Day 7: We're not in Kansas anymore

Before leaving the Wajcman's, for all the dog lovers out there we decided to showcase their cute pup:

Not Toto

We left Kansas City early in the morning so we could make the ~10hr drive to the Boulder region of Colorado. We ended up spending only 8.5hrs in the car but fortunately the weather had improved the previous day and set us up for some great shots. We also benefited from driving through to the Mountain Time zone (yes, there is jet lag even when driving).

These shots are from the drive and are pretty self explanatory (some are better than others, after all these are all taken with our phone cameras):

-A

Day 6: Iowa to Missouri to Kansas

We had to do SOMETHING in Iowa - we decided to check out the Iowa State Capitol building before heading out to Kansas.

Check out the ornate architecture and design:

exterior view

rotunda ceiling

We made our way from Iowa and through Missouri:

And then on to Overland Park, Kansas to visit Sara, Danny, Kyra and Riggins Wajcman, where we enjoyed homemade pizza made with a super cool pizza maker!

Meet Riggins

Next stop: Boulder, Colorado!


-Hillary

Day 5: Chicahhgo to Des Moines, IA

Our time in Chicago was short and sweet. We stayed at T's and Dana Fine came to pay a visit.

The two kallahs

Before leaving Chicago we decided to take advantage of the food offerings. We had Bagel Country for breakfast (where they call an Egg and Cheese an "Eggel". Let me tell you, an Egg and Cheese is way better) and then went 20 minutes out of the way to pick up dinner for later at Romanian. We were expecting something closer to what we got at PKD in LA but instead our turkey sandwiches consisted of turkey, bread and a dip of mustard. I guess for $3.50 I shouldn't complain.

The Altman's favorite desserts

Then it was finally time to hit the road again, Des Moines bound. We were fortunate enough to pass through President Ronald Reagan's childhood home! I'm not sure why we decided to actually get off the highway, but we did. We wised up and didn't actually waste our time. Sorry Dixon, IL.

From then on it was more of the same:

Wind energy!

I was just waiting for a funnel cloud

Look at all the .... nothingness?

Until we finally made some progress:

About 2hrs from Des Moines is a big Tanger outlet. Compared to the likes of Woodbury Commons, this place was desolate. This didn't stop us from loading the car with even more stuff though- there was some real good metzias.

We finally made it to our hotel for the night in West Des Moines and had a good night's rest. Unfortunately there's a lot of rain in the forecast for this part of the country so I'm not sure if we'll get to do any of the 3 (!) things there is to do, like tour the state Capitol and see where the Iowa senators work (wow!).

Sheraton West Des Moines, IA

Next stop, Kansas City, KS

-A

Day 4: Indiana to Illinois

Avi promised a few family pictures - goodbye Cleveland:

There are two people in this world that are obsessed with Indiana - one is David Altman and the other is Moshe Levison. Both my dad and Avi's dad lived in Indiana for a period of time in their lives and we have heard their stories for years. There was no way we were going to miss out on visiting Indiana. So, we drove right through the state and headed to Chicago.

I love being in a place where people refer to carbonated beverages as "pop" and I don't have to hear people order cawwwfee instead of coffee. Surprisingly, both Avi and I have never visited Chicago's famous kosher restaurant Ken's Diner, and decided to try it out tonight. (Sorry, I don't get the hype, but I still love you fellow Chicagoans)

Now that's a burger

Our next stop is Des Moines, Iowa - our first "in the middle of no where" stop. Looking forward to a lot of corn fields and salami sandwiches.


- Hillary

Days 2 - 3: Cleveland

Trip summary:
Depart: Pittsburgh 11:30a
Arrive: Cleveland 2p

Having heard about Cleveland for years now I can honestly say it's good to finally experience it.

We arrived on Friday afternoon and our first stop was Hillary's grandparents where we were greeted with a warm welcome of kuchen and kipels. I soon realized eating would be the theme of the next few days. After getting a brief tour of their house, and seeing some wonderful childhood pics - 

Hillary gave me a tour of the neighborhood, from the mall where she grew up to the house where she lived.

Shabbos was really nice with surprisingly excellent weather (didn't see one flake of snow!).  We had accommodations that rival the Four Seasons (thanks Adam and Stephanie) and a tremendous amount of excellent food- from dinner to kiddush #1 (YIC) to kiddush #2 (GRS) to lunch. We even got Zaidie bags:

 I think I easily gained a few pounds. It was nice to have quality time with Hillary's family - though there at least seems to be a few people who she is not related to here. 

Towards the end of shabbos we were able to visit the Speiglers and see their beautiful newborn, Avi, who, yes, was also named after me.

After shabbos we were chaperoned and escorted to Kinneret by Josh for some excellent pizza (yes, it even rivals Roma):

Yum

followed by some frozen yogurt for dessert:

Today we say goodbye to Cleveland and head to Chicago where we get to see and stay with T.

I will be sure to post some family pics tomorrow.

-A

End Day 1 - Pittsburgh, PA

Day 1

Depart: New Rochelle, NY ~10:30a
Arrive: Pittsburgh, PA ~5:40p
Miles driven ~400

Well we made it to Pittsburgh in one piece. Can you believe I've never been here before? Maybe if Mark  never left I would have come to visit. A big thank you to the Shaw's for their hospitality, cute and friendly kids who love to daven and the Milky Way dinner decision.

Lots of driving today, though I've barely scratched the surface. Drive was pretty - we saw some cows, horses and colorful foliage on the trees - and had great weather. Tomorrow morning we head out to Cleveland, OH for shabbos (and to see more livestock presumably).

Oh, and mazal tov Kiva - best news of the day!

It's kinda late so I'll just get to the pictures since my last post:

Farewell dinner with our dads last night

Goodbye east coast foliage

SD or bust

Scenic drive

Scenic drive + socks reflection

Rest stop in North Somerset - Flight 93 plaque/memorial

Pittsburgh pride is infectious

Pen pals!

Cute kids!

A few technical notes resulting from feedback:
- users can now comment without a blogger ID (at least until we get spam comments)
- users can now click here to view a larger map. I'm not sure why but it doesn't seem one can zoom in/out


-A

And We're Off: Day 1

I know most of you thought Avi was the blogger of the couple, but we both independently considered recording our journey and decided to create a blog together. 
I hope you enjoy following our trip and look forward to sharing this experience with you!


Let's track back to my first date with Avi - thanks Jon - I was antsy to find out if Avi was the type to leave the tristate area, and Avi always dreamed of being a surfer (stop thinking of Avi in a wet suit) somewhere on the West Coast. Believe it or not, a move to California was one of the first topics of conversation on our date. Look how far we've come...


Two years and five months later, we got our act together. No one actually believed us when we said that we were going to pick up, leave our jobs and move to San Diego. Most people usually uproot themselves for a reason, but we were determined and now is the best time for our adventure.


Being the out-of-towner that I am, we have plenty of friends' places to stay across America. We leave today, Thursday, November 3, 2011, and are headed to Pittsburgh, PA to visit the wonderful Shaw family. (Send your kids to Camp Stone and they'll be best friends forever - shout out Shaynis!)


After a quick visit, we are driving out to my hometown, Cleveland, OH to visit the family for shabbos and show Avi around town, AKA, Kinneret Pizza and Green Road Synagogue. Looking forward to a great weekend - don't worry, Avi will recap soon.


Here's the rest of our tentative itinerary (Thanks Avi for the cool map):



View Larger Map

-Hillary