Mission Accomplished

Total Miles Driven: 8,205

Days on the Road: 22

Harry Potter books listened to: 6.3

States Driven Through: 18

Oil Changes: 2

Speeding Tickets: 1

Accidents: 0

Car Problems: 0

Friends Visited: 13

Pictures taken: 4GB

Rainy Days: 0

Herds of Bison spotted: 2

Bison crossing roads: 3

Bear attacks: 0

Mountain Lions Spotted: almost 1

Winner of all Juice Box Races: Eric

Next trip planned: Driving up the coast from San Francisco to Alaska

Interesting Facts Learned:

• It is illegal to howl like a coyote in Yellowstone
  
• The Continental Divide is the highest elevation point, which splits to which ocean the water flows on either side.
  
• Kansas City is in both Kansas and Missouri
• Reno is the Biggest Little City 
• There are 10,000 lakes in Minnesota
• Interstates 90, 80, and 70 can take you anwhere
• St. Louis is not one of the twin cities
• Harry Potter is not good at Occulumency

Welcome Home Party!!

We drove from Bloomington to Pittsburgh yesterday, stopping to satisfy a McDonalds craving (the first time we had or wanted fast food the entire trip!)

With this drive, we completed Harry Potter book 6. Our plan once we arrived in Pittsburgh was to see a movie, so we just drove straight to the waterfront and sat in the parking lot to finish the last 30 minutes of book 6. Obviously, I was weeping for the final 2 hours of the book. Then, for a pick me up, we thought we'd see The Dark Knight. Great movie but really depressing.

We spent the night at Brandon's- it was so weird to be in Pittsburgh and for that not to be my home anymore! The next morning, we went to Alderson to see Elyse and Maura. We spent some time chatting and I picked up some things I had forgotten when I moved out. We took a map picture in front of the house, and then headed to Mineos to have our favorite pizza for our last time in pittsburgh until...? who knows?!

The drive from Pburgh to Eric's felt quite short, we began harry potter 7 which we will both have to finish on our own now. When we drove onto Eric's street, we saw what looked like my dad's car. Laughing because we had been joking that my dad was following us the whole trip (we saw lots of silver mini vans!), we suddenly saw through Eric's window- my parents! And a sign saying "welcome home Eric and Laura!". After laughing hysterically for a few minutes, we greeted our families happily. It is great to be home! We've been sitting and having dinner all together, discussing our trip and enjoying each other!

I will write again to wrap up the trip once I am home in good old quakertown!

with love,

Laura and Eric

Bloomington, Indiana

We are about to leave bloomington- where we have spent the past two nights. After driving through Kansas, Missouri and Indiana, we arrived in b-town around midnight on wednesday night! It was so wonderful to see Amanda and stay in her super cute apartment. We all stayed up talking pretty late, and then slept really really well on amanda's air mattress!

The next day, we walked to have breakfast at a place called "The Runcible Spoon", where I've actually been before last time I was here to visit Amanda. We had a really good breakfast, and there are fish in the bathtub in the restroom- hha! Then we walked around bloomington- down Kirkwood and then into campus. It was a beautiful day! Amanda gave us a tour of the music school, including the amazing stage she gets to perform on!

When we got back to amanda's apt we were pretty tired, so we all took naps which felt sooo good! Then we walked to the grocery store and stocked up for the night! We got some things for dinner and then, obviously, jager and redbull :P Amanda had to go to church choir for an hour, and eric and I were supposed to be taking showers and getting ready to go out, but instead we started watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the movie. Whoops. :)

Eventually we were ready to start partying! Some of Amanda's friends came over, and we all hung out and had jagerbombs. Gross but amazing nonetheless. :) We went out to some of the bars in town then, and had a very fun night!

This morning (by morning I mean 11:30 when we had managed to get up)  we met Molly and Julie, Amanda's friends, at Dunkin Donuts. Amanda just left to go to work, and Eric and I are packing up and getting ready to drive to pittsburgh tonight! Today marks three weeks from take-off, and tomorrow we go home. When I came to the realization that our trip was over at breakfast this morning, I may or may not have started to cry.

Real world, look out.... we're coming back!

xox

Laura and Eric

Kansas

Yesterday morning was spent enjoying beautiful, expensive Aspen! We met up with and had lunch with Rach and Sarah and a couple of their friends from the festival after their morning rehearsals. We were also joined by Adam, another CMU friend! We had lunch at a place called Poppycocks and it was yummy! We then said our goodbyes to our Aspen friends, and headed for a drive through Independence Pass- which rach had strictly warned us not to drive at nighttime. The drive was amazing. We went up and through the mountains, passing the Continental Divide (which my brother later explained to me is the highest point between the coasts, splitting which oceans the water goes to on either side) the elevation at this point was over 12,000 feet! There was snow at the same level as us! 

Eventually we made our way out of the mountains. We stopped in Denver for an oil change and heard some bad news about my brakes which I am choosing to ignore for the time being. We continued driving into flat Kansas, and eventually stopped for the night in a town called Hays.

We're about to leave for the drive to Bloomington! Here we come Amanda!!!

<3

Laura and Eric

Aspen, CO

Ok so yesterday we just drove all day. We began at about 7:20, and drove straight until we got to Rach and Sarah's (a bit outside of the town Aspen) around 11 or so. We admittedly made even better time than we had though, as the iphone had originally predicted our arrival around 12:30/1AM!  We stopped several times for gas and breaks, and we had to get fast food for the first time as well, because when we wanted lunch we were in some random casino area- we tried a casino buffet first but it was about to close, so we ended up going to Arby's. 

We are almost finished with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, book 5, and as we were driving up in the mountains late last night it was getting really intense. I was trying not to cry because I was driving...  :)

Anyway, rach and sarah have an awesome place here, its like a glorified ski resort. When we got here, they told us that there was a meteor shower going on! So we bundled up (seriously, it was SO cold it felt like november!) and drove up to a little trail entrance where we could park and lie on some blankets. It was so unbelievably clear, I tried to count the stars but I didn't get very far. Eric had never seen a meteor shower before, or even a shooting star, so it was really cool because we saw a dozen or more huuuuge ones that spanned the entire sky, and a bunch of little ones too. It was so fun! 

We came back and spent the night on their pull out sofa bed, and now it is 11AM and eric and I are going to get ready to go into Aspen to meet the girls for lunch. They are in rehearsals right now. After lunch, we're off again- headed tonight to somewhere random in Kansas, and hopefully getting to Amanda's in Bloomington, Indiana, sometime late tomorrow!!! I can't believe we are almost done! We still have many many miles to go, though, and the escort is due for another oil change!

Stat update: 

Friends visited: 12

Friends made: millions

Best food: sourdough bread bowls and clam chowder

Best purchase: matching white sunglasses

Most annoyingly awful Harry Potter character: Dolores Umbridge

Spells Cast: around 20

Oil changes: soon to be 2

Wierdest scenery: the salt flats 

fights: 1

emotional make-up conversations: 1

number of outfits left that we havn't worn yet: 0

loads of laundry done in random places: 5

San Francisco

(I actually wrote this on Monday, but did not have internet until today!)

Well Helen's wedding was absolutely beautiful. We took the shuttle from our hotel to the location- and it was just perfect. Helen and Matt were married outside of a little white gazebo at the top of a hill. Beyond the gazebo was a drop-off which revealed a fantastic view of green and blue hills, only slightly obscured by the white San Francisco fog, and a perfectly blue stream winding through the valley below. This was the Crystal Springs Golf Club- an absolutely fantastic setting. Helen was a vision in a champagne gown with a long train. Eve and the other bridesmaids (Lizzy, Helen's sister was MOH, and Matt's sisters were the other bridesmaids) wore dresses the color of red wine. Helen had joked the night before that her colors were "wine and champagne" which was a testament to her and Matt's interests! :) (Well they do live above a wine bar!)

The ceremony was lovely, including a string quartet, playing both the March from Aida and the Bridal Chorus from Lohengrin for the processionals. Oh and as a prelude, they played an arrangement of the Beach Boy's "California Girls", titled "Filles du Californie" :)

The reception was at the golf club, and was beautiful. And who can complain when you have an open bar! :) Eric and I were seated at the "Forbes Ave" table with a few other PIttsburgh-ians, as well as some Google-ites. We met a lot of new people and made connections with CMU people we hadn't known when we were in school. Eric, Eve and I definitely represented our class well! We pretty much owned the dance floor. 

On Sunday, Eve left early early to fly to Hawaii for vacation with her family! Lucky! Eric and I went to the brunch hosted by Matt and Helen at their apartment/the wine bar they live above. The food was deeelicious, and we got to see where they live. Their apt is super cute and Pal Alto is beautiful! Also, the owner of the wine bar offered eric a job, so if all else fails, he might come back!

After brunch, we went into San Francisco. The city is awesome. We struggled a bit to find parking- which is ridiculously expensive- but we got a spot right near Fisherman's Wharf. We walked around on the piers, and checked out all the crazy street performers. Pier 39 at the Wharf was completely covered with seals! They were so cool- barking and flopping around!

We saw how sourdough bread was made at Boudin's, and got a free sample of Ghirardelli chocolate! It was very crowded, but super cool walking around the Wharf. 

We then took a ferry across the bay to the town of Sausalito. The ferry boat was so fun! It was freezing on top where we sat, soo windy! We went right past Alcatraz (which I frequently confused with Azkaban...) and by the Golden Gate Bridge. Again, we were fortunate enough to be enjoying about the most beautiful day in the world. When we got to Sausalito, we had about and hour and a half to walk around and enjoy the cute little town. It didn't even feel like we were in America! The town is all built up on the hillside, right by the water, and really pretty. We had lunch in a great sandwich shop, and finalized our plans for the night via iphone. We decided our next destination would be Aspen, to stay with Rachael and Sarah. We decided to spend that night in Reno, randomly, in a hotel/casino called the Circus, which happened to have a great price for a room. 

We then took the return Ferry back to S.F. and walked around a bit more, shopping for souvenirs and hot new sunglasses. Then we got some sourdough bread bowls and clam chowder to go, and got back in the car. We drove around to find the Crookedest Street- which apparently everyone else wanted to do as well, so we sat in a traffic buildup for a while. This gave us the perfect opportunity to eat our soup and bread bowls- umm.... delicious. 

The crookedest street was really cool- it was really crooked. :) I had fun driving down it though, even if i was just a little bit scared. It was like Negly only in zigzag form and two times steeper! :)

Eventually we got out of the city, over the Bay Bridge which is LOOONNG. Then we tok 80 East- it's so weird to be going east now!

Three and half harry-potter filled hours later, we arrived in Reno. Which was like vegas except smaller and grosser. We went right to bed, ready to wake up at 7AM and resume the drive to Aspen.

xox

Laura and Eric

Silicon Valley

Our last night in LA was spent out in West Hollywood with Eddie, Diana and some of their friends. We had a lot of fun- probably way too much fun!! Therefore, we got a bit of a late start the next day, so we ended up heading out of LA and onto the Pacific Coast Highway by around 10 in the morning. The drive was lovely but quite slow. We enjoyed the sights of the coast but eventually had to take a faster route, since we were quite behind to get to the rehearsal dinner in San Fran that evening. Everything worked out well though- we made it to the dinner and were able to enjoy the delicious food and spend time with Helen and her family and bridal party. Helen looked stunning- I just can't believe she's getting married today! The food was amazing, and even though Eric and I were a bit smelly and disheveled, we still quite enjoyed the evening. We came back to our hotel which we are sharing with Eve and I crashed in record speed :)

This morning we opted to stay around the hotel, rest, enjoy breakfast and do some laundry which we desperately needed to do. We'll be enjoying silicone valley today and getting ready for the wedding tonight! We've got a shuttle between the wedding and hotel so it is sure to be a great, worry free night!!!

xox

Laura and Eric