Up and Down the Valley

Well it has definitely been a bit of a whirlwind ride, ever since arriving in Colorado after a week long road trip that took me cross-country through all sorts of cities and towns, mountains and back roads. I have finally had the chance to settle down a bit after taking the past week to acclimate to the climate and assimilate into the new culture that I find myself in. While I can’t say that things have completely slowed down, they definitely have eased up considerably. This week I have spent time getting used to my new surroundings and figuring out where everything is all the while making my new home feel more “homey” to me. I have also been getting myself back into the rhythm of work and professionalism with my summer job out here (which I will explain below). Even with all the new changes, I have definitely made sure to take time to take the new landscape in and enjoy the new set of activities that have opened up for me here. Being away from the craziness and fast pace of the east coast has been very welcoming and I’m definitely enjoying the more laid back aspect of the area and people out here. Sure, you might have to drive considerably farther to get to the nearest grocery store or shopping center, but convenience is replaced by scenery that is just hard to find anything quite as remarkable on the east coast. It would be easy to think that this is somewhere I’d love to live someday, but I feel that overdoing my stay here would take away from the beauty of all of it and would diminish its sentimental value. That’s why I think it is more fun to come here in smaller spurts with long layoffs in between. I remember being here as young teenager and I only remember very few things vividly (things that really stuck out) and sometimes that’s a better way to enjoy a place… for its best aspects. It makes you want to come back more and re-experience all it has to offer without it becoming dull. This mindset might also come from just growing up on the east coast and being used to how things are there, and even though sometimes it’s a struggle, it’s what you know best… and it feels like home.

Besides all that, I definitely have been doing my fair share of “living it up” and not taking my time here for granted. But before I get into some of the recreational and leisurely aspects of my stay here so far, I should get in to some details about Aspen and my job out here. So as mentioned before, I am staying in Snowmass which is about 20 miles down valley from Aspen. Far enough to avoid heaves of tourists but close enough to be a quick ride away from being in the center of it all. Snowmass is a quiet little village off the beaten tracks of the valley and practically in the shadows of some the more major mountains out here. It’s quite quiet and serene, so much so that Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn live less than a mile from my Uncle’s. I definitely will compliment him on his role as Snake Pilsken and his role in Stargate, and also hit on their daughter, Kate Hudson, if I run across either of them… but I digress. Aspen is a very unique town. While it is a mountain town at heart, it is a very wealthy town, as I’m sure you know. It is pretty built out and tourists flock to Aspen every year for the great winter sports and the summer festivals and outdoors activities. It is a very walkable town (at least in the summer) and there are swaths of restaurants, boutique shops, clothing stores (especially outdoor clothing specialty stores), and big homes (mansions/estates rather) on the outliers. The people all seem really nice, but I’m assuming there is some contempt by residents about the tourists sometimes… but it sustains their economy and thus it is a cycle that won’t be broken.

This is the part of the blog where I inform the planners to take an interest in what I’m about to say, as the following relates to my job and some of the other “plannerly” aspects to living here. I take the bus every day to work (thanks to free bus passes afforded to me by the City) which is about a half hour ride each way, and is quite convenient. And like I said before, it’s not like I’m stuck on the thruway in New Jersey, no, this is a sweet ride through the valley of mountains and canyons and rivers. So, I don’t mind the commute at all. If you want to check out the system here, it is called RFTA (pronounced “rafta” and stands for the Roaring Forks Transportation Authority). Long story short, since light rail was shut down by the local residents, the City went forth with their plans for a BRT which is currently under the works and is scheduled to open sometime in 2012. It is being called the VelociRFTA! I had quite an awesome laugh over that… very clever! Almost everyone else drives into the city for work, but street parking is very expensive and unless you have a reserved spot, it is almost not worth it. There are reasons for the strict parking rules that relate to my job here.

But yes, my job. So officially I work for Alan Richman Planning Services as a sub-consultant for the City of Aspen, working on some green building. More specifically, I have been tasked to research three study areas where Aspen would like to improve upon their efforts to “green” their community. Aspen is already a very progressive community in terms of their efforts to go green and already have a considerable infrastructure of programs in place, and I have to work in the “margins” to find what else they can do that will improve their green programming as it relates to land use and land use regulations/codes. Pretty much, they want to be able to take my research and put those ideas into their building codes and land use regulations so that and development that takes place will have to adhere to stricter codes of green building in their designs and their uses. My uncle will be handling those aspects since he is very versed in code writing, so I need to stretch my resources and knowledge as far as possible and produce some sort of draft proposal of my research and strategies for Aspen and have my uncle produce new land use regulations from it. The three areas I am tasked to focus on are solid waste (management, collection, recycling, landfill diversion, etc.), energy efficiency (building operations, renewables, other technologies, etc.), and air quality as it relates to development (this category has two sub-categories: air quality and transportation, focusing on particulates and reducing vehicle trips, respectively). It is still more in depth than this, but I will refrain from going into all the details, at least for now haha.

The first week I have spent wrapping my head around the project, meeting all my colleagues in City Hall, and pushing forward with the project’s execution. It’s been pretty rewarding so far, and I’m generally enjoying the work that I’m doing. It is also cool being a sub-consultant as my official title. I now have a pay rate haha! Everyone I’ve had meetings with have been great and the people here are really nice and are easy to work with. It’s definitely fun working in such a progressive community (no it is not communist!) and it seems as though Aspen is doing more in terms of its green portfolio than most communities (makes my job difficult!). I’ll obviously update my progress on this project as I deem it necessary.

In terms of fun, besides the constant view of his amazing landscape, I had the opportunity to get outdoors this past weekend. First, my cousin took me out with some of his friends and we drove up to the base of Mount Sopris in the middle of the night to set up a campfire and make s’mores. It was pretty fun and slightly terrifying driving my Jeep up the winding dirt roads knowing that one wrong turn and you fall off a steep cliff, with only my headlights to tell where I was. After climbing a good deal in elevation, we reached a high clearing in the valley near Sopris (barely visible in pitch black) and set up a fire. If it wasn’t for the outline of the mountains in the background, I would almost describe the scenery as being a desert. Also, I can’t remember seeing as many stars as I did that night since I was in Aruba several years ago. There was literally no lights for miles and it made for one striking view of the nighttime sky, with thousands more stars than I’d normally see on the east coast, and even views of the Milky Way Galaxy itself. I definitely enjoyed that aspect of the little excursion more than anything. After getting settled in with the s’mores making, we were suddenly startled by a noise that could be described only as a zombie cow with mad cow disease making a pissed off mooing noise. We all jumped except for my cousin (apparently we had to be wary of bears and mountain lions), who was the only rational one and said it was just a cow. I grabbed my flashlight and pointed it in the direction of the noise and saw a black cow (must have been a chocolate milk cow!) who continued to make a pissed off mooing noise before slowly retreating back into the woods (while still mooing).

At the end of the weekend, my uncle took myself and my other cousin on a hike up Mount Sopris. I’m not sure how much elevation we actually walked up, but I know our final destination was at 10,000 feet. It turned into a solid two hour hike up and a two hour hike down. We started high up in the valley and weaved our way through the initial rocky hills of the mountain. We eventually made it to a meadow clearing which offered spectacular views of the valley below. We then entered an aspen tree forest that led to another clearing where fast flowing streams intersected our pathway up. My uncle noted that the streams were flowing faster than he’s ever seen (long story short: he mentioned a lot of effects of global warming on the climate in the Rockies), but after making semi-quick work of them, we treaded up some more rocky landscape until finally reaching the mountain lake at the base of Sopris. It was very tranquil up there and it was relaxing to just sit on the rocks by the picturesque lake and take it all in. Climbing to the top of the mountain would have been another 3,000 feet but it would have been considerable work, and I was more than happy to hang out by the lake, soaking up the sun and watching my uncle fly fish. Being up on the mountain and at the lake just really slowed everything down and made me appreciate that much more because it is tough to experience that on the east coast, at least in that type of fashion. More hikes are in the works and I already have a few adventures planned for the near future. So we’ll see what kind of interesting things I experience in the coming weeks.

I just realized that this post could have easily been split into two posts, but I got on a roll and figured it was an interesting enough read to not lose all of your attention. I hope that gave you all a good idea of life in general out here. I’ve also been loving being able to practice Kung Fu with the mountains as my backdrop. Practicing in the thin air can only make me stronger I presume.

Well that about wraps up my first full week here. 6 more weeks to go (until Thailand that is)!

Rocky Mountain High

Disclaimer: Due to a lack of internet access in Snowmass, as well as no Verizon service, my computer and cell phone is pretty much all but limited to when I’m in Aspen. So if anyone has tried to get a hold of me and hasn’t been able to, that is the reason why, and I hope I get a chance to talk to some of you soon. Second disclaimer… this will be a long entry but I promise the pictures will make the read well worth it.

But anyways back to the blogging! When I last left off, I was in Fort Collins on Saturday night through Sunday morning. The night in Fort Collins was mostly laid back… my dad and I decided to get some good Mexican food since we finally got to an area where it’s pretty good. After some Mexican food and margaritas, we peaced out back to the Marriot to get some sleep before the final day of the road trip. The next morning we went out for a nice breakfast for Father’s Day and then explored a bit of Fort Collins. It was a nice town with a neat downtown but as I’m starting to realize about western cities, they are very spread out due to massive amounts of open land and thus there was no need felt by these cities to consolidate and build with density in mind. Following that bit of exploration, we headed an hour south to Denver along the highway that is pretty much the major divide between the Plains and the Rocky Mountains. It was a sweet drive being able to see the foothills of the Rockies juxtaposed with the Great Plains. Nearby in the mountains is Estes Park which is supposedly very scenic, so hopefully at some point I will make the trip out there to check it out.

Soon we arrived in Denver to meet up with my cousin, Fletcher, for lunch downtown. Denver was bustling with activity and people were walking around the pedestrian only streets having a good time. And yes, there was even a bike share program there (I got you covered WBBB)! After a nice lunch we carpooled over to the airport to drop-off my dad as that was the end of the road for him, so he could fly back to Philly. I had a great week with my dad, and even though there were some frustrations typical of a long road trip in confined quarters, the experience was unforgettable and we really got to do and see a lot of crazy things. After that airport drop-off we returned to Denver briefly to grab my car and complete the final leg of the road trip to Snowmass, CO. While my dad and I had many scenic drives, the drive in on I-70 from Denver to Snowmass (near Aspen) takes the cake in terms of scenery by far. It’s such a diverse drive in terms of weather and scenery. In Denver it was in the mid-70’s but by the time you made the initial climb up into the mountains the temperature dipped down into the lower 50’s.

Going up into the mountains was just plain awesome as you see the snow-capped Rockies start to surround you as all the cars struggle a little bit to get up into the mountains. Once up in the mountains the roads would dip, curve, and swerve, and go back up, constantly making you focus on the road while trying to not let the scenery distract you. After going through a mountain tunnel, you come out into the valley where the temperature slowly rose to the 60’s and eventually the 70’s. The first stop along the valley is the famous Breckenridge resort town which was just amazing looking and then you eventually come across the also famous Vail resort town. It’s at these towns where you are sort of deep in the valley of the Rockies and you a real sense of scale of the mountains that tower above you on all sides. I’m not sure what it was, maybe it was from being out in the wide open plains for the previous few days, but the mountains hanging around the highway made me feel slightly claustrophobic, but mostly just in awe of its scale. Eventually things start getting a little more open as the valley stretches out and start to see fast flowing rivers parallel and criss-cross the highway such as the Colorado River, Eagle River, and White River. It’s really an awesome sight with the snow-capped mountains as a backdrop. Then one of my personal favorite parts of the drive comes up as you enter Glenwood Canyon. While I’ve been to the Grand Canyon and The Badlands, there is something very unique about driving through this canyon. Out of nowhere the mountains turn to rock and have sheer cliffs, and then the mountains close in on each other like they are trying to squeeze the road out. Cliffs eventually soar above you and the White River is right by the highway flowing at a rapid pace. The sun was beaming down on the canyon and really lit it up in such an amazing way. While I shouldn’t have been snapping pictures on such a windy road, I did anyways, for your benefit, so you could see what I was seeing. I think only pictures will do it justice, unless you can actually go to it, which I highly recommend!

After about 100 miles worth of driving and weaving through the mountains, you turn off at Glenwood Springs to head down towards Aspen. This portion of the drive is through the valley and it offers a view of my favorite mountain, Mount Sopris (picture below), due to its incredible prominence. It just towers above anything else in this part of the valley (even though there are 14,000 footers off in the distance). After a little more driving, I finally arrived at my final destination in Snowmass, CO, 2800 miles and 55hrs+ of driving later. Where my uncle and cousin lives is in this valley that is surrounded by snow-capped mountains (pictured below) which I can see from my room here. It’s definitely nice to wake up to compared to the hustle and bustle of the northeast. Very serene, but very isolated. The isolation is sort of setting in on me but after some time to adjust and acclimate (to the surroundings, the lifestyle, and the thin air!), I’m sure I’ll fit in just fine.

(Mount Sopris)

(View from Uncle's house in Snowmass)

On Monday I had my first day of work in Aspen which I’ll describe a bit in an upcoming post and I’ll also be sure to take pictures of the town to share with you all. Just waiting for the rain and clouds from the past two days to clear up and then I’ll snap some photos. By the time this entry is submitted, it will be summer here officially, and the mountains will still be snow-capped (which is apparently a rarity for this time of year… even for here)! I got to practice some Kung Fu for the first time in a while here, and I’d say it’s pretty awesome having the Rockies as a backdrop. Anyways, tomorrow is my second day of work and I need sleep (yes, I know this is a recurring theme). I hope you all have enjoyed the road trip part of the blog and I hope you will stay with it as it switches over to the Aspen side of things and whatever other adventures I partake in while I’m out here.

Hope everyone is well on the east coast and I’ll be thinking of you all. And I know what you all are thinking; I will NOT be eating any Rocky Mountain Oysters!

- Jacob

P.S. It’s my girlfriend, Katie’s, birthday in the Philippines (June 22nd there) and I just want to wish her a very happy birthday! Miss you!

Hills, Monuments, and the Frontier

So it's going to be a short blog today as the last bit of the road trip is wearing me down a bit and I have one last day until I get to my destination outside of Aspen... need a sleep coma. But that doesn't mean that today's travels weren't awesome, because they were really amazing.

The day started off by leaving Rapid City and heading up into the Black Hills of South Dakota. It was kind of fun trying to imagine what General Custer's army must have been thinking as they entered the Black Hills, not knowing that the Lokota Indians were there and ready for a fight. After a picturesque ride up into the hills (about a mile high up), we arrived at Mount Rushmore! I think I've heard from people or reviews that it wasn't as impressive as they thought it would be and that it was smaller than they thought it would be... I don't know what they were talking about though because it was an amazing sight to be seen and the park there was done really well. There were some trails that brought you to the base of the mountain where you could really get a sense of the scale and details that went into its construction. Definitely a site I will always remember. We then headed to the Crazy Horse Memorial Monument, which if you haven't heard of, I strongly suggest you look it up. The monument has been under construction since 1948 and when it is done (in who knows how long), it will be the largest monument in the world. The park and buildings around the monument were done really well and very pretty. The monument itself was gigantic and a ride up to the base of the mountain (which is still an active demolition site) showed how massive this thing will be when complete. SO definitely look up the history of this site and its architect and you will be impressed by the effort involved. Following this trip we visited the towns of Hill City and Custer in Black Hills which offered a cool old western mountain town feel. The Black Hills are definitely an amazing place filled with great scenery, native american history, and a frontier style persona.

Exiting the Black Hills left us off at the far western side of South Dakota which after a bit of a drive, brought us to Wyoming. Since our route didnt take us to the interstate nor to anything of interest on the map, I thought that this would be a boring drive through desolate land. While it was still desolate land for over 200 miles, it was nothing short of spectacular. The scenery here was sooo picturesque and I truly got a sense of the massive amounts of land that is out in the western states. For my fellow planners, I really started to understand the whole idea of the Buffalo Commons. You could see for miles and miles, watch animals graze and traverse the landscape, and be at peace with your surroundings. I can't tell you how many pictures I took of the open road, the vast grasslands and rolling hills, and the herd animals that we came across. It was awesome to go for miles and not see a town or even a car, and just zip down the country road going over 80mph and still feel so insignifcant. The photos probably don't do the size of the land justice, but if you get to experience it for yourself, you will definitely know how I felt.

Our next stop in Wyoming was in the capitol of Cheyenne, which wasn't overly impressive to me, but their Capitol Building was very very nice.
The after a long day of traveling, we finally arrived into my destination State of Colorado and ended up in Fort Collins for the night. Tomorrow I head to Denver to meet with my cousin for lunch, then I'll drop off my dad at the airport and head west to Aspen with my cousin. That will complete this portion of the road trip until the return trip at the end of August. Until then I'll be in a town called Snowmass just outside of Aspen for about 6-7 weeks. Internet might be kind of hard to come by, but I'll update the blog when I can. Take care everyone!

Oh and I missed some photos of some funny stuff but I recall two things. One was a sign for a restaurant in the Black Hills that said "We deliver pizza and babies." The other was a homestead property in the middle of nowhere Wyoming that was named "Boner Ranch." :P

Americana, My Way

So here's a question... How do you go across the entire state of South Dakota without being miserably bored? Well, here is how! (You may use this as your travel guide for your future SD adventures)

Starting in Sioux Falls on the far eastern side of SD and driving to Rapid City on the far western side of SD, is many many miles of plains, and not much in between if you don't know what to look for (sidenote: refer to the previous entry and the following entry to find out about a few more attractions). We began our day by heading towards the Great Plains Zoo in Sioux Falls, but on the way we noticed a memorial to the USS South Dakota which was replicated on this field to its exact dimensions. Walking through the replica of the earthened battleship was many interesting facts about the battles and theatres that the USS South Dakota fought in. Definitely a nice little surprise. Just down the block was the zoo which turned out to be really great. There were many different types/kinds of animals from all over the world, big to small, furry to feathered, slimy to scaley. Some of the most impressive exhibits (among many others) were the monkeys, amur tiger, snow leopard, brown and black bears, and my favorite, the cheetahs! I had always wanted to see a cheetah since its my favorite animal, so this was cool even though I couldn't get that close to them. The monkeys were the funniest as they had a cool playpen for them to swing around and tackle each other. Overall it was a pretty solid zoo.

After the morning in Sioux Falls we headed out into the vast plains of South Dakota (but only saw Buffalo at the zoo... lame), heading west towards Rapid City. The first stop was about an hour west at the town of Mitchell. Mitchell is famous for its Corn Palace which is a structure that has been around since the early 1900's that has a facade of real corn in patterns of various murals on the building. It is sort of like an assembly hall that was used for shows and expo's back during the Homestead times and is now used for various events, basketball games, and for the museum. It was a very cool building and the history was very interesting to learn about. After that my dad insisted on going to the George McGovern museum in town which actually was kind of cool... I'll let history buffs look into him more. Following the pit stop in Mitchell we continued on our way and started really getting into the middle of South Dakota where there were small rolling hills, lots of plains, and lots of agriculture.

Next stop was in the town of Chamberlain on the banks of the Missouri River. A rest stop along the Interstate had an exhibit of Lewis and Clark's expedition. According to the exhibit, Lewis and Clark had stopped and camped at this particular point on their journey out west. It was an amazing view of the valley and the river from atop the hills. It was fun to imagine what those explorers and settlers must have thought of the area when they first gazed upon it. In addition, it was easy to see how the Native Americans of the area thrived on the land, and this was a common theme throughout the parts of middle America that I have seen. Then, it was around a little past halfway across the State where I passed an 1880's preserved South Dakota town, the 2,000 mile mark on my trip, and entered into the Mountain Standard Time Zone. From there it was only a little while further until reaching the main attraction, the Badlands National Park.

In the interest of keeping this blog to a minimum and holding your attention span, the Badlands National Park (which you should look up on the internet for more cool information on it)is situated about an hour east of Rapid City. You go through this expanse of plains and then arrive at some of the craziest rock formations and canyons that you'll ever see. They don't call them the Badland for nothing, as if it wasn't for the roads, trying to pass through this area would be extremely treachorous. Anyways, it's absolutely worth taking the scenic route through the Badlands so that you can get up close and personal with the park and even hike into them if you so please. I'll let the pictures do the talking but only standing there can you really get a sense of the vastness of the grasslands and detail of the Badlands. You can also check out Bear Grylls on Discovery's Man vs Wild doing an episode in the South Dakota prairie and Badlands here: Man vs. Wild - Badlands. Oh and another thing, along this part of South Dakota is the missile silos for the ICBM's that were built specifically for the Cold War. Unfortunately we arrived too late in the evening to be able to go on the tours of the silos and command center. I bet it would have been sweet though (it's called Minuteman Missile National Historic Site).

Following the breathtaking expanse of the Badlands, we headed out of the National Park and continued on our way to Rapid City with the Black Hills off in the western horizon. After many miles of traveling, we finally arrived in Rapid City and quickly went downtown to catch dinner at a place called the Corn Exchange. The city itself was mostly unimpressive and very spread out, but there was a small section of the city with interesting shopping stores (very western and tribal feel to them), and some historic midwestern style building reminiscent of a town that boomed in the late 1800's and early 1900's but has now experienced vast changes and is trying to recover... if that makes sense. It was also cool to see Native American families walking around the city, which is very uncommon in the east coast. I just felt terrible because I know how impoverished Native Americans are as an ethnic group. Definitely a shame, especially considering the ones that make millions opening up casinos are a very small minority of the Indian population.

Tomorrow I'm off to the Black Hills and am getting very close to the final destination on this portion of the road trip. Yeehaw!!

P.S. I accidently killed a small tortoise on the Interstate today... it was a bloody obliteration that I experienced in my rear view mirror. Def felt terrible. So please pour some out for ones homies (or tortoises) next time you have a drink.

Fording the Mississippi and Entering the Plains

What was suppose to be a lower key day, turned out to be one that was filled with interesting sights that not only were a lot of fun but also provided lots of laughs. It started out waking up in my hotel in La Crosse and gazing out the window to see the Mississippi River in the daylight. After taking it all in, my dad I got some breakfast (mine was fried eggs, bacon, and wisconsin cheddar wedged between two buttermilk pancakes... NOM!) and then headed out to explore the town. La Crosse had a cool old midwestern feel to it. There was some really cool shops such as a cheesehead shop, a 1930's style ice cream parlor, an old school records store (a la Empire Records), and antique shops that had old midwestern artifacts. Definitely a nice little suprise. Before heading west again, we made sure to stop by the worlds largest 6-pack of beer. And yes, it is actually considered a 6-pack because it is full of beer at all times... see below.

Then just like in the Oregon Trail, I forded the damned Mississippi River... and somehow my freakin oxen drowned and then I died of dysentary. How can you die of dysentary the day after breaking a leg?!?! Oh well, I just clicked restart, tried again, and forded the river successfully. At that point we made it to Minnesota and took Scenic Route 16 for a little while in the Root River Valley and then met back up with the Interstate and set course for Rochester, MN. If you don't already know, Rochester is home to the Mayo Clinic. It was an impressive campus of structures, which I had hoped to tour but made it too late. Nonetheless, it was very cool to see, but as my dad said, "I hope to never have to see it again" rang very true to me because I'd definitely only want to see the place for pleasure and not for the more solemn reason. After that quick excursion, we continued on west through the rolling plains in search of some more light hearted activity.

Thanks to the suggestion by Laura C, my own personal Minnesotan (?) travel agent, what would have been a relentlessly boring trip through southern Minnesota turned into one big laugh fest. Along the Interstate,unbeknownst to any unsuspecting passerby, in the middle of nowhere, was none other than than the Spam Museum! I couldn't even make this up. Literally, a museum dedicated to Spam, brought to you by your ham company, Hormel. For such a gross food, the museum was surprisingly pristine and extremely well done with a retro feel to it. After a 15-minute video documenting its history and its global appeal, we were free to roam around this quite large museum filled with tidbits about Spam, as well as interactive videos, games, assembly lines, trivia, and artifacts. I don't think I've ever seen so much Spam in my life... and I guess I'll admit the possibility for a fraction of second that I wanted to try Spam. If anyone ever happens to pass through the area, defininetly go spend an hour there... you won't be disappointed.

Once we were back on the road, we continued heading west towards South Dakota. While the scenery was pretty much the same (rolling hills/plains, farms, and the occassional pack of cows), there were many many wind farms along the Interstate. I probably saw at least a few hundred along this stretch of road and was quite impressed by it. I don't really see why people object to having wind turbines in sight of their homes... I find them quite appealling and interesting... but I don't want to get into politics in this blog, so that's the end of that. Anyways, after traversing through the entirety of southern Minnesota, we finally made it the true start of the Great Plains, in Sioux City, South Dakota. I never thought I'd go to South Dakota in all my life, but I'm here now and I plan on enjoying it. The hotel we are at has had the best rooms we've been in so far, and some of the best decor of any standard hotel room that i've been in. Very impressed! After a huge dinner of fish, pheasant, potatoes, and salad, we headed to Great Falls park to take in the last bit of daylight. Great Falls park while not rivaling anywhere near Niagara Falls, was quite a breathtaking park. Our timing was impeccable and as we got our first glimpse of the falls, what started was a light show of the Great Falls and a laser show accompanied by some cool history about the Indian tribes of the area and the settlement of Sioux Falls. It was really amazing and made the many mosquito bites that I got there worth the visit. Oh and one more thing about Sioux Falls, it has the freshest tap water that I have ever tasted!

Well it is once again a very late night. Time to get some semblance of sleep and then head west across the plains of South Dakota tomorrow. Hopefully I'll spot some buffalo. Also, the next blog should have some cool pics coming due to tomorrow's planned adventures, so be on the lookout for the next entry! Thanks to everyone who has been reading so far. And if you are reading this and haven't become a "follower" yet, please do so... thanks!

Fo(u)r Cheese and Country: Cities and Padunks

While I wished I could have stayed in Chicago a little longer, the road beckoned for me. So I headed north to Wisconsin, to the land of cheese, sausage, beer, and Brett Favre (a former version of him at least)... oh and Scott Walker. This was the point in the trip where we deviated from the most direct route to Colorado and instead took a more northern route to see some more interesting locations later on. The first stop on this leg of the trip was to Milwaukee, the home of the Miller Brewing Company. The city was surprisingly nice and had a lot of interesting architecture. We quickly made our way to the Miller Brewing Company visitor center, in Miller Valley, to take a tour of the plant. After sitting through a very entertaining and funny introduction video, we toured the plant, everything from the brewing to the bottling to the packaging and distribution. With a bunch of historical information and artifacts smattered along the tour, it turned out to be a really awesome experience, culminating in a bunch of free beer samples :)

Following the tour, we headed back into Milwaukee for lunch at the Comet Cafe. This restaurant was featured on Food Network's Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. Here is a clip: Comet Cafe. It was definitely a "dive" but the food wasn't. My dad got the meatloaf sandwich and I got the burger. While Guy Fieri may be kind of douchey, he does have a sweet job and he does give places notoriety when if you saw it, you wouldn't give it a second look. After lunch we headed through the historic district of Milwaukee and even passed by the Pabst Mansion. We then turned and continued west towards Madison.

One of the most notable sights in Madison was the Capitol Building... but we didn't see any teachers fire bombing the Capitol unfortunately... but I'm sure someone is cursing out Scott Walker somewhere. Madison is also situated between two lakes, Monona and Mendota, which were very nice. The only downer was that it was raining and we couldn't enjoy all the sites and thus didn't get a chance to visit Monona Terrace. We also went around the University of Wisconsin campus and even got a chance to go in to the football stadium. After a brief visit to Madison, we headed towards La Crosse, Wisconsin, on Scenic Route 14 instead of taking the Interstate, which frankly I'm kind of sick of. The scenic route turned out to be a great idea, as it meandered its way through padunk towns, rolling hills, farms, forests, amish settlements, and even a town called Kickapoo (I shit you not... and I thought Tenacious D just made up that name). Won't have photos of this for a bit since my camera battery died and I took them on my dad's camera.

The traverse through Wisconsin finally brought us to the banks of the Mississippi River at La Crosse. Awaiting at the room at the hotel was a view of the river (I'm literally watching a barge go by right now) and much to my delight, the end of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Call me a communist, but I don't care, the Bruins won the Cup and I'm esctatic! GO BRUINS!!!! Chara will eat you for lunch :P First person to send me some Bruins championship gear gets a trinket from Thailand!

Time to go enjoy the local cheese and sausage I bought from Milwaukee then catch up on some sleep. And once I get the opportunity I will upload all the photos I have taken on Facebook. See you all from The Plains!

For the Love of Sports and Food: A Midwestern Adventure

Before crossing over into the Central Standard Time Zone, there was one more place to be explored in South Bend. After having breakfast at this cool place called Le Peep, I headed across the street to the College Football Hall of Fame. A gridiron turf entrance laid the path to its entrance, which was surrounded by the flags from every Division I college football team, even UB!! I was tol at the breakfast place that the Hall of Fame is moving to Atlanta in a couple years, so it was good timing to be going through South Bend. Now, I'm not a huge college football fan, but the experience that awaited me inside this Hall of Fame really changed how I felt about the tradition and history behind it. I can't describe every detail of the place, and it is definitely worth a visit if you are passing through, but inside was a plethora of trophies, artifacts, uniforms, audio/video kiosks, enshrinements, school spirit, and other interactive displays.

If there is anything to know about today, it was that there was no lack of amazing experiences. After a short ride going west of South Bend, my dad and I made it to Chicago! I had only been to O'Hare International Airport, so this was my first real time on the ground. In short, Chicago blew me away. But I'm not going to leave it at that. We decided to take the scenic way in on Lake Shore Drive, and it provided spectacular views of the city and Lake Michigan. We headed up to the north side from there to get Cubs tickets for the game that was going to be played later in the evening. After going through some of the neighborhoods we headed to our hotel in Elmhurst so that we could drop off the car and take the train back downtown to explore.

Now, this is the part for my fellow planners. In terms of the transportation system, the stations were nicely done and the prices were very fair. The only major complaint I had, especially for the city of its size, was that there were very few stations where you could buy your train tickets from a machine... you either had to find an open ticket window or buy the tickets on the train. I feel like it would have been more efficient to have ticket machines rather than having long lines form to talk to buy tickets from the one person at the window. But this was only a minor complaint and ultimately, I had nearly no problems using their metro system. In addition, Chicago felt very similar to New York City, yet there was something different about it that I couldn't quite put my finger on. The parts of Chicago I saw were definitely cleaner and less smelly than NYC, and I never felt swallowed by the all buildings as the spacing was nice and the people generally friendly.

Anyways, the first order of business was to get deep dish pizza. If it's cliche, I don't care. Thanks to Chris Dochney, I decided to try out a place called Pizano's located near Millenium Park. Now, I'm not a big deep dish pizza person (I grew up on NYC thin crust pizza), but I was determined to find a deep dish pizza that I would like (and no... Uno's is disgusting). I just got a basic cheese and pepperoni deep dish, but there was nothing basic about the taste or the texture. It was incredibly delicious and was absolutely worth the half hour wait for them to make the pizza to order.

On a full stomach, I made this quick dash over to Millenium Park. It was simply stunning. Not only was the architecture and art amazing, but it provided magnificent views of the city and Lake Michigan. The ampitheatre was definitely a product of Frank Gehry and the crowd favorite Cloud Gate or "the bean" provided many thrills for everyone there. It was pretty awesome to see how it reflected everything. I could go on and on about the park, but in the interest of time and your attention span, I will let my picture below and google images do the talking.

Last but not least, after taking the Elevated Train up to the north side, we arrived at Wrigley Field to see the Cubs take on the Brewers of Milwaukee. Wrigley is definitely one of those places that all baseball fans should have on their bucket list and is a mecca for baseball in general. The old time feel and intimate surroundings make it a stadium that's hard to find elsewhere. And the whole experience started off great. As I entered the bleachers sections and spotted a good area to sit in the general admission section, I look over to the Brewers practicing in right field when one of the players throws the ball into the stands for someone to grab. Apparently I chose the right place at the perfect to literally just walk to the seat I spotted from 100 feet away and then look at right field and have the ball lobbed right to me. I made the smooth catch over some maligned Cubs fans, smiled to and high fived my dad, and then sat down. It wasn't the way I imagined catching my first baseball, but it was nonetheless awesome. The atmosphere at Wrigley was very enjoyable and most people were very friendly. We even had a treat when Bob Uecker sang "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" at the 7th inning stretch. If you don't know who he is, then this should jog your memory: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPi9r0j2rcc. Anyways, the Cubies pulled one out in extra innings, but Bartman still haunts them. So the Cubs have now won two in a row, but it is only a matter of time until they start to lose a lot, as is tradition. But for today, it was a glorious day for the Chicago Cubs, and therefore the world.

Tomorrow I am off to the great cheese state of Wisconsin. Stay classy, east-coasters.

Fighting the Irish and Some Creepy Bugs

So today began the first true leg of my road trip out to Colorado. After saying goodbye to Buffalo (and The Bon), I began to head out west, but unfortunately not on the Oregon Trail. My first stop was in Cleveland, OH to pick up my dad from the airport so he could join me out to Colorado. We also helped my brother with part of his move into his new place downtown. That was when all hell broke loose... well, if hell is billions of little bugs descending down upon the masses. So apparently once a year for two weeks, the Canadian Soldier bug swarms Cleveland in a fog of war, clinging to buildings and cars, and flying into unsuspecting peoples open mouths. Def a great time to be visiting Cleveland.

It wasn't all bad though. Cleveland was a joyous city today as they basked in the tears of LeBron James losing in the NBA Finals. Even the bugs couldn't spoil their good moods. I also was able to eat lunch at this place called the Chocolate Bar: http://originalchocolatebar.com/newintro.html. After a very interesting and tasty meal, my dad and I headed to Indiana.

I knew I was in East Bumf#@% not only by the sheer amount of farms, but when I spotted the trailers for 3 NASCAR driver's cars along the highway, including Tony Stewart and Mark Martin. YEEEEHAWWWW. After arriving South Bend, Indiana, we headed straight to the campus of Notre Dame. Even though I could care less for their athletics, I have to say that their campus was beautiful and you could sense the tradition involved there. Unfortunately there was no Rudy sightings, but I made sure to pay my respects to Touchdown Jesus.

Following our campus visit, we hit up this pretty cool Gaelic/Celtic restaurant which had great food, a cool atmosphere, and a Celtic Band: http://www.fiddlershearth.com/.

Time to hit the hay though so I can try and catch up on some sleep. Tomorrow I head the short distance to Chicago for what should be a fun day of exploring. I already hit the 1000 mile mark on the trip but I will also be heading into the Central Time Zone which I guess is another milestone.

Until tomorrow, I leave you with a fun Chicago clip: http://www.hulu.com/watch/4171/saturday-night-live-bill-swerkskis-super-fans

Back in B-lo

As I sit here writing out this entry, I am both extremely exhausted but also extremely fortunate.

The last few days I have been spending my time in Buffalo seeing old faces, meeting new ones, and being the most resourceful groomsmen that I could be for the wedding of my good friends, Scott and Jamie...  or should I say, Mr. and Mrs. Williams! Without any exaggeration, this past weekend has been a whirlwind. Having the opportunity to be part of the wedding was truly an honor and it was almost surreal to see my two friends tying the knot. From attending event after event, constantly eating and drinking (no complaints there), and catching up with friends (some of which I hadn't seen in years) was a blast and nearly left me drained of all my energy.

I could try to name everyone... so I'm going to, because these people are truly special people in my life and have known these people for some years now, and others much longer than that. In no particular order: Scott, Jamie, Evan, Matisz, Brooke, Charlotte, Zack, Derek, Sarah, Erin, Elayna, Alea, Sam, Mike, Dan, Nick, Morgan, and I'm sure some others that I'm forgetting in my tired state. It was great seeing you all at the wedding and around Buffalo this past weekend. I also what to thank the rest of the wedding party including: Scott, Jamie, Pete, Lindsay, Jessica, Evan, Brooke, Matisz, Jessie, Max, Charlotte, and the families of the bride and groom (sidebar: square check).



It was a great weekend ranging from going to The Bon, going crazy at the Bachelor party, rolling like straight pimps with my fellow groomsmen at the wedding, trivia at Founding Fathers, a Duffs run, and hangout out and joking around with my old friends. So much more could be said but some stuff is better left to memories. Oh and for those wondering (especially my Jersey friends), this is what real Chicken Wings look like:

Now that you have had time to digest those images, and how delicious those images are, I bid farewell to all my great friends in Buffalo and I hope to see you all again very soon! Anyways, in about 6 hours or so I'll be beginning the first major leg of the road trip towards Colorado. Day 1 begins from Buffalo to Cleveland where I'll be picking up my dad from the airport and meeting up with my brother to see his new place. He'll be in Cleveland doing his residency at the Cleveland Clinic. Here is a little taste of Cleveland for those unfamiliar with the city: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM. After an afternoon there, my dad and I will head to South Bend, Indiana where we'll be spending the night at the campus of Notre Dame where I'm sure we will be basking in all of its supposed glory and paying our respects to Touchdown Jesus and Rudy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ7ZpLgkVxA. I'd say you can follow my progress on Twitter, but I think that program is a bunch of bull crap. @JacobR 2:15pm #Onthetoilet... thrilling stuff, folks.

See you all in the Hoosier State!



And so it begins...

Tomorrow I leave for Buffalo. This will be the first leg of many that I will be embarking on this summer. I'm already way behind on packing and I have to pack for a summer for many different climates and with all necessities of my life crammed into my car; clothes, electronics, toiletries, bedding, work related materials, books, odds n' ends, and anything else that will keep my sane. The clothes part is most difficult especially considering the various hot, mild, and cold weather that i'll be dealing with. Looks like I'll just put all my clothes in suitcases instead of really sorting through what I need and don't need.

But enough of the boring stuff. The wedding is for a really good friend of mine, Scott, who was my floormate and subsequent roommate in college at UB. He is marrying another friend of mine, Jamie. I was asked to be a groomsmen for the wedding and I was more than thrilled to be a part of the wedding. It's really shaping up to be a crazy and good time. I'm expecting to see a lot of friends that I haven't seen in a long while. Some since I graduated from UB and others that I haven't seen in longer. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm sure there will be plenty of reminiscing, partying (and bachelor partying), drinking, and chicken wing eating! Oh and of course watching my friends get married ;)

I'll be staying at best friend's Zack's place, so don't bother trying to talk to both of us at the same time or you'll just be dealing with having to understand our apparent code talking. There will also be plenty of Mitch Hedberg quoting :D

So, goodbye Philly... see you at the end of the summer. Next blog and all those from here on out will be from the road. I will try to upload pictures of things when I can and will do my best, internet abiding, to keep updating this thing. Lastly, my beautiful g/f, Katie, arrived safely today in the Philippines today... sans her luggage. If she doesn't get her luggage back soon, I will have to resort to sending Mohammed Ali back over there for the Thrilla in Minila II to beat up the chumps that lost her bags.

See all you crazies in Buffalo in t-minus 18 hours! I leave you with this: http://www.facebook.com/video/?id=15713857#!/video/video.php?v=572488556338

Events Calendar

So I'm taking a quick break from the Nadal vs Federed French Open finals, since it is in an untimely rain delay, to just quickly detail a general idea of when and where I'll be this summer. As the dates come up, I will be sure to describe in more detail what I'm doing there. Below the blog posts, I put a quasi-calendar of the expected dates I'll be in the specific places I mentioned in my first post.

I'll preface this by quickly explaining my past couple weeks; In mid-May I graduated from the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers with a Masters Degree in City and Regional Planning. Yes, I realized I was in New Jersey for the past two years, and yes, I'll be sure to take a bleach bath before any of you see me in person. Anyways, a week later I went to my brother's graduation froom Upstate Medical School in the "thrilling" city of Syracuse, NY. If any of you have an broken bones a few years from now, I'll be sure to refer you to my brother. A week after that, I moved my stuff out of the Highland Park/New Brunswick area and returned to Philly. I'd first like to thank my awesome roommates, Travis, Laura, and Sammy for being great to live with and not being too big of creepers haha. Secondly, I want to thank all the amazing people (friends and professors) that I met at Bloustein the past two years. You know who you are, and good luck with the job search!

But now I'm in a strange limbo/transition as I unpack and pack again for a summer that will see me go from a wedding to the west coast to southeast Asia, all packed into one SUV. So as this not so short as previously expected post concludes, be on the lookout for more details on the upcoming wedding in Buffalo and then I'll be sure to outline all the places I'll be traveling through on the subsequent road trip to Aspen, CO.

*insert witty sign-off here*
- Jacob

Prologue

I'm not really a big fan of blogging since I don't think my life is interesting enough to post my every doings each minute like Twitter users. But, this summer, I will be heading out to Buffalo for a wedding which will begin my "summer traventures" that will take me through two cross country road trips, a 7 week stay in the Colorado (Aspen) area, and a southeast Asia trip to Thailand and Cambodia. I know people have been asking about my whereabouts this summer, so this will serve as a medium to document my travels so that I don't have to try and recount everything to each interested person. This is my first attempt at a blog, so I hope everyone can bear with me as I figure out not only my writing style (hopefully it has some wit), but also how to manage a blog. Please feel free to "follow" the blog and comment on any of the posts ... Thanks!

Also, I wouldn't expect an update every day (whether it be a shoddy or a lack of internet connection, that I'm too busy, or nothing interesting happened), but I will do my best to update the blog with new posts whenever I think it deserves an update.