Road-trippin'! Part VIII - Chicago!

I don't like Illinois, I just don't.  Even Indiana was alright.  Visiting Notre Dame and seeing beautiful farmhouses along the highway were welcoming, but Illinois had no such feel.

Driving through 24 states and even up into Canada, with each new state or province came a "Welcome" sign.  Well, every one except Illinois - I guess they don't like travelers.  I had been planking at each new state sign, so we definitely were looking for an Illinois sign, but none came, not going in, not even when we left (I scoured the landscape behind as we were leaving the state).  Due to the fact that we didn't feel welcome, we didn't stay long.

The streets of Gotham

One thing we had to get when we were in Chicago was an original deep-dish, Chicago-style pizza.  So we went to Gino's!  That place was cool: they let you 'decorate', aka graffiti, all over the benches and walls and such.  I left my mark in a different way :)  Tom ordered a deep-dish big enough for the both of us so I decided to get some chicken Alfredo over fettuccine.  Well, the pasta came and it was the size of 3 servings from The Olive Garden.  I downed it after a while, then went for some pizza.  Needless to say, I wasn't feeling too well, having eaten so much, so I asked the waitress (who had worked there for over 3 years), "How many people are stupid enough to eat a full order of pasta then go for pizza?" She thought about it for a moment, then replied, "One."  So I was either stupid or brave, but I was the first one she knew of to do it!

We had to hit up Wrigley Field, home of the Cubbies.  It was a pretty cool tour; I liked the history of the park and how the tour guide tried to make it sound as if the Cubs were good..  He admitted that they've had a 'few' bad seasons recently (yeah like the last 90 years).  My favorite part of the tour was when he was taking us to the most famous part of Wrigley: the visitor's locker room.  I found that hilarious!  Apparently every one comes to Wrigley to go to the visitor's lockers...

Sitting where many of the greats have 

The ivy

The locker room no one cares about

We were only a few blocks away from Lake Michigan so I ran over and watched the surf for a while.

Then we got out of Gotham as quickly as possible.  So long Illinois!

Road-trippin'! Part VII - Church sites (a few, anyway)!

Eastern New York and western New York are so different!  Eastern is filled with the big cities, the craziness of the New-York minute, the hustle and bustle of the fast life, and the western part is full of huge fields, small towns, and is just peaceful.

It was great to get the small town feel as we came up to Palmyra.  We first stopped at the Hill Cumorah Visitor's Center, where I was told I had to give the missionaries a referral, so I dutifully did so.  We watched the wonderful short film of the Restoration, and as I was sitting pondering in front of the Christus, I was cornered by a lady that was informed I was a teacher.  She rattled off a few places I "absolutely had to visit" so I could be authorized to teach U.S. History.  Well, we didn't visit any of them, and I blame Tom, since he was the driver. :)  Anyway, walking around the Hill Cumorah was exhilarating, especially looking down from the top at the thousands of chairs set up for the Hill Cumorah pageant.  Sadly, we were there on their day off, so we didn't stay around long.

We made sure to visit the Palmyra temple grounds and feel of the spirit there.  The whole area just demands a sort of quiet dignity, it's an amazing feeling.  And that was even before we went to the Sacred Grove and the Joseph Smith homestead.

If I thought it was cool BEFORE we visited the Sacred Grove, I was severely underestimating the word, 'cool'.  Wow, it was a transcendent moment in time, so tranquil and full of love that place is.  Take away the mosquitos and I could walk around the grove for days, just pondering on the things of eternity.

As with practically all spiritual experiences, it made me crave ice cream, so we went into town to the local ice cream parlor.  I looked at the prices and said, "I'll take a large."  "That's 8 scoops," replied the server.  "Nevermind!" It took over 30 minutes to pound through my 'medium', which was 6 heaping scoops of awesomeness.

The ice cream held me over almost to Kirtland, where we took a nice tour of the Kirtland temple.  It was a beautiful day, so that made up for the tour guide's 'umms' and 'likes'.  Yikes, it was bad - I couldn't even pay attention to the girl giving the tour, so I snuck in some pictures :)

I'm glad we got in some good spiritual experiences on our trip, cause heaven knows we needed it :)

Road-trippin'! Part VI - Niagara!

Okay, I like waterfalls.  I've dragged some people ridiculous amounts of miles just for a view of a good waterfall.  Well, Niagara has put them all to shame.  If you've never been, the pictures just don't do it any justice - it's humongous, it's grandiose, it's simply flat-out phenomenal!

Canadian Falls at night

After 2200 miles of our road trip spent winding up along the coast, we finally started our way west, and before we got to Niagara, we had to visit the Ben & Jerry ice cream factory (the only reason we went to Vermont).  The factory was closed, due to it being the weekend, but we still got the ice cream at the end of the tour, yummy :)

We look better than the original guys!

We wanted to drive a good section through Canada, but we had to cross Lake Champlain first, so we took the ferry, which added to my modes of transport in New York on this trip (walk, drive, take a taxi, bus, train, plane, boat, and now ferry).

I didn't feel very welcome on my first trip to Canada, as we were detained at the border.  They didn't believe that we just wanted to "drive through Canada to Niagara Falls." They questioned us a ton and it seemed like they were trying to get us to cross ourselves from our answers to previous agents.  I guess a U.S. Government employee and a bearded fellow are now on the top of the Canadian terrorist lists.  Moral of the story? Canadians get bored, since no one wants to visit their country, so let them have their fun..

We wanted to make it to the Falls by sunset, so we were booking it through Canada.  Well, I needed a 'rest stop', but I didn't want to get off the highway, so I just pulled over..  After I was ready to drive again, I got back in the car when an ambulance stops right in front of us and two fire trucks blockade the road behind us.  I'm so scared, I didn't have any clue if what I just did on the highway was illegal or not in Canada, so I'm all nervous.  The guys in the ambulance come running out to us, and I'm just waving them off, saying, "I'm fine, I'm fine, nothing to worry about sirs!" They still came right up to the window and asked, "So are you okay?  Were you the ones that called for us?" Of course not!  I didn't need an official Canadian escort to take a quick rest stop!  So they ran off, whew - crisis averted.

We get to Niagara at dusk, and park within view of the falls.  Some old lady, ya know the type that has to make sure everything around them is all going according to how they view life, comes up to us and yells that we're going to get a ticket for parking there!  We could see tickets on all the other cars, but we just sat in the car.  Soon, a Canadian police officer comes up and I play dumb, asking where we can park to view the falls.  This guy was as Canuck as they are in the movies, it was awesome!  The conversation went something like this:  "Excuse me officer!  Do you know where we can park to view the falls?" "Oh sure, eh, you'll want to find something pretty soon, cause they do fireworks over the falls tonight, so eh, you could park here.  I wish that lady hadn't say you'd get a ticket, but I tell you what, I didn't ticket those last three cars cause I just don't feel like it.  You could park, illegally of course, here, or down where the buses park, but my boss will be there in like 20 minutes, so you'd have to hurry, ya know eh, so you could just tell the lady I gave you a ticket and stay here.  And ya know, during the fireworks, all we cops prolly aren't gonna be watching parking - we'll be doing traffic, plus, if ya do get a ticket, you don't really have to pay it wink wink ;)"  "Thank you sir!" "No problem!  Enjoy Canada, eh."
The lady gave us a mean crusty as we walked by but we were all smiles.  Plus, the falls at night are all lit up and cool, so it would've been worth a ticket we didn't really have to pay, anyway.

The next morning we woke up and viewed the falls a bit: view from Skylon tower, right at the falls, then from Maid of the Mist:

Canadian horseshoe falls

American falls

After Maid of the Mist, Tom took off his poncho and I wanted to hike right up close to the American Falls, and he should put on his poncho for the hike.

I kept mine on :)

He said, and I quote, "What's a little water?" Well, needless to say, but I need to rub it in, he was soaked to the bone before we even made it near the top of the stairs, lol.

I chased a rainbow and actually stepped on the end!  I may have squashed the leprechaun, though, cause I didn't see him :(

Next time I go I'm taking a barrel :) that looks fun!

Road-trippin'! Part V - Acadia!

"If you moved here, I'd come visit you."

Tom told me that a few hours into Maine, and I think that sums up Maine in one sentence.  Driving through the winding forest roads with the windows down and seeing the vast ocean open up right in front of your eyes is definitely a sight to behold.  Maine just has a different, relaxing, wonderful feel to it.  It was one of four states I had not previously visited, and now it ranks right up there with my favorites.  I wish we could've spent a bit more time in the land of lighthouses, but we were provided just a teaser, making us want to return again and again.
Here is my teaser for what we saw in Maine:

Booth Harbor lighthouse 

Island of Malaga, in Phippsburg - super sad history surrounds this island - I read about it in a book, "Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy",  by one of my favorite authors, Gary D. Schmidt.  After reading the book, I had to visit.

Next are a few pics from our aerial tour of Acadia National Park.  Sadly, it was raining as we drove around the park that morning, knowing we couldn't get in a plane with the storm.  We got soaked as we walked in to the Visitor's Center, and when we left, just 20 minutes or so later, the sun was shining and the clouds had left.  We called up the agency and were in the plane as quickly as we could get to the airstrip!  The view was simply spectacular!  I'd drive clear to Acadia again just to do this flight.

I couldn't leave Maine without sampling their lobster, and it didn't disappoint :)

Also, the sunset that evening was stunning!  This was our view for a good 25-30 minutes :)

Maine - thoroughly enjoyed :)