Robert’s Blog

The morning to leave Utah came so quickly, even though I had the worst insomnia stint that night.  Robert on the other hand, was way too tired, but was ready to get a morning head start. We left around 7ish, hoping to get to Lake Tahoe by early afternoon.  We had about 7.5 hours of driving ahead of us; but what we hated more was to face the first 2.5 hours of drive through Utah. The night before, we checked google map and saw that we again will have to go for hours without towns, service or rest area. After 20 minutes of civilization thanks to the Salt Lake City metro area, again all we saw was sand, This time, they look like dried salt fields, as far as the eye can see – panning to the sandy mountains.  The eerie, overcast skies didn’t help our travel through this barren land.  I think the only structure we saw was this crazy thing that was tall that look like a tree of balls.  We took pix of it, coz, it was so unusual.

When we are getting near the border, we start to see glimpse of buildings among the sand, of course, that would be in the Nevada side.  As we crossed the border to Nevada, we finally took our first break at the land of casinos and buffets. West Wendover, the first exit, have a few casinos, that were decent looking that of course advertised buffets.  Took the time to get some breakfast at the McD’s and we were off again.  Even though it’s not developed region, Nevada, proved to be much more “happening” place than Utah.  There were always some type of town or some signs of civilizations every 30 -40 miles of nothingness. Signs for “ranches” were also amusing.  Robbie said that each rest area boast some slots if the weary traveler need to feed their gambling needs.  We didn’t make any gift shop stop but did put gas a few time, but we did enjoy the different landscape the drive brought us.

We passed by the Reno metro area.  I was so amazed how in a decade the place has changed from the dilapidated gambling mini-city of my younger years to a more modern metro area. When we are finally about an hour from Lake Tahoe, we again encountered some crazy steep driving to get to North Lake Tahoe and our resort – Hyatt Lake Tahoe.  We even video taped some of the crazy winding road, which brought us some spectacular views.  When we finally got to Hyatt, Robbie really liked the cottage feel of the resort.  They welcomed us with some champagne but with some bad news. At first they informed us that for some reason they did not have any more rooms with King Size Beds, but alas they find one.  When we got to the room, we were a little disappointed at the view of our scenic view room but to we thought that that was the only thing available.(next day – couldn’t take it anymore we were able to fix this and finally got the room we deserve.. bad front desk in this hotel though.. I wanted to strangle them)  Aside from that it was really situated in a very scenic area. We were both tired, so we opted to just go to the restaurant in the hotel which served a very delicious luau buffet with hawaaiian music and dancing, and not to mention a roast pig. After dinner, we tried our luck ih the Csino but retired to our room early to regroup after the driving that we did for that 2 days.

The second day at lake tahoe, brought us poolside and lake side. I thought the pool would be much more warmer than it was. Even with the sun beating on your back and over head, my teeth ws sill chattering when we were in the pool. My fave was the hot tubs they were more quiet and they gave the heat that I needed to keep myself from shivering as we laid under the sun to dry up.  After drying up, Robbie and I went to the other side of the resort, to finally see Lake Tahoe up close. It’s one spectacular view that no words I may use today could not describe the beauty the beauty of the surrounding mountain and the clear lake.  i went right next to the water and went up to my ankle in the cold freezing water. Robbie on the other haand, took a dip in the 62 degree Lake Tahoe. He said it’s refreshing, as I thawed my numb foot and ankle. Simple italian dinner at the restaurant followed by some time in the casino ended our 2nd day in Lake Tahoe.

Our third day in Lake Tahoe, we ventured to drive the scenic route to South Lake Tahoe to Harvey Casino.  We collect Hard Rock glasses from each Hard Rock so we had to pick our Lake Tahoe one.  I found a lucky Star Trek slot which quadrupled my $20 – twice. It was fun too! We rested and pack the rest of the day so that we could have an early morning departure from Lake Tahoe.

The next morning brought a short drive to Sacramento.  We got there in about 2 hours, only because we encountered during our descent from the mountain.  We got some Jack in the Box before going to see the family.  The family cooked and bbqued for our arrival. My mom was very happy to see us, and have cooked my favorite food – Kare Kare (peanut based meat dish with chinese long beans & eggplant), among other things like lumpia (filipino version of eggroll).  After having lunch with the family, we took our godson to Toys ‘R Us for his birthday presetnt.  He was so happy there, and he even got a birthday balloon and crown.  Sacramento was so hot considering the highest temp in Lake Tahoe was in the early 80’s. Despite the heat, there was minimal humidity so it was bearable.  My friend since high school, Tracy, and her family came down and visited. The babies were so cute and had a good time playing in the yard. Family also had some cake for my belated birthday and for graduation + cake for our godson’s birthday. To top it off, they had a filipino dessert – Halo Halo topped with some Ube Ice Cream (shaved ice with milk and some tropical coconut-based fruit + sweetened beans).  The cake was incredible – it was from a Filipino Bakery – Red Ribbon.  They got the Variety Kind with 4 different flavors. Everything was good.  We topped the night with a very noisy game of Password. We got so into it (women v. men –> women came back from 4 point deficit to beat the men) that at one point Robert fell off his chair. At least no injury or broken glass – just lots of laughter.  We ended the long day at around 11pm at our hotel – The Hyatt Place in Rancho Cordova, 5 minutes from my relatives house.

Next day, we slept in and then spent more time with family.  Robbie got some great massage then we were taken to Thunder Valley Casino. Great Buffet. Not much time for gambling, as we were flying out that night. I got a short massage, but was told we had to go. We got to the airport on time, only to find out that our flight is delayed 3 hours. I never saw so many people napping at the gate, as I did that night. People were laying on the floor and just made make shift pillows out of clothing or bags. I think we were the last flight to leave tha 3:30am. The last stores and restaurants closed at 11:30pm.  We were so tired, the 5 hours in the airplane flew by and when we woke up we were about 30 minutes away from JFK.  At about 3:30pm on August 13th, after picking up Lily, our cross country road trip finally came to an end.  We closed it by getting some well-deserved sleep with our Lily!

P.S.

Lily was a bit upset with us for two days, but that place did take a good care of her.  She’s now back to normal – as hyper and as crazy as she was when we left :)

We had such a great time this time, that after a day or two, here, we already planned another trip in the near future of going cross country again with a different route(NJ to San Diego), a south eastern road trip, a northeastern road trip (NJ – Maine) and a northwestern road trip (OR, WA, Vancouver).

-Paula

Our trip from Denver to Salt Lake City was the highlight in our trip.  I-70 brought us to the heart of the rockies.  The trip, some of them are video taped and most memorialized by pictures, cannot be expressed through any of the videos and pictures we have taken.  The trip brought us to some of the most spectacular and amazing creation of nature.  We were in awe at how beautiful Colorado’s mountain and how at times, travelling through the mountain made you feel so small comparative to your surrounding.  The mountains also had in essence isolated you from everything else.  It was definitely a trip that must be seen in your own eyes.  I think Robert and I can talk about the whole event for hours, and never get the essence of what we saw the first few hours of that trip. 

As we crossed the border to Utah, we were amazed at how the landscape changed virtually just as you crossed the border.  The first 2 hours in Utah was spent on I-70 stuck in a desert, barren and vast, sand as far as the eye can see, and nothing else.  It was a sight to see, but we were a little freaked out about the fact that virtually there are nothng around.  At times there were span of 100 miles or more of no service, and in that span, we did not see any town, any person, or any building.   In that sense, it felt welcoming to even go to a more local and smaller highway – US 6, which proved to be more populated than I-70. US 6 also brought us to more desert, which eventually turned into more opportunity to travel between ranges of mountain and more uphill climb.   Most of this road was one lane per side, which was a pain especially when they decided to delay traffic by closing one lane, making us wait for more than 10 minutes to be able to use the oiiiWe were very happy to have reached the Provo metro area, and finally see a town with stores and restaurants, after hours of travelling without seeing much of anything which could equate to civilization.  To my dismay, there were no trips for souvenirs, coz the miles we spent in Utah, we did not encounter any of the cool stores that I grew to enjoy going to during our first few days on the road.

The Provo-Salt Lake City Area is developed and looks just like any suburb in American, with lots of subdivisions and strip mall.   Salt Lake City is small but quite modern.  Our first stop – Robert’s west coast fave – Carl’s Jr.  After finaly having our lunch aftter 8.5 hours on the road, we finally reached our  hotel.  We were both so thanful and was glad.  We ate in and relaxed to get ready for the next day’s long trip to Lake Tahoe, NV. 

We got so many pictures from this leg, that select pictures will be posted while we are on vaca, but we will do more when we get back.

That’s it for now.

breakfast: McD’s
lunch: Carl’s Jr
dinner: room service

-p

- P

Paula and I have been so busy and having so much fun during our first 5 days of our cross country trip, we haven’t had a chance to upload any pics. Also our dash board mounted web cam, has been overwhelmed by the sun, so most of the pics it automatically takes have been all white, and really hard to make anything out.

We are spending our second day in Denver (it’s the first city we have spent more than one day in) so we finally had a chance to upload some. It’s a small subset, only 115 of over 2,100 pics!

Here’s the link to Our first few legs… Enjoy!

-R

Today started out around 7am. We quickly gathered our stuff and we were on the road in about 1/2 an hour. Stopped by for some fuel for the car and some fuel for him ( espresso from non- other than Starbucks). We experienced a bit of the morning rush hour traffic which was really not that bad and we were on our way.

5 minutes from our Kansas City hotel (which is funny enough is in Missouri) we finally entered the state of Kansas. After an hour on the road, we were waiting for flat prairie to be all around us, but what we saw was more of a hilly. It took another hour or so before we saw the flat prairie we expected. We stopped by a service stop where we shortly stopped for breakfast and then we kept going.

Today’s ride was very beautiful, with ever changing scenery. It started a little hilly, then became very flat and when we got about 100 miles closer to Colorado, we started on a small incline helping us get to more than 5000 feet by the time we got to the Denver Metro area. It was funny, how when you cross Kansas to Colorado, the land somehow also changes. It becomes more rugged and less agricultural. More cowboy like in my opinion. I told Robert, I could picture some Marlboro man riding around on the wide expanse of land. Along the way we stopped by 2 travel center where they sell souvenirs – one in Kansas and one in Colorado. Those are always fun excursions. It breaks the monotony of being in the car, and you always find something interesting in there like cedar boxes or something native to the place we are travelling from.

As we got closer to Denver, we notice that the lay of the land also became a little more mountainous, and soon we saw the outline of the mountains in the horizon. The land also became more developed and later it became more populated and more urbanized. We were thrilled when we finally spotted Denver’s buildings.

During dinner, fatigue set in on both of us, and we couldn’t wait to veg out after the long drive. We did manage to walk to the local street mall area where we went to a local cafe for some quick dinner. Highlight of the dinner for me is the appetizer of garlic truffle fries. We walked back and after getting some of our pictures downloaded to the hard drive, Robert passed out. Tomorrow will be our time to really decompress from the previous days trip. We decided we willl stay local and just catch up on rest before another long drive on friday and saturday.

breakfast: McD R: egg mcmuffin; P: sausage mcmuffin
dinner: appetizer: truffle fries: R: smoked mac and cheese and grilled chicken + ongrape and ion soup; P: pan seared cornmeal crusted salmon served on top of rice and spinach + side salad.

-Paula

Today is our “take it easy” day so we didn’t do much but to make our way to Kansas City. We planned this day to get ready for a big travel day tomorrow – a 9 hour ride from KC to Denver. 

We had a leisure morning with breakfast at the hotel restaurant.  After breakfast, we made our way to Kansas City.  We made  a few stops on the way to fuel up.  Our major adventure today is finding this travel area somewhere between SL and KC where there are various fast food places and gas station.  There’s this cool gift shop store where they sell different local products on sale including souvenirs.  They had t-shirts, mocassins, glass art, guns and fireworks, among other things.  I couldn’t resist taking a picture of this room filled with so much fireworks – it was funny.  We saw so many fireworks store advertisement throughout our drive, that Robert wished they allowed you to light up the fireworks in the back of the store or on the parking lot so he could buy and light some fireworks.  Boys will be boys. :)

Yesterday we sighted the first Jack in the Box.  Today we saw another one, but we opted to wait till we get to Kansas for our next meal.

Of course, as it is Kansas City, we had some Barbeque.  We followed the hotel attendant’s suggestion and went to Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbeque. We had an all american meal of bbq and beer.  We had some locak Kansas Beer and it was great with the bbq. Despite some other guest’s insistence  that we should try some other joint, we thought the bbq at Jack was impeccably good and of course they offer huge portions.  We were gonna drive around a bit, but we really wanted to get some rest before tomorrow.  Before going back to our hotel, we did find a drive-through Starbucks where Robert satisfy his Starbucks obsession today.  So for now, this is it….

Breakfast:  P:  short ribs and scrambled egg burritto w/ potato and green onions hashbrowns; R: breakfast buffet
Dinner: appetizer: wings & burnt ends; P: Jack’s best combo (very big – had to take most of it home) with barbeque beans and cheddar corn; R: sliced meat trio (pork, beef and turkey) with bbq beans and cheddar corn.   
 

-p

Our morning plan to rest up didn’t happen as we woke up early.  Robert decided he’d like to go for a morning walk to get us our mandatory glass collection and to get himself some Starbucks.  When he got back, he chucked our breakfast roomservice plan to go for a ride on the L.  It was cool, much smaller, but similar to the New York Subway.  After our short ride, we stopped by this place Wow Bao, that I heard about from my research in the Internet. It was a good brunch of express rice bowls and potstickers. We also picked up some baos for the road.  For those who don’t know what baos are, they are asian buns, they are white.  These baos have different fillings: some had teriyaki, chinese bbq pork, kung pao chicken or dessert one with either coconut or chocolate.  I have to say that they are darn good and well made for a to go place.  The only thing that did not agree with me is the pomegranate ginger ale.  It was like drinking all ginger and no other flavor :P  

Our drive is filled with corn husks and greenery.  We thought that the dark clouds will bring our first down pour or maybe a distant twister – but we drove out the storm system without any drama or adventure.  We momentarily left I-80 and now is on I -70 which will be our road of choice for the next few legs.  After tomorrow, all the legs will be long and probably very tiring. 

When we arrived in town, we checked in at our hotel, no getrting lost this time. Then we went to go and see the Arch.  We were very impressed at how serene the park that surrounds the Arch. Very nice place to hang out, with a lake and tree-line pathways.  Robert even ran a few blocks to get a good shot of the arch. The only thing we were kinda bum about is the heat. It is much hotter out here in St. Louis than in Chicago.  We saw a little shower in Chicago but when we were leaving the sun came back up and the sun was back again after our trip through  some storm clouds.

For dinner, we looked for our old standby – Hard Rock which is located in the old  Union Station which is now this cool shopping/eating/recreation place.  Really kudos to St. Louis for using sometihng that is not used into a really trendy place to go and hang out.  that’s all for now….  tomorrow, a short drive and bbq. YUM..

brunch: Wow Bao: P (rice bowl w/ mongolian beef with pork dumplings); R (rice bowl w/ chicken teriyaki with chicken potstickers)
snack:  mini baos 
dinner:  Hard Rock Cafe:  P (salad with garlic toast & french fries) R (chicken  club sandwich & french fries)

That’s all for today.. Our driver is alread out like a light and I should get some rest too….

What a day!!!! First, to those who wants to see what the trip cam captured today, please defer to look at those pix.  Robert did not check the setting this morning and ended up that Mr. EEEPC decided he’s using his own webcam instead of the one on the dash.  So today’s trip pix from the dash cam is nothing but Robert and I’s head.  Fortunately, I have navigator cam that I take of the road. So you’ll have some pix of the trip from my eyes and some from Robert’s urging.  We will be uploading them after I go through the camera files.

Thank goodness we gained an hour since we burned the candle on both ends today.  We did the touristy thing for 3 states – 2 cities.   We woke up fairly early to go to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and since we were pressed for time, we cabbed it only to realize that every street that leads to the rock hall has been blocked for some type of walk or marathon, even though we didn’t see anyone doing it, so we just ended up going on an endless circle in the cab, only to let out few blocks anyways. No time gained – sigh. We did an express tour of the Rock Hall and then dashed out of Cleveland. 

Robert was so excited to see that somewhere in Ohio, in the rest area, he could go for Hardee’s. Unfortunately, it’s not all of them. So we tried to go to the last rest stop but we did not find one there. Ended up finding one in Ohio. It’s a sister company to west coast’s Carl’s Jr. Somethings are familiar but not all Carl’s sandwich are available, not bad for a rest stop lunch though. 

We hit a big city traffic jam in Chicago.  Our front desk person informed us that its usually not that bad but there was a marathon today of some sort.  Almost ended up  in the wrong hotel – robert supposedly has used on older trip plan for all the hotels.  This time, I was sure it was the wrong hotel even before we tried to register, since I specifically tried to find one by the river. The hotel, after we finally got there - thanks to gps having problems with the buildings blocking it service, did not disappoint.  It overlooks the river and really comfy.  Hopefully we get lucky all the way to Cali with our hotel choices.

Tonite, we were going to venture to the original Uno’s but our front desk person recommended a place 2 blocks away called Giordano’s.   It was a good choice!  The deep dish was awesome. Robbie also enjoyed an Italian Sausage Sandwich.  It’s one of the most tasty sandwich I’ve ever tried. On our way out, a young man asked for food, so we gave him the pizza left over.  Our waitress even gave us free dessert – Tiramisu and Cannolli :P If you are in Chi-town, try to drop by the restaurant but our waitress said that the wait is usually about 2 hours, so 30  min wait is a good wait. Plan to wait, it’s not bad, they are located in various locations through out Chi-town. they have the traditional chicago style pizza and other italian dishes. Price is not bad either.

After dinner, we opted to walk on the North Michigan. I think part of it is the Magnificent Mile, chicago’s version of NY’s 5th Avenue.  It looks more like Park Avenue. Anyways, we were very surprised that there were a lot of drunk locals who are throwing bottles on strangers.  However, when we did get by the river, it was such a beautiful night to walk and just sight see.  Robert even ventured down the River walk while I took the time to indulge on taking pictures of the lit city and just people watch.  The city is alive with all the tourist walking at night; it’s actually very beautiful to watch.  There were also some boats still going around the river, mostly the last of the tour boats and the police, but it just livens up the city. I love the concrete seating that was built in the walk way, very sight seeing friendly.  Robert and I both like the city and intrigued enough that we plan to come back by plane next time and just spend a few day getting to know the city more.  We also manage to get some souvenirs and now it is time for some rest.

breakfast: Daniel’s @ our hotel –> P: egg benedict; R: scrambled eggs with ham and rye toast 
lunch:  Harvee’s –> P: frisco sandwich and ranch fries; R:  chicken club sandwich and ranch fries.
dinner: Giordano’s –> pizza; P: fried wings; R: italian sausage sandwich.

tomorrow, we will take our tme and try to leave by 1p.  Morning will be spent resting.. we are pooped.  

-p

T

Today is definitely one big adventure.  The start of the trip are always stressful, especially since I didn’t get to bed till the AM from packing and getting everything ready for our trip and Lily’s stay @ Morris Animal Inn.  Despite the fact that Robert was traumatized to live His babydoggie, she was so excited to get to the place.  I’m sure they will take a good care of her, and she’ll probably have more fun than us some of the time.

After dropping Lily off, we were finally off.  We battled the annoying Delaware Water Gap traffic, poconos slow a$$ folks and miles and miles of lane closing for “work” when no one is working for miles – Just so incovenient for nothing. 

 Today, we learned that Pennsylvania is darn long.  it felt we were in PA for hours and hours….(well we were, we finally were in PA 90-95%. ) We were amazed at how undeveloped PA was.  Both children of the big urban/surburban sprawls, it is hard for us to really fathom life, where there’s barely anything for miles. I think at one point it took us 200 miles to actually see a fairly big town.  Some highlights from PA: young amish male pulls up our gas station with horse and buggy; cows – lots cows – robert said he likes the sheeps – I didn’t see it, so I’m chucking it to either delusion or mirage; and we passed the highest point on I-80 east of the Mississippi – yeah (that’s what the sign told us – so if this is wrong, please contact the state of PA).

OHIO – our first impression –>  Me:  almost like I-280; Robert: semi-delapitated, post industrial.  He doesn’t mean that in a bad way, I guess it’s reminiscent of many of big cities, with the urban sprawl driven by America’s formal industriial might.   I like the city, it’s almost very similar to Belgium in architecture with lots of old european type architecture mixed with modern buildings.   Robert said it like Newark or Syracuse minus the obvious crime.  I don’t agree. Highlights:  today fave find: the rest area – it was clean, modern and open 24/7 and robert had starbucks; the lake is cool too- our hotel is awesome, love love love it! adventure of the day:  went to the wrong Marriott; got to the wrong   Marriott and there were fire  department and emt blocking the joint, got in just find out, wrong one.   Boo to them.

for lunch: prosciutto & mozzarella on portguese and semolina bread with coke
for dinner: LOLA by Michael Symon: Paula (appetizer: crispy pig ears with frizzette; dinner: rib eye with a cside of wild mushrooms); Robert (app: chilled lobster salad; dinner: smoked berkshire pork chops with cheesy polenta and side of Lola fries & Lola ketchup) (dessert: 6 am special –> french toast with maple bacon ice cream and sauteed apples and maple syrup)

Paula’s review: One of the better priced restaurants for what you can call “fine dining”. Pork is the highlight of the chef’s menu. However, Robert did like the chilled lobster. I think you should be brave and taste the pig ear salad – really tasty – like bacon and pig skins put together. It has this yummy perfectly poached egg which drips into the salad… so so french but with its Michael Symon twist. The ice cream reminds us of a food you’d love to eat if you’re drunk in the middle of the night, but really, the bacon ice cream was actually very tasty and very well made and the french toast was devine :P I want some more of those :P

Love the Public square area especially west 4th. It is so beautiful with tables on the street with flower boxes and lights – and then the local bar and restaurants have live music. I thought that actually Cleveland have more of a modern hip vibe than Philly did, but it may be because we stayed close to the historic session where there was not many things to do at night. I am happy that town corrected my misconceptions about it. On a side note, when we got back from dinner, the town is booming after the game, and our hotel was insane –> found out that the Detroit Tigers are stayiing in town here, so fans are lined up outside waiting for them, as well as people congregating in the bar downstairs for a glimpse of these people. As to us, after resting tonite, looking forward to seeing the rock and  roll hall of fame tomorrow and then we will be off to Chicago.

- Paula