Spoon and Captain Jack's Back-to-School Special

After an amazing trip to Europe in spring 2008, we made the lofty goal of leaving the country at least once a year. However, once July rolled around and we had zero arrangements made and no solid confirmation of when Jon would be able to take vacation time, we revised the aforementioned goal of leaving the country to simply visiting somewhere we'd never been. Hence, the "Back-to-School-Special" was born. After much debate and discussion over what to call our ten-day tour (because it doesn't count unless it has a name), Jon ingeniously came up with the title "Back-to-School-Special." The meaning is twofold: 1) the trip was our last blast before the new school year starts for me, and 2) several of our friends are graduate students living near college campuses. Now that we've effectively checked the box on the marathon, our next feat is to visit all 50 states. For better or worse, when it comes to travel, at times we focus on quantity over quality. Fortunately for us, we were able to experience both on this trip. Due to the nature of Jon's job, we have friends scattered across the country. And bonus for us, many of them are currently located in such exotic locations as Ohio and Indiana, both states I had never visited until this trip. The concept of going to all 50 states prompted a Seinfeld-ian discussion of what actually construes a visit. Merely having a lay-over at an airport obviously doesn't count, but there were mixed feelings about whether or not driving through a state was sufficient. What we finally decided was that a significant event had to occur in order to consider a state properly visited. That said, we tackled 11 states in 10 days, which brings my total to 33 and Jon's to 32. The following photo montage highlights just a sampling of our significant events from each state:

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Hauling our luggage through Illinois

See if you can find our reflection--it's like a game of "Where's Waldo?"

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Playing cards in Indiana

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Worst Spades hand EVER.

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Tasting wine in Michigan

This photo was taken at a winery. Trust me.

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Watching Army Wives in Kentucky

We were evidently more interested in the pets than the show.

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Eating barbecued steak in Ohio

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We were too busy eating to actually document the event, so this picture is from the next day. But it's Ohio, seriously.

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Driving around campus in West Virginia

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Unfortunately we did not see Matthew McConaughey of "We Are Marshall" fame.

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Floating down a river in Virginia

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Appalachia=beautiful.

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Enjoying a brewery in Vermont

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This is the view from the brewery's patio.

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Munching on ridiculously expensive gas station Cheez-Its in New Hampshire

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Again, you have to take my word for it. The Cheez-Its didn't last long enough for a picture.

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Chasing after a train in Maine

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It's not really travel unless you have to run after transportation.

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Getting drenched in Massachusetts

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Apparently being soaked by rain evokes the same emotion as narrowly making a train (see previous expression).

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