maine-iacs

My dad moved up to Maine a few years ago and I've tried to make it up to visit as often as I can, but this was Austin's first time coming with me. He lives in the damn boonies on a lake so we've spent the past week kayaking, canoeing, eating lobstah, and being eaten alive by mosquitoes...they're brutal up here. Other than those evil little creatures, its been absolutely amazing. If you ever make it up there you'll understand why they say it's the way life should be.

Crawford Pond in Union, Maine

Early will do anything as long as he's with me

 

The view from the kitchen table

I don't just like stupid hazy filters, my lens is scratched.

I should probably help paddle...

Don't judge me for singing Pocahontas songs and pretending Early's a raccoon for a week.

 Lobstah Dinnah

We went up to Acadia National Park for the day and even though the weather was awful, it was still gorgeous. Gonna try to make it back up in a week or so and hopefully it will be nicer.

My dad and his "grandson"

seriously, those eyes.

lazy boys.

A few last pictures before I have to pack the computer away, I've been updating this on the train on the way to Boston and we're finally almost there after 2 hours of delays.

My dad finds the best gifts ever, don't ask me to play yet though,

this is how excited you are your first night in your new camper home. I'll be posting a ton of pictures of the camper when we get back from California.

I'll miss this guy for the next week. 

Pulling in to Boston as I type, so I guess I better pack this up.. and figure out where we're sleeping tonight. Hopefully you're all caught up and still at least somewhat interested in what we're doing. We head out of Boston tomorrow and we'll be back in California for 6 days. See y'all soon!

Headin' north of the Mason-Dixon Line we stopped in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City... I definitely didn't take enough pictures in any of those cities, so I'm making an effort to document a little better from now on.

Both of my brothers live in DC so we spent a few days there:

rooftop banjo pickin' over the nation's capital? fuck yeah.

rooftop drinkin' over the nation's capital? also fuck yeah.

 

 

there was a tea party rally while we were there.. interesting?

DC was a pretty decent first stop, we ate some killer ramen in Chinatown and hit up the food trucks near my brother's office for lunch before we got on the road again. 

We stopped in Baltimore next with no real idea what was there and so far it's been by far our favorite city. Amazing food( Stuggy's   seriously..go here.), beautiful waterfront, a kickass cd store - The Sound Garden and one of the coolest punk bars we've been to The Sidebar Tavern 

If you ever make it out that way, hope Adrienne is your bartender and tip her well.

fell's point pier

This hotdog is wrapped in bacon and topped with mac 'n cheese and crab. holy shit.

Chillin' with this awesome dude is the best, also he makes friends a lot faster than I do.

 Next up was Philadelphia for just a few hours, we didn't see as much there but if you go I highly recommend the reading terminal market -you can't beat the selection of foods and you can park for 4 dollars with validation from a merchant (vs the 30+ you would pay regularly).. We should be back up there this fall to visit a buddy of ours so maybe I can give a better rundown then.

Driving through New Jersey and New York was as disgusting and miserable as you could ever imagine. We decided to stay in the city for the night and ended up taking the subway to Brooklyn at midnight to a heavy metal bar  Lucky 13 Saloon  -if you're into metal, cheap drinks, and reasonably attractive girls dancin' fer money.. this is your kind of place. Seriously, it was a ton of fun and the people were all awesome. How can you not love a place where every person belts out every word to Sabbath's War Pigs? Stumbling back into our fancy ass hotel at 6 am was just icing on the cake.

people in manhattan are confused by banjos and basset hounds.

 

Those yankees ain't half bad, and they definitely know how to party.

flora-bama

 We headed south the first week of June to spend a week with my grandparents in Florida and made a quick stop to see a friend in Alabama...They're a couple of pretty cool old folks and we were there for Grandad's 81st birthday... which meant lots of scotch and cake. Can't complain!

Better late than never, right?

We started this trip May 4, 2013 when Austin received his DD-214 and we ended our long and not always pleasant relationship with the United States Marine Corps. That was an adventure all its own, but that's a story for another blog that will never get written. You can get a pretty good idea of our feelings in the next few photos. 

 

Heartwarming, right?

We left San Clemente, California and headed east on I-40 for what felt like the 100th time but was probably more like the 15th. (When I got my 2004 Prius in June 2009 it had about 70,000 miles on it and almost exactly four years later it just rolled over 230,000.) So let's just say we've made that trip often enough to last a while.

If you don't like cute pups and cute dudes you probably won't like this blog.

 

Middle of nowhere Arizona

Sunrise at cadillac ranch, texas

Osteology Museum, Oklahoma City

Back home in the Appalachian Mountains

 Being back home generally means camping, building fires, drinking too much beer, going to the river, and eating like Paula Deen made every meal...minus the creepy smile and overt racism.

Austin's really into flippin' off the camera

Jack of the Wood in Asheville for Jayke Orvis.

Go here. Actually.. don't. I like having it to myself.

Not our best idea..also not even close to our worst.

We get pretty wild setting up campsites.

You can't be unhappy on this porch, I promise.

 Yep, that about covers it. 

 I love being home, but we were ready to get back on the road within a few weeks. Starting to get caught up? The next few posts should get you there and hopefully now that I have this thing (sort of?) figured out I'll be able to give a little more insight into what we're up to.