deep in the heart of texas

Update: This post has been edited recently, since I realized my first crack at it totally sucked. Apologies. I will try to be a better storyteller in the future. 

(Note: This is the first part of a series of posts on our December 2012 road trip. See the full series here) 

This is the story of a trip that almost didn't happen. Shortly after realizing we were going to be in Texas for a wedding in December, Ross and I started thinking about how we could use seize an opportunity to realize one of our travel fantasies, a road trip through the southeast. For a long time we were excited about the idea, and even booked our Key West hotel really early, but then we started getting cold feet. Our plan, after all, was to drive 700 miles, which is obviously insane. In fact, we came close to calling it off entirely. I'm so glad we didn't. 

Our adventure began with a barreling, all night drive from DC to Allen, Texas (near Dallas) for the wedding of our dear friends, Katie and Evan. I was a bridesmaid (for the first time!) and danced all. night. long. 

After the wedding, the plan was for the bridal party to drive down to Austin. However, Ross and I left early to meet up with a friend of mine, a former GW student whom I'd met at a conference in Boston. This is Dan:

Dan was an amazing tour guide. He picked us up downtown, drove us all over the city, and came up with lots of fun things to do, even though when he asked us what we wanted to do in Austin all we said was "eat." And eat we did, with stops at food trucks, multiple taco places, and the flagship Whole Foods store for BBQ. The food was delicious, and the company was even better.

After Dan dropped us off, we walked down to the river. Austin has a massive bat community living under a bridge, and every night at dusk people gather to watch them pour out. Starting at about 6pm, we watched an endless stream of bats emerge from the bridge for almost an hour. They were still coming when we finally left. It was amazing.

Later that night, and at Dan's insistence, we crashed a Christmas party thrown by some of his friends (many of whom are musicians and otherwise fascinating people). Dan couldn't actually make the party, as he had to leave early the next day for his own road trip, so we really were crashing. But everyone was extremely nice to us, and we left feeling like we'd infiltrated the hipster capital of the world.

The next day we met up with the bridal party to walk around Austin some more (by which I really mean eat some more).

Get ready for a whole bunch of tacos:

That night on a whim Ross and I visited the state capitol, which was (surprise surprise) big. Also, there were lots of stars. Whole lotta stars in Texas.

While in Austin, we stayed with one of the other bridesmaids. Courtney lives with her sweet boyfriend, Trevor, and some equally sweet animals. I made friends.

Next up: New Orleans!

with great power...

Some of you may have heard that we had a doozy of a storm last night. I've never seen anything like it. I've been in some epic thunderstorms (I remember getting caught on a trail in Utah with Grammy and Grandpa during a particularly exciting one), but I've never seen wind like this, and I've never seen something move in so quickly and violently. It was pretty intense. The last report I heard had at least 15 people dead and 3 million people without power. Which brings us to the groan-inducing title of my post.

Ross and I have never lost power to this apartment. Not during Hurricane Irene, not during any of our (relatively mild, since we weren't here for the snowpocalypse) snowstorms, and not now. We are literally the only people we know in the neighborhood who currently have power. Our grocery store doesn't have power, and we do. So we feel like we have something of a responsibility to help out, which we decided to do by opening our home, yes, but mostly our fridge.

This is, without a doubt, the fullest our fridge has ever been. Here's hoping the power goes on before we eat everybody's food, and that all the people affected by the storm are able to stay cool and safe.

confirmation of here-ness and southern adventure

Hey guys.

We're still here, I promise. Between finals and training for my new job, it's been remarkably hard to sit down and blog, which is a bummer because we've been having some adventures and I have lots of cool things to share. Soooo... yeah. We're back.

By the way, props to both Ross' and my moms for finally getting me to do this. Moms. Gotta love them.

So, without any further ado, here's an adventure! About a month ago Ross and I took a road trip South. We started in Charleston, SC, where we mostly admired the architecture:

Psst! Super important note: If you'd like to see these pictures in their full glory, click to make bigger. The end. 

Also, while we were in Charleston we decided that our destiny involves big ol' porches.

We were trying to keep our lodging budget small, so we stayed with people we found on airbnb. I was nervous about it, but it was great. Our hosts in Charleston loaned us bikes, and we rode to the beach. This was exceptionally brave of me, by the way, given my bike phobia and overall uselessness with two wheels.

The beach was lovely and warm, by the way. We're not in Oregon anymore. We also went hiking in a bona fide swamp in a state park, where we were bitten demolished blitzkrieged by mosquitos...

...and I got to cross an animal off of my "To See In The Wild" Lifetime List.

Thanks, American Alligator. The coolest thing about this hike (just kidding... obviously, the alligators - plural! - were the coolest thing) A cool thing about this hike was that we didn't see a single other person the entire hour and a half we were out. That was probably because of the mosquitos, and because we're idiot Yankees who don't know to avoid swamps in the summer, but it was still rad to be all by ourselves.

Other notable flora and fauna:

The baby bird was sitting in a tree right on the main path. We saw a lot of other baby birds of the same species, also in conspicuous places. Those mother birds suck. Also, that flower is the most freaking ridiculous thing I've ever seen.

This isn't chronologically relevant, but we also ate a lot of really good food, including deep fried peanuts and coke, which has changed my life forever.

On our way out of Charleston and to Savannah we stopped at the angel oak, which my pictures utterly fail to do justice.

Finally we made it to Savannah, where I fantasized about staging a coup of this building...

... and I read Flannery O'Connor (because I'm a huge nerd and she's from Savannah) and we discovered the best drain pipe in the world.

Clearly, a good time was had by all. Especially the mosquitos.

Seriously. We were unprepared.

farmporn

For day one of the week of Thanks-for-the-Earth-Giving (better name suggestions would be mightily appreciated), I thought I'd share some of my favorite farmporn. When their powers combine, these two farming blogs make me want to quit graduate school, buy some chickens, and move to the Carolinas. Oh, for a reduced carbon footprint and dirt under my nails. Enjoy.

Photo from Ashley's blog

First up, Ashley English's blog Small Measure. Ashley and her husband raise chickens, bees, and now a baby on a farm in North Carolina. Ashley has also written a series of gorgeous books which I deeply want. It would be weird to ask for Home Dairy or Keeping Bees for Christmas... wouldn't it?

Photo from Jenna's blog

Next, and fairly new to me, is Jenna Woginrich's Cold Antler Farm blog. Jenna also has some books which I want and have no use for, and she recently posted a thought-provoking article on why she decided to start eating meat again after a decade-long abstention (scroll down to Thursday, November 18, if you're interested). Basically, she argues that eating local, grass-fed, free-range meat is going to be the most effective way (more effective than vegetarianism) of sticking it to the factory farming industry. Interesting. Here's my trouble, though... I would love to have a farm with chickens and pigs and all sorts of living things, but I don't think I could ever have an animal butchered. Nope.

As a side note: If I seem more obsessed with animals than usual, it's because I'm deep in research for a paper on animals in early modern travel writing. It's good stuff.

check out daisy, she's a proper cow

So I often hesitate when I'm deciding whether or not to include videos on this blog. I admit, I sometimes roll my eyes when other bloggers post videos. I mean, seriously? Who has that kind of time? But I didn't hesitate for a second with this... it's an advertisement (an advert, if you will) for Yeo Valley, an organic farm in England. Friends will already recognize two of my very very favorite things right there. I spent some time on Yeo Valley's website, and as far as I can tell, they practice what they preach/rap. I'm sold. Seriously, guys... make the time. It's worth it.

rainy day girl recommends

During the past week Ross and I happened upon two of the best documentaries I have ever seen. You should see them, too.

I've been pretty obsessed with trying to eat real, ethical food since I read Michael Pollan's excellent In Defense of Food over the summer. So I freely admit that Food, Inc--based on both Pollan's works and Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation--was preaching to the converted. Yet seeing all these things I'd read about on actual film renewed my resolve to be done as the food industry's sucker. It also inspired me to add a new link list to this blog's sidebar ("Because We Are What We Eat") where I've listed websites I've found helpful as we've tried to make sustainable choices. I particularly like The Cornucopia Institute, which has an informative list of different organic dairy companies and how well they live up to their espoused philosophies. Anyway, rant concluded, but I highly recommend you see this film.

I don't normally cry out of sentiment. I didn't cry at my wedding, for heaven's sake. But I bawled through this documentary, an incredibly sweet and agenda-free film about three retired men and women in Bangor, Maine, who have made it their life's mission to greet and welcome home every single soldier who comes through Bangor's airport (apparently one of the major points of entry for returning servicemen and women). Watching them shower love on those soldiers as they deal privately with the loneliness and illness of old age is incredibly powerful. Please, please see this documentary (it's available as an Instant Play on Netflix). Then call me or leave me a message here and let's talk about it.

Note to Swensons and affiliates: this film made me think a lot about Grandpa and the service he rendered both our country and our family. Have Kleenex handy.

portland farmer's market faux-laroids

Digital polaroids (coined "faux-laroids" by clever moi) of our fair city provided by this nifty site