Chad Things

I’m alive in costa rica. The country is as big as switzerland, or west virgina, but is super diverse. Half the population is in San Jose, where everybody flies into. I spent one night there at the Hostel Pangea – cheap spot, english friendly, and free internet. And had an amazing dinner at Bakea, But i didn’t come to costa rica for the city .. i came for beaches and rainforests.

So off i went to Samara (rhymes with camera), which most Ticos (short for Costa Ricans) say has the best beach in the country. It was soo very nice, only 5 hours from san jo. Besides the gorgeous beach, i stayed a a really good spot called Entre Dos Aguas, a hostel vibe but with the coolest wood and stone architecture and overall layout, best in town. However, I had the itch to move, so off to montezuma i went, and here i am now. This is the hippy SF of costa rica. More whites than locals, mostly italian, but plenty of americans. My room is like 30 feet from the beach. I just got here today, we’ll see how it goes. I also plan to hit Corcovado before the wedding. I got 10 days.

I’m just gonna do a quick summary of the month long trip shayna and i took across the country. We saw many beatiful natural and man-made sights, had some tastee meals, experience different cultures, talked, laughed, fought, and slept in the jetta, and thoroughly enjoyed our country. Some of my favorite sights include National Monument in Arizona, Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota, Millenium Park in Chicago, the City Museum in St. Louis, and the Cadillac Ranch in Texas. Some of my favorite moments include the touristy animals and mini-town by Zion, seeing Lyrics Born and Cut Chemist in Boulder, having a beer with Shayna in Durango, crawling through the caves in the City Museum, and singing at the top of my lungs in the car (with Shayna, of course).

If you got the time, you can read my entire journal in four parts – starting with blog part 1. You can also check out the pictures in four sets, each one naturally matching the blog, starting with flickr part 1. Or you can just check out the Best of pictures. Oh, and here’s the actual itinerary – very similar to the Itinerary plan

10/23 Mon – Left SF, Thru Yosemite to Lone Pine, CA
10/24 Tue – Death Valley, slept north of vegas on NV/AZ border
10/25 Wed – Arrive Zion , camped in the park
10/26 Thu – More Zion, then hotel in kenyata, AZ
10/27 Fri – Monument Valley, slept at Durango CO
10/28 Sat – Mesa Verde, CO, slept at Buena Vista, CO
10/29 Sun – Rockies and Boulder, CO
10/30 Mon – Drive to Moorcroft, WY
10/31 Tue – Devils Tower, Deadwood, Crazy Horse Memorial, SD
11/01 Wed – Mt. Rushmore, Badlands, slept at Carrie’s, Minneapolis, MN
11/02 Thu – Chillin’ with friends in Minneapolis
11/03 Fri – Walker museum, Minneapolis
11/04 Sat – Drive to Chicago, veggiediner
11/05 Sun – Art Institute of Chicago, Sears Tower, Deep Dish pizza
11/06 Mon – Millenium Park, Shayna does Columbia College, slept in Iowa City
11/07 Tue – Shayna tours University of Iowa in Iowa City, slept in st. louis
11/08 Wed – Budweiser Tour, St. Louis Arch, dinner in the loop
11/09 Thu – Breakfast at Tiffany’s, City Museum in St.Louis
11/10 Fri – Chad fly from St. Louis to Vegas, Shayna drive to DC
11/11 Sat – Shayna in DC
11/12 Sun – Chad flew from vegas to DC, arrived 6AM Monday
11/13 Mon – lunch in DC, drive to Jillian’s, Athens GA
11/14 Tue – Lunch with family in Atlanta, slept in Memphis
11/16 Wed – Graceland in Memphis, drive to Oklahoma
11/17 Thu – Oklahoma City Memorial, drive to Alburqueque
11/18 Fri – Acoma Indian Reservation, drive to Kingman AZ
11/19 Sat – Arrive SF

We really could not have had a better trip – the only thing was i wished we had more time – i would love to do a trip with no end in sight. We had tons of fun taking in the sights, learning about various states and cities, but we did go fast and sometimes it was hard to digest. It was definitely hard to upload pics and update my blog as i went, even tho over half the hotels we stayed in had free wifi. Of course, it never sux when your only complaint is having too much fun.

Now i’m off to Costa Rica for a little over 3 weeks, 2 weeks on my own and then Rick and Zetta’s wedding. See ya later !!!

The last week of the trip was a quick 6 days from the east coast back to California. Not super rushed, we still had time for a few stops, but the leisurely pace of the first 3 weeks was over.

Day 22, Monday 2006-11-13 Washington DC, Virginia, Carolinas, Georgia

I left Vegas late sunday on the redeye to DC. Shayna picked me up Monday at 6am, and we went back to her parents to take a little nap. Shayna had been there since late friday night – she drove 14 hours friday to DC from St. Louis, over 800 miles, the longest drive of the trip. So she had already spent some time with her parents, which is nice. After our nap we got up and went to lunch with her parents then hit the road. We wanted to be in Athens, Georgia, by monday night, and we made it around midnight. Hurray.

Day 23, Tuesday 2006-11-14 Georgia, Tennessee

Tuesday I woke up early and went to a coffee shop, then got a run in before we hit the road. Shayna was out late in Athens with her friend Jillian, who so graciously hosted us, so she slept in a bit longer than I. We jetted to Atlanta to meet up with my family – mom, dad, Leslie, Michael, and my 9 month old niece Katherine. It was a quick lunch, mainly to give Les my old windows laptop, but it was nice to see them all. I grew up in Atlanta, and i showed shayna my parents house on our way out of town. We made our way to nashville for dinner – we couldnt’ find the restaraunt we wanted so ended up eating sushi. We then drove through torrential rain to spend the night in memphis. When we arrived we had a couple drinks on Beale Street, which is similar to New Orleans Bourbon street, then we hit the cheap motels again.

Day 24, Wednesday 2006-11-15 Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma

Woke up and went to Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley. It was entertaining to see his place, but more entertaining to be part of the experience, trying to understand america’s infatuation with the king. He had a great voice, charisma, and unusual style. His house was great – each room had its own theme, like the yellow and dark blue TCB (Takin’ Care of Business) room in the basement to the jungle room with green shag carpet on the floor and ceilings. But my favorite was the converted athletics room – the racquetball court was filled with gold records and elvis outfits. It seemed to capture the elvis vibe the most.

After Graceland we had lunch at Corky’s BBQ, and it was awesome. I had the pulled pork plate, which came with side of beans and cole slaw and the table got some deliciously buttered rolls. Shayna got the pork sandwhich with fries. Once our bellies were full, we hit the road, through arkansas, stopping only once in Alma to take a picture with popeye. We made it to yet another cheap hotel in Oklahoma city

Day 25, Thursday 2006-11-16 Oklohoma, Texas

The Oklahoma City Memorial turned out to be one of the most moving sights on our tour. The bombing occured in 1995, killed 168 people including 19 children in the daycare center, damaged hundreds of buildings, many had to be destroyed, including the Murrah federal building which was the main target. The memorial was completed in 2001, just a few months before 9/11. Not sure exactly why i was so moved, i think it was feeling the courage people had when faced with tragedy, seeing and hearing people rising to the occasion. They presented a timeline of the events in different formats – mostly pictures with annotations, but also some video and a few computer rooms where you can get more interactive info. I distinctly remember getting choked up watching the video – hearing about people’s utter disbelief when they see the federal building destroyed, where only hours earlier they dropped off their children in the daycare center. They could not comprehend that their babies were not alive.

After Oklahoma City we hit the road again, stopping a few times in Texas before making it to Alburqueque. Stops included the big Texan (home of the 72oz steak), the giant cross, and my favorite thing in Texas – cadillac ranch. There were about 12 cadillacs from the 50s, all buried in the ground nose first, covered with years of tagging. And just as the lonely planet predicted, there were cans of spray paint lying around so we could tag the cars ourselves. The beauty of it was just the simplicity of it all, just a bunch of cars buried in the ground, middle of nowhere, surrounded by farmland. This was my favorite thing you could only find on a roadtrip.

Day 26, Friday 2006-11-17 New Mexico, Arizona

We saw many native american sights on this road trip, but the Acoma Sky City experience could be my favorite. Monument Valley was the most impressive natural sight, and i loved the vision and large collection of native american artifacts at the crazy horse memorial, but our Acoma guide through sky city was the more informed and most moving of all the native americans i’ve come across. He would talk with Love and profound respect about his culture and mother earth as well as with deep anger about how his ancestors were taken advantage of by the spanish. I learned that, like most native american tribes, the Acoma were a matriarhcal people – the women owned the property and made the decisions. This naturally leads to a more peaceful society, compared to some other patriarchal tribes like the navajo and apache, which were known more for fighting. Apache is not an apache term, its the acoma word for enemy. I also learned about their magic numbers 4, 7, 12, 21 and their simple philosophy of teaching their children to respect themselves and they will get respect. Once they know how to respect themselves, they are encouraged to leave the reservation and see the world. Most return.

Day 27, Saturday 2006-11-18 Arizona, Californa

Woke up in Kingman Arizona, thanks to shayna’s late night power driving. The town had a historic route 66 museum, the fourth one we saw, but this time we stopped to investigate. It was informative with many displays, from a miniature railroad to life size trail wagon. It covered the trail before route 66 that settlers took to california, and talked about how the great depressio and drought of the 1930s forced many in the midwest to seek fortune in california along this route. With the boom of the 50s came improved roads and many more towns as more and more people flocked west. The towns were mostly hotels, restaraunts, and gas stations, but all had character. The journey was a colorful experience, but eventually the interstate system and chain stores replaced the character. As they put it, speed and predictability won over adventure. On the bright side, the Historic Route 66 from chicago to LA is now a tourist destination itself, attracting enough people to sustain the older towns that were almost forgotten.

The last noteworthy event on the trip occured in arizona right before the california border – a flat tire. Lucky for us it was actually a fun experience – i quickly put on the spare tire and made it the 30 or so miles to Needles, CA, where i had the good fortune of buying 4 new tires. Apparently i had another tire that was about to go, and since they didn’t have my EXACT tire size, i was advised to buy all 4. It was good advice, and i did. This allowed us to zip on thru california at record breaking speeds to get home saturday night in time to have a drink with friends and retell our stories from the road.

That’s it – see my final blog recapping USA.

Day 11, Thursday 2006-11-02 Minnesota

Got to Minneapolis late wed night and crashed at shayna’s friends house. They have a nice 2 story just southeast of downtown, in an interesting area with old brick apt buildings scattered among the houses. They live a couple blocks from MCAD (which is nice) but also near a suspected crack house (not so nice). Thursday morning we got to sleep in – it was sooo nice. I got to catch up on some laundry, email, and picture uploading. Then i went for a run, and then shayna and i went sightseeing, driving downtown and hitting a couple interesting stores – design collective and robot love. After that we met up with Shayna’s friend Becky for a beer at her local bar, CC something. Becky was cool – she used to go to wash u. with shayna. Once Becky’s boy David showed up, we decided to eat at NYE, a polish spot which was supposed to have a polka band. No luck, but they did have awesome 50s decor and a piano with 5 drunk middle age peeps singing songs. Classic.

Day 12, Friday 2006-11-03 Minnesota

Friday was also pretty chill. Carrie wasn’t working till 5, so the 3 of us had a leisurely morning, eating breakfast at Egg and I. Then Shayna and I went downtown along the river to St. Anthony’s Falls and Stone Arch Bridge, walking along the missippi and across the xxxx bridge. Minneapolis seemed very new and clean overall, but this section definitely was reminiscent of its industrial past. When we got back to the house, Anthony joined us and the 4 of us had some tasty homemade pizza. Next on the agenda was the Walker Museum, which everybody raves about. My favorite exhibit there was Hirschhorn’s Cavemanman exhibit. He actually made a cave with brown package tape, boards and boxes, with coke cans strewn across the floor, mannekins wrapped in foil and all wired together, posters of pop music culture, papers about moral and economic philosophy – basically questioning what society is and where we’re going. The rest of the night included some bar hopping, some food, and then a big fat nap. Hurray.

Day 13, Saturday 2006-11-04 Minnesota, Illinois

Got up and drove to chicago, thru wisconsin, stopping only for cheese. Of course you need to get cheese in wisconsin. Arrived in chicago around 9pm, and we went out to diner at this amazing vegie place called veggie dinner. We also checked out smart bar, a club where Mstrkrft was playing. It was fun, good sound (bass for da house), but we were kinda tired so weren’t there very long.

Day 14, Sunday 2006-11-05 Illinois

Our first full day in chicago started off slowly just north of downtown with breakfast, then off to see the Art Institute. We hung out downtown most of the day, walking around, making it up to sears tower right after sunset, yielding some cool pictures of endless chicago at night. For dinner, we went for some traditional chicago deep dish pizza. Both lonely planet and the concierge at the W recommended malrutti’s pizza. It was good, but not mind-blowing great. Both patxis and little star pizza in SF are better. After dinner we had a drink at this cool bar called the map room. As you may guess, they have maps all over the walls and a few map books, with tons of national geographics and tons of beers from all over to pick from.

Day 15, Monday 2006-11-06 Illinois, Iowa

Monday morning Lisa and Spiral joined us on a walk around the newly built Millenium Park with this really cool giant reflective jelly bean. Yes, this silver bean was super cool. After that shayna went to tour columbia university and i ended up just walking around. I really love all the cool architecture in chicago. And the river and lake augment the natural beauty that may otherwise seem a bit bleek from the flatness of the region. I met up with shayna at cosi, then we decided to get some tasty sushi at Oysy Sushi before driving to iowa. Yes, we drove to iowa, leaving chicago around 9, getting to iowa city around 1am. That was fun.

Day 16, Tuesday 2006-11-07 Iowa

Woke up and drove shayna to her appointments with University of Iowa in Iowa City. I just went to a coffeeshop and sorted thru pics for a couple hours, then went on a nice run along the river thru town. The university is quite lovely, but the section of the river by city park was really beautiful. Once shayna finished her iowa stuff, we headed for st. louis. Once again, we rolled in at 1am, exhausted, but this time we were staying in a hotel for 3 nights, so we could sleep in and not worry about anything. Hurray.

Day 17, Wednesday 2006-11-08 Missouri

Our first full day in St. Louis started off with lunch at a great vietnamese place (name?), followed by a tour of the budweiser factory. It is the largest beer factory in the country, one of five that budweiser opens for tours. The tour was about an hour, we saw a few of the famous clydesdale horses, the original beer factory building from 1870s, now part of whole factory complex. But the best was the ending, where we got to sample budweiser beer. They had about 8 varieties on tap, including a seasonal, a porter, and the original budweiser. I must say, even though i thoroughly enjoyed my bud, it wasn’t that much better than what you get in a bottle. I’ve been to many breweries, and usually the beer on tap at the brewery is much more delicious than the bottled vesion.. We also tried a wine cooler like drink called peels, as well as little beer augmentor called spykes. Not bad, but not great.

After budweiser we checked out the St. Louis Arch, aka the Gateway Arch, aka Jefferson National Expasion Memorial. The arch was built in the 60s, and the little pod we sat in to get to the top felt like something out of a 60s james bond movie. I’m 6 feet even, and i had to hunch my head over when sitting inside of it. The top was a bit claustrophobic as well, but the view was worth it. We were lucky enough to actually watch the sun set before our eyes. Beautiful. We went down and checked out the museum part, got a picture of me with Tatanka (native american for buffalo). For dinner we went to a spot on “the loop” where shayna worked during wash u. days – Brandts. It was tasteeeeee.

Day 18, Thursday 2006-11-09 Missouri

Our last day in da Lou started with breakfast at tiffany’s. Tiffany’s is a hole in the wall diner that shayna used to goto all the time in college. It had more character than your avg diner, but the food was about the same. I can still taste all the butter and grease used in my eggs in hashbrowns.

But maybe the coolest thing we did on our trip was the City Museum. It’s not so much a museum as a jungle gym times a million. The primary reason you go there is to go crawling and walking thru tunnels and passagesways spread over 4 floors and different themes – giant whale and water to caves and dinosaurs to planes and cranes on the outside. It was exciting for me, an adult (yes, technically i am) to go into some hole and not know where it will lead. But the way they created everything is amazing – its all art – iron creatively welded in cool patterns, creatures molded in the concrete in the caves, colors and patterns painted most everywhere. And because st. louis still has not fully bounced back from its industrial past, there are lots of abandoned buildings that provide interesting materials for this museum. Like, in one of the bigger rooms they just had a giant safe – a huge metal door and a wall made of security boxes. I could go on and on about this place, and prolly should, but you really need to go there for yourself.

After the the “museum”, i packed for my vegas trip back at the hotel, then we went back to the loop for dinner and a couple beers. This time we ate at a middle eastern spot enjoying hummus, lamb, and a veggie dish that reminded me of something i would eat in morocco. Once we finished eating, we went to the famous blueberry hill for a beer. Nobody famous was playing that night, but chuck berry plays there on a regular basis (still!) and most bands that do a medium size venue would hit that place. We also checked out a hip hop spot called 609 – it was packed, and shayna and i were the only white people there – i felt like i was in atlanta. Music was provide by DJ Needles – he played old school and nu skool hip hop, some with a reggae flare. His mixing was spot on, i was quite impressed.

Day 19, Friday 2006-11-10

Taking a break from the road trip and flying to vegas for bachelor weekend.

To be continued in part 4 .. Washington DC back to California

Day 6, Saturday 2006-10-28 Colorado

Woke up in our cheap motel in Durango and got some tasty breakfast at carver’s. Before heading out to Mesa Verde, i bought a nice new travel camera bag, Lowepro Nova 2 AW, and i love it. I’ve been to Mesa Verde before, but this time it was much colder and half the stuff was closed. We still got some good pics of trees, the rockies, and the ever-cool cliff palace. I also learned about the population – the current thinking is that there were more people in the four corners region a few hundred years ago than there are today. Lots of native americans. After Mesa Verde we headed towards boulder, making it as far as buena vista, colorado.

Day 7, Sunday 2006-10-29 Colorado

We got up early and hit the road. Our drive to boulder took us thru our highest elevation point on the trip – Fremont pass at 11,318 feet. The view of the rockies was amazing for hours – snow capped mountains, passed ski resorts like copper mountain, brekenridge, keystone, than took a narrow hwy thru the canyon down to boulder. We got there in time for a run before lunch, which i totally needed. Then more delicious food and beer at the walnut brewery. After lunch we walked around the city, up the creek by the library, around the red rocks area, and up around chautauqua park. We decided to stay in boulder sunday night so we could check out Lyrics Born and Cut Chemist at the fox – i’m glad we did. Their performance was great, altho most of the crowd stood around while me and shayna had to shake it. Before the show we had some pizza and beers at the sink, and after the show we had a sub before going to bed at the Boulder hostel around the corner.

Day 8, Monday 2006-10-30 Colorado, Wyoming

We left boulder and headed north. Pretty uneventful day, just driving thru rolling hills, lots of roadkill and tumbleweeds. We decided to check out Devil’s tower before mt. rushmore, so we headed in that direction. Didn’t get there before sundown, so we spent the night in nearby moorcroft, wyoming, at a small hotel. Like most hotels this trip, it had wifi internet, but that night we got there early enough to spend time catching up on emails and posting pictures. Nothing else to do in a town of 300 peeps when its 18 degrees outside.

Day 9, Tuesday 2006-10-31 Wyoming, South Dakota

This was a big day – we hit Devils Tower in Wyoming, then Deadwood and Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota. Devils Tower was featured in the movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Ahh yes, we all remember that one. We drove around it and got out to look at it but it was like 19 degrees outside, so that lasted only 5 mins. The huge rocks launching out of the ground at monument valley seem to fit – devils tower didn’t. I like what shayna said – “I’m glad they had this in an alien movie, seems fitting”.

After Devils Tower we went to Deadwood in the Black Hills. Yes, this is the same one in the HBO series Deadwood. And HBO maintains some truth – Gold was discovered there in 1870s and brought the town some fame and fortune, including the famous Wild Bill Hickcock. However, the coolest thing in Deadwood was the Adams Museum, which covered gold rush, chinese influence, native americans, cloths, tools, guns and many other things relating to the old west. But Deadwood is also part of the injustice the whites did to the native americans. The Black Hills were sacred to the Lakota, which were driven west of Minnesota by whites in the 1700s. They drove out other native americans in the region back then, but conflicts with the ever westward moving whites forced them to sign the 1851 Treaty of Ft. Laramie (src), which made them give up most of the area in the dakotas but promised 60 million acres of the black hills (screwed again). Then they redid Ft. Laramie treaty in 1868, reducing to only 20 million acres (screwed again). Then gold was discovered, and whites basically ignored the treaty and haven’t left since. To this day, the indians technically still own the land, as the 1868 treaty has not been nullified, but they really don’t have control over it.

After Deadwood we drove to the Crazy Horse Memorial, which is close to mt. rushmore. This was also one of the best things i saw on the trip – mainly because of the inspirational nature of the project. In the 1940s native american elders asked a famous sculptor, Korczak, to build them a memorial. And he did. All by himself, in the beginning. His plan was grand – when complete, the crazy horse carving will be the largest in the world, taller than the national monument in washington DC. But they got a long way to go. Korczak died about 20 years ago, but his wife and 7 of his 10 children keep his dream alive. The facilities there were new, with lots of information and art relating to native americans. However, as shayna pointed out, they need a curator to organize it a bit better. But it was still the largest collection in the most square feet of any building i’ve ever been to.

Day 10, Wednesday 2006-11-01 South Dakota

We woke up in keystone, a tourist town right by mt. rushmore. The town was huge, but this was the last day of the season and almost everything was closed. A bit eerie, especially in the cold (still in the 220s). We drove up to Mt. Rushmore, but didn’t go in the park, since it appeared to be just a big parking lot. You could see mt. rushmore fine from where we were on the road. That was good enough for me and shayna, so we took our pics and left – it was going to be a long day of driving – needed to go 600+ miles to minneapolis.

Just east of rapid city we stopped at Wall Drug before going into Badlands. Wall Drug was prolly the best tourist spot on the planet – 2 out of every 3 signs along the hwy in south dakota were for wall drug. It’s one store, but the inside was like a mini-mall, with lots of fun statues and old west motifs. Shayna got a cowboy hat and shirt, i got a few trinket items and a buffalo burger. It wasn’t that good. Then we hopped in the car again and drove through the Badlands – which also kicked ass. We took a few pics, and spent time at the Visitor Center, which clearly had lots of money spent on it recently. After going to crazy horse, where they had great info but it was poorly organized, and then at a well done national park visitor center, you realize how important information delivery is. After that we put the petal to the metal and made it to shayna’s friends place in minneapolis by midnight.

And that ends the western half of the USA. In part 3, we’ll cover the midwest cities such as Minneapolis, Chicago, and St. Louis.