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We're chronicling our travels around the states on this blog. Check it out, if you're bored and sitting on an apple box (you can also check it out from home or the office).

Filtering by Category: Exploring

Rolling Hunger

May 15, 2014Samuel Herbig

The day we traveled from New Orleans to Austin, we set an unfortunate precedent: eat breakfast, drive all day then eat dinner. I get grumpy, Whitney gets grumpy and it all just doesn't end in a nice relaxed evening over a cocktail, ya know?

Before I go on any further, here it is:

Anyway, it did lead to us rolling into Austin with an angry hunger. Miscue followed miscue and we were solving a problem when we went to our first food truck, Luke's Inside Out on Lamar Avenue and grabbed a drink before heading to bed to sleep off our misgivings for each other.

The next day (April 24th, for any of you keeping score at home) was going to be Whitney and Sam's food truck day. The sole goal of the day was eating and I was soooo game.

So let's get started: we parked the car on South Congress and hoofed it over to Mellizoz for breakfast. Fried avocado is something that ought to be mandatory to graduate high school, mmkay?

We picked up our breakfast dessert next door at Gourdough. We shared a flying pig, and thought it was pretty good. A bit too much glaze and the bacon should have been crispier. God, I sound like such a snob.

His face says: please don't make me eat more of this!

Booth of those places were on South 1st Street which is in the very trendy Bouldin Creek/South Congress neighborhoods. There are loads of boutique stores, cute little restaurants, a couple of expensive hotels, and a very cool art store called Parts & Labour (we almost bought a screen print by Mr. Doyle — watch your eyes now, this is a visual workout!). Most of the people we saw on the street were, by my standards anyhow, *very* well put together. Not in a stuck up way, in a very hip and trendy way. You'll see that fashion at American Apparel in the fall I'm guessing.

Well sated, we set out on foot due North to cross the Colorado. Only I had been to Austin before on a certain Kostya A.'s bachelor party a couple of months ago and my experience then was only of a pretty bro-ish part of town. So walking back into downtown I had to warn my compatriot: "now listen, this is a pretty bro-ish part of town."

Aside from being the UT campus, Austin is also the Texas state capitol. Hence it's not altogether surprising that there are lots of chain hotels and tall buildings in that wonderfully engaging government style architecture. The character of this part of town isn't all to different from a blank legal size piece of white paper.

We ventured down East 6th, past all my glorious memories of late January and passed under I-35. Compared to our last home town of Brooklyn, this most resembled the Bushwick area, I'd say. Part industrial, part residences with small local businesses sprinkled in between it was the place I'd feel the most at home in.

We zeroed in on La Barbecue and got ourselves some brisket and potato salad. They even did that whole "beers for a donation" thing! Great spot, no doubt.

I screamed for ice cream, so we set out to find Cow Tipping Creamery, only to realize they weren't at the location we had expected them (more tomorrow!). So instead we crossed back across the river and up South Congress for a frozen and an iced margarita at Guero's. Delicious by all accounts (was the heat distorting our judgment?) we then grabbed ice cream at Amy's. Whitney got some local brewery's beer infused concoction, while I went with something a little more traditional.

At this time we really wanted to do that nap thing we'd started in New Orleans all over again, but man, people were loud in the dorms at the hostel. Have they no decency?

We had no choice. Our hands were tied and so we headed back to South Congress to grab fried chicken at Ms. P's Electric Cock. Yes, I took a picture of the sign.

While in Austin, we didn't want to miss the opportunity to go to one of their Alamo Drafthouse theaters. We'd been going this way and that weighing the different options and locations. In the end we got tickets to "Noah", a movie I had worked on way back when I used to work in New York.

For two days. I worked on "Noah" for two days.

If you haven't been to a Alama Drafthouse theater, you really ought to go. I'd been to the Nighthawk in Williamsburg and it's just a nice experience all around. You can order food (popcorn!) and drinks from your seat. The audience is pretty small and people are really there to watch the movie and nothing else.

We didn't get food though so the our last geil rating is for the popcorn and the popcorn only and I cede it to judge Whitney to make the call, she is the expert on such matters:

Fat and happy we headed back to our Hostel*. I couldn't wait to get the sleeping thing over with, cuz tomorrow we're gonna go swimming!

P.S.: I'm not going to go into a lot of detail, but out of all the hostel's we'd stayed at thus far the Hostelling International Austin was our least favorite. They're nice people and the staff works hard to stay on top of things. Our main complaints are ill equipped sleeping quarters (not enough outlets, not enough storage for each guest) and a complete lack of rules for the dorms. Most other hostels wouldn't allow food in the dorm area nor that guests hang out in them, unless they were resting with clearly outlined quiet hours. We really didn't spend any more time there than we had to, because of the unpleasant atmosphere. Anyway, 'nuff said. (Note from Whitney: on our last night we came very late, only to discover someone else sleeping in Sam's bed, so there's that too.)

P.P.S.: In trying to catch up, there are tons of new pictures up on the flickr photostream!

Random facts and statistics from Austin:

Whitney kept a running and highly sophisticated scientific tally of the cars we saw en route to Austin in order to establish the Ford truck dominance on Texas' roads. This sample was collected on Interstate 10, while heading west between 5:30pm and 6:33pm. The results are in:

(10) F-150 trucks
(12) Other trucks
(43) All other vehicles

categories Exploring
tags Food Truck, Austin, Texas

Roadtrip Jetlag

May 06, 2014Whitney Lea

Beware. This is going to be a very long post. I missed you guys and I haven't written in so long!

We love New Orleans and couldn't wait to spend a few days there. And when we arrived we did what everyone goes to NOLA to do: hibernate.

It's funny. New Orleans is known as a party city - and while that's certainly the case, and we don't shy away from a good party - by the time we arrived we were exhausted.

Originally we thought we might try to take a beginner's scuba course at Ginnie Springs and then camp there on the Saturday before Easter, but we soon realized a lot of the eastern portion of the gulf coast was experiencing flooding and had to come up with a revised plan. We had decided that we would rather wake up in New Orleans on Easter morning than somewhere in the Florida panhandle or in Alabama or Mississippi so we drove the 9 hours and then flopped onto a king sized bed at a Days Hotel near the Louis Armstrong airport. The sleep was very deep.

We woke up seemingly energized on Easter morning, I threw on a flowery dress and my sun hat in lieu of an Easter bonnet, Sam donned a shirt with a collar that matched his shorts after I asked nicely and we headed to Marigny to check into the Lion's Inn. Little did I know that it was there that we would spend the bulk of our time.

One of these buildings is the Lion's Inn (and I think it's on the right)

We dropped off our stuff, parked the car, and ate an awesome breakfast at New Orleans Cake Cafe up the block. We split poached eggs, boudin, and grits, as well as the red velvet cupcake they let us add to the meal for a buck. Feeling full we thought we were all charged up for an Easter Sunday full of parades and exploring.

We did manage to catch a parade before the exhaustion set in, the Chris Owens Easter parade. There were a number of floats, antique cars, and lots of people throwing beads, stuffed animals, Easter eggs filled with candy, hell - anything really. I caught two brand new shower loofahs. No joke.

We found a spot with shade and good photo ops and started chatting up the family next to us when suddenly we heard someone yell Sam's name from across the street. It was a high school friend of his from long island, Nick, and his wife, Rina, and their 10 month old daughter, Ava.

We run into Nick more than anyone we know so initially I was mostly shocked to see that Nick was a father because I had no idea. You see the last time I ran into him it was in Coney Island nearly two years ago and it was just him and Rina. And then my brain realized that not only had we run into them, but we ran into him at a parade in New Orleans! How crazy is that? They had moved down recently and seemed to be really happy. They had decided to swing by the parade while they were out for groceries and we both picked the same block to watch. It was nice to see them and meet their daughter.

After that we had a cocktail on the balcony of Muriel's, where we had our fancy honeymoon dinner over a year and a half ago.

And then it was time for a swim at the pool at the Lion's Inn. The water was pretty cold, but the air temperature was in the 80s so we enjoyed ourselves and then took what we thought would be a short and reenergizing nap. When we got up we went to try Dat Dog, a New Orleans establishment that has grown in number of locations as well as people heart's.

Here's where the exhaustion I initially mentioned kicked in. The nap we took hadn't served to wake us up. It gave us a taste of simmering we sorely lacked. It felt like the jet lag you get from a transatlantic flight. We were sitting on the corner of Frenchman and Chartres streets. We could hear the great live music that Frenchman street promises. We could see people getting their nights started. We had already taken a nap. And yet, we were so tired we headed back to our room after we ate, to get a fix (of sleep, that is).

The next morning we had plans to go to the Audubon Park Zoo with our friend Lisa and he boyfriend Craig, but before we could do that we went to see Lisa's dad, an ophthalmologist, about a little problem I'd been having with my contacts ever since we hit the road. He fixed me right up, but time is part of the fixing, so for the time being I've been using just one contact lens or wearing my dorky glasses. I sure was grateful he could take care of me though!

The zoo was great. Craig does security there so our visit was full of insider stories and anecdotes about the animals and we got a taste of many of their personalities from the stories he told.

We got some awesome food at Juan's Flying Burrito, another NOLA favorite, and soon thereafter Lisa had to head out to Monroe, Mississippi to do her final week on a movie she was working on.

Half moon, half bounty hunter, half people

After we parted ways, Sam and I decided we felt very inspired by the sun bears we had seen sprawled out sleeping in the sun in their cozy pens at the zoo. It was decided that we should try to reenact their relaxation back at the Lion's Inn, only to wake up and decide we would feel perfectly happy just sleeping more. We did a blog post and then crashed again. I'm sure the sun bears would have been very proud.

Every now and then on the road we get a taste of the responsibilities we have that we couldn't manage to leave behind. Health issues were one. So was this computer issue that came up in Austin. Washing clothes. Long-term budgeting. It brings you back to realty in a way that doesn't happen as often as when you're just on a short vacation. Usually that realty happens when you get back home.

The Realty vs. Vacation concept started swirling in my mind after the eye issue while at the same time I gave a lot of thought about the fact that we spent so much time resting in New Orleans. The activities we wound up doing on our first two days there weren't unlike having a weekend at home. We went to the parade and napped. We went to the zoo and napped. Then we went to bed after the nap!

I saw us sleeping our time away and wanted to rally on our last day. I wanted it to be full of the things that I love about New Orleans. Food. Music. Art. Exploring. And we made that happen. And we still found time for our newest favorite activity -- you guessed it! Napping.

We ate breakfast at Cafe du Monde and it was lovely though I swear they shrank their beignets! Then we walked around and discovered Dutch Alley artists complex that featured local art, including some printmaking work that left me feeling really inspired. A sleepy haze started to set in, but I knew I had to push through it.

After a lot of dazed wandering we decided it was time to get Po'Boys and managed to sneak in the door before Domilise's (tripadvisor!) closed at 3. By 4, we were munching on snowballs from Hansen's Sno-bliz.

As a near expert in the art of the Mittagsschlaf, I can tell you naps are much better with a full belly and knowing that something has actually been accomplished that day. We had covered a lot of the eating/exploring by 5 and knew that the Rebirth Brass Band set at the Maple Leaf wouldn't start til 11, so we did the only sensible thing that a full and weary traveler could do: we napped.

Good food is a great wake to jolt me back to full consciousness, so let's fast forward to dinner. I was a super picky eater for most if my life and after I met Sam I branched out a lot. I try not to say no to a bite of anything offered my way at this point and thusly get very excited about new and tasty food. New Orleans is like the Holy Land for me. The budget was getting tight but we were dying to try the food at Jaques-Imo's because Lisa told us it was fantastic. We put out names down, nursed a beer at their bar for an hour (if you read the statistics post you know this wasn't our longest wait if the trip, though it's still the most worthwhile) and were treated to one of the most excellent meals we will have on this trip.

We had to split one entree because of our budget and ordered the quail because we had never eaten quail before, so why not! We knew it came with a salad and sides so we would have enough food that we wouldn't go hungry. Instead we were given the biggest lagniappe (New Orleans speak for "the hook-up") we could have imagined. We each got a tasty little salad, each topped with a fried oyster - that we enjoyed a lot more than the raw one in Key West - along with an awesome piece of cornbread. When the entrée came out we each had a plate with a quail on it. I was terrified that there had been a misunderstanding and the waiter thought we had ordered two, but after the first bite I didn't care. Sam and I were eating and grinning like idiots and I was more awake than I had been in days. It was so good we decided that if we were only charged for one entrée we would go for dessert. The check came out and wouldn't you know! We asked about dessert but everything aside from Bread pudding was sold out. Worry not! Our luck hadn't run out! The waitress said that only "ugly pieces" of bread pudding were left and she gave it to us for free despite our protests in an attempt to be noble. It was the tastiest bread pudding I have ever had, free or otherwise. Needless to say, we were so glad we spent our money there and felt really special and full by the end.

We rolled - almost literally - over to the Maple Leaf and got to listen to the first set and a half of the Rebirth Brass Band, though we retreated to the back of the bar by the third song so we could actually hear (surprisingly, this popular music venue has pretty rough acoustics) and had a nice time listening to them jam. We drove back to the Lion's Inn one last time before heading out to Austin.

Random Statistics:
Number of crimes we have been moments away from witnessing: 2 that we know of! Remember Charleston? That was one. The second was a young man who shot up a truck at a gas station along with several other gun-related activities. We let a cop pass us at a light in New Orleans and then we drove by as the truck owner pointed the cop in the direction of the perp. The truck had at least 5 bullet holes though the man and his young son were OK. As we took a ramp to enter a highway a few blocks later, we saw a cop draw his gun and a figure down a street we were overlooking duck behind his car. We're pretty sure he was the guy. We never witnessed a gun crime in New York so it's remarkable to be close to two in a matter of weeks.

Best meal we had: definitely Jaques-Imo's

Coolest animal at the zoo: the elephant took a small tree apart while we watched her, so she wins for the action-packed experience. The sun bears win for most inspiring.

Biggest jerks at the zoo: big white pelicans that definitely enjoyed pushing sunbathing turtles off of logs.

Number of naps we took: 3 plus going to bed early 2 nights in a row. What is happening to me? I used to be a night owl!

Best bathroom decorations: Audubon Zoo's animal tiles

categories Exploring
tags New Orleans, Easter Parade, Maple Leaf, Music, Jacques Imo's, Napping, Mittagsschlaf, Food, Live Music

Pooooooodcast!

April 22, 2014Whitney Lea

Hi everybody!

This is a really exciting post for us, because neither of us have ever done a podcast, so bear with us.

In the podcast we discuss our expectations of the Keys, what we experienced in the end.

We still wanted to include pictures, so we're just going to post them in the order we talk about them so you scroll down along with the audio.

We hope you enjoy it!

"The fishing boat with the two motors on the back"

"Eaton Street Fish Market" or "Eaton Street Seafood Market"

"It's going to set in front of a bunch millionaires houses"

Views: Key West, FL by Samuel Herbig

"To hell with people not swimming in Key West, we're going to find a beach"

"There are so many trees that are flowering"

"People would have these very well kept backyards"

That's all folks! We hope you enjoyed it, and let us know if you think we should do another one, okay?

categories Exploring
tags Florida, Podcast, Swimming, Key West, Key Largo, Rooster, Iguana

Catching our stride in Savannah

April 16, 2014Whitney Lea

So I'm sitting here at our campground in Key West and I'm putting thoughts together for all of you about our time in Savannah. Sam and I have been taking about writing this post for days, as it sometimes goes with these things when we get busy or wrapped up in the trip. When we talked, we covered the highlights but both agreed that Savannah meant a little more to us than just hitting the main attractions.

From the very earliest times in our relationship we go through periods where we hit our stride. It can last from a week up though a month where we both feel really tuned into each other and the things we create, philosophize about, and take action on — separately and together.

We both knew the whole road trip couldn't be like that, but when we pictured visiting each place as we made our plans, that ideal was in our minds, fueling us on.

As Sam alluded to in his Chattanooga post, I wasn't in that tuned-in place. Sure, I had really loved the places we visited, people we spent time with, and all that we had done, but part of me was holding back a little bit and it kept my mind from being fully engaged in the present moments.

We had a few good heart-to-hearts and by the time we got to Savannah I was ready to hit the stride. So was Sam, and luckily, Savannah was too!

Didn't open with our key to the city :-(

On the drive down, I wasn't sure what to expect. Charleston does the whole "wealthy historic southern city" thing so well that I wasn't sure if Savannah would just be a continuation of that. Now that I know what it's like, I can safely say it doesn't duplicate the appeal of its sister city and I'm so glad we had time to get to know Savannah a little bit. It's true that Savannah cares just as much for the visual presentation of itself as Charleston, maybe even more so, but the reasons seem to be more multifaceted. Charleston had to rebuild so much of the city after the war, the fire, the earthquake, and at least one more disaster that befell the city in the nineteenth century. They basically dedicated themselves to rebuilding what once stood to give people a picture if the past. Savannah on the other hand was untouched during the war and still looks historic on first glance, but youth and creativity is bubbling up through every pore. SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) has tirelessly restored so many buildings that you can find one on almost every historic block. The tourism is cheekier, and the overall vibe is more youthful, relaxed, and hip.

We got into town around 5:30 because our air bnb host would be able to get home from work around then. This was our first time using air bnb so we were a little nervous, but Bryan was very informative, relaxed, and kind. Our room was at the front of a clapboard duplex and the setup felt like a much more spacious brownstone. Bryan kept his place in immaculate shape and our room could've been featured in apartment therapy. He also had two bikes for us to use while we stayed with him, which was perfect. We were downtown in 7 minutes and got to ride through Forsythe Park and feast our eyes in the Spanish moss-laden oaks and tons of gorgeous buildings in the immense historic district.

We can recommend breakfast and dinner here

After we settled in we went outside to grab dinner and ran into a guy who had parked behind us, seen our spare tire sticker, went to this very website, and happened to still be standing right there to tell us all of that! Very exciting stuff for us because up until then we weren't 100% sure if anyone bothered to read the sticker at all. He also suggested that we check out Foxy Loxy for cheap and tasty food, so we went over there for some beers and a chicken taco on their upstairs porch. The place was full of students from SCAD and the atmosphere was very friendly. This was not our last visit to Foxy Loxy during our 40 hours in Savannah!

After that we took the bikes and hightailed it downtown to enjoy a Creepy Crawl tour of Savannah that featured several pubs, go cups, and a number of engaging ghost stories told by our guide, Britney. Lots of good-natured chills and a case of the hiccups sealed the end of our first night in one of America's most haunted cities (cue Sam's tentative eye roll).

The next morning we went to Narobia's Grits and Gravy (Yelp link!) for breakfast because we heard that the French toast is killer. It is. After that we wanted to grab some art supplies, get tickets to see a movie that night, and then hop on a tourist trolley to get the lay of the land and a little history. We also found a moment to score some ice cream from Leopold's, which is apparently a pretty big deal (I had lavender flavored and it was quite nice).

The trolley wound up being a good substitution for my afternoon nap. We were slowly driving around, with a slight warm breeze and a soft yet gravelly southern voice telling us about what we were seeing for 90 minutes. We hopped off slightly more educated about Savannah and decidedly more hungry. We found Zunzi's where we got some happy hour beers and a very early dinner on their rooftop.

The next thing we did was likely the most engaging for both of us. We went to two different squares in Savannah and did some drawing. Since we hadn't really drawn together before and Sam hadn't had many drawing classes past grade school (or the Waldorf equivalent) I tried to remember how we started drawing classes back at SVA. Our attempts at the various time steps are posted below.

1. Create a series of bare bones drawings, with thirty seconds allotted for each. In school, if we were drawing live models these would literally be stick figures (even if they were gorgeous models and we were giggly college art students trying to be very serious and respectful).

2. Create a series of ninety second drawings with a few more details sussed out.

Two 90 second drawings (Sam going for extra credit here)

3. Create a five minute drawing as a rough guide for a longer drawing period (often two hours, but only twenty minutes in our case).

4. Choose one of the five minute drawings to turn into a more detailed rendering.

This is exemplary: Sam sitting still for 1200 seconds

Whitney's drawing in the same discipline

So there you have it. Our first collaborative art session of the trip (though our flashlight photo drawings in the smokies are in the same spirit). It isn't the last either. We have pencils, charcoal, chalk and oil pastels, acrylic paints, two novelty cameras, scissors, and glue. The sky is the limit here folks. Any suggestions for future projects would be loved and appreciated in the contents section below the post!

To round out our final night in Savannah, we went to the Lucas theater (beautifully restored and owned by SCAD) to see Fight Club. I hadn't seen it in at least ten years. Sam never had. And it was a blast. We talked about it for a beer or two after and most of the way home.

The next morning we hit Foxy Loxy again for colaches for breakfast and a trip to Bonaventure cemetery on our way out of town.

Next stop we'd be back to camping in St Augustine, Florida.

Random facts and statistics from Savannah:

Spanish moss isn't Spanish or a moss! It's an airborne plant related to the pineapple according to my nap trolley guide.
She also said that the southern live oak never sheds all of its leaves. They just fall continuously.
Foxy Loxy is the antagonist from the folktale known as Chicken Little, Chicken Licken, or Henny Penny
The Forrest Gump bench was purchased at Home Depot and resides in a history museum in Savannah, leaving no opportunity for a photo op.

categories Exploring
tags Georgia, Savannah, History, Drawing, Art

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