Austin, TX

Going out with Gary and friends

State capitol building

Congress St bats

New Orleans, LA

The French Quarter

Pharmacy Museum

Voodoo Museum

Muffuletta

Crazy Rain

Cafe du Monde

Frenchmen St.

Swamp Tour

Daquiri

Dat Dog

Tipinina's

Memphis, TN

Jim Neely's Interstate BBQ

A full plate of rib tips, coleslaw, and potato salad

National Civil Rights Museum

The balcony of room 306 at the lorraine
motel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
was assassinated

Gibson Guitar Factory

The most interesting guitar
I could find in the store

Nashville, TN

Going out with Jacob and the Swedes in Downtown Nashville

The main drag on Broadway St on Saturday night

Country Music Hall of Fame

Some of the classically ridiculous
country music get-ups

Jack's BBQ

My three new BBQ Gods
Best sauces I have ever had

Jack's BBQ sign

Belle Meade Plantation

The main house at the Plantation

The Site map

Atlanta, GA

Gladys Knight Chicken and Waffles

Thar she blows!

CNN Tour

Command Central

Blind Willie's Jazz Club

The house band spitting some cool tunes

Sweetwater Brewery

The "dank tank" which is used for the brewery's
experimental batches

The Varsity

My meal from the world's largest drive-in
with their signature Varsity orange drink
which was basically an orange cream-sickle shake

Asian Brunch with Richard

Richard's donut and soy dipping sauce

My asian inspired omelette and duck bun sandwhich

Charlotte, NC

BBQ King Drive in

My full meal

BBQ Chicken

Pulled Pork sando with extra BBQ sauce

BBQ King Drive in

Le menu

Roy fitting in perfectly with the scenery

Milton, DE

The Dogfish Head Brewery

A burning man treehouse that the brewery
purchased for $1 and reconstructed
for an additional $30,000

The enthusiastic and knowledgeable tour guide

Safety (goggles) first!

The gigantic Oak casks (and palo santo in the rear)
used for aging

Washington DC

Seeing Emmie

Walking around the National Mall

Trivia Night with Miriam and Wes Folks

Ace's Place

Gym time!

New York, NY

At the suggestion of my grandfather, I will be filling out my my blogs as outlines with a few pictures, so that it is possible to track my progress on a more up-to-date basis. Don't worry, I'll come back to fill these out with actual narrative. I guess that means you'll just have to check back more often.

Dinner and drinks with Maria

Drinks with Storms then partying with John Speed

Hanging with David Nagle, Dinner, happy hour

Breakfast with Dawn

Sight seeing (statue of liberty, ground zero, empire state, 30 rock and times square)

Brooklyn with Mirsky et al

McCarren Park and seeing Joe

A panoramic view of New Jersey from the Chelsea Piers

My main course of lobster pot pie rolls

Dessert of flourless chocolate cake with whipped cream,
minced strawberries, coffee ice cream, and dark chocolate
sauce

Pastrami sandwich and pickles from Katz's Deli

The view from the observation deck of the Empire State Building

My friends Nick and Brendan having a good laugh

New Haven, CT

New Haven, only a two hour skip of a drive away, fell next on my itinerary. There I would have a chance to see my friend Mike from Wesleyan, rest up, and strategically plan my trip to New York.

Mike and I had become friends in college when we both worked for residential life as RAs . He had catapulted himself straight from Wesleyan into medical school at Einstein in the Bronx and was now in a gap year completing his MPH at Yale. My short visit gave me time to catch up with him, and get a glimpse into the life of a jaded 4th year medical student. For the most part, he seemed almost depressingly frustrated with medicine, and the greater system of medicine within the United States. He warned that I too would eventually succumb to this view point as he and all of his fellow med students had. While it may be a show of my current naivete, I chose to hold on to the belief that during medical school and beyond, I would not lose my compassion for others nor my enthusiasm for the medical field. The truth will be revealed in four years, but I'm counting on myself as well as the support from you all to help me resist the temptation of the easy road to dispassion arrogance.

Luckily, my time with Mike was not limited solely to pessimistic conversation about medicine. He took me to the top of New Haven's mountain/hill where we caught the sun setting over the city. We also shared some drinks with his boyfriend Dave and a couple of their friends. Due to Mike's immutable penchant for overachieving, he had to stop his merrymaking after a single beer and slink off to complete a homework project for one of his MPH classes. I truly enjoyed my time with Mike even though it was cut short by the demands of a his busy and successful life.

The New Haven skyline

Mike Striking a pose

The New Haven sunset

Boston, MA

While I have been to Boston many times, I was glad to return to this familiar city during my trip because I have so many ties here. Between friends from Exeter, Wesleyan and home in California, family, and former coworkers, I had plenty of people to visit and keep me entertained. Or so I thought. When I called all of the aforementioned people, I found out that over eight of the people I wanted to see were leaving for the weekend or longer, meaning I would not be able to see them at all. I had expected that the summer months would lead a few of them to vacation destinations, but somehow Jupiter's shadow was perfectly aligned with the orbit of the moon which reflected certain solar flares causing the highly implausible exodus of all of these people. I was sad that I was going to miss, the opportunity to reconnect with many old friends, but not all of them were gone. Their absence also gave me a chance to rest and recuperate from the long journey.

I stayed at my grandparents house for the majority of my time in Boston. They are always extremely welcoming and happy to have me in their home. When I spend time with them I am incorporated into their various daily rituals. Each morning I am invited to mass which I respectfully decline. I sat at the dining room table with them, everyone pausing the chaos of their individual lives to commune with the family over a home cooked meal. I became a regular participant in the post mealtime games of farkle, five crowns, or dominoes. When I'm not visiting, they often determine who will do the dishes by playing a game after eating. However, in certain circumstances, my grandfather complains of being too tired even after he has lost, and shirks his dish duty. During the day, I listened to crescendos of my grandmothers flute as she practiced for her upcoming band camp at Mount Holyoke. At night, I tucked myself in early to be well rested for the next day. It was a simple life and simply put I thoroughly enjoyed.

My first two nights in Boston, I reunited with my old Exeter friend Lacie and my old residential life boss Alex. After attending Boston College for her undergraduate years, Lacie moved into an apartment in the city and has since become such a fan of beantown that she gives walking tours in her spare time on a volunteer basis. One year after I graduated, Alex had left Wesleyan to become a residential director at Dean College just outside of Boston. While moving from Middletown, CT had brightened his social life, he was finding the social justice agenda at Dean less than impressive. With both Lacie and Alex I recalled old stories from our time together and was reminded of others I had forgotten. 

One of the people I was most excited to see, my friend Liana, had such a busy schedule which included a weekend trip to the Hamptons, that I only managed to spend a grand total of fifty minutes with her the two times we met. She stopped by my grandparents house for a quick glass of wine for about half an hour where I caught the coarse details of her current life. I learned that she had received a scholarship to attend a school of public health in London for next year, but the offer had been rescinded because of the an accounting mistake made on the part of the offering foundation. The second time, I picked her up from the Boston public library only to realize that I would have to leave twenty minutes later to be on time for a family dinner at my aunt and uncle's house in Belmont. We ended up just parking the car in Southie and talking for a little while. She told me that there might still be hope of receiving the scholarship because the foundation had been digging around in other funds to rectify their previous mistake. I said goodbye after our short second rendezvous and wished her good luck with the scholarship and the coming year.

When I arrived in Belmont, dinner preparations were in full swing. I caught up with my uncle Pierre and my cousins Zoe and Esme. I heard about their recent travels in Europe and their plans for the summer. A good glass of wine, a simple yet very satisfying dinner, and the love and company of my family were all I needed to feel happy. I'm sad that I don't get to spend more of my evenings in the same fashion.

The next day, I woke up next to a note from my uncle Pierre. I had said the previous night that I would wake up early to say goodbye to him, but according to him I had been so sound asleep, cuddling with one of stuffed animals from my cousin's bed, that he didn't want to wake me up. I had lunch with Esme and during our conversation she mentioned that she wanted to learn to drive stick shift. I happened to have both a manual car and the extra time for a little lesson, so we headed to a nearby parking lot and pulled a Chinese fire drill. With a quick verbal walkthrough of the mechanics of a manual car, Esme successfully shifted into first gear her very first try. She proved to be a natural even on Roy who can be somewhat temperamental with a short engagement point. Starting the car while facing uphill ended with a few burnt clutch attempts, but all-in-all, Esme was an extremely quick learner and I think she'll be driving Lamborghinis in no time.  

Greene, NY and Binghamton, NY

On the road between Pittsburgh and Boston, I was fortunate enough to meet my uncle Bob's family in Greene, NY. A short fifteen minute drive North of Binghamton, NY where Bob grew up, Greene, lives up to its name in the summer time, with a lush cover of verdant fields and hearty trees. Bob's cousin Shari, her father, Ted, and her husband Jeff all welcomed me over for at dinner at their farm style home. As I pulled  into their driveway, their dogs came out to welcome me with barks which quickly turned to eager licks and panting. It didn't take long before Jeff offered me a beer, which I happily drank after a tiresome drive, and showed me around the house. Shari was also kind enough to introduce me to her two horses, who were being assailed by throngs of flies. Luckily they wore special bonnets that gave them a small amount of protection around their most sensitive areas.

Dale's house in Binghamton

Living on the road for over a month, I had forgotten how much a pleasant sit-down meal could be when it was enjoyed in the company of others. Thankfully, Shari, Jeff and Ted, shared heart warming food and scintillating conversation back into my life. Ted, newly single after his wife's recent passing, had in the past few months started taking up cooking as he was the only at home. He contributed a delicious egg salad which had the perfect texture, not too dry, but not soaked through with mayonnaise. Over dinner I heard interesting stories about Bobby (aka uncle Bob) and his adventures growing up. With night falling quickly and the mosquitoes coming out in full force, I said my goodbyes and thank yous to Jeff Shari and Ted and headed towards Binghamton for the evening.

Dale, Bob's mother, had generously opened her home in Binghamton to me even though she was out on vacation in Delaware. I let myself in using the spare key that she had strategically hid for me, but had a difficult time finding a light switch which resulted in a session of clumsy wall groping for a good minute or two. Once I finally flicked the switch, I found a endearing hand written note Dale had left me. She explained where I could find everything in the house and let me know there was ice tea waiting for me in the fridge. I was sad I wouldn't be able to see her during my trip, but I was touched by letter she had left me. I now understood why my uncle Bob can be a man of such compassion. It wasn't long before I sought out my bed for the evening and laid down for some rest.


The following morning, feeling refreshed from a full nine hours of sleep, I woke up and went through my morning routine. For breakfast, I finished the leftovers of fruit salad that Shari had given me from the previous night's dinner. After, I went for a quick jog to get the blood pumping, but managed to lose my bearings on the return loop and had to wander around the Binghamton streets for a short while until I finally stumbled upon Dale's house. I cleaned up in the shower changed clothes and walked down to the house's basement to see uncle Bob's father's model train set. I had heard about it several times from Bob and was curious to see it in real life. Taking up almost half of the house's garage, the train set was much bigger than I had imagined. Five separate control panels controlled all the various aspects of the model including individual train speeds, track switching, and animation of the various services and stations. Alas, those were all conjectures as I couldn't operate the system myself. I tried a few of the on/off switches, but none of them seemed to be connected. Even in their inanimate form, the trains, model people, and the scenery all seemed alive because of the incredible detail with which they were created and maintained. Bob's father's passion for trains shone through in all the small details of the set. I can only imagine how impressive the whole model would be in full swing. 


I'll leave you all with some photos of the set:

 

Pittsburgh, PA

Pittsburgh by day

While I considered abandoning my road trip in favor of staying in Ann Arbor for the summer to work at Zingerman's Deli (they receive over $20/hour and have full benefits) the open road called out to me whispering "Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh. The iron city awaits". Pittsburgh it would turn out was indeed was laying in wait. When Roy and I journeyed through the Fort Pitt Tunnel, just as we emerged through it's mouth, the Pittsburgh cityscape exploded into view in front of us. The Monongahela and Allegheny rivers, crisscrossed with colorful iron bridges, carved out the peninsula of Pittsburgh's downtown, towering with tall skyscrapers. Pittsburgh beamed with industrial pride, unabashedly displaying its unfinished brick buildings, wrought iron bridges, and murals of iron and steel workers.

Pittsburgh by night

I met my friend Karl, a former Wesleyan frisbee teammate, at one of his summer league ultimate games. His team was losing, but he was playing very well in spite of the score. As I watched him play, throwing deep hucks to his teammates, I reminisced about the times when I had been his receiver on the field and we connected  to score against strong opponents. Because I showed up late in the day, the game was over only ten minutes after my arrival. Karl and I threw for a short while after the game then headed to a bar for a few drinks. I followed Karl up a winding road to the top of Mt. Washington, a hill of a mountain, opposite downtown and across the banks of the Monongahela. From the top, I snapped a few beautiful shots of Pittsburgh alive with color in the evening hour. At the bar, I imbibed Pittsburgh's signature beer, Iron City, which we ordered by the bucket full (each bucket comes with five beers).

The incline moving up the tracks

The next day, Karl left early in the morning for work, and I set out to explore Pittsburgh by foot. I headed to the Duquesne incline, an iconic Pittsburgh cable car system that has been pulling its passengers up the side of Mt. Washington since 1877. The old wooden cars which have been restored to resemble their original style, are painted a brilliant red so that they can easily be seen from most parts of the city. While the ride itself was not as thrilling as that of a roller coaster, it did allow me to take some more beautiful shots of Pittsburgh by day (as seen above).

From the incline I walked across the Monongahela, on one of Pittsburgh's many bridges, through downtown to the Heinz museum. Named after senator Heinz of the prolific Pittsburgh Heinz family, it contained seven different exhibits in a single building. One of them was devoted entirely to the history of Pittsburgh sports and at its entrance a small plaque stated "winning starts here". This particular exhibit featured an installation called "is it a sport?". There, to my chagrin, they displayed the jersey and disc of the the Carnegie Mellon University ultimate team. Another exhibit focused solely on the history the Heinz corporation and its many products. My favorite part of the exhibit was a cartoon version of a couple people talking on the phone with the following conversation. Wife, "Come on home for supper, darling! Corned beef hash, poached eggs, and a new bottle of Heinz ketchup!" Husband, "Coming soon, you angel! That bright fresh ketchup flavor has my mouth watering already!"

Pittsburgh's industrial look

From the Heinz museum, I walked around the strip district soaking up the Pittsburgh state of mind. I passed many storefronts covered in black and yellow, the color of all the major Pittsburgh sports teams. I popped my head inside one of them and snagged two more bumper stickers for Roy as part of a project I'm doing. I continued strolling through the strip as a light rain began to paint the brick buildings a rusted ruby color. As I walked through the former industrial neighborhood turned bohemian chic by the newest generation, I still observed the older signs left behind from the working man's era. One proclaimed, "We don't go to the office. We build it." All in all I found myself becoming a fan of Pittsburgh productive no-nonsense ethos.

Max and I at PNC park

I continued walking until I reached my friend Max's apartment where we had a delicious Jimmy Buffet Margaritaville machine margarita. We didn't stay for long because we had tickets to that night's Pirates game. We took a quick drive down to PNC park, the Pirates beautiful new stadium (RIP three rivers stadium) and found parking for only four dollars. Max said that our twenty dollar tickets were unusually expensive for the pirates because they were having an above .500 season for the first time in twenty years. Normally for twenty dollars you get seats in an all you can eat area. Maybe the Pirates should keep losing if you ask me. In any case, we found our seats in the bleachers and proceeded to heckle the Houston Astros' left fielder immediately. The buccos (the pirates affectionate nickname) came back in splendid fashion against the Astros with two late inning two run homeruns to win the game.

Ann Arbor, MI

A long needed recovery and return to the world of modern conveniences awaited me at Will's apartment after camping in the Electric Forest. My first strategic maneuver was to remove the layers of crusted dirt and sweat accumulated from the multiple days of dancing in the dusty venue. The water ran literally brown off of my body for the first dozen seconds of showering. It was without question one of my top three bathroom experiences. The next order of business was shaving my beard which had been growing unattended for a few weeks. I emerged a new man after my banal yet newly appreciated hygiene rituals and collapsed on Will's bed. Thirteen hours later, refreshed and revitalized, I explored Ann Arbor in my usual manner, taste-buds first. Based on several people's recommendations I stopped at one the town's culinary hot spots, Krazy Jim Blimpie's Burgers. 


Now this, ladies and gentlemen, was not your average burger joint. For starters, there was a certain unwritten ordering etiquette, that was vaguely reminiscent of the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld. I had to stand in line, grab a tray for dine in, look directly at the cook and ordered in the following sequence without deviation. Fried side dishes must be ordered first. Then burger orders begin with number of patties (literally any number of 1.6 ounce patties), type of bun (regular, kaiser, onion, or pumpernickel), grilled toppings (mushrooms, onions, banana peppers, olives fried egg, salami, and/or bacon)  and finally which type of cheese you would like (swiss, american, blue, feta, cheddar or provolone). Last, when my burger was ready for non grilled toppings, I slid down to the ordering counter and began with wet toppings (mayo, mustard, etc) ending with veggies. Two other restrictions applied to the ordering protocol: no cell phones in line and I was prohibited from saying anything I didn't want on me burger. Blimpies and its staff lived only in the affirmative. If for any reason, a person cannot follow these very simple steps, then her or she faced back talk from the chef and public ridicule from other patrons. I made it through the ordering gauntlet and walked away victorious with a triple on a kaiser with grilled mushrooms, onions, banana peppers, olives, fried egg, swiss, mayo, mustard, ketchup, tomatoes, regular onions and lettuce. BOOM! When I plowed into my burger - and I mean plowed literally because the burger's girth permitted only a mechanical shoving motion towards the face - I was hit with a delectable medley of flavors. Grilled onions and peppers, collided with cool tomatoes and lettuce mixing the bacon and swiss flavors. They all became holistically united under the burger banner captained by the oh-so-juicy patties. Touche Jim Blimpie. By the time the last few bites were left, they needed to be shoveled into my mouth as the kaiser roll had disintegrated under the torrent of drippings that escaped up to that point. I found a fun video on youtube about Blimpie's that gives you a good sense of the place: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCr8WX61FAc

The next day, Will told me that I needed to go to Zingerman's Deli before I left Ann Arbor, and he promptly escorted me to the premises without waiting for my response. Zingerman's, a hybrid deli and high-end food store became the object of my eternal culinary lust for a single simple fact: anything for sale in the store can be sampled for free. That's right, anything. Want to taste a fifty dollar bottle of eight year-old balsamic vinegar from modena Italy? Done. Not sure if it's worth spending the extra money on homemade marshmallows? You can try both the vanilla and the chocolate to make sure you don't miss out. Afraid the bread you're considering purchasing has gone stale? You can have a slice just to be sure it's safe. Not only were all the store wares just an "excuse me" away from hitting my taste-buds, the abundant and friendly staff were more than happy to tell me all about the products: their history, how to best enjoy them, and what else I might like with them. In most cases, I didn't even need to ask the staff, as soon as I made eye contact with them, I had a sampling spoon in my hand and had just received a crash course in the finer points of assessing the quality of an olive oil. I nearly had a full meal as I drifted from the artisan cheeses to the African honeys to wood oven baked breads and everything in between. If Mr. Zingerman ever decided to open up a location in San Francisco, he could conquer the the city in under a week.

As a closing note, I would like to apologize for the lack of pictures from Ann Arbor. I was a little fried from the music festival in Rothbury I had attended and forgot to bring my camera with me on most of my adventures.

Rothbury, MI

I tried five separate times to write a post about the four day electronic music festival Electric Forest I attended in Rothbury, MI. Depressingly, each attempt proved more futile than the previous in trying to capture the experience, so I will let the images and videos speak for themselves. You can find them here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/79525116@N03/sets/72157630463522486/

Chicago, IL

Long, lonely days on the road with little rest in between had been taxing my soul, and I was glad to arrive in Chicago where I would finally rest for more than two or three days. My friend and former organic lab partner, Phoebe, from Wesleyan, generously welcomed me into her home for my entire stay in the windy city. We were able to spend a large amount of time together because she was in between jobs and happy to have someone around who also had few commitments on any given day. Aside from job hunting, Phoebe was spending most of her time on her true passion, improv comedy. In fact, during my first night in Chicago I was lucky enough to watch the final performance for one of her improv classes held in the Second City building. She and her classmates did very well even when I threw out the horrible suggestion of "common advantage" (they asked for a two word phrase that had the initials C A). I was even lucky enough to sit ever so quietly in on a rehearsal for her sketch comedy troupe where I got a behind-the-scenes look into all the planning that goes into a one-liner. Because I don't remember the exact chronological order of all of my Chicago memories, I'll give you the highlights in no particular order.

Deep Dish Pizza

When they said deep dish, they meant it

One of my first gastronomical excursions in Chicago came in the form of the almighty Chicago style deep dish Pizza. Many people had recommended Lou Malnati's for the best deep dish in town. In addition to the many recommendations it received, I like Lou's because when you say its name in whole at a fast pace, it sounds vaguely like Illuminati's pizza. I liked to think that there was a deep hidden meaning or mystery embedded in my pizza. Puzzle laden or not, Lou's pizza  measured over an inch in thickness by the time they had loaded it to the brim with cheeses and veggies. It came in a special deep dish pizza box because any normal box would have collapsed under the pizza's staggering weight. Normally when I'm hungry I can eat an entire large to myself, but it took three of us to slay the circular beast in the end. For those of you who have never had deep dish pizza from Chicago, I highly recommend it; it is an unparalleled pizza experience.

Sight Seeing

Lake Michigan and Chicago from Willis tower

While in Chicago I had plenty of time to visit all of the wonderful public and private tourist areas. The Willis tower, formerly and probably more popularly known as Sears Tower, was first on my list. My friend Chris who I visited in Seattle and know from Exeter told me that the viewing deck on the top floor of the tower was a sight not to be missed. When I arrived at the base of the tower I had to crane my neck and almost lean backwards to see the height of the skyscraper. I had to go through quite an ordeal to finally gain access to the top of the building. I was forced to go through a security check, mandatory photo op, a long line for ticket sales, a short video detailing the history of the building and a maze/museum with Chicago history facts just to reach the viewing deck elevators. When at last I made it to the front of the line for the elevators, the surly operator packed as many passengers in to the elevator as physically possible before we zipped up the 109 stories to the top. The viewing deck offers a 360 degree panorama of the Chicago Skyline, but I had to fight dozens of gawkers at each side to get good pictures with my camera. It is possible to dangle a few feet out over the West side of the buidling's side if you wait in line for 20 minutes to access the glass balconies, but there were more sights to see and so little time.


Also in the loop area of Chicago where the elevated trains all converge, lies Millenium park. It is home to many of the classic Chicago icons including the bean, a gigantic reflective bean-shaped scultpure, the Jay Pritzker Pavillion, a large grassy auditorium roofed by a lattice of metal beams where free concerts are often held, the BP bridge another smooth metallic structure that snakes its way across the park, and a large fountain in which kids and sometimes adults often frolic. The park is right next to lake Michigan and offers spectacular sights in all of its areas. Here are some of the aforementioned parts of the park.

The bean

BP bridge

Millenium park

Dinner with Tommy

All of my walking and sightseeing had left me hungry which was perfect as I had dinner plans with my friend Tommy from Exeter. He lives in the crazy world of finance which means working 80-90 hours a week, so I was lucky snag him for a brief evening of barbecue. I met him at his girlfriend's house where we grilled burgers and talked about the good old days over many cold beers and mojitos. He proved the work hard play hard stereotype true by knocking back over 8 drinks on a Sunday night, but hey it's summer and you only live once! As an editorial note, I have been surprised to see how differently my Exeter friends remember their boarding school experience even though most of us had quite similar lives when in school. Almost all their reviews have been positive, but some of my comrades have looked back much more favorably than others.

Beach Day

Montrose beach

On a separate day, Phoebe and I made a trip to lake Michigan to enjoy the beach and soak up some sun. We went to Montrose beach, the biggest and most popular in all of Chicago, which extended over 200 yards before it reached the water front. While the sun was abundant, the windy city earned its title with constant gusts blowing sand around making frisbee impossible, but let us watch some good kitesurfers in the water. Phoebe and I ended up sitting and talking in the sun which was quite enjoyable, but by the time we decided leave, we found our bags had been almost buried under the constant shifting of the sand in the wind. 

Cubs Game

Footprints to indicate the proper
eating stance at Al's Beef

When I asked my friend Kalen, whom I knew from the diving team at Wesleyan, if she wanted to see a Cubs game while I was in Chicago, she emphatically responded that she already had tickets with her boyfriend Nick (also from Wesleyan) to see the Tuesday night game vs. the Mets. Before we made it Wrigley field, we stopped at Al's Beef in the wrigleyville district near the ballpark, for a another Chicago classic, Italian Beef. At Al's we all ordered their signature Italian beef sandwiches which are essentially Philly Cheese's steaks minus the cheese with the addition of grilled peppers, both sweet and spicy. As a meal, it was a juicy twenty napkin adventure leaving beef drippings and smiles on everyone's faces. Al's even has a special stance adapted for the consumption of italian beef where the eater spreads his or her feet shoulder's width apart, about two feet from the counter and leans forward to eat the sandwich so as not to spill on himself.

Luckily I managed to get a ticket near Kalen and Nick seats and we all watched the game together while enjoying beers. Nick wore his Mets jersey to the game and to my surprise encountered no heckling even though he vehemently expressed his support for the visiting team. He explained that Wrigley field is one of the nicest stadiums because the Cubs tend to lose and most home fans aren't very competitive. What the Cubs lack in competitiveness, they make up for in beauty and charm. Their spectacular ivy covered brick stadium has low stadium walls that have led to the creation bleacher seats on top of the neighboring buildings for additional seating capacity.

Dollar Store Adventures

On my last day in town, Phoebe and I went down to the local dollar store to stock up on wacky items I might be able to use at the music festival at my next stop on the road. Together we found me a blue durag (if you don't know what that is, I suggest you google it for a good laugh), an orange swim cap, green streamers, a jump rope, some temporary tatoos, glow sticks, and three belts (one red, one yellow and one purple). Those hippies won't know what hit em!