Keeping Our Honeymoon Weird: Portland!

We made it to Portland without automotive troubles, yay! We were so excited to see Graham and Rebecca, who got married the day after we did. I'm sorry to say that I didn't take many photos, mostly because it was more of a relaxing stop at their apartment where we felt more like we lived in the city, rather than as exploring tourist. Also, Graham and Hitchcock had a lot of catching up to do since they hadn't seen each other in four years.

They took us to the Kennedy school, which used to be an elementary school but was converted into a hotel and bar. Below is a picture of the school's boiler room, which was a funky little bar:

And there was a "soaking pool" which was really just a giant hot tub.

The detention room was turned into the cigar bar (how appropriate) but it was closed, which might be why Graham looks so sad in the corner of the picture.

Overall, we loved Portland! The size of it felt a lot like Boston, and it was easy to get around. There were good food trucks and thrift stores everywhere:

And our hosts were just the best. Knowing that both Graham and Rebecca are artists, we weren't surprised to see that their little apartment was very cute. Because we had the air mattress and sleeping bag, we camped in their living room. Each morning we would deflate and roll-up our bedding to get it out of the way, sometimes with husbands still laying on them:

(Note the feet coming out one side and the head the other.)

One little gem in the downtown area was an arcade that became a bar at night, full of old games and pinball machines. It was called Ground Kontrol:

My husband would have left me for the Tron game, but I doubt it would fit in our car.

This is Hitchcock and Graham playing X-men. They were quite happy.

Of course we went to Voodoo Doughnuts, which was a tourist attraction itself:

This is where the line looped back around. Ahead and to the right, the end of the line is down the street.

Have you ever seen a doughnut with cereal on top?

My maple and bacon doughnut was heaven. I needed a nap immediately afterward.

Not pictured in this post is the two record stores we went to, the Powell's Bookstore where I scooped up nine Young Adult books, the sushi conveyer belt that gave me mild food poisoning, Rebecca's cat that was terrified of us and refused to come out from under the bed, and the night we had a rash of wine and watched Lost in Translation. 

This was such a relaxing and friendly stop! Next is San Francisco!!

Passing Through Salt Lake and Boise!

After departing from Denver, and passing the point on the highway where we broke down, we let out a big sigh and made our way into Wyoming. Not much to write home about, so we steered our way into Utah as quickly as possible. The wind wanted to blow our little Cube off the road, and I was still getting used to driving manual. 

We stopped first in Heber, Utah to visit my mom's side of the family and introduce them to my shiny new husband. My aunt Georgia showed us around the area, and took us to dinner in a town that is the equivalent to the Swiss part of Epcot center:

Hitchcock met my grandparents, and we got a tour of their house, with many updates I hadn't seen yet. It was nice to catch up!

We got into Salt Lake late, but Aunt Sandy and Uncle Pres stayed up like champs. 

The next day, we got bagels with Sandy and hit the road for Portland. We decided to stop in Boise, Idaho for dinner, and it just so happens...

... Boise is really, really cute! Who knew?! We ate at a place called Fork, which was delicious. The lady next to us was dining alone, and we started chatting. Her daughter just had twins, and we told her our honeymoon misfortunes. When our bill came, she grabbed it! A complete stranger! 

I should mention that I have a few Honeymoon To-Do List items:

1. Get something for free because we're newlyweds.

2. See a couple on a motorcycle where the woman is driving and the man is on back.

3. Not be the one to get a speeding ticket.

4. Find a haunted house.

5. Discover the perfect cocktail.

6. Get a picture of my husband smiling.

The first one is happening in abundance, and the beet cocktail in Denver is near perfect.

Anyway, look at Boise!

And front page news is a scooter accident. Adorable! (Also, the gal is a hottie! No wonder the town is concerned.)

Our next stop is Portland, YAAAAAAY where we're staying with friends and laying low for about five days. 

Denver, Part Two!

When we last left our distressed newlyweds, they broke down while leaving Denver, and began to consider dubious professions in street performance....will they hitchhike to Salt Lake City...will the Subaru live to ride another day....will they hijack a train?

8am: Get a call from mechanic, who is flummoxed by our vehicle, and tells us he is towing the Subaru (for free) to an exclusively Subaru shop. He tells us to keep him in the loop because he's rarely beaten by a car, and he's concerned for our happy honeymoon. (Seriously, a super nice guy) I immediately decide this conversation calls for pancakes. We take the bus.

10am: We return to Snooze for the third time on our trip, because it's freaking delicious. Our waitress from the day before, approaches our table and says,

"Hey guys, I thought you were hitting the road! Couldn't get enough of Denver? You didn't break down, did you?"

We stared. She immediately looked horrified:

"Oh my God, you're kidding! You did?"

We explained the whole story, and the next thing we know the waiter is bringing us free food! Behold! Our table:

Different servers stopped by our table to offer sympathies and wish us luck. The waiter offered his own car to drive to a dealership! When we got our bill, the balance was $0. Because the staff of Snooze is the nicest. 

(If you look closely, you can see the picture I drew for them on the back of the receipt...)

11am: Husband and Wife council while waiting for the bus to pick us up. The Subaru mechanic calls and says the repairs would be 3K, which is more than what's left of the loan. Crap. We decide our car is toast and we need a new one.

11:30am: We go to the shop, ask the second mechanic if the car will make it ten miles to the car dealership if we drive really slow. He says, "Yeah, probably".

Well....

If you notice the car is at an angle, that is because it is being pulled onto a second tow truck because it fully, fully died the moment we got to an incline. I have never heard a car make such a bad noise.  Like a blender full of spiders. Made of metal.

12pm: Our tow truck driver stopped by our rented house to let us get our bags/tent/sleeping bag out of the car and into the house:

1pm: Arrive at the Planet Honda dealership where we go through the most painless, friendly car-buying experience of our lives. We test drive four cars, stopped for an ice cream cone:

And settled on this beauty. Meet our new car, Hugo!!

Thanks to some squeaky-clean credit (his, not mine), and a little help on the down payment from dad (mine, not his), we are READY TO GET BACK ON THE ROAD!!!

Do you hear that Salt Lake City?! We're coming for ya! Tomorrow!! 

Let's get this honeymoon back on track!

Yay! Denver! (Or Maybe Not)

We got into Denver in time for dinner, and upon a suggestion from a local friend, we went to a cute little place called Roots Down. I discovered the unlikely perfect summer drink: the Beet Down, which is gin, lemon juice, Aperol, ginger liqueur, and beets. So refreshing!

Our waiter told us about a record/media store called Twist and Shout. It was kind of like our Newbury Comics, but it had a really great bookstore next door called Tattered Cover.  I love bookstores that have old furniture hanging around the store:

The next day we went to Boulder, which was the cutest little town. We were there on Sunday, so there was a flea market. These lawn decorations were for sale:

And there were little tents that sold jewelry, home decor, and clothes. It was a fun place to wander around, because the shops were fun to peek in as well.

One store had Hitchcock's dream: Cane Cola cold in six packs, including their PB&J flavor. Gross!

The real reason we were wandering around is to kill time until our reservation at Snooze, the best pancake place in all of history. Holy moly, this place is so good, we went twice during our time in Denver (maybe three times if we can't get the car going soon, more on that later). We shared a blueberry Danish pancake, and the next day I inhaled a pineapple upside down pancake. 

A silks group was set up outside the theater, offering free swings...

As a side note, we couldn't be happier with Airbnb right now. Airbnb is a website that allows homeowners to rent either their entire home or just a room. It's way cheaper than a hotel. Back in Boston, we had only rented entire apartments. However, our honeymoon budget is pretty slim, so we started looking into rooms. At our stop in Denver, we had the entire main floor to ourselves, which included the dining room and kitchen. Our host was really nice, and actually ended up saving our asses during the Suburu Trouble later on. Also she had little Alf figures hiding all over the house:

What we thought was our last day in Denver, we went to another Snooze location and had pancakes, again. we wandered around the downtown area while we got our oil changed. We came across Wax Trax, an old record store. Places like this make my husband very happy:

Later in the day we went to a Rockies game. Neither of us had been to a game in years, and now I'm pretty much an expert beginner at understanding baseball. The lady sitting next to me was laughing while I asked Hitchcock basic/dumb questions about the rules of baseball. It's pretty hard not to have a good time when you're two beers in by the first pitch, and you have a hot dog. Even if the sun is setting in your face for five innings.

Oh yeah, that's a sunburn on my sad, sweaty neck all right! 

The next morning, we got our things around and were out the door by 9am. We got a quick breakfast outside of Denver, were generally in good spirits, and then...

Right before we got to Wyoming....our engine started making a clicking sound, and revving up for no reason. We pulled over and the engine shut off.  We just got the oil changed the day before, and the mechanic (who was really nice and has a great reputation) said our car was in great shape! What happened?!

Thinking it was problem from the shop, we had it towed (THANK YOU MOMMA HITCHCOCK FOR BUYING US AAA) back to Denver:

(I took this shot from inside the tow truck, maybe while tearing up a bit.)

And now...here it is. The mechanic can't tell what the problem is, and isn't going to charge is for anything until he knows. Our Airbnb host gave us her own bed and let us stay for an extra night, even though she already had new guests coming in. Seriously, she went to go stay with a friend. The nicest gal ever.

The mechanic should know if the problem is fixable or not by the end of today. We're going to dealerships in the meantime to price a new car. Buying a car in the middle of our honeymoon road trip was not in the plan!!! 

Spirits are kind of low right now, and we're anxious to get back on the road. Denver was nice when we wanted to be here, but now we're really done. And! We missed our own pit stop party in Salt Lake City, boo hoo!

Hopefully the next post is about either our successful car repair or the purchase of a new car. Or we build a hot air balloon or something. Le Barf.

The Blur of Iowa & Nebraska

When we left Chicago, we knew we had a 17 Hour drive to Denver, which we had no desire doing all at once. So we decided to eat dinner in Des Moines and then drive as far as we could stand into Nebraska. Our camera was buried in the back of the car, so I tried in vain to capture the beauty of Iowa with my iPhone from the car:

It didn't work.

Which is a shame! We were stunned as we were driving through green farmland, lined with giant, gleaming windmills. The sky was an intense blue. Even the cows looked happier than they did in Ohio. 

After a bit of Internet searching, we decided to eat at our favorite place so far: Zombie Burger and Drink Lab. Des Moines, you little rascal, what a hoppin' place! The wait was 90 minutes, so we happily sat at the bar.

How stinkin' clever are the decorations?! I got the "28 Days Later" burger and Hitchcock got the "T-Virus". He said it was the best veggie burger he's had on this trip, and the cheese fries were so good we ate the whole basket and then couldn't muster to strength to get on our seatbelts over our guts afterward. 

So thumbs up for Iowa! We were about to take back every snotty thing we ever said about the Midwest...and then we drove through Nebraska. Maybe it's because it was getting late by the time we drove through. But the gas station we drove through may have been running a prostitution ring. And our seedy motel was extra seedy in Grand Island. But we watched Coneheads, slept in our clothes to lower the risk of a staph infection, and let the romance of our honeymoon wash over us like the smell of cigarettes in our bed sheets. 

Needless to say, we're looking forward to Denver.  

Chi-town, Three Days

Chicago is the best! 

When we arrived in the city, we went straight to our Airbnb place, owned by a woman names Faye. She was an older lady, whose kids had grown and moved out, and now she had a big old house in Hyde Park that she turned into a bed and breakfast. She told us she bought the house in 1974, and I'm guessing the decorations have stayed the same since then. The house was wonderful:

The chandelier in our bedroom.

The bathroom, the most up-to-date.

This picture of the living room is dark, but the doorway had a wooden head curtain in it. Her cat, Divine, liked playing with it.

So of course we went to Millennium Park, where this huge waterfall is located. Somehow they've rigged it to have a couple of large faces under the waterfalls...

Some creepier than others...

And we saw the kidney, or jellybean, depending on your preference. It was quite the attraction. An entire field trip of little kids was pounding on it.

Here we are! Note that little kid picking his butt behind us:

We were fascinated by the Chicago Tribune building, because it had little pieces of other buildings sticking out of it:

Hitchcock took a bunch more, ranging from Custer's battlefield to the Forbidden City. Pretty cool!

We also went to the MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) and walked in as they were setting up a new installation in front of the building. It occurred to me that I've never seen a giant sculpture get put together by construction workers. I guess with something that big, it kind of has to!

While we were planning our honeymoon, and talking about Chicago as a destination, all Hitchcock could talk about was Reckless Records and the cold Swiss oatmeal at The Corner Bakery. I've never had cold oatmeal before (besides the kind you leave in the microwave too long by accident) and can I just say that it's delicious?! 

We checked out an architecture contest, where people submit ideas for new buildings and bus stops in Chicago. Some of the ideas are incredible, like turning the old city Post Office into a recycling center, or building agriculture towers in the middle of the city for people to grow their own food. They had a model of Chicago in the middle of the display:

This green lady was on top of the photo booth at Quimby's:

And this was by our house, where the Obamas went on their first date. It was across the street from our sushi place on 53rd in Hyde Park.