THANK YOU THANK YOU!

Wednesday November 18th:

Today is our last day in Colorado - we head back to Detroit tonight! We've had so much fun, seen so many amazing things & have met wonderful people {...some crazy ones too} along this 17 day journey! Most importantly, we were able to explore these different places, hoping to find a job & figure out if we even liked the area.

We just wanted to thank all of our family & friends who have helped us out along the way! Whether it was encouraging words, money for coffee {we love our Sbux}, a roof over our heads, an air mattress or a car...it was all above & beyond! We're so thankful to have all of these people in our lives & without them, we wouldn't have been able to make this trip happen. So thank you, thank you very much :) we love all of you & are extremely grateful.

Now it's time to head back to Michigan! Can't wait to see everyone there!

Love,

Jackie & Krista

...just for fun, here are our best 5 & worst 5 things/places from our trip! Enjoy :)

Top 5 Favorites Things:

1. Portland {no sales tax & super friendly people}

2. Boulder

3. public transportation {non-existent in Michigan}

4. all of the outdoor activities

5. Marriott beds {they're like butter}

Worst 5 Things:

1. Greyhound buses

2. Crazy people on greyhound buses

3. Hostels that rip you off

4. Salt Lake City

5. black ice patchs {almost killed ourselves/cracked our heads a few times}

Boulder

Saturday November 14th:

We left Krista's cousins house this morning pretty early & headed to Boulder to stay with my friend AJ. Colorado was expecting 12inches of snow, so we needed to head out before it started to come down.

Boulder was about 50 minutes from where we were staying; we packed up & headed out. AJ had a work football game, so we hung out at his apartment & showered. When he got back, he wanted to show us the view from the mountains. Even though it was foggy & snowy, the view & drive was amazing. The drive was winding, but the view at the top was crazy, even if we couldn't really see a ton. Once we got to the top, we climbed up on top of a few rocks to take a picture & try to see below...but it was too hard with the clouds.

{on top of a mountain!}

After our journey up the mountain, AJ suggested we head to downtown Boulder...which we loved! Pearl Street is a bricked walk-way with tons of shops, bars, restaurants & entertaining characters hanging about.

{Pearl Street in Boulder}

Post walking around & buying candy, we decided to go to Pei Wei & then see Where The Wild Things Are - it was sooooo good! After that, we headed back to AJ's apartment & put in a movie {he has quite the collection} & played a vigorous game of Apples-to-Apples. He couldn't handle losing to girls :)

Sunday November 15th:

Sunday, we laid low. Krista went for a run, AJ had to get a little work done & I watched movies/Mad Men. AJ re-taught us how to play Mancala & then we decided to go walk around downtown a little more & grab some dinner. AJ had to head to a work thing; so we checked out a local brewery for dinner & then headed back.

{Boulder is home to the University of Colorado}

Monday November 16th:

Today was absolutely gorgeous! Even though Boulder got quite a bit of snow, by Monday it was starting to melt because it was so warm & sunny. We headed back to the Pearl Street Mall to do a little shopping - we needed Colorado t's! After our shopping excursion, we headed to meet AJ at work. He gave us a tour of Crispin & we got to talk with a woman on the Old Navy account. His office is massive, but really cool - we couldn't get over how many people worked there!

{mmm, snow!}

Tuesday November 17th:

Our last day in Boulder! AJ headed to work in the am & hung out for a bit & then ventured over to the other end of Pearl Street. Once again, the weather was amazing!

{last day in Boulder}

After our mini photo shoot, we decided to take a little road trip through the mountains! Since we didn't get to hike in the nice weather, we figured we'd just drive through. We packed up & headed out. The snow covered trees in the mountains were gorgeous & Boulder Creek ran along the entire drive. About 30 minutes into our drive, we got a little panicked because we were ready to turn around but couldn't... Krista was driving stick & we were worried we might hit too much snow, get too high up in the mountains, or something along that nature. Krista did a sweet u-turn in the middle of the mountain & we were headed back down.

{beautiful nature}

Once our little scare was over, we figured it was time to head back. We drove through downtown Denver & then headed back to Krista's cousins house to make dinner & pack up our stuff.

{downtown Denver}

I can't believe it's been two weeks! We've had so much fun, but we're ready for our own beds & clean clothes!

We head back to Detroit Wednesday night!

xoxo

j & k

Denver & Fort Collins - Days Two & Three

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

Plan of attack today: Explore daytime Denver and hang with the fam!

We're staying near 16th street mall, which is apparently the prime area for shopping in Denver. It's closed to auto traffic, with the exception of free shuttle busses (gotta love free transportation). The shopping district was cute, with brick sidewalks on 16th and a few boutiques... but we still love Portland the most.

My cousin, Dayna (actually my dad's cousin), sent someone from her work to come get us from our hotel and bring us back to her work in Aurora. She works in healthcare at a gorgeous short-term PT/rehab facility and gave us the grand tour when we arrived. After the tour, we hitched a ride to Greeley, CO to stay with my other cousin, Deron (Dayna's brother). Deron was awesome enough to share his house and one of his cars with us for a few days. I love my family!!

Friday, November 13th, 2009

Plan of attack: Drive to Fort Collins and visit the New Belgium brewery.

We had several friends suggest visiting New Belgium while we were in the Denver area, so we decided to make a day of it. Jackie and I both brushed up on our stick-shift driving skills before we left for this trip, and between the two of us we make one awesome driver.

Jackie backed the car out of the driveway, putzed around the neighborhood for a bit to get a feel for the car... and then made me drive. Yeah yeah. It's my family... so I should probably be responsible anyhow (Don't worry Deron, I know what I'm doing!).

We got to Fort Collins in about 40 minutes and jumped in on a tour of the brewery (usually they are booked several days in advance, so we lucked out). Let's just hope the snow let's up before we have to drive home......

(Brewery pictures to follow!)

xoxo

j & k

Denver - Day One

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

At 7:15 in Denver, after a hellish bus ride, we wanted nothing more than to sleep the rest of the morning away. We stayed at a Marriott by the City Center in Denver, thanks to my amazing friend Erica, who came through for us with a discount! We had to wait a while for check-in, but the good news was we were first in line for a room and we were welcome to the hotel breakfast. Yum...

By 10:30, we were pretty antsy to get into our rooms. Jackie's ready for her nap (see the photo above) and I've got a lunch with a couple of BBDOers here in Denver (thanks Ian!). We putzed around for a bit longer on our laptops, finally checked in around 11:00, tore up the hotel room getting ready and I booked it out of the hotel by 11:15.

---

Lunch went great! A couple of hours later I came back to find Sleeping Beauty taking full advantage of our accommodations.

{We Y the Marriott}

After a few emails and a bit of research into the suggestions from my lunch, we got gussied up and set out to explore the city. This was, of course, after a pit stop in the hotel lounge for some free dinner and drinks. Yep, we love this hotel.

The hotel bartender, Kelly, gave us some great suggestions for exploring the nightlife and then we were off to paint the town red! We happened upon a little place called "The Front Porch." It has "flip-night" on Wednesday, meaning that if you guess right [heads or tails], your round of drinks is free. It's a neat concept... and we each got a couple of drinks for dirt cheap.

The funniest part: These party animals were totally wiped out by 10:30 and back to the hotel 11:00. I blame the crazy bus lady.

xoxo

j & k

Bus Ride: Salt Lake City to Denver

Let's call this, 'The Night From Hell: Don't Ever Ride A Greyhound Over Night'. It's taken us a little while to blog about the bus ride because it was the absolute worst thing we've done on our trip...

So Tuesday November 10th, we arrived at the Greyhound in SLC around 7pm, our bus was scheduled to leave @ 8:15p & arrive in Denver on Wednesday @ 6:15am. We were kind of looking forward to this overnight ride because our last one had gone pretty well. We had spent Tuesday hanging out in SLC, so we were prepared with books, snacks, drinks, movies, pretty much everything we might need. Well here is the first clue that should have let us know that the night was going to be an utter disaster: while we were waiting in the long line to board the bus {you have to stand in line or leave your stuff there to reserve your "seats" - otherwise, you are not guaranteed a seat} an Asian woman {I'd say she was in her mid-thirties} came over & asked me if I would like to buy her used-10 sizes-too-big-used-sandals for $1. I kindly said 'no' & looked away. She then asked Krista the exact same question & Krista also said 'no', but then the woman asked if she had any spare change. Krista gave her some change {75 cents} & the woman left.

That situation should have raised a red flag - but on our trip, we've seen so many people asking for money or food, that it wasn't really that surprising.

If you don't feel like reading a lot, I suggest you just stop now because this is about to get lengthy. It's the only way to sum-up our insane night :)

Here is the timeline of our night:

1. Apparently we didn't arrive early enough b/c we almost didn't make the cut for our bus.

2. See the highlight blue section above.

3. We left over an hour late & once again, almost didn't make our bus. AND we saw the crazy Asian lady buying snacks & coffee - now did she really need that 75 cents?

4. By the time we got on our bus, it was overcrowded & we couldn't sit together. I asked the guy next to me if he'd switch with Krista & he said, "ummmm, I am kind of a window guy". Seriously? Who isn't. What a turd.

5. The Asian woman was sitting in one of the first rows & when we were boarding, asked me if I were Korean, didn't wait for a response & then tried to speak Korean to me. I am still wondering what she said... then decided to announce to everyone that she had a douche bag & if you needed it, it was centrally located on the bus.

6. She talked 99% of the night. On her cell, to herself, to our poor bus driver, to anyone that might be listening or within earshot. I think she forgot to take her meds.

7. When we stopped 1/3 of the way through the night, she got McDonald's & then tried to sell the half eaten sandwich for a nickle. A nickle. For real? Then she reminded us all where the douche bag was, just in case we had forgotten.

8. The guy next to me was oozing over & under the armrest onto my half of the seat. Gross.

9. The man sitting next to Krista mumbled under her breath about how the chromosome-missing lady was being rude & she tried to start something with him. Actually, it was kind of entertaining.

10. Around 2am, she was asking the bus driver if she could sit in the front seat where his luggage was. "Sir, I know I am only 5'6", but Sir, I am so tired & everyone else is sleeping & I'd like to too. Please Sir, can I sit here? Please?" It took all our strength not to reach across the aisle & slap her.

11. We both opted to sleep with our scarves over our faces/heads. It was necessary to mask pretty much everyone & everything on the bus. My oozing neighbor asked if it was our first time on a Greyhound.. I said no, but that it was by far the worst one & we will never do it again. The scarves came in handy when the guy across from me took off his boots & his feet stank up the entire bus.

12. Crazy Asian tells her life story. Twice.

13. She tells us her first boyfriend had herpes.

14. "I am going to visit my new boyfriend, which is my ex-husband, who doesn't have herpes". -Crazy Asian Lady.

15. "God didn't want me to mess with my body. I eat well, I take care of it. Some people are just naturally clean."

16. "It's so easy to make money. You can sell anything, make an honest living, it's easy.... Hey, do you want to buy some food from me at the next stop? Anything I buy for $4 with my food stamps, I'll sell to you for a dollar."

17. At appx 7:15am, we arrived in Denver...sleep deprived, dirty, & feeling like we might hurt someone if they tried to talk to us.

{7:45am @ the Denver Marriott: scarf still in place & kind of hating life...just a little bit}

...coming up next: Denver, Fort Collins, Boulder! We go home Wednesday night :) cannot wait for our own beds, but are so extremely thankful to all of our family & friends who have let us stay with them {more to come on this too}!

xoxo

j & k

SLC - We'll call this our layover city

Monday, November 9th, 2009

Hello Salt Lake! We arrived just after 6 AM at the Greyhound station. First order of business: SLEEP! We cabbed it to our hotel and immediately crashed for a few hours. Slowly but surely, we got ready to head out to explore what Salt Lake City has to offer. I (Krista) made a few phone calls and then we were off (I'm still keeping my fingers crossed and constantly following up about my job interview last Monday).

We got directions on how to get to Olympic Park so we could check out the site of the 2002 Olympic games. They play a pretty touching video with highlights from the opening ceremonies and the games themselves. Pretty neat!

{The Olympic torch and stadium}

{Athlete bios at the foothills}

We stumbled upon a neat outdoor mall just down the road from our hotel and killed a bit of time putzing around there. Later, we met up with my friend Sarah at a place called the Bayou (thanks for the suggestion, Joe!). Apparently they carry 200 different kinds of beer - don't worry, we only tried a few of them.

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

Our bus tonight doesn't leave until 8 PM, so we've got a bit of time-killing to do. We heard that the bobsled and skeleton championships are in SLC, but they're about 12 miles outside of the city. What a bummer than we are car-less during this trip!

I got up and did some hiking and exploring this morning during my run. Check out these awesome pictures!

{The view over Salt Lake City}

We still had a little bit more time to kill, so we decided to make ourselves super productive at the outdoor mall... by playing air hockey and skee-ball at arcade. Pictures to come!

Alright, so our SLC experience wasn't hugely entertaining to recount, but wait until you hear about this next bus ride... Never again, Greyhound. Never again.

xoxo

j & k

Portland to Salt Lake City

Sunday, November 8th

What a wonderful stay in an amazing city. I don't think I can say enough about how much we loved Portland. It rained - anywhere from sprinkling to pouring - every day we were there, but it was just so clean and beautiful that we didn't even care. Brick streets and free (and clean) public transit made the city very visitor-friendly, and every person we met was eager to lend a helpful suggestion for city experience.

Now that we've gotten a taste of Portland, we've already started planning what it would be like to live here... maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves. Jobs come first!

Time for the looooong bus ride to Salt Lake City.

We stocked up on Subway sandwiches - breakfast and lunch - and cabbed it over to the station, crossing our fingers and hoping to be able to spread out and sleep during the 17-hour ride. We made a couple of essential stops at Borders in Seattle and Portland to grab new books and book-lights and made sure our iPods were fully charged! Other than times of intense boredom, we really lucked out with this bus ride. The bus drivers were a little on the crazy side, but people were fairly considerate about keeping their voices low during the overnight ride. Jackie watched a movie or two, I finished another book, we fell asleep and arrived in SLC at 6am. Wahoo!

{The Cascades - our view leaving Portland}

Now to take on Salt Lake City...

xoxo

j & k

Portland: Day Three

{gorgeous rainbow!}

Today was a fab day! Krista worked out & I slept in a little. We headed to our new fave Sbux two blocks away to use the internet & enjoy the holiday flavors that are back! And of course on our last day here, we finally had to buy umbrellas.

I had been wanting to see one of the college campuses around here & so we thought we'd check out Portland State University. On our way, we stopped & had lunch at Jake's Grille {a McCormick & Schmick affiliate} - it was delish! A great thing about Portland {besides no sales tax} is the public transportation...it is unbelievably easy to use & some of it is free. We hopped on a street car & went to the Westside where the University District is located. Each of us bought a PSU tee - the campus is beautiful too.

The area where the university was, had a bunch of neat shops & reminded us of Ann Arbor {just a little}. There was a HUGE Whole Foods, Anthropologie, massive NorthFace & another Sur La Table. Loads of great places.

{loving the rainy day}

{waiting for the street car}

After a long day of walking around, we're back in our room getting ready to spend one last night in Portland. If you've never been here, you definitely have to check it out at some point!

xoxo

j & k

Portland: Day One & Two

{The World Forestry Center}

Thursday November 5th:

Well, with our "hostel" being a little sketchy, we opted to spend our first day everywhere but. Portland has amazing public transit & we definitely took advantage. We went to The World Forestry Center, which was pretty cool. We learned about trees & sustainability in the area. And of course played with a ton of kiddie-esque exhibits.

{Krista planting trees}

{hang gliding}

Oregon has no sales tax, which is aaamazing! So of course we had to do a little bit of shopping too. Then we opted to go to a Lebanese restaurant downtown called 'Habibi's' that was almost as good as Pita Cafe & Flaming Kabob back home. After a long day out in Portland, it was time to head back to our dicey hostel.

{holiday lights downtown}

Friday November 6th:

Today, we hit our breaking point. It was time to leave our sick-nasty motel/hostel. After a very back-and-forth debate with X & Roxy about getting our $$ back, we decided we had enough & couldn't take it anymore. The grunginess of the entire place was beyond words...just wait for the pix! So my {Jackie's} mom very kindly put us up in The Marriott downtown for our last two nights. Thank you mom! You are the BEST!

{Our room - check out that lovely ceiling}

{the scary bathroom w/our spider & worm friends, Lenny & Bob}

{we call this the BEFORE}

{...and this is the AFTER! life is good & clean again}

We spent a lot of time walking around & then went out to Candy's for happy hour & dinner. A saleswoman at Nordstrom recommended it & it was perfect. It was a modern lounge with touchscreen monitors at some of the booths - super fun!

{mmm, white sangria!}

{playing with the monitors @ Candy}

{going out to Saucebox}

THE bus ride.... and the hostel in Portland

November 4th, 2009 (Part Deux)

Have you ever ridden a Greyhound bus? Chances are that if you have used Greyhound, you probably also have an opinion about it. We were pretty excited to read about all of the improvements to the Greyhound Bus lines. Who wouldn't be amped for a brand new, clean bus with WiFi, power outlets, not to mention the standard amenities like a handy fold-out desk and overhead lights for some QT with a good book.

This... was not that bus. I did manage to read by the light of my iPod, after a rousing game of peek-a-boo with my 2-year-old neighbor from the seat in front of mine.

On to Portland! We arrived 3.5 hours later at the Greyhound station in Portland (about 11:00 PM), found a cabbie that spoke enough English to get us to the "Portland Pensione," and realized that the only thing worse than the last 4 hours with Greyhound... were the next 4 nights at this hostel.

Jackie would like to add...

"We don't mean to be Negative Nancys or Debbie Downers or Sober Sallys but... once you see these pictures, you'll feel the same way!"

The Pensione is just outside of downtown Portland. Actually, it's 6 blocks from the tram that will take us into the city. By tomorrow, we'll come to the conclusion that the only SAFE way to and from the hostel (motel, really) is by taxi. We unloaded our bags, chatted with our new best friend and motel manager, Roxy, and made our way across the parking lot to our room... and quickly dead-bolted the door.

The Room. Where do I begin... We have a standard main room with a bathroom. The laminate floor looks fairly new, and clean! The bathroom floor doesn't, and isn't. Somehow we have cable and HBO to boot, but the hilarious part is that we're watching it on a 14" TV. Beyond that, we have a Queen-size bed with a few hairs and stains... So yes, we slept FULLY clothed; sweatshirts, pants, socks, the works. We're both glad we brought our own pillows, as Jackie pulled a couple of hairs out of the one on her side. The sink is not that bad, as long as you prefer some of your water to squirt sideways. The shower is fine but doesn't drain; we're both glad we brought flip-flops. The spiders are nice. We have a chandelier with 2 out of 5 working bulbs, but that's plenty.

Now that I've spent most of this post griping about our hilarious plight... I should mention that we have spent 90% of this stay laughing our asses off at this situation. That said, we're looking for suggestions on how to spend our weekend here in Portland!

xoxo

j & k

Day Two: Seattle to Portland

{by Puget Sound & Pike Place Market}

November 4th, 2009

We lucked out with another beautiful day in Washington. I even got a little to do a little lakeside running in the morning along lake Sammimish, just as the fog was lifting. Gorgeous!

Then we headed downtown again, straight back to Pike Place to sample the local fare for lunch and tackle some of the shops and boutiques we heard about yesterday. Jackie opted for some yummy tortellini while I decided to brave the seafood chowder. "When in Rome..." Little did I know it was a lawsuit waiting to happen! Perhaps I'll wait until I have full dental coverage before I try any chowders with "in the shell" in the name.

We hung out by the water (Puget Sound) for a bit and then went to the REAL original Starbucks. Yeah, turns out the one we saw yesterday was one of two at Pike's Place.

{the first Starbucks!}

Sbux stups so far: 3. What can you do when there's at least one on every corner? There are almost as many chocolate shops too (same with Portland); still trying to figure that one out. Comments?

Anyway, not so lucky with job-hunting in this city, huh? We're still plugging at all the opportunities we can, but if they don't work out then at least I'll have gotten a feel for 5 more US cities than I had before.

{Krista enjoying an oatmeal apricot cookie @ Dahlia's Bakery downtown}

{Jackie loving on an eclair!}

Day two in Seattle has come to a close. Now it's back to Jackie's uncle's and on to the Greyhound station. Portland, here we come!

{Sammamish}

xoxo

j & k

Day One: Seattle

Our first day in Seattle was a success...at least in terms of getting familiar with the city & site-seeing. I love this place! We couldn't have asked for better weather & it looks like tomorrow will be just as beautiful. We kicked off our day with a trip to the Seattle Space Needle! For $16 we rode to the top & had an amazing view of the city, mountains, ferries, water & much much more.

We spent a lot of time just walking around & familiarizing ourselves with the area. We took a quick ride on the tram into the heart of downtown. There was tons of shopping, people, & of course...coffee shops! My family recommended we check out Pike Place Market, which was really interesting. We got to see a ton of fresh seafood, produce, & other locally made products & across the street was the Original Starbucks! And I was so excited when we noticed a teeny tiny Sur La Table right by the market. I had discovered that years ago in Chicago & love love love it! When we were inside, Krista found fingers covers for taking out hot pans or cookie sheets & I looked at her & said, "are those sturble?!" Turns out, sturble is not a word. I think it was the combination of "sturdy" & "stable" that equalled my new favorite word sturble. We found a couple of cute shops in the area & may return to check out some more tomorrow {and of course JOBS}!!

{on top of the Seattle Space Needle}

{fish being tossed @ Pike Place Market}

Time for bed! We still haven't adjusted to Pacific Time yet.. Day Two of Seattle tomorrow & then Portland.

xoxo

j & k

We made it!

Well, we made it to Seattle, safe and sound. It's only 10:53 here, but it feels like 2am! This is Jackie and I living in luxury here at Jackie's uncle's, blogging and getting ready to be tourists tomorrow. Aren't we fabulous? We're really getting spoiled compared to what's to come in the next leg of our trip; we'll be staying in hostels and hoofing it around Portland. Expect hilarity to ensue... Not much yet in terms of job-hunting success here in Seattle, so maybe we'll interview some strangers instead :). --krista

xoxo

j & k

...and away we go!

Hey all, this is Krista. I got through my interview this morning in Detroit and it felt great... But now it's time to switch gears and think West Coast! We're about to board our first flight to Seattle (by way of Denver). Let the adventure begin!

xoxo

j&k

Ready to Rock N' Roll!

It's the night before we leave for Seattle. We leave tomorrow @ 4pm & should arrive in Seattle around 8pm. We're staying with my {Jackie's} Aunt & Uncle who live in Sammamish, WA.

I am all packed & ready to go! It took all day, season four of the Golden Girls & leaving behind my big bag of snacks, but it all fit! Krista {aka: Trista}, is sound asleep.. she has a BIG interview in the morning before we leave - wish her luck! The goal of this trip is to find a J-O-B! ...and of course site-see a little.

Time for bed. Follow us for the next 2.5 weeks - it will be highly entertaining!

xoxo

j & k