Thursday, June 30, 2011
Austin City Limits (part I)
Dear Mike,
If Texas were a sea of cowboys and pickup trucks, gators, bulls and ranches, then Austin would be a tiny island of liberal hipsterdom. We stayed 5 nights and about 4 full days there with Peter, a friend from Japan.
We started out the first day with a bang. We took the bus down South Congress to a little neighborhood where a man has erected a shrine in his backyard called "The Cathedral of Junk". Imagine if Elsewhere had a welder and then got kicked out into the suburbs. The guy was nice and let us climb to the top of the tower. Here are some shots of the place.
Afterwards, we worked our way back down Congress Blvd, and checked out all the antique shops along the way. There was pretty much everything from taxidermy rams heads, to jewelry, to old watch parts, to giant vintage lightbulbs. "Uncommon Objects" is pretty much the antique Mecca on congress and they set up all their wares in little vignettes of color all around the shop.
Then we headed downtown, had a few margaritas, and checked out "The Museum of the Weird", which is really just a cheap souvenir shop with a curtain in the back. They have silly things like a fish with fur on it, the Fiji Mermaid, two headed chickens and the like. I opted for an additional tarot reading by a kid dressed right out of the movie Swingers. He said a lot of things, but none of it really seemed cohesive. If you go there, I wouldn't recommend getting it done.
After that we rushed back to the bridge running throughout downtown to watch the grand exodus of bats at twilight. Austin is home to one of the largest urban populations of bats in the United States. It was not disappointing. I'll post a video of that right after this post. The one thing that struck me about them was the strong smell. The little girl next to us thought that they smelled like a copy machine.
As we returned back to Peter's neighborhood, we checked out a sweet toy shop called "Toy Joy". You would like it. They sell everything from 20 sided dice to hello kitty, to Double Bananagrams. We thought that you would like the latter.
We finished off the night by heading to Conan's Pizza which is, in fact, referencing Conan the Barbarian. Their specialty is deep-dish pizza served with a side of Conan comics. If you ever go there, choose extra garlic as one of the toppings you won't regret it.
That's all for now. We'll let you know know more about Austin after we blog on San Antonio.
~Mario
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
If Texas were a sea of cowboys and pickup trucks, gators, bulls and ranches, then Austin would be a tiny island of liberal hipsterdom. We stayed 5 nights and about 4 full days there with Peter, a friend from Japan.
We started out the first day with a bang. We took the bus down South Congress to a little neighborhood where a man has erected a shrine in his backyard called "The Cathedral of Junk". Imagine if Elsewhere had a welder and then got kicked out into the suburbs. The guy was nice and let us climb to the top of the tower. Here are some shots of the place.
Afterwards, we worked our way back down Congress Blvd, and checked out all the antique shops along the way. There was pretty much everything from taxidermy rams heads, to jewelry, to old watch parts, to giant vintage lightbulbs. "Uncommon Objects" is pretty much the antique Mecca on congress and they set up all their wares in little vignettes of color all around the shop.
Then we headed downtown, had a few margaritas, and checked out "The Museum of the Weird", which is really just a cheap souvenir shop with a curtain in the back. They have silly things like a fish with fur on it, the Fiji Mermaid, two headed chickens and the like. I opted for an additional tarot reading by a kid dressed right out of the movie Swingers. He said a lot of things, but none of it really seemed cohesive. If you go there, I wouldn't recommend getting it done.
After that we rushed back to the bridge running throughout downtown to watch the grand exodus of bats at twilight. Austin is home to one of the largest urban populations of bats in the United States. It was not disappointing. I'll post a video of that right after this post. The one thing that struck me about them was the strong smell. The little girl next to us thought that they smelled like a copy machine.
As we returned back to Peter's neighborhood, we checked out a sweet toy shop called "Toy Joy". You would like it. They sell everything from 20 sided dice to hello kitty, to Double Bananagrams. We thought that you would like the latter.
We finished off the night by heading to Conan's Pizza which is, in fact, referencing Conan the Barbarian. Their specialty is deep-dish pizza served with a side of Conan comics. If you ever go there, choose extra garlic as one of the toppings you won't regret it.
That's all for now. We'll let you know know more about Austin after we blog on San Antonio.
~Mario
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Saturday, June 25, 2011
The Big Easy
New Orleans kind of started off a little rocky. Mario turned the wrong way onto a one way street, I developed an irrational fear of alligators, and we almost had heat strokes in our tent over night.
After our dramatic evening of camping we decided to head into the French Quarter to find a hotel and see the sights. We found a great deal at the St. Charles Inn Best Western a block off of Canal Street, unloaded Shrimpy, and headed out to explore.
We stopped at The Market Cafe for a shrimp po'boy, gumbo, and Cajun music. The gumbo was great, but neither of us loved the po'boy. (Imagine Libby Hill popcorn shrimp on a subway roll.) We browsed through a few stores including a voodoo shop and a calligraphy specialty store. Mario, of course, loved the calligraphy shop, Papier Plume, and loaded up on extra flexible Copperplate and Spencerian nibs and ink. All of this shopping made us very thirsty so we stopped at Pat O'Brien's. Back in the day, blind tigers would only sell a bottle of whiskey if an establishment would buy 20 bottles of rum in addition. What to do with all the extra rum? Add a special flavor mix and serve in a glass shaped like a hurricane lamp. After sampling the famous "Hurricane" drink from a sweet senior citizen I decided I better stick to a strawberry daiquiri. The "Hurricane" has four shots of rum and I didn't think being drunk at 3 in the afternoon would be appropriate (I know, I'm lame). Mario discovered his new favorite drink, the mint julep. After drinking our (while strolling through more shops...I like being able to take a to go beverage) we headed back to the hotel to relax.
After a nap, an episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond", and "King of Queens", our evening began with a dozen oysters at Felix's Oyster Bar. This place was pretty great. We didn't have to wait for a table, our server mixed up her special sauce for us, and the oysters were delicious. They shuck them at the bar right in front of you. Right before leaving an honest to God pirate walked in and started eating oysters on the half shell. Peg leg? Check. Bald head? Check. Eyepatch? Check.
Next we took a ride on the St. Charles streetcar, which is the oldest continuously operating streetcar in the world. It took us from the heart of the French Quarter to the Garden District. It was a fun and inexpensive way to see the city. We even had the pleasure of sitting by a stripper in her "by-day" clothes on her way to the club. Playboy t-shirt? Check. Shorts with tube socks and white sneakers? Check. Large boyfriend bouncer wearing a polo with the strip club's name? Check.
We ended the night at Cafe Maspero with $11 steak and $1 daiquiris. We thought we were getting a great deal until we noticed roaches on our way out the door. We chose to believe that the roaches just stopped in for a short visit. They definitely weren't in the kitchen in our food.
Overall, we really enjoyed New Orleans. I'm not sure that either of us have the desire to go to Mardi Gras (because we're old and lame), but I could see us visiting again, maybe in the spring or fall when it's not quite so hot.
Love, Kristen & Mario
p.s. I saw a train on our last morning in New Orleans. It was pretty sweet.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:New Orleans, LA
Monday, June 20, 2011
That place where old people go to live.
Dear Mike,
Florida is Florida. We've been here before, so there haven't been that many surprises. Over the last 4 days, we've experienced the peninsular state in Jacksonville, St. Augustine, Orlando, Daytona Beach, and Tampa. This part of the trip has been more about reconnecting with friends, than really exploring new places. Kristen's friend now lives just outside of Orlando. She and her husband David took us around a bit.
Saturday we went with them to Daytona Beach, which, according to the sign when you get there, is the most famous beach in the world. For $5 you can drive your car onto the beach, which seems strange since sea turtles lay their eggs there. But there are alternating parking and no-parking areas, so the turtles just have to read the signs. I have to say, though, that by the end of the day I somewhat guiltily enjoyed having our vehicle so close by.
Later Saturday night, we went to a place called "Old Town", which is a sort of carnival car-club thing that happens every week. We saw some sweet classic cars with probably 10x the horsepower of Shrimpy. There were also plenty of kitsch shops that my Gallucci genes demanded I visit. A leather shop, a knife shop, an alpaca fur rug store, and a place where you can get your dog's portrait etched in 3D inside a glass cube all added up to a good time.
Sunday, we moved on to Tampa. We checked out Ybor, which is the historic cigar industry area-turned entertainment district. We met up with my friend Benny and his girlfriend Pamela Anderson (real name) and ate at Tampa Bay Brewing company. Then, Ben and I were able to get in a few good games of MTG, since we hadn't played since college. You'll be happy to know that I won a few games with the blue-green control deck. But Benny won the majority.
Afterwards, we drove around the city and I was surprised to find out that most of Tampa's downtown has nothing going on. No one really goes there to do anything unless they go to this pretty small area of shops called Channelside.
Other things about Florida that struck me as different:
There are a bunch more commercials on TV with white people rapping or singing.
There are many more commercials for getting your degree at an online university.
The law firm billboards here are just as plentiful as NC, but even more annoying than Deuterman Law. Most have terrible pictures. I saw one that just had "DIVORCE" in bold letters with a guy with his arms crossed, looking smug. And if I see one more advertisement for laser vasectomy procedures, I might have to pull over and get one.
We can't wait to get to New Orleans so we can really experience a place neither of us have been, we keep you posted.
~Mario
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Florida is Florida. We've been here before, so there haven't been that many surprises. Over the last 4 days, we've experienced the peninsular state in Jacksonville, St. Augustine, Orlando, Daytona Beach, and Tampa. This part of the trip has been more about reconnecting with friends, than really exploring new places. Kristen's friend now lives just outside of Orlando. She and her husband David took us around a bit.
Saturday we went with them to Daytona Beach, which, according to the sign when you get there, is the most famous beach in the world. For $5 you can drive your car onto the beach, which seems strange since sea turtles lay their eggs there. But there are alternating parking and no-parking areas, so the turtles just have to read the signs. I have to say, though, that by the end of the day I somewhat guiltily enjoyed having our vehicle so close by.
Later Saturday night, we went to a place called "Old Town", which is a sort of carnival car-club thing that happens every week. We saw some sweet classic cars with probably 10x the horsepower of Shrimpy. There were also plenty of kitsch shops that my Gallucci genes demanded I visit. A leather shop, a knife shop, an alpaca fur rug store, and a place where you can get your dog's portrait etched in 3D inside a glass cube all added up to a good time.
Sunday, we moved on to Tampa. We checked out Ybor, which is the historic cigar industry area-turned entertainment district. We met up with my friend Benny and his girlfriend Pamela Anderson (real name) and ate at Tampa Bay Brewing company. Then, Ben and I were able to get in a few good games of MTG, since we hadn't played since college. You'll be happy to know that I won a few games with the blue-green control deck. But Benny won the majority.
Afterwards, we drove around the city and I was surprised to find out that most of Tampa's downtown has nothing going on. No one really goes there to do anything unless they go to this pretty small area of shops called Channelside.
Other things about Florida that struck me as different:
There are a bunch more commercials on TV with white people rapping or singing.
There are many more commercials for getting your degree at an online university.
The law firm billboards here are just as plentiful as NC, but even more annoying than Deuterman Law. Most have terrible pictures. I saw one that just had "DIVORCE" in bold letters with a guy with his arms crossed, looking smug. And if I see one more advertisement for laser vasectomy procedures, I might have to pull over and get one.
We can't wait to get to New Orleans so we can really experience a place neither of us have been, we keep you posted.
~Mario
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Friday, June 17, 2011
Atlanta and Savannah
Dear Mike,
I'm sure that there are plenty of reasons to like Atlanta, I just can't think of any of them. It's hot, the traffic is terrible, and it has all the inconveniences of a big city without any of the charm. I'm glad it's a city we just had to pass through on our way down to Savannah.
As we traveled through the countryside, we ran across the Whistle Stop Cafe (of Fried Green Tomatoes fame), but it was so early that it wasn't even open for breakfast. So instead of a delicious breakfast, we just alerted a few early rising locals and a couple of dogs (one of which only had 3 legs).
We are currently in Savannah right now. Same heat, but heavier on the charm for sure. Two nights ago we camped at Skidaway island State park. The facilities were nice enough but Kristen has had a terrible cold for the last few days and the humidity made it hard for her to sleep. So, last night we checked into a hotel and saw some of historic downtown.
On a recommendation, we went to a restaurant called "Cha Bella". The chef grows a lot of his own vegetables and uses organic and free range animals in the dishes. Kristen had a roasted eggplant, plum tomato and fried goat cheese salad with a side of fried okra. I had chicken liver mousse with ciabatta and a sweet balsamic onion marmalade, and the risotto. Everything was delicious, the service was great and we got out of there for around $31 (not including the tip).
Today we plan on going back down to the river and checking out a few shops that were closed last night. I saw a shop called "ARC" that looked right up my alley and Kristen wanted to see a temporary exhibition of Manolo Blahnik's work that is up at one of the SCAD buildings.
After that we are off to Florida, where the adventure is really going to begin. Shrimpy is doing well, he sends his love.
~Mario
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
I'm sure that there are plenty of reasons to like Atlanta, I just can't think of any of them. It's hot, the traffic is terrible, and it has all the inconveniences of a big city without any of the charm. I'm glad it's a city we just had to pass through on our way down to Savannah.
As we traveled through the countryside, we ran across the Whistle Stop Cafe (of Fried Green Tomatoes fame), but it was so early that it wasn't even open for breakfast. So instead of a delicious breakfast, we just alerted a few early rising locals and a couple of dogs (one of which only had 3 legs).
We are currently in Savannah right now. Same heat, but heavier on the charm for sure. Two nights ago we camped at Skidaway island State park. The facilities were nice enough but Kristen has had a terrible cold for the last few days and the humidity made it hard for her to sleep. So, last night we checked into a hotel and saw some of historic downtown.
On a recommendation, we went to a restaurant called "Cha Bella". The chef grows a lot of his own vegetables and uses organic and free range animals in the dishes. Kristen had a roasted eggplant, plum tomato and fried goat cheese salad with a side of fried okra. I had chicken liver mousse with ciabatta and a sweet balsamic onion marmalade, and the risotto. Everything was delicious, the service was great and we got out of there for around $31 (not including the tip).
Today we plan on going back down to the river and checking out a few shops that were closed last night. I saw a shop called "ARC" that looked right up my alley and Kristen wanted to see a temporary exhibition of Manolo Blahnik's work that is up at one of the SCAD buildings.
After that we are off to Florida, where the adventure is really going to begin. Shrimpy is doing well, he sends his love.
~Mario
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Hood St,Savannah,United States
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Traveling on a shoestring Part I: Small savings add up
Dear Mike,
It's finally sinking in. All the planning, all the saving, all the buying of necessary detritus. All the selling of our unnecessary detritus... We are going on a road trip, and it will be epic. Now that the article has come out in GoTriad, we are running into people all over Greensboro that want to know more about our trip. Most of the responses we get are, "That's so awesome! I wish I could do that." Or, "You guys must have saved a lot of money for that."
Well, here's the thing: Anybody can do it and you don't need a lot of money. If you had told me four years ago that I would be able to do such a trip I would have thought you were crazy. I had a lot of credit card debt and saved little to no money from month to month. I lived hand-to-mouth, so to speak and the idea of being able to take off this much time from work and travel for this long would have meant putting more expenses on the plastic. So what changed? Well, I thought I would write a little bit about that so that other people can do the things they wish. Without going into too much detail, here are the steps that Kristen and I took:
• Get out of debt with a high amount of interest. I had racked up a bunch of debt on my credit card leftover from college and it was time for it to go. For a long time I only made the minimum payments and once I started making bigger payments it was so disheartening to only really see the interest being paid off. Luckily, I always made my payments on time, as meager as they were, so my credit was never affected. But, like a cloud hanging over my head, it just never seemed like it was going to go away. So one day, about 2 years ago, I walked into SECU and got a small unsecured loan that paid off my balance completely. With the regular payments that they scheduled for me, it would take me 33 months to pay off my loan, but I wasn't paying the same ridiculous percentage that I was paying on my card. Plus, I saw the light at the end of the tunnel, I knew when it would all be over. Then, anytime I had some extra money would use it to pay more of the loan off. Guess what? I paid it all off last June, in a little over two years time. I became debt free. Kristen was smart enough to not get herself in this position in the first place. She does still have student loan debt, but the payments are much lower with a much better interest rate.
• Make a budget. At the beginning of June last year, we sat down and made a list of all of our mandatory monthly expenses. Things like cell phone bills, rent, utilities, gas, food, and other such things. Then we looked at what we could cut back on. What didn't we really need? Could we somehow lower any of our other bills? We had already moved into a house with another couple to save money on rent, and neither of us had a car payment which really helped out. I figured that my mandatory expenses were about half of my monthly take-home salary. So where was the other half going? Out the window every month, adding up little by little over time. Going to eat out was probably our biggest expense by far, but it always felt like we were never eating well. Since we had this road-trip in mind while we were making a budget, we decided that we could afford to put about 40% of our monthly salary in savings. For me this was pretty easy because I went from paying off a loan every month, to just putting that money in savings. It's always easy to put a little extra every month, too, since you are saving towards a goal (not paying down debt). I get some supplemental income occasionally doing freelance design and photography. Anything extra that I made went right into savings since I didn't need that money to live month to month.
• Think in terms of one year increments when you are trying to save. $50 saved a month might not seem like that much. But $600 a year is quite a lot. If you could skip eating out for lunch just 7 times a month, you could save $50 a month easily. I decided to drastically cut back on getting coffee at coffee shops, and instead grind and brew my own at home. Instead of paying about $50/month on coffee, I was instead paying about $5-10. If you can come up with 3 things like that in your life that only require minor changes, you can then save almost $2000 extra a year without even really changing your lifestyle.
• Start a side business that you love. Besides the fact that you can write off expenses on your taxes, just making a little bit of extra money each month can add up. Plus, you are doing something that you love and you might decide you want to make a career out of it later. I have a side business for photography and design. Any equipment I buy, and film processing that I have done, any materials I purchase for jobs I write off. I keep all my relevant receipts stuffed in an old envelope and dump everything out and sort it at the end of the tax year. Kristen still had ties to her old job at Grassroots and the Carolina Theater and would occasionally get a chance to work events and the box office for them. Even 5-10 extra hours a month can add up.
• Borrow or rent things instead of buying them. Borrow a lawnmower once a week, split a studio to work in, rent equipment that you don't need year-round. Look on craigslist for trades, or deals on items that might only be six months old. Keep a mental or physical list of things you might need and ask people if they have them at yard sales or thrift stores. If you need something, see if any of your friends on Facebook can help you.
• Be careful what you spend your money on. I have actually found that now that my spending has to come out of my savings, I'm a lot less likely to spend it. With a credit card it was easy, "I'll pay for it later!", but once you know all the hard work that it took for you to earn your cash, you'll be more reluctant. I also like to think of how many hours of my life it will take to pay for something. Say you make $10/hour at your job, then it will take 20 hours out of your life to pay for a new iPhone, or 8 hours to buy a new pair of shoes.
Those choices, over the course of the last year, has allowed us to save almost 50% of our combined income. So, how do we stretch that money? I'll post more on that in Part II. Tomorrow we depart for Savannah and the trip officially begins. We shall then begin regular posts.
~Mario
It's finally sinking in. All the planning, all the saving, all the buying of necessary detritus. All the selling of our unnecessary detritus... We are going on a road trip, and it will be epic. Now that the article has come out in GoTriad, we are running into people all over Greensboro that want to know more about our trip. Most of the responses we get are, "That's so awesome! I wish I could do that." Or, "You guys must have saved a lot of money for that."
Well, here's the thing: Anybody can do it and you don't need a lot of money. If you had told me four years ago that I would be able to do such a trip I would have thought you were crazy. I had a lot of credit card debt and saved little to no money from month to month. I lived hand-to-mouth, so to speak and the idea of being able to take off this much time from work and travel for this long would have meant putting more expenses on the plastic. So what changed? Well, I thought I would write a little bit about that so that other people can do the things they wish. Without going into too much detail, here are the steps that Kristen and I took:
• Get out of debt with a high amount of interest. I had racked up a bunch of debt on my credit card leftover from college and it was time for it to go. For a long time I only made the minimum payments and once I started making bigger payments it was so disheartening to only really see the interest being paid off. Luckily, I always made my payments on time, as meager as they were, so my credit was never affected. But, like a cloud hanging over my head, it just never seemed like it was going to go away. So one day, about 2 years ago, I walked into SECU and got a small unsecured loan that paid off my balance completely. With the regular payments that they scheduled for me, it would take me 33 months to pay off my loan, but I wasn't paying the same ridiculous percentage that I was paying on my card. Plus, I saw the light at the end of the tunnel, I knew when it would all be over. Then, anytime I had some extra money would use it to pay more of the loan off. Guess what? I paid it all off last June, in a little over two years time. I became debt free. Kristen was smart enough to not get herself in this position in the first place. She does still have student loan debt, but the payments are much lower with a much better interest rate.
• Make a budget. At the beginning of June last year, we sat down and made a list of all of our mandatory monthly expenses. Things like cell phone bills, rent, utilities, gas, food, and other such things. Then we looked at what we could cut back on. What didn't we really need? Could we somehow lower any of our other bills? We had already moved into a house with another couple to save money on rent, and neither of us had a car payment which really helped out. I figured that my mandatory expenses were about half of my monthly take-home salary. So where was the other half going? Out the window every month, adding up little by little over time. Going to eat out was probably our biggest expense by far, but it always felt like we were never eating well. Since we had this road-trip in mind while we were making a budget, we decided that we could afford to put about 40% of our monthly salary in savings. For me this was pretty easy because I went from paying off a loan every month, to just putting that money in savings. It's always easy to put a little extra every month, too, since you are saving towards a goal (not paying down debt). I get some supplemental income occasionally doing freelance design and photography. Anything extra that I made went right into savings since I didn't need that money to live month to month.
• Think in terms of one year increments when you are trying to save. $50 saved a month might not seem like that much. But $600 a year is quite a lot. If you could skip eating out for lunch just 7 times a month, you could save $50 a month easily. I decided to drastically cut back on getting coffee at coffee shops, and instead grind and brew my own at home. Instead of paying about $50/month on coffee, I was instead paying about $5-10. If you can come up with 3 things like that in your life that only require minor changes, you can then save almost $2000 extra a year without even really changing your lifestyle.
• Start a side business that you love. Besides the fact that you can write off expenses on your taxes, just making a little bit of extra money each month can add up. Plus, you are doing something that you love and you might decide you want to make a career out of it later. I have a side business for photography and design. Any equipment I buy, and film processing that I have done, any materials I purchase for jobs I write off. I keep all my relevant receipts stuffed in an old envelope and dump everything out and sort it at the end of the tax year. Kristen still had ties to her old job at Grassroots and the Carolina Theater and would occasionally get a chance to work events and the box office for them. Even 5-10 extra hours a month can add up.
• Borrow or rent things instead of buying them. Borrow a lawnmower once a week, split a studio to work in, rent equipment that you don't need year-round. Look on craigslist for trades, or deals on items that might only be six months old. Keep a mental or physical list of things you might need and ask people if they have them at yard sales or thrift stores. If you need something, see if any of your friends on Facebook can help you.
• Be careful what you spend your money on. I have actually found that now that my spending has to come out of my savings, I'm a lot less likely to spend it. With a credit card it was easy, "I'll pay for it later!", but once you know all the hard work that it took for you to earn your cash, you'll be more reluctant. I also like to think of how many hours of my life it will take to pay for something. Say you make $10/hour at your job, then it will take 20 hours out of your life to pay for a new iPhone, or 8 hours to buy a new pair of shoes.
Those choices, over the course of the last year, has allowed us to save almost 50% of our combined income. So, how do we stretch that money? I'll post more on that in Part II. Tomorrow we depart for Savannah and the trip officially begins. We shall then begin regular posts.
~Mario
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)