Road Trip!

At the end of August, Justin had a one week break between rotations. What better time for an end of summer road trip? We had the pleasure of sharing the long hours on the road with our good friends Scott and Angie. Here's a travel log of sorts of our adventures. (Warning: This is a pretty lengthy post, so feel free to just look at the pictures. However, you might miss out on some Pulitzer prize quality commentary if you choose to go the picture-only route.)

Stop 1: Scranton, PA (The Electric City) on our way to NYC. As you probably know, Scranton is home of everyone's favorite Office. It lived up to the hype for the entire 15 minutes we were there.

Stop 2: New York, New York! We crashed in Brooklyn with our gracious host and brother-in-law Ben. Highlights revolved around tasty food and classic touristy sites. We'll start off the adventures with a shot of Brianna modeling the lower Manhattan skyline from the Brooklyn Bridge at sunset.

Some our other favorite experiences included:

1. First Annual Taco Shop Crawl (like a bar crawl, but with tacos) through South Brooklyn. Hosted by the illustrious Ben. We hit up 6 of the best shops, and are confident saying we sampled some of the best tacos this side of the Rio Grande.

2. Discovering French-Thai Fusion Sandwiches and blueberry milk. Wondering if such a combination is actually palatal? Just look at Brianna's face. Pure joy. Need we say more?

3. China town! You might recognize this street from the first Spiderman movie... Yeah, we didn't either. But the steamed pork buns were delicious.

4. Lady Liberty and Ellis Island. We felt patriotic and proud of our immigrant past. And sweaty.

5. Time Square. Sensory overload. Don't look at the picture too long, it might induce seizures.

6. The Manhattan temple. You can see Moroni triumphantly flashing his spiritual bling across Central Park at the temporally loaded inhabitants of the Upper East Side.

7. Central Park.

8. Flags at the UN waving proudly in the wind.

9. Grand Central Station Ticket Office. Although Justin looks lost, we only got on the wrong subway train once. Or twice.

10. Bike Riding though Prospect Park, Brooklyn's version of Central Park.

11. Brianna brushing up on String Theory in the New York Public Library, which prior to being a reservoir of knowledge interestingly served as a water reservoir for the city.

Stop 3: After spending 4 days in New York, we decided to try our luck in cooler climes. We packed up the Honda and headed North towards Cape Cod, via Connecticut and Rhode Island.


We stopped on the Cape in the village of Sandwich. Brianna and Angie tried to sneak a peek into one of the oldest houses in Sandwich after deciding the $8 entrance fee for an hour long tour of the four room house was too steep. Luckily they didn't get caught.

Next stop: Plymouth. Someone somehow managed to preserve the Mayflower and the original rock that the pilgrims first stepped onto. Brianna, however, remains unconvinced.

The Rock. It's bigger in real life. Just like Jay Leno's chin.

Posing high-school-dance style at the semi-famous Plymouth Rock Sign. Justin isn't sure why he is only wearing one sandal, so don't ask.

Stop 4: New England. If this were it's own blog post, we would probably title it something witty like "Revolutionaries, Witches, and Whales, oh my!" Dave and Mandy, friends from high school, undergrad, and previous road trips were nice enough to let us stay with them for the weekend. A million thanks! We started our stay in the Boston area by exploring some the surrounding cities.

First on the list was Salem, home of the infamous witch trials. This is the "Witch House" where one of the witch trial judges lived. For all you architectural fans out there, notice the salt-box style home with over jutting second story, hanging pendants on the corners, and steep angled gables. Justin was a little nervous about being so close to such a witchy structure. If you look closely, you can almost make out some sinister shapes in the shadows on the house....

No trip to the capital of all things scary is complete without a stop in the Salem graveyard. The Gothic style tombstones were beautifully carved. They almost looked like movie props.

Besides being home to witches, Salem was once a center of maritime trade in colonial New England. Justin almost signed on for a ship berth, but when he realized he wouldn't be able to pay of his medical school loans on a shipman's salary, he decided to forgo the life of a limey.

We found the barrels, but where are the monkeys?

We made our way North along the coast to the charming city of Glouster, where we had one of the biggest highlights of the trip: Whale watching! We saw over 30 whales, who were jumping, splashing, and entertaining their mammalian cousins more than they can imagine. Enjoy the video!

Back in Boston, we explored the Freedom Trail. There was more to it than a red line.

For instance, Paul Revere's grave.

And more importantly, cannolis!

And Old Iron Sides herself, the USS Constitution.


We also got a little transcendental and visited Walden Pond. This is the site of Thoreau's cabin in the woods.

Thoreau really wasn't off the grid after all...

Stop 4: Niagara Falls and Palmyra, NY. The only way to describe the magnitude of water pouring over Niagara falls to someone who has never seen it is to have them imagine the last time they had to pee really, really, really, really bad. Then multiply that by a gazillion.

Our trip was made complete by a stop at the birth place of the LDS church, Palmyra New York. I think of Palmyra as a sort of Mormon Mecca. There is an incredible and very special feeling there. Everyone should take the time to make the trip.

So that's our trip! It was a blast.