Road Trip (kinda) - Day 7 & 8: Mexico City

We traded in the Jetta for a 747 and traveled the 1,500 miles to Mexico City. I had never really strongly considered going to Mexico City, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked it. It is a huge city, I was surprised at how clean it was for a city of its size. There is a ton of really cool architecture and cultural things to do - we would find ourselves lost and turn the corner to a beautiful plaza or statue. It was also cold and rainy, which we were not expecting. We did avoid the rain for the most part, on the last day it did get us...

We were shocked when Alejo, the groom, was at the airport to greet us, we almost missed him. I think my last words were, "you ready to get screwed by a taxi driver?" We drove to Roma, which is a really cool neighboorhood that is a bit hipster, but really cool with great cafes and restaurants.

Hipsters everywhere!

We met up with Meng and Max and Alejo took us to the Mueso Nacional de Antropologia. It is huge and really cool. Only 1/5 of the signs are bilingual, so we did a lot of looking, not necessarily understanding what it was or if what we were looking at was original or a replica. Turns out most of it was real.

The Aztec section was massive

This is the 25 ton Aztec sun dial, it was incridible in person

Why not

I mentioned there are amazing cafes and restruants in Roma - great outdoor spaces and laid back feel. Most of the time we could get by on our broken spanish, but I definitely ordered the wrong dinner, oops. In Mexico City lunch is eaten at the earliest 2 PM and dinner around 8:30.  

Two story dinner spot with awesome outdoor seating and a beer garden, it across the street from plaza

Popular brunch spot 

We need these purse/jacket table side holders in the states, I mean in Australia, they were amazing! 

We went downtown on our second day. Here are a few pictures - definitely go to the palace and get a tour guide for the 14 Diego Rivera murals. The murals are really cool, but you appreciate them so much more with an explanation. He basically painted Mexico's entire history in these murals, the building is also beautiful.

One of the churches in the main square

There is soooo much to look at - its all organic materials, no paint

The white color is from milk, the other colors mainly from vegetables and insects 

This is a prostitute, showing her leg for the arm offering. In Aztec time, prostitution and tattoos were reserved only for nobles and high class 

Chris and Max enjoying some street food

See what I mean about beautiful buildings around every corner

Then on the evening of day two, the soon to be bride and groom shocked us agin by joining us for dinner at San Angel Inn. If you are in Mexico City, don't miss this place. Its an old hacienda, the food is excellent, but the hacienda steals the show!

I am bummed the pic came out this way, but they are seriously the cutest. Marcela left right after diner for her beauty rest

The whole gang, minus Marcela - Max, Meng, SK, Brad, Alejo, Chris, me, Katie and Jessie.

Dark and raining, but you get the idea of how cool this place was! The power did go out at dinner, apparently it happens a lot, but always come back on in a minute

Next up the wedding!  

Road Trip: Day 6 - Skyline Drive and visit with Tom

Our friends Alejo and Marcela are getting married on July 4^th in Mexico City. Since we would be about a week into our road trip, we found the cheapest airport in the part of the country we planned to be in. We were both surprised it was Charlotte, NC. It’s a really nice airport, the bathroom attendants are a bit random, I feel like I should be in a club dancing.

We had a short 4 hour drive for the day so we decided to drive through Shenandoah National Park on the Skyline drive. The drive was really pretty and we found the Delaware license plate on a speed racing PT cruiser. We saw maybe 10 cars on the entire drive, a few motorcycles and 3 really hardcore cyclists on their uphill ascent.

The route took us directly though Lexington, VA where Tom, a former boss, SAE and mentor of Chris’ lives. In a sense we wouldn’t be headed to Australia without Tom – he encouraged Chris to go back to school. It was great to catch up with Tom, even though the visit was short. Tom also gave us a nice driving tour of Virginia Military Institute and Washington and Lee - its a beautiful area! 

Once we got to Charlotte we wanted to try the Bar-B-Q King fried chicken, but the king had other plans, closed for the entire week. Price Chicken Coup was also closed, womp, womp. So we found an upscale biker bar with a great patio that had excellent BBQ! 

I’m writing this on the plane, by now we are exploring Mexico City with Katie, Jessie, Meng, Max, Brad and SK. It’s like KWEST Bike Germany all over again! #PiscaFOMO

Bucket List: Last Cubs Game (until we went to another last cubs game)

Once you know you are leaving for a really, really long time, the bucket list starts growing. Obviously the cubs made the list - when we lived next to Wrigley we frequented games on a weekly basis.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (FBDO) is a tradition at Kellogg. There are no classes on Wednesday at Kellogg, well almost no classes, so the whole school plays hookie, kind of, and goes to a cubs game in April. Nothing like 800 of your closest friends taking over Wrigley.  

Last greasy spoon breakfast at salt and pepper - I had two orders of pancakes, obviously.

Chris, the first base coach

It was also freezing, so most of our time was spent on the back deck rather than actually watching the game. This is a must hang out place before the game with all the old timers, if you are catching a game! I have never seen it this crowded, ever.  

 

The most Crossfit-esk photo Chris has ever taken

Jules also had Beth in from Sydney - we will definitely see more of her in OZ.  She got the real kellogg experience!

After the games lots of 50 cent beers were consumed at Vines. One of my all time favorite patios before and after a game. And no cubs game is complete without a stop to Sluggers. Sadly, there is no photo documentation. 

Road Trip: Day 5 - Uncle Raymond and Aunt Susan's

Today we packed up the car and left my cousin Layla and Jeff's place headed for Ray and Susan's in Virginia, near Harrisonburg - its about 5 miles from the West Virginia border, way out there. It is out there - like no cell service 4 miles from their house out there!

But not before a 5 AM workout....I slept in the car later

I was really excited to visit Ray and Susan. I haven't spent a lot of time with Ray and Susan but they are some of my favorites in Chris' extended family. They never disappoint with entertaining banter, new experiences and just a general good time. I have a soft spot for people who march to the beat of their own drum and they fit the bill. I got to thinking on the drive there about this soft spot of mine and wondering where it comes from, I'm still not sure, but it lead me down a funny internal thought process that I will try to share. I consider myself pretty normal, whatever that means, then I realized I am probably not that normal. After all, I am moving to a country across the world that I have never been to, definitly not normal. Anyway, we knew we wanted to visit Ray and Susan as soon as we started planning the road trip!

Since we had the whole day and only a 3 hour drive we took a detour. We stopped off in Charlottesville to check out UVA. It is a beautiful campus!

The room where Kappa Sigma was founded off the lawn at UVA - they were my sororities neighboors at Arizona

Ian's favorite bar, but sadly it was closed :(

Once we got to Ray and Susan's, we grilled out - can't beat steak and potatoes and then took a tour of the property.

So peaceful and green! 

And then comes the new experience part, Ray is a very talented blacksmith. He just fired up the gas forge and started making something out of a 16 penny horse shoe nail. 

The forge

Uncle Ray hammering the nail into something

Clamping the hot metal and pounding into something cool 

The end result on the anvil, a heart that got turned into a necklace!  

We had a great time! It was great to see Susan and Ray! Now off to Charlotte, NC to fly to Mexico city on Wednesday for Alejo and Marcella's wedding with 6 Kellogg friends!  

Road Trip: Day 4 - Family Brunch and Exploring DC

Today started with a family brunch in Bethesda, MD. It's always great to see family and I am so glad we were all able to get together! You know there will never be a dull moment with Uncle Jimmy, or as I like to call him, Jammi. He also calls me Jammi, even though it is his name not mine....no one understands, but we still love him.

Jammi, the volleyball legend himself! Mom, do you notice the spice rack in the back...you made it! 

Reason #472 we love Jammi, as we sit down to brunch, mind you we have been hanging out for 30 minutes, he calls my Mom in Arizona to "do the face time" only to tell her we will call her back in 20 minutes....wait you called me, hahaha! 

The whole gang, minus Mary Beth (I don't have one with MB, someone send me one!) - Kathy, Anthony (about to be 30!), Jammi, Marissa, me, Layla, Jeff and Chris

Nanny, still strong at 91! I learned at brunch I have a Great Great Aunt Kathleen who was a nun in Sydney, not the first in my family to live in Australia!

After brunch we headed to DC to meet up with Alex, a first year at Kellogg, I guess now he's a second year, weird. Big fan of Alex, we hit it off immediately as we share the sense of humor of 11 year old boys. Alex was on the KWEST trip we lead though Kellogg last year and will be leading the bike trip this year. Thanks for keeping' it alive :) In just a short year he's become a lifelong friend, I tear up a bit thinking of missing his and Lynette's wedding...anyway. 

Alex was in the Army and spent two years in the Honor Guard in Arlington, VA. I will never be able to remember exactly what his title was or any of that, but I just like to think of him as overall Badass. I will leave it at that for the sake of Lynette, his fiancé, he has enough self-confidence :) He was in DC for the weekend so offered to hang out and take us around Arlington Cemetery as I had never been. So glad we didn't have to say goodbye in Evanston and got to see him again! It was an awesome day and he pointed us to lots of special sites and gave insight to how it all works. It was an unforgettable experience - thank you Alex for your service and for showing us around!  

Obligatory out the car window pic of the Australian Embassy

View from Lee's house 

Lockerbie Memorial - 1988 terriorist bombing, I didn't know much about it and had to look it up, I was only 6 but don't remember this at all - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Flight_103  

Abner Doubleday's grave, complete with some baseballs, fitting 

Changing of the Gaurd's - they are so precise!  

Alex's favorite place as there a so many hidden graves of heroes that many just walk past 

In that same section, a famous SAE and medal of honor recipient - Chris got to drop a little knowledge on Alex 

Walk though area 60, which is where many of the recent fallen soldiers of Afghanistan and Iraq have been laid to rest. It is shocking how many there are and how young so many of them were - not even able to buy a drink at a bar and paid the greatest sacrifice. 

Gravestone in the tree stump  

Since our tour didn't include water or snacks, we were starving. We headed around the corner for Pupusa's. They were delicious! They are an El Salvador staple described as a mix between a dumpling and quesadilla. Definitely go here!

Final pic with Alex - we will miss you!  

Can't even tell Alex is wearing short shorts :)

Next up - Chris's Uncle Raymond and Aunt Susan's in Virginia (not exactly sure where). It's only a 3 hour drive so we might explore a little more in DC.