More photos

If the journal is leaving you hankering for more photos, you can now view many more on my facebook page. I will be adding more - we have many - but right now I am going to sleep. For those of you who don't have facebook, just use a stalker page or a friends page. This was the easiest means to get pictures where you could see them. You can find my page by plugging this email address in to the facebook search: chaelita84@yahoo.com

That's enough social networking for now.
Don't worry - I do not tweet.
Never going to happen.

Big Weekend

The big weekend started on Friday. We went back to NY in the morning to sign papers for our apartment. So we officially have an apartment! We will get the keys tomorrow and camp there until our box arrives with all of our stuff, probably around the 9th. We're very excited.
Colin had also set up a meetings with at Del Posto and Union Square Cafe. Right after we signed the lease headed down to Del Posto. I waited on a bench in the sun on the bank of the Hudson while Colin met with Mark. Twenty minutes later, he walked out with a job! What a great moment! He is going to be the new Chef de Partie, specializing in fish. He will be working dinner shifts full time, starting this Tuesday. He is so excited and I am so happy for him. Seeing his talent and hard work taking him where he wants to be is so gratifying. We stopped into Union Square next and Colin told the chef there, Carmen Quagliata, that he had just taken the job at Del Posto. After this year of talking, he and Carmen have become friends and will keep in touch and go to the markets together sometimes. It all ended so nicely!
So, an apartment and a job! 2 down, 1 to go. (Job for me.)
Saturday morning we drove up to Essex for Brian and Karen's wedding (Colin's older brother.) It was a gorgeous day and a beautiful wedding. The wedding party had taken over an entire old school hotel and we partied into the night. To top it all off, Colin got to go to a Phish show at Fenway tonight and see a bunch of his old friends.

The Job Market

May 28th:
We are signing the lease on the place from the previous post tomorrow! It was a bit of work and driving today to get all of the funds together in the proper form (certified checks) but we did it all today and we are now ready to finalize it tomorrow!
Colin has been talking, emailing and meeting with a few chefs in NY for the past 6 months or so, establishing relationships and laying the groundwork for cooking in NYC. In March he met face to face with them again and did a stage at Del Posto with Mark Ladner. (A stage is basically an audition at a restaurant; you come in and work for a day and see how you all like it.) Today he sent out another email letting them know that he is finally established in NY and would like to speak with them again about employment. Almost immediately, he got a response from Ladner at Del Posto, Colin's first choice of restaurant's to work with. Ladner wants to meet with him tomorrow (Friday,) and asked when Colin will be available for hire! Tomorrow after signing our lease, Colin will meet with Mark Ladner and discuss working with him at Del Posto. It's so great to see all of his hard work and skill bring responses. We'll let keep you posted. (I would just like to point out that I exercised GREAT self control in not utilizing a bad pun right here.)
Anyway...
I have also been sending out resume packages to places that are posted on Craigslist. As a small side note, I would like to point out that I really should have had a recent set of headshots taken by Trevor in SF because 90% of prospective employers request them. Agh. I'll figure it out tomorrow. That being said, I have high hopes for something to open up. (And... I am going to try to look really hot in the next few days and have Colin take a photo that could at least pass for a bartending application headshot.) Of course, I will keep you up to date on my job prospects as well - whether depressing or positive. Just for fun, I will leave you with a stellar example of the employment listings I have come across. Skeptics beware, I did not make this up - the posting ID is included:

bartenders/barmaids wanted (East Village)

---

Reply to:job-hvd3k-1194110822@craigslist.org ^{[Errors when replying to ads?]}
Date: 2009-05-28, 8:49PM EDT

holding interviews for bartenders...experienced professional bartedners only..mixolgy skills a must.

flair skills a big extra..male and female wanted..please bring resume w/ attached photo. (wothout photos will forget you in pile of reumes)
we have collected a group of talented mixologists and flair(bottle flipping) crew.. we are in need to fill more shifts.

new bar under renovation
must be 21 and over please.

evolution
68 2nd avenue
corner of 4th street
f train 2nd ave stop
ask for randy or eric

holding interviews mon-fri 3pm-5pm ONLY!!!!!

• Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
• Please, no phone calls about this job!
• Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

PostingID: 1194110822

An Update

Just a quick update on the newest:

We looked at this apartment on Tuesday. (The two lower left two windows belong to it.) It is a really cute place on E. 59th St., between 2nd and 3rd Aves. The price is unbelievable and it has everything we were looking for. (I'll go into details after we get some pictures of the inside - we were too busy looking to take pictures.) We will be signing papers this Friday! Really exciting.

Now that we have a legit address, the next step is to secure jobs...

We made it!

May 25th:
Every time I write the date at the top of a post I actually have to check which day it is. We left Chicago the afternoon of the 23rd and blazed through Ohio and Pennsylvania. During this drive the car began to show its first signs of stress: the tire developed a slow leak. Dang it! Luckily, it was such a gradual leak that we were able to stop every few hours to top it off with air. It held all the way to CT. (Tomorrow will take it to get fixed.)

The “Welcome to New York” sign greeted us at 5:30am on the 24th. We were on our way to Connecticut, but 84 runs through NY first. Dusk was introducing the sunrise by 5:00am, gilding the mountainside trees along our drive with gray-gold light. It was an exquisite drive. We had been on the road since Chicago at 12pm and being welcomed by misty green forests rolling out in front of us gave us the energy we needed to complete the last 30 minutes of the drive.

Since we arrived in CT we have been resting and spending time with Colin's family. Hopefully we will go into NY on Wednesday and sign papers on our prospective apartment. I'll let you know how it goes. On that note, for continuity's sake, I will keep this journal alive through our search for apartments and jobs, at least up until we get settled.

Route: Hwy 94 - I 80 - I-81 - I-84
Major Stops: Clarion OH; Woodbury, CT

P.S. I update the St. Louis & Chicago posts to include routes.

Chicago

May 21st:
We arrived in the early evening and went straight to Giordano's for deep dish pizza. So delicious... We wandered around the Rush St. area for a while until we heard some great music coming from a bar and went in for a drink. It was called The Joynt and we found out it has a lot of Chicago history in it. And as it turned out, the band was Shirley King's band (BB King's daughter.) They were so good we ended up dancing there the rest of the night.

Route: I-55

May 22nd:
We pretty much celebrated my birthday the whole day. (A little spoiled, I know.) We had lunch at The Palms and then I went and got a pedicure. We relaxed in the afternoon and headed to Vinci for dinner. Vinci was a treat; a casual Italian restaurant with great food, good prices and very unique interior design - an improbable blend of classy Italian renaissance and checkered Italian diner. Our after-dinner entertainment was a show at Second City, the comedy company that has seen the early careers of so many legendary comics. Needless to say, it was hilarious and a really great way to end the day of celebration.

May 23rd:
We left Chicago this morning and are going straight on through to Connecticut. It’s a long haul but we decided it’d be better than having to set up a tent somewhere in the dark.

St. Louis

May 20th:
Yesterday we started the northward stretch. We left New Orleans a bit later than planned. I blame it on the Insectarium - they run entrance at that place like Fort Knox. We also missed the world famous chicken at Willie Mae's Scotch House by 30 minutes. Bummer. We were finally on the road by about 3:30pm with a really long stretch ahead of us. The campground at Trail of Tears National Park was originally our destination but we found out en route that the grounds close at 9pm and there was no way we were making it in time. All of the other campgrounds on our route, aside from some KOA's along the interstate, had a similar closing time. Something about setting up camp at a KOA right on the road at 2am just didn't sit well with us. (Probably had something to do with the Guadalupe experience...)

So we went for it. Even though we've had quite a few big driving days - anywhere from 8 to 15 hours - we had not done an all night drive yet so it was due. We made it to just outside of St. Louis by about 3:30am and figured we could find a super cheap motel but all of them were upwards of $65. (!) We ended up parking behind a Motel 8 next to a huge truck stop and sleeping in the car. Check off the obligatory sleep in the car.

A few hours slept, we headed into downtown St. Louis and convinced the hotel we were staying with that night to check us in at 7:30am instead of 3pm. Sweet! Showered, dealt with NY apartment stuff, and finally had a nice lunch at Morgan's, a local microbrewery.

Route: I-10 - I-55

The weather in St. Louis was so beautiful; a mellow mid-70’s with a calm breeze, brilliant blue sky, verdant trees, the intense gleam of the stainless steel of the Gateway Arch and the muddy brown thick ribbon of the Ole Miss. I’m not mocking the river. It is a magnificent and tranquil presence as it strongly and gently drives mud and debris down through the country.

The Arch is pretty neat to look at. It seemed a little incongruous to me at first but it is massive and graceful and it becomes familiar rather quickly. We decided to take the tram to the top of its 635 feet. We climbed into a tiny metal pod with 2 women and their little kids. The pod bore a strong resemblance to one of those emergency jettison pods that equip Stars Wars ships. Tiny.
We exited the pod at the top and were we pressed up against the crowd and the tiny little windows looking out over St. Louis on one side and Illinois on the other. It was worth going up there.



That night we got tickets to the Cardinals/Cubs game. (Colin is a Cards fan.) We had a great time and the Cards won! Mmmm, nachos and Bud.

May 21:
Onward to Chicago! It is only about a 5 hour drive...

The Big Easy

We are now in New Orleans. Crazy place! We got in late last night and strolled Bourbon St. for a while, taking in the show and watching out for puke in the street... yea... Now off to a full day of visiting spots recommended by our good friends - from the Audubon Insectarium to killer bloody marys and biegnets.

I-10

3:50 am, May 19th:

Against all personal beliefs, advice and good sense, I am eating tenders from a 24 hour market on a corner near our hotel. WOW. How badly I regret this is not even a question now - it can and will only be determined in the morning. Or, it's 4. When I wake up I guess.

Keep you posted. Unless it's too graphic.

Austin to the 504

May 16th:
Took it easy the first part of the day in Austin and took advantage of the first showers, internet and comfy places to relax that we had had access to in days. (You may have noticed that all of the entries were posted on the 15th.) We headed out in the early evening and had some grubbing barbeque at Lambert’s and strolled through downtown as the sun set over Austin. We made our way to La Zona Rosa where my friends Aaron Cuadra and Jennifer Appelquist were playing music with some of their friends in Aaron’s “Circle of Songs” night. (Aaron was the musician I was playing shows with in San Francisco/Sacramento/Chico last fall.) It was fun to see a bit of the local music scene and more fun when Aaron had me sing on a couple of songs with him.

For the sake of our drive to New Orleans the next day, Colin and I chose not to close the bar down. We took a nice long stroll back to our room, sampling a couple of tacos on the way. (We had to compare the ones we had the night before with another option. For those of you who are curious, we preferred the Casa Del Fuego truck to the Taqueria Star truck.)

May 17th:
We happened upon a not-too-crowded brunch spot to fuel up in before getting on the road. As we were enjoying our meal there suddenly formed a petty decent waiting line. Come to find out we ate at what the locals voted the Best Brunch in Austin. We have a knack for that I guess…

And we were off to NOLA!

Hwy 71 – I-10

P.S. It occurred to me after the May 16th post that it would be probably be more interesting and possibly helpful if I gave the names of the places at which we enjoyed eating. For those of you who may care, I went back and added the names in to the last few posts and will from here on out try to remember to include them. That being said, I am not going to turn this into any sort of amateur restaurant critic bl**g, so don’t worry.

To the half way point

May 15th:
We woke up in safety and headed straight to the Carlsbad Caverns. What an incredible place! We took about 2 hours walking through the caves and checking out all of the geological masterpieces. It’s amazing how a hole in the ground made of minerals and water can have such a living breathing presence.

Back on the road through Texas we drove through a beautiful thunder storm, huge bolts of lightening striking on the plateaus around us. We arrived in Austin about midnight, dirty, tired, and proud of ourselves. We got the last room available at the Austin Motel, had a cheers to hitting the half way mark and hit up a taco stand (Casa Del Fuego).

Route: Hwy 62/180 – Hwy 285 – I-10 – Hwy 290 – I35
Major Points: Carlsbad Caverns, Austin

The Grand Canyon

Still May 13th:
It is a relatively short stretch between Vegas and the Grand Canyon. We happened to leave Vegas just in perfect time to arrive at the Grand Canyon 20 minutes before sunset! In retrospect, there was a small tragedy that made this possible: we somehow missed the last In n’ Out opportunity, a stop we had been set on making from the beginning of our trip since there are no more past Arizona. Alas, we missed the exit in Tucson and there was not another exit until it clearly made no sense to turn around. There was a spontaneous moment of silence in the car. Until next time…

But the sunset at the Grand Canyon was a fair trade. It is such an astounding place – more magnificent than I could’ve imagined. After the sun went down we had to work on setting up camp. We were lucky again to get to the general store right before it closed to get some camp food and then triple lucky when we got the last campsite available! We set up camp, made mac n’ cheese and enjoyed the little fire we made. Camping is so much fun!

Route: Hwy 93 – I-40 – Hwy 64
Major points: Las Vegas, Grand Canyon


May 14th:
We broke camp and took our time leaving the Grand Canyon area, stopping a few more times just to look at it again. It made the long stretch ahead a little longer but again, so worth it. The extra treat was that our route (next stop Carlsbad Caverns) took us through the Painted Desert.

Intermission… 15 hours of driving…

During that time we realized that there is no camping in the Carlsbad area. To keep on schedule we needed to camp near there – really near there. We found a spot in the Guadalupe Mountains, just on the boarder of Texas and New Mexico, on the Texas side. We arrived at 3am. It was a pretty creepy spot; a self check-in campground so there were no on duty rangers and it was out in the middle of nowhere yet really accessible by car. We didn’t really have another option so we set up the tent and crawled in. We lay awaked awhile while strange noises played with our heads and ghosts rattled the tent.

Route: Hwy 64 – Hwy 89 – I-17 – I -40 – Hwy 62/180
Major points: Painted Desert, Tucson, El Paso, Guadalupe Mountains

Vegas baby

The good ol' Farmer's Market

Welcome to the online journal documentary of our cross-country journey! (This is not a bl**.) There will be pictures, words and, for those of you that are following along on a map, I will list our traveled highways and major US cities/destinations at the end of each entry.

It has been a few days since we left but we’ve been so busy I haven’t had a second to write! I will catch up…

May 10th:
We left from the shire (my mom’s in Nevada City) Monday morning and were officially on the road in the early afternoon. Our plan was to go through Reno and then take 395 through Death Valley, all the way to Vegas. After Reno, however, we took a… very scenic route around Lake Tahoe and then had to make a new route. We eventually got to 95 and took that alllll the way through the beautiful desolate deserts of Nevada and arrived in Las Vegas around 2am.

Vegas is like nothing else I’ve ever seen! I thought I had a pretty good idea of what I was going to see but it dwarfed the picture in my head in every way. Driving in on the The Strip is astounding enough but especially after one has been driving for hours through the dark desert with the only big bright light coming from the almost-full moon rising over a modest plateau. Suddenly I felt like Alice after the “Drink Me” bottle. Colin has been before but I think he got a kick out of hearing me say “wow” so many times.

We stayed at the MGM Grand (screaming online deal) and the next day enjoyed the pool and the constant bombardment of hustlers. That night we met up with Colin’s good friend Ted and hung out local style at a great Tapas place, Firefly. Later Colin and I set out on foot and explored the entire strip (including Greg Stone’s suggested “Walk of Fame.”) Our last night in Vegas was very appropriate to the occasion.

May 13th:
On our way out on Wednesday we stopped in to what is considered by many to be the best Thai food outside of Thailand – a totally unassuming spot in a sweltering strip mall on Sahara Ave, called Lotus of Siam. The food was really excellent and somehow also really inexpensive and the hundreds of photos of celebrity clientele made up the perfect décor.

And then onward to Arizona...

Route: Hwy 49 - Hwy 20 - I 80 - Hwy 395 - um, detour... - back on Hwy 95
Major places: Reno, Lake Tahoe, Las Vegas