Back to the West Coast (part 2)

Ok, almost done with our roadtrip blog. Here's our summary of the remaining 2500 miles from Pittsburgh to Seattle:

St. Louis and the famous Gateway Arch...












And the view from the top:

Fast forward - 2 days and almost 1000 miles later, we arrived in Lafayette, Colorado.... 

... to visit Sylvia's High School! Welcome to Alexander Dawson!

Looks like most of our former dorms have now been turned into classrooms and teachers' offices. (This was your room Tiff!)

Sylvia's old dorm room from the outside. Same building, different view.

You know it's been a LONG time when the room's view of the Rockies is now blocked by mature trees...









Great view of Boulder from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)

And no trip to Boulder would be complete without a visit to Pearl Street.

Enjoyed the local artists giving their best performances. (Who knew you could stand on a cello?)

And even the world's greatest internet search engine seems to have an office in Boulder!













Time to move on! Only a few hundred miles more...

 

... to South Dakota (note the bullet holes - great target practice)!

In the Black Hills National Park.

 Our roadside companion! :) Strolling along just 5 feet away from the car. Amazing creatures!

...and the rest of the herd.

Our final national monument on this road trip: Mount Rushmore!

Looks like budget cuts prevented the final addition to the mountain.

OK, so we did find one more national monument on our way out of South Dakota: the Devils Tower!

Sort of looks like a giant string cheese, doesn't it? Or a tree stump? We couldn't decide. But feel free to let your imagination go wild! :)

Finally, time to sprint home. Beautiful landscapes in Montana and Idaho, but not enough time in this trip to explore in more detail...

So after much driving arrived back home in Washington State! Time for a stop at America's friendliest small town, Walla Walla. We can confirm: people here are very friendly! In particular the owners of the wine tasting rooms who apparently didn't see any other visitors on that day...

Alright, that's it from our road trip across the country! After 10,385 miles, we arrived back in Seattle.

We'll resume this blog in a couple of weeks for our next travels - be prepared to hear from us from places such as Istanbul, Turkey; Bangkok, Thailand; Beijing, China; and Auckland, New Zealand! :-) 

Back to the West Coast (part 1)...

No, we didn't forget about this blog. :) Although we're now a couple of weeks behind, let's catch up: after all the fun times on the East Coast, it was time to to head back home 3000 miles, all the way from Massachusetts to Seattle.

First stop was Syracuse, New York, to visit friends (thanks, Emily & Henrik & Elise!)

A very nice area to spend time outdoors....

... and, surprise: a few inches of snow in April! :-)

Next stop after making it through the snowstorm: Pittsburgh!

(Thanks for letting us crash, Patrick!)

Pittsburgh is actually really cool - nice downtown area, great to walk along the water. 

But to be honest - neither of us have heard of their baseball team "Pittsburgh Pirates" before...

Other highlights: Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural masterpiece "Fallingwater".

Nearby was the Flight 93 National Memorial, where United flight 93 crashed on 9/11/2001.

And on a happier note: a visit to the Pittsburgh Hofbräuhaus! Prost!

Still 2500 miles to go back to Seattle .. more in part 2. 

A blast from the past: Boston, Amherst, and the "Monkey Bar"

After leaving New York, we first spent a few days in Boston. Great to be here again after all this time and spend some time with good old friends!

Some sightseeing: the battleship U.S.S. Constitution from 1797, which defeated five British war ships during the war of 1812.

But the real highlight was to return to Amherst, where Max spent an unforgettable 18 months at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) in 2001 and 2002.

Sylvia in front of the campus landmarks, the library and old chapel.




The UMass campus looked pretty much the same actually, with some new buildings added or currently under construction.

Although one big improvement: they're serving alcohol on campus now at the "U Pub". 

The Prince/Crampton dorm at "Sunset Avenue", where most of the German exchange students used to live.

They must be somewhere else now, since this building has been converted into an undergraduate dorm.

Speaking of alcohol: no visit to Amherst could possibly be complete without a slice of pizza at Antonio's...

... and a trip to the hottest place in town - the MONKEY BAR!

Funny thing is that this is actually a pretty decent restaurant, but turns into a madhouse after 10pm when they remove the tables...

... long lines begin to form at the entrance, and the party gets started! 

Oh, all these memories... 

glad to see things haven't really changed here... :-)

Although, we did notice one more major change on our way out:

Amherst now has an ALDI!

(ALDI Süd, to be precise...)

Guess the crowds of German exchange students finally got what they asked for. 

So much from the East Coast - next stops: Syracuse, NY and Pittsburgh... stay tuned!