California Dreaming!

A lot has happened since our last blog post! It’s been an amazing week so I will try to do it justice!
We left LA and headed north and after about one more hour of enduring LA’s traffic we were free, cruising on the famous coastal highway. The lonely planet guidebook pretty emphatically states that the drive is not to be rushed but savored, so we tried to take our time. Taking our time meant foraying into some nice beach towns (e.g. Malibu and Santa Monica), and stopping at one vista to take a look at some elephant seals hanging out on the beach. It also meant a quick detour to the town of Solvang – a quaint Danish town offering a plethora of Danish bakeries to choose from for a snack. It was a pretty cool little town, and after a coffee and some baked goods we were back on the road. We ended up camping that night in San Luis Obispo. Next to our campsite we noticed a sign saying “Men’s Colony.” Heather and I were both a little perplexed what that meant but we didn’t really think anything of it. The next day we were in a bookstore and Heather was reading about our campsite and it turns out it was a giant prison that turns off some camper’s from that site! Luckily no escaped convicts came through the night we were staying there though.

The next day we continued our drive up the coast. It was amazing, but unfortunately it was pretty foggy so the views were a little obscured. We headed straight for our campsite in order to try to secure a spot at one of the elusive first-come first-serve campsites. When we got there we were disappointed to find out that they had all just been filled so we were out of luck! When we headed back to our car and turned on our GPS it was frozen and we couldn’t get it to work. We tried playing with it to no avail so we decided we needed the Internet to Google the problem and call customer service. We were pretty worried about it, without it how would we know where to go? Neither of us wanted to resort to the primitive caveman methods of using a map (haha) so we were anxious to get it working. Long story short, after a phone call to Garmin, and some computer programming by Heather we got it working again. Before finding an internet café to investigate the problem we navigated (all by ourselves) to Pebble Beach via the “17 mile drive.” I was like a kid in a candy store, but Heather appreciated the scenery too. We got a glimpse of the 18th hole, and walked around the few Pebble Beach shops. After seeing Pebble Beach and fixing the Garmin we went out for dinner, where we were handed a wine list on an iPad (we stuck with beer). I forgot to mention that in the middle of everything we were in fact able to secure a campsite, so we did have a place to sleep that night.



Originally, we had planned to continue up the coast for another day and then jet across to Yosemite , but we decided instead to spend 2 nights at King’s Canyon and Sequoia National Park. We have loved everything about our time in the National Parks so we figured we’d like this too, and we were right. The highlight of that stay was a really nice 9 mile hike we did our 2nd day there to Mist Falls. See below for a picture of us at one particularly nice viewpoint.



After King’s Canyon we were off to Yosemite. Yosemite was by far the most crowded off all the national parks that we have been to. During our drive in the first day we were back in a traffic jam that reminded us of LA. That being said, we can confirm that it is crowded for a reason, as the park is amazing! Driving in we immediately got an expansive view of three of the bigger attractions there: Bridalveil falls, El Capitan, and the Half Dome.



Our campsite was actually about a 40-minute drive from the main part of the park so we were nicely staying away from the crowds as well. We had wanted to hike the Half Dome but it requires a permit that we were not able to acquire, so we decided to try to hike something similarly challenging and breathtaking. It ended up being a 15 mile hike with about 4000 ft of elevation gain. It turned out to be one of the best hikes of the trip.

Next up on the rocket docket was San Francisco! We had been camping for about a week and it was time for a shower. Before heading to San Fran though, we took a detour to Palo Alto to visit Stanford University. It was an amazing campus. We went to the bookstore and puttered around for a bit and then we continued to explore. The campus of Stanford is huge and unfortunately too large to really be able to just walk around and capture it all. Unbeknownst to us, Stanford was also hosting a professional women’s tennis tournament. We actually managed to catch a few points from one of the double’s matches by peering through an opening in the fence. We also saw Ana Ivanovic getting into the back of a Jaguar in the player’s pick-up spot. Before taking off, we made a quick stop at the Avery Aquatics Facility so that I could drool over their facilities. I was disappointed that Queen’s had not decided to put in a 50m pool in their new athletics facility. They should have just borrowed one from Stanford. Stanford has not one, but 2 50m pools back-to-back, a separate diving tank, and then, on top of that, a stadium competition pool.

From Palo Alto, San Fran was a pretty smooth 30 minutes away. By the time we showered, caught up on our emails, and we were ready to go it was pretty late so we just went on a little dinner and a movie date and called it at that. Yesterday, we went on a walking tour of the city. Highlights included: the “crookedest” street in the world (see pic below); Coit Tower, City of Lights Bookstore and Ghiradelli Square (a whole square devoted to Ghiradelli chocolate). It goes without saying that Heather was particularly enthralled with the last spot. That night we went to an Irish Pub for dinner and then we went to see the musical Billy Elliot. Heather really wanted to go and was afraid I wouldn’t like it, but I assured that I was culturally sophisticated enough to appreciate such things. We both ended up really enjoying it. I even connected with my inner ballet dancer.



So family and friends, that’s what we have been up to! Next up is Redwoods National Park for 2 nights and then onwards to the Pacific Northwest where we will be going to three national parks and also stopping for a night each in Portland and Seattle. We are both surprised that we only have only 10 days left in the U.S. before we head to Vancouver Island to hike the West Coast Trail. Anyways, it should be a great last 10 days and we have some great places lined up to see!
We miss you all! Hope everything is going great!
Love,
Matt and Heather

Viva Las Vegas....and LA.

Well friends - it's that time again! Let me fill you in on all of the weird and wonderful things we've been up to since we left Utah behind. When Matt left off we were heading into Vegas. As we rolled in to Sin City, I could tell that it was going to be everything I expected and more. It was big, flashy and gaudy. We were staying right on the strip, in the heart of the action and there was a LOT of it! Once we parked the car and dumped our stuff at the hotel, we started our stroll down the strip. We wandered in and out of the famous casinos/hotels hitting Circus Circus, the Venetian, Caesar's Palace and the Bellagio. They were all pretty extravagant in their own way. We immediately lost about 20 bucks each playing $2 blackjack but vowed to earn it back later in our stay. After a late dinner we returned to the Bellagio to watch the famous water fountain show in front of the building. Pretty impressive but it wasn't enough to inspire a wild night. We headed back to our hotel casino, Matt bet big(gish) and won so we called it a night.

The next day was spent at the hotel pool - people watching, lounging, reading and swimming. Paradise! We headed out in the evening to eat before returning to the casinos to earn back our LOCs. I'm not much of a gambler but I was getting pretty into it by the end (ie when I started to win a bit). Unfortunately I'm not destined to hit the jackpot in my life because as soon as I get up (even if just by $5) I stop. Matt tells me I have to "risk it to get the biscuit" and "you have to bet big to win big" but that doesn't sound like my idea of fun. He did well though and we spent the night getting free drinks and playing blackjack - Vegas style!

Two nights was enough for us though, the bad food and crowds were getting to us. We had been staying in relatively remote places up until then so we ready to get back to that. Next up? A night at Joshua Tree National Park before returning to the crowds at Disneyland. Joshua Tree seemed positively deserted compared to Vegas and we liked it! It was a pretty cool park - the Joshua Tree is a funny looking cactus/tree hybrid and there were lots of cool rock formations lying about. We had an awesome campsite right in the rocks and enjoyed our night there immensely!



From Joshua Tree we headed straight to Disneyland - it was an early morning as we were trying to get there as close to opening as possible. I don't think Matt has ever been so excited! He was itching to recreate his beloved family holiday when he was 10 bit by bit. We spent the day hitting every ride possible and wandering around the different areas of the park. It was a great day and though the crowds were huge we only had a few long waits. For dinner we hit Thunder Mountain BBQ an "all you can enjoy" affair. What a dangerous idea. Anyone who knows me knows I can't resist unlimited food. We knew we had done some damage when the waitress commented "Y'all so skinny! How did you fit all that food?". With that we promptly rolled out of the restaurant. After a few more rides, a light show and some fireworks we called it a night - very satisfied with our Disney adventure. Please refer to the picture below for my favourite moment captured on film thus far in the trip.



The next day? LA! We did what every true LA'er does....sit in a lot of traffic. We were commuting from our Anaheim hotel and it was BAD! Once we finally got into the city we hit Hollywood Blvd to stroll the walk of fame. After that we drove to Beverly Hills and cruised along Rodeo Dr. Matt ogled the cars (a Bugatti in particular) while I ogled the stores. We were both overwhelmed by the amount of money around. From there we headed to Venice Beach to stroll the boardwalk and people watch the eclectic crowd. After some patio beers and dinner we started the long commute home.



All in all only good things to report! We head out on the Pacific Coast Highway today for a couple days of coastal driving! I'm pretty excited - we'll update you in a few days!

xoxo
Heather and Matt

Utah in a Nutshell!

Let me start this blog post by saying that no lives were endangered and no tents were lost since the last time we updated you. There are only good things to report this time around which may not be as entertaining for you, the reader.
After the tent fiasco we headed to Bryce Canyon National Park. We set up our brand new Big Agnes Tent (which is great, and just as good as our first tent the MSR Hubba Hubba) and headed to hike the relatively famous “Navajo Loop.” This loop took us deep into the canyon to see the many “Hoodoos.” A hoodoo is basically just a pillar of rock but they come in many different shapes and colors and collectively they make for quite the site to see (see the picture below).



The next day we did another longer hike to peruse even more of the fantastic hoodoos and view points that Bryce had to offer. After the hike Heather and I had a picnic lunch and bought a beer from the Bryce General Store and ate it there on the porch. While there we started talking to a group of women from Calgary! We mentioned we were both studying medicine at Queen’s and they asked if we knew Taylor Lougheed. It turns out one of them had been rafting the Nile with Taylor just last summer (what a small world). Anyways, overall, I think Heather and I both really enjoyed Bryce. After suffering in the heat of Moab it was amazing when the temperature would drop into the 50’s at night.

We loved Bryce, but there was so much more to see so headed to Zion National Park. In Zion we did two of our most memorable hikes of the trip thus far. The first day we hiked to a point called Angels Landing. The point is called this as the person who first saw it was said to describe the route there as so rough and high that only an angel could get there. It was definitely a calf buster with 1500m of elevation change from top to bottom. But after a grueling 1.5ish hrs to the top it provided some breath taking views (see the picture below).



At one point heather slipped and almost fell off the ledge but grabbed a rock with one hand while her body dangled over the edge. I lunged to save her and was able to pull her to safety. (Just joking, I just felt like this blog wasn’t interesting enough). The next day we did a hike called “the Narrows.” This hike consisted of 8 miles of wading through the Virgin River while the huge canyon walls gradually narrowed in us. I quickly came to realize that Heather wades through rocky water like a ninja, I had a hard time keeping up! The river was mostly about knee deep, but at certain spots it got as high as our chins. See the photo below of me carrying the pack on my head to keep it dry as we passed through one of the deeper sections.



Next up on our adventure was Page, Arizona! Just outside of Page there is an amazing rock formation known as the Wave. But there is a catch, you have to have a permit to see it and only 10 permits are awarded each day by lottery! You have to show up at the Ranger station put your name in a hat and test your luck. The lottery occurs at 8:30am every morning for a permit the next day. We left Zion at 6am in order to get there before 8:30 to make sure we could participate in the lottery. We ended up getting there at 7:30 so we had to wait it out. For a while we were the only car there, but by about 8 other cars had started to pile in and by the time 8:30 rolled around there were about 30 people vying for the precious 10 spots. It was a really funny process. Each application was assigned a numbered ball that was placed in one of those bingo ball things that you have probably seen on TV lottery spots. The ranger would spin it around and out popped one lucky ball. We got the lucky number 2! First spin…out popped a 9. The application corresponding to the number 9 had 2 people so 2 spots were gone, 8 left! Another spin….out popped a 10, then a 5, then a 3…but sadly no number 2. There were now 9 spots taken and only 1 left. Since we had 2 in our party we thought it was all over, but then another ranger came over and said there was an advanced permit for the next day that had been turned in so there was one extra spot. That meant there were 2 spots left and we breathed new life! Another spin…out popped a 6. But this party had 4 and gave it up since all of them wouldn’t be able to go…new life again! Yet another spin…. this time it was a 4. But again, it was a large party and they gave it up. So with one more spin the glorious number 2 came out! And that ladies and gentlemen, is the amazing and drawn out story of how Heather and I got to see the Wave. See the pictures below!





In addition to the Wave, we also took a detour so that I could see the Grand Canyon! It was a glorious day and they had a sun deck overlooking the canyon so we took out our books and parked it there all afternoon!

That brings you pretty much up to date. As I write this we are currently in St. George, Utah but are heading for Vegas! Heather is a bit gun shy on the gambling, but I plan on turning $40 into $4000 and paying for our entire vacation! I have a foolproof blackjack system!

We miss you all and hope everything is going great!
Love,
Matt and Heather

The Case of the Missing Tent

Hi all!

ANOTHER post already - I know you can't believe it - but we are doing laundry AGAIN and we can't waste this free wifi and spare time! This is going to be an interesting one so sit back and relax. It's a pretty crazy story but it has a (relatively) happy ending so don't despair!

As you know, Matt and I left Colorado for the warmer (and by warmer I mean swelteringly hot) skies of Moab, Utah a couple of days ago. The landscape had changed drastically in the six hour drive. We left behind rocky mountains and arrived in what I can only assume is a similar climate to Mars. Moab and the surrounding area is red and rocky, beautiful in a weird sort of way. Once we had secured a campsite on the banks of the Colorado River, organized our lives and ran some errands, we headed into Arches National Park to do a sunset hike to Delicate Arch, an astounding 52 foot tall freestanding rock formation in the heart of the park. At 8 pm when we started the hike it was still 95 degrees out. It was worth battling the heat though - the arch really was amazing. We had an uncomfortably warm sleep that night and got up early to maximize the cool(er) morning the next day.

Our plan for the day was to hike a 7 mile loop deep in the national park that would give us views of 8 arches. It was a hard 7 miles, even though there was very little elevation change the heat and sandy walking conditions tired us out. We stopped for a picnic lunch near another view point and then decided to make the drive to nearby Canyonlands National Park to check it out. We putzed around there for a bit before returning to town. We had planned to dart back to the campsite to grab our books from the tent before heading to a cafe in town to take shelter in an air conditioned building. As we pulled into our campsite though - we immediately noticed something was wrong....our tent was missing.

Trying not to panic we ran out of the car and to look around. We found a couple tent pegs lying on the ground but no other sign of our home. Matt's first impression was that it had been stolen but I wasn't so sure. As we looked around at the other sites we could see the other tents around were FLATTENED and that there was dishware and other nicknacks lying all over the ground. It appeared that a windstorm had blown through. This was not good news. As we calmly (OK let's be honest - I was bawling at this point) searched around our site some more, we resigned ourselves to the fact that the only place our tent could have gone was in the river. This was almost inconceivable as our site had been blocked from the water by a set of 6 foot tall shrubs and that our tent had been full of sleeping bags, pillows, clothes, books and mattress pads, but there seemed to be no other option.

In shock, we decided to drive into town to talk to the visitor information center. They sympathized with us but had no real information or advice. As we were walking out, the man at the counter suggested that we might try talking to Canyonlands by Night, a boat tour company on the river as if anyone was to have fished it out, it would have been them. We weren't very enthused, but having no other real option we popped into the boating company to inquire if they had seen anything unusual floating down the river. The lady at the counter didn't think so but phoned down to the boat which had just returned from the day cruise to ask. Amazingly they HAD found our tent and were just offloading it as we arrived! YAHOOOOOO! I have never been more excited in my life! We walked down to the dock and saw our heaping wet pile of belongings lying there. Our sleeping bags, mattresses, crib board, pillows, stuff sacks and clothing survived unscathed. Our tent footprint had a rip in it but would be fixable with duct tape. As we took a closer look at the tent though we knew it was a goner. The tent poles had snapped in half and were badly misshapen and the fly was nowhere to be found. At this point I didn't care. If the tent was all that we had to replace we were doing just fine. Further inspection revealed that our headlamps hadn't made it either but again I didn't care. We thanked the lovely boat drivers (our heros) profusely, and they told us that our amazing little-tent-that-could had floated THREE MILES from our campground without sinking to the bottom of the big river. CRAZY.

We gathered everything in the car and drove directly to the laundromat where we washed and dried our belongings while planning our escape from Moab. Screw this town I thought, we are moving on a day early. We popped into a gear store and though they didn't have the MSR Hubba Hubba that we had originally had, we found a descent Big Agnus alternative. We got in the car and drove to a motel halfway between Moab and Bryce Canyon (our next destination) and never looked back. And so friends and family, that is how we lost and then found our tent and other belongings. Before you ask, YES it was pegged down securely and YES we thought our site was relatively protected from the elements as it was surrounded by brush on three sides (the fourth being the road). The only thing that might have contributed to our downfall was that we had had the fly rolled up to allow some air circulation within the tent (wouldn't you at 100 degress F?!) but I think that must have been how the wind picked up are tent and dropped it in the river. In time, it will make a great story though for now I still feel little pangs of loss for our beautiful tent. Putting it all in perspective though, it is only gear and money. We are both healthy and happy and this story ended a lot better than it could have!

We made it to Bryce today and are currently drying our sleeping bags a bit more, as they are still damp. We did a great hike down into the canyon today and we have a big one lined up for tomorrow. Our new tent is clean and shiny and I'm excited to test it out tonight! The temperature here is much more agreeable as well as it is only in the high 70s. All in all - only good things to report!

Love and miss you guys!
Heather and Matt

Conquering our first fourteener...or not!

So Heather filled you in about our time in Chicago, now I’ll get you all up to speed about our adventures since then.
The two days after were pretty bland, so bare with me while I quickly report about them (feel free to skip to the next paragraph). We left Chicago on Canada Day and our big celebration consisted of driving 7 hours to a random campground in western Iowa called Prairie Rose State Park. We caught some shut-eye and left early the next day for some more driving. We stopped in Lincoln along the way, a pretty cool little city of 200,000 but with a football stadium bigger than any stadium in Canada (you gotta love the US). We grabbed some coffee and internet access at a coffee shop there in order to figure out where we were going to stay for the night. We decided on a campsite just outside Sterling, a small town in eastern Colorado. After a quick but tasty lunch in Lincoln we were off for some more driving, and about 6 hours later we were at our new home, definitely the worst campsite we’ve been at yet. It was basically a giant field with no trees, but it gave us a place to sleep for the night! The next morning we were off to Boulder, where we were able to book a pretty swanky hotel for a really cheap price.
Now, onto the GOOD STUFF!

We got to Boulder at about lunchtime. Some would compare Boulder to Canmore -- a mountain city, with an outdoorsy culture. Driving in you definitely got that sense from it. Within 5 minutes of being within city limits I had already seen about a hundred cyclists, all on thousand dollar road bikes. We were both starving so we headed for lunch at this sub place called Half Fast Subs. Conveniently, the Wimbledon final was playing so we were able to catch Djokovic’s victory. After a quick hike up Mount Sanitas (a small little mountain that gave a good view of Boulder, see photo), we went and checked into our hotel. That evening we explored downtown Boulder, a long pedestrian restaurant and shopping street. Downtown Boulder is famous for their “Happy Hour” specials, and we found this one place with half priced appetizers and $2.50 pints. Needless to say, I was ready to stay there for a while but Heather was keen to continue to explore what the rest of downtown Boulder had to offer. After a lot of exploring we ended up at a nice Mexican restaurant. After a gazillion fajitas we were both pretty tired so we walked back to the hotel, watched some tube and went to sleep.



The place we were heading to next was Longs Peak Campground, part of Rocky Mountain National Park. The campground has 26 campsites available on a first come first serve basis and we wanted to make sure we got one so we left Boulder at about 7:30am. We were in luck and managed to find an amazing campsite buried in the mountains. Our main goal of this part of the trip was to hike “Longs Peak” - at 14256 ft it is the highest in the park (collectively all mountains in Colorado over 14000 ft are called fourteeners). After we pitched our tent we went to talk to the ranger about the hike. Unfortunately, until about July 15th the climb is rated technical (aka you need crampons, rope, ice axes etc…) to get to the top due to the snowy and icy conditions. We asked him if there was another comparable option and he gave us two options, Mt. Lady Washington, or the harder Mt. Meeker. We decided on the latter but it did not have a route but the Ranger gave us directions (it turns out we should have listened a little harder) and assured us that unlike Longs Peak if we slipped and fell it wouldn’t be to our death (see the picture of Mt. Meeker, the peak on the left, below).



After talking with the Ranger we headed into RMNP and did a nice warm up hike to get our legs ready for the challenge the next day. We hiked 5.4 miles; the top of which was Loch Vale and it gave us a great view of the mountains.



That night we hit the hay early as we were to get up at 5am the next morning so that we could finish our climb of Mt Meeker before the afternoon thunderstorms rolled in (and believe me they do as I have never seen so much thunder and lightning in my life!)

We both set our alarms for 5am, but Heather accidently set her watch to 5pm and I somehow turned my alarm off without realizing it, but luckily at about 5:15 Heather woke up on her own and poked me and said we had to go!
So, after a quick oatmeal breakfast we set off on our journey at about 5:45. The first 3.5 miles of the hike was hard, but routine. We followed a nice windy trail (windy is good as it makes the elevation gain less strenuous) through the trees and then came out into the rocky part. As we hiked we past this one hiker who asked us what our destination was. When we said “Mt. Meeker” he replied in an ominous tone “good luck.” At that point we both got a little nervous. Things got a little sketchier when a came to this traverse, a narrow snowy walkway where, if you slipped, you might be in trouble (see picture below).



We still felt reasonably good about things though and continued onwards. The next part of the hike basically was like hiking up a big ski steep ski hill. You couldn’t just walk up it, as you would just keep sliding down the snow, so each step I would have to kick in the snow until I would have a place to position my foot. I did this over and over again literally creating our own ladder up the hill. We were looking for a place called “the ramp” which would take us off the snow and give us a nice (snowless) walk up to the top. However, in the distance we thought we saw another climber and we saw other footprints so we continued towards that. This route, unbeknownst to us at the time, took us past “the ramp” on towards a steeper, icier part of the mountain. We both started to get nervous. We got to one rocky section of the mountain and we looked right and left and both saw scarily steep and icy terrain. We then realized that we were basically ice climbing without ropes and decided to head back. We started the descent in the icy steep part of the mountain we had stupidly climbed to. Directly below about 15ft was a group of rocks. I slipped and fell into them, but I braced myself on a big one and was completely fine. The next 20m or so of our climb down we took extra care and once we got out of that portion it was basically a heel run down a snowy hill – we were in the clear! We got back to our campsite at about 2pm and I have never been so tired in my life. We spent the rest of the day in our tent, reading and napping. Have no fear family and friends we promise that was the limit of our stupidity and we will be more cautious in the future. See the pictures below of Heather slogging it up the snow and ice.



Today, we drove into a different part of RMNP and we did another smallish hike and then we headed to a coffee shop to get on the internet and catch up with our lives.

Tomorrow we leave for Moab, Utah. We will spend the next week exploring the national parks of Utah, and we will also go down to Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. We will stop into Page, Arizona where apparently there is a really cool rock formation called “The Wave”. That will take us to July 15th where we will take a break from Nature and experience something completely different by spending two nights in Vegas! Well, sorry for the novel. Writing blogs is hard! You can look forward to the next entry where the more experienced blogger will take over once again!
We hope everything is going great, and we miss you all!!

Love,
Matt and Heather

Wandering the Windy City

It’s update time again! It’s only been a few days but they were busy ones so I will try and get you up to speed. Matt left off his last post by giving you a pretty good picture of how bleak the drive from northern Indiana was. Luckily, things started looking a LOT better as we approached the Windy City. We had arrived at our hotel, which was located on the north end of the Magnificent Mile, too early to check in, but we parked our car, ditched our bags and hit the pavement. The walking tour was about to begin! First up, we meandered down Magnificent Mile – checking out the fancy shops but not daring to go into any before stopping in for some delish deep dish pizza and then heading to Navy Pier, an uber-commercial area that juts out into Lake Michigan. We embraced our inner tourist and took a ride on the Ferris wheel to catch a glimpse of the Chicago skyline before escaping the crowds to walk along the water back to our hotel. We strolled along an amazing lakeshore path that was rammed with runners and cyclists.

After a quick shower and change we headed out again to the John Hancock Observation Tower that was situated right beside our hotel. It’s a super tall building that you can pay to go up to an observation deck on the 94th floor. Alternatively you can go to the 96th floor bar for FREE as long as you buy a drink. We managed to snag a seat right against the glass and nursed our outrageously overpriced drinks to get our money’s worth. Check out the view from the ladies bathroom!



Next up we headed up to Lincoln Park/Old Town area for dinner at the Goose Island Brew Pub (a local Chicago brewery) and then over to Kingston Mines for an evening of blues music and dancing. We had a great time listening to two entertaining bands rock the night away!

The next day we were up and ready to go relatively early. We had a lot of things we wanted to check out and only a day to get through it all. We started by walking around the Loop in the heart of downtown Chicago. The buildings and architecture were unreal! From there we ventured to the Art Institute of Chicago. Matt was kind enough to follow me around as I entertained my childhood memories. When I was a kid we played an art auction game called Masterpiece and all of the artwork in the game is found in the Art Institute. I had a great time pointing out my favourites and Matt listened to my stories politely.

It was time for food, so we headed to the Taste of Chicago festival that just happened to be going on while we were there. We sampled some local goodies including Chicago hot dogs complete with all the fixings (but without, to Matt’s chagrin – ketchup). Finally we headed toward Millennium Park to take a picture of the Cloud Gate or “bean” that has recently become an iconic landmark of the city.



Our evening plans involved taking the metro to Bucktown – northwest of where we were staying to meet up with my friend Hilary from Queen’s. We played squash together for the Gaels but she has since left to do her PhD here in Chicago! It was lovely to see her again and she had devised a wicked plan for the evening. First stop – to the corner store to pick up a couple cheap six packs of beer to BRING to the restaurant without a corking fee. I was in heaven. Under a covered patio, we dined on Costa Rican fare and caught up while watching a storm roll in from the city. They hadn’t called for rain but it was obvious it was coming our way. And boy did it come. It wasn’t just rain but a full blown HAIL storm that rolled in. Gumball, if not golf ball, sized hail pelted the roof as the streets quickly filled with ice pellets. Car alarms were going off and someone shouted to a mother “GET THE BABY INSIDE!”. It was mayhem!



The server came out and gave us garbage bags that we could use as makeshift rain jackets because though we were under shelter, rain and pellets were ricocheting at us. We were supposed to go from dinner to a comedy cabaret gig but it had been cancelled because of the weather. Instead we found shelter at a pub holding a trivia night where we camped out until the end of the night.



This morning, we woke up early so we could quickly tour the Fields Natural History museum before hitting the road. It was an impressive building and hosts the world’s most complete T Rex skeleton named Sue. Pretty cool! We are now en route to Colorado. A long drive ahead through some not terribly exciting land in Iowa and Nebraska separates us from the rocky mountain state! We will send up an update once we arrive and secure a highly coveted campsite in the national park. Wish us luck!

Xoxox
Heather and Matt