FinalCut

I grew up in a military family and served in the Army but it still took me until I was 30 to visit the Mall. It was pretty chilling to visit the heart of our nations goverment, to be surrounded by all of the symbols – it really gave me the chills.

It was well worth the trip. We were there over Memorial Day weekend 2002 so the crowds were pretty big; but that just made it even cooler.

I was just finishing Basic Training at Ft Leonard Wood Mo. and had to spend about 20 hours in St. Louis before I flew home. We went to Busch Stadium (the old one) and then to a cool night club on the river “Mississippi Nights”

The people in St. Louis were really cool to us and generally treated us very well (we were in our Dress Uniforms). It is one of the few cities I have visited where I would consider moving to based on a short visit.

We also travelled to East St Louis thanks to our Cabbie whom we asked to take us somewhere fun.

Overall we had fun everywhere we went in St Louis.

I’ve been to SC a few times. 2 times to visit my in-laws when they were at their Condo in Hilton Head. While HH is a decent place, I suppose, I thought it was pretty boring. The Golf is supposed to be really good there but I couldn’t afford it.

My wife and I went to Charleston for one of our Anniversary’s. We stayed at a BnB that was way too expensive considering it was slowly falling into a state of disrepair. However the BnB was still neat because it was a very old house and had a cool courtyard in the middle. We were pretty close to the main historic area of Charleston (typical tourist site). It is also the wealthy portion of Charleston (and predominately white).

The majority of Charleston seemed to be depressingly mired in poverty. The monetary divide there is as stark as I have seen it anywhere. There is a street that runs E-W that was a clear delimiter between the haves and the have-nots. It was sad. We didn’t really enjoy the trip as much as we would have hoped – and the increidble depths of poverty made it unlikely that we will return.

I was born near Goldsboro on an Air Force Base. We lived there until I was 2. I have driven back through the state a few times but haven’t actually been a real visitor yet as an adult.

We have gone through Winston-Salem (depressingly rundown), and Charolette (very busy, beware that town near any Nascar races).

We have also driven through the area near “mayberry” I can’t remember what it is called but it’s basically right on the northern border of the state near Virginia. There is even an Aunt Bea’s restaurant. We didn’t eat there.

Key West is pretty neat and generally pretty small. We walked the whole place in one day and saw most of the things we wanted to see.

The weather, as expected, was beautiful. The price of food was a bit high – but we expected that considering the location.

It was incredibly busy and full of tourists – particularly as Cruise Ships arrived.

My friend and I accidently ended here on the way back to El Paso Texas on the tail end of a spontaenous trip to the Grand Canyon one Forth of July weekend in the early 90’s.

There wasn’t much there, we stayed a dive of a motel where we paid the manager in beer for our room. we finished the visit off by driving like crazy people in a huge rainstorm down the middle of the town. we didn’t see any other cars on the road – it was a pretty boring town.

I sat just to the side of the Green Monster on my last visit. It is a nice enough park but doesn’t have that same close feel that Wrigley does.

Even if you aren’t a baseball fan you will probably appreciate the freindly confines. Wrigley is so close and intimate a location for a game.

I was lucky and was on the receiving end of fantastic tickets on my one trip there but I would be even with “bad” seats I would have enjoyed it just as much.

If you are unfortunate enough to be stuck in Utica there is a bright side. The Matts Brewery tour. Sure the tour stinks (smells bad) and takes a little longer than I wanted but it was worth it in the end.

From a huge keg on the wall the dispense their version of beer which is easilly ignored. For a similarly huge keg the serve root beer. Root Beer has never been so good! I don’t know if it always that good fresly tapped from a keg but if so I wish I could always get Root Beer that way. So, so, good.

I like Kentucky. Its a nice enough place to visit and the people are generally friendly. Lexington is a bit disappoining though (at least downtown) as there are few if any good restaurants there and overall is a pretty dull town. Lexington looked more interesting but I didn’t get to stop there.