Here it is, our last update.

Greetings and salutations! This last post was written by Jimmy - but edited by marc

When we last left you, we were heading to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We ended up driving straight through from Arkansas. We tried sleeping at a rest stop that night but it was so hot we decided to just drive right through.

We got to Myrtle Beach at 7 am and then proceeded to the beach to take a nice little nap before it got too hot out. We went and got breakfast and then checked out the sketchy tourist shops on the boardwalk. We quickly got bored and hot (and dark clouds rolled in at that point; probably filled with severe rainstorms) so we started our trek to Washington D.C.

In D.C. We stayed with Marc’s friend Matt. Matt put up with our snoring for two full nights, which ended up being a pretty cool stay in Washington. The first night we finally went and saw The Dark Knight. It was so good (says Jimmy). It was alright (says Marc). The next day we saw the sites of D.C. We went to the monuments and memorials and then to the Smithsonian Museums. We saw a really cool exhibit on Jim Henson. They had stuff from his whole career including old commercials and puppets. We also saw the air and space museum and the natural history museum. Then we saw the white house, which was grotesquely boring and filled with trees. After a very long, hot day of walking in the sun, we relaxed and watched a movie and then went to bed.

Monday morning we got up and drove the last 450 or so miles home. Of course we had to stop in Philadelphia and try an original Philly CheeseSteak (or two)! We went to the 2 famous restaurants that sell right across the street from each other, Geno’s and Pat’s. Both sandwiches were delicious, but Geno’s won the vote from both of us as the better sandwich.

Now we are in Swansea for the night. Tomorrow we are heading back to Boston. Time to find jobs :( Anyone know of any multi-millionaire positions that require a low amount of work?

ps: pictures in a bit. sleepy and lazyness has set in yet again!

Howdy from ARKANSAS.. and probably tennessee

Hullo again! This update is going to be short + sweet, because we're just about to head off on the road again. It is swealtering here in Arkansas, over 100 degrees and HUMID as all hell. Fortunately we brought a fan, so sleeping in the tent was hot, but the air was moving around. People in the south really are nicer than most of the other places we've been. Everyone says hello.. everyone waves, smiles, etc. Even to strangers. Its weird, but also comforting. Who knows if that makes up for the crazy amount of racism that supposedly occurs (but Marc and Jimmy have not personally witnessed, thankfully).

Thursday afternoon we went to the "Grand Canyon of Texas" (aka, Palo Duro Canyon). Compared to the grand canyon, it was just okay. But it again had a beauty different from the Grand Canyon, as it had trees and greenery and animals living in it, as opposed to the grand canyon, which was, in contrast, livingly mute. There werent as many photos taken of this one as the grand canyon, but I can only upload these two because our wireless point is awful yet again! Ah well.. it was worth the trip




Yesterday we stayed in Oklahoma at one of Jimmy's friends' (Nathan) places. He was extremely nice and bought us dinner at a Chinese restaurant (but we were almost invited to a family BBQ.. more southern hospitality?) That was definitely awesome of him. We stayed over Thursday night and played video games mostly, because I guess there isn't too much to do in the Oklahoma nation. When we parted ways, Jimmy and Marc drove off to Arkansas and stayed at a nice campground that was pleasantly situated in the middle of a highway (ugh). Not really, but it was close enough that we could read the license plates off the cars driving by. At least the sound of the cicadas, crickets, and myriad other animals drowned out the roadnoise.

On the way to the campsite we saw a cool national forest called the Petit Jean National Park.. we decided to stop because a nice lady at the visitor center of the highway told us it is a nice drive and also has the beautiful waterfall. The waterfall was more of a watertrickle, because of all the droughts + so forth, but the drive was beautiful and completely air conditioned ;P

Lovely view from atop the Petit Jean mountain:

The waterfall: or, nofalls, perhaps:

Las Vegas!!, Grand Canyon!!, Texas! (but mostly a restaurant so far)

Howdy ya'll! We're writing this next brief entry in Amarillo, TX. Let me tell you, Amarillo is a lot more fun than we thought it would be. But enough of that for now.. heres what we've been up to:

We went to Las Vegas on Sunday night, we stayed at the luxurious Luxor Hotel on the main strip. For those of you who don't know, the Luxor is a black pyramid-shaped hotel with a giant beam of light coming out the top of it. And of course its a casino. Jimmy and Marc had a great time in Vegas, even though Jimmy lost quite a bit of money to the town, whereas Marc only lost a paltry amount. Hussah for Marc! We went to the Mandalay Bay casino, the Bellagio, Planet Hollywood, and of course, the new Hooters Casino Hotel. The Hooters casino had a free $100 slot deal going on, so we both signed up for it. Neither of us won money at that though :(




Then we were off to the grand canyon! Except for the exorbitant $25 fee they charge every single car that goes into the grand canyon, it was really really nice. We stayed for about 2 hours, and watched the Sunset, which cast beautiful red and yellow and green tones on the canyon walls. There were too many people at the Canyon, which was unfortunate, but we got some great sights seen and some lovely photos taken. If only we had more time.. we definitely arrived too late to see the whole canyon, but at least we saw a large part of it. The photos don't do this place justice.. the place is huuuuuge.








Crazy people who climbed out to some rock outcrop; i hope they didnt die:

Sunset:

This has to be a short post because we're running out of time here, so I'll just tell you one more thing: The Big Texan Steak House in Amarillo is the best steakhouse I've ever been to, and probably will ever go to. They picked us up in their Limo (thats right, a LIMO for a restaurant) and drove us to our meal. When we got there, we received two pitchers of beer by accident (well, one was deliberate, the waitress messed up our beer choice and so we got one free!), so that was awesomely drunkening. Then of course the steak... Marc got a 24oz ribeye steak, Jimmy got an 18oz ribeye, and they were both grilled perfectly. It was delicious. Then, a limo BACK to our campsite! It was wonderful.

Limo that picked us up:

Big texan steakhouse:

sideways shot of the steaks:

giant chair in the restaurant that made Marc feel small:

Giant cow that jimmy tried to pet:


Ok. All for now. Off to another canyon in Texas, then into Oklahoma to see the sights. Ha, ha. Peace love and chicken grease!

San Diego Zoo, Gas Lamp District, Red Sox Game!

A long awaited update...

Sorry for the long delay! Los Angeles was a lot of fun/had many interesting things to do. I have to thank Heather and Christina again for keeping our messy selves in check and allowing us to stay over for the past 3 days. It was a blast.. heres what we did.

Friday morning we drove to San Diego for the day. Jimmy, Marc, and Heather were huge tourists for the day, and took many pictures of the animals in the San Diego Zoo. Main attractions were the polar bears, elephants, giraffes, and pandas!




Saying hello to the silver polar bears!



Being monkeys at the zoo:


Real polar bears!!! underwater wrestling.. awesome




Panda! She was Su Lin.. and very cute



We have many more photos but theres not enough time in the world to upload them all.. so then after the zoo, we went off to the Gas Lamp district, which is a nice part of San Diego with many bars/restaurants. We went bar hopping and enjoyed happy hour, which lasts until 8pm in some places! One of the bars was a new zealand bar, where we met some crazy dude from new zealand who gave us free drink coupons at the bar. Good times!


Above: first drink of the night at The Field.


Above: first of many margaritas... oh yes


The gas lamp district was a great time, and it was a good thing we got to sleep in on Saturday.. because we went to the Angels v Red Sox game at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, CA. It wasn't a victory for the red sox, but it was a victory for the road-trippers, since it was our first out-of-fenway sox game experience. And Angel Stadium is beauutiful:


Front of Angel Stadium

Jimmy and Marc at the game.. near a giant hat with hat size of 649.5" (red thing in the back)

View from our seats (which were amazingly cheap!)

View from the back (standing)

Heather and Jimster at the game!

Then, of course, Saturday night we went out to the Los Angeles bars with Heather, Christina and Tyler. Tyler was from Chelmsford originally, as well! Small world, Marc supposes.
We went to La Cita and the Cat and Fiddle. Cat + Fiddle was kind of a hipster bar, but it was stereotypically Californian bar, which was actually very nice. Great bartenders, a courtyard in the middle to drink and be merry, and the bouncer was a guitar player for some band that tours with A Perfect Circle/Tool. He had been to Harpers Ferry in Boston many times, apparently! Interesting people to meet in LA, for sure. :)





Lots of details included, but not enough time to explain it all! Going off to Las Vegas tonight, staying at the Luxor Hotel. Hopefully we'll come back with many thousands of dollars we win tonight :P Miss everyone lots, toodles!

Santa Barbara, HEATHER!!, santa monica

Continued from yesterdays post....

Heres some photos from Santa Barbara - a nice beach town just NW of Los Angeles.. went there on Wednesday on the way to LA... it was the first time either Jimmy or Marc had been to the West Coast.. so Marc swam in the ocean and it was beauuutiful and warm, as opposed to the atlantic ocean. There was some seaweed hangin around the beach, but other than that, it was amazing. Off to LA!





And here is Jimmy + heather on Santa Monica beach in LA.. and Tai-Chi?





We also visited the La Brea Tar Pits in downtown LA this morning.. it was actually pretty cool. The pit was much less tar-y and more watery than we expected; apparently the whole thing was filled in after it was used as a quarry in the early 1900's. Oh, the animals! Dire wolves, mammoths, mhmm. All under 40,000 years old (or something). And! No dinosaurs, contrary to popular belief.



Here's the Chinese Theater in the center of Hollywood - we saw some stars in the ground and the gawdy Hollywood Boulevard. Hollywood was less exciting and more touristy than I expected - but we did see quite a few 'characters' (aka hobos dressed up as movie characters). Unfortunately the camera battery was dying when we left, so not too many photos from this excursion!



After seeing the center of Hollywood, Jimmy and Marc drove over to Griffith Park, which is a huuuge state park in Los Angeles (and is also the home of the Hollywood sign - see above photo!) and enjoyed the scenery. We also took naps, since it was warm out and the grass was nice and cool. We then drove up to Mt. Hollywood and went to the Griffith Observatory. It was interesting and intellectually stimulating, so we stayed there for all of 20 minutes.

The coolest part of the day was the free tickets to the season finale taping of Lewis Black's The Root of All Evil. We got there at around 5:00pm and we got to see Lewis Black and 3 comedians do their thing on which was worse: Generation X or the Baby Boomers (season finale) and in the penultimate episode: "The Hills" vs Rocket scientists.

The Generation X vs. Baby boomers episode was very very funny, and Jimmy and Marc were most likely shown several times in the episode. We laughed a lot - Lewis Black is hilarious even when hes not on camera (and he swears almost as much George Carlin.. almost).

So it was nice hangin around the area... tomorrow is San Diego with Heather to see the Zoo and get drunk at some nice Pubs in the Gas Light District... more stuff tomorrow! Goodnight.

Jelly bellys, san fran, beaches, and LA!

So many things.. so little time..

I'm updating this entry at our friend Heather's apartment in Los Angeles! So glad we finally have a 'home base' of sorts in california... i can only thank Heather and her roommate Christina a hundred times over for letting us stay!!

So first things first.. Sacramento! After we left Lake Tahoe, we drove out to Sacramento to visit John and Lynn, who just happened to be cross-country-trip-ing as well! except they were moving out to California permanently.. but they also graciously allowed us to stay at their hotel room for a night. Since there was no driving.. there was merrymaking! Jimmy and his vanilla vodka, marc and his crazy beers. And also ice cream sundaes! Good times.

Then off to the Jelly Belly factory tour - which was on the way to San Francisco:

It was pretty sweet - ha ha, a little gourmet candy humor for you.

Then! San Francisco. Oh, San Fran is pretty cool - although it did cost us $5 to go over the Golden Gate bridge. Fortunately, it was worth it. We hiked up a nice nature trail (Jimmy was griping the whole way) to get a vista panoramic view of the whole city. It really was worth the uphill battle.. and we didn't see any guys painting the bridge - is the constant-painting rumor about the Golden Gate false? (Apparently, the bridge is so huge, and the weather so corrosive, that the bridge has to be constantly painted at all times to keep it looking red/orange (golden?) and great)...





This is alcatraz from afar:


And this is a restaurant on Castro st in San Francisco:


And this is Fisherman's Wharf in San Fran, which was kind of like a low-budget boardwalk filled with hobos and tourists - a great combination.....



So we went to San Francisco and enjoyed the city - jimmy got kind of bored because most of the things we did involved only sightseeing - since $$ spending is tough to do on a low-budget trip. Wish we had gotten reservations for the Alcatraz tour - apparently its really good. Ah well, another time maybe! We walked down Castro st, which is apparently the 'gayest street in america'. And yes, it was pretty gay, haha. but the subs were delicious.

So, its 1am and Jimmy and Marc are passing out because we spent all day lying in the sun and enjoying the beach, so, more to come tomorrow night! Toodles.