Road Trip USA! (Part 6 of 6, Helena, MT to Seattle, WA)

We spent a night in Helena, MT, just to rest our road-trip weary driving bodies.  Hoping to get to Seattle by dinnertime, we packed out of Helena early in the morning towards our final destination.

We stopped at Hob Nob on Higgins for brunch in the college town of Missoula, MT.   The restaurant reminded me of something you'd find in Chapel Hill or Carrboro.  Or even Asheville.  Quaint little brunch place with good coffee and an interesting selection of food.  I ordered the Ahi BLT, and was not disappointed.  Look at how they cooked the fish - it was fabulous.  The sweet potato fries were pretty good, too.

Yes, that was the highlight of our day for that day of driving.  I think that was the only photo I took that day.  Oh, yeah, except..

Arriving to Seattle!

After 8 days and 3,000+ miles of driving, Josh and I finally made it to my new home.  I was pretty tired, but glad to see Tina and our new place.

Josh ended up staying a few days, during which he got to see some of Seattle, some friends, and we put him to work as well..

Our biggest project was probably assembling the free bookshelf Tina got via Craigslist.  

And viola!  The finished product.

After many weeks of furniture-buying and settling, Tina and I have more-or-less turned our small studio into a livable space.  :)

Road Trip USA! (Part 5 of 6, Rapid City, SD to Helena, MT to Seattle, WA)

The original plan was to stop and visit Glacier National Park, but unfortunately the Going-to-the-Sun Road was still closed when we were anticipating to arrive.  Yes, we could have still gone to Glacier National Park since there are other things to see there, but it would have been an extra day, more driving, and I wanted it to be worth it if we were going to go there.  So instead, Josh and I decided to book it through Montana and try and get to Seattle as quickly as possible while still stopping off at notable sites along the way.  I looked up the nearest decent-sized city between Rapid City, SD and Seattle to see where we could stop off for a night.  Helena, MT was the winner.

Is there even anything between South Dakota and Helena?  Josh and I had already been to Yellowstone, so we weren't too excited about revisiting it for just a day.  Let's see..

Ah yes, Devils Tower National Monument.  America's first national monument, established as one in 1906 as part of Theodore Roosevelt's effort to promote conservation in America.

It was a neat land formation.  The Native American story behind why it was formed goes something like this.  A girl one day got turned into a bear and tried to kill her family.  But her family escaped to a rock and started praying to a spirit to save them.  The spirit then caused the rock to rise out from the ground, and the bear kept trying to get to the family by clawing its way up the rock formation.  Thus, forming the lines on the sides of the rock.

We stopped at Sarah's in Billings, MT after reading about it in Road Food.  We hadn't had Mexican food the whole trip, so this was a welcomed change.  Was it good?  It didn't disappoint.  Except the tostada, but I guess my standard is based on the ones I had in Honduras.  I don't think anything can really live up to that.

Road Trip USA! (Part 4 of 6, Minneapolis, MN to Rapid City, SD)

We left Minneapolis early in the morning to try and maximize our time in the intriguing state of South Dakota. The trip would end up taking close to 10 hours, but there were some worthwhile stops along the way to keep us entertained.

Notably, in Sioux Falls, SD, we stopped by Bob's Cafe and Carry Out, a la recommendation from Road Food.  Once again, the recommended place did not disappoint.  Of course, we double checked it on the reliable Yelp before venturing in to the establishment.  Once we were in, we were greeted by amiable people who engaged us in conversation throughout our whole meal.  It was a nice, cozy diner with lots of character and a friendly staff.  I would definitely recommend it to anyone in the area.  Plus, the food was super delicious - broasted chicken and ribs.  :)  You can read more about it on my Yelp review.

Josh and I at  Bob's Cafe and Carry Out.

From Sioux Falls, we headed to Badlands National Park, named for its extreme temperatures, lack of water, and rugged terrain.  We encountered some nice landscapes and wildlife as well.

Entrance to the Park.

Badlands.

Josh with some antelope (also known as pronghorn, thanks to some internet research).

That was day one in South Dakota.  Wanting to have some time to relax and see some other sites, we decided to stay in Rapid City for two nights.  A trip across South Dakota wouldn't be worth much without a visit to Mount Rushmore. 

Entrance to Mount Rushmore. 

Us and the Presidents.  Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln.  Just in case you didn't know.

We then visited the Native American version of Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial.  The memorial is still unfinished, but it was neat to see what they had already done and what they were planning on doing.  I think when finished, it will be the largest rock-formation-statue in the world.  I think they have a long ways to go, though.

The view from the visitor center of Crazy Horse Memorial.  That's about as close as you could get without having to pay more for a bus ride to the base of the memorial.

We then ventured down to Custer State Park, since we had time to spare and it was such a nice day.  There were nice views and it was a nice ride, but I think our favorite part of Custer were the donkeys.  They were obviously conditioned to solicit food from the visitors, but at least that made for entertaining encounters with "wildlife."  One donkey actually charged at Josh and he got really scared.  It was funny.

Josh and the seemingly-friendly donkeys at Custer State Park.

Our stay in Rapid City was an interesting one, at least initially.  We booked a room at the Holiday Inn, but when we arrived that night around 9pm, they told us that they had overbooked the hotel.  Evidently it was a computer glitch where the rooms booked through Priceline (what we did) didn't get factored in to the total count for booked rooms.  They put us up at another hotel (which wasn't as nice), paid for it, cancelled our room cost for that night, and said a big sorry.  We just had the hassle of staying at a mediocre place (at least they had a water slide..) and moving our stuff the next day back to the Holiday Inn.  Plus, it was getting late that night and nothing was really open for dinner by then.  We ended up eating Papa John's and Subway.  Nothing too crazy, but hopefully you found it to be a somewhat interesting story.

Road Trip USA! (Part 3 of 6, Chicago, IL to Minneapolis, MN)

After two nights in Chicago, we decided to go further north a bit more to Minneapolis.  One may ask, "Why would you want to go to Minneapolis?"  Good question.  I think it just appealed to us more than Des Moines, Iowa, or Omaha, Nebraska.  I mean, it has the biggest mall in America - that has to count for something, right?  Plus, we got to drive through the cheese country of Wisconsin.  So we took the 7.5-hour journey in pursuit of the epitome of materialism and the fight against lactose intolerance.

We especially went out of our way to stop off in Milwaukee, hoping to find a good cheese mart, but we were disappointed by the Wisconsin Cheese Mart.  They didn't have quite the variety that I was hoping for.  Instead, we trekked over to the Milwaukee Public Market, where we were pleasantly greeted by various vendors selling anything from organic smoothies to candied ginger, and of course, cheese.  I am a fan of the curd.

After a satisfactory experience at the Public Market, we headed to Minneapolis.  Unfortunately, we missed the renowned Madison Farmer's Market by one day, or else I'm sure we would have had a field day there.

Our time in Minneapolis consisted primarily of walking around Mall of America and eating overpriced sushi at Tiger Sushi in the mall.  I will admit, having a theme park in the middle of the mall is pretty impressive.

The Ceviche at Tiger Sushi was their major redeeming dish.

Impressive Lego display at the Mall of America.

And I end this post with what probably my favorite part of the whole mall.  Oversized Peeps!

Road Trip USA! (Part 2 of 6, Bloomington, IN to Chicago, IL)

After a long drive the first day, we only spent a comparatively-less 4 hours on the road to Chicago, IL.

Needless to say, the traffic was not pleasant as we neared the Windy City, but we still made it in time to enjoy some neat sights and delicious food.

We visited The Bean at Millennium Park.  Underneath The Bean is actually really cool.

Chicago-style deep dish pizza at Lou Malnati's.  This was probably one of my favorite meals of the whole trip.  Hence, my 5-star rating on Yelp.  I'm a fan of the corn-mealy crust and the massive heaps of cheese.  Thanks to Vania for the recommendation.

Chicago-style Hot Dog and Polish Sausage at Portillo's.  Also a Vania recommendation.

Josh and I also went to Navy Pier, where we saw fireworks - they shoot of fireworks every Wednesday and Saturday night during the summer.  We went to the Chicago Art Institute the next day, which was neat since it had so many famous paintings.  Needless to say, I enjoyed my time in Chicago, and could definitely see myself going back for another visit.

P.S. Visiting Chicago did make me want to listen to Wilco.

Road Trip USA! (Part 1 of 6, Cary, NC to Bloomington, IN)

I have unfortunately admitted defeat on my 365 Project: Stuff Tim Eats.  I got a lot farther than I had anticipated, and even made it through all of Europe (which wasn't hard, because we ate so many good things).  But once I got back from Europe, I think the craziness of packing for Seattle and planning for my cross-country trip de-railed me, and created a gaping 4-day hole in my picture-taking routine.  And I've come to terms with the fact that no one really kept up with it besides Tina and I anyways.

So, in consolation, I have decided to go ahead and update this blog with what has happened since Europe, mainly highlighting the food, of course.  Come join my brother and I on a fascinating ride across the great United States of America as I venture from my humble of roots of barbecue-eating, sweet tea-drinking North Carolina to begin a new chapter in the rainy city of Seattle.  Trust me, it's more exciting than it sounds.

We began our journey bright and early on a Tuesday, with every square inch of my car packed with stuff to bring to my new apartment.  Our destination for the day's trip was Bloomington, Indiana, where our once-student, now-working cousin resides.

Along the way?  We ate, of course.  Using my recently-bought book Road Food, we found a place called Stewart's Original Hot Dogs in Huntington, WV.  You can click the link to read my Yelp review, amongst others.  Needless to say, the book's first recommendation passed our test of whether it was a legitimate book to use.  My first test was finding Allen & Son Bar-B-Que featured in the book (along with Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen).  Ok, blah blah too many words by now, I doubt most of you have even read this far.  So on to the photos.

They bring the dogs right to your window!

Hot dog with chili, onions, slaw, ketchup.  How it ought to be.  Their chili was on point.

After some dogs for lunch, we trucked our way through the back-roads of Indiana, the land of corn, corn husks, and husks of corn.  And your occasional barnyard basketball goal.  We finally reached our destination for the day, Bloomington, IN.  It was a nice little college town that was in hibernation during the summer season.  But we still met with our cousin Janice and had some awesome Korean BBQ at Mama's Restaurant.  I had never cooked over hot coals like that before, but it was definitely a fun and delicious experience.

Various meats on the grill.

:)

goodbye summer!

summer has gone by so quickly! I guess it's really over, since the official 1st day of Autumn was last week. and the cooler weather and all the ads on TV certainly speak to that. 

goodbye summer 2011...

The Bubbles, Acadia National Park

Portland Head Light, Maine

best taro bun I've ever eaten, Boston MA

delish xiao long bao, Flushing NY

yummy blueberries, Chapel Hill NC :)

aren't figs beautiful and so intricate? God is so creative!

what a great summer it has been. 

but with Autumn comes butternut squash, apple pies, the state fair, colorful foliage, and thanksgiving! :D

Tina Visits Asheville

Our 2 year anniversary was last weekend, and since I was in Asheville, Tina came to visit and spend our anniversary in the NC mountains like we did last year.  We went to the small town of Burnsville because Tina found a Living Social deal for a bed and breakfast there - Nu Wray Inn.  It was a nice historic building in the center of town, and we stayed in the Elvis Room, because legend has it that Elvis stayed in that building when he visited Burnsville back in the day.

This was our breakfast, which was french toast croissants with various local berries.  It was very rich and kind of heavy, but I liked the unique concept - I'd never think to french toast a croissant!

We then climbed Mount Mitchell.  It wasn't a crazy feat, because you can actually drive to the top.  We drove to the visitor center which was about 2 miles from the summit and hiked the remaining 2 miles up to the top.  It was a strenuous hike, but we had a good time.  The highest point east of the Mississippi!

We then went to Crabtree Falls - a 70-ish foot waterfall.  The trailhead began right off the parkway and was a 1.5-mile hike to the falls.  Well worth it!

Dinner was spent at Salsa's in downtown Asheville.  We got the Ultimate Molcajete, which was basically grilled chicken, steak, and shrimp in a lava rock bowl with some vegetables (peppers, onions, cabbage).  The meat was nice and smoky (almost like the kebabs on the streets of China), and there was goat cheese on top, which added a nice depth to the flavors.  It was humongous and we both split one and were satisfied.  I gave it 4 out of 5 stars on Yelp.

On another note - if you have Spotify, you should friend me!  If not, you should get it - it's a music streaming program (like Grooveshark) that allows you to see what your friends are listening to.

Trip Down The East Coast

From Maine, we stopped in Boston, New York, and Washington D.C. on the way down to NC.  Of course, we spent a lot of time eating food.  Here are some photos.

Whole Wheat Honey Nut with Apricot and Date bread and a lemon blueberry pudding cake from When Pigs Fly Bakery in Boston.  Their bread was really good.

Pho at Pho Pasteur in Chinatown Boston.  It was a much-needed delicious meal after a long morning walking the Freedom Trail.

Tina and her Banh Mi from some small store near Pho Pasteur in Chinatown Boston.

Of course, dan ta.  Chinatown Boston.

They were staging a mock Revolutionary War in Boston Common since it was July 4th weekend.  It reminded me of the time we did this in paintball and how stupid I felt.  But I guess that's how they fought back then.

Tina eating a flower ball thing in Boston Public Gardens.

Me eating a da bao from Chinatown Boston.  Mine was much yummier.

Pistachio cannoli from from Mike's Pastries.

Stopped off at Frank Pepe's Pizzeria in New Haven, CT and got to meet up with Faith for a little bit.  Their white clam pizzas are super legit.  Some of the best pizza I've ever had.

Breakfast in Flushing, NY.  Nom.

Breakfast continued in Flushing, NY.  I think this was dried fish with taro chok.

Took my parents to the underground in Flushing, NY.  Got the dumplings and bao zi.

And of course, xiao long bao from Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao.

Tina found out about this meat-on-a-stick stand in Flushing, so I went to check it out.  Super duper good.  I got lamb meat with spicy stuff on a stick.

And that concludes my travels up and down the east coast this summer.  It was a good time filled with great travels, delicious food, and just straight fun.  Thanks to the 3 of you that actually followed me on this blog.  :-) Next stop.. Asheville!