Scared Panda |

February 4, 2012

NYC to MSP: Day 2

After the travel adventures from yesterday, we started today out with an awesome continental breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express. Talk about living the life of luxury. I’m a fan for life.

I had this idea to pick up wine from local wineries on our trip and we found one not too far from our hotel. After driving our rig through the windy roads of the Pennsylvania countryside, we arrived at Bee Kind Winery at 10 a.m. After a quick wine tasting (Clint did not partake), we left with six bottles of Bone Dry Red Wine and some delicious beef jerky. If you ever find yourself in Clearfield, PA definitely make the trip out here.

On our way out, a woman said to Clint, “I see a giant moving truck with a panda head and a case of wine. I’m trying to figure out what’s going on.” Clint responded (with a honey stick in his mouth), “you’re never going to figure this one out.” I’m pretty sure he freaked her out.

Back on the road – we’re driving through the gorgeous hills, looking at the bluffs and rivers and we see a sign for Punxsutawney. With one glance we decide we have to check out Gobblers Knob – better late than never, right? We find ourselves navigating our truck through windy hills for the second time that day for about a half hour and as we enter the town of Punxsutawney we’re greeted by about 317 statues of groundhogs. They’re EVERYWHERE. In every color imaginable. It’s awesome. We arrive at Gobblers Knob and take so many amazing pictures:

We make it to Cleveland, drove around downtown, got lost and made our way to the awesome neighborhood of Tremont (this is where the house from A Christmas Story is located). We stopped at a coffee shop to recharge (ourselves and our phones), visited some of the local shops and picked up some cupcakes from Cookies & Cakes.

We had dinner at Lolita – a restaurant I discovered while watching The Best Thing I Ever Ate and had a really great, much-needed, healthy dinner. It was one of the best meals we had in a while and after two days on the road we were ready for some seriously good food. The next time you’re in Cleveland go there.

We spent the night outside of Cleveland so we could have a shorter drive to Chicago the next day, so we took off for Freemont, OH and stayed in a dumpy Comfort Inn (that’s what we get for not staying at a Holiday Inn Express). Tomorrow –we’re off to Chicago to spend the night with our friends. We’re going to check out a Mexican sandwich place we’ve been wanting to try and then heading to Lincoln Square to listen to our friend’s band, The Congregation, play at Martyrs. We’ll be going to sleep extra early tonight.

February 2, 2012

NYC To MSP — Day 1

The day started in typical fashion – the alarm went off, we hit snooze for about 45 minutes and finally got up. Everything about the morning – picking up the truck, finding a parking spot, packing up the rest of our stuff was pretty uneventful. Our movers showed up on time and had the truck JAM packed in just under three hours. We couldn’t believe our luck.

Then, in typical New York fashion, we went to pull out of the parking spot and couldn’t drive forward on our narrow one-way street because the Laundromat across the street had a visit from seven fire trucks and a semi. Needless to say, we couldn’t get through.

Since there was no room to turn around we had to drive backwards down the street to get out. With the help of three guys we moved the cones blocking the street (the entire block was closed because of the Laundromat) and maneuvered onto 1^st Avenue. It was one of those NYC experiences that make you feel so good - like all of the starts are aligned – and it made us a little sad to be leaving.

Fast forward five minutes, we’re driving through SoHo on our way out of the city and just as we realized we were driving in a bus lane – with everyone else – a cop pulled us over and gave us a ticket. Awesome. But. appropriate That’s how our time in NYC has been – we’ll have an amazing NYC-experience and most often it’s followed by a kick in the butt from the city. A reminder not to get too comfortable, I think.

We pulled out, thanking NYC for robbing our bank accounts one last time and headed into Jersey then on to Pennsylvania. So, that’s day one of the trip. Check back tomorrow for some more pics as we are on our way into Cleveland in the morning.

September 21, 2010

Imagery: The Dowling Studio Lobby In Minneapolis

When you go to the Dowling Studio Lobby inside the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, there is a section of glass in the middle of the floor where you can see down 6 stories to the ground. I’ve only been there once but the entire time I was walking around taking pictures a handful of kids would walk in, drop to the ground and press their faces against the window in the floor.

As a trademark of the avant-garde nature of the Dowling Studio space, Nouvel included a daring design element, an amber glass cantilevered lobby with a breathtaking birds’-eye view of the Mississippi River, the Minneapolis skyline and adjacent landmarks. To obtain its signature hue, the glass is “fritted,” or tempered with a ceramic-based paint permanently bonded onto it.

Dowling Studio @ The Guthrie

August 23, 2010

New T-Shirt Idea: Scared Espanda

A good friend Aaron (hi Aaron) is getting into the t-shirt design business and brought us a concept a new t-shirt called ‘Scared Espanda’. While on a recent trip to Spain, he had this idea for the ‘Scared Espanda’ t-shirt while watching a real live bull fight. These are his dope Photoshop skills in action.

July 15, 2010

Minnesota: Day 2

I spent today walking around my parents small Minnesota town, eating at Dairy Queen and pretty much being a tourist in the very town I grew up in. Along the way I managed to take a few pics too. These are three of my favorites and you can see the rest of them on Flickr. Hope you like em.

June 8, 2010

Food Trailers + Cupcakes

A couple of weekends ago, Scared Panda and friends headed south to Austin, Texas. One of our favorite things about traveling is, of course, the food. If you can’t tell from the three food-themed shirts we’ve produced, we love to eat. And searching out local food is such a great way to learn about a particular culture and social scene. During our time in Austin, we discovered, and fell in love with, food trailers. If you haven’t experienced this yet, please make it a point to do so. The best food we ate during our four days in the city was produced in a food trailer – tacos, crepes, snow cones, cupcakes and more. Here is a short video of Clint destroying a strawberry cupcake from Hey Cupcake! Enjoy.

- Kate