Dallas - Queer Eye for the Straight Guy

NOTA BENE - This is Nathan's blog too. 

After stopping in Austin for a large piece of Texan history (everything, including the history and capitol building, is bigger in Texas), we continued on our merry ay up to my sister's new house in Dallas.  It is fairly nice, but she had not fully moved in.  Many things weren't set up, including the water heater, but that didn't matter since it felt about 100 degrees every day we were there whether the sun was up or not.  My sister worked a lot but managed to be pretty hospitable in spite of her busy schedule.  The first night we were there, Nathan and I went out for drinks with some of her work friends.  They included a motley assortment of people with interesting advice for our lives.  I'm not sure Nathan and I will follow it any time soon.  We learned a lot about the Country Club at which my sister works and had cheap Shiner Bock on tap.  We slept on the floor since she hadn't moved very much in yet and offered our services to help her get more settled in her house.  This came in the form of mowing the lawn, which felt great since I hadn't done it for so long.  Yard wok is a good time; I will enjoy owning my own house. 

The next night, Keaton and I looked up a Swing Club in Dallas proper and went swing dancing for a few hours.  The club had a small dance floor but a lot of fun people.  I stole into a birthday dance at the recommendation of the DJ since I was an "out-of-towner."  We also realized that the road-trip gives us a lot of interesting things to talk about when you try to answer the simple questions of "what brings you to Dallas this summer?"  Another good opportunity to talk about the school and our singing.  Good times.  We headed back fairly early (about midnight) so that we could wake up bright and early and head on up to Missouri.  We stayed at the Groene's, Nathan's grandparents on his mom's side. Although we had to say goodbye to our cellphones and the internet for a short stint (a feat that killed none of us but Allen), the Missouri countryside was beautiful... but that is the story for another blog.  We said goodbye to Texas and the true South and are gearing up to get out of the humidity soon!!  Woohoo!

Corpus Christi - The Gulf Coast

From New Orleans we began to realize how BIG Texas is.  Many of you who have driven through it are surely laughing, but we've logged twenty or so hours in the car just between two cities of Texas.  We also drove through or near every large city in Texas.  Furthermore, I'm extremely glad that we decided to skip West Texas in this trip.  :)  That means we don't have too much more empty wasteland to cover.  Or perhaps it just means that we'll be covering the empty wasteland in Kansas and Eastern Colorado instead of in Texas.  Oh well.

From the Mississippi's bottom we continued ever further West.  We felt called in that direction, being young men.  This trek brought us ten hours down to our southernmost point of the trip.  We're nearing the halfway mark in terms of time and have clocked 8,233 miles.  Towards the end of those eight-thousand, we rolled into Corpus Christi, Texas on the Gulf Coast just a few hours North of Mexico (nearly on the same latitude line as Miami).  The South doesn't get any deeper--but then, Texas isn't completely the South, it is its own mixed breed of midwestern, independent, and southern values.  We stayed with Pastor Ken Jennings and his wonderful and hilarious wife at their parsonage.  We arrived after ten hours of driving, warmed up, and sang.  We haven't done that often, but it didn't work out too badly.  The concert actually sounded pretty good and the church rang well in addition to being a beautiful space to sing in.  Afterwards they generously took us out to eat at a Mexican restaurant and I had a good taste of Tex-Mex (good, if you're not setting your hopes on straight Mexican food).  We sang a bit in the restaurant, which people enjoyed and some mistook for the radio!  :)  We also got to sample the local brews, which included one of my favorite beers: Shiner Bock!  Nathan and I have been enjoying our Shiners here in Texas; we found a place last night in Dallas that had Shiner on tap for 2.50.  Pretty sweet.  From there we returned home, practiced a bit of music, unpacked and went to sleep.  The next day, I woke up and Nathan and Mrs. Jennings were watching the latest Star Trek.  I joined for the last half; it is a fun space adventure film and gives some sweet backstory (or alternate story) to the roots of the Star Trek saga.  We lazed around (the only proper thing to do) until the other guys woke up and then headed out to the beach.  Grabbing a bite to eat at Pier 99, we couldn't help but get excited at the sight of the Aircraft Carrier U.S.S. Lexington.  Unfortunately, it was $15 per person to explore that, so after wringing every bit of free information off the signs in the front (including noticing the spot where a KamiKaze plane had hit the side and killed a hundred and fifty... but the Lexington carried on.  The Japanese eventually nicknamed it the Blue Ghost because it had been reported sunk so often but had returned!).  Then we went and swam on North Beach.  The water was a smidge murky, which prevented Allen and Keaton from seeing the jellyfish in the water which later stung them.  That did not flag our courage or vim.  We continued to attack the water, regardless of the dangers it threw at us.  Bring it on, Neptune!  At any rate, Allen had the worst welt on his arm, but he said after his arm fell off he didn't feel any pain at all.  We then came home pretty dang tired and chilled with Pastor and his wife that evening.  He sang us a couple hilarious songs on the guitar and we had hickory-smoked brisket with delicious (and spicy) BBQ sauce.  We hit the sack knowing we had a large chunk of Texas to cover the next day on our way to Dallas.  We went close to San Antonio, stopped in Austin to check out the State Capitol building, and eventually ended in Dallas where I got to spend some quality time with my sister!  :)  And so it rolls; again, I can promise to try to update more often, but we're finding ourselves pretty busy.  We're also only about a week from getting the camera back.  :) 

They're Always Having a Good Time Down on the Bayou...

Still without a camera, we trekked across Lake Pontchartrain into the underwater city, or what had so recently been resurrected from beneath the waves of hurricane Katrina.  I think we mostly expected the city to be built back up by this time.  Unfortunately, it wasn't.  We stayed with a Lutheran vicar in the Uptown area, most of the neighboring houses had been abandoned and still were.  Some were boarded up; some were looted pretty regularly (even during the day).  In some parts, you could easily tell the water damage.  There were road-closures and construction all over the place.  They had made the French Quarter a priority to rebuild and get back in working order, but many of the suburbs of the city are still working on it.  The church at which we sang was a tiny congregation (about 30), and it had taken them two years to re-open their doors.    We went up on top of the church tower to examine the city from birds-eye view.  The vicar pointed out to us the famous churches and congregations (he pointed out the Latin Mass congregation just to the East of the French Quarter at St. Patrick's).  

In the afternoon we examined the French Quarter.  Parking at Esplanade, we wound back and forth on the streets from Canal St. to Chartres St. to Bourbon St. to Dauphine St.  We saw the Basilica of St. Louis, the statue of Joan of Arc, the...ummm...colorful shops and bars along Bourbon St, but we could never conclude that the city had come back to the fulness of life it once had.  On Chartres street we saw row after row of abandoned antique shops.  The used bookstore we stopped in was one of the few on that street which had been so famous for them before.  We stopped in a mask shop and talked to a local for quite a while.  She had lost quite a few antiques in the hurricane, and even though she had been high and dry in a hotel, was shipped off to North Carolina in the name of aid.  She had re-settled in the city recently and was now just trying to live and work a light load in her retirement.  She acknowledged that the city was not what it used to be.  

The other thing we noticed, of course, was the complete mix of cultures that New Orleans was.  Obviously, as an important port city, it brought all kinds to its shores.  Many stayed and settled.  There is still a pretty intense Catholic streak down deep somewhere--the statue to St. Joan might give that away--Catholics of a Spanish and French variety mostly. We got Cafe au Lait  and Bengettes at Cafe du Monde, they were sugary goodness for sure.  There were also large populations of Creole and Cajun.  I had Jumbalaya for lunch, Keaton and Allen had Po-Boy sandwiches, and Nathan had a Muffaletta.  They were all signature dishes of New Orleans and they were all delicious.  Instead of eating at Mother's, we opted for a place recommended by Keaton's mom called Masparo's.  We returned to the vicarage to sing that night.  The concert went fairly well, definitely for our smallest crowd yet, but they were receptive and nice.  As it was, we got about a third of the congregation to be there, so I guess statistically we did well.  We knew we had a long drive ahead of us the next day down to Corpus Christi, so we didn't want to stay out too late.  We went to a street called the Frenchmen and walked up and down past a bunch of jazz clubs and bars.  Some had cover charges.  We opted for where we could get cheap food and beer.  We tried some of the local stuff (NOLA and Abita Brown), grabbed a bite to eat, and then headed off to bed.  New Orleans was a great town, I pray that it continues to recover at least some of its former glory.  I also never, EVER want to be there during Mardi Gras.  Bourbon Street was pretty crazy by itself without an excuse to "celebrate" and remove clothing.    

Atlanta, GA -- Cigar Smoke and High Culture

We...ummm....left the camera in South Carolina.  So, we probably won't have pictures again until Colorado.  Sorry about that.  :)  Who needs cameras to remember everything anyway?  This was God trying to remind us not to be too reliant on technology to store our memories... after all, He gave us memories too, didn't he?

From South Carolina we headed further south into the land of peaches and pines--Georgia.  After driving through a whole lot of nothing but beautiful, we came across the outskirts of the city.  It's a city that I never thought about growing up.  When a Californian thinks of cities outside of California, southern cities rarely register.  But Atlanta is a pretty sweet city by the looks of it.  To judge by the people, it is an awesome place.  For the second time on this trip (the first being New York), we were meeting people who had never really met us before.  They were the family of a close friend of Keaton and I.  They treated us like family.  The Duddlestons, Heidi Schuermann's aunt and uncle, hosted us, most of Heidi's immediate family, Heidi's grandparents, and sundry other friends from church in a sumptuous southern feast!  I had collared greens for the first time (not bad, especially good with vinegar).  We learned a good deal about the South.  Heidi's family has roots there that go way back.  They knew the South like it was the backyard in which they were raised; mostly Mississippi and Louisiana, but they were getting to know Georgia and Alabama pretty good too.  

We sang for them--I think they enjoyed it almost as much as we enjoyed the food-- and then we just had a good time out on the back porch, smoking cigars, drinking and exchanging stories about road-trips past and present.  The company was delightful and the only time you can be outside in the South in the summer is after the sun has set!  The mosquitoes began to eat us alive, but I have begun to accept them as a fact of Southern living, kind of like kudzu.  I also began to realize the beauty of a slightly slower paced style of living.  It makes you really think about what it is you're doing and you often get a lot more out of it.  They enjoy their food, their conversation, their cigars, at a slower pace than I was used to... but at a pace that really made you sit back and enjoy the lazy heat of summer.  Lazy is an active adjective there, not a passive one.  The heat here makes you lazy, regardless of your work ethic...you HAVE to slow down in this sun and humidity.  I guess I should say it makes you more leisurely.  And for many (like Josef Peiper) leisure is the basis of culture...not work.  So, the South has figured out this culture thing and revels in it.  It's fun to join them.  We said goodbye to the Duddleston's the next morning after we went to church and headed on further South into the heart of the Bayou.  After a wonderful evening with them, we felt like we'd learned enough about the lore and layout of the South to experience the Bayou at its best.  

Charleston, SC - Tourists, History, Thunderstorms, and BBQ

So we rolled on through the Carolinas and I, who always have a song stuck in my head, kept humming to myself the James Taylor song "In My Mind I've gone to Carolina" except that I was there physically too now.  We came to the land of Palmetto trees and were once again greeted first with delicious food after hugs all around and re-introductions and rememberings of faces and names.  I had rice native to SC and a huge thunderstorm blew up during dinner, dropped about half the Atlantic on their house and then rolled by as if nothing happened.  The thunder made it sound like God was not too happy with things here on earth.  I can't imagine how much he can be happy about here in America.  We talked about Obama at dinner and a few other depressing things.  But, on the whole, we tried to stay positive.  The church that night at which we sang was extremely hospitable and generous.  We stayed long afterwards talking to the members of the church about everything from religion to politics to Hillsdale and beyond.

The next day, when exploring the city, we went to Fort Moultrie (a little less prestigious than Fort Sumter, but just as important to history).  Because it is a lesser known fort, we got in for the family price of 5 dollars.  SCORE!  We got to climb on cannons and explore earthenworks and such, while learning about the importance of Charleston harbor from the Revolutionary War through to World War II.  We then swam around for a couple hours in the warmth of the Atlantic Ocean, far warmer than I was used to for the Pacific (even in the summer time).  After several hours of bobbing in the waves and swimming around, we returned to our towels collecting shells along the way and admiring the beauty of the beach.  One of the most comfortable feelings in a humid climate is being completely soaking wet, that way the breeze always cools you when it blows.  We found a friendly yellow crab on my towel when we returned to our stuff, and after whisking him away, continued on our merry way to dinner that night.  Alex's little sister made delicious homemade vanilla ice cream that topped off the hot day and warm night perfectly.  The Cothran family had a great sense of humor and we really enjoyed just sitting around the table talking, laughing, and telling stories about the craziest things.  But eventually, all good things come to an end, and we had to get some sleep for the next day's drive.  The South was proving to be much more than I expected, even in terms of hospitality.  :)  

Raleigh, NC

Hello again, everyone.  We are now officially in the South!  It hit me slowly... but I'm loving it now.  Raleigh was our next stop after Roanoke/Blacksburg and the humidity, sweet tea, mosquitos, and hospitality greeted us in style.  We were treated, upon landing, to a delicious steak dinner followed up with awesome strawberry-rhubarb pie (second time having rhubarb...it is still SO good!).  The family that put us up was Allen's girlfriend's family.  The Conley's, for those of you who don't know, are awesome, in spite of Jaimie.  ;)  Our steak dinner was with the pastor of the church (St. Joseph's) that we would be singing for the next night.  We stayed up late talking and got to know just how the big family works.  They were all quite musical and well-schooled, so we had good conversations with all of them about the most random things.  We didn't do much sight-seeing in Raleigh, but it was a nice break.  I saw the dry cleaners and the Food Lion (those are so cool... one of these days, I want to see a gazelle run out of one and get chased down by a "Food Lion").  In the South, we have been shopping mostly at Food Lion for our lunch food.  I find it strange that we haven't hit up a Piggly Wiggly yet... or a Winn Dixie.  At this point, we had yet even to hit up a Waffle House, and you all know how ubiquitous those are in the South.  We sang at random intervals for the family, but our main contribution occurred at Wednesday night mass.  We sang our five minute long Sanctus and Agnus Dei, testing the patience of the zealous mass-goers attempting to put down their kneelers too early.  :)  They seemed to like it and afterwards we had an awesome reception where people listened to a few of our secular pieces, and we even dedicated a song to the hard-working Mrs. Conley on her birthday.  We stayed up late again that night watching YouTube, running around trying to feed everyone pizza (no one is satisfied with my taste in pizza... except Gina, the next oldest sister).  We rocked out and had a Disney party in the car.  By that I mean I found Gina's Disney soundtracks, put them on and forced everyone to join me in a song and dance spectacle as we went out for ice cream after the concert.  We sang some more at the ice cream place and then called it a night.  We got up early the next morning, well-fed and well-slept and left for South Carolina.  My little brother in Mu Alpha, Alex Cothran, had generously offered his house and church as a place for us to repose in Charleston.  So off we went!  

District of Columbia

Washington DC was a blast. We arrived early in the morning from Pennsylvania to sing for the Heritage Foundation. Many of our classmates from Hillsdale are working in DC for the summer, and it was good to see them again. We stayed with Jody and Jody's friend Curtis. Thank you guys!

We sang a barbershop arrangement of all the armed forces songs... the Marine, Navy, Army, Coast Guard, and Air Force anthems. When we learned the arrangement five days ago, I had no idea that our armed forces had such cool songs. They do. Thank you to all the men and women who have served for our country.

While in the District of Columbia we managed to do a lot of sightseeing. Even though the other guys make fun of me for it, I "got my tourist on" and kept taking pictures. It turns out that someone in the capitol decided that buildings should still be vaguely beautiful, and made sure that most of the government buildings are made out of marble. I like that we still treat some things with respect and honor. 

...I'm not entirely sure that the "Department of Engraving and Imprinting" really needs as gigantic of a marble building as it got, but I guess when FDR added a ton of bureaucratic departments  back in the 30's, they all got big buildings too. I liked the Library of Congress... that can have a big building. I'm down with that.

One thing we did like the government spendin

g our money on was the monuments to fallen soldiers. We sang some of our patriotic music at the World War II memorial on the capitol mall. Thank you again, brave men and women who have served your country.

The Smithsonian museums were a lot of fun to examine as well. Being four guys, we naturally found the Air and Space museum first, and looked at all the things that fly. The exhibits about space travel were fun, as were many of the planes hangared there. One of our favorites was too big to be housed there: the Spruce Goose. It was made in the 40's to carry cargo overseas to the troops.... but since metal was in high demand, they made the entire 218 ft by 319 ft cargo plane out of laminated birch wood. That's as big, if not bigger, than many of the 747's we fly around in today. And yes, it can fly. 

After that we went to the American History museum and the Natural History museum. These were decent, although it's weird to go through a history museum already knowing many of the things on the signs. 

Seeing many of the things from older times were interesting though... it's not every day you get to see and understand how big the cannons were in the revolutionary war, or touch a part of "old ironsides," or look at the dishes the Lincolns used while in the White house. Seeing these things and being to these places really helps a person understand a lot of the history they can read in a book. Movies just don't cut it... there's something physical about people where they want to BE somewhere to understand something. I'm glad we came.

One more thing we like looking at when we're in big cities... churches! Cathedrals! Call me a crazy conservative confessional if you like, but I like the liturgy and old cathedrals. Here's a picture of the "National Cathedral" in DC. There's something in the building, in the architecture, in the design and construction of these cathedrals that offers praise to God for His majesty. Good cathedrals draw our attention to God and His works, rather than just the workmanship of the building itself. This one had a lot of cool reliefs on the sides, just like some of the ones in New York. Sweet churches are all over the place, and for that I am glad.

We went to Virginia after this. Tom has already entered that. After Virginia comes North Carolina...

-Keaton
        <><

Roanoke-Blacksburg

Skipping DC until Keaton gets around to it, I'll tell you how Virginia went.

I thought I'd seen Virginia because I'd seen the DC Area and the Shenandoah Valley.  There is much more to Virginia than that.  While the Shenandoah does have a beauty all its own (worthy of the song), I must admit that Blacksburg, VA and the surrounding area (home to the Virginia Tech Hoagies) blew me away.  The road wound unpredictably through the valley between Roanoke and Blacksburg until we came to a driveway about a quarter mile long ending in the house of Keaton's aunt and uncle.  They graciously invited us in and we began to chat about all sorts of things.  Theology came up a lot, but being Hillsdale students, we were somewhat used to it.  :)  We learned a lot and it gave us a lot of food for thought and conversation in the car.  After relaxing a bit and having a great dinner that wouldn't weigh us down at our concert, we drove off to the venue at New Mount Zion Lutheran Church.  It was a tiny church nestled against the hills with a community of many Slovaks.  After the concert we met the congregation and were blown away by the generosity pouring out from a less than affluent area.  After the concert, the pastor invited us over to her house for snacks and such.  Her son was ridiculously cute and spoke English and Slovak fluently.  He seemed to enjoy getting into mischief, but he enjoyed shouting the most.  :)  After a few beers and snacks, we headed home to some delicious dessert that we had to save until after our concert.  From there, we packed ourselves into the bed of a pickup truck and followed the trail up the hill about a mile into their property.  Up about a mile removed from the valley floor they had built a small cabin which Keaton's uncle would use when he hunted on his own land (80 acres of beautiful Virginia woods).  We gathered enough wood in five minutes to last for several hours of fire and then just chilled with Keaton's cousin and cousin-in-law until we bedded down in the cabin.  It was a warm, southern night and pleasant in the cabin which fit the four of us perfectly.  We awoke the next morning early because we wanted to meet a fellow Hillsdale student, Sean McDermott, for breakfast.  We saw Marieke as well and heard tell that Alison was recovering.  After meeting Sean's parents briefly, we headed out for some Southern breakfast comfort food and I had biscuits and gravy with some grits on the side.  The one nice thing about the south is the food.  The terrible things include kudzu (it'll grow on you if you stand still too long!) and humidity.  After breakfast, we trekked out for North Carolina--Raleigh to be exact.  And there we found another adventure, the adventure of a big family!  

Fly By Night - Swiftly through Lancaster

From NYC, once we got on the freeway, we headed out to Amish country... or so it is stereotyped.  Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  After getting out of the smog and congestion of New York and New Jersey, we skirted the edge of Philadelphia and soon found ourselves in beautiful rolling hills with fields separated by beautiful stands of trees.  We met up with several Hillsdale students at Rebekah Wilhelm's house.  She had graduated with us only a few weeks ago, and it was good to see her in her domestic element.  Her family was extremely hospitable and after a great dinner, they invited a great number of their friends to join us in our sacred set.  We talked to the homeschool families, those already sold on Hillsdale (like the O'Dells) and those that weren't.  It was great to see everybody again and we sang for them for nearly two hours.  Our next gig was less than 12 hours away at The Heritage Foundation in DC, so after dessert we quickly went to bed and woke up at 3am.  Rebekah kindly saw us off and even baked us muffins for breakfast.  We were amazed that though we were only in Lancaster for a bit, the hospitality still poured all over us!  :)  We left a bit sleep-deprived, but happy to have stopped off in beautiful Pennsylvania.  And from the country all the way back into the big city, the biggest city in terms of tax-dollars.  No pictures... but in DC we finally had a chance to slow down for a bit and relax... I'll let Keaton tell that story.  I did so much relaxing in DC that I didn't even have the energy to hit up the Smithsonians.

Partying it up in NYC

Us.  Enough said.  Pastor Wrede took this sweet shot.

Tapestry in St. John the Divine.

Continuing in a long and glorious tradition, we got lost in NYC... Queens to be exact.  Strange to be lost where your dad was born.  We found Pastor Wrede and realized that God had given a host who completely understood the nature of freshly graduated college students.  His house was made to entertain and his knowledge and anecdotes about the city were unparalleled.  We told him what we wanted to see in Manhattan, and he gave us a map and directions infinitely better than GoogleMaps (that is, we never got lost).  :)  The morning after we arrived, we performed for a chapel service for Redeemer Lutheran School.  After performing many of our sacred songs, we left the church and followed the kids to their classrooms to sing a few of our pop songs.  We then zoomed into Manhattan on the Metro and began at the Anglican Cathedral St. John the Divine.  After asking permission (very politely) to sing sacred songs, they declined.  We called their music director and no one picked up.  So we decided to discretely sing in a side chapel our five minute Agnus Dei.  In the meantime, the church security had called NYPD and as we started our next piece, they... umm... kicked us out.  

We continued on and explored Central Park.  At the bottom of Central Park, we visited St. Patrick's for mass.  A pleasant rain accompanied most of our outdoor walking.  We checked out Ground Zero and are glad to see the new buildings on their way in defiance of Islam.  :)  Coming back up to Times Square (we didn't get all the way down to the bottom of Manhattan to see the Statue of Liberty... but we saw it on the way out), we joined Pastor Wrede at a GREAT Irish Pub O'Lunney's.  We sang some barbershop music and got our SECOND round on the house.  We then went to Rockefeller Center and took a picture of us under the Letterman sign.  We then went to another O'Lunney's just around the corner from the Rockefeller Center.  There, we also got a round on the house just for being with Pastor Wrede (who seems to know about 5 of the 6 million people in Manhattan).  He is on good terms with all of them too.  I have to admit that the "New Yorker" stereotyped attitude I never saw while walking around the city or in the pubs.  It only seemed to show up on the road.  TERRIBLE DRIVING!  Getting through Queens and Brooklyn to get back onto the freeway, we had to get four miles through New York traffic.  4 miles took 45 minutes.  The number of people that cut me off, turned left in front of me, honked, and yelled was innumerable in such a short space of time.  As always, for those to challenged to read, we leave you with a few pictures...  New York we definitely want to go back to as soon as possible, that city has far too much to do for just one day.  

Saratoga Springs - Dinner Break

We have seen nearly all of New York it seems.  On the way down from Maine, we managed to meet up with an old friend of mine from high school.  Lowell and his wife Joanna invited us to stop for a break in Saratoga Springs on our long drive.  Much has changed in our lives since we last saw each other.  I was the best man in his wedding and we had both just graduated from high school.  He is now in the navy with 2 daughters and another child on the way (perhaps a boy).  I am a college graduate with a job in the D.C. area.  We had so much catching up to do.  As always with good, old friends the conversation was great and we all too quickly discovered that we were still the same in the most important ways.  In some ways, I felt like I still could've run out 40 yards for a pass from him or signaled to back him up as left defender when he played goalie.  That was years ago, but the connections we had made on the field, in the classroom, and in church remained.  His wife was just as I remember her too, a great cook and conversationalist.  :)  We stopped by for tacos after all day on the road and then headed the rest of the way down to New York City.  We realized that between Buffalo, Oneonta, Saratoga Springs, and NYC, we would see most of the state of New York that wasn't a state park!  All of it was beautiful, from Niagara to the Catskills.  Here are a couple pictures from that dinner.  

Rhubarb and Lobster - A Maine-landers feast

So, the cliche is that we learn something new every day. Fortunately, on this trip, we blow that wide open. My mind is forced to expand whenever we enter a new state and I am confronted with the diversity of lifestyles in American as well as the consistency of Christian charity that we find in every corner of the union. And now for something completely different, we left the crowded, smoke-choked, honking-cussing city of Boston for the clean forests of Maine. We drove North up almost to Bangor to a small town (1.000 people) not too far from the Maine coastal waters and Lobster fishing region. We stayed with Keaton's aunt and uncle on their large piece of property where they raised Alpacas. Now that is an interesting animal about which I have learned a lot. I will not bore you with the details of alpaca spit, birthing, or eating habits which I found fascinating. Give me a call if you really want to know more.

The forests of Maine were immediately different from the Catskills and the Appalachians that we were used to. Green. Everywhere. Every corner of land that could be covered with tree was. You could walk 10 feet into a forest and feel as if you had just stepped into wilderness you would never be able to navigate out of succesfully. The roads? Unmarked. The directions we got included dams, local shops, and other landmarks. Not street signs. Though we got lost a few times, we always ended up finding our way in the end. I was introduced to rhubarb pie (and plant... it was homegrown in the Groene's garden) and we had a delicious lobster dinner (learned a lot about lobster anatomy). We hung out with their kids who were so much fun and full of energy, and we still got to sing a bit. The nearby town (Searsport) even recognized that we were coming and recognized us as we enetered the coffee shop. There was a sweet book store located in a former bank (thus, there was a SAFE in the middle of the bookstore!! SWEET). We then travelled to Belfast, a port city known for Lobster fishing. 

We walked around downtown and soon discovered that Belfast had a city-wide square footage limit on the commercial enterprises allowed into their city.  In other words, no Wal-Marts, Costcos, Big Lots, etc.  It was a pretty thriving little town capitalizing on its local flavor.  At the bottom of the hill, right on the harbor we looked up a bar/restaurant recommended to us by a woman in the bookstore of Searsport.  She said we had to go there if we liked beer.  So we arrived at Three Tides to find it closed and its owner holding his daughter and explaining to us that Monday was his day off.  He heard we were only in town that day, so he decided to "open" the microbrewery for 15 minutes and gave us four tastes of all his microbrews...for free.  It was awesome.  The guy was so kick-back, kinda hippie, but ultimately just a really chill business owner.  I bought a shirt 'cus I thought the place was so cool, and now the microbrewery has a story behind it as well.  Of course, if ever in Belfast, I highly recommend Three Tides.  :)  

We came home to feast on lobster, we each got our own.  It was a delicious dinner and a study in lobster anatomy (I can even tell males from females now).  In completely random news about how Tom is an idiot, I suggest that you all avoid electrified fences in the future.  While trying to pet their fluffy dogs, I leaned forward and my forehead came into contact with the electrified fence.  A large snap was heard by everyone around me, I reeled backwards and was temporarily unable to see.  After a massive headache, I recovered with just a slight mark on my forehead.  From the boondocks (or lobster docks) are Maine we headed down to bustling NYC... but for the literally challenged, we leave you with a picture or two of the beauty of Maine.  

Bar-fights, Weddings, Massacres, and Graveyards: Life in the Big City of Boston

So...I have attempted to draw your attention with the title.  Boston as a city is an adventure.  Home to dozens of colleges sprawling in and around downtown (Harvard, MIT, Berklee, Tufts, etc.) Boston pullulates 20-somethings.  Just wanted to use that word... pretentious? Perhaps.  Classics Major?  gotta do something with the degree.  :)

At any rate, the first thing that struck us about Boston was traffic!  We arrived at 4:30 and circumnavigated an area of about 3 square miles for an hour and a half before we were able to park.  Once we had walked off a bit of the aggravation, we looked up an old family friend of mine, Megan Luna, who had just graduated from Berklee school of music!  She lived just a ways up from some of the most important buildings of the campus on Boylston St. (for those of you who know the area).  Our main stomping grounds, then, were south of the Commons.  That night, we went out for some sweet beers (mostly home-brews like Harpoon and the like) and sang in line for the first bar.  As our sweet tunes filled the air, a bar-fight almost broke out over people cutting in line.  It was very strange to be singing "Change in My Life" and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" as lives were being threatened and love had definitely checked out of the immediate area.  

We crashed that night at Megan's place and woke the next morning to see the historical sights.  We followed the Freedom Trail and admittedly looked like tourists (particularly Keaton with the camera and me reading the guidebook (mostly out-loud!)).  However, we quickly decided that the Midwest has severely hampered our sense of fashion and there will be few cities that our shorts, t-shirts, and tennis shoes will fit in with.  The three other members of the quartet admitted that they have two looks: bum and REALLY fancy.  I could only agree. :)  Boston is packed with history.  You step on and around it everywhere you go.  The North End had some of the best stuff... an awesome statue of Paul Revere right near the Old North Church and his original house!  The Italian food in the North End was delicious (as it should be, we heard that thick Bostonian-Italian accent all over).  We didn't have time for gelato or cannoli, but it smelt delicious.  We then crossed the Charles river and saw "Old Ironsides," aka USS Constitution.  She had a sweet museum across from her that explained a lot about why she stood so strong in the War of 1812 and beyond.  She has most recently been sailed in 1997, 200 years after she was built!  The ship brought up that age old philosophical question... how much of "Old Ironsides" is still her, since ship-boards and pieces have to be replaced so often that within a hundred years you usually have an entirely new ship!  Though we didn't solve this metaphysical crisis (though we talked about how Aristotle and Plato respectively would have weighed in), we discovered that the Georgia Oak 12x12s that constructed her frame are still mostly original.  Nearly her entire shell and masts had been replaced.  Check her out if you get to Boston; she is quite a sight!  I have discovered that as four guys we can get distracted by cool things like ships and tanks.  We learned a lot.

Boston was such a walkable city, that we didn't take the T (their mass transit) at all that day.  Instead, we walked back up Beacon Hill and across into the Commons to sing a bit.  We attracted a pretty good crowd as usual and people were thankful for the tunes (we have yet to get a hat to put out!).  We then noticed all the couples in the park (after all, it is Spring and it isn't just Hillsdale that couples up at this time of year).  We wanted to sing a love song for some couple or another when God suddenly provided the best opportunity.  A Wedding Party had just arrived to take pictures in the beautiful Public Gardens across from the Commons.  We promptly serenaded the couple reminding him to...umm...well... "Kiss the Girl."  Her eyes lit up as soon as she recognized the song and the entire wedding party stopped to listen.  We delighted everyone (even the mother of the bride who went out of her way to thank us).  One of the groomsmen gave us twenty bucks to "buy drinks" and thanked us for a classy performance.  We did, however, annoy the camera-woman.  Apparently, she wasn't paid by the hour and wanted to get these pictures DONE! About half-way through the song, she started ordering the bride and groom around.  Thankfully, the rest of the wedding party ignored her and enjoyed the song!  :)  That made the trip in many ways.  Sometimes, being inside the music, I forget how much delight live music can bring to people.  

We discovered on our later walks that Christian Science had been founded here by Mary Baker Eddy and we were depressed to see how much their power seems to be rooted here.  Even more depressing was how they had taken so much of the good, true, and beautiful and perverted it.  Twisted it just slightly (the very definition of heresy - opinion-based half-truths).  We perused some of their publications, saw their gigantic church/museum, their egregiously large Sunday School (etymological pun intended on the adverb usage here - they are outside the flock), and their reflecting pool (which was beautiful).  We all concluded that we need to do more research concerning this "faith."   

We leave you with a couple pictures.  The first is outside St. Cecilia's (fitting, eh?) where we sang a few of our sacred songs.  Some people waiting at the bus-stop began to record us or call their friends.  One guy even tried to go into the church to pray and was sad to find it locked.  In their back garden, Keaton caught this beautiful statue of the Passion.  Nearby in an alley, we'd found a strange truck and in many ways this picture describes the trip perfectly.  Paul Revere is the statue... the rest should be self-explanatory.