Philadelphia! Verdict: awesome. I need to go back! We didn't end up having a place to stay, so we opted to make the trek to Jersey to spend a day at...
Six Flags New Jersey, where we rode the world's tallest &fastest roller coaster, saw a zebra fight, &scoffed at garbage cans (see photo below), &it was off to...
Boston, where we stayed with one of the sweetest &most awesome girls ever, Lexie. We wandered Harvard Square, gawked at an extremely inappropriate bronze statue in the Public Gardens (also see below), &saw the Atlantic ocean.
New York City. Subways were ridden, exorbitant amounts spent on parking &toll bridges, &almost exclusively junk food ingested. Camped outside the city among deer &wild turkey part of the time, stayed with the lovely Hunter (who is as cute &sweet as a deer) the other part. Other highlights included driving through a basketball game (being played by a bunch of chubby 12 year olds in the middle of an open fire hydrant) in Brooklyn; a visit to the Museum of Natural History; a rooftop BBQ overlooking Manhattan with Hunter, the gorgeous Calamity, &some other rad kids; &an impromptu stop at Andrew W.K.'s nightclub, &then we ventured south toward...
Gatlinburg, TN to visit the ladies at the SG Mountain Vacation that Wit planned! (Kudos to her, by the way, for all her hard work! She's a crazy &beautiful soul, that one...) Me &Gadget were the undefeated champs of strip air hockey (but really, when Tovi's boobs are out, everyone's a winner), &I was beyond stoked to win the "Dangerous" card in Apples to Apples. Also present were babesicles Absolution, Maslow, Suri, Alicee, LillithVain, Brittan, Lorelei, &Dierdre! (The latter two lovelies captured a bit of the cabin magic for posterity, Dierdre's below &Lorelei's coming soon!) Our stay was full of hottubbin', Phase 10-in', &a whole lot of swooning for the girls' adorable accents. I wish we could have stayed for the rest of the Mountain Vacation, but alas...we had quite a bit more of the country to see! Later, I fell for the waitress who, our receipt revealed, labeled our table "pretty laydeez" when we stopped briefly for some grub in Memphis on the way to...
Austin, where we trolled vintage stores galore, swam (sort of) at Barton Springs, watched some bats do crazy shit, &saw Scott Pilgrim (so good!) at the Alamo Drafthouse. Everyone there was SO nice &wonderful in every way! Post-Austin, we were gonna stay in Albuquerque for a bit, but I couldn't get in touch with my friend, so we opted to keep driving toward...
Los Angeles/Orange County! Here, I thought I saw Ian Somerhalder in LA (a google-ing later, it was decided I could live with marrying a taller look-alike instead), grabbed a quick bite with Rigel &Miss Lula, had an awesome night out with Moxi &Starla, &fell even more for our Orange County hostess, Sweetheart. (Go say congrats: girly just got engaged!) Laguna Beach, Olvera Street, Griffith Park, &Amoeba were visited &conquered. Last stop...
San Francisco/Bay Area! We stayed at Chateau de ThrottleBitch&Datsun (5 stars!); spent a morning checking out tacky shit at a flea market in Oakland; enjoyed the company of Bob, Sixsixty, &so many other Bay Area friends; rode pieces of cardboard down a giant cement slide in Berkeley; &popped into Pop's to meet the charming &handsome lil_tuffy. If I were going to live anywhere else in the country, if you could somehow pry me away from Portland for longer than a few weeks, I think the East Bay would be the place for me. [/end whirlwind!]

&don't EVEN get me started on the crazy amazing food I ate in just about every city...vegan gourmet in Philly at Horizon's; raunchy vegan fast food in Brooklyn at Food Swings, &vegan ice cream sundaes in the City at Lula's Sweet Apothecary; jackfruit carnitas at Pure Luck in LA; veggie dim sum in New York City's Chinatown, which included something called "Treasure Balls"; life-changing smoothies &raw chocolates at The Daily Juice &an apple &cashew-cheese sandwich I'm still dreaming about from Counter Culture in Austin; soul food in Oakland at Souley Vegan; &dozens of cookies, cupcakes, scones, &impossibly delicious cinnamon rolls from various bakeries all over the country! I don't know HOW I'm not the size of a house, I swear...

I'm sorry I was only able to narrow it down to 120-something photos...At least I spoilerized 'em!