Moving to California Part 1 - Fun in Ithaca

Oh, hello there.  I didn't see you come in.  Looks like you've arrived just in time for me to regale you with the tale of my recent move from Boston to San Francisco.  THAT'S RIGHT, CHUMPS.  Another road trip story.  Enjoy my journal entries.  DO IT.


Sunday 7/27/14 - Boston
Tomorrow begins my adventure into a new life on the West Coast.  I begin the first leg of my drive to San Francisco, bidding Boston goodbye after living here for 10 wonderful years.  It has been a bittersweet buildup, but I think today's rainy weather is a reflection of my own emotions right now.  I'm excited to move and to start a new adventure in an amazing new city in California (one that won't have as many rainy days), but I'm terrified and sad to leave my life and friends here.  Not to mention I will now be on the other side of the country from my parents and sister in Philly.  It is extremely bittersweet.
My last day at GE was a few weeks ago, and while I'm excited for my new job, it was slightly sad to leave the job I've had over six years.  The only real job I've ever had.  But it will be an amazing career opportunity doing some really cool things with rockets!
During my funemployment, I've tried to knock some things off my Boston bucketlist, and have done a pretty damn good job of it.  I finally painted the Tufts Cannon, which is a Tufts tradition that I've been looking to do for a while, and has been on my Under-30 List for quite some time.  I was also able to see my Boston friends a fair amount these last few weeks.  A final Capture the Flag game, a swim at the rooftop pool downtown, some runs, bikes, swimming, and rock climbsing (indoor AND outdoor because I "rock") all over the place, a few beach visits, and a FABAP (Finish All Boston's Alcohol Party).  I was also able to get out of town a few times: to head home to Philly, to go to Portland just to adventure around, and to NH to tube down the Saco River... with plenty of beer in tow.  There were also quite a few restaurants I made sure to experience one more time: Border (obvi), Shake Shack, Wahlburgers (yes, the Wahlbergs have a friggn burger place in Hingham), and an all-you-can-eat sushi place.  So good!
In general, I had a great time re-exploring Boston - all over the place.  From Quincy Market to Harpoon Brewery to the Mapparium.  There were some feelings flying around, reminiscing at all my important spots around the city, but made me glad to know what a great life I've lived here.  Looking at the entire city out at Spectacle Island one last tie reminded me why I love this city.  Looking at the entire surrounding area from Top of the Hub one last time reminded me of all the amazing times I've had here.  So yes, I'm sad to leave.  But the flip side to this unhappiness is the intrigue and excitement (excititrigue) of trying it all again in a new place.
Tonight I will say my final goodbyes to a few great people here, and tomorrow I start on my way West.  My first stop is Ithaca, where my family is vacationing this week.  I'll enjoy a few days at the lake house they are renting.  I will also collect my sister, who has never been West of Pittsburg, to join me on this road trip.  I intend to show her a few cool things so she can see this world is a big, wonderful place with limitless opportunity for new adventures.


Monday 7/28/14 - Ithaca
Today is the day of my departure from Boston.  I woke up at 5am and started driving out to Ithaca.  It was a fairly uneventful drive through the rain (besides stopping at Stewarts for a milkshake), and I made it to my parents' lakehouse they are renting in about 6 hours.  There, I was greeted by my parents, sister, and buddy Ian.
We spent most of the day indoors on account of the rain, but it was nice to watch movies, play monopoly, and just hang out.  After a while I decided that the rain didn't matter for hot tubbing, so we just got in and had some beers.  The rain may have even made it better, who knows.  I made some ribs for dinner, and in general it was a pleasant, relaxing day.  I was, however, exhausted from what I can only assume was my early wakeup, so I hit the bed pretty hard.

Hi there Khaleesi

So majestic.  So brainless.

Tuesday 7/29/14 - Ithaca
It's Jessticle's birthday!  We celebrated with a morning of lazing.  Once again, weather isn't great, so it might be a wine tasting kind of day.  Ian had to leave early on, but we started the day off with French Toast, so that's good.

My prediction was correct; we went on a winery tour around the lake today.  I think we ended up going to four today, trying some great rieslings, the type of wine famous in the Finger Lake area.  So yeah, those were great.  We then went to Taughanaugh Inn (or however the fuck this waterfall is spelled) for Jess's birthday dinner.  It was pretty decent.  And then obviously we had a nightcap in the hot tub.

I'm a... sour grape?

LET'S GET WASTED

Wine tasting with views!

I don't remember what I got for lunch but I remember it being horrible

Wednesday 7/30/14 - Ithaca
Today started a little gray, but actually turned out to be a nice day.  Mom and Jess went into town to go shopping or whatever it is that girls do, so it was Dad, me, and Lexie swimming in the lake.

Catching our dinner.  We went to the butcher shop.

Half my DNA comes from this man right here.

What the fuck are you doing

Gawwww pretty!

At about midday I went and picked up my highschool/Tufts friend, Chelsea, who is in a PhD program at Cornell right now.  So we were able to hang out and catch up by the lake and in the hot tub.  It was great to finally have some nice weather and to see her!
At night we cooked up some great NY Strip steaks we got from the butcher in town.  So good.  Then we finished the night with some drinks in the hot tub and playing board games.



Thursday 7/31/14 - Ithaca
Another lazy, relaxing day at the lakehouse.  We spent it shifting from the lake to the hot tub to indoors to read when it started drizzling.  The weather here has been very strange the past few days.  On and off rain non-stop (50% of the time it is mixed weather all the time?).  But it was nice to relax and hang out with my parents.  They seem upset that I am leaving for the west coast because they won't see me as much, which I understand, but I tried to explain that it's still very do-able.
Right now we're making some dinner, washing clothes for the big journey ahead, and getting in my last bit of not-driving before tomorrow, when Jess and I head out westward.  After diner I'm going to meet up with Chelsea again for a drink in town.

If I fits, I sits.

I met Chelsea and her girlfriend at a pretty cool bar downtown, where they had a delicious Gold Rush beer, which is very applicable to my current situation of moving out to CA.  And the outdoor picnic area was really pretty and fun.  But after a while I had to leave to prepare for the early departure.

Tennessee Road Trip Part 1: Boston to Asheville, NC

Here we go again.  Yet another road trip, traveling around the country like I own the damn place.  The following is a partial excerpt from the trusty ole' road trip journal.


Wed. 6/5/13
And so begins my foray into another road trip, along with my companions Scott (of previous road trip legend), Michelle, and Sarah A. (we're going to preserve her anonymity because the internet is a scary, wondrous place).  I had been crafting the preliminary plans for this particular adventure about four months ago.  The details of the trip developed gradually and with the feedback of many esteemed colleagues.  Our itinerary includes stops in Philadelphia (well, Malvern if you want to get picky about stuff), Shenandoah, the Smoky Mountains, Nashville (at a resort, mind you), the infamous concert known as Bonnaroo, Mammoth Caves, Columbus, and completing the round trip back to Boston.

The adventure started early in the day (pre-day we'll call it) as I picked up my compatriots in good ole' Soup.  (If you don't know the background story behind the name of my car, well the short story is I spilled a crapload of soup on the passenger seat this one time.  There it is.)  Unfortunately for us, Soup is not as spacious as we needed.  My mess kit became a frisbee.  Sarah and Michelle were ass-to-ankles in the back next to a mountain of stuff.  No matter: spirits were high and we made good time from Boston to Hartford, but Stamford got us at rush hour.  We were blasting some good music, which is typically the solution to most problems.  Oh did you hit traffic?  GUESS WHAT, HERE ARE SOME BEATLES SONGS.  We had a quick stop off at Sarah's house in CT to get MORE STUFF, including a sleeping bag BIGGER THAN PLANET EARTH, and then drove down the rest of the way to Philly.  Apparently a building collapsed, which is an unusual event even for the "exotic" city of Philadelphia, so the city was kind of off limits to us.  Whatever, we continued on to glorious Malvern for some steak sandwiches and Wawa.  Wawa, I have missed you.  Certainly not our final Wawa stop on the trip.  We decided a tour of the Victory Brewery was in order, so we got some good beers and headed home (my family's home "technically"), where my parents presented us with a veritable feast.  We also re-watched the Red Wedding episode of Game of Thrones, because that was was a DOOZY.

Victory Brewery, in all it's majesty

In order to try every beer on tap, we got four different flights

We used our remaining time to get some shoes for Michelle, because I guess we only knew this trip was coming up FOUR MONTHS IN ADVANCE.  And also some Rita's Waterice for our tummies.  And now I am extremely tired because I only had three hours of sleep last night and I drove all day.  Man, packing that car is a bitch.

Thur. 6/6/13
Rainy times be happening.  Oh well.  We will make the most of it.  At some point.

We woke up at my parent's house fairly early with the intention of getting the most of our day, but that is proving to be difficult.  Morale is... lower than I would hope for.  But that's because it's pouring right now and we just drove 80 miles along Skyline Drive with zero visibility of said "skyline."
Excuse the digression.  We woke up; my Mom was kind enough to prepare fruit salad for our departure... followed by Wawa soon thereafter.  The drive down to DC actually wasn't so bad, and we met Michelle's parents at her house for brunch.  It scratched me right where I itched (my stomach).  Very little to report except for a great cardboard box session with their cat.  Good times.
A few more hours of driving led us to the northern entrance of Shenandoah National Park, just in time for the rain clouds and fog.  Huzzah.  Good news is that I was able to purchase my third National Park Pass (after a slight miscommunication involving a Shenandoah-only park pass - no thanks).  The visitor's center had a movie that highlighted the beautiful scenary along Skyline Drive - all of which was hidden to us in this dense fog and rain.  Good to know everything we couldn't see is friggn gorgeous.  Memories of Mt. Saint Helens: we're driving through the inside of a ping pong ball.  This is a serious bummer.  80 miles of overlooks and we can't see 20 feet in front of us.  Just sitting in the car now, waiting for the rain to slow long enough to set up the tent.

Oh good.

BEHOLD: THE BEAUTY OF SKYLINE DRIVE

We decided to set our tent up when the rain died down a bit, which ended up being a moment when it rained the hardest yet.  So that's good.  Let's just say that we learned some tent setting-up methods for next time.  Then we played some cards in our damp, transient edifice, and Michelle had a coughing fit and that was our day.  Not much else happened.  We used the camp stove to cook dinner.  Spaghettification commenced.  It was probably a depressingly hilarious scene to look upon.  And then it was pretty much sleepyland after that.

"Fog Magnifies Small Details" - thank you visitor center video for your sublime haiku-like poetry

Fri. 6/7/13
It rained almost the entirety of the evening, but it turned out to be dry inside.  I was not expecting that: thank you, tent.  But the clouds were out, so our view was quite white.  Thus, we slept in.  When we finally arose, it had cleared a tiny bit.  By the time we packed our tent away our campsite viewing area, previously a blanket of fog, had become quite nice.  Finally a picture-worthy memory.

Turns out it was more than just "endless white"

LET'S BLOCK THE AMAZING VIEW WITH OUR BODIES

Pretty easy on the eyes

I then drove south out of Shenandoah to exit the park.  STILL FOGGY.  What the hell?  Give me a break here.  So yeah, not much to see leaving either.  120 miles of Skyline Drive with virtually zero views of Shenandoah valley.  Thankfully we stopped at a wonderful little place called Pink Cadillac Diner, where I filled up on basically every menu item.  This sated my hunger for the time being.  AND an opportunity to soak up the locals engaging in some sort of primitive form of communication.  They sounded like mere grunts and belches to our untrained ears, but somehow the waitress could understand the gentleman in the next table.  Not long until: TENNESSEE!  Whoo!  This is my 40th state!  We blasted "Wagon Wheel" more than a few times.  Due to the nature of the song's lyrics, it has become our official road trip song.

I still don't understand the gigantic King Kong statue

Shortly thereafter we drove into Asheville, NC for what we heard were some great breweries.  The stories were true.  We visited Wicked Weed, the Hedge, and Asheville Brewing for great beer and pizza.  Unfortunately we had to cut our visit a bit short because of how long the drive was.  Scott's friend was able to meet us for some dinner and beer, so it was cool to hang out for a little bit.
Then Michelle courageously navigated the twisty mountain pass to Cataloochee campground: our home for the Great Smoky Mountain National Park for the time being.  We efficiently set up our tent in the rain (yep, more rain) and got unpacked in the dark.  We then took the opportunity to explore our campsite, situated right on a little stream.  This will make for some great music at night.  We went down to the stream and let our eyes become adjusted so that we noticed some of the famous Synchronous Fireflies surrounding us.  I'm excited for this park.
On our way in to the Smokies we stopped at an overlook: it was unfathomably beautiful.  Just enough fog to show the dozens of layers of mountains across the backdrop.  It was actually so impressive that I find it difficult to put into words.  ENJOY A PICTURE INSTEAD.

They just keep going

The females

Ok let's prepare for a good photo...

NOPE JUST KIDDING

Here's our backyard stream!