Day three in Chicago

Since we stayed out so late with Zack last night and it became an hour later with the time change, Josh and I slept in this morning! It was very luxurious to wake up after noon! We drove to Oak Park, a little suburb east of Villa Park, and explored their little downtown before riding the Metra into the city. It was already starting to get dark by the time we started exploring!

We had a few touristy things that we still needed to cross off of our Chicago list, including eating deep dish pizza! We looked up a nearby restaurant called Lou Malnati's Pizzeria and split a small pizza... it was absolutely delicious!!

Next on our list was visiting the John Hancock building for the view of the city. However, tickets are pretty expensive to just go up a tower, and luckily Jim from St. Louis had told us about a restaurant on the 95th floor. He suggested that we go up and get drinks or dessert and enjoy the view that way, and that's exactly what we did! The dessert was fantastic and the views were amazing!

It's really overwhelming how enormous the city is! We ended up leaving the tower too late to take the Metra back, so instead we took the L, which dropped us off in Oak Park, and we drove home. Overall, it was a very short day but we definitely enjoyed the tastes of Chicago!

Day two in Chicago

We woke up early this morning because today is St. Patrick's Day!! Zack, Erin, and Chris headed over to their friend's house while Josh and I dropped our stuff off at our Couch Surfing host's house. We drove out to Villa Park, a suburb west of the city, and met Trish, Brian, and their two year old son, Zeke. We hung out for a bit while eating scrambled eggs for breakfast before Josh and I walked to the Metra station and took the train back into the city. Everyone on the train was decked out in green clothes and green make-up!

We met Zack and more of his friends downtown by the river, which was dyed green for today!

A group of us walked to Harry Caray's, a restaurant and bar by the river. Josh and I soon realized that Zack's friends planned on drinking all day! With $6 beers, that was a little out of our budget, and Zack suggested that we walk down to the Field Museum. It was a long and cold walk, but we got to see the city! Unfortunately, the Field Museum is very expensive, so we walked over to the nearby Shedd Aquarium.

A few years ago, Josh and Zack visited Chicago and managed to sneak into the Shedd Aquarium, and we successfully did it again! I'm so glad that we didn't pay, too, because the aquarium was not that spectacular. I think that this frog was the neatest thing that we saw!

The best part about the aquarium was when Josh accidentally knocked a sign off of a post by leaning on it, so we propped it up against the post. We walked by the sign later, a large group of people was huddled around the sign, trying to read the small text on the ground...!

Josh and I took a few super touristy photos outside of the aquarium, much to Zack's disappointment!

Once Zack said that he thought that Millennium Park was ugly and touristy, and also that jumping photos were stupid and contrived, we had to take a jumping photo in front of the Bean!!

Zack was craving something sweet so he suggested that we go to a little cupcake store near the park. Sugar Bliss was a very cute bakery that sold delicious cupcakes, and we each got one. They were amazing; I love overpriced and super cute cupcakeries!

Zack decided to meet up with Erin and his friends, and Josh and I walked to the Metra station and took the train back to Villa Park.

I think we walked over seven miles today!!

Josh and I ate a quick dinner back at our host's house before driving back into the city. We parked close to Friar Tuck, the bar that Zack and his friends had ended up at, and we hung out with them for a while. Everyone had been drinking all day so the three of us felt very, very sober! We had a few beers before Zack decided that he wanted to end the night at a nearby gay bar, so the three of us walked the short distance to Berlin. We had a really fun time dancing with Zack!

Our high for today was hanging out with Zack all day, and the low was the weather... it was windy and cold! Our "ho" for the day was sneaking into the Shedd Aquarium... take that, overpriced museum!

Ballwin to Chicago

We got out of Jim's house early this morning because we wanted to see the St. Louis Arch and also get to Chicago before rush hour. The Arch was pretty neat, but unfortunately our National Park Pass gave us only a small discount so going up was still pretty expensive. It was very neat, though!

The little pod we took to get to the top of the Arch was so tiny and very uncomfortable! It looked very futuristic but really only children could be comfortable on those seats!

The view from the top was fantastic. It was crazy to look down from the small windows and not have anything below you!

As we left St. Louis, I took this neat photo from the bridge. Amazingly I was able to avoid the huge bridge posts and get a shot with just the Arch!

The trip to the top of the Arch took a lot longer than expected, and Josh and I didn't get into Chicago until about 7 PM. We hit traffic but it wasn't too bad!

We met up with Josh's brother, Zack, and his friend, Erin, at her condo. It's a beautiful spot right in the city! We met Erin's husband, Chris, and the five of us walked to a pub for dinner and drinks. Chris and Erin live in such a neat neighborhood; there's a ton of bars and restaurants within walking distance! After dinner, Zack decided to watch a terrible movie that we found on Netflix... it was called "Die-ner," and it really was so awful that it was hilarious!

Choctaw to Ballwin

This morning, Josh and I were introduced to all of the animals! Marie and Brandy showed us all of their free range chickens and turkeys, and we also met their adorable kittens and cats. Surprisingly, the cats don't bother the chickens at all!

We had some of their eggs for breakfast... free range eggs really do taste better! They are so yellow and flavorful...!!

After breakfast, we met the horses and the buffalo! Marie and Brandy raised the buffalo from a baby, and he was very cute... and he loved graham crackers!!

We said goodbye to Marie and Brandy in the late morning... I really wish that we had more time to spend with them because we really could've hung out with them and their animals for a few more days. Josh and I visited the Oklahoma City Memorial on our way out of the city... it is a very somber memorial.

The rows of chairs represent each person who was killed in the bombing, and there are even miniature chairs for the children who were killed... very sad. The Survivor Tree is a beautiful elm tree that withstood the bombing, which is pretty amazing.

Then we got on the road for our second long driving day... another eight hours to St. Louis!! We made it into town quite late but ended up talking to our host, Jim, for hours once we arrived at his house in Ballwin, a suburb of St. Louis. Jim is an older man with two adult children who also live in the St. Louis area. He had a ton of questions about Couch Surfing and we were happy to answer them!

Josh and I shared the same high of hanging out with Marie and Brandy and their animals in the morning! Our low was having ANOTHER very long driving day, and while it might seem strange, our "ho" was the Oklahoma City Memorial; it was very solemn and respectful, and we definitely understood how a memorial can be both spooky and beautiful.

Albuqerque to Choctaw

This morning, Josh and I made our final decision... we are heading to Chicago!! I sent Luis, our host in Oklahoma City, a message to explain our change of plans and asked if we could stay tonight rather than tomorrow. Unfortunately, today and tomorrow became eight hour driving days... Oklahoma City tonight, and St. Louis, Missouri, tomorrow night. Then it will just be a five hour drive to Chicago on Friday! So, we also sent some last minute requests to people in St. Louis, Missouri, and hit the road.

Our first stop was in Albuquerque's Old Town where we picked up a small bag of the state cookie: biscochito! They're very similar to a regular sugar cookie, but with anise and cinnamon... very delicious!

We didn't do much else other than drive today, unfortunately. In Amarillo, we passed the famous Cadillac Ranch, created in the 1970's. We found a spray paint can and I drew on one of the cars!

On the way to Oklahoma City, Luis called us and explained that while he couldn't host us tonight, one of his friends was looking to host her first Couch Surfers! He gave us her address and phone number and told us to arrive hungry.

After a long, long drive that took over eight hours, we finally arrived in Choctaw, a small town outside of Oklahoma City, where we met Marie and her husband Brandy at their farm. Brandy works in the city but in the last few years they purchased nine acres and now have a small farm! Marie gave us delicious lemon chicken and rosemary potatoes for a late dinner (with homemade biscotti for dessert!) and we talked about all kinds of things; Marie and Brandy are really, really nice people and we are so glad that we had the opportunity to meet them!

We were also introduced to their parrot, Pacino... he was very talkative and liked to dance, so Josh and I had a great time interacting with him after dinner!

Our high for today was meeting Marie and Brandy... they are such a nice and thoughtful couple, and it's so neat that they made their dream of owning a small farm a reality. The low for today was having the longest drive (by far!) on this entire trip. It's crazy how much just driving can wipe you out! Our "ho" for today was definitely the dance party with Pacino... at one point, all four of us were standing around his perch, dancing like idiots!

Taos to Albuquerque

Josh and I left David and Elaine this morning and headed to Albuquerque. We took the scenic road... it wasn't that scenic but Josh pulled over numerous times to take photos! It had snowed during the night; I love the little dusting of snow over all of the trees.

On our way to Albuquerque we talked to Josh's brother, Zack, who goes to law school at Indiana. He told us that we should meet him in Chicago on Friday, so we started to think about changing our plans and heading north! We're supposed to be coming home in a week or so, but maybe our plans will change...?

We stopped in Santa Fe, which had a neat little downtown area where we stopped for coffee and pastries. An ordinance passed in the 1950's that said that all buildings must exhibit a Spanish Territorial or Pueblo style of architecture, and that was definitely present in the historic downtown area.

Our host, Katherine, was kind of bizarre on the phone, and we understood why when we arrived at her house. Her two adult daughters were there, along with their four young children, one of their husbands, and a family friend. We also met their "permanent Couch Surfer," Doug... we thought it was a joke, but they had practically adopted a Couch Surfer who was traveling through in January. Josh and I got to talk to him for a while and his stories were crazy! He was from New York and had basically been homeless after being kicked out of his house when he was 16. He and some friends were making their way to California, but when he met the family in Albuquerque, he decided to stay. It really sounds like his life is turning around thanks in part to Katherine and her husband, Bob. Definitely a neat story!

Katherine served salad and ravioli for dinner; it was nice to eat with such a big family! After dinner, all of the children and grandchildren went home, and Katherine, Bob, Doug, Josh and I watched TV for a while. It was bizarre to watch reality TV shows... Josh and I haven't watched anything like that in a long time!

Our high for the day was seeing Santa Fe because it was such a neat city, especially with the building codes that keep all of the buildings looking historic. The low was definitely forgetting our awesome pillows in Taos! We had to buy new pillows and they are just not the same. Our "ho" was meeting Doug; he's the same age as Josh but has had such a different life!

Crestone to Taos

We said goodbye to Jim early this morning and stopped at a few interesting spots that he suggested... though not before scaring some elk that were trying to cross the road!

Up the road from Jim's house were a few different places of worship and we decided to stop at an Ashram. I wish that there had been a welcome center sign or something because we felt incredibly out of place while we were there, especially since we didn't run into anyone else! Josh just took a few photos and we left.

Next was a drive through the actual town of Crestone... which was not that impressive. We just did a quick drive through! I think this is a photo of one of the three stop signs in the town.

Next on our list was the Great Sand Dunes National Park.

I knew this would be good as soon as we spotted an adorable frog in the visitor center!!

The dunes were pretty crazy. They're about 750 feet tall, cover almost 19,000 acres, and are estimated to be over 12,000 years old!!

Of course, we had to take some goofy jumping and hand stand photos, too.

Before leaving, we found an X... if only we had more time to unearth this buried treasure!

We continued on our way to Taos and made it into New Mexico (again)!

We drove across the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. The view of the Gorge was amazing!

Josh and I arrived in Taos in the early evening and met David and Elaine at their home. David is 26 and Elaine is 22, and their story of how they ended up in Taos was so interesting! They met about 18 months ago in Oklahoma City, and during Elaine's last year of nursing school, David and his brother took a trip and stopped in Taos. David fell in love with the town and told Elaine, so the two of them moved to Taos when Elaine graduated. She now works at the hospital and David is a salesman in town, though unfortunately it sounds like they don't like Taos as much now that they live here...

They suggested taking us to a local brewery. It was a really cute establishment run by just one woman! Her beers were delicious and we timed our arrival perfectly as happy hour was just starting. The four us had fun playing Jenga and talking about lots of random things!

We got back to David and Elaine's house after the brewery and made a semi-potluck style dinner, with Josh and I contributing spaghetti and David and Elaine sharing their lasagna and quiche! Elaine had to go to bed pretty early to get up early for work tomorrow morning, but David suggested taking Josh and I to a natural hot springs. It sounded awesome, obviously, so off we went!

David directed us on a 30 minute drive partway down the Rio Grande Gorge, where we parked and then hiked down to the bottom of the gorge. David remembered the trail from memory, since there are no markers and there is barely even a path! After probably a ten minute hike, we were at the hot springs!!! Unfortunately, the only photo that Josh took was this awkward one of David...

...and then the camera battery died :( The hot springs were really wonderful. It even started to snow when we were there! Once we turned off our flashlights, it was obviously extremely dark and very peaceful.

Josh and I shared the same high for the day, which was the hot springs... I think that is a perfect example of the kind of things we are looking to do when we visit a new place: something unique that only the locals know about! My low was being terrified that David was going to murder us in the Gorge when we were following him to the hot springs... I was so relieved when there actually WERE hot springs!!! Josh's low was the weather; it was overcast all day. My "ho" was talking to David and Elaine and learning how free spirited they are! They moved to Taos for fun, found jobs, and they have no idea where they'll go next!!