Indiana Dunes

Porter Beach. It was raining, but the rain felt kinda nice.

A dangerously last second decision to take an exit off I80 resulted in me exploring the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Today consisted of way too much driving so I needed somewhere to stretch my legs (and take a bath, as a bonus). Now before I go any further, I've decided that it would be fun to begin reviewing new places of interest. So here we go:

Indiana Dunes State Park: A surprise oasis of landscape diversity in an otherwise boring state. 40 miles of hiking trails loop you around the park, through lush woodland and over the sandy white dunes by the shore. Opportunities for fishing, swimming, running and camping make this a one-of-a-kind stop in mediocre Indiana

Score: 1 out of 5

Sounds like a nice place, but I never actually made it into the park. They wanted to charge me $12 at the entrance. I drove 3 minutes down the road to Porter Beach which was free. Ergo...

Porter Beach: It's got nice sand and wet water and it's totally free

Score: 5 out of 5

Then I made another sketchy last second exit off the highway to check out Tangled Roots Brewery in Ottawa, Illinois. Decent beer but the best part was trading a treehouse can for a bottle of bourbon barrel stout. Oh and he paid for my flight of beer. Treehouse beer is more valuable than money out here if you can find the right people. I should have brought more!

Niagara Falls? Meh

The bridge to Canada!

I so badly wanted to explore that decrepit building on the Canadian side. 

Soooooooooooooo many people... Maybe that's why I loved Utah so much. You can easily get away from people and any sort of human development.

Lots of seagulls. Trying to properly focus and time the shot was fun.

Falls and a rainbow for good measure.

Chose to take 90 West to kick off this adventure. Looking for something to do in order to break up the drive, I decided to check out Niagara Falls since I had never been there. Well just as I had been warned, it's quite commercialized and incredibly touristy. The American side was especially depressing: Construction, mediocre views of the Falls, tickets to access most things and forced exits through gift shops... The Canadian side was a relief: open green spaces, blooming flowers everywhere and a cozy lack of gift shops and crummy restaurants. Of course the Falls themselves were impressive, but I have to admit, I thought they'd be bigger. I'm satisfied with that place for a while! 

Au Revoir... Again

Koti crushing the roof on Simian Swing [5.11c], Farley Ledges. 

Was packing my car when Kobe notified me that a cute fuzzy bear was meandering around the yard. Farewell bear!

The majority of my belongings packed into a few tubs and a few bags. Feels good to be able to narrow down my necessities.

Welp... see ya later New England! Part 2 of the US tour begins today. So glad I was able to see so many of you during my brief visit home. Hopefully the Pacific NorthWest is as beautiful as everyone makes it out to be!

Now that I'll be forced to cook in my car again, I'd like to film another video soon. Challenge me with a new meal to cook and I'll do my best!

Time To Pack!

WNEC meetup at Dave's. Felt good to play stump again!

Family dinner over the fire.

Foil dinners. A classic throwback to boy scouts. 

Look at this delicious and perfectly cooked meal. I wonder if could build a fire in the Saturn and make it a car cooking episode?

Some of Stella's best qualities include: staring, yawning and slipping out of her harness (sans running away).

Rapscallion Brewery in Sturbridge MA. Good beer, an awesome outdoor pavilion and a disc golf course.

A nice Belchertown sunset with some okay friends.

Wrapping up my visit home. Hitting the road again on Thursday to explore some more of this wonderful country. A slightly difficult commitment after so many splendid moments with friends and family. But alas, the mountains are calling and I must go! My mini-retirement must be fulfilled with the proper levels of exploration, danger and debatably bad decisions.

Rumney Rocks And Doggy Dates

Crushing some more rocks in Rumney with Koti.

The view of the valley from the top makes it even more satisfying to finish a climb. 

Puppy play date with Ashley and smug pug Stella. 

"No way bro, I'm too cool for school" -Kobe

Squeezing every possible adventure out of my limited time home. It's exhausting but someone's gotta do it! Leaving in less than a week. At some point I need to figure out my health insurance dilemma, and maybe pack some stuff and see if it will fit in my car without the box on the back.