They named it San Diego, which in German means a whale's ....

Right now we are in Glendale, Ca. Let me tell you about a little place called San Diego where the beer flows like wine and beautiful women flock like the salmon of Capistrano.

We got to SD on the 21st. The original plans were to pickup Chris at the airport in LA and drive down to SD. It didn't work out that way, and it was a good thing it didn't. Chris pushed his flight back a day and to San Diego airport instead. So we shot down to San Diego first. We passed through LA at around 5:30pm....

Traffic and a brush fire and I had to go to the bathroom. I took the first exit I could get to, East Los Angeles. It wasn't too bad, but I wouldn't want to live there.

After LA it was smooth sailing. We checked into a nice hotel with palm trees everywhere, refrigerator and microwave. We ate the left overs from San Francisco and went to bed. We had a long day ahead of us, the San Diego Zoo.

The zoo was amazing of course. It is one of the finest zoos in the world. There was only one unfortunate part. A staple attraction, the giant Galapagos tortoises, were not there. Jill was very upset. They did have some very large turtles though. Jill will be posting tons of pictures and stuff on the zoo.

After the zoo, we picked Chris up at San Diego airport. It was a tight fit. We have a lot of stuff in the car. We managed to make a semi-human sized spot for him. There was not quite enough room for him and his bag though. He somehow folding himself in there to fit. Luckily, his apartment is only 15-20 minutes from the airport. Like I said earlier, it was lucky we didn't pick him up in LA. That 2-3 hour drive would have killed him.

Chris has got a fancy apartment up on this mountain and was nice enough to let us stay, but we didn't. I forgot something; he has cats, two of them. Jill has crazy cat allergies. She tried to stick it out but the weezing coming out of her didn't sound good. We grabbed our stuff and in the middle of the night had to leave. We got a hotel near the one we had the night before.

The next day we got food and got my car washed. Yes, the bug graveyard has been put to rest. We also drove around looking at all the rich people's homes. Chris took us to the area he wants to buy a house. They actually have show houses which are open to the public. We walked right in and looked around. These houses are amazing. For California, they are massive. In New Jersey standards, they would be medium sized.

Chris had work at 3pm so we parted ways. We planned to go back to the hotel, change and head to Sea World. We fell asleep, for 4 hours. Needless to say, we didn't get to go to Sea World that night.

We booked the hotel for an additional day so we could go to Sea World. The next morning, we ate at Hash House A-Go-Go. No dancers, sorry. The portions are massive. Jill will posting extensive pictures. Me and Chris tried to finish the Tractor Driver's Breakfast and failed. We got pretty close though. After that, we drove around to all the cool San Diego places, Del Mar, Downtown, La Jolla.

Wow this post is getting way too long. I'll let Jill talk about Sea World on her post.

Busy Bees!

Disclaimer: Long post ahead!! =P

Sorry for the lack of updates everyone! So this post will be sans pictures since I can't find my cable for my camera. There's a shocker! =P Anyways we have been sooo busy and at the end of the day we are too tired to get on this thing!

So the last I posted was somewhere in Montana I believe. Shortly after that we arrived in Seattle and checked in. But not after some crazyness! The roads there are kinda crazy. We drove down a hill that was like a rollercoaster! It was so steep I had to close my eyes for fear of getting sick. There are also a lot of one ways that makes getting anywhere a pain in the you know what! Anyways after checking in we called it a night because we had lots to do the following day. So the next day we planned to do lunch in the Space Needle, check out Pike's Market and see the aquarium.

Let me tell you, lunch at the top of the Space Needle was amazing! Not only did we have a view of the whole city as we ate, but the food was delicious! (All thanks to my Mom and Geroge; thanks!) I will put pictures up soon. After an amazing lunch, we then made our way to Pike's market via the monorail. It was a bumpy and short ride but we made it. We walked up and down Pike's market and what I loved most were the beautiful flowers and fresh fruit. They were even handing out samples to get you to buy and they got me! =) The aquarium was quite lackluster. Being the aquarium buff myself, this aquarium wasn't the greatest. The marine life was mostly fishes and the buildings were spread out all weird. That was pretty much our trip to Seattle, our next stop was San Francisco.

After about 12 hours we finally made it to San Francisco around midnight. Adam and I stayed with my awesome cousin Jamilla! =) The next morning we went to Pier 39 as my Aunt cooked us an amazing and delicious dinner. I can honestly say that I love San Francisco! It's so beautiful and there is tons to do! After walking up and down the Pier we headed back to my cousin's apartment where we had dinner with her, my Aunt and Uncle. We had adobo chicken, dill potatoes and pansit. I really love and miss her cooking! The next day we did more tourist-y things. We went to the Golden Gate Bridge, drove down Lombard Street (a crazy windy road) and went to Chinatown/Little Italy. They were right next to each other. Our visit was short and sweet but an amazing one at that! LA has some stiff competition on where we might live.

Okay well that's it from me for now. Sorry again for the lack of updates! We are San Diego now and headed to LA and Vegas within the next few days. I will update soon with pictures! Again thanks for reading! =)

It's been so long

Update

We have been having so much fun; it's been hard to get to the computer. The last post I sent via email got so messed up. First of all, it got truncated badly. All that was posted was my disclaimer and the two pictures. Second, it didn't even post the disclaimer first. I'll see if the entire email is still in my sent box and try to repost it. So go back to the last post if you get a chance.

San Francisco

San Francisco was a blast. Thanks so much to Jamilla and her family for everything. The city is truly charming. The houses have a unique style. The weather is strange but pleasant(it gets cold there but no snow). There is a endless number of activities to do. We left feeling fulfilled but at the same time we knew we missed so much.

Fisherman's Wharf is a popular tourist attraction. It's an outdoor market, picture taking, attraction venue. There were some street perfomers. Although we didn't see the famous Bushman. There is a great spot to take pictures of Alcatraz and a place to watch the harbor seals.

The Rock

We didn't get to do the Alcatraz tour. It is very popular apparently and tickets were sold out until after we had to leave SF. It's no big deal; we will be back.

We drove over the famed Golden Gate bridge.

We also got a taste of San Francisco's club/bar scene and sampled a favorite after hours taco place.

North by Pacific Northwest

Disclaimer: this post may have wierd formatting from the iPhone. I'll
fix it when I can.

Watch for Rattlesnakes

A sign overlooking the Columbia River, WA

Yesterday we drove from Billings, Montana to Seattle. It's about 800 miles and 12 hours. After this leg of the trip we are officially over 3000 miles already. 3000 miles in 3 1/2 days, pretty crazy. The car is holding up very well. I'm really surprised that we have had not one problem.

The drive itself was decent. I do have one peev, the Rocky Moutains. They are not very impressive this far north. Tuesday when we saw Big Horn, it was huge. White capped peeks and a triangle shape. I thought it was the Rockies. The Rockies themselves were just not that impressive. This is the Rockies:

This is Big Horn:

It might be hard to see in the picture. But Big horn looks like a Coors commercial.

Ranting over.

The picture of the Rockies above is more or less what you see for 8 hours straight. It fun at first, then it gets boring. After Montana, you move into Idaho for about an hour. It starts to look all Pacific-Northwesty with green trees and sweeping hills. Then you hit Washington state. And it looks like a wasteland. An hour or so from Seattle it turns back into the Pacific Northwest of legend. There is a very nice mountain range here too. Mt. Rainer is along the way, but we couldn't see it. Hopefully, I'll get some shots of it from the Space Needle today.

Sleepless in Seattle

Sorry for the corny title but as usual I cannot sleep and I felt the title fitting. Also as usual Adam is snoozing away while I watch some TV and blog.

After a late start this morning, Adam and I arrived in Seattle after about 11 hours. We drove through a lot of mountains and even stopped to take some pictures at a beautiful scenic spot of a gorge. (I think that's what it's called.) Our hotel is conveniently located right off the major freeway and not too far from downtown Seattle.

We settled in and then headed out to get some dinner. It's surprising how many restaurants are within walking distance. There are too many to count! Finally we decided on Thai food, partly because we were curious to try the food and mostly because we were starving! We ate at Racha Noodles & Thai Cuisine. (http://www.rachaqueenanne.com/) Adam and I both got noodle dishes with beef and were happy with our choices. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures this time around but I will try from here on out.

It's off to bed for me since we have a day filled with tourist like things tomorrow. I'm looking forward to the Seattle Aquarium. Before I get to bed I just want to thank everyone who reads our blog and I hope you continue to! Talk to you all soon!

What you've all been waiting for!

I know you all have been waiting for some pictures, so here they are! I am currently in the lobby of our hotel since the WiFi reception is horrible in our room.

Okay so the food so far has been pretty good. We haven't eaten anything great yet since most of our trip so far has been on the road so bear with us!

Okay so our first stop was at Granite City Food and Brewery. (http://www.gcfb.net) After nearly 10 hours on the road Adam and I were starving and this place was close. The food was pretty decent and according to Adam, the beer wasn't too bad either.

So for an appetizer we had pretzels with cheese dip, but this was no ordinary dip, it had their own brewed beer in it! The pretzels were soft and warm and the cheese dip was quite delicious.


I decided to have the Chicken Alfredo for dinner. It wasn't anything special, but Adam seemed to like the herb flavor.

Adam decided on the "Betta Chedda Bacon Burger". This burger was piled high with cheddar, bacon and barbecue sauce. It was juicy and tasty if I say so myself, judging this with my one bite!

We headed to Chicago and after an eventful day (read Adam's previous post) we went to Lou Malnati's for some deep dish pizza. (http://www.loumalnatis.com/)
Much to our luck we got there just in time for their lunch special which consisted of a beverage, soup or salad and a personal deep dish pizza all for about $7! I have never had deep dish pizza but being a bit of a foodie, I have seen my fair share of TV personalities enjoy it! Let me say that Adam and I are officially deep dish pizza fans! Adam more so than me, even though he won't admit it!

Well that's it for now. I should be getting to bed soon since we have a 12 hour trip to Seattle ahead of us. Hopefully we can blog more frequently as we get closer to big cities.

Twister!!!!

In my last post, I wanted to press on from Wyoming. Jill wisely decided that we drive for another hour or so and get a hotel. It was a good thing we did.

We found some of those hotel discount books at a rest stop and decided on the Billings Hotel and Convention Center. While we were on our way we see the the sky darkening. I'm not talking about a storm in the Northeast. This thing looked nasty. It started to rain about 15 minutes from the hotel. Then it happened...

The radio cut out. There was an all-too-familiar beeping noise. It was like the ones on TV that say "this is a test of the emergency broadcast system". Except this one was for real. The voice came on the radio and gave us a tornado warning for the county we were in until 10pm.

We were both stressed. The rain started coming down harder and harder. Lightning streaked across the sky and thunder shook the car. We arrived at the hotel and checked in just as the storm was peaking.

15 minutes later, the sun came out and the sky was blue. No tornado, no golf-ball-sized hail. Just a lot of rain. What a hype. I drive for 20 hours with nothing but grass, cows and bug splatter to look at. I finally get something exciting and...

NOTHING!

On a more positive note, the hotel is very nice. It has a pool with a water slide that Jill is in love with.

Tomorrow, we will be up bright and early and move on to Seattle.

Sitting at a rest stop

Adam just blogged and here I am! I can't believe that it's only been two days so far. In those two days we have done so much! We spent a night in South Bend, got some good pizza in Chicago, drove through the night to see Mt. Rushmore and now we are headed to Seattle.

Let me tell you, I could not see myself living out here in the West. It's so open and airy and there's nothing wrong with that but I just feel like I would be bored out of my mind! Just driving through these states I find myself bored especially with close to zero cell phone service. I am looking forward to seeing the sights in Seattle.

Like Adam said before, pictures will be uploaded once we get to a place with WiFi. Only two days down and about 20 more to go!

Quick Update from the Beyond...

The last 24 hours have been pretty crazy. We got deep dish pizza in Chicago, saw Mount Rushmore, and drove through a lot of boring landscape. There has been almost no phone service everywhere since Illinois. Right now we are sitting at a rest stop in Wyoming that has free WiFi.

I'm going to try and press on for a few more hours then we are going to get a hotel somewhere. We have been in the car since yesterday. I have driven over 1300 miles since yesterday. We are over 2000 miles for the trip already. A great deal of the driving has been in the fog which is tough. It"s thick up here and you can't see more than 100 feet in front and behind the car.

The mountains we thought were the Rockies was actually Big Horn or something. Maybe it's part of the Rockies. The car is holding up well. There is a virtual bug graveyard on the front bumper though.

We are listening to the weather report right now and there are severe weather reports coming in from around here. Hopefully, we won't have to drive through it.

We will hit Seattle tomorrow or the next day. At least we will be able to upload all the pictures we have taken.

Pictures

I'll update this post later with more once I get to a wifi.

South Bend and Day 1

Disclaimer: If the following post is formatted strangely, contains
wierd words or phrases, or is in anyway different. It is because I'm
posting it via email to blogger from my iPhone.

So, I'm really happy with our progress on the first day. 700+ miles in
about 11 hours. That's with 4 stops included.

There isn't much to say about the landscape. Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Illinois don't have much besides farm, cows and highway. This along
route 80. I did see a rather strange highway patrolman jumping up and
down on flap of highway that peeled up on the shoulder.

The drivers in both states were far better. They drive fast, no
question, but at least they signal when changing lanes. I did see a
crazy driver in western Ohio. He was flying up from behind me, changed
lanes(no signal), then cut in front of me. Sure enough, Lincoln
Navigator with big rims and (you guessed it!) New York plates.

The area we are staying is near Notre Dame. It reminds us of Florida.
The people are nice and friendly. We ate at Granite City Brewery last
night. Very good food and they have excellent beers.

Ok time to hit the pavement. Today we are going to pass through
Chicago, see some sights and have a deep dish pizza for lunch. Then,
we are off to Mount Rushmore. Passing through a time zone.... Weird.

Today is the day!

Jill here and here's my first blog entry! So it's the night of the big trip or the day of however you see it. I am all packed and so is Adam. I am sure that I over packed but I am okay with that because as a girl I feel the need to have many outfit options. I am so excited that I cannot sleep. As I sit here and think about our trip, I think about all the fun, new and exciting places we will be going to and I can hardly contain myself!

So Adam and I have discussed that he will be blogging mostly about our travels and I will be blogging about all the great food! I will also be blogging about what we are up to.

Well I better get some sleep now so I can be a good sidekick on our way to Chicago. Next time I'll be writing from the road! =)

Shorts and white tee shirts

Tomorrow is the big day. I'm packing now. I have work tonight and we leave early tomorrow morning, very early. I'm not packing a ton of clothes like I'm sure Jill is. There will be places all over to do laundry. I would rather have the extra space for food, snacks, and drinks. As far as packing goes, I'm bringing shorts and white tees of coarse. They are perfect for life on the road, the white tees. They are dirt cheap, you can find them everywhere, you can use them as a pillowcase/towel/toilet paper whatever, and you don't really care if you have to throw them away. I'll be bringing my laptop and iPhone of coarse.

I have a spare key for the car(kept in my wallet). A "survival kit" my uncle put together. Tire pressure gauge, extra headlight/taillight, multi-tool, etc.. A coupe of good books, Gerald's Game by King and maybe a few Chandler novels. I'm picking up a portable DVD player for Jill today and a cooler.

Hopefully, Apple decides to release Netflix for iPhone soon so we can stream TV shows and movies on the road. No I won't be watching while I drive ;)

I'll be using my iPhone and Jill's point-and-shoot to capture picture and video and uploading them as soon as humanly possible. I haven't decided how I will post the pictures. They will either be separate blog posts or incorporated into the Picassa Stream. Maybe both. Maybe I'll make a page for picture only.

We already booked a hotel in South Bend. Hopefully, we'll get to see a little of Notre Dame before we head off to Chicago.
In Chicago, we are not going to stay long, a deep dish pizza and a hot dog is all we are hoping for. After Chicago, we are going to drive through Woodstock, IL. That the small town where they shot Groundhog Day, one of my favorite movies.

Well, my next post should be from South Bend.

Gift cards!!!

In order to offset some of the gas expenses for the trip, we have been collecting gas gift cards.

We started by asking for cards for christmas. This worked out well. We got hundreds of dollars in gift card over the holiday season. Much better than getting some crap gift that you'll never use.

Second, we signed up for every reward program we could. The most lucrative one for us was Chase Leisure Rewards. We both bank at Chase and have been using our debit cards to rack up points.

Some of credit cards also offer rewards like Discover. Using rewards for gift cards is better than getting cash back because you normally get more in rewards. It works out something like this:

1000 points = $10 cash back or

1000 points = $25 Gift card

These aren't real numbers or anything. I'm just trying to show that you get more with gift cards. I figured it would cost us around $850 for gas over the coarse of the trip. We have emassed over $500 in cards so far and Jill has some more that just came in.

Preparation Day 1

Welcome to Bean & Bunch Cross Country. This blog is dedicated to Jill and I's cross country road trip. Jill and I will be posting here. You will get both of our impressions of America. I'll also be posting to my personal blog Adam's macadam.

The first and most important thing I am taking care of is my car. My Scion Tc is six years old now. It still runs like a champ but I brought it in to the shop anyway. With more than 10,000 miles ahead of us, I want to make sure everything is in good condition. The gentleman from Firestone called and let me know that I need to have my rotors resurfaced and my battery replaced. This is pretty good news. I was worried that the rotors would have to be completely replaced. That would cost a lot more than a resurfacing.

The battery is the original from when I purchased the car in July '04. Nearly six year out of a battery is damn good.

The final item to be done is an oil change. I plan on taking the car to the oil change place soon as I pick up the car from the shop. I switched to full synthetic about a year ago and that should help over the coarse of the trip. I try to change the oil every 5,000 miles or so. So about half way through the trip I'll have to change it again.

Thats about it for day one. Unfortunately, I'm stranded without a car on my day off so I can't get anything else done besides laundry and some packing.