6 posts tagged “travel”
One of the benefits to being unemployed (although technically I have a part-time job doing graphic and web design) is that I am free to travel anywhere at at any time, for any duration. I had an amazing time in Colorado (8 days) in June, and on Monday I am leaving to go to Vietnam for a month. I was told not to drink non-bottled water or eat any of the ice over there, and not to buy food from vendors or cart pushers who come knocking on your door at night, all for good health and sanitary reasons. And to beware of thieves who will cut your purse from the bottom or side if you're not paying attention so that they can steal your cash or other belongings. And to slip a $5 or $10 in my passport to airport security so that I don't get charged taxes for bringing electronics into the country. And that it will be very hot and humid.
All of that aside, it should be a fun trip, and I'm pretty excited about it. The last time I went was when I was 7, and I don't remember much except for that I got food poisoning, tasted some exotic fruits, got bitten a lot by mosquitoes, didn't have access to a flushing toilet most of the time, and that everything was super cheap. All of these will probably hold true for my trip 17 years later, but I'm hoping that I will have some other, more memorable experiences as well. If Internet access is available and cheap or free, I'll try to post photos and/or stories. If not, I'll have to update my blog when I get back!
Yellowstone was amazing. First, we (Claire, Claire's dad, and I) flew from San Francisco to Salt Lake City and rented a car, then made the scenic drive north. We stayed in a hotel in West Yellowstone during nights and went to the park during days, then drove back down to Salt Lake City before returning to California. Here are the best of the best of the photos I took on the four day trip using a Canon Rebel XTi with a Tamron 18-200 mm 1:3.5-6.3 lens, both of which I was fortunate enough to borrow from a friend for the trip.
Each night, my friend and I reviewed all of the photos we took that day. I asked myself what made the picture more or less pleasant to look at, and gradually I sort of got a feel for what makes a good or bad picture. I seriously think my picture-taking skills improved with each day I spent at Yellowstone. And I have some pretty sweet photos to prove it :)
Enjoy!
Mammoth Hot Spring Terraces:
A funky tree root in Norris Geyser Basin:
The huge crowd watching Old Faithful:
Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Lower Falls:
On our first day in the park, we saw a young bear taking a stroll on the side of the road:
And later on in the trip, a baby marmot:
...and maybe its mama marmot? They were both in the same area:
Then we saw the cutest chipmunk, either rubbing or cleaning its nose in this picture...
After getting tired of taking pictures of animals, people, and landscapes, I started taking pictures of faces that I saw around the park, too. Here is a happy little geyser:
And a fun tree:
And an even more fun tree:
On the last leg of the trip when we were in Salt Lake City, I took this picture of a seagull flying over the Great Salt Lake:
After taking nearly 700 photos total during the trip (my friend took more), I think I became a better photographer. My advice for anyone going on such a trip would be to take tons of photos because you can delete the bad ones later. If you don't take many, you might wish you had taken more, because some of them might end up being framed incorrectly or blurry, especially if you are an amateur photographer like I am.
Good people and friendships mean a lot to me, so I like to try visiting or meeting up with friends if possible. This led to a recent mini-road trip from Iowa to Minnesota to see my friends Jace and Mike, who were living in Rochester and Minneapolis, respectively. Here are some things we did...
In Rochester, we went to John Hardy's Bar-B-Q, which had really great food. I got the pulled pork sandwich plate with a side of fried okra and a glass of milk, but it was SO much food. It also came with JoJo potatoes (which are just like thick slices of fried potatoes) and garlic bread, the latter of which I was too full to even taste. I was glad we went with Jace and his girlfriend, who had been there before, because I guess the sauces range from 'Mild' to 'Bad Boy Hot,' and we were told that even then 'Medium' sauce was ridiculously hot. Like, ridiculousluously hot. I think that we all stuck with the mild when ordering.
In Minneapolis, we pretty much just ate way too much food everywhere. Here is a Google Map of the places we went--notice how many of them pertain to things that end up in your tummy:
20.21 was delicious. We ordered two sampler platters in addition to an appetizer, which allowed us to taste a variety of things. There was like this continuous flow of food to our table, and it was all delicious. My favorite was probably the Chicken and Pine Nuts in Lettuce Cups appetizer, which was awesome. The filling was made with ground chicken, corn, a teriyaki-like sauce, and other things that I forget. Nestled in fresh, crispy cups of lettuce, I ate mine like a taco and enjoyed every bit of it.
Ichiban is expensive, but the chefs put on a good show, and it's a fun atmosphere. I wouldn't say the food is great, but it is pretty good. However, the chefs cook it in such a hurry, and they put the same sauce on almost everything that is cooked, like the vegetables, meats, and in the fried rice, so there aren't too many different flavors to experience.
Sebastian Joe's Ice Cream is yummy. I liked this cinnamon-caramel ice cream that I tried the best, although unfortunately it wasn't mine...
I'm going to stop talking about food. Basically, you get the idea. There are so many delicious places to eat at in Minneapolis. There are also neat things to see, like the sculpture garden, a lot of museums, and lakes at which you can hang out.
Some of my favorite pictures from my trip to Minnesota are of a painted dinosaur sculpture that was at Lake Calhoun. This is when I discovered that I really like dinosaurs with lasers shooting out of their eyes who destroy towns.
This is getting long, but I'll give you one more interesting thing I noticed. When there's a fire, you know not to use elevators. But apparently, there are different opinions for how this should be depicted on the sign by the elevator:
I think this spring break was the first of my undergraduate years that I didn't spend working or doing work in Iowa City. Was it worth it? Yes. Breaks are almost always worth it--they're good for you mentally and physically, although I wish I could follow my own advice sometimes. But back to spring break.
[edit 3.29.2007]: I was feeling kind of down when I wrote this post, so I apologize if it didn't sound like I had too good of a time. So... I went to New York City to visit my friend Sharon, who I hadn't seen in almost 5 years. She's probably one of the sweetest, cutest people I know and I can't believe how much of an awesome tour guide and super gracious hostess she was. No wait, I can. She's just that great. On top of that, I got to see my friend Jace, who I haven't seen in awhile. Touring one of the most famous cities in the world with amiable company was such a memorable way to spend spring break, and here are some details of my trip.
I Left Cedar Rapids and flew to Chicago. Then I flew from Chicago to NYC. Above is the view from the airplane on the second leg of the trip.
I arrived at LaGuardia Airport and waited for Jace, who was also flying from Iowa to visit Sharon. We three met at a summer camp in 2002 (how cute, huh?) and have kept in touch ever since. I'm not joking when I say I only like keeping in touch with the good ones. Such good people.
We ended up going to Cafeteria for dinner, and I had their mac and cheese. It was pretty yummy.
That night, we hung out at two of Sharon's friend's places--Adam's and Joe's. Then we all (a group about 8) went out to a bar that was playing cool music like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah instead of the typical crappy hip-hop you'd find in most of the bars around here. There were a couple of guys in the back of the bar saying funny things (hmm, at the time?) like "Hey, gimme your scarf... I wanna be a metrosexual too!"
Day Two:
Then we did a bit of walking around and saw a lot of famous buildings and areas, from Rockefeller Center to the Trump Tower and the Apple Store on Fifth Ave.
This is where we took a two hour break to sit down and talk, and I took a picture of our shoes...
On our way out of the museum, we caught some street performers who put on a pretty good act. Above is a photo from when they were collecting money and said: "...do not be intimidated by the size of these bags."
That night, we stood in line to get free tickets to an Upright Citizens Brigade show. We ended up getting them (they're limited, hence the line), and it ended up being a really funny show to end the night well. I would recommend trying to catch a show if you're ever in New York City and enjoy improv comedy.
Day Three:
The next morning, we went to a place called Café Grumpy for coffee. The face that they had for a logo was pretty sweet:
When we got back to Sharon's apartment, she took us up to the roof of her apartment building, which had a great view. Again, such a gracious hostess!
Day Four:
We went to the Museum of Natural History, where there were impressive exhibits for mammals (with big elephants), rocks (with real asteroids), and reconstructed dinosaur skeletons. I was really happy and pretty excited when I found the dinosaur that I did a project and report on in 2nd grade, the Dimetrodon:
Then, we stopped by Billy's Bakery for yummy cupcakes and Stella's for delicious slices of pizza.
Yummy.
This was also our last day in the city with Sharon... sad. But she needed to have a spring break of her own, too, and Jace and I had to take separate flights to our next destinations. Here was the sunset on clouds as I was flying out from New York City and back to Chicago:
This site does a great job of linking you to those who have already been to places want to go, which is pretty cool if you like traveling and are interested in more than what you may experience with a tour guide. (It's related to the goals website I mentioned earlier this month). People can and do post pictures and comments, too--I imagine it would be a good resource for doing non-touristy things if you're on a touristy trip and your inclination is otherwise. So basically, now you can see where I've been, in full color! Okay, well... I'm probably the only one excited about that last one.
Grad school update:
I finished submitting the last of my grad school apps today--what a relief! The whole application process cost me about $750, or roughly $125 per school (I applied to six schools, if you don't want to do the math). I won't consider my efforts to be accomplishments until I actually am accepted, so at this point I've spent a lot of time, energy, and money for little more than a chance at going somewhere with a great program for sustainable design.
Setting goals:
This website is pretty cool--you can see the goals set by other people, become more motivated to accomplish your goals by reading about those who have, and see whether or not they thought the goal was worth accomplishing. And other cool things. If you like setting goals and making lists, or are curious as to what
other people in this world strive to do or be at any point in time, I
would highly recommend checking it out. Thanks to Greg for the link. (This is me)
Spring break:
I am going to New York for part of my spring break. I'm really going. Oh, and I'm SO excited!
