let's get serious.: east or die.

Pittsburgh (6/26 - 6/29)

Pittsburgh was reminiscent of Portland, a working class town and bridges everywhere you looked, albeit without all of the hipsters. Honestly, I didn’t expect much from Pittsburgh. We only made it a stop on our trip because BAM had family there. The ignorant side of me expected to see a city nestled between mountains, where residents would go to and fro to mine coal and then after work nestle in to their local bars and watch the Steelers play. Only one of those turned out to be true.

Pittsburgh was surprising. The downtown area is very cosmopolitan. Our first stop was Station Square, which is more or less Pittsburgh’s version of Chicago’s Navy Pier or St. Louis’ Union Station. The area has plentiful commercial restaurants like Hard Rock Cafe, comedy clubs, bars and shops. It’s their tourist draw, so I would pass unless I needed to park in their garage or needed a meeting point to head up to Mt. Washington.

Clinton Furnace in Station Square.

Mt. Washington Pt is an area that has expansive views of downtown Pittsburgh as well as the Golden Triangle, where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers form to make the Ohio River. We walked two blocks from Station Square to the Monongahela Incline, where we took a cable car, which looks more like a hut, up to the top. Once you get to the top, you can marvel at all of the gigantic homes and then look the other way at their million dollar views. Ever so often there are platforms where you can take in the views, both romantic and touristy at the same time. This is where BAM's Tito Brice proposed to Tita Yeng. After taking in the views you can walk up the street and get a bite to eat or grab some coffee/ice cream. This is a must do in Pittsburgh.

Monongahela Incline.

Heading up.

Houses on Mt. Washington.

Views of Downtown Pittsburgh.

Tita Yeng and Tito Brice.

From there we hit up the Strip district which is a ton of boutique shops and bars up and down Penn Ave. Unfortunately for me, there are more cafes, bars, stationary stores and art galleries rather than actual clothing and shoe stores. Regardless, this is the area where the original Primanti’s is as well as Church Works Brewery. There’s more detail about those two in the East Coast Road Trip food recap.

Overall, Pittsburgh was a surprising little urban center. Some of the things that I missed which I have to see next time are the Heinz museum (yes, the ketchup maker), the burgers/wings/brew at Fat Head’s South Side Saloon, views from the Monterey Bay Fish Grotto and the rest of the tons of breweries in Pittsburgh. If you are planning a trip, it’s worth 2 nights, 3 days.

Boston (6/29 - 7/1)

Boston grew on me a little bit more this time around. To me, Boston always held this conservative monocultural persona to it. I always viewed the people as the haves versus the have-nots. All of the Ivy League, super expensive, hard to get into schools are right there in Cambridge. Plus, I’m not a huge fan of American history so that doesn’t help much either. Maybe staying in Jamaica Plains helped skew my perspective? JP is probably as multicultural and relatively safe as you’re going to get in Boston.

JP.

Local Dojo in JP.

I also attained a greater appreciation for the houses and neighborhoods in Boston. Even before getting to JP, you can only help but marvel at these grand brick Victorian houses and sprawling lawns. Right outside Boston downtown reminded me of a gigantic Evanston.

Megan's Place.

Two of the neighborhoods we spent a lot of time in were Chinatown and Back Bay. Boston’s Chinatown is really not that different than any other Chinatown. It is however, the nation’s third largest. We stopped there twice on the same day. For breakfast we had Winsor Dim Sum Café and for dinner we had Penang.

Boston Subway.

Chinatown.

Only in Chinatown.

From dim sum we walked the 6 block trek to Newbury Street in Back Bay, passing along such notables as the Boston Common and Public Garden. Long story short, Newbury St is expensive. However, there are tons of boutique shops and for a city I deem as conservative, they have surprisingly great number of urban street stores. To count a few, they have Riccardo’s (super expensive, BBC, Bape), Johnny Cupcakes, X-Squared, Karmaloop.

Church on Newbury St.

Just Ducky Tour - BAM said it was my type of boat.

My two faves were Newbury Comics and Bodega. Newbury Comics is a comic book, record, toy, graphic tee store all rolled up in one. If you can’t find anything there, you can’t find anything anywhere. Bodega is an urban clothing store I read about in a magazine. If you didn’t know about it, you would probably pass it up since it fronts as a mini grocery store. Once you get in however, you pass through the fake bodega and enter this expansive space filled with shoes, shirts, hats, etc. It reminded me of the Hundreds store in San Francisco which is all blacked out in the front and the door doesn’t open until you walk close enough to it.

Newbury Comics.

Bodega.

Wall art in Bodega.

There were parts that still reminded me that Boston can be pretty douchey, namely Drink and the bar at the Liberty Hotel. At the Liberty Hotel, I asked for three Jaeger Bombs. The bartender said, “We don’t have those, we have regular shots.” Either way, ironically Matt Damon and Ben Affleck (really?) have done a good job showing the grittier side of Boston in ‘The Town’ and ‘The Departed’, in which the latter has its own themed beer tour. Overall, I was glad to see the more ‘colorful’ side of Boston. It deserves at least 2 nights, three days.

New York (7/1 - 7/4)

New York is New York. I can never say anything bad about the place except they put garbage on their sidewalks and the random odors that can wake you up like smelling salt. Other than that, I love everything about NY – the gristle, the hustle, the attitude – all of it.

Obey.

The start of NY wasn’t so pleasant. Sally, our GPS, had us coming in local once we got close. Of course out of all places to drive locally through, the middle of the Bronx would not be my first choice. To make things worse, our brakes were going out and we were in the middle of NY traffic. I’ll leave it at that.

NYC Traffic.

We rented an apartment in Gramercy Park, which proved to be a good central location between Central Park and Soho. The great thing about Manhattan is no matter where you are there’s always something right around the block. Since Manhattan is so compact, every business doubles as something – restaurants are bars, grocery stores are flower shops, towing companies are auto repair shops.

Grocery Store/Flower Shop.

The first night we grabbed some thin crust pizza at Posto and got ready to go out that night. BAM was still limited since she was fresh off of the sprained foot she got in Boston. Luckily Bonee and her doctor friend Josh came to the rescue and hooked her up with a splint and some crutches. My roommate Ryan arrived and instantly commented on how big the place was that we were staying in. In my head, I kept thinking this place couldn’t be more than 1000 sq feet and we stay in a 1600 sq ft place in Chicago. It all made sense when we got to our buddy Mike’s place in Soho to preset. The place was at most 750 sq feet split amongst three guys. He told me rent was $1400 and I said, “Oh that’s not bad” until he told me it was $1400 each. Whoa. We were having a grand ol’ time when I looked out of the window and saw this amazing expansive loft – tiger rug and everything. I shouted to the others to come look and Mike explained that musician Lenny Kravitz lives in that building and futbol player Thierry Henry lives down the block.

We took a cab to our destination that evening in the Meat Packing District: Hiro. I didn’t know much about the place except that Mike hooked up bottle service and it was Asian night. Boy, was it Asian night alright. The place was huge and you come down these stairs into this enormous expanse filled with Asian décor and massive oval paper lantern lighting. Go go dancers were off to one end of the place. At one point, a scantily clothed lady stepped up onto a platform, lit some balls on fire that were attached to ropes and started swinging them every which way. It looked like a scene right out of Kill Bill. Of course with having so many of a certain culture in the same place, there had to be fight and the guilty parties were tossed out.

Firestarter.

"I like to party."

After getting inebriated, we took a cab to none other than 53rd and 6th for some chicken and rice. Only in NY city would you have hundreds of drunk party goers lining up for food from a street cart. Let me tell you, it is that good.

The next day the rest of our group flew in and we headed straight to 230 Fifth Ave which is a hard to get into nightspot that is also open for brunch. I had to cut out early to pick up our van from the shop. I picked up Bubba and then went looking for a garage to park in. Of course, nothing is ever easy in NY so after getting shot down from numerous parking attendants and driving in endless circles I finally found one on 15th and Park Ave. “You know you have to pay extra, right?” the parking attendant explained. “Yah, whatever, just take it,” I replied hastily. After the last two days, I didn’t want to have anything to do with Bubba and NYC traffic. (Btw, it is $60/day to park a full conversion van overnight in NYC).

Everyone's here!

230 Fifth Ave.

Rooftop Views.

After dropping off the van I made it back to brunch to finish off my eggs benedict and then we headed off to the Empire State building. Before we did, we made a quick stop at the Museum of Sex, which turned out to be a great place to pick up souvenirs if your expected recipients are not too conservative.

BAM mesmerized.

Darnit.

We finally made it to the Empire State Building. Who knew it would be a madhouse on the Saturday of 4th of July weekend? “2 hour wait but express you can pay $45,” yelled the workers who were dressed in Empire State Building garb. Um no. We decided it wasn’t worth it and personally I think the view is better at night. Then Bridget dropped a bombshell.

Empire State Building.

No way Jose.

“I think I’m going to head back,” she said. What? Why? “I don’t think I can make it on these crutches and my arms are getting tired, “ she explained. In my head, I thought, “There’s no way we made it this far and have you miss NYC.” Our friends started devising solutions which ranged from finding a wagon to a rope and a skateboard. “How about a wheelchair?” someone remarked. Ding! We went to the Walgreens right next to the Empire State Building and sure enough we saw the pretty red number. $160 later, BAM was back in action.

Look what I found.

Back and better than ever.

The group decided it was time to shop so what better place to go than to Soho. I was pretty excited too because I packed particularly light just so I could make the excuse to spend on clothing. Boston failed me because I didn’t find anything I liked and I didn’t want to buy just to buy. These were the stores on my list: Uniqlo, Adidas Originals, KidRobot, Bape, BBC, New Era, etc. I was pumped. And then in a matter of 15 minutes, I wasn’t. Just as much as the Empire State Building was busy, every store on Broadway was just as packed. Add in we had to navigate a wheelchair through the masses, it seemed more work than play. After about an hour on Broadway, I was thinking NYC was failing me too. It wasn’t until I got to KidRobot that I finally saw something I liked. I picked up a couple of vinyl toys and some shirts.

Cookie's n Cream Store.

Bumblebee in Uniqlo.

Adidas Originals Soho.

Bape.

KidRobot.

Can't forget about Dash NYC.

We then decided to hit up Little Italy for Lombardi’s Pizza and Chinatown for some cheap I Heart NY shirts. Of course when we get to Lombardi’s the line is outside of the door so we backtracked to Mulberry St and started walking to Chinatown. At a certain point, we had to stop to wait for the others so we stopped at a corner. It’s in these fleeting moments when you can take a step back and say, “We’re in the middle of NYC after traveling almost 800 miles and although BAM is in a wheelchair, we are enjoying life.”

The others caught up and we made our way through Little Italy. It was the first time I’ve seen Mulberry Street closed off to traffic which made walking through the bustling area pleasant. All of the sidewalk patio seating was full with patrons as we walked underneath the string lighting that hung between street lamps.

We made it to Canal St which marks the start of Chinatown. The familiar voices of little old Asian ladies whispering Gucci and Prada fell upon our ears. We passed through the small stores and some of the others picked up shirts.

Street art.

It was around 7pm now and we needed to get back so people could start getting ready. The guys decided to head straight to Shake Shack in Madison Square Park (the original location) to pick up dinner while the girls went home to get ready.

We got to the park and upon approaching we saw a semblance of a line, and then a line, and then a super long line. The theme of our day: Saturday of 4th of July weekend. We got to the back of the line and strategized when to give up on our quest if we passed a certain time. The target time was 8:30. To make a long story short, we got to the front at about 8:30, ordered and then waited another half hour for our actual order. It was nearing 9pm by the time we started walking back to the apt. We had to be at the club by 10pm to make sure we secured our bottle service reserved by my good friend LJ.

We got to the apt, passed out the Shake Stacks and chomped down on these burgers. Never have I ever waited almost two hours for a sandwich and said it was completely worth it. You have to try these burgers.

The place we were hitting up was this place called Beauty & Essex. LJ, a friend from my Philippine Studies Program, said this was the spot to be and a childhood friend of his managed at the place. The way B&E was setup was the same way Bodega was setup in Boston. The front of the place looked like a pawn shop (which I think it actually was) and then towards the back was the entrance to the club. When we got in, we were greeted to a grand staircase leading up to the second floor and a receptionist desk. The interior was magnificent – glass chandeliers, leather espresso brown seats, etc. The crowd fit the part as well as most were dressed in either collared shirts or dresses. The place reminded me of ‘The Violet Hour’ except with less convo and more mingling.

Beauty & Essex.

Our reservation was at the top so I helped BAM hop her way up the staircase. We had two bottles reserved (at $400 each). Come to think of it, when someone says they’ll hook you up with bottle service, are you really getting much of a deal or are they just reserving tables. Either way at $400 a bottle that doesn’t seem so discounted. (We did get hooked up in other ways later on, however.) We started the night of debauchery when at some point, we notice a bunch of douchebags with muscle fitted shirts come in. Then a couple of them come to the center of the room and start gyrating. I started to think, “They are dancing too well.” That’s when I realized there were no women with them. Maybe bachelor party. “Oh no, I can’t even do that move,” I thought. They weren’t douchebags, they were GAY! Hahaha, innocent mistake. One of the guys from their party came over to our friend Jenny and started giving her a lap dance. She started out with this face of disgust but after she realized there was no imminent threat, she warmed up to the idea.

Ice Cream Truck.

The group to the side of us was completely different. I noticed they were dressed down, which meant maybe they were either from out of town or they were from Jersey (see the next destination below for a more accurate description). Poor was out of the question because everyone in the room had to get bottle service. One of the girls in their group was moving around so violently I didn’t know if she was dancing or punching demons.

Reserved.

We were about one and a half bottles in when LJ tells his friend that we’d all like a shot of pickleback on the house. To preface, a pickleback is a shot of Jameson with a glass of pickle juice. You take the shot and chase it with the pickle juice and voila! - no aftertaste. Three things happened here – 1) They didn’t have pickle juice so LJ’s friend sent one of their employees across the street to the bodega to get some, 2) They thought a pickleback was Jameson and pickle juice combined in one shot and 3) after taking it, we all almost collectively puked.

Party animal!

We were nearing the end of the second bottle when LJ came up to me and said, “If you take me off of the first two bottles, I’ll pick up a third bottle on my own.” The right answer should have been, “No, I think we’re good”. Instead, I said, “Do what you go to do.” Wrong, wrong, wrong. All I know is after LJ ordered the third bottle, everyone was gone, we all split up, BAM and I ended up in Chinatown and Rynee revealed his alter ego was a 300 lb black woman named Precious.

"I don't think we needed that third bottle, LJ."

Our last day in NY started out late. We were all groggy from the night before and we spent most of the morning trying to rehash what went on. Apparently, Rynee went on a rant about getting chicken and rice and hijacked all of the folks that were in his cab and forced them to go there. It was kind of like Denzel Washington in Training Day when he screams, “I am King Kong!” except it was more like, “I am Precious and it is my job to eat.” It also didn’t help that it was rainy outside.

When we finally got outside, it was about 11am and the plan was to hit up Washington Square Park and eventually make our way down to Ground Zero and Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty. Washington Square Park is one of my favorite places in NY because it has the mini Arc de Triomphe, the dog park and it reminds me of when they arrive in NY in ‘When Harry Met Sally’. We hit that up first and were treated to a handful of NYU students swing dancing. We hung out for a bit and decided since everyone was getting a little hungry we should go hit up Katz Delicatessen, where Sally had her infamous orgasm scene in ‘When Harry Met Sally’. It was starting to drizzle more so we stopped by one of the small shops on Thompson St and picked up some five dollar umbrellas. Because I had to push the wheelchair with two hands, BAM and I had to improvise – she held the umbrella up so it covered both of us while I pushed the wheelchair. We were like a two man band.

Union Square.

Washington Square Park.

We get to Katz at the absolute best time. It was about 2pm now. Although it was bustling inside, there was no line out of the door and we could find seats. The ambience inside Katz epitomizes what NY is all about – bustling, workers scrambling, lively. They give you tickets right when you get in and when you order, the server writes your order on your ticket. You don’t pay until you leave. They also tell you even if you don’t order anything that you still need to hold on to your ticket to verify that was the case. Each line has its own specialty – there’s a soup line, sandwich line, fries line and beverage line. Don’t ask the guy preparing your sandwich to fetch you soup – you may or may not get a dirty look. Luckily I didn’t. We got our $15 sandwiches, sat down and indulged.

Two doors down is a Ray’s ‘Original’ Pizza – we decided to go just to see if this could be the original one. Do yourself a favor – do not come here unless you are completely inebriated or have ordered a fresh pie. The slices seemed to be under the heat lamps for hours.

It was about 4pm now. I told the others that my body needed to rest from all of the travel. I had had a sore throat for 7 days straight and decided I needed to take it easy. Apparently, everyone else felt the same way. We all headed back to the apt and rested until we headed out again.

Our plan for dinner and out on the town was a place called Player’s in Koreatown. I had been there before with LJ and had a blast and I thought it’d be a nice change of pace from the hardcore drinking we’ve been doing the last two nights. What I was really looking forward to was the soju. They fill clear bottles with fruit, add soju to it and the best part is it doesn’t even taste like alcohol.

K-town.

Players.

When we got there, we asked if we could get a karaoke room. They said we had to spend at least $200. I asked if there was a room charge. They said no. Where do we sign up?

We got into the room and it was the nicest karaoke room I’ve ever been to. Everyone was hungry so we started ordering – two styles of Korean chicken wings, French fries, fish cakes. We also ordered a couple of bottles of soju. By the end of the night we had over ten bottles of soju and our appetites were completely satisfied – no need for late night eats.

Lychee and Yogurt Soju.

Chicken wings, kim chi fried rice and french fries.

Divas.

Fat cats.

Our last stop was the must do for anyone who has never been to NY – Times Square. I personally think Times Square is prettier at night. There are less people and the bright lights remind me of when I was back in Tokyo. The atmosphere was eerily serene relative to what happens during the day. There were no taxis honking and fighting through masses of people. Don’t get me wrong, there were tons of people there for 2am in the morning on a Monday but everyone seemed to be taking in all of the wonder just as we were. We capitalized on all of the photo opportunities and then headed home. It was a perfect way to end our NY stay.

Overall, I would live in NY if I could. Vacation-wise, a week would be perfect before you start craving the slower comforts of home.

Seaside Heights (aka Jersey Shore) (7/4 - 7/5)

The approach to New Jersey coming from New York is eerily similar to when you are crossing the border between Chicago and Indiana. Let’s put it this way – the sight of industrial towers spewing smoke into the atmosphere does not make for a pretty backdrop. Right when we got to Jersey, we experienced the impact that the show ‘Jersey Shore’ has made on the local economy. Case in point, a billboard for a beer company read, “We don’t pump gas. We pump fists at the Jersey Shore.” Now that I think about it, Jersey has a policy where every gas station is full service. Maybe their marketing dept is smarter than I thought.

The best thing about Jersey was stopping by Ryan's parent's house in Marlboro. I joked with about him being Vinny from the show and his family cooking us this huge Italian feast. Well we didn't get the prosciutto and meatballs, but we did get a feast - Korean bbq, pork, short ribs, an amazing ground beef dish and a cake that was outlined with fruit to make the American flag.

"Haro, my name is Lyan Ree."

"Chillin' in West Jersey, born and raised..."

The towns (Lavallette) right before Seaside Heights are super nice. The houses are your typical grand summer homes and you have water views on either side of the strip. Then there was the Jersey Shore.

If I can sum up our experience at the Jersey Shore on the 4th of July in four words: trailer trash of America. Once we got in, we understood why the surrounding hotels/motels had strict no guest policies. The area is party central. We pulled into Palm Villas Suite and we see a Latino family grilling out in the parking lot – I believe they brought their own grills because I didn’t see them out there the next day. People were hanging out on the balconies throwing back a few. There was a dinky pool that really doubled as a big Jacuzzi without jets.

Even coming in, we didn’t expect much, but for it to be even worse than we imagined is saying something. We made our way to the boardwalk. Before we made it there, we run into thrones of pedestrians and cop cars surrounding a house. Sure enough, it was the Jersey Shore house and the cast had been filming for a week now.

Jersey Shore House.

We finally make it onto the boardwalk and it is bustling with people. The beach was off in the distance and right above us was the ski lift transporting patrons from one end of the boardwalk to the other. We started taking in the scenery. Fireworks didn’t start until 9:30 so we had about 3 hours to kill. Within three hours, these were our findings:

1) Jersey Shore is not just limited to Italian douchebags but douchebags of every culture.

2) As for culture, it was pretty diverse. As far as the cultures intermingling with other cultures, not so much.

3) They fry everything here. Oreos, pickles, you name it, they had it. It was like a county fair.

4) With all of the mean mugging going on, I’m surprised the Jersey Shore cast didn’t get into more fights.

5) When they advertise fireworks on the PA and in print that it starts at 9:30, it really means 9:10. We missed it since we were having dinner at the time and ended up watching fireworks from DC on our TV back at the hotel.

I see Snooki and her mom!

Owner Danny was managing.

Fried turkey drumsticks.

Only on the Jersey Shore.

Carnival rides.

So there you have it. That sums up our experience. We ended up drinking on the boardwalk to help tolerate the situation and even when it was time to go to Karma, we all decided we should just stay in. (When we were in DC, there was a news report that 60 people got into a huge brawl that night we were there. Phew.) Sorry Jersey Shore.

Missing the fireworks at Maruca's Pizza.

Overall, Jersey Shore really just deserves an afternoon.

Philly (7/5)

Since Jersey Shore wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be, we got up early and started our drive to Philly. It took about two hours to get there and we arrived at about 10:30am. It was my first time there and we wanted to make the most of the time we were there since we only had about 5 hours before the rest of our group flew off. All I knew about Philly was cheesesteaks, Rocky, the Liberty Bell and Will Smith. We accomplished two of those things.

Driving through Philly Chinatown.

Before stopping at the Liberty Bell, we stopped by the gift shop across the street. I had yet to get my family any souvenirs so ironically enough the place that we spent the least amount of time in is where everyone got souvenirs from.

Welcome to Philly!

When we finally got to the Liberty Bell, it was pretty anticlimactic. For some reason, I was expecting this huge bell with a crack in it. There were tons of folks angling for pictures so I took as many as I could and went on my way.

Liberty Bell.

Hey, look who we ran into.

One thing we fit into our schedule was the red three-dimensional LOVE sign that you see in a lot of postcards, etc. We walked up the steps to the park and again to our disappointment, the sign was super small. So small in fact it had to be propped up on a metal shelf. I don’t know the whole story but apparently the bigger real one is in NY, the place we just left. D’oh!

Brotherly love.

I’ll leave the cheesesteaks reviews on my other blog post but just know that within 5 hours we had 3 cheesesteaks.

Overall, I think you can do Philly in one night, two days.

DC (7/5 - 7/8)

I’ve been hearing good things about DC forever. I can see why. Aside from the horrid street layout, there are tons of things to do in DC and surrounding areas. The food scene is great. Naturally, any city off of a waterway (Potomac River) makes for scenic views. The city has a great fallback if you’re a tourist and don’t know what to do – monuments and museums galore. There are also tons and tons of young professionals which makes for a vibrant nightlife.

I decided after doing some research to have Georgetown as our base. This was probably a bad idea. From what I read this was the area that had hip boutique shops and it did but it also had a bunch of preppy folks and nannies pushing around strollers. (I think next time I’ll shoot for something near Adams Morgan).

The monuments and parks in DC were better than I expected. The National Mall is just one huge area that encompasses all of the monuments and museums. It would take at least a week to see everything. One of the cooler places was the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden.

The Washington Monument sits in the middle and is just one impressive massive structure even if tourists like to treat it as a huge phallus.

Can you spare some change?

The Lincoln Memorial on the west end is parched up a large fleet of steps like America’s Parthenon and Abraham Lincoln himself was enormous. I felt like freeing slaves again.

"I freed the slaves!"

Seeing all of the names on the WWII Memorial was impactful albeit saddening. We didn’t get to see any of the museums but the contemporary art museum and the Holocaust museum are on my to do list for next time.

I think one of the best things about DC is the fact that it is so close to other cosmopolitan areas. Baltimore is not all too far away and Virginia is great way to get away from city life. One night for dinner we found ourselves in Annandale, VA for some Korean BBQ. The conundrum is having to rent a car to get to the surrounding areas but then not wanting it once you get back to DC.

DC Chinatown.

DC driving is worse than NYC driving. In DC, you have roundabouts, tourists (driving and walking) and diagonal streets. In NY, it’s a grid system much like Chicago so the only things you need to worry about are one way streets and asshole drivers.

I would definitely come back to DC and take more in. Next time, I think 3 nights, 4 days would do for both DC and surrounding areas.

Louisville (7/8 - 7/10)

Louisville surprised me like Pittsburgh did. It wasn’t so much that Louisville was surprisingly urban, it was more so that Louisville is a big art hub, which I’m a fan of. We didn’t plan anything really for Louisville – all I knew was there were a bunch of whiskey manufacturers and the Kentucky Derby.

Fortunately, we had a friend we were staying with that could help pick up our slack. The first real day we were there, we went to Churchill Downs, which actually turned out pretty cool. They have a video game inside the museum where you can get on a plastic horse with a giant screen in front of you and have it simulate a race. If I would have just done that for 3 hours, it would have been worth the price of admission.

Barbaro at Churchill Downs.

We were supposed to hit up the Muhammad Ali museum but it closed early. The other two places I loved in Louisville were Lynn’s Paradise Café and the 21c Museum Hotel. Lynn’s is one of those places you just have to go because of the ambience and the novelty of it. Plus I got to try a Hot Brown which is a Kentucky staple. The 21c Museum Hotel is just as unique. Throughout the hotel, there are 4 foot red penguins placed in various spots. Apparently, people move them all around which makes for good practical jokes and the like. The hotel also has a contemporary art museum as well as restaurant which are decked out in all interesting and quirky structures. This is a place straight out of Willy Wonka’s world. It’s not a surprise that many top hotel magazines rate the best hotel in the nation to be in Louisville, KY.