Stacey’s 30th Birthday Extravaganza

Hampton Plantation Mansion

On my way to Charleston, South Carolina I passed a sign on the highway for the Hampton Plantation State Park and decided to make a brief stop. I mean this is the South right? It’s almost obligatory that one goes to a plantation, no? The park is about two miles off of the highway on a skinny dirty road sort of out in the middle of nowhere. I was there a total of about 15 minutes and in that time:

1. A frog jumped on me while I was peeing in the bathroom.
2. An insect that appeared to be a grasshopper on steroids crossed my path.
3. I was bitten head to toe by a swarm of small but evil mosquitoes. The bites of which I’m still recovering from 4 days later.

The parks departments’ sites that I’ve encountered thus far on this trip seem to be mostly concerned with preservation rather than restoration and that seems to also be the case here with the Hampton Plantation and the on-site mansion. They are restoring bits and pieces of it (eg. the ballroom pictured on the left) but for the most part have stripped away sections of the walls inside to demonstrate 18th century building techniques. This was rather interesting as the entire house was put together using mortise and tenon joints secured with pegs. Each piece of wood for the frame of the house was cut and marked with roman numerals and then put together like a puzzle. Here’s an example of what a mortise and tenon joint looks like:

After serving as a morning snack for the South Carolinian insect population, I continued on my journey towards the great city of Charleston. Now, can anyone remember whose genius scheme it was for me to travel through the deep south during the hottest week in recent memory? Anyone? Because I’m quite sure I don’t know anyone who would be that stupid. Indeed, it was a hot one in Charleston on August 7. Record-breaking even as it was the hottest August 7th ever recorded in Charleston history. So how hot was it? 100 degrees (the first 100 degree day since 2001) but because this is the muggy swamp the heat index ranged from about 115 to 118. Yes, I am completely serious.

Rainbow Row

So I roll into town around 1 pm…aka the hottest damned time of the day to be alive. I had gotten another great Hotwire deal on a cute bed and breakfast down in the thick of things…The Elliot House Inn. Since it was a bit too early to check in and I hadn’t eaten, I stopped off at the restaurant next door named 82 Queen which is also, conveniently, the address of said restaurant.

It was here that I stuffed myself with such a ridiculous amount of food that I couldn’t even find room in my stomach to eat dinner later: She Crab Soup with garlic cheese biscuits, Tabasco Fried Shrimp Po’Boy and homemade potato salad. Yummy, yummy, yummy.

I tried you guys, I really tried to walk around and get some fabulous pictures and collect some extremely interesting facts about Charleston…but it was so hot. And I was so miserable. And after a quick tour of the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon, I had had enough and headed back to the Elliot House Inn arriving just in time for the 5 o’clock wine and cheese hour in the courtyard. So my deepest apologies for these lousy pictures and miserable sightseeing endeavors. In keeping with the miserable theme of this post I’ve decided to include a different twist on my general fact collecting:

3 Miserable Things You May Have Forgotten About Charleston, SC

1. The Civil War started in 1861 at Fort Sumter in the Charleston Harbor and while there were no causalities at that first battle, the casualty toll would top 620,000 for the entire four year war…though the majority of deaths were actually caused by disease rather than in battle.
2. In 1886 Charleston was nearly destroyed by an earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter Scale that was felt as far away as Boston and Bermuda. It damaged 2,000 buildings and caused $6 million worth of damage ($133 million(2006 USD)) , while in the whole city the buildings were only valued at approximately $24 million($531 million(2006 USD).
3. June 2007 Warehouse Fire – In an unprecedented tragedy for the City of Charleston Fire Department, 9 firefighters were killed on June 18, 2007 in a furniture warehouse fire, while searching for possible trapped occupants and attempting to extinguish the blaze. It was the greatest single loss of firefighters in the United States since 343 firefighters were lost in the collapse of the World Trade Center which resulted from the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the greatest loss of firefighters in the history of the Charleston Fire Department. One station lost all but one of its firefighters.

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A few housekeeping items…

1. Firefox – People, I implore you. Download it. Use it. Love it. It has come to my attention that occasionally the formatting in Internet Explorer is screwed up…eg. big spans of white space at the top of a post. This is a known annoyance that frequently occurs in old versions of IE. It’s easy to fix but sometimes I can’t see the issue so don’t know that it’s occurring. If this happens, please send me an e-mail. Or just download Firefox because it always works.
2. Hotwire Tips – Since I’ve been bragging all week about the great deals I’ve been getting on hotels with Hotwire, I thought it might be nice to share these tips with all of you. Be sure to check out the newly updated Trip Info page on the right hand side of the screen or click here.
3. Itinerary Change – Unfortunately, my friend Amanda who I was going to visit in Lubbock, TX this weekend had a work thing come up so instead of heading north across Texas I’ve decided to reroute myself and am going south through Mobile, AL and New Orleans and then on through to San Diego via the southern I-10 route. Also, I have removed Colorado from early October as my sister, whom I was planning to visit there, will now be coming to see me in September in Montana.

As you may have noticed by now, I am totally into historical parks and the like. I could go the rest of my life and never look at an art museum…but history? I’m on it. When I was little-ish and my family lived in Connecticut we went to this awesome place called Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts. It was so cool…a recreated colonial village complete with costumed, in-character workers. I loved it and was hoping that Colonial Williamsburg would be the same…and it did not disappoint.

As I mentioned in my last post, my friends Karen and Paul were exceedingly generous in donating a night’s stay in one of the official Colonial Williamsburg hotels, the Woodlands’ Hotel and Suites. I’m sure that I would’ve been far too cheap to select this hotel but I cannot recommend it enough. Everyone was nice and the CW grounds were walkable. Plus, guests of the official hotels get discounts on the passes, meals in CW restaurants and other various amenities. I think if I were doing it again I would spend the extra money to stay on the grounds again as it was so convenient and the regular rate wasn’t too outrageous…around $150 per night. So now that I’m done playing travel agent…

I got an early start at Colonial Williamsburg on Monday as I had a lot to pack into one day. The plan was to spend most of the day at CW and a couple of hours at the Jamestown site and then drive until I dropped towards Charleston, SC. There is a mildly informative orientation walk where I learned the following things:

1. Colonial Williamsburg came about courtesy of John D. Rockefeller and a fellow College of William and Mary alumni Dr. W.A.R Goodwin as a means to preserve and restore the decaying historical city of Williamsburg. Rumor has it that this guy Rockefeller had a bit of cash and thus he subsequently committed $60 million (in 1926 dollars!) to the project. As any savvy business man would, Rockefeller used an alias in all real estate transactions to keep the prices from going up once it was known that he was the buyer. Very clever of him.
2. During the restoration process, nearly 600 nonperiod buildings were razed or removed from the Historic Area; 88 original 18th-century buildings were restored or repaired; and almost 500 structures (including outbuildings) were reconstructed according to the specifications of colonial-period documents and archaeological evidence. Perhaps more interesting is that many of the buildings in CW are currently occupied by the families of full-time employees of CW.
3. Opened in 1934, Colonial Williamsburg was the first theme park to use American history for amusement.

I have long had an inner conflict about the difference between “preserved” and “restored” buildings. I’m never quite sure if I’d like to see the ruins the way they currently exist or the pretty, restored versions that exist in places such as CW. Maybe a little of both? I’m not entirely decided on this issue but one thing I do know is that the restored buildings have this new-fangled, always-colonial invention…air conditioning. Believe me, if there’s one thing I can do without its authenticity, it’s Virginia heat in August.

Perhaps my favorite mini-tour in CW was that of Wetherburn’s Tavern which was less of drinking establishment and more of a bed and breakfast. This building was one of the originals and it was fascinating to see the public vs. private accommodations. Though they were right next to each other, they were a world apart. In the private rooms you got your own bed but had to share the room with several other people. In the public rooms they packed 3-4 into a bed and at busy times could fit up to 30 people in a room on floor pallets in a rather tiny room. On a disgusting note, they apparently only washed the sheets once a month…but they did shake out the linens every couple of days. Eww.

After spending about 5 hours of nerdy fun on the CW grounds I headed out towards Jamestown which is celebrating its 400th anniversary this year. Jamestown, for the historically impaired, is the site of the first permanent English settlement in North America in 1607. Those clued into their high school history will recall that the Roanoke settlement was earlier (late 16th century) but since those people vanished they are not counted as a permanent settlement. There are two sites here…one is the original historic Jamestown site with the ruins that is run by the National Park Service. The other is the Jamestown Settlement which is some sort of living museum which I was unable to visit due to time constraints. As it turns out, crudely built buildings from 400 years ago do not preserve well so there isn’t much to see building-wise except for the foundations. For a long time the archaeologists even believed that the fort built on this site was located where the river currently is but about 10 years ago they began excavation and found evidence of the original fort.

A recreated version of the fort now exists which you see in the picture below. Perhaps more interesting than the fort is all of the artifacts they discovered in the excavation that are now contained in the very well-done Archaearium.

After the Archaerium I was completely fried and done with the historical touring so it was off to North Carolina which, unfortunately, I had to cruise through to get closer to Charleston. This is too bad because NC is a very cool state and I’ve always endeavored to check out Cape Fear and the rest of the Outer Banks. Another trip I guess. My assessment of the Williamsburg/Virginia Beach area is that there’s a lot here to keep people busy for a while…historical stuff, beautiful beaches and of course the obligatory tourist traps including a water park and the oddly named Busch Garden Europe(?). It was nothing at all like Niagara Falls. I repeat, not at all like Niagara Falls.

Amy and Xander at the World War II Memorial

Since I used to live in the DC metro area, there’s not a lot of sightseeing in town that I haven’t already done. True, the Corcoran changes its exhibitions as do the various museums of the Smithsonian…but by and large, things are pretty standard in the District. Consequently, my time in DC and Baltimore was mostly about catching up with old friends and relaxing a bit outside of the Civvy. While this was a great time for me I realize it may not make for the most compelling blog post…my apologies to the disappointed.

On Wednesday I left the newly discovered rapture of the Pittsburgh area and departed for the Commonwealth of Virginia. I spent 3 days with my old roommate Amy and her family in Arlington…not too far from my old stomping grounds…the Park Adams apartments. For the most part, Arlington looks the same with a bit more commercialization along Wilson Boulevard. Though most of the DC tourism stuff is the same as ever, there were two new monuments constructed since I moved away so on Friday we (Amy, her adorable son Xander and I) braved the 95 degree heat for a trip down to the FDR and the World War II Memorials. The FDR is down near the Potomac River and not too far from the Jefferson Memorial. It’s comprised of a lot of rock, cascading waterfalls, sculptures and compelling quotes chiseled into the walls. I couldn’t help but notice that a lot of what was said by FDR during World War II is still relevant today in light of the current war situation. It seems to me that the current administration might benefit from a field trip to the FDR…it is just down the street after all.

After FDR it was off to the World War II Memorial which lies between the Washington Monument and the Reflecting Pool. The WWII monument has a circle of distinct pillars for each state and territory of the U.S. who fought in WWII which surround a beautiful fountain in the middle. The pictures are not great but will hopefully give you an idea of what things look like. After an afternoon at the Mall we headed out to Tyson’s Corner for dinner with my old friend Stephanie.

I spent Saturday morning hanging out one last time with Amy, Alan and Xander and it was off to the Baltimore area to meet up with my friend Karen and her family. Karen and I used to work

Stephanie, Amy and Stacey

together at the Urban Institute in downtown DC and have fortunately been able to keep in touch over the years. She and her husband Paul have a cool, old house in Catonsville, MD and have

Amy, Xander and Alan

a nearly two year-old daughter Ellie. Karen found it absolutely appalling that I had never had a Snowball so after a mexican meal in historic Ellicot City, we stopped at the Snowball stand for dessert. What is a Snowball you ask? Well, it turns out it is really just a snow-cone in a cup…but

Stacey, Karen, Ellie, Paul and Karen’s stepbrother Seth

with lots and lots of flavor choices. We asked the high school kid behind the counter which flavor is the most popular…you’ll never guess which it was…still thinking? Perhaps cherry? Or lime? Blue raspberry? Nope. It’s egg custard. Seriously. Personally that sounds a bit vile to me but what do I know? My stop in Catonsville was altogether too brief but the Extravaganza itinerary calls and I was headed out fairly early this morning for Colonial Williamsburg. I decided to take the slightly more scenic route over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and the subsequent 21-mile Bay Bridge Tunnel from Maryland into Virginia. You’ll all be happy to know that I finally got to stop at the cute seaside restaurant for the sea critters that I failed to find in Maine. Yum…crab cakes and lobster bisque.

As if their amazing hospitality wasn’t enough, when Paul and Karen found out I was headed to Williamsburg they generously offered a gift certificate for a free night’s stay in CW that they wouldn’t be able to use before it expired. Not only did I get a free hotel room, I got a free hotel room on the grounds of CW and that is where I’m typing to you from today. I didn’t get in until around 5 pm so I’ll be doing some sightseeing tomorrow and will be sure, as always, to take some mediocre pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel

Here’s a conversation I’ve had multiple times in the past few weeks:

Person: “So, where have you been so far on your trip?”
Stacey: “I see you haven’t been keeping up my blog or you would know that already.”
Person: “Yeah, I’m not really into blogs…they’re just not my thing.”
Stacey: “Ok, that’s cool. Do you want to be on the blog?”
Person: “OH YEAH!! Please, take my picture. When will I be on? Can I pass your link on to my friends? I’m ALL ABOUT the blog!!”

And that is how I’ve been increasing readership here at the Extravaganza. Take pictures of your narcissistic friends and post them on the Internet. Just kidding guys…you’re only mildly self-centered…not totally narcissistic! 🙂

While I’m typing to you all today from our nation’s capital, I think I need to get caught up on the past few days. After departing the culinary dream that is Montreal, I set off for Waterloo, Ontario to attend the belated wedding reception of my dear friends Matt and Jen (message to Andrea & Jason: Matt got your message and will call you soon).

Matt and Jen

Matt and Jen got married a year ago in Madison in a very small ceremony but since Jen is Canadian they decided to have a party a year later on their one year anniversary in Ontario for Jen’s friends and family. Since I am currently a woman of leisure, I tweaked the Extravaganza itinerary a bit and was able to make the party. A few of the pictures follow…unfortunately my attempts at candid photography failed miserably so these are a little posed. Oh well, what can you do? Though I was loathe to depart the amazing hospitality provided by Jen’s mom Judy, I’ve got a schedule to keep so ran for the border…unfortunately it ended up taking an hour to get across. Not so bad I guess…the other three border crossings last week were a piece of cake. I’m going to blame it on Niagara Falls. In fact, I think I’m going to blame everything bad that happens on this trip on Niagara Falls.

My next stop on the tour was Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (actually Sewickley) to visit my old friend from DC Erik and his wife Leah. Though they won’t admit it, I actually came at a very inconvenient

time as Leah was in her last week of graduate school so she didn’t have much spare time. This actually proved to be just fine as I enjoyed a couple of days of downtime to get caught up on the blog, do some laundry and just relax…although Erik did try to kill me by making me run in 90 degrees and 217% humidity. I’m still plotting my revenge. On Monday night we met up with Erik and Leah’s friends John and Heidi for a mini-tour and historical overview of the Pittsburgh area. Our first stop was the West-end Overlook for some amazing views of the city. We then moved on to the Duquesne Incline…a trolly that takes you up the side of a hill across from Pittsburgh for more great views. There’s a nice bar a few doors town from the top of the incline so we had a beer and snacks and enjoyed the beautiful (and now much cooler) weather. As much as I’d love to take credit for this beautiful night shot of the Pittsburgh skyline, I cannot. John, an avid photographer, was kind enough to take it for me and give me a lesson in how to change the manual settings on my camera to get better (read: actually recognizeable as pictures ) night shots.

After a quick tour through the Strip District and Heinz History Center Tuesday afternoon, that night we headed to a Pirates game where we met my old friends and colleagues from San Diego…Gary and Shushan! Gary is doing a graduate program at Carnegie Mellon which is what brought them to Pittsburgh and Shushan is working as a star network administrator for Carnegie Mellon. Since I hadn’t seen either in several years it was awesome that we were able to meet up for some baseball watching (read: gossiping about everyone we know in SD). A good time was had by all despite the fact that the Pirates lost.

Shushan, Gary and friend Drew

Erik and Leah

I have to say that I was quite impressed with Pittsburgh. Going in I had no knowledge or expectations but think they are doing a great job of transforming an old, grimy steel city into a cool place. PNC Park has an awesome location right on the water with amazing views of the city’s many bridges. And on that note, I will leave you all with a few things that I did not know about Pittsburgh and maybe you didn’t either?

3 Things I Did Not Previously Know About Pittsburgh

1. Pittsburgh is informally know as the City of Bridges. There is some debate surrounding this fact, but most Pittsburghers will argue that Pitt is either the #1 or #2 city for number of bridges in the world…the other being Venice. Most of those arguing the #1 position say that Venice cheats by including footbridges in their count. Clearly, that is improper.

2. There have been many films made in the Pittsburgh PA area, such as: Angels In The Outfield (1951), Night Of The Living Dead (1968), Slap Shot (1977), The Deer Hunter (1978), Knightriders (1981), Flashdance (1982), Night Of The Living Dead: The Remake (1990), Silence Of The Lambs (1990), The Mothman Prophecies (2001) and many more.

3. The “Big Mac” was invented in the Pittsburgh Area.

Early Wednesday morning I headed for the border of Vermont and Quebec and without any drama at all passed into Canada. A couple of hours later and I was in Montreal headed for the Hotel Omni Mont-Royal which is likely the nicest hotel I’ll stay in on this entire trip (and which I got as a great deal on Hotwire.com). After early check-in I set out on a mission to find a great place for lunch. I have a tendency when I get to new cities to take a look at the map for general direction and then just start walking to see where I end up. Since I only had about half of a day on Wednesday I decided to head for the Latin Quartier and Plateau neighborhoods intending to spend the whole of the next day in the heart of Montreal…Vieux Montreal (or Old Montreal for the monoglots). The Latin Quartier and Plateau are both cute neighborhoods with lots of shops and restaurants…I found a lovely French restaurant and had some carrot-ginger soup with orange chicken salad and a wine-infused pear with coffee for dessert (I’m sure you were all dying to hear what I had, no?). After stopping off in the Parc la Fontaine for a bit, I headed back to the hotel to relax by the pool and catch up on some blogging and reading.

View from garden behind Ramezay Museum

of the former governor of Montreal (Claude de Ramezay, built in 1705), where all of the workers are dressed in period costumes. The back of the museum is set up as a traditional garden of a well-to-do family of the time. After lunch (yummy salad, mussels, sangria and fruit salad) I headed to the much-lauded Archeology museum, Pointe-à-Callière. This is a very interesting place in that it is a museum that was built on top of some discovered historical ruins. The location is such that it is considered to be the actual location of the birthplace of Montreal some 400 years ago…though the excavated remains indicate that humans lived at the point many years earlier. In the 1980s, historians and archaeologists spent a decade carefully excavating the ruins and in the early 90s the museum was built on top so that now the ruins are part of the tour. The first 20 minutes is an interesting multimedia presentation followed by an hour-long tour underground where the actual ruins are visible and able to be explored. At Pointe-à-Callière I met a new friend named Guillermo who was in town visiting his younger brother, a chef at the swanky Portuguese restaurant Cafe Ferreira. I met Guillermo and his brother later at the top of the Hotel de la Montagne which is a lively scene on Thursday night…a pool party and salsa dancing with a great view of the port and the skyline of Montreal. Since they were up on Montreal’s restaurant scene we headed for dinner at the recommended Rosalie (halibut with passion fruit beurre blanc and tuna tartare) and then out for drinks later…lots of great food and drink and good company.

After checking out of my hotel the next morning I decided to climb to the top of Parc du Mont Royal, a city park in the middle of town with amazing views of the skyline. It was hot in Montreal last week so a brief nap in the shade on the McGill University campus was required after the descent from the top. One last cup of coffee in the afternoon and it was on towards Ontario where I was to attend the wedding reception of my good friends from Madison Matt and Jen. Some pictures from that event and my current location outside of Pittsburgh shall be forthcoming in the next few days.

View of Montreal Skyline from the top of Mont Royal

View from scenic overlook in White Mountain National Forest, NH

After leaving water-logged Maine I headed back towards New Hampshire and Vermont on my way to Montreal. Literally the minute I crossed back into New Hampshire the clouds broke and the day proved to be beautiful and sunny. The major mountain range in NH is the White Mountain range which is contained in the aptly named White Mountain National Forest. The White Mountain Trail is considered a U.S. scenic byway and is a 100 mile loop through the forest. Since I was short on time I decided to just do the 27 mile Kancamagus Highway on the southern part of the loop. This proved to be the scenery highlight of the trip so far as I loved, loved, loved the White Mountain NF. For one, since it’s a NF site there is a lack of commercialization and the sort of “kitsch” factor that appeared in the Adirondacks. As such it was just beautiful scenery with ample places to stop and hike, take pictures and camp if so inclined. And for another, it was almost completely empty. There were hardly any people at the trailheads and scenic overlooks which is rather refreshing when trying to enjoy the outdoors. The pictures speak for themselves, I will shut up now and let you all enjoy.

Covered Bridge in White Mountain National Forest, NH

1. The Adirondack 46ers are a group of people who have climbed all 46 of the mountain peaks over 4,000 ft. in the Adirondack mountains. Interestingly, only 42 of the peaks are actually over 4,000 feet but they stick with the original 46 for tradition.

2. The Prospect House, a large hotel built by Frederick Durant in Blue Mountain Lake in the late 19th century, was the first hotel to have electric lights. This was very amazing for a hotel which was in the complete middle of nowhere at the time of its construction.

3. The Adirondack Park is larger than any of the seven smallest states in the United States: Hawaii, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Delaware, Rhode Island, and New Jersey. It would take these five national parks added together to equal the size of the Adirondack Park: Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Everglades, and Great Smoky National Parks.

OK, so these facts may or may not be all that interesting…but you all know how I feel about lists. As a diversion from the NY Thruway, I opted to take the Adirondack Central Trail to get myself to Vermont on Sunday. This roughly 100 mile drive has great scenery with lots of lakes and water activities. And antique shops. One roughly every 3 feet…kind of like Starbucks. (Andrea, my apologies. The pics from the Adirondacks were not great so I’m leaving them out. My pics from NH’s White Mountains will make up for it in the next post so stay tuned for that.)

I wanted to be able to consult with the Vermont tourist information center but by the time I neared the border it would’ve been closed. I ended up spending the night in Whitehall, NY whose claim-to-fame is that it is the birthplace of the U.S. Navy. Whitehall is an interesting place on some level…a town you could imagine as a bustling, active and beautiful colonial port at some point in time. However now is not that time. They’re trying hard with a nice new waterfront park but it is difficult to ignore the decaying buildings and centuries old houses that are sagging across the street. It is for towns like these that I think road trips are the most valuable as they offer an interesting perspective into the demise of small town American life. For every Whitehall, NY there are hundreds, thousands of other little towns in the U.S. like it and while I’ll not claim to be a lover of small town life…I felt a little sad for Whitehall, NY and what it used to be. But I digress…

Woodstock is a great example of why I love New England…cute colonial and federal style houses, trimmed lawns, pedestrian-friendly downtowns, covered bridges like this one:

The great thing about the New England states is that everything is really close together. I consulted the map and determined that coastal Maine wasn’t too far away so I would head there for the afternoon with the intention of driving the lovely coastline from Portsmouth, NH to Portland, ME where I would dine on all sorts of sea critters…or at a very minimum get a famed lobster roll. Oh the plans I had for Maine.

It is important to note here that I’ve had incredibly good luck with weather on this trip so far…upper 70s, lower 80s and no rain. That all came to a screeching halt the minute I crossed over the New Hampshire border into Maine. The weather was a bit wretched but I guess that is to be expected in the coastal climates. No worries…there were all sorts of historical markers on my map down in the harbor area of Portsmouth that I was going to check out come hell or high water. If you haven’t guessed by now…I’m a big history freak so much of my tourist activities revolve around these types of activities. It was going to be great..except that I never actually found these historical sights. If they exist they were not marked well by the Portsmouth historical people so I finally gave up and headed into Maine. By pure accident I ran into one of the historical locations I was looking for…that of Fort McClary. As far as historical sights go, this one isn’t too interesting but I was grasping at straws since I had heretofore considered my trip to coastal Maine unsuccessful. For fun, here is a picture of the remains of the fort…and an only slightly better picture of the water from the fort.

In times like these it is important to adjust our expectations and as it became clear that US-1 was not actually a coastal road with views of the water I was going to need to do some adjusting. I quickly decided the very “Maine-y” thing to do would be to find a cute seaside motel and hunker down in a cozy seafood restaurant while the rain continued to pound. That was such a great plan. Unfortunately, due to my rather indecisive nature I kept passing what would have been suitable lodgings and eateries in the interest of finding the “perfect” one. Wiser persons than I would’ve reasonably realized that the perfect anything doesn’t really exist and would’ve just picked one and been done with it. Nope. Not me…I pushed on until I was in Portland, nowhere near the sea and in rapid realization that all lodgings in the Portland area were filled. So where did I end up? No…not my seaside lodgings with a seafood meal…but an over-priced Holiday Inn off of the Maine Turnpike and dinner at Friendly’s. Oh the plans I had for Maine.

I’m going to try to get caught up on posts before I leave Montreal on Friday afternoon. The good news is that while Maine was not as picturesque as I had hoped, it is the only lowish point of the trip so far. Yesterday in New Hampshire and Vermont more than made up for Maine (which is still a lovely place…just not cooperative this week). Not bad for two weeks of traveling. And the Civvy is holding up nicely…we got 41 miles to the gallon today. Thank god for Honda.

Thursday and Friday proved to be rather lazy days where I spent time catching up on Internet-related issues and doing laundry. Yay clean clothes. Thursday night Jared and I went for dinner in the hip and trendy suburb of Royal Oak because…well frankly, we consider ourselves to be hip and trendy. Since I decided to stay Friday night to go to the Tigers’ game it was mildly disappointing to find the game sold out except for “standing room only” tickets. They were cheap though so off we went to Comerica Park in downtown Detroit where, yet again, I did not get shot.

Standing room only was actually a pretty good time…you meet lots of people also standing around and if you were lucky, as we were, to be able to lean up against a barrier most of the time you barely notice you’re not seated. Of course, the Tigers got their asses kicked by Kansas City which I will take full responsibility for…I’m an unlucky jinx.

Though Jared was nice enough to let me derail his life for three days, I thought I had best get going on Saturday morning. Canada was calling and Jared had a triathlon to run (which he won it seems) but before I left town I popped into the Detroit Science Center. A while back I heard about an exhibit that was traveling the country where donated human bodies were preserved in various forms to display the inner functions of the human body. Sara and Michelle told me that the exhibit was currently in Detroit so I had to stop in and check it out. All I can say is “wow!” Very, very cool. I especially found the fetuses at various stages of development to be very interesting. The prenatal display is, of course, rather controversial and roped off into a separate section for those who can’t deal though I found it to be one of the more interesting parts of the exhibit. And to all the moms out there…I don’t know how you do it. All the baby growing “stuff” is really tiny so it’s a little mind-blowing to imagine how it all grows human beings. Anyway, “Our Body: The Universe Within” will be in Detroit through Labor Day weekend so check it out if you’re in the area.

Considering that the only other border crossing I’ve made in a car was from San Diego to Tijuana, I can assure you that the crossing from the U.S. into Canada is an entirely different and generally more positive experience. I found it especially funny that the first thing I see upon entry into Canada is a Tim Horton’s (for those not familiar…Tim Horton’s is the Starbucks of Canada…one on every corner…sometimes more than one). As much as people love to degrade corporations like Starbucks and TH’s that are taking over the world…I’ll always have a place in my heart for TH’s as they do lots of great stuff for kids with their Tim Horton’s Children’s Foundation and are big supporters of a cause near and dear to my heart…Camp To Belong. Enough with the shameless plug…

Despite the usual out-of-America experiences (how many liters of gas fit in the Civvy? How fast is 100 km/hour?) driving in Canada proved to be blissfully uneventful. I had originally selected Niagara Falls as a stopping point between Detroit and the later goals for this week of New England and Montreal but I did not anticipate the mayhem that is NF. Oh my god. Saturday night in the middle of July proved to be about the worst time to go and hotel rates were running in the $300 plus per night range which is clearly insane. I had planned to stick around the next morning to at least do the much ballyhooed Maids of the Mist boat trip but after taking a few uninspired pictures (see below) and driving along the park road to get a view of the Falls, I ultimately decided that the best thing to do in Niagara Falls is to get the hell out so that’s what I did. Instead I ended up spending the night in beautiful and scenic…wait for it…Buffalo, New York. By the airport no less.

I am currently en route to Vermont on the New York Thruway typing to you from the free Wi-Fi in the service plaza. As lovely as the Thruway is, I think I’m going to pop off of it in a 100 miles or so and do a scenic drive through the Adirondack Mountains in NY. I will, of course, be taking lots of photos so stay-tuned for that. Before I go…a few thoughts on the trip heretofore:

4 Assessments from the First Week of the Extravaganza

Assessment #1: Michigan appears to have lots of prisoners. I saw many signs all over the state that read “Prison area. Don’t Pick up Hitchhikers.”

Assessment #2: Detroit gets a bad rap. Sure, the Motor City has its problems like any city but there’s lots of worse places to be. Cruise around with a local and you’ll be surprised.

Assessment #3: Comerica Park is nice though I can’t say it’s my favorite MLB ballpark…that honor continues to go to Camden Yard in Baltimore (sorry Miller Park fans).

Assessment #4: Niagara Falls claims to be the world’s honeymoon capital. If my FH (future husband) ever suggested a honeymoon in NF I would seriously reconsider the wedding. The Falls are impressive though…I just can’t recommend a Saturday in July.

So I had great aspirations on Tuesday…get up early, take the ferry to Mackinac Island, bike eight miles around the island, be back in time to check out of my motel and make it to Grand Haven, Michigan by 4 pm as planned. Unfortunately, sleep deprivation (courtesy of the Minnesotans) finally caught up with me and I ended up sleeping in and skipping the island. I’ve heard that I didn’t miss much…my friends in Grand Haven described Mackinac as “cheesy” and Angie says it’s “boring”. Either way, it’s going to have to wait for some other trip.

I did manage to complete the rest of the plan…checked out of my motel and made it to Grand Haven by around 4 pm. Grand Haven is a very cute beach front community on Lake Michigan near Grand Rapids. I was planning to visit my old college friend Jason and his family in Kalamazoo but it turns out they were on vacation at a rented cottage in GH so I popped in to see them there. Jason’s in-laws Denny and Ellen were gracious enough to both feed me and offer a night’s accommodations which was extremely nice of them. I had a great time catching up on old times with Jason and his wife Michelle, whom I hadn’t seen since they got married nearly 4 years ago.

Speaking of Jason and Michelle’s wedding…this is perhaps a good time to explain how Michigan scored its one point against me. You see, the last and only other time I’d set foot in Michigan…I was double-crossed by this great state. Indeed Michigan seems very midwesterny in its presentation. It looks a lot like Minnesota and Wisconsin…green, lots of trees, lots of water. Michiganites have proved to be just as friendly and gracious as everyone else in the Midwest. But don’t be fooled. Michigan actually resides in the EASTERN time zone…not CENTRAL like the rest of the Midwest. Seems simple enough but unfortunately my friend Nate and I were not aware of (or rather, had forgotten) this fact and ended up showing up at Jason and Michelle’s wedding AFTER the ceremony was over. Score one for Michigan.

At any rate, a grand evening was spent in Grand Haven (pun completely intended) in which I met some new friends Sara and Kirk and got to hang out with Jason and Michelle’s adorable little girls Caitlin and Nora . After breakfast and coffee by the lake, I headed back out on the road towards Kalamazoo for lunch with some work colleagues. It is the strange nature of my work-from-home gig that I’ve worked with many people across the country over the past few years whom I’ve never actually met in person. Such is the case with the crew at Comsys in Kalamazoo so it was great to finally put faces with the voices. Here we are (from left: Johnny, Jo, Jill, Cartier, me (of course), Jim):

After lunch, the Comsys Crew had to get back to the office for the standard Wednesday conference call and I decided to get back on the road towards Detroit. An uneventful drive (for which I’m scoring myself a point) landed me in St. Clair Shores where my friend Jared’s house is located. We celebrated my arrival by heading to downtown Detroit (no, I did not get shot) for sushi at Fishbone’s and drinks at a local Irish pub. I’ll likely hang out here a few days as the draw of a washing machine, wireless internet and a couch to lay around on is too tempting to pass up. Plus, I’ve been talked into sticking around for the home Tigers’ game on Friday night so will likely head towards Niagara Falls on Saturday morning. More to come from Detroit….

Since all of the Minnesotans I know went to college in Wisconsin, I’ve been wondering for a while if maybe there is something inherently wrong with the state of Minnesota? I mean really…why would so many residents defect for a different state if their own was so fabulous? Puzzling…especially considering how great a time there is to be had in the Twin Cities…

Though I was departing a day late and probably a few dollars short, I made it to St. Paul in time to go with my friend Danielle for dinner on East Lake Street in Minneapolis at the Town Talk Diner. Since D knows the bartenders, we were mixed very special drinks including one made from a green tea liquor. I am quite sure that Friday night met my sugar quota for the year but not to worry…the sugar high was counteracted by, quite possibly, the best thing I’ve ever eaten…Town Talk’s garlic parsley french fries. Yum. Afterwards we headed to the Triple Rock to see New York’s Robbers on High Street.

On Saturday afternoon I was off to the house party of several of the aforementioned Minnesota defectors (who have since returned to MN) in the trendy Uptown area of Minneapolis. Sorry for the lack of pictures…I was feeling a little lazy with the camera over the weekend. With perfect weather and lots of food, a good time was had by all on Girard Street well into the early morning hours. Breakfast was a struggle the next morning but was brightened by a coincidental encounter with my old Madison friend John Terry.

Minneapolis Skyline

A quick dash though northern Wisconsin on Sunday afternoon doubled as a flashback to my youth…Minocqua (on the lake with Julie’s grandparents), Rhinelander (what the hell’s a Hodag?) and Tomahawk (4th of July at Alyssa’s grandma’s house). Considering the minimal sleep I got on Saturday night, an early-to-bed Sunday in Iron Mountain, Michigan proved to be just what was needed for an early start this morning.

First stop for lunch…Fayette State Historical Park. Fayette is a restored historic town which was once one of the most productive iron-smelting operations in the Upper Peninsula. There were huge furnaces, an extensive dock and several kilns in operation here. Nearly 500 people lived and worked here for 20+ years in a town that existed just to produce pig iron. The town is very well-preserved and renovations are ongoing by local archaeologists and university students. A recent find included the discovery of a significant quantity of morphine hidden in the walls of one of the buildings they’re excavating…likely the stash of a 19th century addict. It was here that I had the first “heart-attack moment” of the trip when I rounded the corner of the giant furnace and stepped on a rather lengthy snake. To say that was a shock would be an understatement but I can report that I survived despite the temporary spike in my blood pressure. I unfortunately cannot report the same for the snake as I didn’t stick around to find out how it fared.

The next two hours were spent wandering through some very scenic coastline as I approached the famed Mackinac Bridge. The northern route through the UP is reported to be more scenic than the quicker southern route that I took. It’s true that patches of trees often block the beautiful view of the shoreline but for the last 15 miles before St. Ignace one almost forgets they’re in Michigan and not Florida. Almost. I said almost.

And speaking of the Mackinac Bridge (which I will have the pleasure of driving over tomorrow morning)…here’s a shot from the new Bridge View Park:

Since we here at the Extravaganza blog are devoted to informing, amusing and educating (and by “we” I’m referring to myself and the Civvy), I’ve compiled a list of interesting tidbits garnered from the UP.

1. Henry Ford invented the charcoal briquette in 1920 from the scraps and remnants of wood from his Model T production plants. The charcoal plant was established by E.G. Kingsford in the UP near the Wisconsin border.

2. The Mackinac Bridge is the 3rd longest suspension bridge in the world with a total length of 5 miles.

3. A pasty (rhymes with “nasty”, not “tasty”) in the UP is not the more traditional use of the word but rather a meat and potato-filled pie of Cornish origin.

4. Upper Peninsula is home to 328,000 people—only about 3% of the state’s population—living in almost one-third of the state’s land area.

5. UP seagulls rival European pigeons in levels of both idiocy and annoyance…plus they’re louder.