Three weeks was just enough time to jet-set across the East. Although I was sick of living out of a small suitcase, I was still ready for adventure. When I returned West, my travel high was sustained by a week in Holden Village in Washington.  Holden is a hard place to describe. Once a mining camp, it is now a wilderness retreat for liberally-inclined Lutheran families that come every year for pristine hiking trails, healthy community meals, talks given by expert teaching staff, creating crafts like woven baskets and wire mobiles, and the refreshing serenity of the place and people. My boyfriend’s family has been going for generations. It was quite a change of pace and scenery from my urban adventure.

Lodges at Holden Village.

After logging miles on city streets the weeks prior, the hikes in pristine wilderness were both familiar and foreign – no concrete, no cars, no Dunkin Donuts, no swarms of people. The people you did see on the path, or in the village, you would make eye contact and small-talk with as you passed, something unheard of on the bustling urban streets on Manhattan or Chicago. The skyscrapers were replaced with soaring mountains, some capped with snow or covered with lush green trees.

My time at Holden felt too short, just as it had in New York City. But instead of sites to see, I felt there were conversations yet to have.  Holden is a place about relationships as much as the setting. It’s a place to escape the very bustle I’d been seeking in the cities I’d just visited.  Holden was rejuvenating, refreshing, and is the place I’d come back to every summer. But I also realize that I couldn’t spend as much time there, unplugged and removed from the world, as I could spend immersed in city culture.

Amber and her man, before returning to life in SF

After descending the mountain back into civilization, I began the last phase in my vacation: Family time. I had two weeks before returning to California to hang out with my family, celebrate a birthday and a baby shower, and watch dozens of episodes of Cash Cab.  My momentum from traveling was channeled into nesting activities – sewing curtains my new house and baking bread and cookies. I have been operating outside of reality, responsibility and income for long enough that I’m ready for normalcy. I returned home, unpacked my closet and I start my new job Monday.

From this end of the journey, I reflect on my summer and am proud of myself. I navigated an expansive trip and I got very good at talking to strangers.  I strengthened friendships, saw the sites, and took myself out to dinners for one.  My biggest point of pride is that I did what I wanted to do.  I saved enough to float the summer, left a job that made me unhappy, and followed my aspirations.  I wrestled the common excuses that keep us tied down and took the leap.  My yearning was to travel and start over. Your yearning may be to start dating, change careers, or see the Alps.  Every day you can do something that gets you closer to that goal – save $5, find a web site, or pick up a travel guide. I can’t tell you how strong and whole that made me feel to finally take off on that journey, because you have to do it yourself to know.

Thanks for letting us follow your journey, Amber! It was a pleasure! Readers, are you inspired to tackle a goal? I know I am! What are you going to start working toward?

Amber in the Windy City!

My last month has been full of juxtapositions. In my travels across five Eastern cities, I found it impossible not to compare each location with the others, with home, and with my expectations.  From city to city, I compared subways, museums, and attitudes, picking pieces I liked most about each city or parts inferior to my Bay Area home.  Where would I love to live?  What was my favorite meal?  In which park would I be most happy plopping down with a picnic?

In the city-to-city line-up, I am not surprised that I loved New York City most. My five days exploring weren’t enough to see everything. With another few days, I could have crossed the Brooklyn Bridge and seen another Broadway show.  With a few years I could have settled happily in the East Village, become a serious theater patron and foodie, and passed Sunday afternoons in Central Park with the Times crossword.  The subway in New York was superior to any system I rode. The best meal I had the whole three weeks was at Sarabeth’s near Fifth Avenue. I was smitten in the city.

Central Park

My first runner-up was, more surprisingly, Chicago. I was taken off guard by the density of public art, the accessibility of the museums, the chill ethos, and the deliciousness of the food offerings.  Chicago seemed incredibly creative, from the ingenious of merlot-chocolate chip ice cream to the interactive faces fountain in Millennium Park. 

Boston satisfied every craving for Americana.  I did a dorky walking tour of the Liberty Trail with a guide in Colonial costume and watched amazing Fourth of July fireworks played in by the Boston Pops.  The Boston Common was a gorgeous park, second only to Central, and a baseball game at Fenway Park is truly an experience.  An Italian meal in the North End is unbeatable. But I just wasn’t as captured as I had expected to be by Boston.

Fenway Park

Philadelphia’s subway system was consistently frustrating, and while the historical sites were fun, the city itself didn’t boast much flare. I spent less than two days in Philly and by the end of the only full day, I went to a movie .

Oldest residential street in America ~ Philly

Washington D.C. was a blast primarily because it was full of girl-time with old friends. I know many twenty-somethings moving there to make a name, and they will easily keep entertained with the East Coast’s best Happy Hours, the endless free museums and events, and the politics on The Hill.  I determined that I would move there for a job, but not for the city itself, as I might for NYC.

The Lincoln Memorial

At least twice a day I’d find a point of comparison with home.  The age of the buildings and frequency of historical sites made the West Coast seem insignificant and fleeting.  Compared with home, all of the cities on the East fell short on friendly service.  I ate twice as much meat as I usually would in California. The public transportation isn’t nearly as great on the Bay, but the weather is milder. The homelessness that plagues San Francisco was much less apparent on the East, and I felt unsafe much less than I would have in many parts of my area.

The general safety and cleanliness of the cities exceeded my expectations.  I also underestimated how much I’d spend on food, so was a bit over-budget. The availability of free or low-cost activities such as museums and cultural centers was a welcome surprise. I became hooked on the sense of wonder I felt encountering sites like the Statue of Liberty and Fenway’s Green Monster. Travel is intoxicating in that it keeps you always slightly off-kilter, operating in a state of novelty and wonder, elevated above normal existence.

Thanks Amber! Check out her blog, Let Us Go Then, You and I, and stay tuned for her next post here on Magchunk, when she leaves the cities for the wilderness. Read all of her Summer Adventure Series here.

via flickr ~ Celeste Photography

Amber’s back with a new post about her Summer Adventure!

When we last heard from Amber, she was leaving her job for several weeks of down-time before jet-setting around the country (well, low-budget jet-setting) and returning in the fall to a new job working with pre-teen girls. She wrote this on her plane ride to Chicago…

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I find myself this morning on a flight to Chicago. I say that I “find myself” here, because the morning started at 5 am after a restless night, and I basically sleepwalked through security.

With adventure ahead, I reflect on my several weeks of “freedom” after leaving my job in May. My friend called it “funemployment.” I enjoyed sleeping in, baking, and not commuting on public transportation. I loved having little obligation besides showering, and tipping my barista. Oh, and the dreaded GRE. I loathed the GRE, but felt very accomplished on the other end of hours of study and a decent score. I climbed a serious mountain, and at the end I could calculate the angle of said mountain or describe it with multi-syllabic words (bucolic, say, or intractable.)

I had lofty goals about my time off, from learning to make sourdough to learning how to tango. I procrastinated a little on some of my agenda, but my budget was also slashed when my time off from work paid-out significantly less than anticipated. (When a well-meaning but misguided manager says vacation and sick time are the same, don’t listen. Use that sick time, because you can’t take it with you!) A few items on the agenda had to go.

Accordingly, I postponed weekend trips and went into the city less. I was most disappointed to forgo dance classes. I braved one ballet class and one beginning tango class and was enthusiastic to continue. Then my docked check came, and I pulled out my ballet workout DVD to plie in my living room.

Now I’m on the second leg of my summer – the big East Coast tour. The main objective is to enjoy the company of friends, but I also have a unique expectation for each city. For Chicago, it’s the food. I’ve already been promised a “Chicago Dog,” deep dish pizza and cheesecake, in addition to the wares at the Taste of Chicago festival. In NYC, it’s all about culture – the sites, museums and lifestyle of our largest, most trend-setting city. I’m anticipating my Fourth of July weekend in Boston to be full of Americana – in addition to the festivities, I’ll catch a baseball game at Fenway, visit Paul Revere’s house, and drink Sam Adams. Then on to Philadelphia, where the operative term is, um, Benjamin Franklin, I guess. I’m having my one night in a private B&B room there between hostels and futons. I end in D.C. where I’ve been to before, and I am eager to revisit some of the amazing museums and monuments, a wellspring of patriotism and perspective. Since I’ll be seeing three friends there, the D.C. theme is revisiting.

I’m anxious to lug my single carry on (thanks for the tips, Maggie!) out of the airport and into the summer heat of Chicago. As I embark, I have a Simon & Garfunkel refrain playing in my head; “I’ve gone to look for America.”

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Read more about Amber’s adventure on her blog, Let Us Go Then, You and I.  Any travel or tourist tips for Amber?

Today we have a very special treat. An old college of friend of mine (and a magchunk reader!) has agreed to write a four-post guest series this summer all about her crazy/exciting/gutsy/enviable plans.

Do you ever daydream about leaving your uninspiring job and exploring the world (even if it’s just your own backyard)? Do you long for time to reflect on yourself, what you’ve learned and where you’ve been? Do you want to spend time searching for the truth, simplicity, and beauty of the world? So does Amber. Here’s the beginning of her journey:

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I have been looking forward to this summer since Christmas. I was going to Africa, to live and volunteer there, have a life-changing experience, and get lots of pictures with locals for my Facebook page. But then, I wasn’t. After months of preparation, my trip fell through. I had already given my notice at my job, broken my lease, scrimped to save, and blabbed to everyone about my big plans. But the organization I was working with wouldn’t return emails and I found myself a month from departure with no trustworthy leads. I had to call it off. I was devastated, embarrassed, and disappointed. For a day. Then I was extremely relieved. How funny! I realized that I was trying to force this idealistic illusion of what I should be doing, what I should want, and it just wasn’t true. (I blame college.)

What killed me, being the little control freak I am, was that when I let go of this fantasy, I didn’t have a plan to replace it. I still had no job or shelter lined up, but I did have a little travel fund socked away. What would I do with myself until August when I’d start my new job? Once I rejected the notion that my plans had to be grand and boastful, I started thinking about what I really wanted to do with my summer.

Enticed by deeply discounted airfare, I sketched out a trip to visit friends and sightsee in Chicago, New York, Boston and D.C. If I timed it right I could then join my boyfriends’ family vacation, attend several summer weddings, and spend unrushed, quality time with friends and fam in the Northwest.  Everything fell into place quite seamlessly. I found myself more excited for my scaled-down adventure than the original.

The only hole in my summer was three weeks of total free time between my last day of work and my first flight.  What a lovely problem to have!  I made a To-Do list featuring items such as volunteering at my county’s food bank, studying for the GRE, tango lessons, and baking a layer cake.  This will be a time for things I always said I’d do later, a time to pursue joy and self-discovery without obligation. If I look back in 10 years and lament that I never slowed down to smell the roses, or take up tango, I have no excuse.

I am blessed to have a job at the end of this adventure, but I didn’t have that security when I took the first leap. I just knew I wasn’t happy where I was and I was compelled to fly on. All the pieces eventually fell into place, as they tend to do despite our efforts to painstakingly control every step of the journey. I am still learning how to gracefully accept the difference between my plans and the eventual reality. Especially if that reality includes sleeping in, revisiting loved ones, and savoring every crumb of cake.

Hooked? Read Amber’s blog to hear the day to day adventures. And she’ll be back later this summer to report from the Midwest as she makes her way across the country!

Photo from thisisglamourous. Other photo from Amber.