Anyway, California was amazing. The first day of driving was absolutely amazing, beginning with Avenue of the Giants, which runs through a redwood forest. I finally touched one of those big, beautiful trees!

Then I continued onto California Highway 1, which is the craziest, scariest, and most beautiful road I’ve ever driven. Full of incredibly sharp turns and often driving along an immense cliff. It was exhausting to navigate, but completely gorgeous and by far the best day of driving I’ve had on this trip.

….

The next week and a half was a whirlwind of awesomeness. First I stayed with my friend Sandy in San Francisco. We ate tons of great food, saw an excellent concert, and explored downtown San Francisco together. It was so great to see him, and he was a truly excellent host.

Next I was off to Los Angeles to see my friend Chris, with whom I had studied abroad in Samoa. We had a great weekend, taking a bike ride to Venice Beach, surfing in Malibu, going to a horse race, and just taking time to catch up and hang out with each other. It was sad to leave each of them, but now I’m in New Orleans, making my way back to the east coast at a much quicker pace than I left it.

The first day we drove west toward Newport and spent the rest of the day driving north on Highway 101, which runs along the Oregon coast. The first stop was Newport, where we enjoyed the silliness of sea lions and where Daylin introduced me to her favorite chowder in all of Oregon.

After Newport we made a few stops. At one beach we saw whales in the distance and watched surfers from a cliff. Then we stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory, where we went through the free sample line twice, having ice cream in between. We ended the night at Fort Stevens, where we watched the sunset behind the remains of an old shipwreck and camped out in the park.

Day Two: Off to Portland.

We woke up the next day and spent the morning checking out the historical part of Fort Stevens State Park, then finished the coastal part of our drive by zipping up to Astoria, which had  a really pretty lighthouse.

The next couple of hours were spent on windy roads leading to Newberg, just outside of Portland, where Daylin’s cousin Katrina lives and goes to school. We had lunch with her and her friends, and then drove into Portland to see Caitlin, a friend from Bucknell. We proceeded to have an excellent night filled with rose gardens, Powell’s Books (largest independent used and new bookstore in the world, a.k.a. heaven), Voodoo Doughnuts (we waited in a huge line and it was totally worth it), delicious mac n cheese, and a beer to end the night. It was great! I wish I could have spent more time there, but I’m sure I’ll be back.

The third day was our last on the road, and we were so lucky that all three were full of beautiful weather! This is particularly special for Oregon, where it rains quite a lot. We started off by visiting Edgefield, which was SUCH a cool place. It was a building that had once been a poor farm, and then a nursing home. They converted it into a hotel with a brewery, winery, and little pubs and restaurants all throughout the property. Oh yeah, there’s a golf course that goes around it as well–something for the whole family! haha. Seriously, though, it is hard to describe how neat this place was so I’m going to stop trying.

The rest of the day we drove along the Columbia River Gorge and checked out some beautiful waterfalls. It was so pretty, and really the perfect way to end our trip.

After the waterfalls we headed back to Philomath and proceeded to veg out, since we were both exhausted. Speaking of exhausted, I just spent the day driving through California and need some coffee. Until next time!

I couchsurfed in Jackson, and I stayed with this really great guy named Gary. He works on the fire crew at Grand Teton National Park, so I got to stay with him right in the middle of this gorgeous national park. The night I got there he took me to these hot springs–nature’s hot tub without all of the chemicals. It felt so amazing, and it was such a strange feeling to be sitting in this hot pool of water in the middle of the forest.

The next day was Gary’s first day off in fourteen days, and I had planned to leave that afternoon but ended up staying an extra night because I had so much fun with him. We went on this amazing hike to a place called Death Canyon, and then we drove over Teton Pass (beautiful road that goes up through the mountains to the other side into Idaho) to grab some things and eat lunch. Then we drove all around the park and he showed me some of the wildlife, including the bison!

I passed out pretty early that night and headed out early the next morning to Boise, Idaho. I’m glad that friends recommended Boise as a stop because I never would have guessed that it’s actually a really cool city. I only stayed there for one night, but I had a really great time with another couchsurfing host and his roommates. It’s another place I’d love to visit again.

Anyway, that was Monday, and then I drove to Oregon on Tuesday and stayed with my friend Daylin and her family in Philomath, Oregon (near Corvallis). Tomorrow we’re heading out again, checking out the sights along the coast and camping out tomorrow night in northern Oregon. Then we’ll head out to Portland, meet up with another Bucknell friend, and spend the night with Daylin’s cousin. I’ll update you all on Oregon as soon as I get the chance, but until then I hope all is well and you are enjoying the beautiful fall weather!

Much love.

But before I came to Denver, I stopped in Omaha, Nebraska for a night and had my first solo couchsurfing experience. I had such a blast! Omaha is a cool town, and I wish I would have spent another day there, but I decided to keep moving and to try to make it to Denver while there was still some weekend left to enjoy.

On my way to Nebraska, I passed through Iowa and completely geeked out about windmill farms. They are so huge! And graceful and kind of beautiful! I guess I just get obnoxiously excited about strange things: goats, a good pun, Harry Potter, windmills…

Tomorrow I’m going to make a day trip down to Colorado Springs to see Garden of the Gods, and then hopefully Friday I can go to the baseball game. Then I’m off to Jackson, WY on Saturday!

Lots of love and I’ll update again as soon as I can!

Alright, Chicago is a great city. I still have not seen even a fraction of all the things I’d like to see there, but I still had a fantastic time. My host was an old friend from Bucknell that I have not seen in about three years, Alejandro. He was such a wonderful host to me, even giving me his bed while I stayed there and taking the futon for himself.

While I was there I took advantage of the free days at places like the aquarium, Field Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago. I also saw my friend Gabriel, who is going to medical school at Northwestern University. He was super busy, but it was still really nice to see him briefly a couple of times while I was in the city.

I have to say that I am absolutely in love with the public transportation in Chicago, particularly the “el” train. I can’t wait to live somewhere someday (NYC?) where I can get around completely by bike, train, and bus–particularly since I generally hate driving anywhere that is remotely urban.

Well, I’ll be updating more soon about my stops in Omaha, NE and Denver, CO. In the meantime, here are some pictures of sea creatures:

After that, I drove to Shaker Heights, OH to visit Jimmy and Val. By some trick of fate, the weekend I visited also happened to be the weekend of Cleveland’s First Annual Garlic Festival! Um, it was fantastic. It was also just wonderful to see Jimmy and Val and actually have time to hang out, which we haven’t had the chance to do in quite some time. It was also nice to see where they lived. Now I’m in Chicago, and will be updating you later this week on my shenanigans here.

]]> http://michellegal.wordpress.com/2010/09/14/road-trip-update-ohio/feed/ 1 michellegal chanceandmichelle 232323232-fp63259-nu=3545-654-485-2636654576246ot1lsi 232323232-fp63277-nu=3545-654-479-263665456-246ot1lsi http://michellegal.wordpress.com/2010/07/27/visitors/ http://michellegal.wordpress.com/2010/07/27/visitors/#comments Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:14:42 +0000 michellegal http://michellegal.wordpress.com/?p=460 ]]> Last week my brother Chance and my friend Cate stayed with me in Charleston. We had such an amazing time, and now I really miss them. It was so nice having them around.

The first major thing we did was go to see Modest Mouse at the Music Farm. They were, if you can imagine, even better than I anticipated.

The band seemed to be really into playing and were full of energy that spread into the crowd, and they played music from all of their albums instead of focusing on the most recent ones. Then again, maybe I just loved it so much because I had my little brother and my friend who I associate most with this band there to enjoy it with me.

The next night we went to see an improv comedy show, which was a lot of fun, and I was happy that Cate and Chance got to see my favorite group, “Hot Pants.” They are the two funniest ladies in Charleston, hands down.

Cate’s birthday was on Thursday, and I took them to the beach in the early afternoon and picked them up after work. We had dinner at a really nice pizza place near my house called EVO. Cate and I shared a flight of draft beers.

We had a party at our house on Friday to celebrate my roommate Erin’s birthday, and we had an excellent night. However, it was also a very, very late (early?) night (morning?) and we took it easy on Saturday. I got my hair cut and we had lunch at Five Loaves (Chance’s first time having a sandwich and soup at a restaurant). We spent a few hours at Folly Beach, where I fell asleep and Chance enjoyed the significantly larger waves. After that we stopped at a dessert bar and had a treat, then went home to chill out and watch Flight of the Conchords.

And now they are gone, and I am still a little sad. But we had an amazing time, and I was just so happy that they could both visit me.

Anyway, I will be posting more updates soon…and I’m going to see Inception tonight so I’ll be sure to at least comment about that. Until then, happy Tuesday!

I am way slacking on this bugger! But let me be honest, I have just been enjoying summer far too much to dedicate enough time to the blogging.

However, that means I have lots to update you on! One is that I’m starting to cross items off of my “24 things before 24″ list. The first is: growing stuff! I planted some veggies in a garden that a friend started near the house, and here are some of my most recent picks.

Some GIANT okra and petite tomatoes which I’m going to be sauteeing very soon. Mmmmm…the South has taught me the delights of okra and tomatoes, so as much as I enjoy having these beauties filling my kitchen with color and summertime nostalgia, their fate lies in my wok this evening.

So if anyone comes across any spectacular deals for a 19 in roadbike, let me know fa’amolemole!

Daydream about Dancing