Chicago July 4th Weekend

I took an unforgettable adventure to Chicago to celebrate fourth of July weekend, with my girlfriend and her family. This was an amazing experience for us because we drove from Baltimore to Chicago, and got to do a lot of sight seeing along the way. I was also able to visit Kentucky, a state I have never been to before. This has brought me closer to goal of reaching all 50 states by the age of 30. I'm now at 44 states at the age of 25.

Our goal was to visit somewhere different, and her brother made the offer to stay with him so we took him up on it. We decided to drive as for we had a furry creature attending the trip with us, and we figured it would be a beautiful drive so why not. Kim and I packed our bags the night before, after having a few Magic Hats and finishing up packing we called it a night at 9pm. We woke up that following morning at 3:30am, and hit the road at 4am.

During the ride up there we drove through Western, Maryland while it was still dark, as the sun started to rise we made it to the town where Flight 93' hit during 9/11.  We drove up to the NPS gate that had a sign to inform us it wouldn't open for another couple of hours, so we drove around the area of where the incident occurred. It appeared to be a ghost town. It was very foggy, surrounded by wet lands. It had a creepy vibe to it. We all liked it, and it was very cool to see, but we had to continue on our journey.

We drove through the mountains, and small towns of America. We all ate like a truck driver with a sweet tooth, in other words we stopped for lots of sugar to keep us going. Lastly Kim and I stopped for over 50 pee breaks, this is why we're the perfect couple for each other because we know how our bladders work and they match evenly in urine size limitation.

After being on the road for countless hours, we had dinner in Indiana, and had a small pit stop in Michigan . Kept on trucking through some crazy traffic and we did it...

WE MADE IT TO CHICAGO!

This is where the excitement begins. We arrived (July 1st, Wednesday) to Chicago. Our first stop, Kim's brother's house, he wasn't home yet however his 6 years of dating girlfriend was. She welcomed us, offered us a shower, and a few beers to cool off with. We stopped in a Little Caesars, for a hot and ready $5 pizza. Grabbed a 6 pack of Two Brothers beer, and went to Montrose Beach to watch some pyro's perform, and hula hoop. It was cool, her brother met us there and we all hung out, after awhile Kim and I got really exhausted especially after being on the road for as long as we were so they brought us back and we called it a night.


Thursday we took a trip to President Obama's house. We made it to the side but the whole neighborhood is under watch by authorities so we left. After that we drove to Lagunita Brewery which was super cool inside. We all got a beer and waited for a brewery tour to begin. It started and it was awesome. They took us to the "Adult Daycare" which was basically a room with rad furniture, a piano, and a racing video game for 2. Kim's brother and I raced each other three times. He won the first round. I won the second, and third round we tied, and WOW that was surreal. They let us sample 12 beers. We were drunk. Her brother recommended we leave and head to another brewery without really continuing the tour. It was weird, but whatever it happened and we drove to Three Floyds Brewing in Indiana. We had several of sweet beers there. We left and made it to Millennium Park , to go see the touristy stuff. We saw the bean and some monuments. It was great. We made it back to the house late, put up the air mattress and called it a night.

Friday we all went out for breakfast at a German restaurant. I started getting sick unfortunately.  We finished. Kim and I then went exploring on our own. We went to Contemporary Art Museum of Chicago. I got us in for free using my old museum ID. We explored the room. There was all sorts of neat stuff. There was a hot air balloon on the ground and covered up a whole entire room. There was a long tunnel where as you continued walking the walls became more narrow. There were incredible paintings we both enjoyed a lot. It was a good museum. We walked around down town Chicago got some Garretts popcorn, checked out the water front, laid in the grass of Millennium Park and enjoyed our afternoon. We watched the Orioles fans, and Grateful Dead fans walk by us. We walked over to HI-Chicago and got a tour of the hostel. It was super massive and big than I remember being I stayed there back in December 2010, it was cool to visit it again. We met back with Jose and Megan and went to Chicago Diner which is an all vegetarian restaurant but once again I got immediately sick once we got in there, Kim did as well this time and we were unable to stay so we came back to the apartment and called it a night. It was probably a mixture of exhaustion and all the terrible foods we were eating while on the road.

4th Of July, Saturday. We made the very best of that day, we actually went back to Chicago Diner for breakfast I got a vegan steak, eggs, hash browns, and a soy milk shake. It was SO DAMN GOOD! I highly recommended anyone to go there for super delicious and delightful food. The whole area is super cool. We walked in a few vintage clothing stores, Kim got a really good flamingo shirt and got some classic shades. Kim and I than departed from Jose and Megan to go to Half Acre Brewery, we then all got fruits, vegetables, and a grill and went to the beach to meet up with Jose coworkers to enjoy the fireworks on the beach. It was a rad time. We played football, drank beers, and (Kim and I) walked over to the dog beach and stepped foot in Lake Michigan. It was an amazing time, and a great weekend. We made it home and went to bed for the last time there.

KENTUCKY, WEST VIRGINIA MOTEL 6

Win The Price Is Right... Again

Sunday we got up and started our drive back. Kim and I decided to take another route. This route would include us going through Kentucky, and the mountains in West Virginia. After 5 hours we arrived to Louisville as soon as we got there we randomly stumbled upon a flea market. It was super cool there. I got an ice pop out of a motorcycle stand. It was pretty weird but cool, We left and walked around the area more. We saw this wall that said "Before I Die I will..." this is where people fill in the blank there were all sorts of things people wrote on it like "Do Sex" etc. I wrote "Win The Price Is Right Again" which hopefully that actually does happen. We needed lunch so we drove to the KFC headquarters but they were closed so we drove to the nearest KFC to the headquarters which was 5 minutes away, and wow that was fancy. I got corn, mac and cheese, and a biscuit. After all I am vegetarian.

We hit the road after our meal. The drive was very long. We were getting restless after listening to all of Kim's high school burnt disc CDs (New Found Glory, Less Than Jake, etc.). We got to West Virginia it started getting dark and rainy, and we were driving in the mountains so that became too much for us. We decided to get a hotel, but instead we stayed in a Motel 6 in the West Virginia mountains and honestly it wasn't that bad at all for $50 (2 people, and a dog). We went to bed after being extremely exhausted.

The next morning, Monday. We got up at 8am and drove through all of West Virginia, and all of Western Maryland. The scenery of the mountains were beautiful as we were driving. We made it back at 4pm. After a crazy weekend, a long drive, and Motel 6 it was an amazing trip and was even better because I got to spend it with my lady and our dog.