New York, New York

What a wonderful town! Travel-weary and homesick we nearly skipped over this gem of the east coast, but thankfully our friend and any other New Yorker we happened to meet laughed when they heard about our "day trip to New York". Needless to say we stayed a week, exploring mostly Brooklyn and Manhattan, without scratching the surface of this city of cities.





We could have spent days in the MOMA alone, staring at the countless beautiful paintings and video exhibitions. Another wonderful surprise was the ICP (International Center of Photography), which we did not get any pictures of, but is well-worth a visit if you are going on the museum circuit.

We left heavy-hearted, our heads filled with the sights and sounds of New York, a trip back across the country ahead of us and the promise to move there someday soon.

DC

It took us 37 days to get from Washington to Washington (D.C. that is). Our empty wallets smiled because, unlike the rest of the country, everything there is free! Allowing us to spend days wandering through museum after museum; monument after monument until we collapsed in a heap in Philadelphia.



What's more American than grilled cheese and burgers! After a bit of a trek we made it to Capitol City diner and enjoyed our meals (and amazing milkshakes) making us want to take a nap on the arboretum lawn.

We rested for awhile and made our way to The Museum of Natural History (The Best!) and squeezed our way through the crowds, gawking at their most famous pieces, and taking goofy pictures. Jay's favorite part was the giant ground sloth skeleton while I preferred the natural gemstone growths!

Atlanta

We arrived in Atlanta in the early morning which was perfect timing for tea! Luck seemed to be on our side during our trip as we always ended up finding the cutest little shops. Dr. Bombay's Underwater Tea Party had excellent Darjeeling Tea, Vegan Spice Cupcakes and a wall of portraits. All of which gave us the energy to explore!





Luck wasn't the only thing we had. Rhiannon of Liebemarlene gave us an extensive list of recommendations including the very best pizza we have ever had (Sadly we were too busy stuffing our faces and the idea to take a picture came as an afterthought), an old southern plantation that wooed us, and a number of vintage shops.

New Orleans

After a delicious catfish lunch in Baton Rouge we drove across the Bayou, dotted with small houses on stilts and sparsely growing forests, slowly entering the storybook city of New Orleans. As Seattlites we were especially excited by the promise of roasted chicory iced coffee, which did not disappoint!







We could easily have spent hours walking the neighborhoods, gawking at intricate ironworks and fancy french trims present on nearly every house (Oh how I wish we could transport one of those houses to Seattle). After a while of wandering we ended up in the historical graveyards that sprawl throughout the city; never had we thought we would have wanted to roam a cemetery, but the old mausoleums were so beautiful!

Albuquerque

Sometimes we were in such awe of a place that we forgot to whip out the cameras; we truely did not see enough of New Mexico with it's amazing landscapes straight out of a western movie! What we did capture was charming in it's own right, outside of Albuquerque was a tiny little place called Tinker Town.

Once a man's hobby turned full time profession the little city is a woodworking wonderland. We witnessed pulley system circuses, jug bands, recycled bottle walls, old west saloons and even a boat someone lived on for ten years (and we thought living on the road for 2 months was hard)!

Las Vegas Pt. 2

Do yourself a favor if you ever travel to Las Vegas and head over to the red rocks for a bit of something real. Just a wee drive out of the city, this national park was one of the most gorgeous landscapes we saw (hundreds of pictures worth!).

We headed over to a friend of a friend's ranch outside city bounds and were treated to a tour of the loop and the tiny town of Blue Diamond where there were 'old west' tourist traps and wild burros ran free.