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Day 1: DC, Philadelphia, and Travel

Isaac Church — Sat, 06 Aug 2016 16:58:37 +0000

Today marked the beginning of the “Church Trip”, or whatever you want to call it. I still haven’t even made up my mind. We spent most of the day in the car, so the day was fairly uneventful, and by the end of it we were pretty “road sick”.

Washington, D.C.

We left Granite Falls a little after 5:00am, stopped for breakfast along the way, and managed to make it to Washington, D.C. (through some of the worst traffic I’ve ever seen) around 2:00pm. We stopped at District Taco on F Street for some barbacoa, carnitas, and pollo asado tacos, which were excellent!

Originally, we planned to take a walking/circulator tour of the monuments and National Mall after lunch, but because we were running behind and it was drizzling, we opted to drive around the Mall one time and then head out of the city.

Library of Congress

Philadelphia

We finally arrived in Philadelphia around 7:00pm, which was unfortunately too late to tour any of the historical sites. After we found some parking, we walked around the Independence Hall area, toured the President’s House, and walked around the outside of the Liberty Bell museum (thrilling). After our rather uneventful tour, it was on to better things: cheese steaks!

Independence Hall

The Libery Bell and Independence Hall

Our first endeavor was to find a place called Joe’s Steaks + Soda Shop that supposedly had great steaks. By this time, it was close to their closing time at 8:00pm, and we were headed towards a rough part of town, so we opted for Plan B, which was basically whatever Dad had pulled up on his phone. It turned out to be a good decision. We ate at a place on Broad Street called Jimmy G’s Steaks that was outstanding.

Jimmy G's Steaks

Philadelphia, PA

An authentic Philly steak. Unfortunately, Jimmy G’s is now permanently closed.

* – Would definitely visit again

** – Exceptional, must visit if you’re in the area

*** – Worth making a special trip to eat there

For more info on food ratings, click here.

Conclusion

After ordering our steaks “prov wit” like semi-authentic Philly natives (the only difference being a bit of a noticeable drawl) and devouring them at the tables outside, we decided it was time to hit the road, so we headed up to NJ (some familiar territory for Dad and me) and finally checked into our hotel just shy of 11:00pm.

Tomorrow, the Church family will take on the Big Apple and hopefully some big waffles. Oh, and something about Connecticut too, but we’ll see if Mom survives the subway before we start to speculate.

Final Thoughts

Like I said, there wasn’t much to report from today, but tomorrow should be pretty interesting because [Churches + NYC = ???].

A few other things of note from today:

Obviously, we didn’t teleport straight to DC and then to Philadelphia, though that would have saved us a significant amount of time and possibly prevented some amount of road rage. Today we saw sights in NC, VA, MD, DE, NJ, PA, and then NJ again.
We realized we still don’t know what’s happening on this trip. I suppose I kinda do because I planned it, but Mom thought we were going to Boston tomorrow instead of New York City, so that created some temporary confusion. Dad remembers the plans by types of food, so I don’t believe he has any concerns as long as the status-quo is being well-fed.
Mom was amazed that it’s illegal to pump your own gas in NJ, and that they offer full service at every gas station. And that service stations are sometimes in the median. Dad and I were too busy discussing the job-creating potential of requiring that in other states.

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An Introduction: Part II

Isaac Church — Fri, 05 Aug 2016 16:56:03 +0000

A follow-up to my last post: Once I finally relented to Mom’s (and several other people’s) requests to create a blog for this trip, I realized I needed a good name for the blog.

After consulting a few of my esteemed colleagues, these are the options I considered. Please don’t cringe too hard.

“Church Family Road Trip 2k16”
“Eating Our Way Through New England”
“Our Moose Hunting Trip”
“Our Food Hunting Trip”
“The Maine Adventure”
“Churching the Most Unchurched Part of America”
“Where is Canada?”
“Churches Migrating North for the Summer”
“Discovering the States in Which One Cannot Make Left Turns”
“15 States, 1 District, 2 Countries, 9 Days”
“Are there Moose in Maine?”
“How Many Consecutive Days Can a Very Southern Man Tolerate Northerners Before Exploding?: A Semi-Scientific Experiment”
“The Hand Sanitizer Habits of a Woman Under Germ-Induced Duress: A Semi-Scientific Observation”
“Which Genres of Music are Best for Lulling a 22-Year-Old to Sleep in a Car?: Another Semi-Scientific Experiment/Observation”

I thought these might be worth sharing. I do however realize I probably just lost at least half my potential readers.

I finally settled on “Church Trips: Adventures, Food, and the Occasional Wildlife Sighting” for sake of simplicity, and so I won’t have to start another separate blog for any future trips. That way, if we get real wild and head up to Ashe County one day, I can document it for your viewing pleasure.

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An Introduction

Isaac Church — Fri, 05 Aug 2016 16:02:06 +0000

As with all good stories, one must start at the very beginning. So, to explain why I’m writing an adventure blog for the rest of the summer, we must backtrack about a couple months.

Many months ago, I committed to go on a mission trip to Cleveland to work with the Syrian refugee population there. Our church planned the trip for the second week of August. Even after many months of preparation, fundraising, prayer, and planning, interest in our trip had gradually dwindled and many participants had to cancel, so we reluctantly decided it was best to cancel the trip (due to lack of interest), and to donate any fundraising dollars to the CMA mission group in Ohio.

Sometime in mid-June, I told my parents that I was now free at the beginning of August. Contrary to their recent behavior while I’ve been away at college, they invited me to join them on a vacation for that week. (For our family, a vacation always means eating lots of seafood somewhere north of Myrtle Beach.) And so, the discussion began. The conversation went something like this:

Mom: “I’m really glad you’re going to be able to come with us on this trip!”

Me: “Me too, I’m looking forward to eating some good seafood. Do we have a plan for the week?”
Mom: “No, we don’t actually know where we would stay. I haven’t planned anything yet.”
Me: *With slight sarcasm and not expecting serious consideration* “Here’s a crazy idea: why don’t we try going somewhere other than Cherry Grove?”
Mom: “That sounds like a great idea to me!”
Me:
Me:
Me:
Me: *Jaw dropped, and speechless*
Me:
Me:
Me:
Mom: “We could go to Niagara Falls! That’s what [some of our friends from church] did recently!”
Me: “Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh………….that sounds great!!”

For those of you who don’t know my mother well, I will now take time to attempt to explain why this might, in fact, be the single most unprecedented event of at least the past several decades.

For those of you who do know her and already savvy, feel free to skip this paragraph. — Let me begin by saying that to my knowledge, Mom has never traveled outside of the Carolinas, Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia in my lifetime – maybe not even in her adult lifetime. And I’m not even sure about Virginia. Also, when I say Tennessee and Georgia, I’m talking Gatlinburg, one trip against her will to Watauga Lake, and a Braves game ten years ago.

Oh, and Dad and I dragged her to ASU’s championships in Chattanooga from ‘05-’07, but I know for a fact the first one scarred her for life, because after the first game she adamantly promised she would never go to another large public sporting event in her lifetime.

Because she likes to be very clean and, quite frankly, bacteria-free were it possible, hotels are somewhat of a nightmare, and any travel outside of the bustling metropolis of Granite Falls, NC (population 4,651) is almost always limited to a day trip. Flying is completely off the table.

As many wonderful things as I have learned and inherited from her over the years, my strong sense of spontaneity and adventure is NOT one of them. I can’t possibly describe to you how unusual this truly is.

For those of you who know me well, but not her, you know I may have never been at a loss for words, so that should give you a general idea. We won’t even mention how long it took me to convince her sister that this wasn’t an elaborate practical joke.

This message from the night we decided to go on the trip might help as well:

Now, back to another conversation that ensued.

Me: “I can’t believe this is actually happening! This trip will be so exciting, and I’ve always wanted to see that part of the country.”

Dad: *With great enthusiasm* “And there will be some really great food along the way!”
Mom: “How long does it take to drive to Maine from Niagara Falls?”
Dad and Me: *Repeat previous reaction*
Dad: “I hear there’s really great lobster up in Maine! That’s always been on my bucket list…to eat a bucket full of lobster.”

Side note: joking aside, I’m actually convinced that Dad’s ‘bucket list’, or at least a secondary list, is really just a list of foods of which he would like to consume an entire bucket.

After lots of Googling and quite a bit of planning, we determined that it was better to drive up to Maine first, and then head over to Niagara Falls. Of course, we figured we might as well stop along the way to smell the roses and taste the local cuisine.

One thing led to another, and this is what we ended up with:

The craziest part is that map doesn’t even cover everything. So, for those of you who were wondering “Why on earth did Isaac start a travel blog for his family?”, this is the reason. I promise my succeeding posts won’t be quite as long and lacking in the picture department, and I aim to make them as entertaining as possible.

I’ll cover our adventures, include some photos I’ve taken, and certainly document some of the food–the most important part of any adventure. I might even include a few I.A. posts with Dad’s quotes and lame jokes, documentation of how Northerners react to Caldwell County natives, and whatever else comes to mind.

Our current plan goes something like this: Granite Falls > Richmond > Washington, D.C. > Baltimore > Philadelphia > New York City > New Haven > Providence > Boston > Portsmouth > Portland > Bar Harbor > New Hampshire > Vermont > Syracuse > Rochester > Niagara Falls > Toronto > Pittsburgh > Granite Falls. Only time will tell if we’ll make it home (or past Greensboro, for that matter) alive.

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