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Thursday, August 4, 2011

Arlington to HoCo to Joisy to HoCo

We left Arlington and drove the 40 mins to Columbia, MD. At my house, we dropped off a lot of my things and all of the extra food & drinks. This really lightened the load. From there we drove to the IKEA in White Marsh and had our first meal of the day. IKEA food is so good!

From there it was only a 2 hour drive to Princeton where we met up with our grandparents, my Aunt and Uncle, and my mother.  We ate at Shanghi Park, one of the best Chinese restaurants I've been to. There, it was great to talk about our adventures.

After dinner we drove the hour to Sean's house and cleared out the van.

The following morning I woke up and followed my Uncle and my mom to the rental place. First, stopping at a gas station to fill up and get a car wash per the contract.

I think the rental place was okay as far as getting us to where we needed to be. Like any place, they were very trying when it came to getting your money. And that's all I will say about that haha.

Driving back to my grandparents, it was weird to drive my car again. Of course the day ended with me driving 5 hours. An hour each way to and from the rental place and the 3 hours home to MD.

I am going to refresh this blog and add more detail to each entry. Also, I will add some photos. So stay tuned!!

M

Monday, August 1, 2011

Raleigh & Alexandria

From the ATL we drove to my friends place in Raleigh, North Carolina. It was last minute, but I am so glad we got to stop there as she just recently moved there. It kind of reminded me that when I get back, my grace period has ended and I should probably start researching jobs. I am really not too concerned with it right now as I do have another week of vacation.

From Raliegh we drove to Alexandria, VA to stay with my cousin. AKA Sean's brother. We went out to dinner at this place called Hard Times. It had the best chilli ever. You got to sample their 4 chilis which was awesome. My friend Dave came to dinner which was awesome since I rarely get to see him.

Today, it looks like we may drive through Annapolis. After that we will stop at my house to drop off some of my things and then we are driving to New Jersey. The car will be droppped off tomorrow and that will be the end of our month long road trip. When dropping the car off, I will have driven about 10,000 miles in total. How ridiculous.

Cheers,
Mees

Hot-Lanta! The ATL.

Macon to Atlanta was only a 2 hour or so drive with traffic. It was relatively easy  as well. We went to Waffle House again for breakfast that morning with our Macon host then headed out.

We got to Sean's friends place and went into the city. We were only 15 mins or so outside of the city, but we stayed again in a super nice area. it's surprising the way some of the cities in the US are set up. Mostly, I imagine the way Baltimore City is and the way the suburbs directly surrounding the city are in terms of wealth....In Atlanta, we went to the World of Coca Cola!!!!

It was amazing! We got to taste a bunch of coke products from around the world. It was interesting to see some of the archived advertisements and signage. My favorite part was sitting in this TV room where commercials or history of coca cola was played on a loop. It was cool to see the TV advertisements for coca cola products around the world. As a marketing major, I was exhilarated by this experience.

After that we went to Centennial Park where it had some Olympic memorabilia.
At this point we were dying, it was so hot. So we left and went to get food at a place called The Varsity. It was amazing fast food. They have this frozen orange drink and its like a sherbert mixture and texture. Delicious. We ate chili cheese fries and onion rings there. Both great.

We later went over to a district called Little Five Points. It was completely hipster, and I really loved it. Totally a bigger, nicer, classier Hampden. Full of culture. We walked around and into the record and thrift shops. We ate at a place called The Porter. We shared a bunch of appetizers that were so delicious. I believe everything on the menu was organic. at least quasi organic or local. Huge beer menu, and hot waiters. I'm loving Atlanta so far.

 One of the many appetizers we got. This is the Goat Cheese Fritters with Honey dipping sauce.
Below is the Apple Benignant. I only got a couple bites. We viciously attacked this but it was amazing.


Our seats in The Porter.

Later we went to some art show and other hipster places. It was cool to see the diversity of that state and particularly the city.

After all that, we were dead tired. We were supposed to try and see a live play of Rocky Horror Picture Show, but we bailed. Heading back, we pick up the van and go to Gabby's fathers house. Her dad was gone and so we were supposed to have the house to ourselves, just Sean and I--and their dog. However, Gabby left the key with her sister. We tried breaking in, but were unsuccessful. We ended up driving back to Gabby's mom's house. There we stayed in the guest house. That place was being rented, but the guy was out of town. The place used to house Monks, but it had been recently renovated. The bedroom was up on a loft which you could get to by climbing a spiral staircase. Pretty cool. I ended up sleeping on the couch while Sean slept on his air mattress. The guys bed was sketchy. I totally forgot to take pics of this place. It was mad cool.

In the morning, we went over to the main house and had some breakfast. I had a chocolate croissant.


Cheers,

Mees

"I am from Macon, Georgia!"

In Pensacola, our plan was to go to the beach. Fail. It was raining and thunderstorming the whole time so we stayed in the hotel room. At the Holiday Inn, they had a complementary "buffet" at 5pm. I grabbed a Foster, fruit, veggies, and pigs in a blanket and took them up to our room. It tied us over til we had the energy to try and find dinner. We ended up going to this real dive sushi place. It was pretty awful. We threw away our leftovers in the parking lot trash can. The next day my stomach was torn up.

The following morning, we ate for the first time at Waffle House. Sean and I both left feeling as if our waitress was slighly prejudice. She was extremley friendly to everyone else, but when it came to us her expression changed completely. But the food was awesome.

It has been strange to experience something like this along this trip, after all it is 2011. Even in the midwest, I can sort of give those people the benefit of the doubt when staring at us. But mostly, it annoys me.

Sean and I talked a lot about how strange it is that Florida is inverted. The North acts like the "South", but South Florida has "Northern" aspects.

So moving a long, we found a place to stay in Macon Georgia where we got to experience the south in more fun ways. We stayed at the house of Princeton student. He was a friend of friends through Sean. I believe he was the son of a former Senator in Georgia.


The house was old style. Big open rooms, antique-ish styling. Cats. I stayed in a room that conjoined the living room/kitchen and the foyer. I had a full bath in the room which was nice up until the following morning where Sean stomped through at the crack of dawn--no locks on my doors.

First of all, southern hospitality doesn't exist. It's a myth, so I'm told. Maybe it was just Macon, Georgia. I was really disappointed in that. I hoped to have doors held for me, and hear people call me miss in a southern twang.

Second, there's nothing to do in Macon  Georgia besides have a party at your parent's estate (yes I said estate) or shoot guns. We participated in both.

In Macon, we were in good company and it was cool to see what Macon life would be like. The pictures I posted were from driving through Macon. I'm told it's a rarity to see rain here.

Mees