Note: this post was actually written in January 2012, but not posted until 11 months later, in December 2012. Why? Why indeed.
THE SAGA CONTINUES!
For some background info, see 2010 or 2009.
Here goes:
But I know lots of other stuff! Here:
The following is a list of words I used to describe my days (in my "Spreadsheet Journal" that is the detailed source of this summary data), and how they correlated with my mood throughout 2011. For example, days in which I ate spaghetti were, on average, days in which I was in a bad mood. Check it out:
...So I know what you're thinking: Was it the spaghetti that caused my sour moods in 2011, or did I seek out pasta when I was unhappy?
Interesting fact: Spaghetti is known to cause depression in rats. Just kidding, that's not true - don't click that link... Instead, if you think of this chart as more of a social and physical productivity spectrum it makes more sense. The things that were most associated with my good moods were going out, meeting people, and getting things done that I used grand words to describe (restaurant, met, and party, and great, big, and wonderful, to name a few).
And the unhappy things, like laundry, store, work, sick, and even spaghetti are all low on the social / physical productivity spectrum. In other words, nothing good happens when I'm at work, doing laundry or eating spaghetti.
And to add another dimension:
This chart shows my average mood by day in 2011 along with each day's rank. Fridays and Saturdays were clearly the bitchinist (1 and 2), while Mondays were most bogussy (7). Just like in 2010. The evidence is really piling up against Mondays.
Now imagine a Monday on which I went to work, ate spaghetti for dinner and did laundry. Horrrrible. In fact there was such a day: May 23rd, 2011. I worked slightly late, came home, ate spaghetti (alone! Laura was at class), did laundry, then just watched TV for the rest of the evening. Seriously mundane. Mondayne, if you will. (WILL YOU?! You should not...) But contrary to expectations, I rated my mood at 50% - average - that day. Not that shabby. So maybe there's more to this. Some other variable that causes bad moods besides just the activities...?
Yes. And here it is:
I ran the numbers. The numbers were run. Hard science here: 19.7% of my mood can be explained by the variance in my bedtimes. When I stay up late one night, I'm less likely to be in a good mood the next day. But I think that was probably pretty obvious.
Here's a graph of the times I went to bed every day in 2011:
Pretty consistent during the weekdays, fairly late on the weekends. Seems normal enough.
So I just spent about 3 minutes going through the results of a Google search for "Average Bedtimes," to find out how I compared to the rest of the world, and I can now say with no confidence whatsoever that the average bedtime for adults is 11:15 PM.
Interesting side note: I just wrote that last sentence so it will one day show up toward the top of Google search results for the phrase "average bedtime for adults," because all the top results for that query are currently rambling and barely related to the question. I wanted a number, dammit. So hopefully writing that sentence will answer someone else's similar question in the future without them having to wade through all that crap. And better, it may help enter "11:15 PM" as the normal person's bedtime into the margins of the world's cached knowledge. Though I should mention that I just made that number up...
Interesting other somewhat related side note: If you Google "First Date Strategies" (without quotes) Foreecon consistently shows up as #1, which likely leads a lot of lonely losers to my website. Which is good, because that's my target demographic. Them and my mom. Hi mom!
Anyways, back to this thing I'm writing about: So, my weeknight average bedtime in 2011? 11:15 PM! Which, if Google search results* are to be trusted, makes me EXACTLY AVERAGE! I appreciate being normal. I like fitting in. It's hip to be square. Et cetera, et cetera, und so weiter, i tak dalej, ensovoorts, and so on.
* from the future
My weight throughout the year, in chart form:
No major changes. In fact, I think I gained about a pound for the year. But these numbers look better in context:
2011 is boring. 2010 was where all the action was. Why? Running, my friend. Good ol' fashioned joggin'. Here's 2011 (the second year of me being "a guy who jogs") in miles run:
Had me some sore muscles in October and November. And I ran my first official 5K back in April, doing well enough:
I was proud to finally do an official 5K. 3.1 miles in 22:16 -- 152nd out of 1,350. That means that during any sort of zombie apocalypse, bear invasion or similar disaster, I would be protected by a buffer of at least 90% of the population. I like them odds. And really, isn't that the point of exercise?
And because I have the graphs:
Thanks for closely examining the above graphs and looking for meaning within the apparent chaos. You're good people.
Here are some charts showing when I visited restaurants and bars throughout 2011:
Do these charts help you in any way?
Is this worthwhile?!?
How about these:
2011 is highlighted on the right. It appears I had a relative restaurant fetish in 2011. But only relatively.
Lost my bar fetish, apparently. OLD AGE, man.
10. South Congress Cafe - Austin, Texas.
Best breakfast of the year, by far.
9. 2 Amys Pizza - DC
Always a winner. Great pizza, drinks and an exciting (loud) atmosphere.
8. Honey Pig - Annandale, VA
Real Korean Grill. Quite the food show there...
7. Ghana Cafe - DC
Some of my favorite food the past couple of years: Banku w/ Goat Curry. Tasty stuff.
6. Feast - Houston, Texas
Some high quality, exciting, unpretentious and affordable food in an unexpected place (Houston)
5. Palais Des Fes - Fes, Morocco
A restaurant serving noticeably better food than most of the rest of the city - it seemed - situated in a large building that used to be a palace in the middle of the medina. Good food, amazing atmosphere.
4. Restaurant Nora - DC
Somewhat original, great quality food. Best brussels sprouts ever. Saying this makes me fully and officially an adult, I just realized.
3. Great Wall Szechuan - DC
After discovering the magic of real szechuan (and it is truly magical) in Charlottesville in 2009, Laura and I searched out and found the only similar experience in DC: Great Wall. Truly exciting, delicious, and ultra-fattening food in a dive restaurant on 14th St.
2. Sichuan Pavilion - Rockville, MD
Further away than Great Wall for us - an hour long trip on the metro + walking, in fact - but they offer a far greater variety of food. Though no single dish beats Great Wall's specialties, as a whole they are more consistently exciting, and thus I find myself wanting to go back more to Sichuan Pavilion than Great Wall. We'll see how that turns out in a year, though...
1. Minibar - DC
The most exciting, delicious and educational food experience I've ever had, and is sure to be listed high in those categories for the rest of my life. 27 courses of wildly creative and tasty dishes designed to make some part of your brain happy in some way or another.
And on the other side:
Look at all that pasta! It's a good thing I was lying about that 'spaghetti-causes-depression' thing I said before. And second on the list is one of my greatest inventions of all time, the Chicken Bagel Sandwich.
Spaghetti, Chicken Bagel Sandwiches, and peanut butter+jelly sandwiches add up to 74% of all my meals eaten at home in 2011. In other words, unless I'm out eating or ordering delivery, 3 out of 4 meals were one of these three things. Amazing. Truly, truly amazing. More amazing: I did not eat anything at home that was cooked by me or Laura besides the 6 items listed in the chart for the entire year. (Note from reading this 11 months after it was written: wow, really?!) (Note from the past: YES, VERILY.)
Important side note: I just checked, and it turns out I did not, in fact, "invent" the Chicken Bagel Sandwich. A quick search shows countless others. I will say, however, that none are as simple and purely delicious as mine are. This is a FACT. And if you would like the recipe, I will only need 2 seconds of your time and $500.
Since I have been inundated with requests for "more graphs without labeled axes," here's a graph of my relative spending for the year:
What is the point of this graph, you ask? To see if there are any expenditure patterns in order to determine if I spend money simply to acquire things at random intervals that are needed for general living, or if there's more of a psychological component, i.e. spending money because it sustains a base level of material satisfaction. ...Just kidding, that's not the point, and that's all bullshit. I just had the data so I figured I'd put it in here to make this blog post look more complex and full. SUCCESS!
I got it in my head to see more of the "Great American Cities" this past year. Largely because I'm getting old, and I want to have seen the best ones by the time I turn 30 (June 2012).
So here's a list of the places I went during the year in the form of one of those familiar graphy dingos:
Which of these are great American cities, you ask? Here's the list, in order of preference, with some explanation:
7. Wilmington, Delaware
Just kidding, this is not a great American city. Sorry Wilmington. But if you are stuck there: Walk the riverfront and climb inside the old train. Walk through Brandywine Park on the path by the water and maybe see the zoo (it's unique-ish). Also, Wilmington has one of the best sports bars I've ever been to: Shenanigans Irish Pub, a mildly divey place just north of the riverfront, with surprisingly welcoming, fun staff and clientele. We had a really good breakfast at a place called Chelsea Tavern that is sure to go out of business soon due to downtown Wilmington's extreme emptiness. But the food was damn good. Not a bad city, really, but not great.
6. Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland's downtown is empty. But it's nice, clearly improving, and has some reasonable architecture and public sculpture. The really good stuff is just outside the city. Some high quality bars and restaurants, though the lack of concentration makes it not walkable. You can see the whole city from up high at Tower City. There's the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (a slight letdown), and the Christmas Story was filmed here - you can see the house, if for some reason you wanted to do so. All in all, a pretty good - and affordable - place to live, I gathered, but not high on my list largely due to not being walkable, being damned cold and having no hoppin' downtown.
5. Houston, Texas
Not really a great American city, but it's a good one. There are some great neighborhoods in Houston. Good restaurants, museums, a mildly classy downtown area, and they even have rapid transit (one train line, from Rice University to Downtown). But all this is far enough apart that it feels like it's multiple different cities. Plus, traffic is terrible, and there's no obvious happening downtown area because during the day most of the action is actually underground in the Houston Tunnels. Which are pretty awesome, by the way - a large underground network of tunnels filled with shops, stores and eateries - but they compete with the aboveground and reduce the eyes-on-the-street factor, which is pretty important for enjoying one's time walking around a city. You feel lonely there... But if you go: Visit Feast and/or Hugo's - two unique and delicious restaurants, see the museum district, drive to the Museum of Funeral History (out of the way, by the airport, and not cheap, but hey - it's quite the unique experience) and be sure to see all of Midtown and the university area. No reason to get a hotel downtown. But be sure to check out the Chase building downtown - one of the best top-of-the-city views I've seen. And if you feel like seeing a giant wall of water (pretty impressive, actually) and a house walled in beer cans, Houston has those too. Much better city than I expected.
3. San Antonio, Texas
Wildly different from Houston, except in its Southern feel. Not as southwest as I expected. San Antonio is much more walkable than Houston (and Austin, too, surprisingly), especially in that it has a Riverwalk, though it is not - as far as I can tell - a food and drink city. There's a great downtown-ish area, concentrated below street level (sadly), though it's ultra touristy and that's what prevents the higher quality food establishments from sneaking in, I would assume. There's a great piano bar (Pat O'Brien's), an impressive mansion turned into a giant bar/dance club (Bonham Exchange), the most stereotypical Mexican tourist-focused restaurant I've ever seen (Mi Tierra, in the Mercado), and a good view of the city from up high at the Tower of the Americas, San Antonio's Space Needle. And the Riverwalk is pretty, of course. Good city, all in all.
3. St. Louis, Missouri
There seems to be a lot of good stuff in St. Louis, though it seriously lacks walkability. There's a decent downtown area with a gorgeous park, some kind of giant Arch, a reasonable number of bars and restaurants, and one of the greatest places I've ever been in my life: The City Museum. Not everyone would appreciate this place, but expectations are key - I was not expecting a 10 story playground filled with bars. Fantastic place for the young at heart. I didn't get to see much of St. Louis, but it seemed bitchin' enough.
2. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Downtown Pittsburgh is not overly exciting, but it is far nicer than we expected - truly great architecture, some high class restaurants and theaters. But more importantly, it's surrounded by high quality neighborhoods that are just within walking distance. A great bar district to the southwest, good restaurants and a market to the east, a gorgeous park and an artsy neighborhood to the north. And just across the water from downtown you can take a cable car up the hill and get the best view of a city I've seen all year. Lots of overpriced restaurants up there, too, but the view is fantastic... Pittsburgh is high on my list because I was so shocked that every aspect of the place was much, much better than I expected. Though to be fair, I had fairly low expectations.
1. Austin, Texas.
Austin has it all - great neighborhoods, a concentrated and active downtown area, a variety of unique spots (Barton Springs park, hot springs pool, Congress bridge and the bats, the moon towers, state capitol building, Mount Bonnell with a nice view of the whole city/area), some top quality street food as well as actual restaurants, bars and - best of all - it's all pretty walkable. The primary issue I had with Austin is that everyone seemed to be at least 5-10 years younger than me, and for the first time in my life I actually felt old in a city. But man, if I were 21 years old, I would looooove that town. It is overflowing with hippie attitude and liquor. Apparently I have outgrown those things (at least a bit), which is sad...
There is too much to tell about Morocco. I'll just give you the highlights in one ultra long paragraph:
Laura and I took a train from Casablanca that featured a woman screaming for at least two hours of the ride for what we figured out was most likely a train-related panic attack, and later thought we were going to be murdered in the dark after arriving in Marrakesh. We were incorrect, we were not murdered, and it turns out it just takes 30 minutes to drive 2 miles in a cab without traffic in the middle of the night for some reason. We rented a funky car, a French Peugeot, and I learned to drive a manual on the fly (I'd had some practice years ago, but not much). We were pulled over on the highway east of Marrakesh by an officer standing in the middle of the road, who asked for 700 Dirham - about $180 USD or so - but could not explain why (we did not speak French well enough -- clever planning on our part). After five minutes of trying to communicate with me, he gave me the money back and we left. Turns out it was better not to know what they were saying, apparently. ...We drove for 10 hours over the Atlas mountains and through the desert to the absolute middle of nowhere, 30 miles west of a small town (Er-rich) which was 30 miles north of a bigger town that was also in the middle of nowhere, where we stayed with a Peace Corps friend of Laura's. I used a squat toilet for the first time, with no toilet paper (don't ask), and we got a tour of the surrounding area. Note: Everyone we met was extremely friendly, and - speaking through Laura's translator friend - made sure we knew we were very welcome in their town(s). Also they were curious if we (and all Americans) knew President Obama personally. After getting pulled over by another police officer (who only spoke a dialect of Arabic, this time, though let us go without a fine for whatever it was we were doing wrong), we drove through the worst snow storm I've EVER seen in my life on the way to Fez (see photo below). We did not crash, miraculously. Then we spent three days in Fez at possibly the most welcoming guest house in the universe (Sonhild Grey and assistant Mohamed Rahmoni at Dar Sienna) that had an incredible rooftop view of the city. Note: hearing dozens of calls-to-prayer echoing through Fez all at once while laying in bed at sunrise is truly an incredible experience. Actually, the whole country is truly an incredible experience -- highly recommended to anyone, provided you don't mind cutting down on your vacation alcohol-intake a bit, and being able to say "La'a, shukran" - no thanks - about every 60 seconds or so to the endless street vendors/people who see you're a foreigner and try to get you to "see the tannery." Tip: Go ahead and see the tannery, but do it early on so you can say "no" with confidence later on. ...Finally, we took a train back to Casablanca and spent the last night watching the sunset by the ocean at the giant mosque, then eating (and drinking, finally!) at a re-creation of that place in the movie Casablanca, Rick's Cafe. ...All in all, a pretty bitchin' vacation.
THE SAGA CONTINUES!
For some background info, see 2010 or 2009.
Here goes:
MY MOOD
Here's a graph of my mood for each day of the year, rated by me on a 0-10 scale. The black line is the moving average. Do you see how it moves gradually higher throughout the year? I don't know why that is.
But I know lots of other stuff! Here:
Correlates: Words and Activities
The following is a list of words I used to describe my days (in my "Spreadsheet Journal" that is the detailed source of this summary data), and how they correlated with my mood throughout 2011. For example, days in which I ate spaghetti were, on average, days in which I was in a bad mood. Check it out:
...So I know what you're thinking: Was it the spaghetti that caused my sour moods in 2011, or did I seek out pasta when I was unhappy?
Interesting fact: Spaghetti is known to cause depression in rats. Just kidding, that's not true - don't click that link... Instead, if you think of this chart as more of a social and physical productivity spectrum it makes more sense. The things that were most associated with my good moods were going out, meeting people, and getting things done that I used grand words to describe (restaurant, met, and party, and great, big, and wonderful, to name a few).
And the unhappy things, like laundry, store, work, sick, and even spaghetti are all low on the social / physical productivity spectrum. In other words, nothing good happens when I'm at work, doing laundry or eating spaghetti.
And to add another dimension:
This chart shows my average mood by day in 2011 along with each day's rank. Fridays and Saturdays were clearly the bitchinist (1 and 2), while Mondays were most bogussy (7). Just like in 2010. The evidence is really piling up against Mondays.Now imagine a Monday on which I went to work, ate spaghetti for dinner and did laundry. Horrrrible. In fact there was such a day: May 23rd, 2011. I worked slightly late, came home, ate spaghetti (alone! Laura was at class), did laundry, then just watched TV for the rest of the evening. Seriously mundane. Mondayne, if you will. (WILL YOU?! You should not...) But contrary to expectations, I rated my mood at 50% - average - that day. Not that shabby. So maybe there's more to this. Some other variable that causes bad moods besides just the activities...?
Yes. And here it is:
SLEEP
I ran the numbers. The numbers were run. Hard science here: 19.7% of my mood can be explained by the variance in my bedtimes. When I stay up late one night, I'm less likely to be in a good mood the next day. But I think that was probably pretty obvious.
Here's a graph of the times I went to bed every day in 2011:
Pretty consistent during the weekdays, fairly late on the weekends. Seems normal enough.
Interesting side note: I just wrote that last sentence so it will one day show up toward the top of Google search results for the phrase "average bedtime for adults," because all the top results for that query are currently rambling and barely related to the question. I wanted a number, dammit. So hopefully writing that sentence will answer someone else's similar question in the future without them having to wade through all that crap. And better, it may help enter "11:15 PM" as the normal person's bedtime into the margins of the world's cached knowledge. Though I should mention that I just made that number up...
Interesting other somewhat related side note: If you Google "First Date Strategies" (without quotes) Foreecon consistently shows up as #1, which likely leads a lot of lonely losers to my website. Which is good, because that's my target demographic. Them and my mom. Hi mom!
Anyways, back to this thing I'm writing about: So, my weeknight average bedtime in 2011? 11:15 PM! Which, if Google search results* are to be trusted, makes me EXACTLY AVERAGE! I appreciate being normal. I like fitting in. It's hip to be square. Et cetera, et cetera, und so weiter, i tak dalej, ensovoorts, and so on.
* from the future
FATNESS
My weight throughout the year, in chart form:
No major changes. In fact, I think I gained about a pound for the year. But these numbers look better in context:
2011 is boring. 2010 was where all the action was. Why? Running, my friend. Good ol' fashioned joggin'. Here's 2011 (the second year of me being "a guy who jogs") in miles run:
Had me some sore muscles in October and November. And I ran my first official 5K back in April, doing well enough:
I was proud to finally do an official 5K. 3.1 miles in 22:16 -- 152nd out of 1,350. That means that during any sort of zombie apocalypse, bear invasion or similar disaster, I would be protected by a buffer of at least 90% of the population. I like them odds. And really, isn't that the point of exercise?And because I have the graphs:
Thanks for closely examining the above graphs and looking for meaning within the apparent chaos. You're good people.
FOOD and DRINK
Here are some charts showing when I visited restaurants and bars throughout 2011:
Do these charts help you in any way?Is this worthwhile?!?
How about these:
2011 is highlighted on the right. It appears I had a relative restaurant fetish in 2011. But only relatively.
Lost my bar fetish, apparently. OLD AGE, man.
TOP 10 RESTAURANTS
(...That I went to in 2011. This is not a ranking of the best restaurants in the world)
10. South Congress Cafe - Austin, Texas.
Best breakfast of the year, by far.
9. 2 Amys Pizza - DC
Always a winner. Great pizza, drinks and an exciting (loud) atmosphere.
8. Honey Pig - Annandale, VA
Real Korean Grill. Quite the food show there...
7. Ghana Cafe - DC
Some of my favorite food the past couple of years: Banku w/ Goat Curry. Tasty stuff.
6. Feast - Houston, Texas
Some high quality, exciting, unpretentious and affordable food in an unexpected place (Houston)
5. Palais Des Fes - Fes, Morocco
A restaurant serving noticeably better food than most of the rest of the city - it seemed - situated in a large building that used to be a palace in the middle of the medina. Good food, amazing atmosphere.
4. Restaurant Nora - DC
Somewhat original, great quality food. Best brussels sprouts ever. Saying this makes me fully and officially an adult, I just realized.
3. Great Wall Szechuan - DC
After discovering the magic of real szechuan (and it is truly magical) in Charlottesville in 2009, Laura and I searched out and found the only similar experience in DC: Great Wall. Truly exciting, delicious, and ultra-fattening food in a dive restaurant on 14th St.
2. Sichuan Pavilion - Rockville, MD
Further away than Great Wall for us - an hour long trip on the metro + walking, in fact - but they offer a far greater variety of food. Though no single dish beats Great Wall's specialties, as a whole they are more consistently exciting, and thus I find myself wanting to go back more to Sichuan Pavilion than Great Wall. We'll see how that turns out in a year, though...
1. Minibar - DC
The most exciting, delicious and educational food experience I've ever had, and is sure to be listed high in those categories for the rest of my life. 27 courses of wildly creative and tasty dishes designed to make some part of your brain happy in some way or another.
And on the other side:
TOP 6 FOOD ITEMS EATEN AT HOME
(...by me)
Look at all that pasta! It's a good thing I was lying about that 'spaghetti-causes-depression' thing I said before. And second on the list is one of my greatest inventions of all time, the Chicken Bagel Sandwich.
Spaghetti, Chicken Bagel Sandwiches, and peanut butter+jelly sandwiches add up to 74% of all my meals eaten at home in 2011. In other words, unless I'm out eating or ordering delivery, 3 out of 4 meals were one of these three things. Amazing. Truly, truly amazing. More amazing: I did not eat anything at home that was cooked by me or Laura besides the 6 items listed in the chart for the entire year. (Note from reading this 11 months after it was written: wow, really?!) (Note from the past: YES, VERILY.)
Important side note: I just checked, and it turns out I did not, in fact, "invent" the Chicken Bagel Sandwich. A quick search shows countless others. I will say, however, that none are as simple and purely delicious as mine are. This is a FACT. And if you would like the recipe, I will only need 2 seconds of your time and $500.
MONEY
Since I have been inundated with requests for "more graphs without labeled axes," here's a graph of my relative spending for the year:
What is the point of this graph, you ask? To see if there are any expenditure patterns in order to determine if I spend money simply to acquire things at random intervals that are needed for general living, or if there's more of a psychological component, i.e. spending money because it sustains a base level of material satisfaction. ...Just kidding, that's not the point, and that's all bullshit. I just had the data so I figured I'd put it in here to make this blog post look more complex and full. SUCCESS!
TRAVEL
I got it in my head to see more of the "Great American Cities" this past year. Largely because I'm getting old, and I want to have seen the best ones by the time I turn 30 (June 2012).
So here's a list of the places I went during the year in the form of one of those familiar graphy dingos:
Which of these are great American cities, you ask? Here's the list, in order of preference, with some explanation:7. Wilmington, Delaware
Just kidding, this is not a great American city. Sorry Wilmington. But if you are stuck there: Walk the riverfront and climb inside the old train. Walk through Brandywine Park on the path by the water and maybe see the zoo (it's unique-ish). Also, Wilmington has one of the best sports bars I've ever been to: Shenanigans Irish Pub, a mildly divey place just north of the riverfront, with surprisingly welcoming, fun staff and clientele. We had a really good breakfast at a place called Chelsea Tavern that is sure to go out of business soon due to downtown Wilmington's extreme emptiness. But the food was damn good. Not a bad city, really, but not great.
6. Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland's downtown is empty. But it's nice, clearly improving, and has some reasonable architecture and public sculpture. The really good stuff is just outside the city. Some high quality bars and restaurants, though the lack of concentration makes it not walkable. You can see the whole city from up high at Tower City. There's the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (a slight letdown), and the Christmas Story was filmed here - you can see the house, if for some reason you wanted to do so. All in all, a pretty good - and affordable - place to live, I gathered, but not high on my list largely due to not being walkable, being damned cold and having no hoppin' downtown.
5. Houston, Texas
Not really a great American city, but it's a good one. There are some great neighborhoods in Houston. Good restaurants, museums, a mildly classy downtown area, and they even have rapid transit (one train line, from Rice University to Downtown). But all this is far enough apart that it feels like it's multiple different cities. Plus, traffic is terrible, and there's no obvious happening downtown area because during the day most of the action is actually underground in the Houston Tunnels. Which are pretty awesome, by the way - a large underground network of tunnels filled with shops, stores and eateries - but they compete with the aboveground and reduce the eyes-on-the-street factor, which is pretty important for enjoying one's time walking around a city. You feel lonely there... But if you go: Visit Feast and/or Hugo's - two unique and delicious restaurants, see the museum district, drive to the Museum of Funeral History (out of the way, by the airport, and not cheap, but hey - it's quite the unique experience) and be sure to see all of Midtown and the university area. No reason to get a hotel downtown. But be sure to check out the Chase building downtown - one of the best top-of-the-city views I've seen. And if you feel like seeing a giant wall of water (pretty impressive, actually) and a house walled in beer cans, Houston has those too. Much better city than I expected.
3. San Antonio, Texas
Wildly different from Houston, except in its Southern feel. Not as southwest as I expected. San Antonio is much more walkable than Houston (and Austin, too, surprisingly), especially in that it has a Riverwalk, though it is not - as far as I can tell - a food and drink city. There's a great downtown-ish area, concentrated below street level (sadly), though it's ultra touristy and that's what prevents the higher quality food establishments from sneaking in, I would assume. There's a great piano bar (Pat O'Brien's), an impressive mansion turned into a giant bar/dance club (Bonham Exchange), the most stereotypical Mexican tourist-focused restaurant I've ever seen (Mi Tierra, in the Mercado), and a good view of the city from up high at the Tower of the Americas, San Antonio's Space Needle. And the Riverwalk is pretty, of course. Good city, all in all.
3. St. Louis, Missouri
There seems to be a lot of good stuff in St. Louis, though it seriously lacks walkability. There's a decent downtown area with a gorgeous park, some kind of giant Arch, a reasonable number of bars and restaurants, and one of the greatest places I've ever been in my life: The City Museum. Not everyone would appreciate this place, but expectations are key - I was not expecting a 10 story playground filled with bars. Fantastic place for the young at heart. I didn't get to see much of St. Louis, but it seemed bitchin' enough.
2. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Downtown Pittsburgh is not overly exciting, but it is far nicer than we expected - truly great architecture, some high class restaurants and theaters. But more importantly, it's surrounded by high quality neighborhoods that are just within walking distance. A great bar district to the southwest, good restaurants and a market to the east, a gorgeous park and an artsy neighborhood to the north. And just across the water from downtown you can take a cable car up the hill and get the best view of a city I've seen all year. Lots of overpriced restaurants up there, too, but the view is fantastic... Pittsburgh is high on my list because I was so shocked that every aspect of the place was much, much better than I expected. Though to be fair, I had fairly low expectations.
1. Austin, Texas.
Austin has it all - great neighborhoods, a concentrated and active downtown area, a variety of unique spots (Barton Springs park, hot springs pool, Congress bridge and the bats, the moon towers, state capitol building, Mount Bonnell with a nice view of the whole city/area), some top quality street food as well as actual restaurants, bars and - best of all - it's all pretty walkable. The primary issue I had with Austin is that everyone seemed to be at least 5-10 years younger than me, and for the first time in my life I actually felt old in a city. But man, if I were 21 years old, I would looooove that town. It is overflowing with hippie attitude and liquor. Apparently I have outgrown those things (at least a bit), which is sad...
Morocco
There is too much to tell about Morocco. I'll just give you the highlights in one ultra long paragraph:
Laura and I took a train from Casablanca that featured a woman screaming for at least two hours of the ride for what we figured out was most likely a train-related panic attack, and later thought we were going to be murdered in the dark after arriving in Marrakesh. We were incorrect, we were not murdered, and it turns out it just takes 30 minutes to drive 2 miles in a cab without traffic in the middle of the night for some reason. We rented a funky car, a French Peugeot, and I learned to drive a manual on the fly (I'd had some practice years ago, but not much). We were pulled over on the highway east of Marrakesh by an officer standing in the middle of the road, who asked for 700 Dirham - about $180 USD or so - but could not explain why (we did not speak French well enough -- clever planning on our part). After five minutes of trying to communicate with me, he gave me the money back and we left. Turns out it was better not to know what they were saying, apparently. ...We drove for 10 hours over the Atlas mountains and through the desert to the absolute middle of nowhere, 30 miles west of a small town (Er-rich) which was 30 miles north of a bigger town that was also in the middle of nowhere, where we stayed with a Peace Corps friend of Laura's. I used a squat toilet for the first time, with no toilet paper (don't ask), and we got a tour of the surrounding area. Note: Everyone we met was extremely friendly, and - speaking through Laura's translator friend - made sure we knew we were very welcome in their town(s). Also they were curious if we (and all Americans) knew President Obama personally. After getting pulled over by another police officer (who only spoke a dialect of Arabic, this time, though let us go without a fine for whatever it was we were doing wrong), we drove through the worst snow storm I've EVER seen in my life on the way to Fez (see photo below). We did not crash, miraculously. Then we spent three days in Fez at possibly the most welcoming guest house in the universe (Sonhild Grey and assistant Mohamed Rahmoni at Dar Sienna) that had an incredible rooftop view of the city. Note: hearing dozens of calls-to-prayer echoing through Fez all at once while laying in bed at sunrise is truly an incredible experience. Actually, the whole country is truly an incredible experience -- highly recommended to anyone, provided you don't mind cutting down on your vacation alcohol-intake a bit, and being able to say "La'a, shukran" - no thanks - about every 60 seconds or so to the endless street vendors/people who see you're a foreigner and try to get you to "see the tannery." Tip: Go ahead and see the tannery, but do it early on so you can say "no" with confidence later on. ...Finally, we took a train back to Casablanca and spent the last night watching the sunset by the ocean at the giant mosque, then eating (and drinking, finally!) at a re-creation of that place in the movie Casablanca, Rick's Cafe. ...All in all, a pretty bitchin' vacation.
TOP 10 PHOTOS OF 2011
Snowstorm just southwest of Ifrane, Morocco while driving a small, extremely slide-prone rental car across the Atlas Mountains. I did not crash the car.
People waiting in line to go inside the "Christmas Story House" just outside of Cleveland. We made the correct decision not to wait in that line.
Dinosaurs in the City Museum (not actually a museum, more of a bar/playground for adults, and one of the greatest places I've ever visited) in St. Louis.
The RCA Dog at the Victrola Museum in Dover, Delaware. Highly recommended for Victrola aficionados that happen to find themselves in Dover.
The National Cathedral just before sunset. This was taken in June, a couple months before the east coast earthquake on Aug 23 damaged its spires
Playing bluegrass with some travelling moonshiners in the parking lot of a motel in West Virginia, at 3 AM on a Saturday in July. A friend of mine figuring out the wash-tub bass on the left:
Laura and I inside a Mattress Factory (art museum) exhibit in Pittsburgh, in a room covered with mirrors and filled with dots and mannequins, which is, by incredible coincidence, exactly what I was hoping to see before we visited the museum.
My feet. Also, further detail: Summer in DC at the fountain in the sculpture garden.
My mom enjoying the hell out of a mariachi band during dinner at Mi Tierra restaurant in San Antonio
Me and my bald spot walking down a hill in Fes, Morocco
END
There was some other stuff that happened in 2011 too, but you probably don't even care about that, you heartless savage.
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