A year of travel--reviewed.

I haven't written for a while, I'm a busy person. I decided that since it's officially been one year since Lindsay and I took our very first trip together I would celebrate with a post dedicated to some of my favorite photos of us and a bit of reflection. Here goes...

The very first trip that Lindsay and I ever took together was to Tennessee for my 28th birthday. I'm not gonna lie, it was a wreck mess because we couldn't get it together, but there were some good times (as always, duh). We rented a cabin for my bday and off we went.
Gatlinburg, Tennessee 02.09

Chillin' on the balcony of our cabin.

Being incredibly in love.
We ultimately had a good time on this trip. It was just a little rough. We had only been together for about three months and we hadn't figured each other out, yet. We still made the most of it!



Chicago, Illinois 04.09
This is one of the shortest(two days), fun-filled trips I have ever been on in my life. Lindsay and I went to Chicago for her first Girlyman show. It was fantastic. We saw Millennium Park, I rode a train for the first time in my life, the Girlyman show was excellent, and we did some touristy stuff, which actually was really cool. By the time we took this trip, we had our shit together (finally) and realized that traveling together made for the best times.
See us? :)~
On Navy Pier. I LOVE this picture.
Our last day in Chicago.




Portland, Oregon 8.09
Since Lindsay was gone nearly six weeks out of the summer, we decided it was time to take a real vacation. We didn't have any particular place in mind...just somewhere that neither one of us had previously been. We googled a map of the U.S. and after lots of talking we decided on Portland, Oregon. Excellent choice! We had a blast...although people rave about the food and we didn't understand why (with the major exception of VooDoo Doughnut). Portland is super clean, very GLBT friendly, easy to navigate, and gorgeous. Rent a car and go explore, it's awesome.
The world famous maple bacon bar from VooDoo Doughnut. Absolutely delicious. We waited in line for 45 minutes for these little gems. Worth every second of it.
At the Washington Zoo. They had a ton of animals and exhibits. We loved it, of course.
Wakheena Falls in the Columbia River Gorge. Gorgeous waterfalls all around us.
Let me tell ya, Mount St. Helen looks much closer than it is when you start driving towards it. GEESH! When we had driven as far up as we could go, there was a state park-ish thing. We just walked in (hello, it was open to the public, no gates, no one taking money except inside a building) and took a look at our surroundings. Lindsay was convinced we were going to get kicked out, so the experience was short lived.
Ridiculously in love. Watching the sunset in Astoria, Washington on the beach. This was my first time seeing The Pacific Ocean. It was COLD!!!!



Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 11.09
Lindsay had an APHA conference to attend in Philly in November, so we decided that one of our friends and myself would tag along. Bad idea. I should have stayed home. I got the stomach flu the night we arrived and was sick as hell the entire time. It was awful. However, I still managed to go out and see a little bit of Philly.
Star fish at the New Jersey Aquarium! Yep, that's my hand. Brandi and I went here and acted like five year olds while Lindsay was busy being a big brain.
Thanks for still loving me babe, even when I'm sick and we are traveling. :)






Senegal and The Gambia, West Africa 1.10
It just kinda happened that I got to go on the trip to Africa with Lindsay. I had never been on an international trip before and still to this day, can't believe that we had such an amazing opportunity to share this adventure. I'm honestly still in shock about how inspiring this trip was, so I'm still processing. I got to see things I could never dream of. A couple of things I hold near and dear to my heart from this trip: it opened so many doors for me and my eyes at the same time, made me want to learn Spanish (we had a layover in Spain, plus pretty much everyone speaks Spanish), the trip made me want everyone to SLOOOOW DOOOOWN, and last but not least it inspired me to study Anthropology. Here are just a few of my favorite pictures from the trip. You can check out Lindsay's post to get a more in depth review of our trip.
Welcome to Banjul! This was taken from a tower in downtown Banjul. I composed myself and picked up my jaw long enough to snap this little beauty. :)
BEACH!!!! Did you say beach? The Gambia is landlocked on three sides by Senegal (take a peek, here) but luckily we were staying on the coast, so I got to see (and play in!) The Atlantic Ocean from Africa! HA! As you can see, it was gorgeous.
Lindsay with her favorite thing ever, solar panels. We visited a HUGE hospital out in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE (no seriously) that uses solar power for 90% of it power.
Dream come true! I got to hold this cutie little African baby. He wasn't so sure about me, but let me hold him anyhow. This was taken in a remote village.
A different village with LOTS of kiddos. This is our driver, Yabo's village. The very tall white man is Dr. Nagengast, the man who made all of this happen.
Lindsay and I near a HUGE koi pond at The Gambian President's resort. Just keepin' it classy, as always.
Cattle, just crossing the road. No bigs. This happens CONSTANTLY in Africa. If you don't stop for them and you hit one with your vehicle, you have to find the farmer it belongs to and pay him for his loss.
I found this very interesting. It's just a bore hole to get water from, but I'd never seen anything like that, so I was amused. One of the students lowered a bucket down into the water, pulled it up to our level, and then transported it up a sand hill to the main water pot that the residents use for daily cooking, drinking, etc. NEATO-O.
The group.
We visited a slave house on an island in Senegal. It was uber creepy. This is me in solitary confinement. I was being bad, apparently.



New York City, New York 1.10
Our flight from Africa arrived in NYC later than we could catch a flight back to Indy, so we just stayed there! I had only been once when I was much younger, less traveled, and it was a really bad experience. Lindsay wanted to show me that it's not so bad. She was right! In about 6 hours, we saw Ground Zero (BOOOORRRRRING), Times Square, and Central Park. Oh..and we got lost (kind of). It was awesome.
Ground Zero. I told you it was boring.
Times Square was fantastic! Soooo many people and places.
Excited to be in Central Park. It was nice to escape the noise for a while and see what the hype is about. I figured it out....it's HUGE.
Me and Lindsay in Central Park. We were judging people. =D




I've never traveled this much in one year, ever. It just kind of happened for me/us. As you can see, I've been so many places and met so many people in the past year. I'm so fortunate to have Lindsay in my life. Without her, none of this would be possible and so many other great things wouldn't have happened (going back to school, believing in myself, this deserves a whole other blog post). Our travels will continue and I will always try to share them with you. Stay tuned!

Chicago: The "L"

You can't go to Chicago and not notice this badass in the middle of damn near every street. This is a street view of the "L", which if you don't know is part of Chicago's public transportation system. It's an elevated train system that is operated by electricity. Way to be green, Chicago.

Anyhow, after our long day of touring and soaking up the sunshine, we went back to our hotel, relaxed for a few minutes, and cleaned ourselves up for the long anticipated Girlyman concert. More on that, in my next blog. This blog, I am dedicating to Chicago's public transportation system, because I am purely in love with it.

We considered driving from our swanky hotel over to The Old Towne School of Folk Music, but number 1. we didn't have directions OR time, and number 2. I was drooling over riding the train. While my love finished getting ready, I headed down to the concierge to ask a few questions. We were taking a shot in the dark that the "L" would take us to our final destination. After all, it was almost 9 miles away. But hey, it never hurts to ask.

I inquired at the desk if they might possibly have a map of the "L" and all of its routes. The concierge lady was more than happy to help me out. Not only did she give me a map, but she got online for me and looked up the exact locations where we would board the train and how long our trip would take. SCORE!!!!!!

It was super convenient that our train stop was only about a block and a half from the hotel. I went back upstairs, with a complete glow in my eyes, anticipating riding the train and announced the news to my lady. She put on the finishing touches and out the door we went.

A short walk and we had arrived at our stop. It was a little confusing with the revolving doors that only went one way (which of course was not the way we were going), but we eventually figured it out. The fee for one ride on the "L" is a mere $2.25, which made riding even more enjoyable. (Note to any future riders: take EXACT CHANGE). We snagged our CTA passes and through the crazy doors we went. I was amazed at what the platform looked like...

A look to the left...

A look to the right...

The train *ZOOMING* by...

The ride itself wasn't all that amazing. Really, it was kind of like I was in another world. The buildings were seriously inches away from the window as we passed by. On top of that, there was a lady that looked like a corpse who would not stop staring at me. Whatever, I lived. Our ride was about 35 minutes or so and when we got off the train at our stop, we only had to walk about three blocks to Old Towne. WOOT!!!

Silly me, breaking CTA rules...and eating ice cream on the train.

My love, being beautiful on the train...post-concert.

So, the train kicked ass and I can't wait to go back and ride it again. It really makes everything super accessible and for a little country girl like myself, it's just an added bonus of something new and exciting!

Chicago: Trolley Tour

So my love and I did in fact make it onto said trolley tour, sans complications (and also food and beverage...bad idea, more on that later). We boarded in front of the Art Institute and were off to a wonderful start! Of course, taking a moment to snap a picture (or 20) along the way. First, and foremost..we are IN LOVE in Chicago!


Lindsay was clearly in heaven, due to the blazing ass sun.

















We rode the trolley around for a bit, taking in the sights such as the Field Museum. We didn't have time to actually see any of the exhibits, but I hear the pirates ARRRRRRGH awesome! HAHA.

Moving on. We passed by the Adler Planetarium, which I somehow did not get a picture of...so I'll just use Lindsay's. (Thanks, baby!)



Clearly, it's the dome-topped building.












The next big attraction for the bus full of wandering eyes to see was the Buckingham Fountain. Good thing we didn't want to go have a picnic there...it is seemingly under a great deal of construction (still beautiful nonetheless), as you can see here:



Full of hope to what would be around the next corner of our tour, we were delighted to see Centennial Fountain. It only dances over the river for ten minutes of the top of every hour, and we were lucky enough to catch it.
















After winding around skyscrapers and loopty-loops, we were feeling SOOOOOO in love. Let me share with you.



Oh wait, before moving onto the Navy Pier section of this tour de Chicago blog...just let me tell you that we randomly had to move from our nice, open, airy seat on the trolley to a pit of hell bus. The top deck (double decker) was full so we were forced to sit on the bottom level which had: A. ZERO air conditioning B. a complete lack of any type of air movement AT ALL C. the goddamn windows didn't even open D. smelled like a dirty armpit and E. was just all around not pleasing, until this sat in front of us.



Thank you, to the world's largest red mullet for being completely oblivious to the shit head (that's me) behind you. Your heinous hair made my ten minutes on that bus from hell worth it.

(Please note, I tried to get a side view of this lady, but she was deep in conversation with the gals in her group and kept flipping her head from side to side. Surely her Wisconsin Waterfall coulldn't have been hot.)



Next, we finally arrived at Navy Pier which we just HAD to see. This is my babe in front of the world famous ferris wheel.


We walked up one side and found some lady to take a picture of us near the water...

















Then thought it would be fitting to walk around the pier to the other side and grab a bite to eat. Oops, our bad...there is nothing to eat on the other side. But we did find this....an absolutely gorgeous view of the city


Let me just add that whoever thought of putting self-timers on cameras is a genius. If it weren't for that person, we wouldn't have captured this little gem...
















Back on the bus we go...and to our surprise the top level had plenty of seating this time AND we had a tour guide with the personality of a comedian. Here we are, happy to be sitting in the sunshine



I thought this was kind of interesting: Oprah owned two (maybe three) floor of the building below. She wanted to have a personal elevator built so she could have more direct access to the connecting floors. The building owner said "no" so Miss O said "see ya" and blew that Popsicle stand.




















It's a different experience riding on the TOP of a vehicle with the world exposed directly above you. I'd advise not standing up on one of these behemoths...you might lose your head.


So we continued along our journey, completely amazed at the unique architecture of Chicago. There's something for everyone...whether you like more modern style buildings...





















Or you prefer something a little more aged...

But no matter where you go in Chicago, there is art all around you...check out this larger than life sculpture of American Gothic. Lindsay was convinced it was something out of a horror film and they were going to come to life at any time and kill us...




















The bus made it's way down the Magnificent Mile, where I'm certain Lindsay would have been happy to spend all of her money (and mine if I had any), but time didn't allow for that so we just committed it to memory via photographs...



I think her mouth may have watered just a little bit when we passed this store....





She does love THE fashion, but thank god is way too cheap to want any of the really expensive stuff.









I was too busy looking at all of the architecture to really care about any fancy clothing stores. Plus, let's face it..when you cruise around in cargo shorts and t-shirts all day like I do, clothes are the least interesting topic. It was still fun to see the stores and hear crazy facts about them. Our guide told us that in some of these stores you have to make an appointment just to walk in the door and some of the places don't put a price tag on anything. All I could think of was the movie Pretty Woman....and YEA...NO THANKS!!!

Anyhow, so the buildings seriously AMAZED me, which from this blog doesn't seem hard to do, but keep in mind this is my first trip to Chicago. I'm a country kid from a small town who over the past two years has been slowly transforming into the city life. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the city and all it has to offer: diversity, entertainment, people, culture, art, and so on. However, there is nothing like being way out in the middle of nowhere and looking up at the stars and seeing each and every one of them. And, there is the added bonus of silence. Regardless...I'm a changed woman and would never go back to living in a podunk town.

I kind of got obsessed with shooting skyscraper photos at different angles. Here is one of the Hancock Building.



Fun picture of the river and a water taxi....
















Check out the building on the left side of this picture. It's an apartment building with a parking garage on the bottom. Those cars look a little close to the edge. How would you like that to be your parking space???




Another angle obsession picture..



















This building is SUPER cool. If you look at what seems to be the lobby of this one, there is a staircase-type ceiling. That is actually the ramp to the parking garage...the under side of it.


The Sears Tower was next on our adventure. Now, we had originally planned on going to the Skydeck from our tour. However, due to circumstances out of our control (not enough hours in the day, traffic) we didn't have enough time.We did end up going the next day. Oh yea...and we had to take some random detour because of a fire in the Sears Tower. Go figure. One of the many facts we learned about the Sears Tower is about the entrance that is shaped like a mailbox. According to our tour guide, this is because Sears made their fortune from catalogs and they didn't ever want to forget where all of that money came from. What a reminder every day you go to work, eh??? The other nifty fact I'd like to add is that the building was recently (March 09) purchased by Willis Group, a london-based insurance broker, and will shortly be renamed Willis Tower. They are even considering painting this monstrosity silver to make it more energy efficient. The projected cost of that little project is 50 million dollars. Here it is...still as black as black can be...





The mailbox-shaped entrance...











A look up at the tower from wayyyyyyyyyyyyy down below...


Everything seems so tall in Chicago. I mean, we have some kind of tall buildings in Indy, but nothing even close to what Chi-town has to offer. Ultimately, I think it all has to do with my pure love of being in a new place. One of my favorite things in the whole world is exploring new cities and not having a clue where I am. Thank god for public transportation. You'll get to read about that on my next blog.