Best Stops

Now that the trip is over, the #1 question I’ve been asked is “what was your favorite stop??”… people really need to get more creative with their questions. Favorite for vacationing? For living? For eating? It’s not like there’s that one perfect place out there (actually there is, but we already live there!) And so, in response, I’m compiling this list… our best stops of the Great Road Trip of 2012… in no particular order.

Moab, Utah

This was a surprise favorite. I had never expected to visit Utah, nor had I ever heard of Moab (I actually pronounced it “mobe” until someone in Grand Junction corrected me… oops). I did all my normal Yelp tests and decided before we even arrived that it wasn’t even worth a stop— I believe I even cut down our time spent here by a day or two, so that we could get to SLC sooner. Once we arrived, we confirmed that the town itself is nothing to look at. Well, it’s something to look at— the backdrop is incredible… but once you’re done looking you’ll find only mediocre food, at best… very uninteresting tourist shops… and possibly some shaved ice, if you’re lucky.

The surprise came when we entered the nearby parks. Since everything is so sprawling out here, each park is actually over half an hour in a different direction, so we could really only do one per day (plan accordingly.. we didn’t). We arrived at Dead Horse Point first. I had no idea what to expect… we just drove and drove and drove through tall red rock structures until I finally noticed that we were on a ledge— and a mighty high one at that. We kept climbing and climbing, until we finally reached the picnic area/overlook. The feeling I got must have been what early explorers felt when they saw the Grand Canyon for the first time. It expanded in every direction, as far as the eye could see. The beautiful red color of the rocks perfectly contrasted the blue of the sky. Each point around the overlook was similar but totally different… I had to stop and stare at each one. I absolutely never knew anything could be so beautiful.

At this point, the two other parks (Canyonlands and Arches) were beautiful, but not as big of a shock. We did Canyonlands that same night and had to speed around to see the whole thing before sunset. The scenery was similar to Dead Horse but much more diverse.

Arches, as one would expect, was more about the vertical structures. To give you a sense of scale, that’s a hiking path at the bottom center of the photo…

Different rocks in all kinds of formations, scattered across the jagged horizon.

This was also where we got one of my favorite photos of the whole trip:

Destin, FL

Another surprise stop. We were planning on visiting Talahassee for a stopover on our way to Sarasota, but a friend pointed us toward Destin and said it would be worth the inconvenience. Boy, he was right. Destin, on the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico, contains the single most beautiful beach I’ve ever seen, or even imagined. The sand is white as snow, and the water is simultaneously crystal clear and a fantastic bright cyan that makes it look like liquid glass.

We even got to swim with sting rays!

The town of Destin is nothing to write home about, but that makes the hotels appropriately cheap. It would make a great couples’ getaway on a budget, as long as you don’t mind having dinner at a mediocre chain restaurant.

Portland, OR

This one was a given. Our lives are pretty well documented in Portlandia. And even though I don’t think we classify as uber-hipsters, we definitely have some pretty hipster-ish habits that helped us overlook the pretentiousness and enjoy all the artsy comfort that is PDX (M called it “charming bootleggery,” which I think works as well).

I mean, come on… Pine State Biscuits… Stumptown Coffee… Powell’s Books… rose gardens… huge food truck villages? There is nothing not to like.

Well, if you don’t count the aggressive homeless population and too-cool-for-their-own-good champagne socialists.

Crater Lake, OR

Crater Lake is yet another place that just shouldn’t exist. We had just finished a delicious plate of vegan mac and cheese and some MCM shopping in Eugene (yes, I just wrote that sentence), and I was pretty much ready to settle down in Ashland for a few days. But as we drove, something jogged M’s memory and he suddenly had me reset the GPS to a destination I’d never heard of. It’s a long, flat road all the way out there… definitely nothing to get excited about.

You pay your entrance fee and keep on driving until you hit an enormous hill of sand.

Look over the ledge and… well…

Yep! That exists. In Southern Oregon. And it’s an active volcano, so that’s awesome. The water is so still, it causes a reflection of the sky which is unlike any body of water I’ve ever seen. Pretty much one of the craziest places ever, and it was just a random quick stop. It’s places like this that make me miss being on the road.

Sandpoint, ID

If you’d asked me what’s in Idaho before this trip, I would have responded “potatoes… maybe corn… mostly potatoes.” I would not have responded “stunning, clear glacier lakes.” And I would have been wrong.

Luckily, we lived in our car, so the change of clothes from sweaters and jeans into full-on bathing suits took only about 10 minutes, and we were off to the beach! In Idaho. I kept having to repeat that to myself.

I guess it makes sense… everyone talks about how pretty Alberta and BC are, and this is just a bit south. One of these is Idaho and the other is Banff, Alberta. And yet Banff is a vacation destination and Idaho… well, it just isn’t. Go figure. (not my photos, click for original source)

Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

If you talk to someone from the mitten part of Michigan, they’ll tell you what rednecks yoopers are. But I think it’s just because they’re jealous of the stunning scenery.

One of the most out-of-body moments of the trip was driving south from Marquette (an adorable tiny city) toward Green Bay. The GPS took us on a small highway, which ran through a forest and along the coast of Lake Michigan. It was over 100 degrees out and we thought we were imagining the seemingly endless body of water ahead of us, but we pulled over anyway and got on our emergency swimsuits. Of course, the population of the UP is like, 6, so there was no parking or even a cleared path down to the lake. A few other cars had just parked on the side of the highway, near a clearing in the tall grass, so we followed suit and enjoyed the beach on the side of the highway.

The water was clean and almost bathtub-temperature, which is pretty amazing considering it’s the same water that we would later look out on from Chicago a few weeks later— where we definitely did not jump right in.

We arrived at our hotel in Green Bay still sandy and damp, but it was worth it. And by the way, it also marked the third Great Lake we’d swam in that week— fourth in our lives (we’re still missing Erie, although I’m not sure I want to swim off the coast of Buffalo, Cleveland, or Detroit…)

Louisville, KY

Louisville is like the Portland of the southeast. Except nobody talks about it. And I don’t even know if the general population of Louisville knows. But I’m telling you, guys… it’s a super awesome place.

Not only did we manage to randomly catch a music festival featuring lots of awesome bands, but we played ping pong at a converted garage covered in astroturf, enjoyed exceptionally well-brewed coffee, and drank craft beer to our hearts content inside a church.

If I had changed the word “Louisville” into “Portland” at the beginning, you would still be nodding along like “yeah, that sounds about right…”

Not all of Louisville is cool, but the parts that are, are great. There are at least 2 or 3 up-and-coming artsy communities that we found in our short visit, and lots of people we talked to had moved from all over the country when they realized how great it was down here.

Oh, and don’t miss the nearby distilleries. Various signs around town will point you in the direction… most are only a few miles away.

Portsmouth, NH

Technically we didn’t even visit Portsmouth on this trip. We considered the road trip started right after we left, and completed it when we arrived back to New York. But that’s only because Portsmouth already had our hearts. We were afraid that taking this trip would expose us to some other perfect spot… one that checked even more boxes or made us feel even giddier… but it’s pretty hard to replace great friends, and so even after 20,000 miles driven, we gladly returned to Portsmouth, and couldn’t be happier about it.