graduation....birthday.....maine.....

well, where to start. its sunday morning may 6. the whole family was together and we went to church and then head for a 1230pm brunch?



kevin did something really really funny and made everybody laugh. it was funny.




then it was time for mikkeles graduation. she finally made it. it was a nice ceremony. a little long, but that was expected. i had fun taking whatever pictures i could. it was the whole reason for not only the whole family being together in chicago, but how this 30 day trip came about.



















































































































monday morning kevin rechelle and i went back into chicago to wander around. of course we ended back at the big metal bean. the place is awesome. we wondered around for about 4 hours until they dropped me off at the train station so i could catch my train and they could catch their flight back to california.



















































































of course i got to the train station about 5 hours early, so i laid down on a pew and took a solid 3 hour nap. it felt awesome.























on the road again. i was heading for new york city for the evening. it was about a 22 hour train ride.





i arrived in new york on my birthday, and what better way of celebrating it, than by catching about 4 1/2 hours of ucb theater. it was my plan to arrive at penn station at 7pm and then watch some shows, (the theater is only about 5 small blocks from the station), and then leave out on another train at 3am. it worked perfectly.





















































this is a picture at around 230am in penn station. a dude was passed out on the floor behind me.


























i had to get on the boston subway to make my connecting train through boston to get to portland, me. mikkele, i guess that other dude didnt really know how to make them.






















finally maine. this was my first time in this particular state.



they have these really small shiny buttons for the crosswalks and i had fun taking my picture in them.






then i sat down for some authentic new england clam chowder. it was pretty good. but then again so is the splash cafe's.



i wondered around the city for a good 8 hours, taking in all it had to offer. i was a little disappointed, it wasnt as nice as i was hoping. maybe it was the wrong time of year.



































































i came across a museum, that randomly enough, because i am a bank of america customer, i got in free. whatever. it was free. i was only able to take pictures of some of the displayed art pieces, but it was fun.






there were a lot of mirror type displays that, of course, i took self portraits in.













































creepy picture.....






















i like to call this picture, "staiway to heaven". it wasnt even part of the exhibit, just the stairs to go to the second level.























this was an awesome piece outside in the garden area.






















i made it back to the portland train station about 740pm, ready to wait until my train left at 550am. but as i was there i found out that there was a bus leaving at 8pm. so i made some quick calls and got my reservations changed and was able to leave portland and get to at least boston. it was getting kind of cold in portland, but in boston it is a cool 70º. doing it this way also is going to put me back in manhattan 4 hours earlier, which is nice. but now i have to find things to do in boston, as opposed to portland. i ended up riding the subway back and forth for about 2 hours. it was fun watching all of the people get on and off.






















after the subway was going to stop running, i wondered around the station looking for things to do. i found a guy to talk to. he was cool.




that brings me to right now. i found this nice little sitting area a couple of blocks from the train depot. i was just sitting enjoying the pleasant weather when i realized there were all kinds of apartments around. i took out my computer and sure enough....free internet.




thats all for now. its currently about 245am and my train leaves in about 3 hours. i finished this at just the right time because my battery is going to die in about 15 minutes.

this mostly goes against what i normally do, but i will say it anyways. whoever is reading this, post me a comment. so i can see who is actually viewing it and what you think about it.

until next time.......