1,100 miles

Well, I'm finally home from my East Coast tour. Home-basing out of the Philadelphia metropolitan area, I drove all over the eastern seaboard this week, braving heavy rains, snow, high winds and storms. In total, I logged over 1,100 miles on my little Pontiac G6 rental car, across 7 different states. You can actually see from the map just how wide ranging my travels were. I kind of miss the GPS lady in my trusty Hertz Neverlost navigation system...

Dover Township, NJ

Ever since Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle came out in 2004, I've had a craving for those delicious little cheeseburgers. But unfortunately, just as in the movie, the hallowed grounds of White Castle restaurants are very elusive...existing in only a handful of states in the northeast and midwest. Thanks to the power of GPS navigation with integrated phone books, I was able to find a White Castle relatively close by to my driving route today, only 2 extra hours out of my way. Seems long considering my original destination was only 30 minutes away, but it's more reasonable when you consider this is the closest I've been to a White Castle in 3 years. A long drive through the Jersey countryside and a couple hundred miles later, I had my hands on those delicious cheeseburgers that made Harold so heady that he became a new man, and that made Kumar finally realize his life purpose.

Southampton, PA

My original plan was to visit Steph and JJ in Southampton last week, but Steph up and had her baby instead. So we rescheduled for today... I got a chance to visit them at their beautiful new house in Southampton, hang out with Kaden (their 2 year old in the picture), get some home cooked grub from JJ's mom, AND watch Planet Earth over FiOS on their shiny new plasma HDTV. The 6-day old peanut was funny to watch, but I decided that bath time was my cue to exit and head home.

Philadelphia, PA

I was sitting around with Dave and Heidi this morning (in Fairfax, VA) having breakfast, and we were chatting about what we felt like doing today. Since the East Coast is getting hammered by a Nor'easter right now, we decided the best thing to do would be to head over to Philadelphia to get some delicious cheesesteaks. 2.5 hours later, we arrived at Pat's King of Steaks, where the cheesesteak was invented by Pat Oliveri in 1930. (Note Dave's drink in picture, we are not at Pat's.) Dave, Heidi and I all had a very delicious cheesesteak at Pat's, but noticed that there was another restaurant across the street called Geno's. Though Pat Oliveri was the first to put chopped up steak on hoagie rolls, Joe Vento of Geno's was the first to actually put cheese on such a sandwich, the key ingredient in said sandwiches. So Dave and I looked at each after finishing our sandwiches, shrugged, laughed, and then headed across the street to have another cheesesteak at Geno's. lol. Heidi, of course, just shook her head, not so surprised. We also ran up the stairs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (like in Rocky, the original movie), saw a secret Freemason meeting at Independence Hall, checked out the Liberty Bell, and cruised around the very unique and very cool sports complex (with venues for the Phillies, Eagles and Flyers). Good times on a spontaneous day trip before I dropped the two of them off at the train station to send them back home.

Fairfax, VA

After aforementioned ridiculously long drive down south, I've arrived in Fairfax, home of very good friends, Dave and Heidi. I get to hang out here for the weekend, catch up on 8 years of life, stay in their beautiful home, and do some sightseeing. Fairfax is a pleasant suburb just out of Washington, D.C. ("the District"), and apparently a pretty good central location for us to cruise around to fun places nearby. We headed into Arlington for lunch today to hit the Hard Times Cafe, a cool little chili joint here where Dave got some Chili Mac (pictured), and Heidi and I got chili dogs. YUM. Also got to visit Georgetown, see the waterfront (complete with a regatta and rowing teams, just like in the movies!), the historical landmarks in "the District," and grab dinner at Zatinya, a cool tapas place downtown. Good times.

Long Island, New York

After an epic raging bender in Manhattan, I figured I'd head across the river to Long Island and visit Yo, who's hanging out there for a few weeks after interning in SoNo, but before heading home to California. Just a quick visit to the L.I., because my final destination today was Fairfax, VA, near Washington, D.C. The GPS unit in the rent-a-car said it should have been just over a 4 hour drive. But due to the bender from the previous night and me getting a slightly late start to the day, I didn't get out of Long Island until almost 5pm. On a Friday night. With only one route available to get off the Island. I discovered NYC traffic, took me 3.5 hours just to get out of New York City. In total, nearly 8 hours to get to Fairfax. Thankfully, 5 Red Bulls later, I made it awake and alert. And kept Heidi up long enough to get some Taco Bell. Yum! No, the picture has nothing to do with Long Island, but I didn't end up taking any pictures out there. But I did like this picture that I took while walking around in Manhattan.

Manhattan, New York

After the customer meeting in Philly, my first stop on the whirlwind is Manhattan, New York, home of Forster. And what else would Forster and I do with only one night to hang out together? Party! The included picture on the left is the two of us after about 20 beers each. Forster: "Yeah, I'm about done with this." Wei: "Time for Indian food!" The beers were a great idea. The Indian food...less so. When we finally turned in at 6am (after getting Indian food and then watching some Team America), I crashed out to treasure the 2.5 hours of sleep I would grab before arising to tackle the next day.

Malvern, Pennsylvania

Today, I'm out in Malvern, Pennsylvania for a customer meeting with Unisys. This kicks off a week-long East Coast tour where I'll be cruising around and visiting friends, while getting ready for another meeting with Unisys next week. Malvern is a suburb about 45 minutes northwest of Philadelphia. The weather here is 45F and rainy. Makes me miss the absence of weather in California. Rain is so inconvenient. Then again, with temps this cold, it means the salsa and wine that I brought for friends will stay fresh without a need for refrigeration. lol.