Blogging the ‘Big Trip’: Back home
(Written by kencraw)
I left from Maryland from the Baltimore Airport at 6 AM (waking up at 3:45 AM is no fun). After a stop-over in Atlanta I was home by 10:30 AM thanks to the 3 hour time difference. At which point my internal clock went haywire now trying to stay up until what was after midnight from an east coast perspective.
Overall, it was one heck of a trip. If only the Bears had won in Maryland, it would have been a smashing success, albeit a bit long and tiresome. My feeling this morning as I was driving into work is that I need a vacation after my vacation.
Just for the record, here’s a list of everything I saw (in order):
- Spokane
- Martin (WSU) Stadium
- Longmeadow, MA and Hartford, CT (briefly)
- NYC:
- World Trade Center
- WTC Cross
- Lombardi’s Pizza
- Empire State Building
- Times Square
- Rockafeller Center
- St. Patrick’s Cathedral
- Central Park (briefly)
- United Nation’s building
- Central Station
- Ellis Island
- Statue of Liberty
- Philidelphia:
- Liberty Bell
- Independence Hall
- Rocky Steps
- Pat’s King of Steaks (home of first Phili Steak Sandwich)
- Washington DC:
- National Archives (Declaration of Independence/Constitution)
- Washington Monunment
- WWII Memorial
- Vietnam War Memorial
- Lincoln Memorial
- Korean War Memorial
- FDR Memorial
- Jefferson Monument
- Air and Space Museum
- ESPN Zone DC
- St. Matthew’s Cathedral
- Dupont Circle
- Union Station
- Postal Museum
- Capitol Building (Congress)
- Supreme Court Building
- Library of Congress
- Arlington Cemetary (inc. Unknown Soldier Tomb and Kennedy’s Tomb)
- White House
- Byrd (U. Maryland) Stadium
Are you tired after reading that list? Because I am tired after doing it! All in all, although each stop lacked the depth I would have liked, I view it as a “survey” trip that when I go back with the family as the kids get older, I’ll better know where I want to and spend a lot of time. The only things I missed on my list was the National Cathedral, the Catholic Bascilica and 3 of the Smithonian Museums (Natural History, Holocaust, National History), all in DC.
It additionally more than doubled the number of states I’ve been to (not counting those I either just was in the airport or did when I was a kid too young to remember the trip) from 7 (California, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, Texas, Idaho and Ohio) to 15 (adding Washington, Conneticut, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland) . Woohoo!
In any case, it was also good to see the Bears play both their road games and I bet being in Maryland was a lot less frustrated seeing it (and having a good sense of what was going wrong as opposed to the limited view one gets on TV) than at home. Although I bet if I flew out just for the game I’d have a different perspective.
It’s good to be back home and expect more analysis posts during this bye week and my Maryland podcast by tomorrow morning.
September 15th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
what the heck is the WTC cross?… and I live in NYC.
Good choice on Lombardi’s… amazing pizza. i guess if you had to eat one thing and not spend too much and get out within 40mins within walking distance to the 4/5/6 train… and have an amazing meal, Lombardi’s would be the absolute right choice.
I know the WTC site is disappointing…. it’s a disgrace that nothing has been built yet because the greedy real estate moguls can’t check their egos.
Is there going to be a podcast? If so can you address the play from Norris and Chet and the OLine in general?
September 15th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Where would you recommend we go besides Lombardi’s? I live in Western Mass and probably go to NYC 4-5 times a year between visitors who want to hop on the commuter train down to NYC, and not that I’m tired of Lombardi’s (god forbid), but it’d be nice to have *another* place in my address book.
September 15th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
The two Johns… (don’t think they’re associated with eachother)
John’s on bleeker (best):
http://www.johnsbrickovenpizza.com/
and John’s in time’s square:
http://www.johnspizzerianyc.com/index2.htm
Both are simply amazing and the crust at both places are crazy good. Good luck getting a table at John’s on bleeker…45mins at least. Nick’s on the upper east side on 94th street is the best kept pizza secret in the city.
September 15th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Former star Cal quarterback Dave Barr is hosting a mobile blog at Mogotxt.com. Check it out at http://mogotxt.com/group/gobears. See posts and comments made by former players delivered to your phone. Get info and updates you won’t find on other blogs or ESPN.
September 16th, 2008 at 8:35 am
Danzig, I’ll have my postgame/OTRH podcast posted soon, but it’s already been recorded so I can say there’s not much about the O-Line in there. I’m not sure Jason is going to host a mid-week podcast this week, so the next one will likely be next Tuesday from BearTerritory.
I hope this weekend to do some game review articles since it is a bye week and I’m sure I’ll have thoughts on the O-Line performance.
The WTC Cross is a set of support beams that are in a cross shape that was found amongst the rubble of the buildings (it wasn’t WTC 1 or 2 though). It was put on display amongst the rubble until they started rebuilding when it got moved to the side of St. Peters Church down the street. I blogged a bit more about it last week and here’s the wikipedia article on it.
September 16th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
We might be able to do a podcast this week, though it would be more of a recap than a preview, given the bye week. We’ll see.
While I think the WTC Cross is an interesting phenomenon, in the interests of equal time I’ll link to the wikipedia page about Pareidolia…
September 17th, 2008 at 9:51 am
OK, one last word on the WTC Cross, to clear up any confusion…
I would agree that the existence of a set of cross-beams that were in the form of a cross is a pretty benign occurance, particularly since cross-beams are, well, in the shape of a cross, hence the name. It doesn’t surprise me in the least and doesn’t require the expicit ‘hand of God’ to make it happen. In fact, it wasn’t on my list to go see when I was in NYC.
Why I find it interesting is specifically because it is a pareidolia. People needed to reconnect with God when 9-11 happened. They needed to know that there was something more to life than death and destruction. The WTC Cross helped many in that regard. It reminded them that God loves us all. Whether or not it was the explicit ‘hand of God’, it was instrumental in the very real faith of many. For that reason, it was a moving experience for me to see, to see something that irrelevant of its origins gave hope to many people in desperate need of hope.
OK, we’ll leave it at that: Thus endith (sp?) the WTC cross discussion.
On to more Cal blogging and podcasting!
September 18th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Actually, Ken, I think we’re in agreement here. That’s why I said “interesting phenomenon.” From a symbolic sense (as someone who writes for a living I’m allowed to get all symbolic from time to time!) it’s really quite remarkable. I’m surprised it isn’t as well known.