Inspired by Garfield, New Jersey and a very special Grandmother

It's a hundred to one
and you can hear the breathe
leaving the very mouth of the women who has
held you the tightest. the longest. with the most love.
and with each breathe you pretend there's a genie.
Just one more year. one more hug. one more memory. one more best piece of advice.

It's a hundred to one
and the breathe is still leaving
and the advice is still coming.
and if it's the last thing you'll hear. it's the last thing you'll do
and the one thing you will ALWAYS remember.
"I love you. Do things that you can talk about."
-Francesca "Fran" Bautista

Day 7: PA & NJ

We made it to New Jersey last night.

We stopped in Matamoras, PA for a birthday barbeque for Francesca's cousin.

Then we got to Garfield, NJ around 9:30 to Francesca's mom's house. Francesca has a few childhood friends who live just two houses down and THEY were having a barbeque too when we got there.

It was a really fun day. I had been a little nervous about it because I don't know anyone except Francesca, but everyone was soooo welcoming. Olivia (Francesca's cousin) lives with her boyfriends family, and they are Italian to the max. Her boyfriends name is Vinny and has a last name so Italian, I can't even pronounce it.

Francesca's friends from down the street are Polish and also very nice. It's amazing how important heritage seems to be here. The first question Francesca's friends mom asked me was "What are you"
I don't think I've ever, ever been asked that in the midwest. It was kind of cool :)

I can't tell you how refreshing it was to have a day not filled with sightseeing,  history, and hustle and bustle. Not that I don't love that, I think we both just needed a break and yesterday provided that for us.

We were planning on hitting up the beach today, either Seaside Heights (Jersey Shore!) or Coney Island but we woke up to a massive thunderstorm. It's still cloudy so we're going to try to save the beach for Wednesday instead.

Today we're going to go into the city (New York City) and do some sightseeing with Francesca's mom.


I'd love to post pictures from our day yesterday but Francesca's mom doesn't have internet at her house and I just snuck to a Dunkin Donuts quick to use their Wi-fi. I have about 20 minutes before we leave for the city and just wanted to say hello from Jersey!!!

Day Six: Boston, MA

Saturday morning Fran and I frantically searched online for things to do in Boston for the day.
Fran found a play called "How to be Latina" that sounded interesting so we bought tickets for the 8pm show.

My sister has an entertainment book for the Boston area, and I found a coupon for a Boston Boat Tour, buy one get one free.

We knew we wanted to hit up Quincy market, the farmers market and that area so we figured that would pretty much take up our whole day.

My sister wrote out directions for where to pick up the T and what stops to get off on. We picked up the T at Sullivan Square, about a half hour drive away. We kinda didn't know where we were going and ended up sneaking in the back way into the parking lot. We went up to the window to pay and the guy was super confused as to where we came from.

But we got onto the Orange Line just fine and took it to Haymarket. We pretty much walked out into the farmers market. It was crowded and really, really cool. I actually prefer this type of Farmers Market to the kind that I know of in Madison. All the huts are squished right next to each other, and only a narrow street separates one side from the next. And everything is SOO cheap.

Fran wanted to try the fresh oysters and I agreed it would be a good experience.
Um. Let's just say my stomach is churning just by thinking about it.

Fresh oyster.
Lemon juice.
Salt.
Hot sauce.

Why in the WORLD would I think that would be a good idea. Anyways, we had some bystanders who were eagerly watching our first attempt at basically taking an oyster shot.

Fran was a champ.

Me? Not so much.
Had 10 people not be watchign me, i would have spit it out.

We walked around Quincy Market a bit... got our picture taken.

Then we went on our boat tour.
I'm glad we had the coupon because it was pretty boring.

My favorite story was when the tour guide told us 19 people died when 2 million gallons of molasses flooded the streets in the early 1900s. Fran's favorite was the story of the 10 year garbage fire on an island not far off the shore.

The rest of it we could have done without.

We had some dinner... (lobster mac n cheese!)

and then found the green line to take to the Boston University side of town where the play was.

on our way to the green line, we came across some pretty enteresting folk.
Saturday was the Boston Zombie March... People dress up like zombies and march around the city, freaking people out all day. So that was fun.

We also met up with the Sketchers family.
We were walking behind this family and all i could notice were their shoes.

They were ALL wearing brand new sketcher shoes. And sketchers sort of have a distinct look... it was hilarious. One of the kids had Nikes on... can you guess who's the black sheep of the family?? :)

The play was HILARIOUS.
It was smaller than we expected.

One of the major roles, played by a woman, was out sick. They actually had to cancel last weekends performances because of it. She's sicker than they thought and she won't be coming back.

So instead of getting a new actress and making her learn everything in three days, and instead of cancelling the rest of the shows (which would have financially killed them) ....

the MALE directer took on her role.

Dresses, heels, and all.

I actually think it sort of made the show MORE entertaining.

We made it back home around midnight...

'twas a good day!

Day Five: Concord & Salem MA

Fran and I got a somewhat early start Friday morning.
We put on some clothes suitable for hiking, had some breakfast and then left for Concord- my favorite town in the whole wide world (well, at least of the towns i have seen so far).

Our first stop was Walden Pond which is where my idol, Henry David Thoreau spent two years living in solitude. I was a little nervous as we pulled into the parking lot because we were behind two large school buses. The last thing i wanted on my hike to reflect and be "alone" as much as possible, was a few busloads of rowdy school kids. Thankfully, we barely encountered them aside from the parking lot. 

We hiked around the pond, snapping some cool pictures along the way

Aside from the poorly marked trails and bugs it was rather enjoyable. At one point we stopped by a group of children to put on bug spray. I was listening intently to the tour guide who was going to give one lucky child a replica of Thoreau's walking stick! I was jealous and kind of wanted to just join their group.

Another part of me thought about sneaking up behind them and then start to run and scream "BEAR!!!"

Considering I think it was a group of first graders, i'd say that would have gone over quite well :)

After we completed our trip around the pond, we sat down the by tiny beach area to eat our lunch.

Lunch was severely squished pb&j sandwiches.

There was a group of kids who were in the wading area and this one obnoxious kid who kept screaming "there's a crab! there's a crab! EVERYBODY STEP BACK!!! PLEASE BE CAUTIOUS"

he was pretty into it.

While we were eating lunch all of a sudden I heard Fran shriek. I looked over and saw this.

The right lens on her sunglasses just decided to explode out of the frame for no apparent reason. The glasses were quite broken, obviously. But she hadn't done anything to them! She was merely sitting, eating an orange.

After that fiasco we went to the Concord Museum. I went to the museum last year with my sister but didn't mind at all going again. We got our history lesson for the day, and saw another million groups of kids on field trips.

After that we went to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, where Thoreau and Emerson are buried.

We headed home, showered, and got ready to go to Salem with my sister.
We got to Salem just a few minutes after five, which was when the one store we really wanted to go to closed!! But we walked around a few other shops, grabbed dinner and then Fran and I decided to go on a Ghost Tour at 8pm.

It was pretty good... the tour guide really made it awesome.

I mean, who wouldn't want to follow this guy around town for an hour and a half?
He was hilarious. I could post some of his one-liners here, but i feel like you kind of had to have been there to understand the humor.

I feel like we got another pretty sweet history lesson out of the tour. Learned a lot about the sinister past of Salem and he encouraged us to take pictures of certain places/homes because there have been a lot of interesting photographs that have cropped up in those places over the years.

The cemetery, where the 19 people who were hanged for being witches are buried.
Stones read  "I do plead not guilty"

For being a fan of American History and having an interest in the paranormal... I think Salem is a pretty cool place.

That pretty much sums up our Friday.
I have to write about today but I'll save it for tomorrow morning 'cause right now I need some sleep!

Day Four: Out East

**Edit** I've added many more pictures to the previous posts. I finally had some luck uploading tonight. Check 'em out!

We got to the Red Roof Inn around 10:30 last night. Of course it was still raining.

We had gotten our second wind by this point. We walked into the lobby to find nobody there. The lobby was closed off from the rest of the hotel, no bathrooms, no comfy chair to sit in or TV to watch, and most important, no freaking elevators. Which meant I knew we'd be out in the rain again dragging our luggage up flights of stairs in the near future.

So yes, no concierge in the lobby. No bell with a handy "ring for service" note, but Fran hit the buttons on the credit card machine. For some reason that didn't do anything. Hm.

Fran peeked around in the back and just as she did so, in walked Dane. In the 5 minutes I was with Dane,  I was thorougly entertained. He was around our age, maybe a year or two younger. I could see him being that guy in high school who everyone thought was annoying as hell but at the same time didn't want to exclude him from the clique because even if he told jokes not good enough to laugh at, they could just laugh at him and that was good enough.

He sees Fran halfway behind the counter and goes "WOW I FEEL REALLY UNCOMFORTABLE RIGHT NOW, ARE YOU GUYS GONNA ROB THE PLACE??"

we laughed. a "i don't really know why thats funny, whyweren'tyouheredoingyourjobinthefirstplace" laugh. Then again, maybe the kid had to go to the bathroom. Like i said, this lobby was lacking in most areas.

I digress.

so we tell him we want to check in. Fran asks if the hotel has a work out room (knowing we'd be driving all the next day) and he goes "NOPE. BUT I'M OFF TOMORROW, YOU COULD COME WORK OUT AT MY PLACE".

good pick up line, Dane.

Trying to pay for the room and i ask if i can use my AAA for a discount. and he goes, "NOPE. SORRY. YOU ALREADY GOT THE CHEERLEADER DISCOUNT".

and either i was just super overtired or his joke was that bad, but i didn't realize he was making fun of me/flirting. I thought maybe there was some cheerleading competition in the area and the hotel had discounts on rooms for people staying for that. or i don't know. seriously. i just wanted to get to the room.

But Fran tells me he was joking and I all flustered-like tell him it's been a long day, that we drove all the way from Illinois. And what does Dane say?
"PSHHH. I COULD RUN HERE FROM ILLINOIS. I RAN ACROSS THE COUNTRY LAST WEEK."

at this point i say in my head, "okay Dane. That's just about enough of you."

So we leave. and sure enough, my first instinct was right. We had to find the middle group of buildings, go up the middle staircase to find our room. in the pouring rain.

The room was fine. No fridge which i was annoyed with, but I was stupid for not looking when I booked the room.

But get this. One of the perks of this place was that Fran and I each got a voucher for $7 in slot play at the casino down the road. So what did Fran and I do at 11pm after driving alllllll day and alllll night?

Went to the casino of course.

We had to sign up for this player's card membership thing and got another free $10 in play from the casino. We couldn't figure out how to use the card in the machine so we had to go get some lady at the customer service desk to come help us. She picked a machine that didn't win me any money. figures.

But I did end up winning!! $7!!!

So my first experiencea at a casino was a success. Fran didn't win anything though :(

We got back to the hotel, I tried to update this blog which kept causing my laptop to crash and finally in an overtired, crabby manner, I shut the laptop, mumbled goodnight to Fran and I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.








This morning we woke up, packed up our things, and checked out.
We also got free breakfast vouchers at McDonalds from the hotel so that was another small saving.
Not a huge fan of breakfast, or breakfast at McDonalds, but free is free and I wasn't about to pass that up.

We stopped at a Walgreens to get antibiotic cream for Fran who cut her finger a few weeks ago at work which didn't look infected, but her finger was swollen and stiff. We stopped at the Post Office to mail some postcards (and my parents Anniversary card :) ) and headed out east.

We drove
and drove
and drove
and drove

I won't bore you with the details of the drive, but at least the rain had stopped.
We had a windshield wiper, umbrella free day and I'm thankful for that.

Fran pulled off somewhere in NY to see if we could go on a boat tour of the Erie Canal but we missed the last tour by and hour and a half.

We also stopped at an information center on Niagra Falls that looked like one of the sketchiest buildings i've ever seen but realized that even though we were close, we don't have passports, taking that out of the picture.

So really, all we did today was drive.

Destination?

(Massachussetts Welcomes US)

So really, aside from a truck driver honking at us, and some kid blowing us a kiss through the window, it was a pretty uneventful day.

But we knocked down the miles (averaging 32 MPG!) and now we're at my sisters in Beverly, MA.

Tomorrow morning Fran and I are hitting up Walden Pond and then Salem in the afternoon with my sister to get our witching on. :P

Sorry. this was supposed to be a short update.

The lack of napping has made me loopy.

Day Three: Travel and Rain

Day three started out with rain. It also ended with rain. And nearly the entire time in the middle was rain-filled too.

I can’t tell you how much fun it was making a million and one trips from Travis’s to Fran’s car this morning. In my family we have a saying of looking/feeling “like a drowned rat”. And really. I took a shower and after one trip to the car, I felt like a drowned rat already. Even though I had an umbrella.

It did not matter how well things fit in the trunk, if we could shove it in somehow and get the trunk to close it was good enough. Things probably aren’t as neat as they should be on only the third day but we weren’t about to straighten everything out in the absolute torrential rain.

We took off, and said goodbye to Travis and Chicago.

Our next stop was to Amish Acres, the place I found on RoadtripAmerica.com the other day. We stopped somewhere in Indiana to get gas, for $3.72. Not sure of the name of the town, but it could very easily have been called Hickville. Already felt as though we were in the deep south. We were lucky too, because as we were leaving the parking lot, the gas price went up to $3.88.

Made it to Amish Acres a little before two. I knew we were close when I saw an Amish man riding his bike across the street, and I may or may not have squealed with delight, but not enough to wake a sleeping Fran next to me.

We bought our tickets for a farm and house tour, a wagon ride, and a documentary view for $12.  The woman told us our trip would be the first to include the wagon ride for the day because the rain hadn’t allowed for it earlier in the day. So once again, we got pretty lucky with our timing.

For those of you from Wisconsin, the place reminded me a bit of Old World Wisconsin. We were both pretty disappointed there weren’t actual Amish people at this place, but I feel like we learned something at least.  Was a little hard to hear the tour guide sometimes with this old grandma who was shouting things to her daughter the entire time, who kept shushing her  saying “the lady is trying to talk!”. Made me laugh.

The Farm and House tour was first, followed by a little break and then the Wagon ride. During the break we went to the gift shop. I bought some apple butter which was super cheap, and a postcard to send Kaity and Shae.

The garden

The home

I think this is where they dry the fruits..

Three generations of the Amish family who lived in the home. The guide said she had no idea how the photographer convinced them to let him take their picture considering they don't normally do that sort of thing...

Typical Amish Clothing

The chicken egg incubater (took this one for Kaity and Shae!!)

The Kitchen... Learned that the Amish often have the colors blue, green, and brown in their homes, to represent the sky, the ground, and the soil.

Original kitchen cabinentry

Stove

Bedroom

living room-ish area. They Amish don't believe in closets, so they hang their clothes around the house. I think i'd need to add on to the home just to make room for my clothes.

The blue bed against the wall is where you went if you were sick. mmm.

milk barn

When we walked back outside, we knew it was only a matter of time before the sky dropped yet again. We went and grabbed our umbrellas and waited for the wagon ride. We made it halfway, to the one room school house before it started pouring. We all met in the school house for a little and then got back on the wagon to finish the ride. However, half of the seats were SOAKED with rain water. The guide lady was just like “well it’s just water, it’ll drive and we can’t leave until everyone is seated”  so… I sat. And regretted it not three seconds later when I notice a towel is being passed around to dry the seats. UGH.

                                                              buggy. and rain water. told you so.

Nappanee, IN (where this was)

raining. this is the school house we took shelter in.

Kids had to memorize a bible phrase that was kept on the board every week.

Fran took a picture of my wet pants. I hope none of you ever see it.

So yes, I walked around with wet pants the rest of the afternoon. Last time I follow directions.

Next up was the documentary. Fran bought some buttermilk Amish cookies and so we each ate one while watching the documentary. I felt like I was in high school, obligated to watch a movie until the bell rang. Fran just looked at me after a while and was like “um. Do you want to watch the rest of this?”

So we left, and hit the road again.

Next stop? Erie, PA. 5.5 hours away. 
                                                                              197 miles before a turn!!

I’m in the car right now, typing this all out on a word document (as a PASSENGER, mind you.) and I can honestly say, I don’t think we’ve had more than 5 minutes of rain free time the entire drive. This whole storm system has followed us the entire way. The lightning is beautiful, but really. I just want the rain to stop. I guess I am thankful that we didn’t have this weather yesterday.

Fran and I have taken turns driving, have listened to some awesome CD mixes made for us by friends, and putzed around on my Kindle.

I realized In Indiana that I forgot my bed sheet that I brought to Chicago at Travis’s. SO mad about that. I love that sheet. Reminds me of home and now I don’t have anything to cover with when I want to nap in the car. I thought I was super diligent while going through his apartment to make sure I had everything, but obviously not diligent enough.

BAH. I will get it back, eventually.

We stopped for dinner at Wendy’s. We hadn’t really eaten normal food all day besides a bowl of cereal in the morning (gushers and a buttermilk cookie… doesn’t really count) and a peanut butter sandwich wasn’t quite cutting it. We had a nice lady named Sheila at the counter who took our order. She was quite animated and stopped by our table later asking if we’d fill out a comment card and mention her name. Fran took it and filled it out, marking everything excellent and praising Sheila to an extreme, just for fun and to be nice. Fran handed the card back to Sheila at the counter and I swear, Fran made this woman’s MONTH. She turned to her co-workers and was like “LISTEN TO WHAT SHE SAID ABOUT ME!!! :D”

Haha made me remember how little things like that can legitimately brighten up someone else’s day.

Anyways, it’s 10pm here (Easter Time) and we’re still 40 minutes from the Hotel. Pretty excited to have a bed to sleep in tonight.

The lady at the Amish place told us that she went to Erie once and highly recommended the boat tours. She also said a stop by Hershey, PA to get some chocolate wouldn’t be a bad idea. We’ll see what we have time for tomorrow. We may go for a run by the lake tomorrow morning… didn’t do too much walking today and won’t do too much tomorrow either.

Tomorrow will be a long drive through southern NY to Beverly, MA to stay with my sister.

Can’t wait!

*with any luck, pictures will be added tomorrow*

Day 2- Chicago

Not gonna lie, Monday night was rough for me.  Monday had been a warm day and Travis’s air isn’t being turned on until Friday and so the apartment was pretty hot for someone who prefers to be chilly when trying to fall asleep. It was warm, I couldn’t decide where in the living room I was comfortable (couch, floor, chair) and to top it off, my allergies were making me miserable.

a better picture of Travis's apartment... that looks like a motel

At two a.m. I got the brainstorm to take some of my Benadryl, hoping it would a) bring my allergies down a notch and b) knock me out.

It sort of worked, sort of didn’t.

But regardless, I was full of enough energy and excitement  to get started Tuesday morning.

We showered, had some cereal, put on clothes/shoes we’d be comfortable in, looked at our maps and were on our way. Travis had originally planned to join us downtown, but got called into work so stayed behind.

Fran and I actually managed to not get lost. We got off at the right exits, made the right transfers, took the right turns on streets and all that.

First we went to the Sears (Willis) Tower. We took the elevator up to the 103^rd floor and took a look around. What I was most excited about was the sky deck. I didn’t think I’d be freaked out at all because I’ve never had a fear of heights but I have to admit, it was a little freaky taking that step out onto the ledge.  The woman who talked to us as we exited the elevator and then entered it again to go back down was incredibly nice. I think she must get sick of saying the same welcoming and departing phrases to people… I think we heard them twenty times each and we were only by her for about 5 minutes.

check out the kicks. and the view.

After we left that attraction, we walked to Millenium Park to have some lunch. We had packed peanut butter & jelly sandwiches and some fruit to save some money. Much to our excitement, there was a show going on on the stage. When we got there, there were old people dancing to rap songs like “ay bay bay” and “teach me how to dougie”. Then there was a high school show choir performance of “don’t stop believing”, followed by elderly clowns… who apparently perform at nursing homes. All I can say about that one is that I had to look the other way, so you’d have to ask Fran how that performance was. Then a woman got up and sang a solo in Spanish that was really beautiful. There was also an orchestra that played for a bit before we got up to leave and walk around some more.

We went shopping down the Magnificent Mile. I couldn’t say no to going into Forever XXI.  IT’S THREE LEVELS, HOW COULD I??? I may have bought a thing or two. I told Fran to not let me buy another piece of clothing for the entire trip and she laughed at me.

We caught the red/green line back to Oak Park.  We planned a bit for the next day and booked a hotel at the Red Roof Inn in Erie, PA for Wednesday night. I took a short nap (so typical) and then Fran and I went off in search of some dinner.

Ended up at a Pizza place that specializes in Deep Dish, something we knew we had to try in Chicago. We split a small spinach deep dish pizza and it was phenomenal. Also split a cannoli for dinner, another first for me.

We went back to Travis’s and started getting ready for our night out on the town. Travis brought his friend Cory over and the four of us hung out for a bit. Corey knew after I spoke one sentence that I was from Wisconsin. He also knew immediately that Fran was not from Wisconsin because of her personality.  Pretty insightful. Cory couldn’t come out with us but Travis called a cab and soon the three of us were on our way downtown again.  The cab driver was awesome. He used to be a limo driver and told us he hated it. He hated the rude customers he had, who demanded things from him. He said he likes being a cab driver so much better because he likes just being with ordinary people like himself.

Our first stop was a sports bar and it was the end of the Chicago Bulls game, so things were pretty intense. After a while, we took off and went in search of a club where Fran could do some salsa dancing. Unfortunately the only place in the area isn’t open on Tuesdays. We hopped to one more bar after that and then called another cab to get back to Travis’s.

We called it a night, and thankfully it was a better night of sleep.