Chicago Part II

Well I'm back again! I'm tired of saying sorry for my lack of blogging - in fact, I'm just plain tired. However, it's really good being back in this big city and all it has to offer. I got in at around seven on the Saturday night, and met Dan who I was going to be staying with: a really nice, funny guy who has been a great host. That evening I got food and coffee downtown, hung out with folk and had a generally great evening.

Sunday was mainly spent with beers on the beach. That's right, I'm about as far away from the ocean as you can get (see a map for details), but luckily I'm still in the land of the lakes so when the sun hits the city, the city hits the beach. Yeah, I did just say that. So me and Dan hit the beach and met some of his friends - who were all just as great - and wasted away the hours on the sand with I.P.A's and good company. There was even a black lady, best described as "bubbly," who told me, Dan and the beach as a whole that she wanted to take off all her clothes and "get neked." How disappointed we were when she didn't follow up this thought, remaining satisfied with a costume that her body appeared to be eating.

I've spent the past two days being a big tourist, something that I haven't really been since Washington D.C and my day touring the sights with Brian (how long ago does that seem, super fans?). I've been to visit the Shedd aquarium, home to Beluga whales and an otter that I want to adopt. That was on memorial day (something for soldiers apparently), hence a lot of interesting tourist smells mingling with those sea scents (as good as it sounds). (Brackets overload). Today, which is still just about Tuesday, I went to the Field Museum, which sounds a lot more terrible than it actually is. It has the best preserved, most complete T-Rex fossil in the world. The dinosaur in question is called Sue, and I believe it is featured in the film 'Night at the Museum,' which might interest Cally a little.

That would be the obvious image for my blog...which is why I've decided to put up a bottle of beer instead (read on for the reasoning). However, if you go on my Instagram then you will be able to see a wonderfully edited version of Sue that I spent many a second over, along with a lot of other pictures for you to pore over. My name is AdamMcCulloch23 if anyone is interested, which you obviously are. It's worth mentioning in my blog purely so that my sister has to explain to relatives what Instagram is.

I'm currently writing this sat inside the 'Owen and Engine,' just off of Western and Diversey. It's an English establishment with some absolutely fantastic food - it really does the best tomato sauce I've ever tasted - and the beer is out of this world. It even stocks local favourite Jaipur, courtesy of Thornbridge brewery, which is the image that I felt meant more to me than a skeleton mere millions of years old. Who knows, maybe almost two months away from home has softened up my feelings towards home. Maybe I pine for a night at 'Nickels' and chips, cheese and tikka from 'Afnans.' Maybe I'm just an alcoholic. Keep reading for my last night in Chicago and the start of my deja vu return to Seattle.

Goodbye to the Twin Cities

It is now Friday and my last full day and night in Minnesota. Me and Ashley came back to Minneapolis last night, a power outage forcing us out of the farm to her place in the city. Earlier we had hung out in Waconia, and I will definitely miss the little coffee spot there, 'Mocha Monkey.' It was nice to head back into the urban environment again though - it has been good to have such contrasts recently - and also to eat some delicious pizza from 'Luce' with a few 'Nord East' beers while I am on the street they are named after.

Friday was back to sunshine, so me and Ash headed out to the Art Institute, stopping off for the best French toast of my travels thus far. The institute itself was great, some big artists featured and British names amongst them (Damien Hirst, David Hockney, Henry Moore). It was a great spot and set us up for a nice final day together in Minnesota. We cooked a lovely stew, drank beer and watched a film to round off the day.

Then today (Saturday) we had to say goodbye. Of all my partings thus far, that was the hardest. We have spent such a long time together since meeting back on my first train west, with only a few days apart in all that time. At a part of my trip which could easily have been disastrous, she has showed me a part of her country I otherwise would have bypassed completely. I know we'll be in touch and I'll have some exciting musical news regarding myself and Ash in the near future, so keep your wee English ears to the ground.

So here I am, saddened to be leaving a true, true friend but also excited to be seeing Chicago again. I'm going to try and do a little flat hunting while I'm here, to get a feel for a sub-let so that I can spend an extended period of time in this part of the world: we shall see. But I now have five days to see America's second city once more, and sleeping for free courtesy of my amazing friend, Mike. Keep on reading, while I do exciting things like eating ribs, cutting my ever-growing hair and planning for my next American adventure. Adios!

More of Minnesota!

Apologies again for a few days of silence, just when I had got my flow back. I've been a busy bee, both with sorting out the next phase of my trip and enjoying the present in the Midwest. The Sunday evening and the Monday were mainly spent organising flights and such, but we did go to 'Champ's' for American fare of pretty epic proportions: waffle fries (aka chips) and a burger topped with pulled pork anyone? Followed that on Monday with a sunny wander around one of the city districts, buying books, sipping a smoothie laced with ginger and being totally pretentious as a result.

On the Tuesday, still full from the Chipoltle the previous night - and by the way, they've got some in London so I implore you to go and get a burrito and thank me when you're fat and happy - we headed back to the farm. The weather was great, so we had a nice day in the sun and then followed it up with a movie (aka film) in the evening. Hopefully me putting an obvious English translation in brackets isn't grinding anyone's gears (getting really annoying).

Yesterday gave me a cool glimpse of a Minnesota phenomenon I had yet to come across - a storm. It didn't quite reach tornado proportions, but after stocking up on food and beer (just because), we could feel the heat and pressure beneath some ominous clouds (see the picture). Huge peals of thunder and forks of lightening rattled through the house, and the effects were seen this morning where a huge branch lay cloven on the grass, washed up like driftwood.

Anyway, I'm listening to the rain come in now, thinking about heading out but considering the conditions. I have Friday here before I take an eight hour Megabus back to Chicago. I've heard the weather in England is gorgeous right now, so it's only fair that I take on the rain that has left its spiritual home. Two weeks today and I'll be back home, probably bringing the weather with me if landing in Manchester keeps up the usual trend. Enjoy the sun and enjoy reading.

Strewth - it's Duluth!

Worst title of a blog so far, but that doesn't matter! After a superior time up on the shores of Lake Superior, we winged it back down to this cool little town. Along the way we stopped off at some cool little waterfalls, which although not as vast as those I saw in Columbia River Gorge were still pretty to look at. I'll probably use that as my picture for this blog, seeing as I'm resisting the urge to snap every meal I eat. Only my wee little sister has had the true privilege of looking at edited photos of just about every greasy sandwich that has met its English match.

In Duluth I found that rare and beautiful thing; good American beer. I felt that on the West Coast my American ale trail had peaked, particularly with my new favourite person Terry in Eugene, who let me sample his home brew. But at 'Fitger's, in this small lakeside town, I had a really solid oatmeal stout, along with a double-hopped I.P.A that was especially good. It's nice to see the fear in an American server's eyes when I ask for their best beer; they know the English are invading.

Before I grow a beard, gain seven stone and pull out a tasting chart (and become my dad in two years time), I will digress. I should mention I tried that Minnesotan speciality, wild rice, in vegetarian burger form. It even came with Amish blue cheese and it was pretty incredible, I must say. Today I'll be heading back to the Twin Cities, possibly catching a music festival featuring a trombone player that I met on my first train out west. I'll be staying in the arts district too, which is as cool as it sounds. Must say a massive thanks to Ash for putting me up over here - a real lifesaver and another great friend for life I've met over here (cue a rainbow and glitter and some 'Take That' playing in the background).

I'm also going to be planning my next few moves, following the obvious uncertainties I've faced recently. I'm going to spend a few more days in this state, then Chicago for a week, a flight to Seattle, seeing anything I missed up there and then a few nights in Vancouver before my flight home. This should work out great in principle, and let me catch up with some of the awesome people in those two cities before I head back.

Keep reading and get ready for some more action-packed, spontaneous blogs once I'm back covering even more ground of this amazing country. God bless A-mur-i-cur!

Minnesota Nice!

Well I'm sat in a condo on the shore of Lake Superior, sunlight creeping through the shutters along with a cool breeze. I've spent four or five days in this state so far and I'm really impressed; the people here are generally known as "Minnesota nice" and I've seen plenty of examples of that. Ash's dad has kindly brought us up to this place by the water, and we may or may not stay another night before we head back to Minneapolis.

After getting off of that pretty horrendous train ride, we sorted ourselves out and headed out of the city to Waconia. Armed with a sandwich and a mighty fine mango smoothie, I got my first experience of a lakeside, one of around 14,000 spots of open water in this state. We then headed back to Ash's mum's place, and it really is a great spot: there's woods, lawns, old farm fields and total solitude (minus Indie, her dog, barking at me to throw her sticks). It's a totally new experience to me, and the sheer space and size dwarfs our own lovely rural areas in Derbyshire for example. See I can use positive words for home!

We spent the day exploring the local area, including a haunted cemetery and spying some huge lakeside properties. In that area we went for a great meal at 'Maynards' on Lake Minnetonka, having fun surprising people with my accent (how posh and cultured I sound over here). In fact posh reminds me of this English guy I met in Seattle, called Avery. He was from London, studied at Cambridge, wore about six sweaters and ushered those famous words - What happens in San Francisco, stays in San Francisco." Needless to say I'm now starting a petition to get him extradited back to England, and possibly somewhere else where I won't come into contact with him. Like France.

The next day was spent mainly on the property, exploring the outside, playing with Indie and playing some music. I've got a piano out here so I've been doing some writing, so hopefully once I'm a huge success I can travel the world forever and this blog will become a timeless classic. We'll see. On Thursday we headed out to some of the nearby towns, and by towns I really mean villages. Very strange, very interesting, very American (pronounced "a-mur-i-cun"). It was nice to have two pretty chilled out days after all of the travelling and plan changing!

Then we planned for this trip up north to Tofte on Lake Superior. On the Friday morning we met John, Ash's dad, in Minneapolis and hit the road. We stopped off in Duluth, which is about the same size as good old Chez (but happens to be on a picturesque spot overlooking the lake), and we grabbed great burgers, chicken wild rice soup and local beer at a place called 'Grandma's.' After a few pitstops we made it up here, drove around the area with its endless rows of trees and wonderful expanses of water. We had a meal in the evening before watching a cosy film and listening to the water beat a few yards away from us against the rocks. Keep reading!

A change of plan

Yes, it has been a weird week or so. I've not always had internet available, and when I have I've been a bit rushed. To cut a long story very short, Alex had a change of heart and decided to go home. Not letting that put me off, I've decided to head to Minnesota with Ash, to see more of the Midwest. I'm trying to be as spontaneous as possible, and it doesn't get much more spontaneous than having the car you bought for a roadtrip taken away from you. But I'm feeling really good after a few days in Seattle - a city high in my favourite places over here - and during another marathon train ride through glaciers and plains aplenty.

I'll quickly run over the things I've actually done since Portland, minus all the nitty gritty of sorting out Alex's departure.

1. We spent three nights in Eugene being hosted by the amazing Jan and Terry. We drank a lot of beer, met their son Connor and his girlfriend Kayleigh. We also had some amazing pastry - just saying.
2. Me and Ash ended up back in Seattle. We stayed at the same hostel as I did the first time and managed to see Capitol Hill, the University District and meet up with our friend Ryan who we met in Portland. Our roommate Elina was also really cool.
3. We took a ferry across to Bainbridge Island again to stay with our good friend Tim. Had a lovely time in the sunshine, with me and Ash going for some great food, beer and ice-cream in Kingston. We also watched 'Twin Peaks,' and I can confirm that the viewing pleasure is enhanced in that part of the world.
4. We headed back to Seattle and, after some good falafel, we were on another train across the country. No cool banjo players this time; just a lot of Amish, an old girl from the Deep South who coughed like she was gargling staples, and the world's worst server, who made me add up my own bill.

It's now about six in the morning on a Tuesday and we have entered Minnesota. I currently feel like death after two nights on the train but I'm looking forward to getting out in the country. Service is going to be limited again but there's a coffee place a few miles from where I'm staying where I can hopefully keep you posted on what I'm doing, as well as filling in some blanks from the past busy week or so via some pictures. I will also be updating my Instagram feed so if you have it, follow me (Adam McCulloch 23 should find me alright), or look up my lovely fellow traveller, Ashley Lebedev if you want some pro pictures. Sorry for the lack of updates but I'm sure you can understand when things have been up in the air...luckily I'm still in the best place on earth and not Worksop. See ya later!

Portland II

It was nice to wake up in the Hawthorne District again, despite the heavy rain. The three of us, plus Travis and Josh, had a good wander around the area and picked up some good breakfast at 'Bread and Ink.' Then we hit some thrift stores, I bought a ridiculous hat and we spent time in 'Powell's Books.' It really is a great area to relax and people watch, which we did over frozen yogurt. It is also a great area to turn into a complete scenester; I contemplated going barefoot again.

A quick diversion to Vancouver was followed by a drive downtown to meet Ibrahim, a contact formed via my dad and his friend in Sheffield. It was another great example of how friendly and warm people are over in this side of the world. He was such a kind, caring man and so enthusiastic about meeting us and letting us meet his family. He took us for some lovely Thai food and then on to meet his wonderful wife, Shania, his children Jabril and Fatima, as well as his mother, mother-in-law and sister. They were all so receptive, so welcoming and we had a fantastic time. It has been such a positive experience to meet so many different types of people but to find them all so open and excited to embrace a simple guy like me into their lives. It's something we should do more of back home.

We spent that night in a truck-stop on the edge of Portland, which wasn't quite so glamorous. The day improved back in the city, where the three of us along with Adam, Ryan, and the latter's friend Lizzie went for an incredible breakfast at 'Jam' on Hawthorne. We then, minus Lizzie, went for a great walk around Forest Park, which is named pretty accurately and also played host to some owls and a raven that spoke in the animal rescue area. Feeling nice and muddy, we sat down to a bubble tea in the Pearl District before we headed back to the hostel...for my third trip there in just over a week. It was Ashley's birthday so me one Alex took her out for some food at the Baghdad Theatre and had a nice, chilled evening.

We started our easy Sunday with some more thrifting, followed by some oatmeal and coffee at a family cafe on Hawthorne. Then we wandered around Division and met the other Adam for a walk and relax in the Belmont area, including a sunny siesta in the park. And after some goodbyes we were off on the road to Eugene, Oregon - a sleepy little town where things got interesting, hence the lack of blogging.

On the road!

Technically, I'm not on the road. I'm actually eating bagels back at the hostel in Portland where I was staying a few days ago. I'm with Alex and Ashley, who has joined us for a segment of our sojourn, and it's so far, so good. I did manage to lose my debit card yesterday, though, so hopefully some Mexican guy isn't spending all my assets. We could only book one night at the pretty place in Hawthorne, so it seems that tonight we will be drawing on a contact or two to find a place to stay.

After I finally managed to reunite myself with Mr. Stevens, we headed up to Tim's on the island and had a nice easy time. We headed across to Seattle on the Wednesday to walk around the market, try and fail to find good coffee and forget my bank account. It was better than it sounded. It also offered the opportunity to see the after-effects of the May Day riots, which I wandered through naively before meeting Alex. We then headed back to the island to take Tim and Debra for a thank you meal at a local brewery, accompanied by the expected good beer.

Some homemade oatmeal and great coffee later and we were on the road (see the title does work). After a few wrong turns, and a brief goodbye to Jeanie, we set off. We stopped off for a milkshake that I'm pretty sure knocked about six years off of my life, and had a weird stop in Vancouver (not the Canadian one) that put the "farm" in "pharmacy," which doesn't work as well written down.

Eventually, I made it back to the Hawthorne district, with a few familiar faces knocking around. The Hopworks seemed like the most obvious place to head to, so we pigged out on some great food and a lot of beer, before heading back and meeting a guy from Rhode Island who wanted to move to Wales. So my night after that involved drunkenly explaining why it would be a terrible idea to move across the Atlantic to Barry or somewhere similar. And now here I am, rested and waiting for those guys to surface, catching up with the people who hung around in the city a little longer. I'll keep you posted on today's adventures. Tarah for now!