Day 340 (Halfway Point)

Crazy, totally unplanned coincidence: Anna, one of the girls that used to be in my youth group, lives in Ohio like 10 minutes from my aunt! Through the miracle of facebook, we were able to figure this out and we had lunch today before my mom and I left for Pennsylvania. She insisted that we have lunch at Bob Evans because it's a popular restaurant chain out here that we don't have in California.

It was really great to see her because I hadn't seen her in years! We reminisced on old times and caught each other up on our lives. We only had about 2 hours, but it was really good to catch up with an old friend.

Afterwards, my mom and I left for Cranberry, PA. Isn't that a cute name for a town? Since we are at approximately the halfway point of the trip and nothing other that the lunch with Anna really happened today, I've decided to reflect on the trip thus far...

Most Exciting Moment: Definitely escaping the flooding car two nights ago. If that remains the most exciting part of the entire trip, I am totally okay with that!

Most Magical Moment: Fireflies in Indiana. I'm from California and we don't have fireflies there, so seeing them for the first time was really cool.

Biggest Surprise: My dad showing up in West Virginia. Sneaky little bastard!

Funniest Moment: My dad thinking that he accidentally bought the amethyst geode that my mom got for him in South Dakota. He was going to surprise us with it when we got home, LOL!

Biggest Disappointment: Parcel delivery service in the United States (postal service, UPS, etc.) I waited in vain for two weeks for some stuff to show up at my parents house before I left and they never did. One of them was the Interagency Pass for the National Parks, so I ended up having to buy a second one. Those suckers are $80.00 a piece! My sister's cheese was supposed to be overnighted from Wisconsin and it showed up three days later! And, I still don't have my cell phone charger 'cuz it never showed up at my aunt & uncle's house! I'm gonna have to buy one now 'cuz trying to coordinate mailing it to another stop is basically going to be impossible, and I've already gone way too long without my cell phone.

Coolest Natural Wonder: Devil's Tower, WY (w/bonus prairie dogs!) Just go, trust me.

Coolest Man Made Attraction: I'm gonna have to give this one to Hillbilly Hot Dogs. That place is an absolute riot!

Coolest City: Chicago. So much to do, so little time! Plus, the public transportation rocks!!!

General Assembly: What can I say? It was and will be the largest and probably most important part of the trip. I learned so much there and made a lot of new friends. Will the Presbyterian Church ever become the open and embracing church that we want to be? Of course it will. The only question is, how long is it going to take? I've met some of the people now that are fighting for equality in this denomination, and I can confidently say that the cause is in very good hands. I will definitely need to step up my involvement, because that is the right thing to do. Of course, this will mean playing less Magic, but with Russ and Doug gone, less Magic seems to be in the cards. (No pun intended)

Day 334 (Goodbye Chicago)

I think of all the places we've been to so far, I will miss Chicago the most. There's just so much stuff to do there, and the public transportation rocks! I will not miss, however, the heat, humidity, or the people of that city, who for whatever reason just do not know how to drive. Driving through Chicago was much, much, much more nerve-wracking than driving through L.A. or San Francisco. It was such a relief to to be driving away from the city this evening.

Since we could not leave without having an authentic Chicago deep-dish pizza, and Gino's did not open until 3:00, we decided to stay in town for dinner. For lunch, we went to an Ethiopian restaurant just down the street. I thought the decor was a little to European, kind of a mismatch in my mind, but the food tasted just like I remember the more appropriately decorated restaurant in L.A. served.

Ethiopian food, if you've never had it, is definitely one of those must have experiences, especially if you're a "foodie." It's usually served on this big flat spongy bread called injera, which has a tart flavor. And, you eat it with your hands, no silverware involved. If there are multiple people sharing a meal, they will often be sharing a plate, like my mom and I did with the above dish of lentils, cabbage and beef, so you need to be with people who you feel comfortable with eating this way.

After a few hours, we left Jeannine's apartment for good, and went in search of the prized Chicago deep-dish pizza. Gino's North, the closest Gino's to Jeannine's apartment, looked very different from Gino's East. Gino's East was a huge bustling restaurant covered in customer graffiti. Gino's North was basically one long kind of upscale looking bar with a single row of booths opposite it. I'm assuming the two establishments are related, but who knows.

I'm not sure if I accidentally ordered the wrong thing, because I thought we were going to get a thick crust. This crust was thin, but it was still a deep dish pizza, and very good.

We ended up leaving Cicago around 7:00 and soon found ourselves in Indiana. Truth be told, I was not expecting to see anything interesting in Indiana, let alone at a rest stop, but we pulled off around 8:30 and I noticed some little flashes of green light. I realized they were fireflies, the first I have ever seen in my entire life! My mom and I walked to the back of the rest stop where there was a field of tall grasses and just watched the twinkling of the fireflies. There weren't really that many of them, but it was one of the most magical things I have ever seen in my entire life. The air was perfectly still and the night was growing heaving and my mom was standing beside me taking it all in. I wish I had a picture of it, but there was no way my camera was going to capture the faint firefly light. So instead, I humbly offer this picture taken from another person's blog which will hopefully convey a small sense of the magic that I felt tonight watching these tiny creatures simply doing what God created them to do.

PICTURE OF THE DAY:

Day 333 (Art Institute of Chicago)

Today, we were brave and decided to try out the Chicago public transportation system. This is my mom, waiting for the train.

Once we got downtown, we had some lunch. Per my sister's boyfriend TJ's instructions, we had Italian Beef sandwiches from the same place where we got Chicago dogs the first day, America's Dog.

Both items were very good, and if you are in Chicago, you have to try them.

Then, it was off to the Art Institute of Chicago. I was quite impressed with their collection. The first thing we saw was an exhibit of art from children's books such as these:

The artwork alone makes me want to by these books, although I thought the stories were a little weak. I did, after all, grow up on The Giving Tree, Where the Wild Things Are and Dr. Seuss.

After that, we saw an exhibit off miniature rooms. The pictures look like I just took pictures of some rooms, but I swear these are all 1/12 scale.

Here's a few of the other things we saw.

My mom was too busy reading about this piece to notice that it was actually changing color in front of her.

This little man was plastered to the sidewalk as we made our way to the bus. I'm not sure if the city put him there, or if it was some enterprising Chicagoan, but he made me laugh.

Here's where we had dinner, Gino's, where we failed utterly in our quest to have actual Chicago deep-dish pizza.

I underestimated the time it would take to use the public transportation, not to mention the fact that it takes about an hour to cook one of those deep-dish babies, so we had to go with thin crust if we were gonna make it in time for our 8:00 showing of "Late Night Catechism." The show was really funny, we got there just as it was about to start, and we made through the day and back to Jeannine's apartment without getting lost once. It was quite the adventure in this amazing city. As for the deep dish pizza, we will make up for that tomorrow night for dinner with a bonus of Ethiopian food for lunch, which my mom has never had XD.

PICTURE OF THE DAY: These "pillows" were part of the Chinese ceramics exhibit at the Art Institute. I have a hard enough time falling asleep, can you imagine having to use one of these?!?!