Anchorage: Glaciers, reindeer, and hiking at midnight. The best and worst of our three month stay in Alaska.

Time to move on! Our stay, once stretching out before us as three whole long months of opportunity has flown into and through us, settling somewhere in our minds as disjointed memories of camping trips, grueling hikes, road-trips, and syrupy beverages from countless colorful coffee shacks between Homer and Denali.

I often get time shock at the end of our stays looking at how quickly the time has gone. It's not because we've run out of time and missed out on doing what we planned. It's because we do so much and the time flies. I'm ready to go. The days are already getting shorter. It's raining a lot. We kayaked and dog sledded and took a ride on the Alaskan railroad. We saw waterfalls, glaciers, and moose. We saw a whale in Seward, drove as far south as Homer on the Kenai Peninsula and as far north as Denali National Park. We biked the Tony Knowles Trail and scrambled over loose scree to O'Malley Peak. We hiked to a remote lake and canoed in the rain. There is a lifetime of exploration here, but I'm

Charleston: Sunrises and sunsets, hiking with alligators, and kayaking with dolphins

Charleston has been a beautiful place to live for three months! Our goal in coming here was to enjoy the beach in the off season and spend some time in Charleston's historic downtown. Goal accomplished! We were able to live a block from the ocean, spend quite a bit of time downtown, and find some other added bonuses in the between time. Here are some of the highlights:

Water sports and wildlife

Unlike much of the west coast and northeast where a well defined shore separates the ocean and land. The ocean around Charleston seeps and flows into and around the area creating all types of rivers, tidal creeks, marshes, inlets, black-water swamps, and harbors. Most of the driving in the area is done on bridges and elevated roads. This allows for many ways to enjoy and explore on the water, and beautiful views of the surrounding area.

We bought a second kayak and explored the harbor during low tide. We dragged our yaks down the trail at Palmetto County Park to explore the tidal creeks along the inter-coastal waterway. The amount of diverse birds we saw from storks and egrets to snipes, willets, sanderlings, and oystercatchers was stunning. The dolphins and alligators are

Denver: Final post and rating

Anyone who has talked to us recently knows Denver has been our favorite city. But I've had trouble explaining why. Denver is so much more than the 16th Street Mall. More than beer, marijuana, and the Rocky Mountains. It's kind of like dating where it sometimes takes getting to know someone to really appreciate what you've found.

Conveying everything we've found and learned to like about Denver is too overwhelming . It amounts to hundreds of small high-quality realizations instead of a small number of sensational experiences. Even though it's great to visit, Denver is the kind of place that's even better to live in.

After living in each city, we've been giving it a personal rating to track our opinions and decide where we want to settle. Read this if you're unfamiliar with our ratings. Previous city ratings: Philadelphia, Chicago, Dallas, Fresno.

Denver

Culture: 8

Union Station

Denver has a vibrant art scene on par with much bigger cities. There are multiple art districts. Each district with its own character and collection of small working studios. The largest, Santa Fe Arts District has 100+ galleries.

The music scene is equally dense with more concerts and music venues than Austin. It wasn't uncommon to skip a great concert because there were so many other things going on. Red Rocks gets the fame, but there are a number of other great outdoors venues.

Street markets, festivals, dog bars, cat cafes, costumed bike rides, coffee houses, book signings, comedy, theater, independent theaters, local

Denver: Home sweet home #5, bison on the loose, a redneck bus tour, and frisbee with the dead!

Third week in Denver and we're starting to get an idea of the city. Denver is similar to a scaled down Chicago in that all types of small, but vibrant, communities exist outside of the main downtown. We've done a lot of driving to decide where we want to spend time, but we keep learning about more areas. Then there are all the nearby cities-- Boulder, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins. All of Colorado's top 10 biggest cities are two hours away or less. Many are so close that it's hard to notice when Denver ends and another city begins.

Couple more notes to add to first impressions of Denver:

-- Austin, TX should keep the title "live music capital of the world" due to its public funding of artists and SXSW, but Denver actually has more music venues. Denver lacks the concentration of open-front bars and venues that makes places like Austin's 6th St so dramatic, but fans of live music won't be disappointed.

-- In California we experienced the spring transition months ago, but here we're back to winter. It isn't cold during the day, but a lot of the landscape is still brown and grey and many of the mountain attractions are still closed because of all the snow. Looking forward to full on spring!

-- I was disappointed with the limitation of the rail system until I found this map showing rail current projects. In a few years, the system will be much larger. It won't help while we're here this time, but it's good to have something to look forward to. The free 16th Street Mall Bus has been so successful they're adding more free downtown buses in a couple weeks. Need to go to the airport? Use one of the special bus stops downtown to take you there.

Some of what we've been up to:

Banjo Billy Tour! What better introduction to a new city than a Colorado style bus tour? From the bus's decorations and sound effects to the attractions and trivia, this tour was fun and helped us decide what we wanted to see more of. The bus showed us sites like Cheesman Park, Colorado Capital, Molly Brown House, Brown Palace, and the Botanic Gardens. Plus, it was on Groupon, so we got a good deal.



 
Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge: We only had an hour, so we went into the museum/welcome center and drove the safari-like roads and dirt paths through the refuge. We definitely plan on heading back to do some hiking. Four or five bison were feeling itchy during our visit and decided to leave the fields to scratch themselves on road signs so we got quite the close-up.


Ghosts at Cheesman Park: Every city we've lived in has spun their data to create a park brag of some type. Denver brags about having the most parks within city limits. With over 200 parks, most Denver residents are close to a good park. Many of these parks have one or two lakes and

Until later, California! Good riddance, Fresno! Final evaluation...

San Francisco from Marin Headlands

Big Sur

California has been amazing! We did and saw so much, but it feels as if we only got a small taste of a much bigger meal. We saw California's deserts, sequoia forests, redwoods, vineyards, mountains, beaches, and rocky coasts. We did everything on our list from a lengthy road trip down Route 1 to a quick stop in Napa Valley for a wine tasting. We spent multiple weekends in San Francisco and got to see San Diego, L.A., Oakland, Alameda, Sausalito, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, Big Sur, Monterey, Visalia, Exeter, Yosemite, and the Sequoia National Park. We bought bikes to participate in California's bike-friendly culture. We ate California produce like it was a limited time offer and downed quite a variety of craft beers. We saw harbor seals, sea lions, dolphins, coyotes, vultures, and elephant seals.

We did a lot, but I'd definitely like to go back for some longer backpacking trips or even long-term living in San Diego.

A big part of why we're traveling is to experience different cities/regions and eventually decide where we want to live permanently, so after living in each city, we've been giving it a personal rating.  Here is how our evaluations work. Here are previous city ratings: Philadelphia, Chicago, Dallas.

Fresno Skyline -- Brian Zera

Fresno is the first city to fail our evaluation. With its poor economy, gangs, valley girls, sprawl, and smog, Fresno is great because of all the nearby things that got us out of Fresno; but we never want to live here.

Fresno has its interesting subcultures and attractions. I wrote about some of my favorites in previous

Los Angeles: Poo!

It's interesting how stereotypes and bits of information about places find their way into the minds of people who have never been to these places. Growing up on the East Coast, I was always interested in San Francisco. It wasn't that I really knew anything about the city, it was the icons (Golden Gate Bridge, steep streets, cable cars) and reputation (open-minded, progressive, tech communities) that made it seem special.


Los Angeles has similarly strong, yet simple, stereotypes and icons attached to it. Before visiting, my mental file included: movie industry, second largest city in the country, superficiality, beaches, gangs, happening nightlife, pollution, skid row, and traffic. Most of these aren't favorable, but we'd heard negative things about Chicago before living there and we really liked it.  Maybe Los Angeles is just as misrepresented?

One day itinerary for Los Angeles:

Griffith Observatory

Hollywood

Getty Center

Beverly Hills (drive through)

Venice Beach

Santa Monica

We planned our visit to avoid traffic and see as many attractions as possible before heading out in the evening for San Diego. As far as seeing a lot in a small amount of time in a city that's known for its car culture and traffic, our plans worked great.

First stop: Griffith Observatory.

It was right off the highway in our southward direction of travel and I'd read that it offers great views of the city and Hollywood sign. I'd first heard of the park when Kevin Bacon told a funny story about it on Conan; apparently Bacon lives nearby.

Griffith Observatory was indeed a beautiful building with expansive views, a planetarium, and interesting exhibits. The smog that filled the air didn't help the view of downtown, but there were plenty of photo
 opportunities with the The Sign. Still not

Fresno: Rogue Festival, Shinzen Garden, local beer, and we're outta here!

Since we've spent a lot of our time in California weekend tripping to nearby other cities, I've only done one other post on Fresno. My opinion of the city has improved after seeing specific attractions and experiencing some of Fresno's subcultures, but [Spoiler alert] we still never want to live here. I'll share why, along with our final evaluation of the city next week. Meanwhile, here are some of the better things about Fresno.

Rogue Festival: Having never been to anything similar, we didn't know what to expect from this "fringe festival".=, but it was a riot! Each performer charges $5-$10 and there are a wide variety of acts to choose from: a mock self-help seminar; one-man plays; spoken word; two women fighting like hens; interpretive dance; and a woman standing on a cooler with a dustbuster, eating skittles before rubbing herself with raw steak.

Doesn't quite sound like your style? Lighten up and have some fun seeing something you haven't seen before! Every person living in Fresno should at least check out the teaser showcase that opens the festival. Artists already come from all over to perform, but the more support this festival gets from locals, the more interesting it will be. With a festival like Burning Man selling all of its 38,000 tickets in 45 minutes this year, similar fringe events, like the Rogue Festival, have a lot of potential.

Favorite Rogue Fest moment: Jason (The Voice) Bessard's poetry at the competitive slam. His poetic comparison between Fresno as it could be, and what it is, earned an immediate standing ovation. Not the kind of ovation where a few people stand and everyone else is guilted along; the genuine kind where an entire audience leaps to their feet unprompted.

Shinzen Japanese Garden: One of Lindsay's co-workers saw one of our pictures from this garden on Facebook and (because all our Cali pictures are in the same album) assumed it was a garden in San Diego. Nope! Fresnoians, you have a Japanese Garden worth bragging about! Not that comparisons matter, but I felt Shinzen is better than Chicago's Osaka Garden. Shinzen has four areas themed around each season with water pulled from adjacent Woodward Lake peacefully babbling in streams and down falls. $3 is more than worth the price.

Fresno Hang-Outs: Since returned to the Tower Dsitrict location and visited their other location in downtown Fresno. Teazer Tea Market is definitely worth a visit! With Starbucks quickly deteriorating into an overcrowded fast-food restaurant, most tea cafes still offer the environment Starbucks once provided:  a place to easily find a seat and work or relax. Teazer competes in environment and quality with big name cafes like Argo and Starbuck's Teavana. Not sure if it's as good as Billy Corgan's teahouse north of Chicago, since we never made it, but this is one of the best hang-outs in Fresno.

Every decent city needs a micro-brewery. It's debatable if Fresno is a decent city, but Tioga Sequoa is a great brewery. We recently went on a quest throughout Fresno to find Tioga's temporary release of Rush Hour-- a breakfast stout.  Oddly, their parent brewery, Sequoia Brewing didn't have it and

San Diego: Wow!

We don't have much longer in California, so we've been taking advantage of each free day. During the last month we've visited and re-visted a number of California's cities and national parks. I'll do some catch-up posts on each trip before we head out.

Last weekend we went went to San Diego for the first time and were very impressed! Their slogan should be "San Diego: Wow!". The city was immaculately clean without being corporate. It felt safe even without heavy patrols and cameras. We found so many great restaurants, hangouts, and parks without even trying. And, traffic, despite spring break, was completely tolerable. It's hard to accurately judge a city from one weekend, but research proved that San Diego really is one of the safest, most-liked cities in the country. The major complaint from residents besides cost of living is....wait for it.... potholes! I can deal with potholes.

We started the weekend with an early morning kayak cave tour at La Jolla. La Jolla is a few minutes drive north of the city and home to a nice mix of cliffs and beaches, shopping and outdoor activities,  art and wildlife. The bay has been made into a protected underwater park with man-made reefs for animals, divers and snorklers. Instead of tacky stores, the waterfront is left to parks and trails.  The San Diego's Museum of Conteemporary Art is in La Jolla (with a satellite location downtown). Hoards of sea lions dot the cliffs.

Despite jokes about conflict and marital counseling, we decided to share a kayak. We watched nervously as couples capsized in the surf and were flipped by big ocean waves, but team Barnett held strong! We had a great time and managed to coordinate our paddling. Marriage was saved!

For lunch we headed to the less touristy North Park area. If you see a large cluster of vegetarian restaurants on a map, it usually means that area is pretty cool. This is how we stumbled upon North Park. Definitely worth checking out if you want to get away from the artifice of Old Town or the bustle of the Gas Lamp District. North Park is home to interesting shops, cafes and restaurants mixed with gyms and local hardware stores.

Fresno: Underground gardens and Time Cop III. Things to do if you find yourself in Fresno, CA

The top reason for living in Fresno seems to be the many things there are nearby to get someone out of Fresno. Talk to the locals about things to do here and they'll talk about Yosemite, wine country, and the coast. Ask about things to do in this city of half a million people and the answers are most often laced with negative. If something is suggested, it's most often the large generic shopping areas that cover mile after mile along the newly developed northern part of the city.

In Fresno's defense, it lacks a metro area. It took me some time to realize why a city this size could have so few options of interest. Other cities have suburbs that double and triple the size of the city. These larger populations add to the culture, economy, and chance for interesting sub-cultures. Fresno is surrounded by agriculture. The sparsely populated Sierras block visitors from the east, and to the west are coastal cities: San Fransisco, Oakland, LA. If you're looking for a fun time and live between Fresno and San Francisco-- which way are you going to drive?

Of course, Fresno's problems aren't this simple. Other cities across the country fight decentralized sprawl, loss of personality to incoming chains, and competition with other neighboring cities. I don't know enough to explain why so many Fresnoians seem happier packing into shopping malls and Starbucks while abandoning the more interesting districts; but it's definitely the norm.

But enough Fresno trashing! There is enough of that from the locals and elsewhere on-line. Here are some of the fun things we've found to do that we haven't seen elsewhere in our travels. These are things Fresno can be proud of.

Valley Animal Center: We've been to public and private dog parks across the country and, though I'm sure they exist, haven't seen anything this developed. This no-kill shelter with discounted care and immunizations offers this huge play park with multiple areas including a pool and agility course. Bailey loves playing here and the brief temperment test all dogs must pass adds to our comfort as owners.

Lindsay riding a Harley

OH WOW! Nickel Arcade: Unlike the penny arcade at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, the games at OH WOW! aren't quite antiques. For someone my age this means nostalgia galore. All versions of Time Cop, driving games, pinball machines, and 8-player X-men. At 5 cents a game, anyone can fulfill their childhood dream of playing Time Cop or X-men all the way through. It does get crowded with kids and there can be a wait for certain games, but it's open late-- go on a school night. Do note: If there are small kids around, save jokes about upside-down "OH WOW!" entry bracelets for later.

Mia Cuppa Cafe': Heralded as the city's main cultural area of interest, the Tower district has been a disappointment. Picture Philadelphia's South Street or Chicago's Logan Square at one thirtieth scale. The district still has some of the best in Fresno, though, and Mia Cuppa's is one of them. The wood booths in one of the four seating areas in this large cafe are a great place to cozy away for writing or conversation. Other Tower District shops worth checking out

Chicago: Downtown kayaking, Chinatown, Bill Burr, Doug Stanhope, Field Museum, and more!

One more month in Chicago! Having stayed longer than planned and with cold weather rolling in, we're ready for what's next. At least two more posts on Chicago including one on what I didn't like about the city, and we'll be somewhere else.

Once again, here is what we've been doing recently for anyone who plans to visit the city, or is interested in what we're up to: 

 

Lincoln Park and Lincoln Park Zoo: While Millennium Park by the loop is more concentrated and filled with museums, art, and events; Lincoln Park with its larger area, trails, and lawns, feels more like Philly's Fairmont or many areas of NY's Central Park. This is the first zoo I've been to where the animals didn't seem depressed and miserable. The zoo is entirely free so it's just a matter of walking in from the other beautifully landscaped areas of the park. If you visit the zoo, be sure to leave the gates to the south for great views of the skyline from the south pond.

 

Field Museum: Museums like this become less worth my time as I get older. They're great for kids and field trips, but if I could learn more browsing the topic online, I'll pass. Glad we went once, but wouldn't recommend if you're short on time. Other museums like the Museum of Science and Industry, the Art Institute, and the Planetarium are nearby.

Downtown Kayaking: One of my favorite events so far! If you're in Chicago during warm weather and are somewhat active, the views of the buildings are stunning from the river. Paddling out of the way of large tour boats is less

Chicago: Segways, vegan pizza, Radiohead, and scary movies in old theaters

 

It's the first day of fall, but Chicago has been winding down for a couple weeks as temperatures cool, school starts, and the lowering sun is more likely to be blocked by the towers around us. The picture above was taken from Hyde Park on a particularly cold and windy day. It had to be taken with care between waves of spray and mist that threatened to obstruct the view and soak the camera and us.

Here is more of what we've been up to:
   

 

Hyde Park Segway Tour: I've always viewed Segways as a failed invention mainly because of the hype that accompanied their release. Bikes are greener. Segways are often ridden by overweight tourists. At the same time, I always wanted to try one out. Not a convert now, but this Hyde Park Tour from Bike and Roll was definitely worth the price (and shame). We saw so a number of things in a short amount of time and the reduced travel and ease of use meant more time at each stop. They were fun to ride. A couple of the places we stopped are shown below.

Rockefeller Memorial Chapel: One of Chicago's many beautiful cathedral/chapels. Located on the University of Chicago campus, it is unaffiliated with any any specific cult, remaining a place for anyone to come to meditate or pray.

Osaka Garden: This was another part of the Hyde Park Tour. Free, well maintained, strolling Japanese Garden that was originally built for the World's Fair of 1893. This part of Jackson Park was vandalized during WWII and had to be rebuilt. Rockefeller Chapel's outdoor counterpart for peaceful meditation.

Seriously Dubai?

I posted earlier this year about NY's plans for a huge ferris wheel that would be the biggest in the world surpassing both Dallas's and London's. Apparently those oil sheiks in Dubai read the news as well since this happened: Dubai proposes Ferris wheel taller than planned Staten Island wheel; would be completed before NYC attraction.

That's cool and all Dubai, but it would be cooler if you stuck to creating new attractions instead of one-upping others. Whenever we get around to visiting Dubai, I'll want to visit Burj Khalifa, maybe the indoor skiing, but I've never been interest in the biggest or highest just for the sake of bragging rights. A ferris wheel on Coney Island sounds a lot more pleasurable to me than a wheel in Dubai, no matter how high it is.

Chicago: Blue men and music, street performers, and Miller Beer Tour

We've been in Chicago a while now and I've only made a few posts, but it isn't because we aren't getting out and keeping busy! It's because we spend a lot of time just picking an area to walk to or eat in. We did a lot of the touristy stuff in the first couple weeks and are now just enjoying our surroundings. Here  are some of the more "eventful" things we've found to do in the past few weeks.

Blue Man Group: Despite seeing ads for years in multiple cities and hearing about performances from others, we'd never been! Didn't disappoint! Sold-out crowd on a weekday night. Half price tickets often available on hottix.org for anyone in the city who wants to go.

Wicker Park

Neighborhoods:  We've recently made brief trips to Old Town, Wicker Park, Logan Square, Lakeview, Italian Village, and Hyde Park. Chicago is a city of neighborhoods to the extent that it gets confusing. Some of these neighborhoods have a stronger personality and sense of community while others were created for tourism. If we decided to live in Chicago, it would be in one of these neighborhoods, outside of

Chicago: Transit maps

I have an image folder in my phone for transit maps of the cities we've lived in and visited. It's handy for return visits, but I mainly keep the folder for the memories. Looking over a transit map during a moment of downtime, I'm reminded of the city's layout, which lines we traveled on to what stops, and what happened  there.


Public transit maps say a lot about a city, not only by what they show, but by what they exclude to simplify the city for tourists and travelers. There is a great post on this here: The World's Best Designed Metro Maps.



One of the maps I use in Chicago, now:

CTA Mario 3 style!

Chicago: Towering views, lively fountains, beaches for dogs, and boat-shaped restaurants

We've officially explored outward in all directions from our apartment. We have yet to make it to areas further north like Wicker Park and Lincoln Park. We still haven't made it to the ethnic neighborhoods that we want to see like Chinatown, Little Italy, or Greek Town, but we still have time! Here is what we've been able to do recently.

Buckingham Fountain (above): This huge fountain is not only impressively large, it's also refreshing on hot, windy days. You can see in the picture that the wind is blowing the water to the right. We were able to ride the bikes through the mist after miles of biking for a much needed refresher.

 

Willis Tower (FKA Sears Tower): I can't say I ever want to do this again. The lines to get into the tower were around the block (go early!) and the skydeck itself was crowded and disorganized, but I'm glad we did it once. The glass cubes in the picture were added in 2009. Despite One World Trade Center surpassing Willis in pinnacle height, Willis still has the highest top floor, so this is one of the highest urban views you can

Day Trip: Peoria

With Peoria only a few hours away, and Robert Ingersoll being one of my favorite dead people, I couldn't resist making a pilgrimage to see one of the last remaining monuments to his memory (the other being his tombstone in VA). Take a look at some excerpts from his writing if you aren't familiar with "The Great Agnostic".

The statue was made in 1911 in Italy and shipped to Illinois. More on the statue here.

Having never been on a pilgrimage, I don't regret going, but it was humbling at the same time. Seeing the statue in person was less inspiring than seeing a photo of it. It's in tired neighborhood in the middle of

Chicago: Big Nachos, Big Pizza, Navy Pier, and the Blackhawks!

 

Having only visited cities like Chicago and New York, living directly downtown for the past couple of weeks has been impressive and overwhelming. It's easy to lump big cities together for simplicity, but looking at the numbers, Philadelphia (5th biggest) has 1.5 million people, Chicago (3rd) has 2.7 million and NY (1st) has 8.3 million. That's quite a big difference!

We've spent a lot of time taking walks, scoping out nearby options, and visiting many of the typical tourist sites like the Cloud Gate, Chicago River, Water Tower, and Buckingham Fountain. Here is some of what we've been able to do the last couple weeks.

Navy Pier: This wasn't high on our list of places to visit, it kind of just happened. We were walking back from seeing World War Z and decided to stop for gelato and a quick Ferris Wheel ride. $6 for a rotation, totally worth it.

Wrigleyville/Boystown: In case it isn't obvious enough, Boystown is Chicago's version of a gayborhood. Located right by Wrigleyville and home of the Cubs. A nice day trip for fun shopping and

Dallas: Manatee Eating Lettuce, Modern Art, and Bull Riding

I'm still planning a few posts involving Dallas, but this will be the last about what we've been doing. We're about to pack up, take a quick vacation, and move to our next city! I could stay here longer. Much of Dallas is like a good poem. I could enjoy many of its parks and environments regularly and still want to return to them. This doesn't mean I want to live here forever though, just that I don't feel entirely ready to go. Here are some things we've done recently.

Luche Libre Wrestling (above): Cinco De Mayo festival! We were enticed by one of the biggest festivals at nearby city hall. It had everything from big name performers like Nelly to Luche Libre Wrestling. The event was entirely free and was tied to the immigration march of thousands of people through downtown. Si Se Puede!

 

Arboretum and Botanical Garden: A short drive or bus ride from the downtown area, the arboretum was a beautiful experience. If you're not particularly into intentionally sculpted landscapes or interested in the labeled trees and flowers, I'd recommend exploring White Rock Lake first. Walking around the lake is just as beautiful in many ways as the garden. Avoid $10 parking by walking from the nearby lake parking or taking a bus.

Crow Collection of Asian Art: Right next to the Dallas Art Museum and just as free. If I had known how small it was, I would have stopped in much sooner, but I kept putting it off because of time I thought I'd need. Now I want to go back and we're out of time! A Tantric art exhibit grabbed my attention as it related to a book I'd just finished. Interesting exhibit for people of all maturity levels as it can be viewed spiritually/abstractly, carnally, or both.

 

World Aquarium: This "Aquarium" has everything from ant-eaters and monkeys to snakes and panthers. Instead of a bunch of tanks or even just a bunch of really big tanks, multi-level green