Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Cross Country Trek - Day 6

Today's travel involved driving from Portland to Sacramento; a drive of over 8 hours (excluding stops). Arrival quickly led to dinner. Later, Ethan and Jake went into Old Town in search of local flavor and libation.

Tomorrow will see us taking a side trip into the alternate wine country of Amador County instead of the traditional tourist area of Napa.

Cross Country Trek - Day 5

Jumping off from Missoula, Montana we continued our westward trek (basically following the path of Lewis & Clark) into the panhandle region of northern Idaho and quickly transitioning into Washington (Spokane). The objective of our routing was to follow the scenic route along the Washington side of the Columbia River and ultimately cross the river into Portland, Oregon.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Cross Country Trek - Days 3 & 4

After visiting the Mall of America (see previous post) we drove through Minnesota to North Dakota. This drive started at 1:00 pm (Central time) and ended after 7:00 pm (Mountain time) in Dickinson, ND. A lot of driving for a partial travel day!

We had a nice dinner in a regional "chain" restaurant, Sanford's. The food was excellent; the burgers are hand patted and the variety of burgers and other dishes were almost overwhelming (you should have seen the size of the menu!). Too bad we won't encounter another Sanford's on this trip.

Day 4 had us hauling butt from Dickinson through the western North Dakota Badlands and the Theodore Roosevelt National Park and into Montana. Admittedly the scenery in western North Dakota and Montana was more pleasant than the majority of the prairie areas of North Dakota. Our day ended in Missoula.

A review of Mall Of America: Ginormous!

Visited the Mall of America (MOA) yesterday. Yep, it’s a huge mall and yes, other malls have many of the same stores, but not all under one roof. We only had three hours to spend before hitting the road again on our cross country drive, so we tried to eye ball as much of MOA as we could. To do this we cruised the first and third levels (totally skipping the second level). We spent the majority of our time in three places: Nordstrom Rack, the Apple Store, and at lunch (Famous Dave’s).

If you are visiting from out-of-town like we were consider booking a hotel stay and allowing yourself a couple of days to do justice to the place.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

The Cross Country Trek

Here is an update on the cross country drive from New Jersey to California.

Day 1. We left South Orange a little after 7:00 am the car jammed with three people (Sig, Ethan, and his friend Jake), clothing, snacks, and more. Perhaps we had a bit too much stuff, but we figured we'd be able to adjust things as we went along.

We arrived at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland by 3:00 pm touring it until its 5:30 closing. Although it is located right on the shore of Lake Eire, a heavy lake fog prevented us from taking in the scenery. Instead we had to content ourselves with having seen the rock memorabilia and tributes inside the Hall. From the Hall we ambled off for a quick bite at the Hard Rock Cafe and then a short drive to our hotel. The excesses of the night before and the pace of the first day took its toll Ethan and Jake and it was an early end to the day for all.

Day 2. This was a grueling day. We left Cleveland at 8:00 to traveled to some truck stop outside an hour west to meet up with Jake's mother and sister for breakfast at MacDonald's; after that it was time to drive, and drive, and drive. 10:00 pm found us stopping in Minneapolis, MN for the evening. One day, five states (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsi, Minnesota), whew!

The morning of Day 3 will have us visiting the Mall of America and then on the road for North Dakota (2 of of my 43Places goals).

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Ethan's Graduation

Can it be that four years have gone by already? It doesn't seem it was all that long ago when we dropped Ethan off at Seton Hall University (www.shu.edu) for his freshman year and then yesterday he graduated with a Bachelors in Political Science . The ceremony was held at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Here is some photographic proof that he did in fact graduate:
(The Seton Hall Pirate & Ethan)

(Ethan spotted in the crowd)

(Sig, Spencer, Ethan, & Roberta after the ceremony)


(A kiss for luck)