Here’s where doing the states in alphabetical order has the potential to get lame. I’ve never been to Alaska.
Tag Archives: travel
50 Memories: Alabama
We were coming back home to Midland, Texas from my maternal grandparent’s home in Lake Junaluska, North Carolina circa 1993. We’d taken a more northerly route up to the Smokies and were coming back to the desert along the Gulf coast:
We had our sights set on Mobile, Alabama for a night’s stay. Kerry and I had not yet swum in the Gulf of Mexico and Mobile was known for its beaches.
We stopped, briefly, but got back in the car to head to Biloxi, Mississippi. We still had some car-riding in us for the day and it made sense to get further west and shorten the trip for the following day. Kerry and I would swim in the Gulf, but not here.
Fifteen years later I flew back into Alabama for a business meeting. We were flying in and out of Huntsville, same day. The client location was a short drive in a stained rental car north of the airport. We had lunch at a Wendy’s. The rest of the day was spent in a conference room.
50 Memories
I’m four states shy of having visited every state in the US. I didn’t set out to visit every state, it was a goal thrust upon me once I did the math and realized how close I was to 100%. I owe a lot of it to long car rides as a child (thanks, Mom and Dad).
As the All Fifty! goal gets closer, I’ve been thinking about what it really means to have been to each state.
Does driving through in a car count? Do you have to have spent the night there? Can you ever count a state in which you’ve only seen the inside of an airport? One friend and I are in a race of sorts to get to the 50-mark so clearly there have to be rules if one of us is to be declared the winner.
Visiting all 50 states was a topic of discussion on the Slate Political Gabfest a while back (sidenote: listen to the Slate Political Gabfest) and Emily Bazelon mentioned having a concrete “experience” in each state for it to count.
Do I have that? Mostly.
You know I love a series. I’m going to share memories of each state I’ve visited. There will be some gaps (four states unvisited, a few states missing memories, one state with a questionable “visit”), but eventually, there will be fifty stories; fifty memories.
The Backstory #13: Eiffel Tower
The Object:
The Origin: Paris, naturally.
The Backstory:
As you all know (because I talk about it quite a lot), I studied in Paris when I was 20.
On my first day of orientation, I ran into someone I hadn’t seen in nine years. Angela, a girl who attended my 11th birthday party in Midland, Texas, was there in Paris from the University of Texas at Austin. Small world, no?
Angela and I spent a lot of time together that year exploring Paris, travelling to London and Luxembourg, and proofreading one another’s schoolwork.
At the end of the year, Angela presented me with this small Eiffel Tower to commemorate our time as ex-pats. It’s from one of the thousands of vendors who swarm you when you visit the actual Eiffel Tower. In Angela’s words, it was a purchase I wouldn’t have made for myself (as I was trying painfully hard to be seen as French or, at least, European-of-indeterminate-origin).
Read the rest of the series here.
Cloth to Craft
I recently unearthed some Indian fabric from our storage unit downstairs.
I had the opportunity to visit (twice!) in 2008. Both trips were short – only a week – and for work, but I still had time to see some of Hyderabad and shop for saris and fabric.
The first is a gorgeous deep blue embroidered with orange thread. I was likely drawn to it in part because orange and blue are Illini colors.
The second piece is from a sari.
Here is (young! short-haired!) Helena wearing it outside the Taj Hotel in Hyderabad.
(I watched a YouTube video to learn how to put this on… but still required help from a lovely lady at our hotel.)
I’d like to figure out a way to have these fabrics on some kind of permanent display.
We considered using them to upholster the headboard, but neither was quite right.
I could always use them to make pillows, but seriously, we have more decorative pillows than we could ever need. Most spend a significant part of their day on the floor because I’ve moved them so I can actually sit on our couch.
I considered framing the sari and hanging it on the blue wall behind the couch, but we did our Travel Wall instead.
Anyone have ideas they’d like to share?
The Backstory #11: Tea
Living Without a Car
Will and I are car-less. I haven’t owned a car since 2005 when I handed over my Ford Taurus (the first and only car ever in my name) to my parents.
I live in Chicago, so this isn’t all that remarkable to me (or many people I deal with on a day-to-day basis), but, in America at large, Will and I are odd ducks.
Let’s address some of the common questions people have when they hear I don’t own a vehicle.
How do I get groceries?
Seriously, this is the most-common question I get about my car-lessness. Peopod, people. They deliver. Heck, everyone delivers (and usually for free!). Also, I walk to Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s – both very close – and pick up items needed for that night’s meal.
How do I visit my parents?
Both Will and I have parents who live in the suburbs of Chicago. When we head out to see them, we rent a car by the hour through IGo, a car-sharing service. It’s cheap (-er than owning a car), green, and convenient. The car we use most is stored a few blocks from our condo. We don’t pay for insurance or gas directly (both are included in our membership fee) and we’ve never had an issue getting a car when we need it. Even on Thanksgiving.
How do I go on trips?
Just last weekend Will and I went to North Central Iowa for a wedding. For that – and all trips outside the Chicagoland area – we rent a car through Enterprise. Why Enterprise? They are close to us. Also, they used to have a guy who worked there named Brian Butler and that is almost my Dad’s name, so that was amusing.
IGo cars are meant for smaller trips, so that option isn’t ideal for out-of-state forays. For big, overnight ventures, a “standard” car rental is needed. Sure, this costs money, but far less than owning/maintaining/insuring a car on our own. I believe we’ve rented from Enterprise twice since 2010 (both for out-of-town weddings, by the way).
Additional benefits:
We rent out our parking spot, so yay, money, and we get to feel vaguely green and smug.
(Just kidding about the smugness.)
Obviously, not everyone can get rid of their car. It would be completely impossible in most smaller towns and incredibly difficult in most suburbs. Everywhere I go on a daily basis is either walking distance or accessible via Chicago’s public transportation. This is really not a sacrifice, more of a common bonus to city-living.
Fun Sidenote #1: I rarely drive. Whenever Will and I are in the car together, he’s driving and I’m providing commentary, directions, and general liveliness. I had to rent a car in Houston in 2011 and it was the first time I’d been behind the wheel since 2008. Danger zone. My coworker eventually took over and I resumed my preferred position in the passenger seat.
Fun Sidenote #2: My Dad lives in the suburbs and he and my Mom share one car. She takes it to work everyday and my Dad takes care of all his business on foot. Go, Dad!
The Backstory #9: Travel Books
The Object:
The Backstory:
My venerable Let’s Go Europe was my first travel book purchase. It’s a decade old this year. It still has tabs marking train maps and ticket information. I remember the day I made the purchase. I went straight from the Barnes and Noble at my local mall to my sister’s high school track meet… where I huddled in the bleachers and read about backpack locks and staying in hostels.
Books on France (and Paris in particular) followed soon after. As I got more confident, I started buying ones written in French.
Let’s Go Europe came out of retirement for trips in 2004 and 2005.
In 2007, my sister and I planned a trip to Ireland and Norway (Random? Perhaps). We used my mom’s travel books from a trip she took with her sister a few years prior to guide us around the Emerald Isle.
We got our own books on Scandinavia (and, in so doing, fell in love with the Lonely Planet series).
These books are out of date. The youngest one was printed in 2006. I can find all the information I need for future trips online. I could do that in 2006 as well, but there’s something comforting about their presence. Thumbing through the newsprint-weight pages of Let’s Go Europe fills me with warm nostalgia.
Traveling through Europe – on my own, with friends – was incredible. Beyond incredible. I recommend studying abroad to every college-aged person who will give me the time of day.
Read the rest of the series here.
Flying with Kerry
I’ve been taking a lot of flights lately to and from LaGuardia. Recently, as I was nestled in a window seat (likely far in the back of the plane, as I’m quite devoid of status despite my frequent time in the air), I had an amazing view of a thunder storm brewing in a cloud as we passed over Michigan. Generally, I’m an aisle-seat girl now, but I was glad to have the window on that trip.
{via Freakland‘s flickr stream}
I’ve spent a lot of time on planes – even before this New York gig. Still, there’s something about the airport that always makes me think of my sister. Perhaps it’s my current nonchalance about window seats – a seat that, in childhood, held a certain premium. Perhaps it’s that we’ve been fantastic travel buddies for the better part of two decades.
I flew alone for the first time at age 11 – Midland, Texas, to Dulles Airport in northern Virgina. While this was back in the day when your parents could escort you right to the gate and watch you board the aircraft, I had to change planes at Dallas-Fort Worth all by myself and felt like quite the adult.*
A few years later, having shown my parents my airport prowess, Kerry and I went together from Rochester, New York, back to visit friends in Midland. Such a journey involved two transfers – one at O’Hare, the other at our old, familiar DFW. We were very diplomatic about who had the (coveted) window sea, switching off with every leg of the trip.
Since that first journey, Kerry and I have flown around the world together: Oslo, Basel, Baltimore, Dublin, London, Asheville, Munich. Bright, plastic Caboodles accompanied us on earlier trips. An unwieldy red rolling duffel (dubbed “Big Red”) came to Switzerland (and was almost left there). We’ve likely spent entire days in Hartfield-Jackson when you add up all the Atlanta-bound layovers.
My sister is my perfect complement – the calm to my manic, the breezy details to my big picture. I’m so lucky to have such a cohort in my family. I’m so lucky that we’ve had such an opportunity to travel together.
*On the way home, Dulles-to-Dallas leg, a flight attendant asked where I was from.
“Miiiidland,” I drawled.
“Finland!” She exclaimed, justifiably impressed at this pint-sized international traveler. She called her co-attendants over to marvel. “This little girl is here all the way from Finland!”
I was too embarrassed to correct her and there were no other Finns aboard the flight to challenge me, so I just went with it.
The Backstory #8: Poppy Mug
The Object:
The Origin: Budapest, Hungary
The Backstory:
Summer after my Senior year in college, my friends Esther, Allison, and spent a couple weeks in Eastern Europe. Esther and I went over earlier (Allison had to finish up Student Teaching) and the two of us spent time in Budapest.
One thing that stuck me while in Hungary was the sheer volume of bright red poppies. They were growing everywhere – even popping up between sidewalk cracks. Poppies are such a cheerful flower.
Later, I saw this mug in a shop and had to have it to remember the trip. It now sits on my bookcase holding my wee collection of foreign coins.
The coins are mostly Euros and Norwegian and Danish Krone. I come by numismitism naturally; the two larger coins on the right are Canadian coins from my Grandfather (not this one, though he clearly collected pennies). The one in plastic was issued for Queen Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee. The other large one was struck to commemorate Elizabeth and Phillip’s twenty-fifth anniversary.
Read the rest of the series here.