Departure Date: July 19th,
2012
Return Date: July 29th,
2012
Total Number of Days: 11
Primary Wayfarers: Andy Jarema,
Danielle Peck
Associate Wayfarers: Christian
(Snoop), JDubs, Lisa, Avi
It is insane how many different
things we did. Here is the short
version:
Day 1: Niagra Falls, Whirlpool Jet Boat Tour
Day 2: Greyfox Bluegrass Festival
Day 3: New WTC building, the Met, Central Park
Day 4: Ridgewood, Long Island, made it to Boston
Day 5: Portland (ME), Nashua (NH)
Day 6: Downtown Boston, Harvard, North End, pie eating
contest
Day 7: Walden Pond, Salem, Harvard Square
Day 8: Whale watching, Sam Adams brewery, Jamaica
Plain
Day 9: Plimoth Plantation, night out in Boston
Day 10: Provincetown, Race Point beach, seals
Day 11: Driving home, Scranton
Here is the long version:
Day 1: It all began by driving from Grosse Pointe to
the border via Port Huron. Seeing
Toronto across Lake Ontario made the long trip through Canada worth it. Listening to Mitch Hedberg and George Carlin
also killed a lot of time. We arrived in
Buffalo, New York to meet our friend Christian Robinson. He took us to Duff’s famous hot wings for
lunch, which definitely lived up to the hype.
I got to see Niagra Falls for the first time. It was exactly as impressive as I imagined it
(I still can’t comprehend how many gallons of water pour down it every
second). Instead of doing the boring
Maid of the Mist boat tour, we decided to kick things up a notch and do the
Whirlpool Jet Boat Tour. To say that we
got soaked is an understatement. We
traveled through Class 5 rapids and got pelted by a literal wall of water. If it gives you any idea, Class 6 rapids are
at the top of the scale and (according to Wikipedia), “pose threat to life with
little or no chance for rescue.” Also,
the boat had a flat bottom so we could do 360 degree spins at something like 40
mph. After drying off, Christian took us
to a great European style bistro restaurant near his house in Amhurst. We spent the rest of the night drinking a
beer and chillin’ in his hot tub.
Day 2: Woke up super early and set off for Oak Hill,
New York. The drive through the
mountains on highway I-90 was stunningly beautiful. Just before Albany, we diverted south to
carve our path to the Catskill mountains.
We wove through quaint small towns, lost in time and perfectly preserved
from yesteryear. Our destination was the
Greyfox Bluegrass Festival, where Danielle and I eagerly waited to see our
favorite band the Punch Brothers. The
festival itself was sprawled over a huge piece of farmland. If you can imagine a Woodstock festival with
more self-control from the crowd, you’ve got the right picture. Danielle brought along her banjo (she had
just bought it a week before) and participated in a beginning banjo class. We also watched a pretty good class on
harmony singing and saw a “banjo summit” featuring 4 masters at the instrument. After watching an all female bluegrass
quintet called Della Mae at the big stage, we caught them in a smaller dance
tent. That performance was the best I
saw all day, in some ways even eclipsing the Punch Brothers set latter that night. The thing with Della Mae is that I couldn’t
impress you by playing a song off of their record. The energy they were drawing out of the crowd
was nothing short of phenomenal. I felt
a rush of connection with all the people around me. The intimacy of the dance tent made the
performance tremendously moving. Later
that night I had my first experience listening to Del McCoury, whose
distinctive voice is a staple in the bluegrass tradition. The Punch Brothers took the stage just as the
stars started to poke their way out of the cloudy night sky. The Punch Brothers killed it (as usual) and
ended the night sometime after 1 am with a stupidly-ridiculous mandolin cadenza
from Chris Thile and a cover of Beck’s “Sex Laws”. From there, it was off to the hotel for us to
catch a mere 4-5 hours of sleep after spending around 12+ hours at the festival
(at least 7 of those hours were standing up).
Quick side story: I had the opportunity to give Gabe Witcher
from the Punch Brothers a 6 pack of Bell’s Two Hearted Ale. We brought it all the way from Michigan since
we knew the Punch Brothers liked Michigan beer (they wrote a song called “Two
Hearted”). We gave it to him after his
set with Noam Pickelny. Gabe told me
that I made his day. I told him to share
it with the rest of the Punch Brothers.
He looked right at me and flatly said, “No.”
Day 3: Drove to Westwood, New Jersey to meet our
friends JDubs and Lisa. After getting
acquainted with the biggest dog in the smallest body ever (Ruby), we took the
train into NYC. We quickly devoured two
massive pizzas and decidedly walked over to the new World Trade Center
building. It gave me the shivers
thinking the last time I visited this place, it was little more than a hole in
the ground. Afterwards, we wandered to
the southern tip of the city and viewed Ellis Island from across the bay. We went to the Metropolitan Museum of
Art. Scary to say, I think it is even
bigger than the Chicago Art Institute, which I considered the biggest museum I
had ever seen up until that point. To
say I saw 1/8 of the museum would be an overstatement. The Egyptian ruins were unbelievable! Central Park came next, which completely took
me by surprise. Never have I seen so
many people outdoors doing so many different activities. A perfect night time walk. We headed back to Westwood later that evening
and stopped at a local haunt. I had a
delicious stuffed four cheese burger. Yum!
Day 4: JDubs gave us a brief tour around Ridgewood
in the morning. We stopped to get bagels
for breakfast (you have to pronounce it the Jersey way…“bah-gels” instead of
“bay-gels”). They kick the crap out of
anything you can get in Michigan. We
left JDubs and Lisa and headed out to New York City immediately after. For a whopping $12 we crossed the George
Washington Bridge and took a brief detour through Harlem, which is not even
close to how decrepit you think it is.
Maybe it is because I’m so used to Detroit, ha. We took another bridge out to Long Island (as
you can tell, I am a bridge fanatic). It
was fun to look at all the gorgeous houses (including the one where F. Scott
Fitzgerald lived) and spend a few moments looking out over Manhasset Bay. We miraculously avoided all of the traffic on
the way out of Long Island (staying off the BQE helped) and hit one final
bridge on the way to Connecticut. Coming
over the crest of the bridge, we caught an amazing perspective of hundreds of
sailboats out on the water. Gorgeous. The rest of the trip to Boston went smoothly. It included a pit stop at a barbeque joint in
Connecticut featured on Triple D. We met
our friend Avi and went out to a local bar in Boston for a late dinner.
Day 5: I loved the view from Avi’s place! He lives in a neighborhood called Mission
Hill, which overlooks a huge swath of southern Boston. We began today with the Boston driving
experience. Driving through Boston makes
driving through Chicago look like a frolic through candyland. Not only are the drivers awful, but
navigating the roads feels like a calculus problem. Boston is an old city, which means its roads
are based on old horse and buggy paths.
No grid system here. Good
luck. After we took over 50 minutes to
travel under 7 miles, we took a mini trip up to Portland, Maine. My expectations were set pretty low, which
might be why I enjoyed the town so much.
The town felt like Petoskey, Michigan: next to the water and lots of
small, local shops. It was great walking
around and exploring the shops. We had
some phenomenal lobster for lunch at Becky’s Diner (mine came in omelet form). We stopped in Nashua, New Hampshire after
this. Danielle and I went to explore a
nice little waterfall that ran through part of the city. We met up with Avi and watched him rehearse a
community orchestra featuring mostly senior citizens. After a late sushi diner at a
Japanese-Chinese-American restaurant, we headed home.
Day 6: I ran this morning on top of the hill. I caught a view of the amazing church that
the area is named after. The rest of
today was a Boston day. Avi showed us
around his school, the New England Conservatory of music. We also explored the Christian Science
reflection pond and the Prudential Center (a local mall). The actual Prudential Building had this
amazing optical illusion going on. It was
by far my favorite building on the Boston skyline. Boston is also home to the longest, craziest
food court I have ever seen (36 vendors in one single strip in Faneuil
Hall). We took a long walk to Cambridge
and caught a great view over the lengthy bridge. We stopped for lunch at Flour, a stellar
bakery near MIT with unbelievably quality ingredients in its sandwiches. They had this homemade oreo cookie with a
great texture: soft, but crumbly at the same time. Harvard was next, where I felt smarter just
standing next to the old John Harvard statue.
The courtyard there was wonderful.
We took the T (the subway) to a neighborhood known as North End. We killed some time by watching airplanes
taking off at the distant Logan Airport.
We then entered what the North End is known for: Little Italy. I still don’t understand how 20 identical
Italian restaurants on the same street can stay in business. We got an amazing plate of pasta for
relatively cheap. To close out the
night, we stopped at Mike’s Pastries (a famous shop, indeed) and were
disappointed to learn they were out of individual slices of Boston cream
pie. Being a quick thinker, Avi spotted
a whole pie in their refrigerator. We
were shocked to learn the whole thing only cost $12. We bought it, walked with it, sat down, and
sliced it. Avi challenged me to an
eating contest, sans hands. Even though
my face ended up being the most covered in pie, Avi beat me by a long
shot. I don’t know why I agreed to it in
the first place. Most laughs out of the
entire trip, though. A thunderstorm
hammered us just seconds after stuffing ourselves with the pie. We dove underground and caught the T back
home.
Day 7: One of the things that prompted this trip was
Danielle’s idea to do a “literary tour”.
For instance, on this day we stopped at Walden pond in Concord, MA. This is the legendary site where Henry David
Thoreau spent 2 years in a tiny cabin and wrote his landmark book “Walden, or
Life in the Woods”. I can see why he
chose this location. Maybe it was the
particular day, but I have never seen a body of water so beautiful. The greenest trees were set against the bluest
sky and the bluest, clearest, warmest water.
It was hard to leave. On the way
out of Concord, we saw the grave sites of many famous Transcendentalist authors
(Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau, Alcott) as well as the house of Louisa May
Alcott. Our next destination couldn’t
have been more different in mood and ambience.
Salem, MA is the infamous site of the witch trials. While exploring the historic witch house, it
was eerie to think many of the witch investigations were carried out within these
four walls. At the witch memorial, seeing
the names of the 19 people and then the word “hanged” next to them felt like a
led weight. We saw a few other sights
(the pier, a cemetery) and grabbed some lunch at the Lobster Shanty (home of
the lobster-tini…and wicked pulled pork).
Danielle and I traveled to Harvard Square to meet Avi after his kickball
game with some friends. By happy accident,
Danielle and I stumbled upon a choir practice going on inside a local church. Their sound was floating through a window 2
blocks away, and even from there we could tell they sounded great. We met Avi and had dinner at a very good (but
very inexpensive) Mexican restaurant. We
delved into deep conversation about education, race, power, and privilege over
some margaritas. After ice cream, we
headed home.
Day 8: Despite warnings for thunderstorms, Danielle
and I got up early and made it to an 8:30 am whale watching tour in Gloucester,
MA. We enjoyed the ride and caught
distant views of Salem and Boston as the boat took 45 minutes to travel out to
sea. Once there, we had the opportunity
of spotting a female whale named Cajun.
She surfaced no less than 12 times for us. One of the times the whale surfaced right
next to the boat, giving us a spectacular view of its entire body and
tail. We avoided lunch and hustled back
to Boston so that we could make it to the last Sam Adams brewery tour at 3:00
pm. They were super cool there. Admission was free (recommended $2 donation
to charity), 3 beer samples were free, and they gave you a complimentary
drinking glass. The tour guide was
knowledgeable and had a good time cracking jokes at the same time (“Don’t stick
your hand in anything. We’ve all seen
Willy Wonka, right?”). We got to learn
how to smell real hops in order to determine their flavor content, too. After this, we walked to an enormous pond in
a small neighborhood called Jamaica Plain.
We rested there and caught dinner at an amazing local sandwich
place. Danielle was pretty tired and
passed out on the couch when we got back.
Avi and I grabbed some Woodchuck from a local liquor store and spent the
night away in conversation.
Day 9: Another early morning! Danielle and I traveled to Plymouth, MA to
visit the Plimoth Plantation. It is a
complete recreation of the village where the Mayflower landed in the year
1621. To call this place a museum would
be selling it incredibly short. There
are actors that embody the life of a specific person from the Mayflower. The period clothing, the mannerisms, and the
dialect is the easy part for them. They
made food right in front of you and ate it with their “families”. Ask them anything. They know everything from their entire life
history to what materials were used to repair the roof above their heads. I constantly had to keep pinching myself to
make sure I hadn’t slipped into an alternate reality. In addition to the villagers from the
Mayflower, there was also a recreated Native American reservation with staff
members as well. Danielle and I sat for
1 ½ hours and had deep conversations with two of the Native American people. They not only talked to us about Native
American techniques (skinning animals, how they heat their huts) but also the
difference in perspective between Native American and Western culture. It was one of the most eye opening
experiences I have ever had. I could
take (and might take) an entire blog entry just to discuss it, but here is the
gist. Western philosophy says that God
created man to roam the earth, and man has free domain to rule the land. With this idea comes the idea of property,
and this leads to conflict over property.
Native Americans decry this idea of ownership, instead seeing themselves
in a give-and-take relationship with Mother Nature. As a matter of fact, Western culture is now
analyzing Native American culture to gather ideas regarding sustainability and proper
resource allocation. I had this profound
feeling that Native American philosophy just makes plain sense. Westerners are messy, complicated, and
destructive by comparison. We were
starving after 7 unbelievable hours at this museum, so we headed out and got
some delicious lobster roll at a local restaurant on the water. We saw Plymouth Rock and a full scale model
of the original Mayflower (there were actors on the boat as well, including one
really cool sailor/tradesman dude). We drove
back to Boston and met Avi and his friend Tracy at the Pour House. It was a local bar where we watched the
opening Olympic ceremonies. We caught a
little bit of a concert outside (Del McCoury was playing, who we saw exactly
one week before at the bluegrass festival).
We all wanted dessert so we hit up a lavish dessert bar in downtown
Boston. Pretty much the only thing on
the menu was nine pages of chocolate. We
split a ridiculous s’mores sundae and waffles with fruit and ice cream. We grabbed a late night drink at Uno before
catching one of the last T buses around 12:30 am.
Day 10: We were sad to leave Avi and the rest of
Boston today. At the last minute,
Danielle decided to add one more stop to our trip. We went all the way up the tip of Cape Cod
(which included a drive over the Sagamore bridge) and arrived in
Provincetown. On the edge of a massive coastal
peninsula is the last place you would think to find a funky place like this. Provincetown has a huge gay community, as
well as a huge arts community with many local shops. We got lunch at a local place called Mojo and
ate it on the beach. We spent the rest
of the day at a state owned beach called Race Point. There was a nearby airport where we saw a
plane takeoff right over our heads. The
day was very cloudy, but the weather was otherwise very nice (this might have
helped to keep the beach deserted). We
walked the length of the beach and I took a nap in the sand. Danielle spotted something strange out in the
water, which ended up being a seal. It
was no more than 30 feet out from shore.
The unbelievably ecstatic look on her face when she saw the seal was
priceless. Little did we know, there was
much more to come. Every 10-20 minutes,
a large pack of seals (as many as 14) would travel by the shore and gaze over
at the folks on the beach. This was a
sight that never got old, even after 4 hours.
I took a moment to meditate with 20 minutes of music listening before we
left for our hotel in Dennisport, MA. We
went to the seafood equivalent of a Dairy Queen to get more delicious lobster
roll (notice a pattern here?). We went
to another local place to get a very tasty ice cream sundae. Just as we got back, it started raining like
crazy. Perfect timing, considering we
were at the beach all day.
Day 11: Today was a driving day. 900 miles.
17 hours. For the most part, this
day was somewhat uneventful. Mostly sad
that we were leaving! A few small
things, though. We stopped in Scranton, PA
for lunch. Yes, this is the home of the
famous TV show The Office. Awesome to
say that I have been there! We grabbed
some Chipotle and Coldstone for dinner just outside of Youngstown, OH. There was a gorgeous sunset as we were driving
through the Ohio Turnpike. After leaving
at 7:00 am, we finally returned at 12:00 am.
What a trip. Deepest thanks to
all who made it possible.
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