burlington, vt

vermont, its beauty still takes my breathe away, the lake, the mountains, and the colorful trees, i've come at the right time of year.

this is the last stop for me until we find a home of our own. i've spent my first few days here just taking it all in. on a walk by the lake i discovered burlington has it's own andy goldsworthy. these pictures don't do it justice, they were taken with a phone. its really a site so if you're in Burlington i recommend checking it out. i have to wonder if it was all done by one person or if one person started it and others added to it.

i'm not really sure how long i'll be in vt but while i'm here i'll be working @ bluebird tavern, feel free to stop by the foods really good!

chelmsford, ma

my hometown... it was good to see friends and family

western, ma

aka the place we'd like to call home someday soon. i wished i had taken some pictures it's just so beautiful out there. i know that seems surprising because most of mass isn't that pretty but the hardwick area is.

two nights with good friends and the largest pizza i've ever encountered, 24 slices, no small ones either! i'm not really sure what to write about this leg of our journey so i'll leave it at that.

detroit (well roseville), michigan

we decided to hit up milk & honey before departing for roseville and yes i got the pancakes again, i just couldn't resist. chicago to roseville takes about 3.5 hours which is our shortest drive to date. in case you are wondering why roseville, tom's sister and her soon to be husband live there. we arrived around 6 and had our first home cooked meal in what seemed to be weeks. the vegetables and herb were picked from their garden so everything tasted so fresh and delicious. shortly after dinner we went to bed because we had an early morning and long drive ahead of us...

chicago day 2

the morning started with brunch @ milk & honey. it was a bit of a wait due to the holiday but we decided to endure it. their pancakes with granola are to die for (they are still on my mind a week later). after brunch we made our way downtown with no real plan in mind. as we walked around we happened upon an urban garden in grant park which i found very exciting. the garden is used as a source of education and vegetables are sold as farmers markets. i began to wonder why there wasn't more of this in places like san francisco, golden gate park has so much free green space. we spent a good chunk of time walking on a bike path along the water, it was a beautiful day and it was somewhat funny to see people sun tanning on the boats like they were on display. we stopped into the original uno's for some real chicago deep dish pizza. it was ok but i'd recommend going somewhere else it just felt like we were in a regular old uno's chain.

later in the evening we had dinner at publican which seems to be getting a bit of press these days. the noise level was off the chart so it was hard to have a decent conversation, the decor was not quite our style and despite the fact that we had a very strange dining experience the food was good and i personally would go back to give it another shot.

chicago

i heard through the grapevine that someone was interested in hearing more about chicago...

we arrived in chicago on a sunday night, it was a long drive from sioux falls and we were both really excited to park the car for a few days. i had done a bit of research on hotels in chicago and had decided to book something a little more unique then your standard hotel. neither of us having spent much time in chicago were pleasantly surprised as we pulled into the wicker park area where the inn was located. it was a cute little neighborhood with a number of restaurants and boutique shops. the place we had booked was called the ruby room their tag line being "the style of wellness" due to the fact that it had it's on spa and yoga studio. it had no more then 12 rooms on the 3rd and 4th floor (the yoga studio was on the 2nd and the spa on the 1st) and in my mind i couldn't think of a more perfect place to stay. the room was a good size for 2 people and there was a kitchen down the hall if you wanted to cook. our host was gracious and let us know that the public transit was just a block away, again we didn't plan on driving for a couple days.

after we got settled we took off for our first city adventure. the public transit was fairly easy to find and quite different from what i was used to in SF. you could here it coming long before you could see it, as it got closer it got progressively louder like it was about to erupt and it was so fast. anyways we made our way to custom house for dinner without getting lost. both the menu and wine list look good and we were both looking forward to a good meal because as most of you can image sioux falls wasn't a food mecca. though a little of the pricey side the food was good and we left feeling satisfied.

Now in Chicago

sioux falls, sd

a stay in sioux falls broke up the 15 hours inbetween devils tower and chicago.

Devils Tower, WY

today is my birthday and as we depart livingston i can only image what exciting adventure the day will bring. we are off to camp at devils tower national park which i'm very excited about because i loooove camping.

a little ways into the drive we decide to stop in billings, mt for some coffee for tom and gas for the car. billings has a bustling downtown and to our delight we discovered a natural food market that sells local produce and meat which we'll need for cooking at the campsite. we also make a quick run through albertsons because the natural food market did not have graham crackers or marshmellows and i had my heart set on birthday smores.

we arrive at devils tower around six, anyone ever see close encounters of the third kind? well i haven't but this is where some of it takes place. anyways we pick a campsite and start to unload our tent both of us are so happy to be out of the car. this is when i notice the red tape across the grill at our site. i quickly do a servalance of the grounds and notice all the grills at all the sites are taped, there's a fire ban:(

my birthday dinner quickly turns form kabobs, salad, corn, wine and smores to steaks, fries and beer at fort devils tower. i don't even know where to begin on how to describe the restaurant/food. it wasn't that bad though owner/cook went on and on about how he doesn't purchase grass feed beef because it tastes like grass. what?

regardless of dinner and not beable to find our headlamps we managed to have an enjoyable night of camping, the weather was perfect and the moon was full. in the morning we had a great run up to the base of the tower and then were on our way.

Forest Fires - Montana