Hey hey!

I’ve been in America for almost two three weeks already and have already done a ton of hip, cool things. Here’s the lowdown and highlights:

texas suburbs

• visited family, lounged by a swimming pool
• authentic Texas barbecue for labor day holiday
• empanadas from a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant with @anotherpack
• attending friend’s wedding where the deejay played hits from Regina Spektor, Bon Iver and Nick Drake

downtown dallas

• lived it up for a night swimming on a rooftop at the luxurious joule hotel – review
• amazing tequila-with-ginger cocktail at charlie palmer’s restaurant – foodspotting
• summer-in-london cocktail and amazing dinner entrees (truffle mac-and-cheese!) at the cedars social – website
• visited the dallas museum of art (boring) and nasher sculpture center (cool)

road trip to austin

• rented a car at the DFW airport to visit my sister in austin, tx
• stopped for polish klobasneks at a czech bakery off the highway – photo
• mexican food & margaritas in austin at the delicious curra’s grill (try the mexican margarita!)
• authentic french crepes (savory) at le cafe crepe – my sister’s favorite!
• local beers at black star co-op – website
• texas-style sushi/fusion at roll on sushi diner – super social restaurant & awesome food

cleveland, ohio

I spent a few days exploring Cleveland and the one thing I came away with: this city is surprisingly cool! I explored several of their off-the-beaten path neighborhoods where they’ve got food trucks, polish restaurants with arcade bowling and hipstery summer festivals.

• rock-and-roll themed cocktails at the ritz carlton – you have to try the “lady gaga” one!
• learned that cleveland is hosting the 2014 gay games – gg9cle.com
• gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches at melt bar & grill with dangerous-business.com (@dangerousbiz)
• visited the rock & roll hall of fame where I watched a 3d movie from a U2 concert
• craft beer breweries, weekly food truck festivals, ethnic restaurants and amazing artwork in world-class museums

travel by the numbers

I’m counting the first two weeks of travel around America during which I visited Dallas, Austin, Cleveland and Columbus.

FOOD TRUCK FESTIVALS — 4
Dallas, Austin, Cleveland, Columbus

TRAFFIC VIOLATIONS — 1
but it was worth it…on the way to visit my niece!

EMPANADAS — 5
in the D/FW metroplex and Cleveland

CAR RENTALS — 2
to get from Dallas to Austin & back, and another to get from Cle to Columbus

SWIMMING POOLS — 3
that includes the Joule Pool, my parent’s pool and Austin’s Barton Springs pool

SEGWAY TOURS — 1
in Columbus

GAY BARS — 2
in Columbus and in Cleveland

COMPLIMENTS RECEIVED ABOUT MY CLOTHING — 9
almost entirely because of this t-shirt, no joke!

what’s coming up?

I’ve been averaging about 6 hours of sleep a night and it doesn’t look like I’ll have much time for more anytime soon. Stay tuned for snippets from my third week of hipster travel around North America which included Columbus, Toronto, Montreal and currently….Boston! A few other noteworthy things about my upcoming trip:

• i’m getting the new kindle paperwhite! pretty excited about that because it’ll make reading easier for me while i travel. the author, DC Gallin, of the novel KISS THE SKY has graciously offered me her e-book (about London in the nineties) so it won’t arrive empty!
• i’m getting an iphone but i’m so hipster, i’m skipping the iphone5 and going straight for an older model.
• i’m on my way to san francisco! i’ll be staying in the most hipstery area, the Mission, in a design hotel i expect to be very beautiful—the Hotel Abri

Be sure to follow the “Great American Hipster Project” on Twitter (@travelsofadam), Instagram, Foursquare and more!