Give me some BaltiMORE

Our drive to Baltimore was a cinch- under an hour. We pulled up to one of the city's famous rowhouses that belonged to a Mr. Alex McSay, more formally known as Laura's older brother. Alex took us on a long journey around the city by foot. We got to see the fun sections of Baltimore including Fleet street and the Inner Harbor. A lovely addition to our tour was the smell of freshly baked bread that lingered in the air thanks to a bread factory conveniently situated in the city. Once our legs grew tired, we all sat down to some beer from one of Alex's favorite bars. Katja was excited to learn about beer from the master. Alex's girlfriend Sarah also joined us in some merry beer tasting. After the sun disappeared behind the buildings, we all headed to a unique burger joint that lets you create your own burger and offers every topping you can possible imagine, including some we had never thought of before. They even have three different types of veggie burgers! Completely stuffed we headed back to Alex's house for some games. We played a version of Apples to Apples created by Alex's friends. The concept for the game is the same, just the cards are far more hilarious. It's a recipe for a good time. We concluded the night with some s'mores, left over from our camping trip.
Laura and Alex reunited at last!

The next morning Alex took us to one of his favorite breakfast spots where we tried captain crunch french toast. It's as delicious as it sounds. Sad to leave, but ready to complete our cross country journey, we headed north to our final destination- Rhode Island.
Kaurja McSon is soon to become Laura Mcsay and Katja Nelson as Laura takes the long journey back to Chi town solo : ( Don't worry though, our adventures are far from over. Stay tuned for our next journey to the South- Laura and Katja do South America.

we leave the states!

Our hair still crunchy from the salt water and our legs itchy from mosquito bites, we packed up our little car and trekked north to our country's capitol. We were super excited to stay with the Morrison family, since we haven't seen much of Willie since he transferred after freshmen year. As soon as we walked in the house we were offered a glass of wine and told there was about to be an impromptu dinner party and we knew we were in the right place. None of the guests, who are Willie's moms old time friends, came empty handed. To our delight, they brought scrumptious vegetarian dishes. We ended the night playing endless amounts of beirut against the infamous Morrison brothers (or at least until they won a game).

The next day we took Zoe's (native Marylander) recommendations and went to the National Gallery of Art in the heart of downtown D.C. Since museum holds far too much incredible art to see in one day, we mainly stuck to the Chester Dale collection which featured an array of artwork from Impressionism to Modernism.

Washington D.C. offers a wide variety of ethnic food from Ethiopian to Peruvian and we ended up at Amsterdam Falafel, a do it yourself falafel spot that has every kind of topping you can imagine. Makes for a very delicious and messy experience. Unfortunately it was so messy that we couldn't put our pitas down for a quick photo.

The overall feeling of D.C. is giant and clean. The massive stone buildings all sit proudly in a city above the cleanest and easiest subway system in the world. D.C. is nothing short of impressive.

Pitchin' it in North Carolina

After a classy lunch- leftovers in a gas station parking lot, we booked it to a campground near the beach in North Carolina. Of course we didn't make reservations ahead of time, but we have good traveling juju and banked on that instead. We pulled up to spot #7 at North Carolina State Beach Park and claimed it as our new home for the night. Before setting anything up, we threw on our swimming suits and went to the nearby beach for a dip in the warm waters and a romantic stroll down the shore. The crowd was definitely different than what we were used to at California beaches, with a higher ratio of older people drinking beer and dancing to music without a care in the world. We even spotted a pair of older ladies that we determined to be our future selves rocking out to the band playing on the beach- we certainly have something to look forward to.
We returned to our campsite to find that there were more residents at spot #7- Katja's friend from home, Camilla, and her friend Kelsey. Camilla and Kelsey, also driving cross country but in the opposite direction, decided to come spend the night camping with us. We combined forces for dinner and cooked up some mean burritos complete with rice, veggie chili, beans and an array of organic vegetables that they picked from a friend's garden earlier that day.

Kelsey using the very difficult camping style can opener


Amazing dinner

After the very satisfying dinner, we concluded that the only thing that could make the night better was a moonlit dip in the Atlantic ocean followed by delicious s'mores.

Laura and Katja learn the Charleston

We arrived to Twickenham Plantation in South Carolina late Thursday night after a long drive through Georgia. The Plantation is owned by one of Katja's family friends and they offered to let us stay even though they were not home. Twickenham is nestled a few miles north of Beaufort in a neighborhood of old historic southern plantations. They grow rice and corn, and have chicken, horses, and lots of friendly insects. The first night at the plantation we relaxed on a soothing swinging bed on the screened in porch while hundreds of frogs sang a lovely tune. In the morning Laura cooked up some delicious breakfast burritos from the
random assortment of groceries we had in the car in addition to some plantation eggs... talk about local food : ). Ronald, who has been a care taker at Twickenham longer than we have been alive, dangerously left us a Gator to cruise around the plantation on. We happily jumped into the gator and explored the miles of land, finding families of deer and big blue heron (see video below). After our self guided tour, Ronald gave us a in depth personalized tour of the area including the neighboring plantations and what remains of the town church that was burned down during the civil war. Ronald often finds trinkets from the civil war era and he showed us his most recent discovery from a few days ago- an iron, confederate buttons, a woman's pin, and some small bullets.

Ronald and all the cool stuff he found.

Our next move in South Carolina was to visit the town of Charleston. We started to realize that we had finally reached the East coast as we walked around with all of the preppy clothes and seafood restaurants. We had a nice dinner in town and then drove back to the plantation just as a storm started to brew. By the time we got back the rain was ferociously beating down on the house, the sound only briefly interrupted by a loud boom of thunder followed by a streak of lightening. We started to feel like the dumb innocent girls in any classic horror film. And of course, the power went out. We were awoken in the middle of the night by a gang of zombies circa civil war era and that was the end of Laura and Katja do America... just kidding. We woke up early the next day and journeyed on North.

Old burnt down church


Neighboring Plantation

Everything is just peachy in Georgia

The brave adventurers Katja and Laura survived a fierce thunderstorm and made it to Atlanta just in time to catch dinner at our friend Christina's dad's restaurant (what what, shoutout). We were treated to tasty beers and wonderful food by a mystery table of men that never revealed themselves...thanks! Christina's dad was nice enough to let us sleep in his lovely home that night. The next morning we grabbed a quick breakfast and headed towards the Coca-Cola Factory! Oh how wonderful it was to learn about the history of the infamous brand, watch the process of it being bottled, and taste over 60 flavors of drinks owned by the Coke company. We even got to watch a 4-D movie about the product- moving seats, water being sprayed at us, big poky things in our backs... the whole nine yards.

As convincing as all of the coke advertisements were, we decided to not spend the rest of our lives in the world coca-cola. Instead we went to the Busy Bee Cafe in downtown Atlanta in search of a true Southern comfort food experience. Despite feeling a bit out of place as the only white diners, the food truly hit the spot. We ordered all the classics- collared greens, sweet fried corn, candied yams, buttered okra, and broccoli cheese casserole.


We couldn't leave Georgia without tasting its trademark fruit- peaches. Obviously to experience this fruit one must journey to Peach County, GA. We picked a good looking peach orchard to visit, Pearson Farm, a peach farm that has been family owned for about five generations. We were lucky enough to have a personalized tour from the possible future heir to the farm. We now have seen a peach go from tree life to box life. We ended our tour we delicious peach ice cream with home grown pecans sprinkled on top. It was magical.

The last leg of our journey in Georgia was in Savannah, where we stopped for dinner at a local veggie hippie joint... I know, right up our alley.

Hippies go to Mississippi and find a new sweet home in Alabama

Our next stop on our journey across the South was the historic town of Natchez Mississippi. We tried out the Natchez Nachos... not to be recommended. We also stopped at the post office and got to overhear the locals speak cordially to each other in very slow Mississippian accents. How sweet (southern accent). We dipped our feet in the wide meandering Mississippi River and then headed on our merry way towards Home Sweet Home Alabama, where we did in face have a very sweet home awaiting our arrival.






We set out on the road for our next destination, an adorable bed and breakfast in Fayette Alabama. We wanted to get the feel for small town Alabama, and we sure did. The B&B is run by a sweet church going old couple out of there home. They even cook you up a mean praline french toast for breakfast served promptly at 7:30 AM. Unfortunately Laura's phone, which also serves as our alarm clock, died during the night and we slept through this delicious home-cooked meal. Although we were frusterated, we realized this was the first time since we hit the road that we got a decent night sleep and the first time in over a week that we slept in a bed. We also found some left over french toast in the kitchen that we took with us on the road.
Now well rested, we hit the road again heading toward Atlanta with a stop in Birmingham. We spent most of the afternoon walking around the Civil Rights Institute of Birmingham, which is an incredible exhibit.

Civil Rights Institute

You don't have to go into the museums to feel the history of Birmingham. Statues and posters in parks and on street corners serve as constant reminders of the city's brutal history. With storm clouds starting to gather over our heads, we decided it was once again time to hit the road and head to the exciting city of Atlanta!

and all that jazz....

Woke up way too early to hit the road again, this time headed to New Orleans. With a brief stop on Baton Rouge for lunch in an awesome pub underneath the overpass, we headed into the city on raised freeways over the wetlands. We made it to our destination at 3, a house that Occidental students stayed in this past year while helping with hurricane recovery. The house felt like a little bit like the headquarters for underground social movements, and Jackie, our host, was the boss. At first her bluntness and authority was a bit intimidating, but in only two days time we understood why so many Oxy students still rave about her.




We found the nightlife on Frenchmen street, a couple of blocks outside the French Quarters, to be a bit more our speed. In all the bars there are live Jazz bands and often even on the street corners. It is never clear whether or not the performers are formalized bands or just people that collect and start a jam session. Either way is doesn’t really matter, the music is incredible




Our second and last day in New Orleans we dedicated ourselves to tasting authentic New Orleans cuisine including Café Au Lait, Beignets, Crawfish, Seafood Gumbo, a Catfish Po-Boy and every flavor a daiquiri you can imagine. Only in New Orleans are there drive-through Daiquiri spots- apparently drinking and driving is not against the law, only driving while intoxicated is (don’t worry parental units, we did not drink and drive).

Gumbo and a Catfish Po-boy

Beignet and Cafe Au Leit

We also made sure to ride the trolley, explore the above ground cemeteries, and visit the Lower Ninth Ward. For those of you who don’t know, the Lower Ninth Ward was hit the hardest by Hurricane Katrina and even 5 years later still needs much repair and rebuilding. While the spirit of New Orleans remains upbeat and jazzed, the underlying feeling of loss and hardship is undeniable.

A lil Honky Tonk

After a full day of soaking up the sun at Barton Springs we went to the famous Amy’s for some ice cream. We can see why it has such a great reputation.

Per Mary’s recommendation we ate dinner at Shady Grove, a trailer park themed restaurant with delicious food and lots of outdoor seating. This is common of most food joints in Texas. Even if it’s over 100 degrees a true Texan will still request to be seated outdoors. Since we didn’t want to stick out too much, we followed suit.

After dinner we do-si-doed our way to the Broken Spoke for some true Texan Honky Tonk. This experience is best summarized by the video clips we‘ve posted below. Needless to say, we both put in great effort to learn the moves of a true cowgirl. With no more Honky Tonk left in us, we changed music venues and went to a fun outdoor spot called the Mohawk with live bands. Austin definitely spoils you with live music.

Things get hot in Austin

Hellll yeah

Hottest cowboy at the Honky Tonk


We got into Austin around 11:30 pm excited to be out of the car and in a new city. We checked into the International Hostel and snagged the last two beds in the all girls dormitory. As we set our stuff down and changed for bed we heard someone making what we thought were irritated grunting noises. Moments later we discovered she was sleep talking (or shouting)- "TURN AROUND CHRISTINA!" - Night 1 in the hostel - no one's awake and we've already encountered someone who is completely nuts.

We woke up around 9 after a weird night sleep and got a bomb breakfast of massively stuffed veggie omletes and fluffy ginger pancakes. Afterwords we ventured to the main drag by U.T. We walked around poking our heads into the cute shops, not getting too attached to anything for fear of spending money on something other than gas or speeding tickets. We could see the capitol building in the distance and decided we should pay our dues to the largest capitol building in the U.S. The walls were adorned with previous governors and senators of the state, a bunch of white dudes with the occasional woman. Fun fact- the first female governor of Texas was Miriam Ferguson in 1925. What a baller.


Later than night we met up Laura's friend of a friend, Shelby. We went out to dinner and then went to Shelby's boyfriend's house for a party to see how true Austinians (possibly made this word up?) throw down. Turns out they appreciate temporary tattoos as much as we do. We eventually parted with our new friends to see what downtown on a Friday night. To put it simply, it's a lot like Vegas, but without gambling and people are actually from the city. The streets are closed and those who drunkenly stumble in the wrong direction get corralled by police on horses.

Saturday we slept in a little, grabbed breakfast and hit Barton Springs, a natural spring/pool/reservoir. The water is very cold and relieves everyone of the the 90 degree weather. In an Austin hot spot, or should we say cold spot.

Crazy lady under the cotton trees

Barton Springs