Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
I did the following things, in no particular order, except the order that I did them, so I suppose I was sort of going for an idiomatic sentence there and failed since I immediately countermanded the idiom and I should stop talking about it and list stuff:
Visited with Bill, Megan and Jack (Lovely house, great family, convenient pool, inconvenient dog)
Visited Central Park (Very large, very green, really relaxing place)
Visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art (by accident, it was amazing)
Visited the American Museum of Natural History (took no photos, my phone was near-dead)
Visited Times Square (Ate at a TGIF restaurant near-overlooking the square, watched an old Rangers-Islanders game on MGS, saw about fifty billion people)
Visited the Museum of Modern Art (on purpose, was still amazing)
Took a trip on the NYC subway ( from the MoMA to 34th and 8th, took less than 5 minutes)
Walked the Highline (really cool idea, glad I heard about it, WAY too busy to truly enjoy when I went)
Ate at an Italian Restaurant in NYC (Eataly, and even though it was expensive, I would go back in a heartbeat)
Paid my first toll in the US (it was an intriguing concept until I had paid over $100 in tolls!)
Visited the Liberty Bell (much much smaller than I had imagined it would be, still just as cool)
Ate a Philly Cheese Steak (not as good as it could have been but I was in a hurry)
Got stuck in traffic on the I-76 (for two hours, directly behind a tractor trailer, and beside a sign asking people to BUCKLE UP!)
Stayed in a hostel half a block away from Wrigley field (really cool hostel, beds were uncomfortable, but the atmosphere was great)
Visited the Field Museum (Amazing displays of dinosaurs, and three gift shops filled with Sue memorabilia that I saw. There may have been more.)
Got conned by a woman near the Trump Tower in Chicago (she talked to me for a minute, squirted some gunk on my shoes and fast-talked her way into $10. I thought it was hilarious)
Met Adrian and Lindsay for drinks (had a great time, despite Lindsay making fun of me for my Canadian accent)
Went to the World Bird Sanctuary (Golden Eagles are freaking HUGE)
Went to the St. Louis Zoo (otters are not, but are much cuter while being fed)
Went to Rams training camp ( Tons of people there, too bad they went 1-3 in the preseason)
Stayed with my friend Geoff (and went and played board games with his church group)
Took my car in to have the A/C repaired (the shop also fixed my drive belt, which I thanked them for when climbing Pike's Peak)
Visited with Jimmy, stayed with his folks, Mike and Becky (Mike and Becky were nice, I can no longer make "Your mother" comments when talking with Jimmy)
Met Craig and Bill for BBQ (Next time we go, I should bring back some beans, they were good)
Saw the WW1 museum (which was far more America-centric than I believe a WW1 museum should be)
Saw the Aquarium at the Crown Centre in KC (Bow-mouthed Guitarfishes are a combination of Ray and Shark. They are the best sea creature. Period.)
Played board games with Jimmy's brother in law (unsuccessfully attempted to kill them all as a swarm of bats)
Successfully managed to avoid boredom driving through Kansas (I'm lying)
Saw the Garden of the Gods (no funny stuff about this place, it was just plain awesome)
Climbed Pike's Peak in my car (glad I had the drive belt changed, and glad I recently had it serviced. Oh, and the mountain was nice)
Successfully Navigated Denver traffic jam (Road rage would be an insufficiently vitriolic term for how pissed off I was that afternoon)
Saw a small-town parade (the Carbon County parade in Rawlins, WY, there were creepy 6 year olds in skimpy show clothing waving professionally to the five people watching the parade)
Saw the Grand Tetons national Park (more tolls! These were acceptable tolls, but expensive nonetheless)
Saw the Yellowstone National Park (and Old Faithful, which is all anyone knows about Yellowstone, other than it was what Jellystone was based on in Yogi Bear's show)
Failed to get a hotel room in Bozeman, MN (Biker Conventions cause hotels to fill up quickly on weekends)
Almost failed to get a hotel room A HUNDRED MILES AWAY BECAUSE OF THE SAME CONVENTION (the caps denote how infuriating this ALMOST was)
Saw Riverfront Park in Spokane (and actually got to swim for the first time since Wilton)
Visited Pike Place market (Fish Throwing and Starbucks are the two major themes of this market)
Caught (ha, ha) a Jays-Mariners game (It was Unofficial Canada Day at the stadium, AKA August 4th)
Delayed traffic at the Canadian border (by having a long conversation with the border agent who was incredibly friendly, sorry any US travelers who were stuck behind me)
Walked around the outside of Stanley Park (in the entirely incorrect direction according to posted signage, which strikes me as a weird phenomenon)
Shot four guns for the first time (.22 pistol, .22 scoped rifle, 9mm pistol and a shotgun with buckshot, was fun, but I honestly don't see the need to ever own one of those)
Stayed with Brenna and Devin (and Chaucer and Swift, we all watched top gear and ate thai food)
Went to Granville Market (bought some really expensive cheese, a couple of mini baguettes and turkey breast for the trip)
Had drinks and Sushi near Gastown (the Avenue and Davenport is now my favourite cocktail. It is also one of two total cocktails I've ever had)
Drove through the Canadian rockies from Vancouver to essentially Canmore (Absolutely beautiful, but at times frustrating to drive through, too slow)
Stayed with Rob at the Kananaskis research station (got to meet his class and see an excellent lecture about the importance of Biodiversity, and why invertebrate Biodiversity is just as important as other kinds)
Drove through the icefields parkway (holy crap the mountains are beautiful on this highway)
Walked up to the Athabasca Glacier (couldn't stay long enough to walk ON the glacier, but I loved the temperature change)
Stayed with Jason and Nicole in Edmonton (played some card games, and watched Arrested Development, I already miss Ales Hemsky with Jason's head)
Saw the West Edmonton Mall (it's just a mall)
Stayed with Trish and James in Airdrie ( very nice house, the baby crows outside wanted to welcome me every morning)
Went to the badlands, Drumheller and the Royal Tyrell museum (dinos are coooooooooool, and so are other fossils)
Saw some of downtown Calgary (Calgary's parking machines suck! Calgary is nice, though)
Stayed with Amber and Peter in Okotoks (amazing house, really nice evening, wish we had had a chance to drink some mead!)
Stayed with Amber's parents in Regina (and managed to ruin their bathroom within 15 minutes by putting my knee through two wall tiles and bleeding in their tub)
Saw the Rifftrax Live! Of Starship Troopers (really great turnout, I'm glad the first showing in Canada did so well.)
Saw Rouleau, Saskatchewan, AKA Dog River (The grain elevator still says Dog River on it, but apparently the water tower was digitally added on. Colour me disappointed)
Met Jon's grandparents, his friends Dana, Adam and Seth, (and Dana's sister, whose name I STILL cannot remember, and I feel awful about, since we had a nice bit of conversation, and since she provided the tickets to the Bombers game)
Saw the Winnipeg Blue Bombers get destroyed (by an equally woeful team. Winnipeg should be proud of the fans who came out to support an awful team)
Got searched by a border agent (I don't know why, possibly because of my weird places of entry and exit into the country, but it was an experience being treated like a suspected criminal)
Saw the Mall of America (also just a mall)
Stayed with Dudley and Amy in Hastings, MN (then got a nice backroads tour of Minnesota from Dudley the next morning on my way back to Canada)
Drove through three more states than I had anticipated in like two days (North Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan were all surprises!)
Stayed a final night in Sault Ste. Marie (at the Holiday Motel, which was cheap, and pleasant)
Spent three days at my cottage unwinding from the trip (100% necessary after the trip)
When you list it like that, it kind of looks like an actual trip someone took, eh?
- comments