u.s. travelogue...



create your own visited states map

and now onto the united states. well, i really haven't travelled as much of the U.S. as i would have liked to but we start off with massachusetts where my family and i moved to from bangladesh when i was a teeny little thing, barely walking. we lived there while my parents pursued their graduate and doctorate degrees at boston university. boston brings back tons of fond memories of my childhood as we lived there for almost 8 years.

west coast action: not much, really. visited a friend in san francisco in '95 and didn't much like it back then (for some reason i think i may feel differently if i ever decide to go back); a week in l.a. during my ucla conference last year, and thanksgiving weekend in laguna niguel about two years ago. back in '99 i visited a friend in seattle on my way to vancouver to renew my visa (that could've been done via mail.. i still bang my head against the wall over that one!).

down south: florida is a regular thanks to my cousin who keeps inviting me back. visited an old friend in san angelo, tx by way of austin and then went back for her wedding while also visiting my old college roommate for a long weekend in killeen, tx.

midwest: by virtue of living in chicago, long weekend roadtrips with c included door county (wi), saugatuck (mi), and dart (mi), home of the womyn's music festival. indiana was a by-product of our michigan road trips. supposedly my family and i came to chicago to visit my uncle when i was 3 or 4 but i don't recall the details of that trip except that my sister and dad ended up getting chicken pox.

eastern board: when i was 6 my family and my uncle and his wife (who live in chicago) took a long ass roadtrip from boston aaallll the way down to orlando to see.. you guessed it! disney world!!! i'm sure it was fun, really.. i just don't remember. i vaguely remember almost getting left behind in a convenience store because i was too busy reading some magazine cover with the headline "who shot j.r.?". wow, that ages me, doesn't it? so, during that trip we no doubt passed several million states, but it's all a blur. i can't remember what route we took so i'm not sure if we hit delaware or not. i suppose we hit the virginias at some point but for c's sake i'm just gonna say i've never been to virginia because she wants to take me there (her hometown). on the way to orlando my uncle got us into an accident in north carolina while driving on an icy highway. my dad broke his pinky finger trying to stop my head from hitting the windshield (yes, i was in front on his lap.. how naive were we?) and my mom hurt her back, but other than that we all made it alive. i actually remember parts of that whole scene. it was my uncle, aunt, mom, dad, me and sis all crammed into my uncle's tiny ass trans am. what were my parents thinking?

north east: my parents were huge fans of fall color so every fall we'd head north to new hampshire or vermont, maine, connecticut, you name it, to catch the foliage. i don't think i appreciated it as much as i do now. i remember stopping once so my dad could feed a bear, and i also remember being scared shitless that he'd come back with a hand missing. my parents also had friends who had a summer home on an island off maine which we visited. i remember having a crush on their little son who had his very own tree house. i was mad jealous. oh, but on the way there we had to take a ferry and the sailor went to toss the (anchor) rope onto whatever it is they toss anchor ropes onto, and the rope came and smacked me on the nose. but it was cool though, cuz i got a free pepsi out of it. a free pepsi is way cool when you're a 6 year old with no money.

on to rhode island where i went to visit my oldest friend (we've known each other since we were 4 years old) when she was at brown, and of course several trips to new york and jersey to visit various friends over the years. i never really "visited" ohio and pennsylvania but drove through it plenty of times on my way to and from boston or new york in my early college years.

and there you have it. wow, that actually ended up being a bit of a trip down memory lane for me...