the biggest & longest adventure ever

Friday 7th October

 Had breakfast, showered and checked out of the hostel.  Ordered an uber, which arrived in about 2min and headed to Boston South Station for my Amtrak to NYC.  Arrived with plenty of time, and managed to figure out which platform my train was leaving from.  I dragged my 2 suitcases on board and as they were so heavy I couldn’t lift them up.  I left one in aisle, but after a while the conductor came and said I had to move.  I didn’t realise there was lots of space up the front, so I moved them.  So much easier.  I had a window seat which was nice.  The train stopped at a few different locations, so sometimes I had someone next to me, sometimes I didn’t.  The train ride was about 4 hours and it pretty much hugged the coastline, so got to see some really pretty towns along the ocean.  I listened to podcasts, napped and caught up on my blog a little bit. Had a beer and a delicious chickpea salad.  The journey went pretty quickly.  Got in to Penn Station at about 1.45pm.  Managed to navigate my way out of there through elevators, as no way my 2 suitcases would have gone up an escalator.  I tried to order an uber, but it was going to cost me like $75 to travel 4 miles to Brooklyn, so walked back across the street and lined up at the taxi rank, which had a big line.  Eventually, after about 20min got in a cab to get to Williamsburg.  It took almost 50min to get from Penn Station to my accommodation, which even for NYC is crazy.  Luckily, Shawn my Airbnb host was meeting me at his apartment, as he was on the 3rd floor up 6 flights of stairs.  I couldn’t have gotten my bags up there.  He was such an awesome dude and carried them both up for me. His place was pretty small, but not for NYC standards.  My room was pretty spacious and had a couch and window right on the fire escape which was cool.  I settled in and he gave me the run down of the apartment and where everything was.  He also gave me some great local tips on bars and dive bars.  The cool part was, he has moved so I had the place to myself.  Which is awesome.  He said he had friends staying Sat night after a wedding, but they’d be in his room. He asked if I minded which I didn’t at all.  It was his place, who am I to say who can stay or not!  

 Once I’d settled in I headed down to the local food town to pick up some food for the week – bread, cereal, milk etc.  Even shitty little supermarkets cater to vegans so well and their prepared meals are just awesome.  So much better than what we have at any of our supermarkets.  I will miss that so much.  Headed down Bedford Ave and hit up Mug’s Alehouse first up.  Apparently this is one of the original bars in Williamsburg, before it got all hipster and gentrified.  It was pretty busy, but got a seat at the bar and had a couple of beers. By this stage, a mate who is living in NYC was messaging me as they were heading to a movie in Williamsburg and we were gonna meet up for a drink after. I decided to grab some vegan pizza at Vinnie’s which was just up the road.  I had 2 giant slices and they were bloody delicious.  Love all the vegan options here.  My next stop was a bar that my Airbnb host recommended called the Levee, which is a super dive bar that has free Cheetos at the bar.  You should have seen the size of the jar they came in.  I had a beer to start with, then realised they had $5 cheap ass beers with a shot of whiskey.  The beer came in a can with a coozie (stubby holder).  After I’d had one of these, Leon and his mates turned up as they couldn’t get into the movie as too full.  I met Christy his fiancé who is just lovely and a couple more of his mates. We drank here for a while, before heading down to the next venue which was just blocks away, called Skinny Dennis. Skinny Dennis is hard to explain. Dive bar honky tonk saloon bar that has live country music.  By this stage, we were all pretty tipsy and one of Leon’s mates was super drunk as she’d had her wisdom teeth out earlier in the week and was still on medication. We chatted, danced and drank lots of beers.  After a while, Leon’s friend lost her phone and was super panicked.  Leon was helping her try and find it and also cancel her cards. I headed home about midnight, it was a short walk.  Decided to check out the rooftop of my apartment, which had some pretty sweet views out over Manhattan.  Had a beer up here and just took in the view, then headed down to bed.  Amazing first night in Brooklyn and was super nice to meet Leon’s fiancé Christy who was just lovely.

  Saturday 8th October

 Was going to head to Smorgasburg today, which is a food market by the East River, but headed out to brunch with Leon, Christy and 2 of their friends Liann and Alex.  Certainly pulled up a little dusty, and had a bit of a sleep in.  Had a shower, some OJ and just sucked it up.  Walked to brunch which was in Williamsburg at a place called The Regal. It was about a 20min walk away. Think the walk did me good.  Leon’s other friends were lovely and he’d known them many years after working with Alex in Auckland.  I had some avocado on toast with a side of mushrooms, it was delicious and fresh.  Super nice. After brunch, we caught the train back to Leon & Christy’s new apartment they had just bought and moved into. It was awesome and their outdoor area was almost as big as the apartment, which is super rare in NYC. They live in Long Island City, which is in queens.  We just really chillaxed for the day and bummed on the couch watching Luke Cage on Netflix.  Was a nice lazy Saturday.  Eventually had a couple of beers and waited for a couple of their other friends to turn up as we were heading out to Alex’s 40th birthday tonight in Manhattan. I am terrible and can’t remember their names, but they were super nice.  We checked out the rooftop of their apartment complex and it was awesome, had some BBQ’s, outdoor furniture and a gym.  Super rad.  From here we headed out to a brewery called Rockaway, which was tiny.  They had about 10 beers on tap, and we between us got the 2 flights of each.  We shared all the beers, and they did some great ones.  We also got to go on their brewery tour which involved walking out into the brewery and hearing their story.  The dude was super nice and didn’t bang on too much about the brewing process. But as I’d learnt at Sam Adams, most small breweries don’t’ do lagers as they need 5 weeks in the fermenter, rather than ale which only takes 2-3.  They can’t afford the time.  After the tour was over, we could hang around in the brewery as more spacious than the bar. We grabbed a pint and hung around for another half hour or so.  We had planned on going to the waterfront, but ran out of time.  We went to dinner at a Japanese restaurant not far away.  Leon & Christy knew the owners and the food was just amazing.  I had a tonne of bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and then some mushrooms and beans.  It sounds boring, but they were cooked so well and were so tasty.  We shared a few bottles of wine, and it was a really nice dinner and a nice restaurant. From here we caught an uber across to Manhattan to the bar that Alex had his birthday party.  It was a belated birthday party, and he wanted it low key. They had booked out the bar until 10pm and it was a pretty cool venue.  Can’t remember what it was called, but it was next door to The Library, which a mate had taken us to last time.  I had a few beers here and chatted to a few people.  Caught an uber home about midnight, as I had comic con the next day and dint’ want to be too seedy.  Had a super fun day!

 Sunday 9th October

 Slept in longer than planned as was a little seedy from night before.  Had some breakfast, showered and mad my way across to Comic Con. I didn’t plan very well, as it was raining and I didn’t bring an umbrella or jumper, just had my flanny on. Got in to Comic Con no problem at all, as I’d arrived about midday, so missed all the queues in the morning.   Also as it was day 3, most people had already been before.  It was absolutely huge, as expected.  The last time I’d been 4 years ago, we had only got tickets for the Thursday, which was press day so not busy at all.  Once getting in I just made my way across the massive showroom floor.  Started at one end and worked my way around.  Really only thing I was looking for was x-files vinymation. I couldn’t really afford to buy anything else as my money had definitely reached breaking point.  It was packed and there were so many people dressed up in some amazing costumes.  I don’t know how they walk around all day in them!  I saw lots of cool t-shirts for sale, art for sale and independent comics for sale, but just couldn’t buy any of them.  It took me about 4 hours to walk around the whole floor and I managed to find a stand selling my x-files toys, so I bought 3!  I really wanted to see a panel, but there was nothing really on that interested me.  All the big panels had been on the day before, with all the big guests.  So once I’d finished the floor I headed outside, checked out the south park photo park and then headed off.  My plan was to go to Rattle & Hum beer bar in Hell’s Kitchen, but on the way passed a cool looking bar called Pony Bar, which was a craft beer bar.  So I headed in here for a couple of beers.  Nice little bar with some amazing beers on tap.  Also quite a few people in here from comic con.  After here I walked down to the original beer bar I’d planned on going to Beer Culture.  It was pretty cool down some stairs.  They didn’t have a huge selection on draught, but they had a tonne of beer fridges, with bottles. I stayed for a few beers, it was only when I was leaving that I discovered like 3 more fridges!  Probably lucky I hadn’t seen those earlier!  Jumped back on the subway to my place to watch the debate.  I know I’m a crazy American now!  The debate was farcical as Donald Trump is just insane. He kept bringing up topics that had nothing to do with Hilary or the campaign.  He couldn’t answer properly his comments about “grabbing her by the pussy” and just passed it off as locker room talk.  Absolute bullshit.  I think Hilary won this for sure. I had a couple of beers watching this and then once over watched a few shows on Netflix before heading to bed.

 Monday 10th October

Had a bit of a sleep in this morning, grabbed some breakfast in bed and took it easy. Headed out about 11am to go and do my washing, as I’d run out of undies and sox.  Walked to the laundromat a block away, and washed and dried all my clothes, read a comic whilst I was there.  Dropped it all back home, then headed out to the Williamsburg cinemas, to watch Girl on a Train.  The cinemas were pretty cool, and I got a decent seat as it was Monday lunchtime. The movie was really good, despite some bad reviews I’d seen for it.  Also cool to just have a chill day in Williamsburg.  Headed out to grab some lunch at the Bagel Store.  Last time I was in Brooklyn, think I ate here every single day.  The bagels were just amazing.  I couldn’t decide, so I ordered 2 bagels one with sundried tomato spread and one with scallion.  They were just delicious, and I was so full after eating them both, but so well worth it! Kept walking down Bedford Ave, and popped into the Lucky Dog, which is the last bar I visited last trip.  It is a cool neighbourhood divey bar that is super dog friendly.  Only had one beer here, as had a tour of the Brooklyn Brewery to do.  Walked down to the Brooklyn brewery, which a beer mate back home had set up for me.  On the way past a pop up food/art market on Bedford Ave.  Didn’t really get a chance to look, but they had some great food and cool arts and crafts.  Shut down a fair chunk of Bedford Ave.  It was Columbus Day, so not sure if that was part of the reason or not.  Once at Brooklyn, I got the tour free, plus 3 free beer tokens and a t-shirt which was so super generous.  The tour was just as I’d remembered it.  We got 4 beer tastings as part of the tour, all of which I’d had before, except the comic con beer the defender, as they had changed the recipe since last time.  They gave us the history of the brewery which I already knew, but the guides were super fun. Went and had a look behind the scenes and got to see Black Ops, the beer that doesn’t officially exist on the packaging lines.  A whole pallet of black ops!  Crazy! The guy said you can buy one at the shop, but they had run out which totally sucked, but good for my bank balance and luggage weight I guess!  Had my 3 beers here, I tried 2 that were only experimental at the brewery and one full one of the defender as I really like this version, was a hoppy red ale.  Had to haul ass pretty quickly out of here, as I was seeing a Comedy Show at a club called Little Field, which was about a 40min subway ride/walk away.  My favourite comedian Jen Kirkman, was kind enough to get me on the door list for this show, so I didn’t’ have to pay for it.  Super sweet.  The walk from the subway to the venue was really nice.  Pretty neighbourhood (Carroll Gardens) with most of the houses having Halloween decorations out the front.  Cool to see.  Also got to get some views of Manhattan, and a river that flowed into the East River. Got to the club just in time.   The show that was on tonight was called Night train, and it is apparently one of the most popular shows in Brooklyn for comedy.  It’s hosted by Wyatt Cenec, who is super funny.  HE then introduces 5 comedians, of varying style.  The ones on tonight were all pretty funny, and all very different.  I hadn’t heard of any of them before, but they were great.   This show finished up about 10pm, so headed to find a local brewery.  Found Threes Brewing, they only had big beers and no sample sizes, so I just had one beer here.  Seemed to be a cool venue though and their beers sounded interesting.  After my beer here, caught the subway back to Williamsburg and headed to Alligator Lounge, a dive bar I’d been to last time that offered free personal pizza with each beer ordered.  I had one craft beer and got a pizza with tomato paste and garlic.  They give you a pizza token and if you want anything other than tomato paste/cheese then it’s $1 a topping.  I just substituted cheese for garlic.  Next drink I went as low as it goes, got a miller high life with a shot of whiskey.  How could I resist for $5.  Plus another pizza…this time I got with pineapple.  Of course super basic, but when it’s free can’t resist.  The dough is made fresh, the tomato paste good and I can’t go past that. Headed home about 1am ish, walked there as only about 15min away.  Had a fun day!

 Tuesday October 11th

 Slept in longer than planned.  Had breakfast, showered and lazed around in bed for a while.  Then headed out on the L train to Manhattan.  My first stop was Momofuku Nishi, as they had a vegan plant based burger that was meant to be the closest to resembling real beef.  I’d planned to get there at open at 12 midday, as they only serve it on a first come, first serve basis.  It is the only venue that is selling it, and it was developed after an $80,000 Kickstarter campaign.  The sourced the same genetics or DNA that is in beef in plant based proteins, then developed the burger around that.  I go there about 1pm, sat at the bar and ordered this burger and a beer. When the burger came out I really had to do a double take as it looked like real beef.  It was bloody and red and had the same consistency.  I even had to google to burger to make sure it really was vegan.  I was convinced it was real meat.  I have no idea if it tasted anything like real beef, but I certainly thought it did. Never tasted a veggie burger like this. The burger itself was yum.  Super basic, tomato, lettuce, pickle and mayo/chutney/sauce.  Came with chips too.  Definitely well worth trying as it was delicious, once I got over being so freaked out.

 After finishing lunch, walked up to see the Empire State Building close up, took a few photos and then was going to head down to the freedom tower (new wtc) and the 911 memorial. I got as far as Greenwich Village, and thought I’d have a wander around there.  Happened to check Yelp and discovered there was a cool craft beer bar that was opening up in 5 min just around the corner.  So thought I’d pop in there for a quick beer.  The beer bar was called Arts & Craft’s Beer Parlour, and was set just down from the street.  It was wooden bar and looked like some cool décor.  They had some amazing beers on tap, so I kind of just settled in here for the afternoon. Got talking to the bartender and a guy that lives locally.  Had about 4 beers here, before realising I was not going to make the WTC/911 site today.

 I was meeting up with a bunch of garbage fans I’d known online for a long time, otherwise known as darklings at a pizza restaurant in the east village.   So I walked down there via Washington Square Park, which was a beautiful park with a nice fountain and some people busking.  Got to Pala Pizza right on time.  Met Mike and Alex and ordered pizza and beers.  Dorothy arrived not too long after.  They were all super lovely and we had a great night chatting garbage, politics, food and everything in between. Super nice dudes, and was awesome to meet them.  Got a group photo, as you have to do.  I’ve now expanded my garbage network across the world, and met so many great people as a result.  Such fun. From here, we all headed home about 11pm.  I caught the subway back to Williamsburg and spent the rest of the evening watching “the fall” on my laptop.  Got to sleep about 2am.

  Wednesday October 12th

 So after falling asleep super late (2am) watching crime docos and The Fall, I woke up at 5.30am to realise my beer wasn't finished.  So finished my beer and went back to sleep.  Woke up again about 10am, had breakfast, showered and prepared to head out to Manhattan to meet Mike for lunch. Caught the subway (2 lines) to meet Mike at Bombay sandwich co for lunch.  It was close to his work and had lots of vegan options.  It was a tiny place, but had ample outdoor seating if you needed. We managed to secure a bench inside.  I ordered the vegan quinoa wrap which was delicious.  Avocado, kale, almonds, lemon juice and some other veggies. Delicious.  We chatted for the hour he had for lunch, and bonded over pets.  Mike is someone I've known for a long time via the garbage message board and being a massive garbage fan.  Was super cool to hang out in NYC.  

 After lunch, I caught the subway down to the freedom tower/ new world trade centre/911 memorial. I'd planned on coming here yesterday, but ended up at a beer bar for way longer than anticipated.  Turns out, I’d seen it the day before and even taken a photo, just didn't realise.  The new tower is pretty impressive.  The area is of course super touristy.  The memorials are now open, whereas last time I was here they were still under construction.   You can even book 9/11 tours which kind of makes me cringe that people are making money off such a tragedy, but also I realise we have to acknowledge and respect history.  There are 2 giant water memorials for both the north and south tower.  I would think that the size of them represents the size of the building at the base.  Each one is a giant square, with water cascading over the sides and then in the middle of that another square where water cascades into.  Along the edges of the monument are the names of what I assume are all the people that died.  Some names have flowers, roses and flags in them.  It was a pretty sobering and reflective moment to see it.  But juxtaposed with all the tourists posing for selfies in front of the monuments.  There was even a guy walking around telling people not to lean on the edge (as that's where the names were inscribed).  At some times felt like it was respect and other times gratuitous.  

 I didn't do the 9-11 museum as I'd done it last time and was so sobering and upsetting, I felt of I didn't need to do it again.  

 From here I walked down to the Hudson River, at south cove park.  Walked along the river a bit, saw the Statue of Liberty for the first time this trip and was awestruck again.  Didn't think I would be, but I was.  Just seeing it in movies from such a young age, so iconic.  

 I sat by the river and laid down on a park bench listening to my new favourite podcast "my favourite murder" for a few hours.  It was peaceful and quiet, despite the subject matter.  

 Eventually, I got up and walked into the financial district, past the wall st bull that was surrounded by tourists.  Glad I already got that pic 4 years ago.  I was heading back into Brooklyn to go to a dive bar called rocka Rolla. Got there about 3pm.  They serve beer in goblets.  You can get (during happy hour) like a pint of bid for $2 or a craft beer for $5. They played rad music (Metallica, metal, Bowie) and the decor ruled.  I had 2 beers here before heading off to barcade a block away.

 I'd been to barcade last time I was in Brooklyn and it was amazing.  It didn't disappoint.  They had an amazing tap list, like so hard to even choose what to drink, and also some amazing old school arcade games.  I gravitated towards ms pacman, Tetris, and asteroids.  At a quarter or 2 a game it was a bargain.  Spent about an hour or 2 here before heading off to dinner.

 Dinner was at champs vegan diner.   I'd dreamt about this for months.  It did not disappoint.  I had the mozzarella sticks and the Mac & cheese bowl (that came with broccoli, veggie burger, tomato, breadcrumbs).  I was on vegan heaven.  I wanted to eat everything on the menu but yknow I couldn't.  After here I got on a train to other half brewing, which was about 15min away by train.  On the ride down when the train was on an overpass could see the Statue of Liberty at night, all lit up it was pretty cool.  Brewery wasn't far from the station, but it was tiny.  Only a table to seat about 6 and then benches around the walls.  They had a pretty impressive tap list though, mostly IPAs and mostly all over 7-8%.  I got 5 samples and they were all amazing. I ended up chatting with a girl who say my garbage hoodie.  She commented because she was going to wear hers that night but didn't.  Chatted for ages about garbage and also death as her grandpa had just passed away at 94. Was a good evening and the bartender was super nice letting us stay well after the bar had closed to finish our drinks and use the restroom.  Had a weird homeless guy try and get into the bar once it was closed and he just kept looking through the window.  Super creepy.

I left here about 11.30, caught the train back home and watched a few movies in bed.  Got to sleep about 2am.  

  Thursday October 13th

 Had a great sleep in. Woke up first time about 7.30am, then rolled back over and got up again at 9.30.  Made myself cereal, banana and yoghurt for breakfast with coffee and OJ. Finished watching a serial killer documentary on Netflix and typed up a new blog.  Showered and got ready to head out for the day.  

 Went up to the rooftop of my building to get some daytime photos, and realised I could see Empire State Building and the new wtc or freedom tower.  Pretty cool.  The building is way old and the rooftop is not looked after at all, so much potential but they have done nothing with it.  Such a shame as could be amazing.  But on the positive, no one goes up there ever.  

 Headed out to find a local comic book shop called Desert Island, and I'm pleased to say I knew exactly how to get there, just based on being here for a week and knowing my way around.  Unfortunately when I got there it was still closed even though it was meant to be open at midday.  So headed to my next stop the keg and lantern brewery in greenpoint.  Unlike most breweries or bars it opened at 11am.  I grabbed a flight of 4 beers and chilled at the bar.  It was most definitely a local bar, filled with people who drink there every day.  I kept to myself mostly, until after I came back from the bathroom and saw the giant wall of beer cans they had.  I of course took photos, cos that's what I do. An old man local dude commented that at least one person a day takes a photo of it.  I laughed and was like of course, it's amazing.  Chatted to him for a while.  He was clearly an alcoholic as he comes here first every day at 11am had like 6 Budweiser bottles, then once next bar opens at like 2, he moves on to them as they have bid on draught.  He lives in queens, but loves Brooklyn.  Just hates how all the young hipsters have taken it over which is pretty fair I guess. He's lived in the area a long time. After my beer flight I scored a free shot o Jamison whiskey as the beer rep was at the bar and shouting shots. Win!!  I finished on an imperial pumpkin ale, which was delicious.  We don't get a lot of good pumpkin beers back home, so I've gotta make the most of it.  Great local bar that was super chillaxed.

 From here, I walked to McCarren park to eat my sandwich id made earlier for lunch.  It started to rain a little bit, but not too bad. My sandwich was delicious thanks for asking!  Next up went to Torst a beer bar like 100m away.  Hadn't planned on going here, was going to head up to Long Island city/queens for a brewery but decided to put that off until tomorrow as more logical.

 Torst was pretty cool. Very minimalist, but had an AMAZING tap list.  I started off with a $5 can of sour beer.  It was great.  Then ordered. 5oz pour of an Evil twin smoked porter and an 8oz pour of evil twin imperial stout with coffee and raspberries.  Holy shit that last beer has to be the favourite of my trip.  Mind blowingly good.  Whilst I was at the bar, a group of Brazilian tourists came in just to buy the beer glasses for $15 a pop.  Apparently, that is a thing that happens a few times a day.  I still don't get it.  It's a rad bar.  The beer is great, but it's not a brewery and unless you'd had a rad night there and wanted to remember it forever via a beer glass that isn't even labelled, I don't get why you'd want one.  These folks some in, ordered 4 glasses and then left, didn't even buy a beer. Apparently buying for their cousin back home, who hadn't ever been there either.  So weird.  

 Once I left here, I wandered down in the direction of greenpoint beer and ales.  It's by the waterfront on east river, so I detoured to try and get to the water.  It's an industrial area, sink had to climb through a gap in a wire fence and walk across an industrial site to get to the river.  It was so peaceful and quiet and beautiful.  Who says you can't find solitude in NYC?? I sat by the water on a concrete slab looking out over r Empire State Building and the new freedom tower (new wtc building) as the sun set.  Was beautiful.  From here headed back to greenpoint brewery and ordered a tasting flight.  So far 2 beers in and the beer is amazing.  In a big industrial area, but the space is really rad.  Next stop after I finish here is screamers vegan pizza joint, then back home. Trying to do it all on foot today, no subway.  This is my 2nd last night in NYC and money is running tight.  Hard to believe I have only 2 more sleeps and one full day left in the USA.  It's gone so quick, but on the other hand feels like forever ago I was in Yosemite hiking half dome.  Don't think my fitness level right now would let me do that!  As much as I don't want to go home or for this holiday to end, in looking forward to sleeping in my bed, seeing Vinnie, catching up with my besties and exercising and having a break from booze.  Been an amazing life changing, memorable trip.  I just thank anyone that has been part of it.  From random strangers at bars who made me feel like a local, to people I met after knowing online for so long, to friends I've had for so long and got to connect with again.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart.  Anyway enough mushy stuff, I have beer to drink!  THANKYOU MURICA!

 Friday 14th October

 Official last day in NYC.  Got up relatively early, 8am to repack all my bags and sort through all my shit.  That was quicker than I thought it would be. Ate the last of my cereal, made some sandwiches for the day and got rid of some rubbish.  Pretty sure my bags are going to be over the limit, but guess we’ll see.  Had a pretty cruisey day planned, which was going to finish up with Leon & Christy at Jazzfest at Bric in Brooklyn.  Once all sorted, I headed out about 11am to grab another bagel, this time only one.  I had Spinach & Artichoke on an everything bagel and it was fucking delicious. I really could have eaten more, but thought better of it.  Once I finished the bagel, I grabbed a coffee from Oslo coffee and headed down to the East River.  First stop was the ferry terminal, where I got some good photos of the Williamsburg Bridge and Manhattan.  I laid on the bench here for a while just soaking up the sun and listening to podcasts. After about an hour, I got up and headed back to Van Leeuwen ice-cream, which I’d passed on the way.  I had 2 scoops on a waffle cone – salted caramel and butternut squash and pecan cookie.  It was so good.  From here I was heading to the East River Park, which is where Smorgasburg is hosted on the weekend.  Laid down on the sandy beach area then on the grass for an hour or so, just soaking up rays and listening to my podcast.  Such a super chill relaxed last day in NYC & Brooklyn.  Next up from here I was walking up to Queens/LIC to check out the waterfront there and then find some breweries.  On the way passed a pretty cool looking craft beer bar called Kent Ale House so popped in there for a beer.  Good draught list and the bar was already decorated for Halloween.  Took me about 45min to walk to the Long Island City (LIC) waterfront, but it was so nice.  They had some lovely boardwalks, parks and a tonne of chairs, benches and lounges to sit on.  After taking some photos of the Queensboro Bridge and the area, I laid down on a bench, and you guessed it listened to some more podcasts for about 45min.  Also ate my sandwich here that I’d made earlier. Left here just before 4pm and headed to Transmitter brewery, which was just under the bridge that crosses over from Brooklyn to Queens.  This brewery was absolutely tiny, and only offered samples and bottle sales.  I certainly had no room in my case for any more beer as much as I wanted to take some.  I tried 3 samples and they were all fucking delicious.  They had some great sours, and interesting flavours.  Next time I’m here I’ll definitely be back as they were awesome.  They had a cool dog there too!  After some tips from Leon, I headed to check out a bar called The Creek and The Cave. It is a Mexican restaurant, comedy venue and pinball bar downstairs.  Headed downstairs, had a beer and played some pinball.  Super cool venue, wish could have stayed longer, but had 2 more breweries to hit.  Next stop was Big Alice Brewery, which was about 15min away.  It was in a warehouse area, super close to the Queensboro Bridge. They were quite small, but had plenty of space in the brewery to sit down.  I got the beer flight of 6 beers, and they were all pretty good.  They even had free spent grain peanut butter cookies and apple slices which the bartender had made from the spent grain.  So cool.  The bartenders were all lovely and friendly and I really enjoyed this place. From here my last stop in LIC was the LIC beer project.  Again this was only another 15min walk away, so got there in no time.  This brewery was a little bit bigger and again had some awesome beers on draught.  I had planned on drinking 3, but I was running out of time.  Also the beer I finished with was 9.5%, so probably didn’t need any more!  After finishing up my beer here, I ate my second sandwich on the way to the station. I was heading down into Brooklyn to go the Jazzfest at Bric.  Had planned on being there about 8pm, but didn’t get there til about 8.30pm.  Luckily, Leon, Christy and their other mate (who I have forgotten his name already), were late too and arrived 5 min after me. The setup of this place was pretty cool. They had one big room, and about 5 or 6 little rooms where different musicians were playing.  Christy and Leon really wanted to check out one artist called Jose James, so we hit the mainstage first.  The band on before him was really good even though we only caught about 10min of their set.  Jose James came on, and he was definitely looking all rock star.  It was just him and a drummer.  He crossed boundaries between jazz, hip hop, sort of blues, but he was very entertaining.  He even had a guy join him on stage to do some beatboxing which was awesome.  After his set had finished we saw some music in different rooms, then came back to the mainstage for the big act, which was old school jazz musicians just riffing off each other and doing solos and telling cool stories.

 From here, we left to go get some drinks.  I can’t remember the name of any of the places, but we hit up one venue for a drink, then left to go catch some music at a different venue.  The second venue was super fun.  They had good drinks, good vibe and the music was awesome. We danced and chatted and had such a fun time.  By about 2am I realised I really needed to get home, as I was flying out the next day. I really didn’t want to leave and I wanted to stay and party all night with these guys, but common sense got the better of me for once.  It was hard saying goodbye to Leon & Christy as they were so fun, accommodating and showed me an amazing time in NYC.  I grabbed an uber home, went up to the rooftop one last time, sat on the fire escape one last time and tried to delay going to bed as I knew that when I woke up it was time to go home.  Tiredness got the better of me and I fell asleep about 3am.  Such an amazing last day in NYC, it really is such a cool place.

 Saturday 15th October

Thursday October 6th

Started off my day by catching a train to Sam Adams brewery for a tour at 9.40am.  It is a huge facility that takes over a couple of blocks.  It was a voluntary donation of $2, which they donate all money to local charities:  helping underprivileged kids; preservation of the cemetery where Sam Adams is buried; and a fund to help upcoming small breweries/food businesses. For the $2 you get the tour and get to sample all 5 beers they have on tap. As our group was small, it meant we pretty much got the equivalent of 10 beer samples.  The beers they have on tap are generally all small batch and limited edition samples/test batches, which is pretty rad.  You also got to keep the glass.  Noah, our tour guide was fantastic and showed us how to taste beer properly. No one has managed to explain this properly before.  The tour itself was pretty standard, got to see malt and hops and see where the beer is brewed. This facility does most of the smaller batch stuff and barrel aged beers, they do all their bigger stuff out of another facility.  Sam Adams brewery tend to look after the people that look after them.  After the tour got chatting to a couple who were on vacation, so we headed off to  Doyle’s café, which is one of the first cafe’s to support and serve Sam Adams.  I wanted to try their Boston Brick Red Ale, which is exclusively sold in Boston only. The bonus of this place was that if you did the brewery tour, you get the glass for free, which is a specially designed glass for the Sam Adams beer. I had a quick bite to eat here as well. The couple were lovely and was nice to hang out.  Once we finished here, I headed back to the hostel to drop off the 3 bottles of beer that I had bought.  I hadn’t intended on buying beer here, but they had some fantastic barrel aged beers and also a collaboration with Tool.  

Wednesday October 5th

Had a little bit of a sleep in, then showered and had breakfast.  I had booked in to do a walking tour, at the suggestion of Kat that Boston has a lot of history.  I realised I should probably explore some of the history.  The tour kicked off at 11am, and it appeared to be a pretty big group. Our guide was dressed up in period costume and was an “actor”.  The tour was only like $15, went for 90min, covered only 1 mile, and did a bit of the freedom trail.  So the tour kicked off in the Boston Common.  I learnt that the first settler from England came out here and called this land his home.  I don’t recall his name.  He was a hermit and brought with him a tonne of books and liked to keep to himself. Then after a few years, a bunch of puritans came across from England trying to escape religious persecution. After settling further north, they discovered that the water was no good.  They came to the lonely hermit for advice as to where to find drinkable water, he gave them the information they needed.  But then it took a sour turn, he wouldn’t convert to their religion and they weren’t happy about it.  So they pretty much burnt down his house and ran him out of town.  Boston Common was also the site of many public hangings, from witches to pirates to everyone in between.  They called the area they hung people the death gallows.  The site where the death gallows was originally, is now a playground…. What sick fucks.  They say that there are a tonne of people buried here, and every so often they will discover the remains of someone.  The Boston common is also the oldest public park in the USA.    It is also meant to be super haunted.   We also learnt about the new and the old state house.  The new one is built to then north of Boston common and it was built not long after the English built the first one. However, the Bostonians didn’t like the first one as the British built it.  So they built a better one.  The dome on it was originally made from wood, then copper and now gold.  It was completed in 1798.  Then next stop was the Granary Burial Ground, which is one of the oldest burial grounds in Boston.  It is home to Paul Revere, who was a patriot in the American Revolution.  He is best known for alerting the colonial militia to the approach of British forces before the battles of Lexington and concord. He had 2 wives, and 16 children (8 to each wife).  He lived until 84, which was pretty rare in those days.  His original tombstone was tiny and just said Revere, however much later his family erected a monument.  People now put copper coins and silver coins (dimes and pennies) on top of the monument as a sign of respect, as he was a silver/coppersmith. Also buried here is the woman known as mother goose.  Apparently, as legend goes, Elizabeth Goose who had 6 children, married Isaac Goose who had 10 children.  She had to try and keep them entertained, so she made up stories and nursery rhymes. If you believe this urban legend, as most do, she has no gravestone here, only her sister Mary does.  Most people come here mistakenly thinking that Mary is mother goose.  Also, they say that Elizabeth once had a headstone, but it was stolen by tourists. Also here is John Hancock, who was the first to sign the declaration of independence on 4th July.  He signed his name so large as he thought he was the only one signing it, not realising another 3 needed to sign. Hence the phrase “give us your john Hancock, in reference to signing your name”.

 Next on the freedom trail, was the statue of ben franklin at the site of the first public school in Boston. Fun fact, in May this year severe wind knocked this statue over and it had to be checked, repaired and re-erected. At the other end of this courtyard, is the democracy donkey.  It first appeared in 1837 in a political cartoon satirizing the recently retired president Andrew Jackson.  Known to his opponents as jackass.  Several decades later, cartoonist Thomas Nast popularized the donkey symbol, although he too intended it as an insult.  Nast also helped to establish the elephant as the Republican Party mascot in a cartoon from 1874.  Although the donkey had not been adopted as the official symbol of the Democratic Party, all twenty of the democratic mayors who served at the old city hall used the well-known mascot.  This sculptured donkey is depicted looking down at a pair of footprints cast in bronze. The republican elephant is inscribed in both footprints, and a cryptic message appears “stand in opposition”. But who is opposing what? Visitors are encouraged to sit on the donkey if you’re a democrat or stand in the footprints and butt heads with the donkey if you are a republican.  From here, we walked past another cemetery and also past a super haunted hotel, which I’ll talk more about when I do the ghost tour tomorrow night. Second last stop on the tour was the old state house building.  On March 5, 1770 the Boston massacre occurred in front of this building.  From what I understand, it was all a bit of a misunderstanding  involving people yelling “fire” as their houses burnt down, but the army or whatever they were called thought this meant to “shoot”.  So they shot up a bunch of people.  In the aftermath, a lot of propaganda went out, to kind of brainwash or sway popular opinion.  Paul Revere was credited with drawing a depiction of the massacre, even though he didn’t draw it.  In the picture, a lot of creative freedom was used (eg.   Use of the word “butcher” to denote a butcher shop that didn’t exist).  Also, on this site in 1776 the declaration of independence was proclaimed from the east side balcony by Col. Thomas Crafts. The lion and the unicorn on the top of the building were removed and burned in a bonfire in king street.  They were redone in 1882.  The tour finished up at Faneuil Hall, which has been a marketplace since 1743.  Interestingly enough, it used to be on stilts as this whole area was underwater, until they filled in a heap of the land (hence the term back bay).  Faneuil hall was the site of several speeches by Sam Adams, James Otis and other big figures.  Now people still come to do speeches, including Hilary Clinton.  On top of the building, there is a weather vane which has a grass hopper on it.  If you believe the stories, people used to check whether you were a spy by asking “what’s on top of Faneuil hall”, if you didn’t know the answer you’d be presumed to be a spy and beaten.  

From here the tour ended and I carried on down the street to have a drink in the pub that is the oldest in Boston, the green dragon.  It was a pretty cool pub and I ended up having some deep fried pickles cos they were on the menu any why not?  Turns out this pub isn’t the original pub, it was destroyed in 1864 and is not even on the original site where the first pub was.  But it had a cool story, originally it opened in 1657, and it was deemed the headquarters of the American Revolution.  The British’s plan to capture Sam Adams & John Hancock was discovered at this location, when a 13 year old boy overhead the discussion between 2 British officers. Several political clubs spray up during this time including the north end caulkers club, which is where we get the term “caucus”.  This group was responsible for the disposition of the tea in the harbour and the ensuing Boston Tea Party.  From here wandered back down to Boston Common area and started to do a bit of a walking tour of Back Bay.  Went past Arlington St church, and wandered in the Public Garden, which has some cool bronze statues of famous people (including George Washington).  Other cool thing the park has is the “make way for ducklings” bronze statues.  They are tiny, but attract visitors from all over.  It is based on the book of the same name by Robert McCloskey released in 1941, where Mr & Mrs Mallard come to Boston to find the perfect home.  They find the public garden, and decide to spend the night on the little island in the lagoon.  They are about to make their home permanent in the public garden, but a child rushes by on a bicycle and they declare the park too dangerous. They fly over Beacon Hill and the Charles River finding a nice spot to settle.  After her ducklings hatch, Mrs Mallard teaches them to swim and brings them back to the Lagoon in the public garden.  Cool story!

Next stop is the Cheers bar, which was originally called Bull & Finch.  When developing the show “cheers” produced scoped out lots of local bars in Boston, but this is the one they liked.  There are 3 different bars in this place now, one that is exactly like the one used on set.   I had one drink here and had a good chat with an old dude at the bar, who had been doing a road trip as well, however he is planning to settle in Boston.  From here walked over to the Charles River Esplanade, which had lovely river views, some nice parks and cool views of Boston. Here, I crossed the Arthur Fiedler Memorial Bridge and at the banks of the river found his memorial, a portrait of him which is pretty cool.  He was a very influential musician and composer in Boston.  From here, walked back down past the public park, but turned into Commonwealth Ave, which is a beautiful street with a park lining the middle strip.  The houses that surround it are beautiful and big.  I’m sure they’d cost a fortune.  Walked past the first Baptist church, which was a beautiful old church, covered in green vines.  It was founded in 1665.  Then I headed towards Newbury Street, which is a bit of a fancy shopping strip.  Not much for me to look at here, as not interested in shopping particularly.  But the buildings were beautiful and quaint.  I headed across the road to the Boston Public library and had a wander around inside.  It was just beautiful inside, and they had some amazing rooms for you to either research or read.  Some of it was super old and some of it was super modern.  I almost got lost.  They also had a nice little courtyard in the middle with statues and nice gardens. After I finished here, I wandered across the street to look at the Trinity Episcopal Church, which was beautiful and old.  It was located in Copley square.  I couldn’t’ go inside as they had a function on there that night, so it was closed.  They had a beautiful fountain out the front as well. From here I headed back to Newberry Street and grabbed a delicious salad at a place called Sweet Green.  It was amazing.  From here headed down towards the waterfront again, so I could join the ghost tour that I’d booked that night.  Walked past King’s burial ground which is the oldest burial ground in Boston. Popped in to Ginger man, which is a massive awesome beer bar with a huge selection of beer.  It is a bit corporate and lacks a bit of character, but the beer I had was delicious.  

Walked across to where my Ghost Tour took off from.  There were people dressed up as ghosts and ghouls, and I figured that this tour would be a bit kitsch and not so scary.  Bit more theatrical.  It went for 90min, and we toured around on a bus decorated all Halloween style, cobwebs and spiders and everything spooky.  First stop was Copp’s hill burial ground.  Heard the story of George Worthylake who was the caretaker of the lighthouse I’d seen out in the Outer Bay the day before.  George, his wife and child were killed when their boat capsized in the harbor.  The next person to take the job, same deal the whole family drowned.  Then after that, every person that took the job met the same fate – death.  In the end they couldn’t find anyone to take the job, so the coast guard took over duties from the mainland.  Weird thing is, in their logs every time they saw the ghost of George Worthylake, they’d write his initials – GW, in the log book.  There were a lot of entries and you can still see this log books today. Also, in this cometary, during a really heavy rain storm not that long ago, the cemetery flooded and a section of wall collapsed, meaning a lot of skeletons and mud went flying down the street. They had to rebuild the wall and you can see where new bricks and mortar have been added.  Couldn’t find reference to it online, but seems like it might be true.   Went to Granary burial ground next, which I’d been to this morning on the freedom trail tour, but got a few different ghost stories, most of which I’d heard before.  Had a woman dressed as a ghost jump out from behind a grave, which wasn’t that scary, just surprising.  She told the story of James Allen who robbed horses (a highway man), and one time he tried to rob John Fenno, on a horse, and John fought back.  The police caught this guy and imprisoned him for life.  In prison, this guy wrote a book called the highway man.  On his death, his wish was to have the first copy bound in his own flesh and delivered to John Fenno.  John received this book and loved and cherished it.  It is now on display in the Boston Athenaeum, which is the building behind this burial ground.  On the way back to the starting point, our guide told the story of the Boston Strangler and also the story of Jane Topan, who was an American serial killer.  I had heard this story on “my favorite murder” podcast a few days earlier.  

In 1885, Toppan began training to be a nurse at Cambridge Hospital. During her residency, she used her patients as guinea pigs in experiments with morphine and atropine; she would alter their prescribed dosages to see what it did to their nervous systems. However, she would spend a lot of time alone with those patients, making up fake charts and medicating them to drift in and out of consciousness and even getting into bed with them. It is not known whether any sexual activity went on when her victims were in this state but when Jane Toppan was asked after her arrest, she answered that she derived a sexual thrill from patients being near death, coming back to life and then dying again. Toppan would administer a drug mixture to patients she chose as her victims, lie in bed with them and hold them close to her as they died. This is quite uncommon for female serial killers, who usually murder for material gain and not sexual satisfaction. She was recommended for the prestigious Massachusetts General Hospital in 1889; there, she claimed several more victims before being fired the following year. She briefly returned to Cambridge but was soon dismissed for prescribing opiates recklessly. She then began a career as a private nurse and flourished despite complaints of petty theft.

She began her poisoning spree in earnest in 1895 by killing her landlords. In 1899, she killed her foster sister Elizabeth with a dose of strychnine.

In 1901, Toppan moved in with the elderly Alden Davis and his family in Cataumet to take care of him after the death of his wife (whom Toppan herself had murdered). Within weeks, she killed Davis and two of his daughters. She then moved back to her hometown and began courting her late foster sister's husband, killing his sister and poisoning him so she could prove herself by nursing him back to health. She even poisoned herself to evoke his sympathy. The ruse did not work, however, and he cast her out of his house.

The surviving members of the Davis family ordered a toxicology exam on Alden Davis' youngest daughter. The report found that she had been poisoned, and local authorities put a police detail on Toppan. On October 29, 1901, she was arrested for murder.

By 1902, she had confessed to 31 murders. On June 23, in the Barnstable County Courthouse, she was found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed for life in theTaunton Insane Hospital.

Soon after the trial, one of William Randolph Hearst's newspapers, the New York Journal, printed what was purported to be Toppan's confession to her lawyer that she had killed more than 31 people and that she wanted the jury to find her insane so she could eventually have a chance at being released. Whether or not that was truly Toppan's intention is unknown. She remained at Taunton for the rest of her life.  She is quoted as saying that her ambition was "to have killed more people — helpless people — than any other man or woman who ever lived...".

Once, we got dropped off I walked back to the hostel, past the Old South Meeting house, which was built in 1729 as a puritan meeting house.  Benjamin Franklin was born here, in 1773 more than 5000 people gathered here to protest the tax on tea and heard Sam Adams give the signal that started the Boston tea party.  Now it is used as an active meeting place and museum.  

I got back to the hostel, researched my plan for tomorrow for a while and crashed straight away.  Had been a full on busy day and I learnt a lot about Boston history, which I didn’t know any of.  

Sunday October 2nd

 Got up about 7.30am, had some quick breakfast, showered and grabbed my car from the parking lot. Luke helped me lug my bags upstairs, and then I made my start towards Albany. Was rad to meet Luke & Butters. Will have to come back to Toronto someday!

 The drive was about 6 hours, so planned to get in by about 4pm.  Was a pretty uneventful drive to Albany, lots of highway.  Although did pass through some beautiful autumn coloured trees. Did have to cover some of the same ground coming back from Toronto, but was only like an hour.  

 Got into Albany as planned about 4pm, grabbed park pretty easily near Shannon's place.  First time I've met Shannon, but have known her for ages on social media through garbage!  She lived on top of a Mexican shop which is cool!  I'd get so fat and broke!

 Shannon's place was rad. Very cool, also she has 2 cats, one of which is just amazing!  So fluffy and big!! Pepe is the best and loves tummy rubs.  Also there is a bird and a chinchilla.  

 After some cat snuggling, Shannon took me for a walk into town, there are some amazing buildings here and it looks really pretty.  After our walk into town, grabbed some Mexican at a local place (not the one under her place), which was damn delicious!  The margaritas were the bomb too.  Dropped back into her place to put the leftover Mexican in fridge, and I met her other half jay.  We all headed across the road to the local pub for a few beers.  Rad local pub.  We all called it a night by about 10, as all pretty tired.  Headed across the road to their place and crashed.

  Monday October 3rd

 Got up about 7ish. Had some more cat cuddles, Pepe just knows what she wants... Belly rubs!  Had a shower and some breakfast, then headed out in the road to Boston. Was only a 4 hour drive or so, but had to get the rental car back by midday.  The drive was beautiful.  Even got to cross into Vermont! I passed through some beautiful landscapes, all the leaves were turning amazing autumn colours.  Very pretty.  Drove past some beautiful lakes and some awesome quaint towns, where every house had a US flag out the front!  Some towns had amazing antique shops and awesome collections of outdoor lawn decorations.  Cool drive. Stopped off a few times for photos. Some of the places I drove through were: Troy (home to Uncle Sam), Wilmington and Marlboro. Stopped off at one point to repack my bags a little.  As I’d be dropping the car off, suddenly all my possessions will be in 2 suitcases.  Not just a car boot!  Confronting!

 Got into Boston just after midday, pulled into the hertz lot and forgot I had to have a full tank. Spent the next 30min driving around Boston trying to find a gas station.  The gps kept sending me in the wrong direction. Or to convenience stores not gas stations.  Eventually found one and dropped the car off.  I'd done about 7000 miles since I picked it up in LA!! Traffic is nuts in Boston! Also lots of one way streets!  Got an uber from the rental to the hostel, as I wasn't lugging 2 suitcases and a back pack 6 blocks!

 Got to the hostel just on 2pm and luckily I could check in early.  The hostel, just like the other HI's I'd stayed at was great.  I was in the bottom bunk, in a 6 bed dorm right by the window.  I hung around the room for a while, updating some blogs and checking emails.  

 I headed out for dinner at my Thai vegan restaurant, and it was delicious.  I had some rice paper rolls and then some fake chicken cashew & broccoli stir fry.  Next stop was a beer bar called the tip tap room. Had a couple of beers here before calling it a night.  I was super tired and needed a good night’s sleep.  Got back to hostel about 11 & went straight to sleep!

 Tuesday 4th October

 Got up, had free breakfast downstairs that consisted of bagels with peanut butter & jelly, OJ and coffee.  Then walked down to the Boston common which was like 5min from my hostel.  Got there around 11am.  Swung past dunkin donuts, as pretty famous in Boston, and I grabbed a coffee.  Sat in the park reading a comic and sipping my coffee.  Was a beautiful day.  The park was pretty cool and even contained a cemetery.  Next stop was a harbour boat tour.  Walked to the dock it left from and bought my ticket.  Grabbed a beer in the sun at the bar in front of the boarding gate.  Boarded the boat about 12.45pm and secured a good seat on the top deck.  Was beautiful in the sun.  Grabbed a beer to drink and settled in for a 90min tour of the harbour.

 The tour cruised in front of the Boston harbour, in front of a cool famous hotel, called Boston harbour hotel.  Had an amazing archway between buildings.  It went past the site where many years ago, in 1773 the Boston tea party threw an entire shipment of tea into the Boston harbor as a protest. Went past an amazing shipping container yard that was filling up a ship.  It was huge!  Cruised past Castle Island, which had a castle on it but is not an island anymore. Then started to see some of the 34 islands that are in the outer Boston harbor.  Amazing.  One of them is called Spectacle Island.  It used to house people with diseases.  It also used to be the dumping ground for all the trash in Boston, until eventually they realised it just blew back to the mainland.  Next Island was Long Island.  Many years ago it was host to a hospital and later on a shelter for the homeless. In 2014, the bridge that connected it to the mainland was demolished, cutting off power supply to the island. The bridge was destroyed and now no one is in the island and the buildings are empty.  Also on this island are massive ammunition silos, which the Boston public library used to store a tonne of their books.  Thankfully they never had to use the ammunition silos. Also there is a lighthouse here on one of these islands that I could see as well.  It was pretty chilly on the top deck of this boat going into the wind, but well worth it.  Got some rad facts and views of Boston skyline.  

 From here after cruise over, walked to harpoon brewery which was about 20min away.  It is a huge brewery.  Managed to get there in time to score a brewery tour at 4pm.  Grabbed a flight of beers first and the most amazing night pretzel I've ever eaten.  Damn it was so good.  Warm. Fresh.  Delicious and cooked in beer.  Perfect.  The brewery tour was pretty good.  99% of the beers they brew are out of here, the remaining 1% is done out of Vermont. At the end of the tour, went to the tasting room at back of brewery, where we got to sample as many beers as we wanted I like 30min.  I got through them all!  He tasting room was rad and had a huge collection of old beer cans along the wall that were donated from someone's collection.  Really awesome tour for $5!  Well worth it!

Thursday 29th September

Got up, had breakfast and checked out of the hostel.  Went and picked my car up from the parking garage and then made my way to Grand Rapids. It was a 3 hour drive and it was pretty uneventful.  I got into Grand Rapids about 2pm.  The house I was staying in was amazing, beautiful big old house.  I met Scott who was my host, his wife wasn’t’ home yet. I got all my things inside, and then after some tips from Scott headed out down to Founders Brewery.  They were the reason I came to stay in Grand Rapids to begin with.  It was a short, 25min walk to the brewery and it managed to not rain on me much at all, just a bit of spit.  The brewery was huge and I got there about 2.30pm.  I grabbed a seat at the bar and got a tasting flight.  After the first flight, I decided to have a second flight as too many beers that I wanted to try and they were all super strong.  This flight, all of the beers were over 10%, bar one. The coffee pale ale.  After chatting with the bartender about how hard a decision it was to not include KBS in my taster, as I wanted to try the other ones, he came out with a tasting goblet for me of KBS and said that I can’t come here and not have it direct from the source.  He was right of course and it was fucking amazing.  This beer is just so good.  He also brought me out a goodie bag with some stickers, tattoos, beer coaster and a brochure in it.  Super cool. After the beers here, was feeling a bit tipsy, but headed off to my next brewery anyway.  Along the way stopped off at the river to take a photo.  The next brewery was only 15min walk, so headed there.  It was called Grand Rapids Brewing Company.  Again sat at the bar, ordered a tasting flight and also some fried pickles of course.  Got chatting to the girl and her mum sitting next to her.  It was her birthday and they were out to celebrate.  We chatted for a while about her experiences in Europe as a nanny and how bad they were.  They were both super nice and it was her birthday!  Once I’d finished the beers, I headed off a whole 2 minutes around the corner and found a seat at the bar at Hop Cat Brewery.  I got a tasting flight of course, and once again got chatting to the old guy next to me.  I thought at first he might have been a bit creepy, but he wasn’t, just genuinely interested in conversation and hearing about our politics back home as well as talking US politics.  He left after a little while, so I then started talking to the couple next to me. They were both locals, and super nice. I had planned on going out to get vegan dinner then hitting up a 3rd brewery, but I was having too much fun here. Stayed way later than had planned and ended up getting a lift home from them, which was super cool as it was late, wet and I was tired.

 Friday 30th September

Woke up about 9am, was pretty tired and a little hungover.  Heaaded downstairs for breakfast.  I had an orange juice and a coffee and some cereal.  I also met Scott’s wife, Karen, who was just lovely. Super nice and friendly.  Had a great chat, before she headed off to work. After breakfast, I packed up all my things, loaded the car, said goodbye to Scott and headed off to Cleveland. Left a little later than planned, so headed straight for the Rock n Roll hall of fame.  I got there about 3.15pm, and grabbed a park out the front.  This museum was just awesome.  They had exhibits on Elvis, on different styles of music, different era’s of music, different guitars, les Paul guitars and heaps more.  Some of my favourite exhibits were the outfits/costumes of famous musicians including Michael Jackson, David bowie, guns n roses, Metallica; the AP ‘alternative press’ exhibition, which focuses on 30 years of the magazine and included a cover of the magazine with Shirley Manson on it.  Also got to see memorabilia from Liz Phair, Sheryl Crow, Madonna, Lady GaGa, Patti Smith, Nirvana, Beatles, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and so much more. But of course my favourite was seeing Shirley Manson’s dress and boots from the Stupid Girl video.  Wasn’t expecting it, and it was so cool.  The other cool thing was a letter Madonna wrote whilst in college to a friend in Canada.  Was super cool to read. Went to the inductees’ exhibition, which had footage showing of all the bands that got inducted, plus had all their signatures on the wall which was cool.  Last exhibition was the relationship between music and politics.  It took you through how music has been used over the decades to unite people and to get together for a cause.  Whether that be outrage or celebration. It was interesting to see what songs had been banned and why.  It showed artists that penned songs in relation to war and riot and everything in between.  It was kind of cool.  The last thing I saw was some FBI files, that were copies obviously but had letters to Edgar J Hoover of the FBI protesting that The Doors were obscene and needed to be banned, and letters back from him agreeing.  They had letters that were sent to the Beatles threatening them not to perform somewhere, and also a whole bunch of correspondence to Whitney Houston from a stalker.  There were so many pages.  So many. I stayed right up until close, and then when I got back out the front realised I’d gotten a parking ticket which was bloody annoying, as I’d missed it by like 20min.  Grr.

Was trying to decide whether I’d head straight to Cedar Point Amusement Park or if I should check into the hostel first.  The front desk shuts at 10pm and I didn’t want to miss it.  Then I debated whether I would even go to Cedar Point, as it had been raining the entire drive to Cleveland and the entire time I was at the Rock N Roll hall of fame.  Part of me just really wanted to kick back in and have a quiet night.  I decided I’d check into hostel and dump all my stuff then head out to cedar point.  The hostel was super basic, but it was clean so that was really all that mattered. I only had one other person in my room at that stage.  I got back in the car and drove to Cedar Point, which I had driven past earlier in the day, but the park didn’t open until 6pm.  It was only an hour drive, but still I was over driving so much.  The drive was uneventful, until I made the turn onto Cedar Point Road, which pretty much saw me driving 4 miles on a road surrounded by water on both sides by Lake Erie. The amusement park is located on a peninsula, which is amazing.  It was at this point that I thought I should have brought a jacket, as being surrounded by lake breeze on all sides could get cold.  I got there about 7.30pm, found a park and headed in.  It was pretty quiet for amusement park standards which made lining up for rides pretty bloody easy.  As it was Halloween, there were a lot of decorations up at the park which was cool.  During the course of the night I went on every rollercoaster that was open, and a couple of them twice.  I walked through the spooky haunted end of the park, where people were dressed up as ghosts and ghouls and tried to scare you…..it worked a few times on me!  Also did the corn maze, which is where you walk in a maze, that is covered in fog and get the shit scared out of you by actors who are dressed up and have chainsaws.  It was pretty fun!  I even got a beer at an old western saloon, and was able to walk around with it, which was even cooler.  Not that having a beer before a rollercoaster was a smart idea.  I managed to get a vegan hot dog for dinner from pinks and at the end of the night some fries from Johnny rockets.  My favourite rollercoasters were the Valvran, which was relatively new, it is the tallest dive coaster at 223 feet, fastest dive coaster at 75mph, longest dive coaster at 3415ft, most inversions at 3 and highest inversion at 165 feet. I did this twice, first time had to line up for a while, second time didn’t have to line up at all.  My other favourite was the top thrill dragster, where you literally climb 420 feet in the air vertically at 90 degrees and then come down the other side, vertically at 120mph, it was fucking awesome.  Only did this once as they were having technical difficulties. They were my 2 fav’s, but they had some great damn coasters at this park.  Other fav’s were Magnum XL-200 and Millennium Force.  So much fun.  The rain stayed away all night, and only at 11.55pm when I was leaving the park to go to the car did it start to rain again.  Such good timing.  Got back to hostel about 1am, uploaded some photos, had a beer and went to bed. Super fun day and Cleveland looked like a cool city.  Lots of brew pubs along the street I was staying on that I would have loved to have checked out.  Oh well, next time.  

 Saturday 1st October

Got up pretty early, 7am, considering I’d had pretty much no sleep.  Had breakfast, and checkout of the hostel.  Wasn’t much to pack considering I’d only been there for like 6 hours.  Today heading towards Toronto via Niagara Falls.  The drive was about 3.5 hours.  Got to the first part of the Niagara River on the American side about 11.45am.  It’s amazing you can see the mist from the Horseshoe Falls for miles.  Found a carpark on the American Falls side and walked around the Falls Park.  I’d never been to the falls on the American side before, and whilst the view is not as good as the Canadian side, it is still pretty awesome.  You can walk to the top of the both of the American falls, which is pretty cool and you get a nice view of the city on the Canadian side.  It was actually pretty warm at Niagara Falls, like 23 degrees. The cool thing about the American side is you can see all the people down below doing cave of winds, which is basically where they get to walk under the falls and get saturated.  There was also a tonne of rainbows reflecting off the mist and the water cascading over the edge.  I walked back up via the river path, so got to see some nice views of the Niagara River before it flows over the edge.  

Headed over the Rainbow Bridge to Canada, but kind of forgot that I was crossing a border.  Was legitimately surprised by the questions “how long in Canada for”  “when last here”  “are you bringing booze in”.  I kind of forgot it was a whole nother country, lol. Luckily I got through ok, and crossed over the border.  It was crazy busy here, last time it was a lot later and a lot colder, so no as many people, whereas it was packed today.  I found a carpark, which cost me $20 and walked to the Horseshoe Falls. The falls are pretty impressive and the noise is very loud.  But the most amazing thing is the mist that comes off.  It’s like a rainstorm.  I drove through the mist whilst finding a carpark, and I had to put my poncho on to walk through it close up, as otherwise my camera would have been wet.  I wandering up the trail for a mile or so taking photos of both of the falls.  It was a beautiful day and the blue sky was out.  Was frustrated by all the slow tourists and people just blocking the path and stopping.  I only stayed here about an hour before jumping back in the car and heading to Toronto. The drive was only about 1.5 hours, but what I hadn’t’ realised is that my GPS only works in USA as does my phone SIM card.  So I thankfully, managed to get on free Wi-Fi long enough to plug the address for Luke’s into Google Maps, and I had to use that to get me to Toronto.  Super annoying, surely a USA GPS should come with Canadian maps.  The drive was nice and I got to drive along Lake Erie for a while, very pretty. I got in to Luke’s place about 4.30pm.  I got to meet his super adorable cat Butters too, who was super cheeky, just like Vincent!

Monday September 26th

Got up, had breakfast at the hostel, which was pretty much 2 bagels with peanut butter and strawberry jam, which is my staple hostel diet for breakfast foods.  Headed out to go for a walk along the river, before doing my architecture cruise.  Walked up East Congress St, where I was staying to Grant Park and Buckingham Fountain. The fountain is just opposite Lake Michigan and all the lake walking trails.  The fountain, is absolutely massive and sprays water a long way.  I tried to walk through but got saturated. Shoots up super high into the air. Continued walking along the lake path towards navy pier and the river mouth.  Wasn’t really sure where I wanted to head to.  The harbour is beautiful and has heaps of yachts and boats and I’m sure they are all very expensive.  Then decided I’d walk along the river trail towards where my tour departed from. They had lots of little bars and restaurants that had not yet opened up for the day, but I’m sure it’d have been nice at night.  They even had a pumpkin patch set up ready for Halloween.  Continued along the river path, until got told couldn’t go any further as they’d closed it down so they could film a movie scene, so headed up to the street level to find a coffee.  Didn’t see anyone famous unfortunately.  Grabbed a coffee from a delicious looking bakery and slowly walked back towards where my tour took off.  Met a lovely couple who were on vacation from California.  Their son lives in Sydney and she was telling me about her 67 year old neighbour, who all of a sudden is getting tattoos.  She got a full sleeve and chest tattoo and wants more.  She also dyed her hair bright blue. So cool, I hope that’s me at 67.  The tour left at 11.30 and was fantastic.  It was taken by a volunteer who loves the architecture of the city. I managed to get a seat on the top deck right on the side.  

I am not going to remember all the stories of architecture, but it was fascinating at the time. Chicago really does have some pretty cool buildings.  Went past Trump tower, which made me nauseas.  But apparently the person who designed the building, designed it so each level of this skyscraper lined up with another sky scraper near it, which is pretty cool. Nothing to do with Trump though lol. Went past an old building that used to be a giant freezer storage facility, now it is residential.  Took them 6 weeks to thaw it out.  Went past weird looking townhouses that are on an angle down, there are 4 of them.  Totally weird.  The river has a tonne of bridges crossing it for traffic, and they all have the ability to open up to let boats through.  These days there are no boats that are big enough to regularly have the bridges open up.  The exception to that is twice a year for people to get their yachts out into the harbour.  For a week or so in April/May they will open them up at a certain time on a Wed and Sat to allow the yachts to be moored out in the harbour.  Then again in Sept/Oct they will open them up again to allow the yachts to be brought back in to the marina/docking for the winter.  Pretty cool.  Saw Sears Tower, which is now called Willis Tower.  This used to be the tallest building in the world, but got beaten unfortunately.  Heard some cool stories of buildings that light up during the holiday season and special events, but they have to be careful not to do it when birds are migrating as it will affect their flight pattern.  Also learnt a lot of the buildings have pyramids on top, as it was the trend at the time.  One building, even looked like the sphinx at the front, designed to look like he had head/paws and was sitting just as the sphinx was.  Also another building had a map of the river on the side and a red boat on it.  The red boat represented where the building was.  The tour was fantastic and I enjoyed it very much.

From here, decided I was going to head to Navy Pier, given I was pretty close to it.  So walked there along the river for some of the way and got there about 1.30pm.  Definitely a pretty area and great view of the city, but not a lot to see and do here. Just lots of tourist shops and food.  Wandered right down to the end, and saw the Ferris wheel but it was like $15, which is just ridiculous.  Got an ice-cream at Ben & Jerries and then a beer at the Goat Tavern.  Cool thing was you could walk around with it. Next stop was the Sears Tower.  I caught a bus down there as it was too far to walk.  The security was pretty tight at this building, understandably I guess. Went through metal detector and all.  Wasn’t much of a wait which was good, and got up to the top in no time.  I went 103 floors up and got up there in less than 60 seconds.  The views were amazing and the day was a super clear one, with nice blue skies. Even lined up to stand on the platform that juts out from the side of the building.  It’s a clear platform and you can see straight down.  Didn’t have to pay extra to do that which was good. It was called the ledge.  Got some pretty cool photos!  From here headed to Goose Island Brewery, which I had to catch the train to, as again it was too far.  The bartender here was lovely and gave me lots of information about the beer.  I got a sample flight and also some hummus and vegetables which was yum.  

The lady that sat next to me starting talking to me and asking where I was from, so we had a discussion about Australia.   She then asked me if I was going to watch the debate, which I didn’t even know was on, so then we started talking politics and she said she didn’t know who she was going to vote for.  She seemed intelligent, was a psychotherapist and believed in marriage equality.  We had a good discussion about it and hopefully I’ve swayed her to vote Hilary!  After she left then started chatting to a lovely couple at the bar and a local dude that was into craft beer.  We were chatting all things beer and travel which was fun.  Once the couple left, chatted to the guy for a while about his love life and how he was a little homophobic.  It was a great conversation and hopefully I got through to him.  Ended up hanging around way longer than planned as good conversation.  He recommended a few breweries/bars, but given it was pretty late I decided I’d stick to a brewery closer to where I was staying rather than head further out.  So I went to Haymarket Brewery, grabbed a seat at the bar and had a few more beers.  The debate was on the TV between Hilary and Trump, so watched a bit of that.  From what I could tell, looked like Hilary was winning it and Trump was making a fool of himself by not really answering any questions directly.  Chatted to the guy next to me for a little bit about how he thought it was going, thankfully he was a Hilary supported not a Trump one.  Once debate was over I walked back to the hostel and crashed.  

 Tuesday 27th September

Had a big sleep in today, got up for breakfast and then lounged around the room for a while and caught up on some blogs.  Then planned out my day.  Decided I’d head out to the Conservatory at Garfield Park and then have lunch in the park.  So on my way to the train, I picked up some lunch and snacks from 7-11 and a vegan snack from the vegetarian café next door. Didn’t take long to get there on the train, so arrived about 1pm.  Walked around the conservatory which was very pretty. They had some amazing plants, and also some pretty cool water features including one with glass displays from Chihuy the guy whose exhibit we saw in Chicago.  Spent about an hour here before heading across to the park.  I found a nice spot to sit down and read, so I read my comic in the sun looking out over the lake.  I ate my lunch and had a quick little power nap as well.  I probably should have realised that I was starting to get into a bad neighbourhood, as I heard lots of police sirens, there were a lot of people just congregating at the park and hanging out in parked cars along the street.  But I didn’t’ really pick up on it, until I started walking towards my next destination – a brewery.  Suddenly the shops were pretty dingy and dirty, and I just got a bad vibe.  Police cars were going up and down the street patrolling and I was very aware of my surroundings.  I just walked as quickly as I could and got out of there as fast as I could.  Slowly, but surely I walked my way into a nicer neighbourhood and passed a bar that looked pretty rad, called Beetle.  I popped in for a beer on the way to the brewery.  When I googled the neighbourhood I was in, West Garfield, I learnt it was in the top 10 (came in 8th) most dangerous neighbourhoods in Chicago. Wow.  I knew to stay away from the South but not West.  Got chatting to a lady at the bar, who seemed nice enough. She was renovating her place and had popped in for a drink.  She asked if she could buy me one, but I was heading down the road to Forbidden Root, a brewery that uses a lot of botanics in their brewing process.  She had never heard of it, and wanted to check it out too, so we both headed off for this brewery.  Along the way she showed me her place, which was awesome and then pointed out a lot of history of West Chicago along the way.  It was a great little area and is most definitely getting developed and cool places going in.  A little bit like Lygon St back home, some areas are fully done and full of gangs but that is changing.  She pointed out old churches and all sorts.  We got to Forbidden Roots, and turns out she used to live next door to the head brewer. We sat at the bar and had a couple of drinks, which she bought for me which was lovely.  She then headed off and I finished my beer.  The brewery was really rad, and the beers they had were really unique and used fresh botanical ingredients.  Really cool concept.  The food obviously matched as well.  From here, I jumped on a bus and then train to go to Second City.  I’d booked a ticket for a comedy show the day before. I managed to get there with enough time to grab a beer and hummus/pita/vegetable plate from a bar across the road.  It was delicious.  Headed in to Second City about 7.45 and managed to get a seat pretty close to the front.  The show was called Fast, Loud and Funny.  There were about 6-8 people in the cast and they did all kinds of things from sketch comedy, to improve to one liners.  They definitely used audience participation and they were all very funny.  The show went for 90min and it ended way too quickly. After the show I headed across the road to the Old Town Alehouse, which only accepts cash and has heaps of quirky naked paintings on the walls.  Turns out the owner is a painter and paints all kinds of stuff, usually nude political kind of stuff.  He had some funny ones of Donald Trump and Sarah Palin.  He also does portraits of the locals and some of the bar staff.  I picked the portrait of my bartender from the wall!  Skill. After a drink here I jumped back on the train to the hostel, had been a big day.  

Wednesday 28th September

Today I had planned to do a bike ride.  So I headed off from the hostel about 9am.  I wandered around Millennium Park for a while and took some photos of the cool art work in the park.   It is a pretty cool place.  The have a giant silver bean in the middle of the park called cloud gate.  You can see your reflection in it and when you walk underneath it, it’s pretty trippy.  After wandering around for a while, walked up to the bike hire place and hired a bike for 4 hours.  My plan was to ride up past Lincoln Park, to Montrose Beach, which was about 7 miles, plus stopping off along the way to look at stuff.  About 10 minutes into my ride, just as I’m crossing the bridge towards Navy Pier, it starts to rain.  It wasn’t raining that heavy so I just kept riding.  I passed Navy Pier and rode out along another pier to get a good view of the skyscrapers.  There was a beach there as well, that in summer would have had the café open.  By this stage it was really starting to pour down and I was getting drenched.  I kind of decided I’d just keep riding until I found somewhere to stop for a coffee or shelter.  The longer I rode, the more I realised that was not going to happen.  Aside from the rain, the ride was beautiful.  Got to see the Lake and the city.  Just awesome.  I was riding into the wind as well which didn’t’ help, but I was determined. I rode past the Gold Coast and North Avenue Beach, which fully looked like a proper beach with sand and all, rather than just concrete barriers the rest of the way.  Finally I decided I’d head to the zoo, as it was free entry and they would have restrooms and a café I could sit at to stay warm.  I re-routed my course and headed towards the zoo. Once I got to the zoo, I locked my bike and went about trying to find a restroom.  By this stage I had purple dripping all down my face as my hair dye in my hair started running.  I was terrified of what I’d look like.  Finally, after walking through the reptile enclosure, which was nice and warm I found a restroom where I could clean myself up.  I did have purple streaks all down the side of my face and blotches on my neck.  The zoo itself was pretty average, and the enclosures were pretty minimal.  The poor lions and tigers were in small enclosures with not enough room to move around.  I headed to the café, to get a coffee and I grabbed something to eat as well. A yummy felafel and chips.  Eventually, the rain stopped and after about an hour at the zoo, I headed back out on the bike, after buying a poncho in the gift shop. I was drenched, cold and soaked through. I rode north for little while until I got to the signal of peace monument, where I got some great shots of the city, then I rode back south towards the hire place.  The ride back was easier as it was with the wind, and I started to dry off a bit. When I got close to turning off to the bike hire place, I decided to ride south for a while until I got to the aquarium.  I rode along the lakefront, which was beautiful, past Buckingham fountain and towards the aquarium.  I discovered there was a planetarium there as well, so rode out to that and got some more good photos.  I continued south for a little while longer until I got to North Island.  A few of these tracks were closed and it had started to rain on me again, so I headed back north to give the bike back.  Ended up hiring it for only about 3.5 hours, which was a shame, but at this stage all I wanted to do was get back to hostel, have a shower and put on some warm clothes! On the way back to hostel, I went passed a bottle shop and picked up some beers to have at home.  My plan was to catch up on some blogs, and have a couple beers.  Which I did after a nice long hot shower.  

I had tickets to the baseball tonight, the White Sox vs Florida Rays.  I decided before the baseball, I would check out Motor Row brewery. I walked down to Michigan Ave and caught the bus.  Just as I got off the bus it started pouring with rain again.  So I put my poncho on and walked the rest of the short distance to the brewery.  It was a pretty small brewery and you could see all the tanks behind the glass.  I did a sampler of their beers and they were all pretty decent.  Nothing a huge standout, but nice nonetheless.  Was a cool space though.  From here caught the bus again to the baseball stadium.  It was about a 10min walk from the bus, but luckily it wasn’t raining at this stage.  Got in to the stadium, found myself and awesome craft beer, which was a black IPA. My seats were pretty good at this game, just behind the dugout.  As it was such a miserable night, and the 2 teams that were playing were the shittiest teams in the league, there were not a lot of people at the game.  So I decided I’d move down the front row.  If someone turned up with tickets then I’d move.  In no time at all it started bucketing down and they stopped the game.  They brought out all these sand covers and put them over the field.  Given that a few weeks ago the game had been cancelled in Minneapolis, I wondered if it would be cancelled tonight.  I spoke to the guy that was the usher and he seemed to think that they usually wait up to 2 hours to cancel a game, unless there is no chance the rain will stop.  So I grabbed a burger and another beer and waited it out.  Sure enough, after not too long, the game resumed and all these people came and pulled the tarp off the sand.  Then they put about 15bags of new sand down on the field.  By this stage, a lovely young couple had sat down behind me, and we were chatting for a while.  They were explaining the game to me and giving me some info about the team. They were a lovely couple who both were turning 21 this weekend.  Even though the game wasn’t a good one, I got to see the White Sox hit a home run and someone snap a baseball bat in half, cos of the force of the ball hitting it. They called it in the 9th innings when the Rays finished their batting, as they couldn’t win it. So was good to see Chicago win, even though the game was very average and not very captivating.  Headed back to the train to go home and on the way a young kid tried to sell me a baseball that he said he caught during the game.  Which is totally possible, except for the fact he said he caught 4 of them.  I don’t really think that is possible.  Got home at about 1am and headed straight to sleep.

Saturday September 24

Had a bit of a sleep in today, then packed up all my stuff, had breakfast and checked out.  Was sad to leave Madison and this apartment as it was pretty cool.  It was only like a 90min drive to Milwaukee, so decided to head to Veteran’s Park on Lake Michigan first, before checking into the hotel.  Got there around 1.45pm and found a car park outside the lake on the street.  Walked around the lagoon at the front of the park first before walking towards Lake Michigan.  There were quite a few people walking around the park and also a tonne of ducks!  I found a bench to sit down on and look out over the water.  Ate my lunch here (the last of my delicious vegan bacon and vegan cheese that I’d bought from Minneapolis).  Had a wander around the waterfront and circled back down to the car.  Headed to find a Walmart as I needed to pick up a few things, so did that before checking into the hotel.  Checked in about 4pm.  I had previously bought some purple hair dye to re-do my hair, so I set about redying my hair.  I was pretty conscious of not staining their entire bathroom purple as it’s a bitch to get out!  Luckily, I was careful and no purple anywhere!  Had a couple of beers whilst it set in and caught up on some blogs. Had some dinner in my room, with the leftovers that I’d bought from the co-op and cooked the night before, they seemed to travel OK.  Eventually, I washed the purple out of my hair and the bathtub looked like grimace had been killed in it.  Haha. Luckily it washed out of the bath. I did however have purple stains all over my head and shoulders and arms that were just not coming off yet! Eventually they would.  I really um’d and ah’d about whether I should just stay in tonight, as I was tired and would have loved to catch up on some sleep, but I just couldn’t do it with only one night in this city.

So I headed out for Lakefront Brewery, which was on the banks of the Milwaukee River.  Was only about a half hour walk.  The brewery was pretty huge and when I went in they were doing Brewery Tours, so I booked in to do one that started in about 45min.  It only cost $8 and you got the tour, 4 tasting glasses of the beer and a pint glass at the end.  Bargain!  So I grabbed 2 beers before the tour started.  The guy who took our tour was pretty funny.  Definitely a local, and he told us a lot of history about the brewery, including the fact that they were pioneers in getting gluten free beer to be called a beer.  Apparently they couldn’t call it a beer as it didn’t have wheat in it, and that was the definition of beer.  The owners rung congress and after many discussions, changed legislation to enable gluten free beer to be called beer!  Super interesting.  Back when the brewery started, Commerce Ave was just lined with trees, and no commerce took place on it at all.  Now it’s a vibrant and thriving area, with tonnes of restaurants, breweries and bars. The tour ran for about an hour and was really good fun.  After it finished, I grabbed my last 2 beers on my token and instead of getting a pint glass, I got 2 stubbie holders and some badges.  Next stop was a local bar called Wolski’s, I’d read on yelp it was a great local dive bar that had free popcorn and a cool vibe.  They also had stickers that they give out if you make it to close – 2.30am, which say “I closed wolski’s”.  They had one behind the bar at Lakefront Brewery!  It was only about a 20min walk, so made my way there back across the river, seemed like a pretty cool area as I walked through.  Wolski’s itself, was just in the neighbourhood, nice local bar.  I headed in and managed to get a seat at the bar.  It was dim and dark, and had some pool tables and pinball machines. Awesome décor.  I sat uploading photos for a while, until I got chatting with a lovely chick called Kim who was sitting next to me.  We talked about Australia, Chicago, her kids and lots of other stuff.  She was lovely and was kind enough to buy me a beer and her husband bought me a shot. They left after a little while, but I was introduced to one of Kim’s friends (whose name I can’t remember). We chatted for ages, as she’d just started a new job which sounded fun.  I didn’t manage to close Wolski’s, but the bartender gave me the sticker that said I did!  So rad and super kind.  Was a great local bar, with some awesome local folks.  I think I left around midnight.  I was going to walk home, but it was super late and I was a little unsure of the neighbourhood, so I caught an uber instead.  Got back to hotel and pretty much crashed straight away.  Had been a super fun night!

 Sunday September 25

Got ready and checked out of the hotel by about 10am.  Decided that I was going to do a few stops along the way to Chicago, as couldn’t check in to hostel until 4pm.  First stop along the way was Racine, which was about an hour away on the coast of Lake Michigan.   Wasn’t a lot to see here, but parked down near the shore and had a bit of a wander. It looked like they were starting to make some kind of boardwalk and jazz it up a little, but that was still in development.  I found a spot on the grass and sat down reading my comic in the sun for a while. Had a quick little nap as well, it was lovely.  Super relaxing hearing the waves crash into the walls.  From here heading to Illinois State Park beach which was about an hour south of Racine.  Was a little bit of a drive getting in to the beach from the highway, but it was pretty cool once I got there.  It is a pretty big area, and I just got to one part of the beach.  But people were swimming and having picnics.  It was a sandy beach.  I sat down on the beach for about 45min and read my comic some more and laid in the sun.  It was beautiful.  From here next stop was Chicago, which was about another hour away.  Got in to Chicago around 5pm, and parked my car in the garage across the road, which was nice and convenient.  The hostel here was pretty rad, we had a kitchen, bathroom, toilet, living room and then 2 dorm room’s attached to it.   There were 6 bunks in this one, but plenty of space.  

Thursday September 22nd

This morning I got up about 8am, had breakfast and started to repack all my stuff.  I bubble wrapped all my beers and packed them in the suitcase. I really think it’s going to be way too heavy to get on the plane, but we’ll see.  I kind of forgot that I had bought vinyls and books and toys and shot glasses as well!  Once I had the car all packed I head off to the Herbivorous Butcher (vegan).  This place was just amazing!  I walked in and they had a full display case of vegan meats – sausages, roasts, steaks, burgers, kebabs, ribs, mince and lots in between.  They also had a lot of hot sauces and vegan accompaniments.  Around the other side they also had vegan cheeses.  I bought some vegan bacon, vegan ribs, cheese and also a take away sub. It wasn’t cheap, but holy shit it was an amazing place.  I want one back home and I want to run it.  It would be so fucking great.  From here, I headed off to Minnehaha falls, which wasn’t too far away.   To be honest I wasn’t expecting much from them and thought I’d only be there like a half hour at most.  Once I got there, the carpark was super full and I was lucky to get a park.  There was some kind of meet up or gathering happening in the Indian community.  Lots of singing and information booths.  Once I got past that, I could hear the sound of the falls.  It was very loud.  I’m guessing that the absolute tonne of rain we had the night before has made the falls a lot heavier than usual this time of year.  They were pretty impressive once I actually saw the waterfall.  I walked over the top of the falls, then down the other side to the bottom.  It is a really pretty area.  Took some photos, and sat down on a rock to eat one half of my vegan sub, which was just absolutely fucking amazing.  I didn’t want to finish it, it was so good! I decided to take a walk along the river, which was flowing super-fast and was overflowing in a lot of areas.  I walked alongside it for about a mile or two.  At some places the water was that high almost had to walk in the scrub to continue on the path, as the water had come over the track.  Once I got to bridge 4, I turned around and came back.  The water had started to flow a bit more slowly and there wasn’t much else to see.   I ate the other half of my sub sitting down listening to the water flow in another part of the river.  Really cool falls, and glad I decided to go. I had been planning to go the day I got in, but ran out of time.

From here, I decided that I’d drive the river/lake trail.  Given that Minneapolis is a city of lakes, I figured I should see some.  First up was Lake Nokomis, which was huge! Drove around and took a few photos. Then I went to the following Lakes:   Lake Harriet, Lake Calhoun and Lake of the Isles.  They were all very pretty to see, but I just didn’t have a lot of time to do anything there. But, lots of picnic spots and you could kayak and fish and do some walks.   Definitely a pretty area.  

It was about a 4 hour drive from Minneapolis to Madison, and I got in to my Airbnb by about 6.30pm. It was an awesome building and the apartment was sweet as.  I met James, who was my host.  He gave me a quick tour of the apartment, with some local history as well, as he had his uncle down and was showing him as well.  The building used to be a church in the early 1900s, and you could see where the staircase at the front of the room had been covered over.  The entrance was from the sidewalk when it was a church. Can still see the platform where the piano used to be as well.  It was always used for goodwill and even after it stopped being a church it was used to help kids out who needed food or supplies.  Super cool.  James lives on the top floor and rents out the 2 floors below to Airbnb.  The space was really awesome, had kitchen, 2 queen beds, including one in a loft, TV, lounge, bathroom and heaps of space and natural light.  Once I’d unpacked I headed next door to the co-op to buy some supplies.  I was in heaven, they had so many vegan options I just almost died!  I bought more food than I probably needed to, some yogurt, vegan meat, vegan prepacked salads, olives and a few salad items.  Popped in to the local bar across the road on the way home.  It was definitely divey and grungy.  Had 2 beers there, it was called Crystal Corner Bar. Then went back to the apartment to cook dinner.  I cooked up the vegan ribs I’d bought at the vegan butcher and made up a garden salad. Threw in some of the prepacked vegan salads I bought and I was in heaven.   The apartment had Netflix, so I started to watch a show called Love, which was brilliant.  I ended up staying up until about midnight watching it and drinking a few beers that I already had.  Was a super cool chillax day.

 Friday September 23rd

Got up about 8am, had some breakfast and real coffee and orange juice which was delicious.  Plan this morning was to head straight to Smart Studios, which is where Garbage recorded their earlier albums.  It’s kind of like where Garbage where born, so kind of like a spiritual mecca to journey there.  Smart Studios, was only like a 10min walk from my place.  Once I got there, I could see that it was most definitely not being used.  Garbage sold it many years ago, but I had thought someone had taken it over.  There were signs up saying it was for rent, which is so disappointing, as I would have loved to have knocked on the door and been able to go in to see it.  I walked around, looked at it from all angles and took some selfies in front of the street number on the red door.  I popped next door to the coffee shop, where I am sure Shirley and the boys would have spent a lot of time after a long night of recording.  So hard to imagine that in the winter this place gets to 15 below Fahrenheit.  After my coffee, I headed off down to the Lake.  Like Minneapolis, Madison is surrounded by water and lakes.  First up was Lake Mendota.  I had a wander around the park in front of it called Tenney Park, walked along the pier and checked out the Tenney Lock.  Also went across the road and wandered around Tenney Lagoon. It was all very pretty.  Nice to walk around.  From here caught a bus to the Ale Asylum, which is a pretty big brewery. I had a flight of 6 of their beers, which were all pretty big pours.  Had made a sandwich with my vegan meat and cheese, so ate that out the front whilst waiting for an uber.  It was pretty damn delicious.   My uber driver was super fascinating, he was telling me a little history of Madison and also knew who garbage was.  He said he used to live next door to Shirley and that she was lovely.  Also knew all the boys and thought butch was recording with someone locally at another studio. So fucking cool.  My uber dropped me off at the Capitol building, which was a pretty impressive building.  I walked in and wandered around for a good hour or two.  The architecture and ceilings were amazing.  They had some rooms set up that you could wander in and the furniture and décor was just amazing.  I imagine very pricey too!  From here I wandered down the street a little, bought a souvenir shot glass and found another brewery.  This one was called Wisconsin Brewing.  I had a beer here and also a 4 beer tasting paddle.  The beers were good, but nothing too amazing.  I walked back to my place after this ready to cook some dinner. On the way home I walked past the other lake that surrounds Madison, called Lake Monona. Took some photos and walked out on the pier.  When I got home, I cooked up some tofurkey meat I’d bought, with some yummy mushrooms and ate that with some garden salad and the remainder of my prepacked salads. It was pretty damn delicious.  It was nice to cook again, even if only really simply.  After dinner I headed out to one barrel brewing, which on this site only brew their beers in one barrel/tank.  They don’t bottle or can their beer, just do it in kegs.  Some of their more popular beers, they brew off site via contract brewing. It was a cool brewpub with super nice bartenders.  Could have stayed here all night, however I wanted to go and see a band in Madison, so from here I headed in to downtown to see some bands at The Frequency.  It was a pretty rad venue.  There were about 4 or 5 bands on the line up, I missed the first one, but saw the next 3.  They were all pretty good.  I really liked a band called the Rotten Tommy’s, so I bought a cd and was talking to their guitarist.  She was lovely, and gave me a free t-shirt which is pretty cool.  I pretty much hit a wall after seeing that band, so headed outside and decided to catch an uber home.  Didn’t get to sleep until about 1am and I was pretty exhausted and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Tuesday 20th September

Had some breakfast, packed up the car and headed off towards Minneapolis.  It was a 4 hour drive.  Nothing really exciting on the drive, was just nice and easy.  The only place I stopped off at was Mall of America, which is the biggest shopping mall in the USA.  Normally I don’t give a shit about shopping malls, but had to check this place out. It was massive, however seemed relatively quiet.  Most of the shops were empty and the sales assistants looked bored. I guess in summer and in holiday season it would be crazy.  First stop was the Nickelodeon Theme Park in the centre of the mall.  The theme park had rollercoasters and all kinds of fun rides, smack bang in the middle of the mall.  I went on 2 rides – the orange Pepsi coaster, which was the biggest/longest in the park and went through some tunnels; and also the sponge bob square pants ride which had a pretty big vertical drop.  Both were pretty fun and cost me about $6 each.  Next up had a look through the Lego store, which was cool but nothing I hadn’t’ seen before.  Headed up to hooters, to grab a beer and some fried pickle chips.  They are my new obsession.  After some beer and food had a quick look through the mall, but it really was just like any other mall.  I popped in to the Vans store and grabbed 2 new pairs of Vans as my current ones were falling apart.  I got a cool pair of cat pattern vans and a blue pair for $80 American. Headed to Trader Joe’s from here to pick up some supplies – almond milk, bread, fruit etc.  I got to my Airbnb about 4.30pm.  It was such a cool place.  It was a carriage house, at the back of someone’s normal house.  It was double story, had a kitchen, lounge room, dining room and upstairs 2 bedrooms, bathroom and study.  Probably way too much space for me, but still super cool. My host wasn’t home, but had left detailed instructions which was cool.  I unpacked all my stuff and on my way out to the local brewery met Serafina, my host who was lovely.  The walk to the Surly Brewery only took about 15min, and it was a huge place!  Bigger than I’d anticipated.  I was lucky to get a seat at the bar, after I’d had my ID checked, and ordered a beer.  The thing I was about to discover about Minneapolis was that they always ask for ID and generally don’t do tasting flights of their beers.  I had about 3 or 4 beers here and got chatting to the guy next to me who was out on business from Chicago.  He gave me a few tips for when I’m there which was nice.  I’d spent too much time here so had to Uber across to the baseball, as I was running late.  The gates opened at about 7.15pm, and I got there about 7.30.  The Minneapolis Twins were playing the Detroit Tigers.  I had to go through a metal detector going in which was crazy, but I guess understandable given its USA.  I was on the second level, so found where I was sitting and went on the hunt for beer. I couldn’t find any good beer so got myself a bud light which was of course disgusting.  I got chatting to the usher who showed you where you seats were, he was lovely.  He said I could pretty much sit in any empty seat, better than my own and if someone comes along, he’d tell me to move.  So I sat right up close on the barrier.  It was a pretty packed game and the weather was beautiful.  I was just in a t-shirt.   I sat for a while, but then wandered around the stands.  I had since figured out where to find good beer and also vegan food.  I got a vegan burger, which was pretty much bun, patty, lettuce, tomato and then I smothered it in tomato sauce and mustard.  But either way, they had a goddamn vegan option.  I went up to level 3 to the good beer bar, and ordered a nice craft beer.  The view of the field from here was great, so stayed up here for a couple of beers and never actually made it back to my seat.  I must say I didn’t pay too much attention to the game as was chatting to a lot of people and walking around but such a fun atmosphere.  Once the game was over didn’t feel like going home, so headed out to a bar.  Figured I’d check out the local gay bar, as Shoney and I had always had good fun at the gay bars we’d been to this trip.  Also generally pretty safe. This one was called Gay 90s.  It was super quiet, but had some amazing music on – all 90s bad/good pop music.  I had a couple of beers and a shot of whiskey and sat outside watching people.  It started to rain so headed inside. Finally decided to head home about 1am I guess, and got an uber.  Had a great day!  Murica!!

 Wednesday September 21st

Had a little sleep in, then made breakfast.  Serafina had left some muffins, eggs and butter in the fridge.  Obviously the only thing good for me was the muffins, but had them with avocado and tomato.  It was delicious.  Also fresh coffee.  So good. Today my plan was just to wander about, walk along the river and at some point find a brewery before the peaches gig that night.  It wasn’t raining but it was definitely bit cloudy and overcast.  Walked down to the river and walked along the river path for a few miles.  Along the way saw some more of those book libraries that I’ve been seeing in heaps of cities.  Such a cool idea.  Along the river is definitely a little bit overgrown and not well looked after.  I think they are doing some work to improve the waterfront and make it a bit better.  The river itself was pretty, just not like I’d expected.  There were some pretty bridges, even some that looked like they had enclosed walkways.  Walked through the bohemian flats area, which way back when European settlers made their home.  Then saw a memorial for 13 people that died when a bridge that collapsed over the Mississippi died in 2007.  Next up was the stone arch bridge which was pretty cool and also the lower dam.  So many bridges cross this river it’s crazy. Finally got to Saint Andrews Falls and Mill Ruin Park.  The falls here are the only natural falls on the upper Mississippi river.  The natural falls were replaced with a concrete overflow in 1869.  In the 1950s and 1960s, a series of locks and dams were built to extend navigation to points upstream.  Minneapolis was known from 1880-1930 as the flour capital of the world.   Alongside of the banks of the river, there are ruins from a tonne of the mills that used to exist.  They have excavated a lot of the sites and uncovered some pretty cool ruins. They are in the process of upgrading this area to be an educational and also riverside experience.  The ruins were pretty cool and the mill museum is built behind the ruins of an old mill.  It’s pretty cool and I now understand why it’s called mill city!

Next up I walked a couple of miles through downtown to get to Inbound Brewing Company.  I grabbed a seat at the bar, they had usb chargers on every seat for your phone which was awesome, and I got chatting to the bartender who was super into music.  I got a flight of 4 sample beers which were all great, then finished off with a tulip of their experimental Russian imperial stout.  After chatting music, I got the bartender to put on Adalita “all day Venus” and as I walked down the street I could hear it blasting out for a few minutes.  So rad. Next stop was Fulton Brewery, literally one block over.  Again, at this venue no sample sizes and they only did pints.  I think I tried 2 beers here and chatted to the local bartender and also a guy on vacation from Canada for a while.  Very cool venue and delicious beers, just wish they’d have done samples.  Also got ID’d here which was crazy!

Sunday 18th September

Had a little bit of a sleep in before grabbing breakfast and getting ready.  First stop today was going to be some scenic driving.  We headed towards Custer State Park first to check out the Peter Norbeck information centre.  The Peter Norbeck scenic byway is meant to be one of the prettiest and nicest drives in the USA, it stretches for 70 miles and includes: Needles Highway, Iron Mountain Road, Sylvan Road and Horse Thief Lake Road.  We passed two bison on the way into Custer State park but was too hard to pull over to get a good photo of them.  Custer state park is a massive state park that is home to many animals, which are all free-roaming including:  1500 bison, big horn sheep, prairie dogs, elk, mule deer, white tailed deer, mountain goats, and mountain lions.  The lady at the visitor centre was super helpful and gave us a suggested route to travel on.  Parts of the scenic byway are designed to be driven in a specific direction to get the most out of the scenery.  

First drive we took, was the Wildlife Loop, which is an 18 mile drive that takes you through a huge area where you are most likely to see wildlife.  We drove it quite a few miles before we encountered an animal of any kind. We didn’t think we were going to see any at all.  We saw a white tailed deer, but from afar fairly early on, but we’d seen heaps of them. We rounded a bend and all of a sudden we could see a herd of donkeys up ahead that had stopped traffic and were walking down the road.  It was quite a sight to see!  We stopped in the car for a good 10min to let them pass.  They were very friendly and not scared of us, even sticking their heads in the window either for food or to try and lick you face I think!  Very cool. As we were passing the donkeys we encountered a woman who said if you think this is great, wait to you get around the corner.  She told us that it’s taken her 2 days to see a bison, but finally she had!  We were pretty excited at this point, as we hadn’t seen a bison properly yet and they are such cool animals.  Sure enough we drove round the bend and came across a huge herd of bison.  They were all over the hills to our left. Not too close, but close enough could get a good look.  Some were eating, rolling round in the dirt, play fighting or just walking.  When I looked further, you could see them all the way up the hills behind the trees.  I think all 1500 of them were in this area!  As we kept driving the bison continued to line the side of the road, and get a little closer, so we stayed in the car this time and didn’t’ get out. Next up we saw some more prairie dogs, which are just so cool.  These ones seemed a little less skittish, and one was super close to my car.  Got some great photos of him on my good camera. We finished the wildlife loop and were trying to head to the start of the peter norbeck scenic bypass.  First stop along the way was the Mt Coolidge Firetower lookout.  It was a quick drive off the highway up to the top of the mountain.  We got some amazing 360 degree views of the blackhills and Custer Park.  We could see the Needles, Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse and much more.  A lot of the trees in one direction were very fire damaged from fires over recent years, but a lot of regrowth had happened.  At some point we must have missed a turn as we ended up right back at Custer Park where we’d started off.  As it turns out, this was a great mistake to make as we came across a single bison, by the side of the road, super close, just rubbing himself up against a fire hydrant.  It was pretty amazing.  After some photos, we found our way again and started driving towards the Iron Mountain Road. This road is 17 miles and covers some amazing scenery in the black hills.  It is a super unique road and the speed is limited to 35miles per hour, so you can take in the amazing scenery.  The road is quite unique in that it contains:  314 curves, 14 switchbacks, 3 pigtail bends, 3 tunnels, 4 presidents and 2 splits.  Driving it was really quite amazing.  The first tunnel we came across, we got out of the car to take photos, and you can see Mt Rushmore through the tunnel. It was pretty cool, my photos didn’t do it justice.  As did the other 2 tunnels we passed through (hence the reason you have to drive this road a certain way).  We stopped off at a few view points along the way and took some photos.  It was quite spectacular.  

Next stop was driving to the Needles Highway.  Along the way we passed Mt Rushmore and also got to see the profile of Washington.  We stopped off to get a photo of him side on. We also stopped in at Horsetheif Lake for some quick photos, as it really was quite picturesque.  So many things I wish I had more time for.  Before we started the Needles Highway drive we pulled in to Lake Sylvan to have our lunch.  It was also a beautiful lake, where you could camp, kayak, paddle board or just do some hikes.  The scenery was lovely.  The needles highway is 14 miles of road, carved into the granite rock and needles. It includes sharp turns and awesome tunnels.  The coolest tunnel we found was not long into the drive.  There were tonnes of people parked to see it.  It was carved into the granite, but surrounded by the granite spires or needles.  The views were also pretty cool from up there.  The tunnel of course was one way and pretty cool to drive through.  We stopped off at a few viewpoints along this highway, and almost had an accident as some moron decided it was a good idea to overtake someone on a windy, bendy road.  He missed hitting me head on by seconds.  Fucking idiot.  

From here we headed to the Crazy Horse memorial.  We didn’t’ really know what to expect from this, as it is a monument that is still not complete.  In fact it has been being carved for 60 years.  The admission price was super expensive compared to Mt Rushmore $11 each compared to $11 a car.  Once we got in and parked we were initially a little unimpressed.  The memorial itself was about a mile away from the carpark and only a side on view.  We quickly discovered that for an additional $4 each we could take a bus to the base of the memorial.  We decided to do that.  The sculptor that began working on the project is named Korczak Ziolkowski.  The first blast to take place on the mountain was in 1948 and took of 10 tonnes of rock.  Ziolkowski died in 1982 and when he died the face of crazy horse hadn’t even been carved yet.  He left detailed instructions and blue prints for the completion of crazy horse with his family.  Currently, his wife Ruth and 7 of their children continue to work to ensure the completion of crazy horse.  There are 15 people who work all throughout the year on the monument to try and complete it. There is no estimate as to when this monument will be finished.  Right now they are working on finishing his hand pointing.  Crazy horse himself was born in Rapid Creek in 1842 and died in 1877 when he was stabbed in the back by an American soldier.  He was lured there under the pretence of peace.  Crazy horse defended his people and their way of life in the only manner he knew.  He has never been known to sign a treaty or touched a pen.  Crazy Horse, as far as the monument is concerned, is to be carved not so much as a lineal likeness, but more as a memorial to the spirit of crazy horse – to his people.  With his left hand thrown out pointing in answer to the question asked by a white man “where are your lands now?”, he replied “my lands are where my dead lie buried”.

The height of crazy horse is 563feet, which is taller than the pyramids of Giza (481feet), Mt Rushmore (285feet), and the Washington monument (555feet).  In 1987 the face was started and in 1998 it was completed (16 years after Ziolkowski died). Currently, approximately 8 million tonnes of rock have been removed from the mountain.  The view from the bottom of the monument was really cool, and you could definitely see the amount of rock that had been blasted off.  We were even allowed to take some rocks from the bottom as a souvenir – they have plenty!  On the tour, we learnt that Ziolkowski was an interesting guy who was quite smart.  He made his money for the crazy horse memorial by having his wife and daughters run a dairy farm on the property.  You can to this day, see the remains of an old milking shed.  He also hired a teacher and build a school on the property to teach his 10 kids.  When he died, he had designed himself a tomb and was buried on the property as well. We drove past his tomb on the bus tour. After the bus tour, we had a look around the museum, got to see a 1/34th size replica of what crazy horse will look like when its finished and got to walk through Ziolkowki’s old studio.  It is the original building that he used as his studio that has been decorated with some of his belongings and replicas. It was pretty cool.  On the way out, you could collect a much bigger rock to take home too.  I was really impressed with Crazy Horse, very cool experience.  

We headed back to the hotel and got changed and ready for our last night together.  We headed out for dinner about 7pm.  We walked downtown to the Mexican restaurant and got seated on the rooftop.  We got some nice views of the city and the night was very mild indeed.  We had a couple of margaritas which were lovely – sweet and spicy.  The food was nice, but not the best Mexican I’ve had.  After dinner, we headed back to the independent alehouse, as I wanted to check it out sober.  It really was a cool beer bar.  We had 4 beers each and then headed off back home.  We had a pretty early night for us and were in bed by about midnight.

 Monday 19th September

The morning had come where I had to say goodbye to Shona.  We were up at about 7am, and packed and out the door by about 7.45am.  I dropped Shona off at the airport, with plenty of time for her to catch her flight back to Houston.  It was super sad to say goodbye, as I’d had such a great time hanging out with Shona and sharing the holiday.  My next stop on my trip was Sioux Falls.  Along the way I stopped off again at Wall Drug, as I wanted to have their 5c coffee.  Can’t say it was the best coffee in the world, but it was worth 5c that’ for sure. Also had a bit more of a wander around, and went out the back to the wall backyard.  It is an area really meant for kids, with arcade games and train rides.  I paid a quarter to play the shooting game and shoot up a saloon.  After not too long, headed back to the car for Sioux Falls. On this drive, I lost an hour again as I crossed a time zone.  My next stop was at the Corn Palace in Mitchell.  It was about 3 hours from Wall drug.  I must say it was not as exciting as I had thought it would be.  The whole outside of the building is decorated with corn, corn cobs, corn husk, and various grasses.  At the moment the theme was musicians and they had murals of Elvis, Willie Nelson and a few others.  Inside was really nothing exciting.  There was a bit of history about corn in the area and how corn palaces came to be.  This was not the first corn palace there were many that came before it.  The only other thing here was a giant basketball stadium inside, that was decorated with corn murals too.  Local basketball teams play here.  On the drive from here to Sioux Falls and in fact most of the way from Rapid City, I passed miles and miles and miles of corn fields and sunflower fields. Guess I now know what South Dakota is renowned for!  I also passed a few disturbing anti-abortion signs.  Not cool SD, not cool.  I got into Sioux Falls at about 3pm.  I was staying at a pretty rad Airbnb, on a really pretty tree lined street that had squirrels running around outside.  Katie, my host wasn’t home but had left some good instructions.  It was a super old house, with upstairs and a basement.  My room was upstairs, and my bathroom in the basement.  I caught up on some washing and drying here as I’d run out of socks and undies. Whilst waiting for them to finish I sat outside on the porch drinking some beer and catching up on my blog.  Once washing had finished, I headed into town to see Sioux Falls.  Walked through downtown on the way, and it was really pretty and charming.  Main Street even had a horse and cart going through it (which I didn’t approve of, but you get the picture of what the town is like).  Got to Falls Park and was amazed at how big an area it covered.  At first I thought the falls were pretty small, but as I walked further I discovered that they were pretty big.  The cool part was you could walk out onto the rocks and get some great views of the falls.  They even had a free observation/viewing tower where you could see out over the entire falls park.  Walked to the other side of the falls and got to see some of the ruins of the old mill that was on the side of the falls.  

From here headed over to Monks House of Ale Repute.  IT was a beer bar not far from the falls.  ON the way walked along the river front, which was pretty.  They had along the banks of the river, charging stations for your phones and laptops, so you could work by the river.  Super cool.  The monk’s house had some great beers on tap and I planned out what I was going to have. Got chatting to a guy who was down from Montana, who was a hunter, so that was interesting discussion.  If nothing else, I have to at least respect someone who shoots, kills, skins, eats his food, as long as he’s not cruel about it. He was telling me of a bear he hit once while driving.  As they are a protected species, he had to report it to the police before taking it home. He skinned it and ate it.  Not my cup of tea, but at least not wasteful and factory farmed.  Then started chatting to a local dude who was quite funny.  By the end of the night, I’d had 2 beers more than planned and had got the local bartender to play Courtney Barnett, who he fell in love with once hearing. Very fun night.  The bartender even found a brochure outside that compared lifesaver colours to Jesus and different sins.  It was hysterical, we passed it around the bar patrons all night. Walked home and got to bed by about midnight.  

Sunday 18th September

Saturday 17th September

Woke up feeling a little seedy, but not too bad.  Had breakfast, showered and headed off towards Badlands national park.  We left the hotel about 10am.  On the drive there we stopped in at Wall Drug.  It is something that was on my list to do on the way to Sioux Falls, but as we were driving past seemed silly not to.  There were literally hundreds of signs along the freeway advertising wall drug, so we were kind of brainwashed into going.  As it turns out Wall is a town and Drug is just the name of the pharmacy.  I didn’t know much of the history behind it other than it was a giant drug store where you could buy almost anything these days and is a giant tourist attraction. Once we got there it takes up a whole city block.  There is gift shops, book stores, clothing stores, pharmacy, café, ice-creamery, western clothes, arcade for kids, photo gallery, and fudge shop.  You name it..they will sell it. Turns out the history behind this place is a young married couple bought a small pharmacy to run as Wall appeared to be a good town to live in with good people. Trouble was, business was slow. Day after day after day, it didn’t pick up.  So one day the wife, trying to figure out how to drum up business had a brain wave. She wanted to get people to come in off the highway.  Her plan to get people off the highway was to offer free ice cold water.  So they put up signs along the freeway offering free ice water, in the summer all a traveller wants is ice cold water to take the edge of a hot day.  Her plan worked and it turned the business around and has helped it become what it is today.  They still offer free ice water and in the summer hand out 5000 glasses a day, with over 20,000 people coming through on a busy summer day.  Pretty crazy cool story.

Shona got an ice cream float and I got a root beer. After wandering around for a while, we headed back to the car to go to Badlands national park.  What I hadn’t realised is that there is a big road that winds through the park that you drive along and stop off at scenic points along the way. We got there about 1.30pm and started the drive pulling off at each stop along the way.  It was pretty amazing scenery, just very different to glacier national park.  Very dry and arid, but super pretty.  Sort of reminded me of Bryce Canyon in Utah.   We hadn’t driven too far, when we spotted a lot of people pulled over, so we did too.   There was about a dozen or more mountain goats just lying on the rocks to the side of the road.  When we looked closer, there were more of them climbing up the rocks to our left. Hard to get a good photo, but was pretty rad to see.  As we continued driving along, we next spotted prairie dogs.  They are the cutest little things ever.  Kind of like a meerkat crossed with a squirrel.  Think Shona described them as fat squirrels without the tails, which is pretty accurate.  They live in little burrows, and they make the coolest squeaking sounds. It’s quite entertaining watching them. Also, first time I’ve ever seen a prairie dog!

We got to where we wanted to do our hike from at about 2.30pm.  It was a 5mile one way hike that we just had to hike back on.  It took us through the prairie as well as alongside the canyons.  We weren’t sure we’d have enough time to finish it, but we thought we’d give it a crack. There were signs everywhere saying beware of rattlesnakes, which made me a little bit nervous as I hate snakes. Luckily, we never saw one although I’m sure they were everywhere.  The hike itself was pretty flat, but we got to see some cool views of Badlands and the landscape.  We ended up making the 5miles in pretty good time.  On the way back we came across a herd of big horn sheep just off to our right. They were super close and they were just having a rad old time chewing the grass.  Was so cool to see!  We finished up the hike by about 6pm, and finished the drive around Badlands.  Was a really cool national park.  We got back to our hotel about 7pm and planned what we were doing for dinner. We decided on Japanese followed by Hay Camp brewery which was about a mile down the road from dinner.  On the walk to Japanese Shona spotted some deer just casually crossing the road at the railway tracks.  We thought it was just one, but very quickly about 3-4 more ran across the road, one being nearly hit by a car.   The Japanese place was empty and looked bit dodgy as no one Japanese worked there and they all seemed to be students.  Luckily the food was pretty good, not as good as the Japanese we had in Seattle, but still good.  From here, headed up to haycamp brewery which was about a 20min walk.  It is a tiny microbrewery that focuses on small batches only.  Their space is really small but also really cool.  We did a flight of all their beers, which were solid beers.  They had a really cool photo on the back wall from the 1920s of main street rapid city.  The interesting thing about it though was all the horses being ridden down main street, were being ridden by women.  The bartender also pointed out to us a cross dresser and someone in blackface in the photo.  The theory behind the cross dresser is that as women weren’t allowed to perform in theatre, perhaps he was dressed up portraying a woman.  The person in blackface…no idea.  This place closed up just on 10pm so we headed back to the hotel where we downloaded and watched a tonne of drunk history episodes and clips while drinking some beers and eating some popcorn. Think Shona fell asleep first and I was not far behind.  Super fun night.

Friday 16th September

Got up around 8am, got ready and packed and headed across to the restaurant for breakfast, as it was included in the hotel.  There was a little bit of a wait as everyone in the hotel eats there, but we were seated in about 20min.  Just had some toast, cereal, fruit, juice and coffee, but it was decent.  We got on the road at about 10am.  I drove today and we were heading for Rapid City, which was about a 5 hour drive away.  Mostly boring flat scenery, but did cross over into 3 states – Montana, Wyoming briefly and then South Dakota.  The only interesting thing that happened on the drive was I got pulled over from highway patrol for speeding!  I had been overtaking a couple of trucks and was slowing down after that, when I drove past the patrol car, I thought I was doing the speed limit (70), but he pulled me over.  I was of course super nervous as didn’t want to be given a fine.  He checked my licence and car agreement then asked me to come sit in his truck, which I thought was very unusual, but I did as he is the law! He entered in all my information including eye colour and he asked me where I was coming from, where I was going, who was in the car with me and if I knew what speed I was doing.  I had no idea, but he showed me….. He clocked me at 86 miles per hour and apparently the speed limit here was only 65, which I could have sworn was actually 70.  I had been driving all day through different speed zones, including 80 zones, so it wasn’t that fast.  At that point I thought I was done for!  But he printed out a bit of paper which he said was just a warning, no fine involved but to be sure I check the speed signs in future.  PHEW. I think it’s lucky that I am Australian and my story checked out!  So got back on the road and headed to our hotel in Rapid City.  We got there around 3pm, checked in and then decided we’d head out to see Mt Rushmore.  It was about a 35min drive, so made our way there.  Drove through a pretty little town called Keystone on the way that really just looks like Ballarat.  It is a gold digging town by history and has a thousand tourist attractions for the summer season.  Would be family heaven to spend a week there with kids as so much to do.  Some pretty lame, but some pretty cool.  Could see Mt Rushmore on the drive up, but we paid our $11 to see it properly.  There were tonnes of tourists and patriotic Americans there as you can well imagine. When you walk up you go past a tonne of flags from the confederation then there is a big viewing platform. It was pretty cool, and definitely one to check off the bucket list.  We walked down to the museum to have a look around and learnt that it was built by Gutzon Borglum.  He conceived the idea in 1923, but started construction in 1927. He thought it would take 5 years to complete and $500,000.  He was wrong!  It took 14 years and cost one million dollars.  The height of the mountain is 465ft high, comparatively the giant pyramid at Giza is 480ft high.  Pretty impressive.  The museum had a lot of the tools he used and a lot of correspondence between Borglum and the people that he was working with and funding it.  

Sunday 11th September

Got up about 8am, got ready and met Shona in the lobby for breakfast.  It was a pretty average breakfast, but did the job.  We checked out by about 9am.  We stopped in at a Trader Joes to pick up some groceries for the next few days – bread, cereal, fruit etc.  We’d be making our own breakfast and lunches so wanted to have enough supplies for the hike.  Got out on the road by about 10ish.  When we stopped off for petrol at one point, we saw all these people on the bridge waving American flags.  We couldn’t figure out what their point was.  We were thinking maybe someone important died, but we didn’t know about it. Was really odd as they had no message or placard.  It was only a couple of hours later when I went to google “death sept 11”, that I realised! How embarrassing.  It was the 15 year anniversary of 9-11.  What an idiot!!   Was a pretty amazing drive, Shona was kind enough to take the reins so I got some pretty sweet views along the way.  Especially as we got closer to Glacier National Park.   At one point Shona had to slam her brakes on as a herd of mountain goat were crossing the road.  One stopped right in front of our car.   When it finally moved and we looked up, could see more up on the rocks.  Pretty awesome.  Except the dude in the car behind us was shitty that we had stopped. What an idiot.  Drove past a pretty huge lake as we got closer to Glacier National park called Flathead Lake.  It was huge.  Whilst driving around this lake the temperature started to drop and dropped like 6 degrees in a couple of miles.  One half of the lake looked nice and sunny and the other half was choppy and super windy.  We passed by a lot of churches and religious signs on the side of the road in Montana. Didn’t know that Montana was such a religious city.  As we were about 30min out of glacier national park, the weather took a real turn and started a torrential downpour.  It was bucketing down.  It was also very cold.   We arrived at our accommodation, Village Inn at Apgar at about 4.30.  Crossing over into Montana we lost an hour.  We got out of the car in shorts and a tshirt and it was like 4 degrees.  A lot colder than when we left Spokane and it was 24 degrees!  By now it had stopped raining but it was really cloudy and foggy. We were staying right in front of the lake, which was just beautiful.  We were on the top floor and our room had giant windows overlooking Lake MacDonald and the beautiful mountains behind it.  Was really breathtaking.  We got ourselves sorted and put on some warmer clothes, then headed out to see what was in the village.  There was a shop, a restaurant, kayak rentals, gift shop and most importantly a shop that rented bear spray.  We rented one for the 4 days we were here, as it had been recommended.  Given that it is the end of the summer and all the bears are preparing to hibernate, they are on the lookout for food and they are out and about more than any other time of year.  The park is home to both black bears and grizzlies.  Watched a video on how to use it and hoped like hell we wouldn’t have to.  Had a few beers on the chairs outside our room overlooking the lake and planned the hikes that we wanted to do the next few days.  Got a bit cold so headed inside.  Grabbed some dinner at the restaurant, which was nice but nothing spectacular.  I had a vegan burger with lettuce as the bun, as they bun’s were not vegan.  The waitress was super helpful with my dietary needs which was nice.  After dinner, headed back to our room and had a relatively early night.  We also drove in 3 states today – Washington, Idaho & Montana.

 Monday September 12th

Got up by about 8am, had breakfast and got ready for our day of hikes.  We had 3 different hikes planned – Avalanche Lake Trail, Hidden Lake Overlook, then Virginia Falls.  All relatively short hikes, but we were warming up for a bigger hike the next day. We had planned on doing the highline hike, which is meant to be one of the best in the park, and involved some pretty steep vertical drops either side of you, similar to Angels Landing.  It was pretty freezing outside, maybe 5 degrees (had definitely dropped below zero overnight), so I was rugged up pretty well, with a few layers on.  We started off by taking a wrong turn (of course!), so ended up taking some photos of the lake and some burnt out tree photos from previous fires near fish creek, on otherside of the lake.  We corrected our route, and began our drive on the going to the sun road towards the Avalanche Trail Head.  We stopped numerous times to take some photos of MacDonald creek (which feeds into Lake MacDonald).  The colour of the water was just beautiful.  Got to the trailhead about 10am and had a nice easy hike along some boardwalks for a mile or so.  Some beautiful landscape on the forest floor.  So green and vibrant.  We followed the creek the entire time, and due to all the rain the previous day it was pretty full flowing.  The creek wound through some awesome gorges and waterfalls and just creek beds.  Just stunning.  It only took us an hour to get to Avalanche Lake and it was stunning. There were 4 waterfalls that I spotted cascading down the mountains behind the lake.  It really was breathtaking.  I took about a gazillion photos, from a gazillion different angles. We hiked around the lake as far as we could and I was just amazed at the beautiful colour of the water.  It was a turquoise colour and was just amazing.  Turquoise water, Waterfalls down the mountain and snow caps on the peaks of the mountain.  Couldn’t ask for a prettier picture.  Finished this hike by about 12.45, and got back in the car to head to the next hike which left from Logan’s Pass, about 40 miles up the road.  We drove along the Going to the Sun road, which is meant to be listed as one of the best scenic drives in the USA.  As you can imagine, I stopped at a million spots to take photos.  There were snow-capped mountains, valleys with rivers flowing through them, waterfalls cascading of the rocks, and just breathtaking landscapes at every turn in the road.  We passed the weeping wall and then came across Birdwoman Falls, which is a waterfall that falls right next to the road and passes underneath the road to keep falling below.  It was pretty spectacular.  The rain the previous day certainly helped.  Was phenomenal. The higher up the mountain we got the colder it was. We were getting closer and closer to the snow-capped mountain peaks too.  In fact when we rounded a corner not far from where Logan’s Pass was we realised that the road was closed due to snow.  We were a little gutted as both our hikes were after this point.  We got out of the car however, and it started to snow on us.  It was pretty rad.  Also lots of snow on the ground, and on the landscape next to us.  Looking at the amount of snow I could understand that as we climbed higher there would be more and the trails would be no good to hike either. So we got some amazing photos and turned around to figure out what next.   At this point it was about 2pm.  Stopped off at the Loop on the way down to check out a hike that was posted there. Was a 4 mile one way hike, so we didn’t have enough time to do this afternoon.  But we may do tomorrow instead, as all the hikes we wanted to do were from Logan’s Pass.  We found one hike to do called John’s lake trail.  It was meant to be a 2 mile one way hike, relatively flat, which sounded perfect.  However, after walking not even a mile we got to the end of the trail and turned around and walked back.  It was a nice little hike and I got some good shots of the lake, but not what we were expecting.  Too short for us.  Stopped in at West Glacier village to pick up some supplies and also a deck of cards to keep us entertained.  Got back to our lodge at about 4.30pm.  Got some awesome photos of the lake and mountains with blue sky and clouds.  Went for a walk along the lake before heading back to our room for a few beers.  Just had dinner in the room with the supplies we had.  I taught Shona how to play 500, and she kicked my ass!  We re-planned our hike for tomorrow given the one we wanted to do we couldn’t access.  Headed to bed by about 11.  Great first day in the park, it is just stunning.  Hard to describe with words and photos just don’t’ do it justice.  I was just like a kid in a candy store driving that road today.  Just amazing beauty.  

 Tuesday September 13

Got up around 8am, had breakfast and packed for our hike.  The one we had planned to do was called the Mt Brown Lookout.  It is a 5.2mile one way hike that gains 4325feet in elevation.  So pretty much straight up.  Is meant to be one of the most strenuous in the park.  Got to the trailhead at about 10am, it starts off the same as the Sperry chalet hike that Shona had done before.  The first half seemed to go fairly quickly, and wasn’t too steep. Quite quickly I could start to see views of the lake, which was beautiful.  The weather really had done a 360 from the day before.  I quickly removed my jumper, then my vest.  Was really quite warm when the sun got through the trees.  Met and old guy on the hike who was taking care of the trail, cleaning it up and making sure it was passable.  He told us about a few viewpoints coming up that are pretty rad.  Got to the first one about 11.37am, and the views were spectacular – trees, snow-capped mountains, lakes, valleys.  Just awesome.  The higher we climbed we started to see snow on the ground next to us that hadn’t melted yet.  Was pretty rad.  Even saw a bird called a ptarmigan, which kind of looked like a bush turkey.  Got to the next view point by about 12.30pm. By this stage I was feeling the hike. It was really strenuous and exhausting. My legs weren’t doing too bad, but I had to stop every 15min or so to catch my breath.  Clearly hadn’t done enough cardio training before I left! Not long after this, we saw the Mt Brown Fire Lookout hut at the top of the mountain.  We guessed we probably had an hour to go.  I knew I could do it, but man at this point I was getting pretty exhausted.  Had only really been climbing for 3 hours, but 3 hours of vertical climbing with no break is tough.  Managed to get to the top in about 30/40min from here.  Was an amazing feeling to reach the top.  Quite an achievement.  I was dripping with sweat.  My backpack was soaked.  But the sun was shining and the view really was unbeatable.  360degrees views of Lake Macdonald, Mt Brown and the mountain ranges around us.  Amazing snow-capped mountains.   We had lunch up here, pretty great spot for some food.  We rested our feet and took in the view.  I laid down on some rocks and let the sun shine on me.  When I finally got up, I’d soaked the rocks beneath me with sweat.  I realised my thermal underneath wasn’t wet it was my t-shirt on top, so took that off and immediately felt better.  At about 2pm, we started our hike down the mountain, which was never going to be fun either.  Much harder on your knees.  We passed a few people on the way down, one who asked if we’d done the extra hike at the end.  Apparently there was another hike you could do that would give you a view of Avalanche Lake.  We hadn’t known about it, but we sure as shit were not climbing back up the top to do it. From what the guy said it was a pretty unmarked and unkempt track.  I figure can’t be that good if it isn’t marked or listed.  Didn’t take us too long to hike down, but the first part of the track that is shared with the Sperry Chalet trail seemed to take forever. We got down to the bottom not long after 4pm.  So all up took us 6 hours.  About 3.5hours up, and 2 hours down, with half hour at the top.  Not too bad at all.  Was awesome to get back to the car, go to the restroom and walk on flat ground again!  We stopped off on the way home at the visitors centre for some advice for hikes the following day.  As the going to the sun road was closed at the point all the good hikes began, we wanted to know our options.  The girl there gave us some good advice and we had a couple of hike options planned. We then headed back to our lodge, showered, changed grabbed some food and then started playing cards again.  Had some beers and also some wine that Shona had bought.  Amazing day.

 Wednesday 14th September

Had a little bit of a sleep in this morning.   Our plan was to do some kayaking in the morning, then do the huckleberry lookout, which was a 12 mile hike.  We wanted to see how our legs held up after doing the giant hike the day before. Mine were definitely a little stiff, but not as bad as I’d expected.  As we were waiting for the kayaking place to open, we overheard the guy in the giftshop say that the road had opened back up.  We were ecstatic!  We had been hoping that the road would open before we left so we could finish the drive.  Best news ever!  I grabbed a huckleberry iced tea and Shona grabbed a coffee, before we hired our kayaks. We hired them for 2 hours, and headed out to the lake about 11am.  We ambitiously thought we could get to the end of the lake and back again, however we quickly discovered that was not going to happen.  I think we probably made it a quarter of the length of the lake before we had to turn around to get the kayaks back.  It was so serene on the lake, just so peaceful.  Quite a few times I just laid back in the kayak and closed my eyes – it was silent.  Just beautiful.  The row back was harder than heading out as the current, was against us.  We made it back by about 12.45pm, handed our kayaks back in and made plans for the afternoon.  We were going to finish driving the going to the sun road and stop off at Logan’s pass to do the hidden lake trail and then maybe Virginia falls later on.  The drive was equally as stunning today, we stopped off to get many of the same photos but with clear blue skies.  The interesting thing after a few days of sunshine and being 20 degrees, was that most of the snow had melted and a lot of the waterfalls we had seen a few days before were gone.  The place where the road was closed last time, had no snow there.  We discovered a few cool little waterfalls we hadn’t noticed when it was covered in snow and took some great pictures.  From here, we continued along the road that we had not seen before.  It was spectacular to say the least.  I’m amazed I didn’t drive off the cliff!  When we got to Logan’s Pass, the carpark was so full, as it hadn’t been open for a few days everyone was checking it out today.   We drove around for about 20min before giving up on our hiking ideas and heading to the next hike on the map.  We had hoped on the way back we could be able to get a park.  We missed the trailhead for the Virginia falls hike, but stopped off at the Sunrift Gorge. From the looks of it, it was a 200ft hike, so we didn’t bring the bear spray.  We looked at the water cascade through the gorge and began walking down a track that followed the water.  Soon we found ourselves surrounded by huckleberries and the path closing in a little bit.  We thought at this point we really should have brought the bear spray, however the track seemed heavily trafficked, so we kept going.  After about 10 minutes, we walked past another waterfall before coming to the shores of Saint Mary Lake.  The lake was beautiful and we followed the track around the lake for about 20 more minutes.  At this point, we decided to turn back around, as we still wanted to stop at Logan’s Pass and time was escaping us.  Walked back to the car and headed back towards Logan’s Pass.  On the way we stopped off at a restroom, and whilst waiting in line heard someone say they’d spotted a black bear eating huckleberries at a picnic spot not far from where we were hiking!  Lucky we didn’t get eaten by a bear without bear spray on it! Also whilst in line for the restroom, there were people with binoculars and big cameras that had spotted 2 bears on the mountain/hill in front of us.  With quite a bit of time and looking, I finally spotted the 2 little dots they could see.  One was definitely a black bear and one was a lighter colour.  Managed to get a photo on the big camera, but still only look like dots.   Either way, we technically saw 2 bears!  Managed to get a park at Logan’s pass and get some great photos, as the viewpoints were amazing.  There was still a tonne of snow up here that had clearly been snow plowed out of the way. Got to see Clements Mountain which is the highest peak in the park at 8760 feet.  Walked around for about half an hour before jumping back in the car and heading back dong going to the sun road.   Given the time, we decided to head straight to dinner before heading home, we stopped in at the Lake Macdonald village to go to the restaurant there that sounded really nice, with some great vegan options.  However, when we got there the wait was 90min.  We were hungry and couldn’t be bothered waiting that long, so headed out to west glacier village to eat at the restaurant there.  Good thing about stopping in at this village is we could see where we’d hiked up to the day before, it was so high up!!  At west glacier, just headed to the restaurant and again the service here was fantastic.  The waitress organised with the chef to make me up something vegan that wasn’t on the menu, so I had the pasta with Neapolitan sauce and the garden burger crumbled on top.  Certainly not the best pasta I’ve ever eaten, but super nice they went out of their way. Headed back to the lodge, where we drank beers and wine and played cards and Shona kicked my arse!  Ended up in bed about 3am and pretty drunk!

 Thursday 15th September

Saturday 10th September