2011-in-Review: the MAP edition!

I am an avid consumer of social media, and am often excited to try new apps, but only after people I like start doing it first (I like to think of myself as a follow-my-friends early adopter. which probably makes me not an early adopter at all). One of my favorites if Foursquare, which, as you probably already know, allows you to “check in” to the places you go. Some think this is creepy (and I agree, in some contexts it totally could be), but you’re able to check in without sharing your location with anyone if you so prefer, and I think you can even make that your default setting.

What I really love about Foursquare is the ability to make MAPS. As you know, I’m a bit of a map nerd (read: huge map nerd). And Foursquare lets you export a KML feed on Google maps to make awesome maps of the places you’ve been. I already did this once on the blog for my trip cross-country with Miriam, but thought that in lieu of the this-is-what-I-did-this-year-post, I’d be a bit more creative and share in map form. I might still do one of those posts, since they’re funsies, but let’s wait and see.

So to start off with, here’s EVERYWHERE I went (or at least checked into) this year. You’ll notice there’s no international travel (2010 didn’t have any either, but 2009 had Costa Rica). Luckily, 2012 will be a great international travel year, with the very exciting ITALY trip in May to look forward to.

Nonetheless I did get to visit some new places, like:

Denver! (there’s not so much to see from this trip, since we spent a considerable amount of time on the couch. win. Slash, blame it on the margs):

And LA:

As usual I made quite a few trips up to NY, although perhaps not as much as in the past. Nonetheless, trips in April, July, and October (and stop-throughs in January and March) yielded a bunch of new favorite spots, chief among them the Waffle Truck, Fort Tryon Park/the Cloisters, and fantastic brunch spot Centro Vinoteca.

I also started a new job in the middle of 2011, leaving the wonderful non-profit I worked at for 2 ½ years for the equally wonderful, but very different energy efficiency software company where I now work. It’s located out in Courthouse, which means I have visited some (but not enough) new places in the Courthouse/Rosslyn/Clarendon area:

It was also a fantastic year for theater, but I cannot for the life of me isolate just Philly, New York, and DC in a way that has enough resolution to see theater locations, so that will have to be saved for another day.

Finally, and most wonderfully, I now live in an exciting part of a dynamic city -- so there's not often need to leave what some friends affectionately call "the radius." This year yielded more new favorites -- Stoney's grilled cheese and the guac at El Centro D.F., and lots of visits to old favorites Pica Taco, ACKC (which is closing the neighborhood location :( !), and Teaism.

All in all, a fantastic year for being places -- I added 5 new states (Indiana, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona), went to lots of new cities, and got to explore more of my wonderful adopted city, D.C.!

My Crush on America: the yummy, and energetic!

The final, and much-delayed post in my Why-I-Have-a-Crush-on-America-Thanks-to-My-Recent-Road-Trip Series wraps things up with two of my favorite things: food and energy! (which sort of works nicely, when you think about the fact that food is an energy source).

America is yummy!

This trip involved a lot of fantastic eating. We started off the trip right, with a stop at Vegan Treats, the DELISH vegan bakery in Bethlehem, PA. I got the peanut butter bomb, which I like to refer to as The Best Thing to Happen to Peanut Butter Since the Goober Pie. Miriam got a lovely carrot cake. I've been to Vegan Treats before, but love introducing it to new people -- I was only sad that I passed within 45 minutes of home and didn't have my Mom come meet us!

The next wonderful food stop was right outside of Indianapolis and Camp Guci at Traders Point Creamery, where Miriam’s boyfriend Beni was a staff member this summer. Miriam and I both got grilled cheese with avocado (I got mushrooms, too!) and a gouda and vegetable soup (so good-a!). We also sampled their chocolate milk (which Miriam says was wonderful, but I forgot that I don’t actually like chocolate milk) and their caramel ice cream, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

In St. Louis, we had inexpensive and yet DELISH sushi at Wasabi in Clayton. I will shut up and let the sushi boat (and Miriam's face) speak for itself:

In Denver, we had delicious tacos and even more delicious margaritas at the awesome Machete’s. Hilary and Tyler are friends with the Chef, which meant we got to try new things (ridiculously smooth tequila AND huitlacoche, a Mexican corn fungus, which is a delicacy and something I’ve wanted to try for a while thanks to Iron Chef). Silliness ensued, as one would expect from the combination of altitude and margaritas.

We also had next-morning brunch at this cute place called Snooze, which had a GLORIOUS dish of hash browns with eggs and cheese and any toppings of your choice. Basically, a bowl o' happiness. I chose avocados and tomatoes (obviously):

In LA, we had a much-anticipated meal at Fabio-from-Top-Chef’s restaurant, Firenze Osteria. We each ordered a different kind of gnocchi (look, the man is famous for his gnocchi. we couldn't resist). I won't say more, except that a. I won the Ordering Game of Life by ordering the Best Pesto of All Time, and b. you should read Mat S.'s account of The Best Pesto He's Ever Eaten.

America is energy-diverse!

America has lots of different energy sources, and they’re ALL advertised along interstate route 70! Now there are some (coughcoalcough) that I’m not a ginormous fan of, but there’s no denying that it was neat to see signs advertising all of these of different types of energy. We saw signs for coal in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, for natural gas in Pennsylvania (oy vey Marcellus Shale), and for geothermal in Ohio (ask Miriam, I got pretty excited about this one).

We also saw wind turbines throughout Illinois, Kansas, and Colorado, a solar-powered restaurant in Denver, and old-school oil wells in Los Angeles and in fields in western Kansas. We even saw signs for home insulation, so I’m going to say that we saw energy efficiency, too. Unfortunately, I didn't actually get pictures of any of this except the wind turbines in Kansas. Needless to say, my inner energy policy wonk was a happy camper throughout the trip. Miriam probably less so, since she had to listen to me talk her ear off about it . . .

So that’s it for the blog posts about our EPIC summer road trip. Moral of the story: I had a fantastic time, and can’t wait for my next adventure!

My Crush on America: the science-y and musical theater-y!

In the last post, I discussed some of the many reasons why I now have a crush on America, thanks to the great road trip of 2011. The love-fest continues in this post, in which I discuss America through the lens of things I love -- musical theater and science!!

America is SCIENCE-Y!

My inner former-interpreter-at-the-Franklin-Institute LOVED all of the great science we were exposed to on this trip. The Petrified Forest/Painted Desert National Park was great -- lots of pretty scenery (red white and blue mountains!? how patriotic!), fossilized wood, and a Route 66 memorial (can you have a memorial for a road?!).

I also LOVED the Garden of the Gods, right outside of Colorado Springs, Colorado, where there were tons of beautiful red rocks, perfect for a hike before heading south to Santa Fe. I was particularly excited to discover vertical stratification on this rock, which means that the sediment gathered horizontally, then the rock got smushed into a vertical position, and then it eroded away to look like what we see today. Fact: science is so cool.

Our last day, Mat and I went to the beautiful Griffith Observatory in LA, which included a lovely planetarium show (that I half slept through, not because it wasn't interesting, but because I am physically incapable of staying awake during those), a lovely hike towards the Hollywood sign, and a wonderfully well-curated and interactive set of science exhibits. The periodic table of the elements was my favorite (mostly because it made me want to sing the Tom Lehrer song).

America is musical theater-y!

This trip featured SO MANY opportunities to plays songs from musicals that featured the places we were visitings. This is not exactly a new phenomenon for me -- I'm pretty sure every time I go to New York, there's a different NY-related musical theater song in my head, but this was 3,000 MILES of musical theater references (it's a good thing Miriam likes most musicals, or our friendship would be in jeopardy . . .).

If you were following along with #3000milestoHUC, you'll know the answers to this game. First person to name a musical theater song or lyric to go with all of these places that we passed gets a drink on me!

1. Ohio

2. St. Louis, Missouri

3. Jackson County, Missouri

4. Kansas City, Missouri

5. Oakley, Kansas (okay, no musical actually goes with this place, but you should be able to guess what show was in my head)

6. Santa Fe, New Mexico

7. Los Angeles, California

OH, and speaking of musical theater – remember that time Lea Michele showed up in a sushi restaurant two tables away from us? When we got to California, I got to meet up with some of my favorite former DC residents, Seth and Stacy K. I asked them to give Schutz, Miri, and I an LA experience for dinner one evening, and they seriously delivered! We got to a snazzy (but not too snazzy) sushi restaurant in West Hollywood, and as we were walking to our table, Lea Michele walked in! We were very polite and didn’t take pictures or try to talk to her, but needless to say, we were very excited about this celebrity sighting.

Next up: more reasons why this road trip gave me a crush on America: it contains a lot of yummy food and it's surprisingly energy-diverse!!

My Crush on America: the Pretty, the Historical, the Friend-ly, and the Huge!

I officially have a crush on the United States of America (but not in a worrisome, nationalistic way). I’ve been going around saying that for the past three weeks since Miriam and I finished our epic Road Trip across the country, but it’s still true. Want to know why? I’ll tell you.

1. America is PRETTY.

We saw the greatest sunset ever, in the most unexpected place (ever): Salina, KS!

We saw some of the prettiest rain (yes, rain can be pretty, too!) in Santa Fe -- there was a rain storm in FRONT of us, but we weren't in it, so we could take pictures from the side.

Yes, the photo below is of an entire field FULL of sunflowers. This happened multiple times throughout Kansas. How could that not be a wonderful state? Yes, the picture next to it is of clouds -- we ended up identifying the shapes of a bunch of clouds throughout the trip, but these were my favorites, because they looked like writing!

2. America is HISTORICAL.

The first bit of history we got on the trip was some family history for me, when we visited Bexley, Ohio, the section of Columbus where Miriam’s Aunt lived and where my mom and her siblings grew up!

My other favorite bit of history was the Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri. Truman has been one of my favorite historical figures since high school, and I've been talking about visiting Independence since then. (For your reference, current Other Favorites include Teddy Roosevelt, Alexander Hamilton, Henry Clay, and James K Polk). Needless to say, I was VERY excited to go and learn, and the museum did not disappoint -- it was beautifully curated, and really moving at parts (there were great sections on the recognition of Israel, the Cold War, and civil rights), and I left feeling decidedly patriotic in the not-cheesy way.

America contains not-seen-enough friends.

I am one of those people who really likes all of my favorite people gathered in one place at all times. This is, of course, not particularly realistic, but it makes me a little sad sometimes. One of the best things about the road trip is that I got to see Seth, Stacy, Hilary, and Mat (who met us in LA), and got to meet Beni and Tyler, Miriam and Hilary's boyfriends!

Most wonderfully, this trip was a chance to spend hours and hours talking with my friend Miriam, who I see Nowhere Near Enough. We got to be ridiculous and silly and loud and just have a lot of fun catching up. I wish I could have a week off to do that with all of the people who are important to me.

America is HUGE

During our trip, I kept being reminded of one of my favorite Douglas Adams quotes:

"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may thing it's a long way down the road to the chemists, but that's just peanuts to space.

So America is clearly not THAT big. But it is big enough that we drove over 3,100 miles, for seven days, over 12 states (four of which were new for me). That's crazy! Check out the awesome Foursquare-generated map of everywhere we stopped:

Stay tuned for Other Reasons I have a Crush on America -- hints: it's science-y, yummy, and musical theater-y!