crossing our fingers that youtube will work this time, but no promises I'm afraid :(

After that we drove through sketchy-ville California at the very end of the 1. It was so sketchy that I accidentally helped a small child shoplift from the supermarket! We were in line to check out and the kid was reaching for a word-search book and couldn't reach it, so I picked it up for him because I am so tall. Then instead of thanking me and giving it to his dad to pay for it he just put it in his pocket!!!!! An 8 year old shoplifter!!!!! It made me sad.

My sunglasses broke

2006-06-19T11:46:00.000-07:00

I broke my sunglasses :(

Here is a video about it.

I got new ones!

movie, days 3 and 4

2006-06-19T11:41:00.000-07:00

So now we're on day 8 and are only posting movies from day 3 and 4, but don't blame us, blame the internet. This movie includes exciting footage from Los Osos, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, among other things. We realized that we didn't have any movie footage with Annie Lin in it, but she should have been in there somewhere too. Enjoy, and rest assured, there is more to come!

Pictures!

2006-06-19T11:30:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Mendocino, CA!

Movies should be uploaded soon, but in the meantime, here are some pictures from a few days ago!

We camped out in Santa Cruz, and after a mosquitoful night, went to the Boardwalk!

Christina had her first corn dog ever

and won a prize at the smash a hammer really hard game.

After leaving Santa Cruz, we drove to the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, which was less mysterious than advertised. I would call it the Winchester Ugly House With Restoration That Makes It Look Like a Fake.

It was sort of neat though, because the original Winchester Repeating Arms factory was in New Haven, and there were a few references to Mrs. Winchester's hometown.

we haven't forgot about you

2006-06-18T16:38:00.000-07:00

we have THREE videos to upload, but you tube is being sucky and after two hours in a fancy shmancy wine country internet cafe, we have to give up and keep driving north. We'll try again tomorrow!

day 3, in pictures

2006-06-15T09:18:00.000-07:00

The campsite that Annie recommended was pretty freakin' scenic. This was sunset at the beach 100 yards from our tent. prettttyyyyyyy

In the morning we went down and looked at the tidepools and saw starfish! amazing! and I touched an anemone in situ for the first time! No more aquarium for me, until I go to the Monterey Bay aquarium with Mike Chan in about an hour.

Then we went to the actual town where Annie Lin is from and had awesome lunch with her. There is this enormous ex-volcanic rock there! And this telescopy thingy doesn't turn far enough for you to see it. bitches.

Then we drove to Hearst Castle to look at rich people's things.

just kidding, that one's Nit Wit Ridge, the "poor man's Hearst Castle" or something.

Anyway, here's real Hearst Castle, pretty freakin' ridiculous.

When we were leaving we didn't listen to the GPS, and instead of getting lost we got the most scenic drive in the whole world and to our destination an hour sooner than we expected!

Then we ate at the restaurant next to THE WORLD'S LARGEST ARTICHOKE. This caused us some campsite problems, but that's for another post.

We also drove through a town that has the same name as my sister, shipyard.

In case you were wondering...

2006-06-15T09:01:00.000-07:00

This is what it looks like when christina updates the blog:

(from the library in San Luis Obispo)

Days 1 and 2, the video

2006-06-13T16:09:00.000-07:00

Here you go, as promised. The video from our first two days of road trippin. (let's see how long we can keep up this breakneck blogging pace!)

Check it out.

Day 2!!!

2006-06-13T15:45:00.000-07:00

So right now we're in the public library in beautiful San Luis Obispo. We just had fancy lunch at the "best restaurant in town." This morning, however, we went to THE DANISH CAPITAL OF THE USA, Solvang, CA.

It was pretty awesome. I ate a Danish; we walked around the town a little bit, and I just avoided two comma splices.

(Watch out! These links have spoilers for the epic movie I'm about to post of our first two days. Check out the movie first, if you can.)

After that, we were driving back to the US101 when we noticed a peculiar sign on the side of the road.

We buttered the bread and went home. (that was code, so as to still not give away the spoilers)

Then, we went to the Madonna Inn

and peed in a waterfall.

(This is a reenactment, not the original event.)

Stay tuned for the video! (up in a few minutes, as if you actually check our blog that often)

day 1

2006-06-13T14:16:00.000-07:00

yesterday we started the ROAD TRIP!!! It's AWESOME!

We ate at La Super-rica in Santa Barbara (droooooool)

Our campsite was under the train tracks in sunny Gaviota, CA. I camped for the very first time.

The food we cooked for ourselves was not as tasty as La Super-Rica but that's ok.

There was bird poop EVERYWHERE, but there were also good bird photo-ops.

graduation, pt. 2

2006-06-10T08:51:00.000-07:00

So I only threw up 4 times yesterday and now I'm feeling well enough to post the movie we made about Tiernan's graduation. Enjoy!

graduation pt. 1

2006-06-09T17:10:00.000-07:00

Today we went to the Harvard-Westlake graduation ceremony and saw my sister, Tiernan, become an "adult."

There were abundant celebrity sightings (to be blogged later), including former President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein!

That's actually just my dad with a beard. He really likes it when you call him Saddam.

Sorry this entry isn't up to usual standards; the professional blogonaut is asleep with some mysterious stomach ailment.

(awwwwwww)

knott's berry farm!

2006-06-09T08:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to Knott's Berry Farm, the Canobie Lake/Lake Compounce of Southern California. We lost the camera before we left because it blended in to the black chair too much so we don't have any pictures. What we do have is a post-knott's berry farm photo of (to do do do do do do do) tequila! the stuffed animal that I won!

also

2006-06-09T00:25:00.000-07:00

here is a picture of a retard on a bike

lots to blog about, part 3

2006-06-09T00:19:00.000-07:00

Testing...1,2,3. We camped in Nick's backyard and made pancakes in the morning. Adorable!

lots to blog about, part 2

2006-06-08T10:47:00.001-07:00

Because we are super classy, this picture is of us sitting in the front row at the premier of La Traviata at the LA Opera.

Before the opera we went to faaaaaancy dinner. Here are some truffle chunks which we surreptitiously took pictures of.

lots to blog about, part 1

2006-06-08T10:41:00.000-07:00

Nick got a haircut!!!

long beach day!

2006-06-07T09:40:00.000-07:00

So it was overcast all day yesterday, but luckily that didn't stop us from getting the aforementioned car errands done or from...

RIDING BICYCLES!

We rode four miles up and down the eponymous long beach, and I even made friends with this special education student who followed me the whole time!

We got to hang out for a litle while with my grandpa and his girlfriend. It was pretty sweet.

car errands

2006-06-06T14:35:00.000-07:00

SATAN DOG

2006-06-06T09:29:00.000-07:00

Last night we drove down to the long beach house. Everything was dark and peaceful. We turned off the house alarm and walked into the darkness. We go upstairs and unload our backpacks into Nick's room. Nick goes downstairs to get bags out of the car and all of a sudden I hear an intense rattling sound coming from the far end of the upstairs hallway. More rattling and some jangling and some whimpering sounds.

"um...Nick?"
"what?"
"I think there's a zombie in Ann's room."
"Oh, that's just Karen's PURSE DOG"

appropriate for 6/6/06, no?

money money money mO-ney...MONEY

2006-06-05T17:22:00.000-07:00

Trip to REI...too much money
My first time camping....Priceless.

2006-06-04T20:59:00.000-07:00

ballet!

omg, aren't you totally excited for video blogging!!!?!???!?!!!??! This is going to be the worst resolution video blogging you will see because i forgot to bring my real video camera to the getty to record Nick's sister dancing pretty to be like Degas's ballerinas. Nevertheless, it was beautiful and you can sort of see it now, on the INTERNETSSSS.

Los Angeles!!!

2006-06-04T20:48:00.000-07:00

After waking up from 4 hours of sleep, forgetting clothes at home, sitting in front of fidgety old people, and eating crappy, expensive inflight snacks, we finally arrived in sunny Los Angeles today at noon.

It's very hot and sunny, the food is good, there are no fidgety old people, and we finally have all our clothes. (Almost.)

We took the car out for a test drive today, and drove all the way out to Yale Street (hurr) in Santa Monica. It was very nice.

Now there are hipster prep school soon-to-be-graduates taking over the living room, so I have to go!

Stay tuned for the first installation of...

***VIDEO BLOGGING***!!!

hello world!

2006-06-03T20:35:00.000-07:00

this is our new team-tastic blog! we will be writing from the road for the next few weeks. if you're not already sick of us talking about it all the time, then you can read all about our exciting adventures right here!