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Road Trippin’ USA

September - November 2023
A 90-day adventure by Levin & Birte Read more
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  • Road Trippin’ USA
    2
    Day 6

    Tom's birthday

    September 7, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    After returning from Detroit, we immediately headed to The Earle Restaurant to celebrate Tom's birthday. The food was very good, but we most enjoyed the apéritif Tom suggested: Kir Royale, a Cocktail made of crème de cassis topped with champagne 😋
    Back home Tom opened his gifts and we had some cake to fill the little room that was left in our stomaches...    Read more

  • Road Trippin’ USA
    1
    Day 7

    Matthaei Botanical Gardens

    September 8, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    On Friday we went for a bike ride to the Matthaei Botanical Gardens. They have lots of cacti and succulents there. Outside, there are many bonsai trees on display, some of which were really old and impressive!
    Afterwards, we went for a coffee to Dixboro before heading back to Ann Arbor.
    Tom and Nancy were out riding their tandem, too. They suggested to meet at Townies, a small craft beer brewerie not far from the house. We had a beer there at the fire. They even served American-crafted Kölsch and Altbier!

    All week we had been trying to watch a movie at the Michigan Theatre, but they are currently renovating one of their rooms, so there were almost no movies scheduled. The evening was still early and we wanted to go see a movie nonetheless, so we went to the State Theatre and watched Barbie instead 🤷    Read more

  • Road Trippin’ USA
    Day 8

    Wolverines vs. UNLV

    September 9, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    We were lucky to arrive in time for the American Football season. Nancy told us that there would be a game on Saturday and invited us to her hospital group's tailgating.
    We also asked Ember, one of Birte's good friends from her time in Ann Arbor, and she was up for it immediately. Somehow she even managed to get us free tickets! Thank you, Ember!
    The city goes crazy during game days. Just imagine 109.000 people in a stadium in a city with only 120.000 inhabitants 🤯
    In the vicinity of the stadium there are tailgating parties in many gardens, all public parks, and even on the golf course. Many house owners rent out their driveways and front yards as parking lots. You can smell barbecue at every corner and see people throwing footballs across parking lots and streets. Some people brought their own TVs and placed them in the back of the car to watch the live broadcast before the game begins.
    After three hours of tailgating and playing Cornhole, we went into the stadium. It was quite impressive to enter it. Since we waited almost until the game began, the stadium was pretty much filled already. Stepping out of the entry tunnel it got loud and bright. Blue and yellow everywhere. The marching band, the dancing group and the cheerleaders were firing up the crowd, T-Shirts were thrown up the first couple of rows, and in the background you could see the large amount of football players enter the stadium under a roar of the fans and collective shouts of "Go Blue!".
    The weird thing about an American Football games is that there is just no break for your senses. The game stops all the time, but as soon as the referee blows the whistle, the cheerleaders, dancers, a frisbee catching dog, and the huuuuge stadium screens take over to continue the constant entertainment. More than once, we missed single plays in a round because there was just so much other stuff going on 😵‍💫🙃
    It was an intense and really fun experience.

    On our way home from the stadium, we got ourselves some icecream to cool off. The sun had been shining mercilessly all day except for the morning, when it looked like it would start raining any minute, which caused us to forget to put sun screen on. A mistake we would see and feel for days to come...    Read more

  • Road Trippin’ USA
    Day 9

    Eastern Market, Detroit

    September 10, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    The Eastern Market is a small area in the center of Detroit. Several days a week, the open pavillions are filled with stands, where people offer different kinds of produce. We chose Sunday for our visit, the day where the focus lies on handicrafts, art and food.
    Tom and Nancy decided to join us, because they hadn't been there for a while.
    We first had breakfast at one of the small restaurants that surround the main market area, before we strolled through the aisles.
    There was much to see, not only in the pavillions, but also outside. Many permanent shops with small clothing brands, handicrafts, art, cafes, and restaurants can be found all around the market. The walls are often painted with large murals and offer great photo opportunities.
    We found a couple of things that we would have bought back home or at the end of our trip, but right now...well, it is difficult to transport a traffic light in a van for three months...and then on a plane 🤔    Read more

  • Road Trippin’ USA
    Day 9

    Snarky Puppy at Hill Auditorium

    September 10, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    Since we found Snarky Puppy on YouTube a while ago, we always wanted to see them live. There was one brief opportunity last year when I checked concert dates and realized that they played in Hanover the next day! It was during the week though and work was quite intense at that time, so we bailed out on the opportunity.
    This year, while planning the US trip, we saw on Instagram that they would play in Ann Arbor in September, so we scheduled everything around the concert 😅
    Tom and Nancy joined us. The concert took place at the Hill Auditorium, the largest and maybe oldest concert hall in Ann Arbor. It is really beautiful inside. We had seats on the highest balcony in the first row. Perfect view.
    The concert was great! They played a couple of old songs, but most were from the new album. All in all they played around 2 hours and went all in throughout the whole concert. We really enjoyed it. However, when it comes to Jazz, I'll stay with my rule of thumb: the smaller the location, the better the experience.

    (Video: I made no videos during the concert, but at the end I really wanted to capture one of the fantastic drum solos. Unfortunately, Findpenguins only allows 120s videos...so the re-entry of the rest of the band is missing here...)    Read more

  • Road Trippin’ USA
    Day 10

    Good Bye Ann Arbor

    September 11, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    We spent our last day in Ann Arbor with a short bike ride to the Barton Dam, a small recreational area in the north of the town. There are some fancy houses all around the lake!

    In the evening, we met with Ember again and played pool at the 8 Ball Saloon. It was a great last evening in A2.

    The time here was such a blast and we really had a hard time leaving and saying Good Bye to Tom and Nancy. But now it's time for the road trip!    Read more

  • Road Trippin’ USA
    Day 11

    Oak Park, Chicago (Illinois)

    September 12, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    We took the 7am train from Ann Arbor to Chicago to pick up our rental van in Villa Park, a suburb of Chicago. We arrived at Union Station in Downtown Chicago and had to walk to a different railway station to catch a local train. The set up of the train was really weird. There were tiny stairs going up to the second level and it felt like sitting on the hat rack up there.

    We got our rental van called "Squares" without any trouble (I have to admit that I was quite nervous the whole day...).

    We wanted to make the most of our daytrip to Chicago and thus stopped at Oak Park, another suburb of Chicago. Frank Lloyd Wright lived here with his growing family between ~1890 and ~1910, hence in the first 20 years of his 70 year long career. When he bought the lot for his house, everything around was just prairie and forest, but the area was about to be developed, which accelerated his career providing several opportunities to restore houses in the neighborhood or draw and build new ones.

    His own house was changed several times to satisfy the needs for his family and work. After they sold the house, it was again converted and changed owners numerous times. Only in the 80ies, some FLW fans bought the then very run-down place and made it a museum.

    The house tour was great. Of course, it is not yet Falling Waters, but even in this early period of his craft, you can find many elements of his unique style, such as clever lighting, incorporation of nature into the house (a tree grew partially inside the house!) and smart combination of practical needs with asthetically pleasing interior design (a grand piano in the wall to reduce the space needed, but still have the full musical experience; the tail of the piano hung in the staircase and filled the whole house with music when played).

    After the house tour, we strolled around the neighborhood and tried to find as many FLW houses as possible. Some of them are obvious, but others are quite untypical. This is due to the fact that he had to take on all jobs he could get early in his career and it was still the 19th century! His style was already very unusual and somewhat futuristic for the time.

    We were very elated seeing these houses and still wonder why we don't see such houses in Germany...    Read more

  • Road Trippin’ USA
    Day 11

    St. Joseph (Michigan)

    September 12, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    After leaving Oak Park in the afternoon, we tried to see the sunset at the St. Joseph's Lighthouse on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. Unfortunately the traffic in Chicago was insane! We have never seen a highway system like that before. At some point three or four highways merged and cars were entering and exiting the highway on both sides. Everyone was changing lanes like crazy. We counted more than 10 lanes! Of course, this results in thick traffic jams...
    In the end, we missed the sunset by 10 minutes. But it was still very nice there and very windy! Even though it is just a lake, the waves look more like in the ocean. The path to the lighthouse was constantly flooded by big waves, which provided a very dramatic atmosphere.

    And if you look closely, you can see where Birte got the inspiration for the tattoo on her elbow 😉    Read more

  • Road Trippin’ USA
    1
    1
    Day 12–13

    Niagara Falls (Ontario, Canada)

    September 13, 2023 in Canada ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    The journey begins.

    The van is prepared. We bought a first round of food, got some sheets, blankets and towels from Nancy, the water tank is full and all crash pads are stowed away in the van.

    First stop: Niagara Falls. The Canadian side.

    I don't know why and what, but at some point in my life I must have done something that put me on a blacklist of Interpol. Whenever I cross a boarder with boarder controls, I get the extended questioning. I have been searched by the boarder police in several different countries, no matter if I crossed the boarder by foot, train, car, or airplane. So when we reached the Canadian boarder with a rather colorful van, we were somewhat nervous what would happen. The officer was very friendly. He asked us a few standard questions, filled out some paper, handed it over to us and told us to drive to the office building, where we should answer a few more specific questions and then get our entry stamps. So we drove to the building. We were greeted by 5 officers, who asked us to get out of the van and to hand over our passports. One of them stayed with us in front of the car and talked about soccer, Munich, and his upcoming vacation in Germany, while the other four pretty much disassembled the van. They were very polite and very thorough. The whole search took roughly 15 minutes. By then, they had looked into every single bag and sock. They found nothing. And we were allowed to enter Canada. 🤷

    We arrived at the falls in the early evening, parked the van and went to the cliff. There were many tourists, but wherever we stopped, we had a clear view of the falls. There is simply nothing in the way, which is both a curse and blessing, as I could take many pictures, which lead to me taking many pictures...

    After sunset, we cooked and ate. A fox came by and stayed with us for a while, before heading towards the casino. "Ein Fuchs muss tun, was ein Fuchs tun muss."

    The next morning we got up very early and watched the sunrise above the Niagara Falls. That was definitely worth setting an alarm. Only few people were there so early and the changing colors of the water and the spray in the first rays of sunlight looked gorgeous.

    So far, we had seen much and only spent 15$ for the parking, so we figured a few bucks for the Behind The Falls Tour would be fine. Not sure if it was worth the money, but feeling the power and hearing the roar of the falls in the tunnel was impressive.

    All in all it is a weird place. On the one hand there are these beautiful natural water falls and on the other hand you'll find casinos and a full sized amusement park that stays open until midnight. You can zipline into the canyon, learn about power generation by the Niagara Falls Power Plant and ride on a 1.5 mile long Go-Kart track in the moonlight before playing action minigolf in a dinosaur park. All in a single day. 😐    Read more

  • Road Trippin’ USA
    1
    Day 13–14

    Niagara Glen (Ontario, Canada)

    September 14, 2023 in Canada ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Niagara Glen is just a couple of minutes north of the falls. Of course we wouldn't miss the opportunity to climb next to the Niagara River.
    Even though the rock is limestone, the blocks are spread out like in a sandstone or granite area and most of the boulder can be topped out!
    We had a great day outside and climbed a bunch of fun lines, my favorite being Neoilithic, V7.
    The only negative thing about the area is the bouldering permit, which is 25 $ for a day or 50 $ for an annual permit. So a day trip is rather expensive, but it was worth it.    Read more

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