jeff's travel log

6 January 2012: Orlando, Florida

2012-01-06T11:56:00.000-08:00

Up and atom! We got up somewhat early and went to the race expo at Disney's Wide World of Sports. You can read about the expo, and our search for some good merchandise, over at my triathlon blog. After picking up all of our stuff, we headed back to our resort for a bit and then went to Downtown Disney in search of a somewhat light lunch. We ended up at Raglan Road Irish Pub, with a website here and a TripAdvisor page here, where we sat outside and enjoyed the perfectly sunny and warm weather. I ended up with a salad with grilled chicken and a Guinness while Cindy had some salmon and a hard cider, which was delicious.

After eating and walking around a bit, we headed back to our resort and did some work preparing for the next day's half marathon. We picked up the bus and made our way to our dinner location, the Yachtsman Steakhouse (their webpage is here and TripAdvisor page is here) in Disney's Yacht Club. This is the resort we usually stay at while down at Disney, so we know it well. This steakhouse is always wonderful and this stop was no exception. I ended up with a NY Strip Steak and Cin got a filet, both of which were delicious. We had excellent service from our waiter and an overall excellent experience. Filled with delicious and healthy protein, we headed back to our resort and went to bed early...not looking forward to our 3am wakeup for the half marathon.

5 January 2012: Orlando, Florida

2012-01-05T19:31:00.000-08:00

I didn't take any real time off during the holidays, so once everyone got back to work and my team started back into the normal schedule, I figured it was time for a vacation! Actually...Cin and I headed down to Orlando to complete Goofy's Race and a Half Challenge, where we would run the Disney Half Marathon on Saturday and then the full Disney Marathon on Sunday, totaling 39.3mi over two days. Yep, it's pretty goofy. :) Anyway, on with the show.

We worked on Thursday and had our friend Danny pick us up in the afternoon to go to BWI. A quick trip through the ticket counter to drop off our luggage and a no-hassels trip through security and we ended up at Obryckis for a late-lunch/early-dinner. The original location of this place is in Baltimore and is well known for the crabcakes and assorted dishes; that location closed earlier in 2011 so the airport location is the only one remaining (their webpage is here). I had a crabcake and Cin had crab sliders, all of which was awesome. We then boarded our flight and ended up in the very last row with another girl who was going down for her first marathon. We chatted for a bit and I did some reading (REAMDE by Neal Stephenson) and the flight passed very quickly. After landing, we headed to Disney's Magical Express, the free bus service from the airport to our Disney resort. This is a great service and includes luggage service so you don't even need to pick up your bags from the baggage claim; they are intercepted and sent directly to your room. A quick and relaxing bus ride and we were at our resort, Disney's Port Orleans Riverside.

This was our first time at Port Orleans Riverside (their webpage is here and their TripAdvisor page is here). We usually stay at Disney's Beach Club resort but went with this one this time to save some money. Port Orleans is a middle-range Disney resort while the Beach Club is a high-end one (more about the tiers and the differences between them will be coming in a later entry...stay tuned!). It's a nice place. We checked in with no issues and then walked to our room. Riverside is a sprawling resort and we wandered around, following the signs to our room number for quite some time before finding it and realizing a much easier and quicker route. :) The room was pretty basic but functional...and had two double beds. Ugh...not ideal for two married folks who needed relaxing sleep due to the races! Oh well.

After getting settled, we walked to the boat stop and headed out to Downtown Disney. Riverside runs a boat down to the Downtown area that takes about 20min or so. In the very dark (as it was by this time), you really cannot see a thing and we were very impressed with our boat driver (and wondering what it was we were floating past!). Once at Downtown, we found the Rainforest Cafe (webpage is here and TripAdvisor page is here) for dinner. They used to have one of these in Towson, Maryland, that we enjoyed quite a bit but that closed a few years back. I had a burger and Cin had a soup and salad combo, both of which were tasty but somewhat overpriced compared to other Rainforest Cafes (gotta love the Disney price bump!). I also ordered a Sam Adams but that ended up being the seasonal...and they were serving Noble Pils early (it's usually not out until the end of January). This is one of the favorite beers so that was an excellent find! After eating, we stolled around a bit and then caught the bus back to Riverside, tired and ready for bed...eager to hit the race expo the next morning!

Summary - 2011 in Hawaii (Oahu and Big Island)

2011-08-21T06:55:00.000-07:00

Big vacation time, to Hawaii this year! This set of travellog entries documents the trip. If you have any comments or questions, drop a comment here and I'll get back to you.

Enjoy reading!

Day 1: The Trip Out -- A long trip.

Day 2: We're a Platypus -- First day on Oahu, on Waikiki Beach. On the beach, they don't do much.

Day 3: Pearl Harbor -- Lots to see and do at the Arizona memorial, the U.S.S. Bowfin visit and submarine museum, and a local burger joint.

Day 4: North Shore -- Hiking Diamond Head Crater, finding the new Disney resort, the Dole pineapple plantation, an awesome North Shore bar, finding the LOST beach, soooo many huge sea turtles, and a delicious steak dinner. Whew, what a day!

Day 5: Waikiki Beach

Day 6: To The Movies -- Movie filming locations, a Buddhist temple, Sharks' Cove, and an awesome bar with yards of beer.

Day 7: To Kona! -- Interisland travel and our awesome new resort.

Day 8: Running -- A run on the Ironman World Championships course, an awesome lunch, and some relaxing in the lagoon.

Day 9: The Wet Side -- Helicopter ride over volcanoes, finding waterfalls, a great little lunch place, and more volcanoes!

Day 10: Swimming -- Swimming with sea life in the lagoon, a torch-lighting runner, and an awesome dinner round out our last full day in Hawaii.

Day 11: Farewell...for now -- Back home we go...

Special Appendix: Running in Kona -- Triathlete thoughts on running on the same course as the legends in our sport.

18-19 August 2011: Waikoloa, Kona, and Honolulu, Hawaii, DFW Airport, and Baltimore, Maryland

2011-08-19T00:48:00.000-07:00

We got up somewhat early on our last day in Hawaii and went to the pool at our resort to spent a little more time in the sun. We hadn't been to the pool yet, nor had we ridden the waterslide, so we opted to do that instead of going to the lagoon again. About an hour and a half later, we had some reading completed and each of us had ridden the waterslide, so we went back to our room, showered off, packed up, and headed out. Goodbye, Hilton Waikoloa Village...you are an awesome resort.

We drove into Kona and spent a good amount of time in traffic, as there was a funeral procession going on for a Hawaiian native who was one of the Navy SEALs killed in action a few weeks ago during the horrible helicopter crash in Afghanistan. We eventually made our way into Kona and went back to the Kona Pub and Brewery for lunch, which was good. Yes, I know I shouldn't go to the same place twice while traveling like this, but we knew where it was, knew it would be fast and we would like it, and we were a little time crunched. So, oh well. Afterwards, we went back to the Kona airport, checked our luggage (Hawaiian Airlines was able to check our backs all the way back to BWI even though we flew them to Honolulu and then American Airlines all the way back...how cool is that?), and got on our very short and uneventful flight to Honolulu.

Then, we waited. We were supposed to spent about an hour in Honolulu and that turned into about five, due to a large delay. We spent that time working (I wrote more in the book I am writing) and then in the airport bar, which had decent food for an airport and also enabled me to get a few more Kona beers on draft. We eventually took off and then spent eight hours in the airplane, unable to sleep. We did some more work and played some games and eventually we landed in DFW. We gave way for those that were trying to making connections (remember, we were about 3.5hr late at this point) and then made our way off the plane, happy to be standing. :)

We ate lunch at the Blue Mesa Taco Bar (their website is here) where I had tacos and Cin had avocado quesadillas, both of which were good. We then got on our flight to Baltimore and arrived with no problems, having watched a bunch of How I Met Your Mother on the laptop. Good times. Our friend Mo picked us up at the airport and that's that. Vacation over. Awesome vacation over.

17 August 2011: Waikoloa, Hawaii

2011-08-17T14:57:00.000-07:00

After yesterday’s day of activity, and since today is out last full day in Hawaii, we opted to stay at the Hilton Waikoloa Village and just relax. We woke up late and headed directly to the lagoon where we snagged some lounge chairs in a good location (but not under an umbrella as all of those spots were already taken). After relaxing and reading for a little while, we went up to the lagoon-side bar and got some lunch. I got a burger and Cin a chicken sandwich, both of which were surprisingly good. This bar also offers a great view of the dolphin area, where they have dolphin encounter programming going on pretty much every day. It’s awesome to see the dolphins and how great they are with kids and such, but they have a lot of dolphins in a fairly small space. I really hope they like it there.

After lunch, we spent the entire afternoon reading and occasionally swimming in the lagoon. The lagoon is really interesting as it is connected to the ocean and full of sea life that you go and swim with. I swam with some big fish and then some big sea turtles. I same over one that was on the bottom eating away and then swam alongside another one for about 10yd until he swam underneath the waterfall; I did not follow him anymore as I couldn’t see well due to the waterfall and did not want to run into him or any other turtles.

Swam right over this guy!

This is just before I lost him under the waterfall.

I also swam alongside some really thin fish that were the same type that I swam a lot with during my honeymoon in Bora Bora. Cin and I have taken to calling these fish my Friends and I like that name.

My Friends. Good to see you again, buddies!

We eventually got to move under an umbrella once a family left theirs and spent the rest of the afternoon just reading and relaxing.

In the early evening, we headed back to our room and cleaned up for dinner. As we were walking over to dinner, we heard a conch shell noise and then watched as a Hawaiian guy, dressed up in full tribal attire, ran around the entire resort (this place is huge) lighting all of the torches on property with his torch (they are supplied with natural gas and by running past with the torch, he lit them). This was awesome to see and coincided with the sunset…what an awesome thing to do every night.

The torch lighter is on the right, running along the path.

We arrived at our dinner reservations, at the Kamuela Provision Company, the high-end restaurant at the Hilton (their website is here and their TripAdvisor page is here) and were shown to our table that was outside and had an awesome view of the just-set sun. The sky was amazing and gradually got darker over our meal. We each had salads (Cin a tomato one and me a mixed local organic greens one) and then I ate grilled mahi mahi with wilted spinach while Cin had pasta with vegetables and mahi mahi as well. We both really enjoyed our dinners.

After dinner, we went to the main resort bar and got drinks and cupcakes, the perfect dessert for our day. We ate, drank, and enjoyed the live music. The perfect end to a great, and very relaxing, day.

16 August 2011: Waikoloa, Hilo, and Volcano, Hawaii

2011-08-16T14:57:00.000-07:00

We woke up nice and early for a long day of sightseeing. We left our resort and headed north into Waikoloa Village. We found the Kaukau Depot (their website/Facebook page is here and their TripAdvisor page is here), which is just across the street from the main Waikoloa Shopping Center. This place is a small joint and all of the people there (except for us) knew each other. They were all crazy friendly and a lot of fun to be around. We got some breakfast, me some pancakes and bacon and Cin some French Toast, all of which was awesome (but with huge portion sizes!). If you’re looking for a good breakfast with lots of cool people, check this place out. It doesn’t look like much from the outside (or the inside), but the food and the people are great.

We then drove across the top portion of the Big Island, eventually ending up in Hilo, the other big town on the island besides Kona. Hilo is older, more “forgotten” (there are a lot of closed storefronts and other similar things), and much more rainy. Apparently, the average yearly rainfall in Kona is four inches and the average yearly rainfall in Hilo is eleven feet. Wowsers. Anyway, we headed to the Hilo Airport for our helicopter tour with Blue Hawaiian Helicopters. This was amazing. We flew down to the volcanoes and the lava spills and saw so much. We saw so many lava spills from the air, we saw where an entire town had been wiped out from an eruption, we saw active lava, and we saw where most of a town had been except for one house and a section of road in front of it, which is now rented out as a very expensive vacation get-a-way, with the primary access only via helicopter. So cool. If you are looking for a way to see the volcanic nature of the Big Island, check out Blue Hawaiian Helicopters. We flew on their Eco-Star aircraft with Captain Ray, who was amazing and did an awesome job showing us the volcanic nature of Hawaii. I simply cannot say enough about how awesome this adventure was.

Lava goes all the way to the coast.

There is a (small) active lava flow from these.

Active lava flow.

More active lava flow.

There used to be a town under here. All the residents evacuated.

Awesome shot of the Big Island's eastern coast.

After the helicopter ride, we went back into downtown Hilo and got lunch at a local joint named Café Pesto (their webpage is here and their TripAdvisor page is here). I had a pizza and Cin had a smoked turkey sandwich, both of which were awesome. She also got a salad, which was all organic and local greens and a sweet bail pesto dressing that was just amazing. I still regret not getting one. After an awesome lunch, we went and found a couple waterfalls in the Hilo area, seeing Rainbow Falls, the Boiling Pots, Peepee Falls, and then Akaka Falls, all of which were pretty good. Akaka Falls, by far, takes the cake…this is an awesome sight to see!

Me, with Akaka Falls in the background.

Cin and Akaka Falls.

This is a BIG waterfall.

Done with waterfalls, we headed down to Volcano. Along the way, we took a 4mi scenic route around Onomea Bay, north of Hilo, that did have some very scenic views and we saw a lot of very high-end houses…pretty cool. We entered the Hawaiian Volcanoes National Park, saw the steam vents (so warm!), and then the sulphur vents, where lots of lots of sulphur was thrust into the air. So cool to see. Then, we found the Kilauea Crater and saw some awesome steam coming off of that. Next up was the Thurston Lava Tube, which was located in the middle of a rain forest region that was awesome to hike through (both the rain forest and the lava tube). Then, back to the Kilauea Crater at sunset (around 7.30pm), as the loss of sunlight turned the steam into a very reddish/orangeish spectacle. Lots and lots of people had shown up at this point near the Jaggar Museum in the park to see this and it was totally worth the effort. It was also quite cold at this point, so bring a sweatshirt if you choose to do this...I brought three on this trip and brought none on this drive, so I was out of luck, which meant I was freezing while Cin took some (awesome) pictures.

This only made me want to go in more.

Sulphur venting.

Kilauea Crater, with bonus rainbow.

Us at the entrance to the Thurston Lava Tube.

Me, in the Thurston Lava Tube.

The Kilauea Crater at sundown...the color change was awesome!

After seeing the volcanoes, we headed back to Hilo (Volcano to Hilo is about one hour in driving time, 45min if you’re speedy but the roads are quite twisty and turny). We stopped for dinner at a place right outside the Hilo Airport named Ken’s, which is a diner that came recommended from the guy at our resort that set up our helicopter tour (their webpage is here and their TripAdvisor page is here). This place was all right…the menu is huge and the food, well, diner-ish. It’s a diner and that’s that. Cin had a grilled cheese sandwich and I had a beef dish with fries. Normal diner type stuff.

A long drive back (it is about two hours from Hilo to Waikoloa) and we parked the Jeep. When we did so, we noticed that there were cats in the parking lot of the Hilton…lots of cats. We noticed a cat before at the Kona Brewery and Pub and then another one at the Hilton earlier. It seems that the big island has a lot of cats, all of which come out at night. Bizarre. Anyway, we walked back to the room and collapsed on the bed…such a long (and awesome!) day!

15 August 2011: Waikoloa and Kona, Hawaii

2011-08-15T14:56:00.000-07:00

Today, we got up and walked the mile down the road from our resort to the local coffee shop named in honor of the Hawaiian god of coffee, Starbuck. :) Anyway, after a decently small breakfast, we got into the Jeep and drove the 25mi or so down to Kona. Now, if you know anything about triathlon (me and Cin are both triathletes), you know that Kona is the site of the Ironman World Championships every year, so this place has special significance for us. If you’d like to read about our experience there, and our run along part of the course, check it out over in my other blog, Tri, Jeff, Tri!

After we finished our run, we ate lunch at a cool place on Ali’i Drive called the Fish Hopper Restaurant (their website is here and their TripAdvisor page is here). Cin had a Kona Cobb Salad, which she really enjoyed, and I had some panko-crusted Ono, which was my first experience with Ono, a local Hawaiian fish. Delicious! They also had really good iced tea here, which we each drunk about ten glasses of after our run on the Kona course, and great service from Cisco, our bartender and server. After lunch, we checked out some shopping in downtown Kona. Kona reminds me of any other little beach town that I’ve ever been in and has escaped commercialism thus far. It’s awesome and a great place to visit with a lot of old world charm, even more so than Haleiwa on Oahu. If you’re on the Big Island, spend some time in the town of Kona…even if you’re not a triathlete, you’ll love it.

After Kona, we drove back to the Hilton and rested up a bit. We then booked a helicopter tour ride for the next day to see the active lava flows (sounds awesome!) and spent some time relaxing on lounge chairs right off the lagoon in the center of the resort. This Hilton features a huge lagoon that is awesome for swimming and other watersports, and even has a section with a dolphin encounter and you can see the dolphins swimming around in their area in the evening. Very sweet.

We spent an hour and a half or so there and then went back to our room, cleaned up again, and went to dinner at Bella Vista, an Italian joint at the Hilton. This place was decent…we both had make-your-own-pasta with variations on tomato sauce and meatballs, along with salad. Pretty good food and good service as well. After dinner, we headed to the main lounge in the resort and each had a drink while listening to the band they had in, which was really good. Then, a short boat ride back to our room area, some TV watching, and off to bed.

14 August 2011: Honolulu, Waikoloa, and Kona, Hawaii

2011-08-14T14:56:00.000-07:00

Today, we woke up and got the hot breakfast option before walking back over to the Hilton Hawaiian Village and doing some shopping, sitting on the beach, and taking some pictures. We then cleaned up and checked out of the Doubletree before driving to the airport.

The Doubletree is a perfectly good hotel and the Waikiki Doubletree is just like pretty much every other Doubletree. It is not a resort, but a good hotel. So, if are looking for a place to sleep and a good base for your explorations of Oahu, it is a fine choice. If you are looking to spend some serious time at your hotel, it is not appropriate. Just understand this. If you’re OK being across the street from a resort, and saving some money due to not actually staying there, then it’s a great choice. The service is great as well…I cannot say that enough.

Anyway, we returned the car and checked in for our flight to Kona on the Big Island. We split a Chesapeake Bay style crabcake sandwich at the airport bar…just to try it, since we are from Maryland and know crabcakes. It was actually not that bad. A short plane ride later (about 30 minutes) and we landed on the Big Island of Hawaii.

We got our rental car (free upgrade to a 4x4 Jeep Liberty!) and drove up to our accommodations, the Hilton Waikoloa Village (their website is here and their TripAdvisor page is here). Now this is a resort! This Hilton reminded both Cin and I of the places we stayed at in Bora Bora for our honeymoon. There are multiple pools, a massive natural lagoon to swim in, awesome views, a crazy comfortable room, and many, many, other things. This place is easily one of the nicest places we have ever stayed. Score. :)

After we got settled, we got back in the Jeep and drove the 25mi or so into Kona, where we found the Kona Pub and Brewer (their website is here and their TripAdvisor page is here). I’ve been drinking Kona beers since we got here and loved them (they have bottles of it back home, but never on draft) and this place came highly recommended from others who have been here before, so we were all about it. I got a beer sampler of four types I had not had before, including two IPAs (their Fire Rock Pale Ale is common and available in most places, but not their IPA), one that is a normal brew and one seasonal variation, both of which were awesome. I ended up getting a custom pizza with Cajun Tomato sauce…and it kicked my ass. So hot and spicy, I spent a good amount of time wiping sweat off of myself. Wowsers.

We drove back after dinner and spent the rest of the evening relaxing and watching TV ... and the amazing sunsets you get here.

This resort is amazing…and the perfect place to spent the second part of our vacation.

13 August 2011: Honolulu, Hawaii and North Shore, Hawaii

2011-08-13T21:12:00.000-07:00

Today, we woke up and got some breakfast before heading out for our first event of the day, the Movie Sites and Ranch tour at the Kualoa Ranch that we had found two days prior. Basically, this ranch has a huge amount of land and multiple movies shoot here, including Jurassic Park, Pearl Harbor, and Godzilla (and some episodes of LOST and the new Hawaii Five-O). This tour takes an hour or so and you get to see where many of the iconic scenes from these movies were films, including the dead tree that Doctor Grant and the kids hide behind during the dinosaur stampede in Jurassic Park. Cool stuff. After the tour, we got a snack and then headed out.

On the tour, awesome view in the background.

This bunker was created when this was a military installation. Now, it houses a collection of movie stuff and was also one of the Dharma bunkers in LOST.

The valley of the dinosaur stampede from Jurassic Park.

This may be the most famous dead tree ever.

Hiding from the dinosaur stampede!

Our next stop was the Byodo-In Temple. This is a replica of the famous Buddhist temple in Japan, recreated in the Valley of the Temples on Oahu. I went here the last time I was on Oahu and loved it, so I wanted to bring Cin here. We sat in the temple for a bit, rang the giant bell outside, and took some awesome pictures of the animals on the ground, including some massive black swans, other birds, fish, and what looked like wild ferrets.

After the temple, we drove up to the North Shore, with the intention of spending a decent amount of time at a nice, awesome beach. We stopped at the Crouching Lion Inn for dinner where we both had perfectly decent meals. Pretty unremarkable place with regard to the food, but it had good service and great views. There was also a very small (maybe a dozen of people or so) wedding reception going on in the bar, which was pretty cool. Anyway, we then finished the drive up to the North Shore and spent a good hour and a half at Sharks’s Cove, which is a cove enclosed by rocks and some openings to the ocean. There are no sharks, but there are fish and other animals as well as lots and lots of rocks. It is hard to walk around in there, but the views are amazing and the water feels great. The area is wonderful and somewhat busy, but not the extent that Waikiki is. This is a great beach and a wonderful place to spend some time…I wish I had brought my snorkel to explore it more fully. If you’re looking for an awesome beach on Oahu, I highly recommend this one.

We headed back to Waikiki and on the way back, while driving down Interstate H2, we saw some wild boar off to the side of the road…awesome. We cleaned up and then, after a brief walk later, we were are the Yard House on Lewes Street in Waikiki, a place that prides itself on its selection of over 100 beers on draft (their website is here and their TripAdvisor page is here). This is even more impressive to see than it sounds. I ended up with a Hawaiian fish, salad, and rice dish and Cin had a good sandwich and great salad. Oh, and I ordered a yard of beer…which is a three foot tall glass that holds 32oz of beer. I had an IPA I have never heard of (and do not remember the name of) and drank it all. And then…I had a second yard of beer. I finished it all and was so glad we walked to this dinner. ;)

We walked back and watched some more TV before bed…our last night on Oahu.

12 August 2011: Honolulu, Hawaii

2011-08-12T20:47:00.000-07:00

We woke up late and went down to Jimmy Buffett’s At the Beachcomber Bar (their website is here and their TripAdvisor page is here). Being serious Parrotheads, Cin and I were stoked to be there. We ended up getting some beers and lunch items off the menu…all of which were okay but nothing to write home about. Cin’s sandwich advertised a good quality type of lettuce…and came with iceberg. The same was true with most of what we got…it was generic food in place of higher end stuff and the higher end price tag was still attached. The service was really good, and the chips with salsa, queso, and guacamole appetizer was delicious, but otherwise this was pretty lame. Jimmy, if you still care about what you put your name on, please fix this place.

Between lunch and dinner, we spent time on Waikiki and an incident occurred. Cin and I are fine. But, out of respect for others involved, I’m not going to write about this. I’m sorry but that’s the way this is going to be.

Anyway, afterwards, we headed to Duke’s (again, their website is here and their TripAdvisor page is here) for dinner, having secured a reservation a few days before. The service was amazing…it reminded me of Bloody Mary’s in Bora Bora. I ended up with Huli Huli Chicken and Cin got the salad bar. We had some excellent drinks and then walked back before heading to the Doubletree to clean up. We then went back to the Hilton to view the Aloha Friday evening fireworks, which seemed pretty awesome but we missed the bulk of (I thought they started at 8pm but they started at 7.45pm). After they were done, we headed back and went to bed…ready for a new day tomorrow.

11 August 2011: Honolulu, Hawaii and North Short, Hawaii

2011-08-11T20:41:00.000-07:00

Early to rise today! We got up around 5.30am and drove out to Diamond Head Crater. This is a very large (over 350 acres) crater that has a hiking trail where you leave from the center of the crater and climb up around 525ft over a trail of 0.8mi. It’s a decent climb and provides a pretty good leg workout. We got there a little before they opened at 6am and joined the busloads of tourists that all climbed up. We got to the top a little before 6.30am, which was a little after sunrise, and got some really amazing views and pictures. Awesome way to start the morning.

We then drove back to our hotel, got the upgraded breakfast again (only one omelet today, but I did get some eggs in addition J) before setting out to do some island exploring. We drove all the way to the end of Interstate H1 and went looking for the new Disney resort on Oahu, the Aulani (yes, both Cin and I are big Disney geeks). This is on the southwestern portion of the island and is in what looks to be a private community region with lots of high-end hotels and a really nice golf course. We found the Aulani but were prompted denied access, as they are not open yet (they open the week after we leave Hawaii…we investigated this before we flew in). We figured it may be possible to get a tour or perhaps a restaurant was open, but all of these routes proved fruitless. We did get a decent look at it and it looks pretty awesome.

From there, we headed up Interstate H2 towards the North Shore. Once the Interstate ended, we ended up on a state highway and drove up to the Dole pineapple plantation, where we stopped. We spent a good two hours here, taking the train tour through working pineapple fields and then the walking garden tour where we saw all sorts of plants and crops that are grown here. This was not a planned stop but proved to be very cool…we both learned quite a bit about pineapples and the history of pineapples in Hawaii.

We then headed north into Haleiwa, the famous North Shore town. We walked around the marketplace, which proved pretty uninteresting, and then found a bar for lunch as we were both starving at this point. This place, the Breakers Restaurant and Bar (their webpage is here and their TripAdvisor page is here) was pretty awesome. The barstaff and the two other guys are the bar all seemed local and were talking about some celebrities that had been in the previous week (two of the Baldwin brothers). We both got salads, caprese salads with avocado, that came with a homemade balsamic dressing on it and some garlic cloves, both of which were amazingly good. The Kona Fire Rock Pale Ale was also quite good. :)

After lunch, we decided to search out the beach where they filmed LOST. Yes, yes, I know. But we really loved that show and wanted to find it. Cin found a location that seemed to be about right, a few miles outside of Haleiwa, and we drove there, parking on a street with a blue “Public Right of Way to Beach” sign for a path running between two big yards with horses in them. We walked down and found a beautiful, empty, beach, but not one that we recognized from the show. It was awesome looking and very clean and crisp. We chilled out for a bit here and three people riding horses walked by; pretty cool.

I did a little Internet research and found a much more likely location (here you go, for those of you that are interested) and we walked back to the car and drove out there. We found this location was off another dead-end residential road, with awesome looking, and very expensive looking, houses on it. We found another Public Right of Way sign and walked down another thin path to another amazing looking beach. There were some folks here, but not many, and the awesome-looking houses all looked right onto the sand. This. Is. Paradise. And it is also what you may think of when you think of classical Hawaii. We walked for fifteen minutes or so in the direction where LOST filming was to occur and then we saw this huge sea turtle climb out of the water up onto the beach to sun himself. Watching this happen was amazing…simply amazing.

As we walked, we saw many more turtles, both on the sand and in the water. So awesome to see and well worth the trip out to this beach. We think we found where filming occurred…it matched the pictures I found on the Internet and looked somewhat familiar, so that’s pretty cool. Without much there, it is hard to see more than an amazingly beautiful beach. This area is really awesome…it’s in sharp contrast to Waikiki with its hordes of tourists and activities. This is a largely untouched and pristine beach and finding a location like this (or the previous one) is well worth your time if you come to Oahu and want to find a paradise like this.

After we hiked back to our car, we proceeded to drive northeast and around most of Oahu, seeing many small towns and such along the way. We also came across the Kualoa Ranch, where a lot of movies and television shows have been filmed (including Jurassic Park and, yes, parts of LOST). This is also an active ranch with lots of cattle raised here (more about that in a second). All of the tours and activities were done for the day by the time we got here, but we planned to go back. A short drive later and we arrived back at our hotel, very tired.

We did clean up a bit and then head out to the Chart House (their webpage is here and their TripAdvisor page is here) for dinner. This is a chain of restaurants in Hawaii, but this was the original location. This place reminds me of many seafood restaurants back home in Ocean City, Maryland, and has an old-school feel to it. They have an extensive menu of fresh seafood and steaks. Cin got garlic steak, which is steak cooked and the marinated in garlic and spices, which she loved. I ended up getting a 16oz bone-in New York Strip, which was locally raised, grass-fed, beef from the Kualoa Ranch. It is very rare to find grass-fed beef and the health and taste benefits of it are well known. Now, I’ve had a good amount of steak over the years and this steak … was one of the best I have ever had. It was awesome. So, if you are looking for an amazing steak dinner, go to the Chart House and get this. You will not regret it.

After dinner, we hiked back to the hotel and watched some TV before bed. What a long day…full of great adventures!

10 August 2011: Honolulu, Hawaii

2011-08-10T21:47:00.000-07:00

We ended up sleeping in a bit today. As we were planning to be out for most of the day, we opted to upgrade our breakfast from the free Continental version to the full breakfast, which includes made-to-order omelets, Belgian waffles, bacon, potatoes, and so on. The omelets proved to be delicious and I had two, one with bacon and tomatoes and one with only tomatoes. Delicious.

After breakfast, we got our car and drove out to Pearl Harbor, which was our plan for the day. Driving a Mustang convertible down Interstate H1 was awesome…I’m really glad we got this car. :) After we arrived at Pearl Harbor, we got the lay of the land. The Arizona Memorial is free and then there are three other attractions that you need to pay for, a visit to the U.S.S. Missouri, a visit to the U.S.S. Bowfin with submarine museum, and the Pacific Aviation Museum. We opted to do the first two but pass on the aviation museum. As this ended up being a long day, this was a pretty good idea.

The Arizona Memorial, which is the central site here, is free but you need to get tickets, which are time stamped. We got our tickets a little before 10am and they were good for 12.30pm, so we opted to go to the U.S.S. Bowfin first. This is an attack submarine that was first launched shortly after the Pearl Harbor attacks and was known as the Pearl Harbor Avenger, due to the sheer number of Japanese ships she sank. We walked all of the way through the submarine with the same audio tour devices that we used in Europe a few years back at pretty much all of the self-guided tours. Seeing this was really cool. After the submarine tour, we went into the submarine museum, which included a history of submarine warfare. In a previous career, I did some design work on some stuff that was for the Virginia-class fast attack submarines (the current line of fast attacks in the U.S. Navy) and the Virginia-class was the last exhibit here…that was awesome to see, especially since the U.S.S. Virginia (and the U.S.S. Hawaii) is currently in active service. We also saw a bunch of other cool exhibits, including a massive Japanese piloted torpedo. All of the Bowfin stuff was really cool and if you are at all interested in submarine warfare, this is a must.

The U.S.S. Bowfin

Me, driving.

At the bow.

After the Bowfin, we headed over to the Arizona memorial after Cin took some pictures. This site starts off with a 25min or so video that explains the history of Pearl Harbor and the Japanese attack. Then, we filed on to a boat that took us out to the memorial, which is a floating structure over the sunken hull of the U.S.S. Arizona. You can see a few portions of the hull that rise out of the water (such as a gun turret) and can make out the outline of the main hull, which sits under water. There is also a constant oil spill out of the hull, going since the ship was sunk and expected to go for another 30 to 35 years...that's just amazing (horrible, but amazing). You spent about 15min or so on the memorial and then the next boat takes you back. This was awesome to see and a very fitting tribute to the individuals that lost their lives onboard and who are still entombed within. Following Navy tradition, those that are entombed within the Arizona are still listed as on Active Duty.

The Arizona memorial.

Those that were entombed with the U.S.S. Arizona.

After the Arizona, we headed over to the U.S.S. Missouri, which is on Ford Island, near where the Arizona hull rests. We boarded a shuttle bus that took us directly to it, which was a nice and short ride. The U.S.S. Missouri was the last active battleship to be decommissioned and is also the site where Japanese leaders signed the Instrument of Surrender that ended World War II. After being decommissioned for nearly thirty years, she was recommissioned and modernized during the Cold War and now rests as a floating museum. This was a self-guided tour and we spent a good hour or so walking the ship, seeing what life was like onboard, seeing the massive guns that can fire a round over 20 miles, and all sorts of other things. So much more room onboard a battleship that a submarine. After exploring, we got back on the shuttle and went back to the main center, having spent a good amount of the day here.

Approach to the Mighty Mo.

Sleeping in an enlisted bunk.

Computing Center, with custom artwork!

R2D2, eh?

Do NOT mess with my wife.

We headed back to the hotel and took a bit of a rest. We then opted to walk up the street a bit to Cheeseburger Waikiki (their webpage is here and their TripAdvisor page is here), which is pretty much what you would expect based on the name. Cin had a burger stuffed with cheddar cheese and avocado and I had a BBQ bacon burger. Cin really liked her burger and mine was decent but pretty unremarkable. Our waiter also forgot our appetizer, which was somewhat disappointing. All in all, this place was all right but I’ve had better burgers before. After dinner, we went over to the ice cream place in the Hilton Hawaiian Village and got some dessert before bed. Then, off to sleep, planning to get up early to hike up Diamondhead in the morning.

9 August 2011: Honolulu, Hawaii

2011-08-09T23:57:00.000-07:00

We slept for over eleven hours and went downstairs for our free breakfast (one of the perks of Diamond status in the Hilton HHonors program :)). We then hiked over to Waikiki and relaxed on the beach, reading, for around seven hours, taking a good hour or so off in the middle for lunch at the nice poolside bar of the Hilton. The water here is beautiful, very clear and not as warm as you might think…it is very refreshing, especially in the really hot temperatures that you get when you’re sitting in the sun for so long. I spent a good amount of time in the water, swimming out pretty far and then just floating on my back for a while, eyes closed. Such a refreshing and relaxing feeling.

On the way back from the beach, once the heat got unbearable, we found the menu and a very helpful gentleman from Sergio’s Italian Table, the Italian restaurant at the Hilton (their webpage is here), and decided to set up a reservation for the night for dinner before heading back to the Doubletree to shower and rest up. After walking back, we had our dinner and both of us ordered off of the sunset special menu, which is a salad, entrée, and dessert, for $19.50. I had Spaghetti Bolognese, which was pretty good and got a large portion size. The set dessert was tiramsu, which was decent but this would not be the first choice for either Cin or myself. In total, the dinner was good but not great. The service, however, was awesome.

After dinner, we walked around the shops in the Hilton Hawaiian Village and stopped at the Tapa Bar, which is a really nice outdoor bar in the middle of the resort, for some delicious after-dinner drinks. A short walk back to the Doubletree and we watched a little television before deciding to head off to bed.

8 August 2011: BWI Airport, DFW Airport, and Honolulu, Hawaii

2011-08-08T23:54:00.000-07:00

It’s the middle of August…you know what that means…time for vacation. After Cin’s summer job ended, we had a few weeks until she went back to teaching school, so off we go! We spent all weekend before working at a friend’s brand new duathlon event that went off very well but left both of us exhausted. So we spent Sunday evening packing up and then collapsed on the bed, only to be woken up nice and early by the alarm on Monday morning. We put our luggage in the truck and drove to my parents’ house and my mom then took us to BWI airport for our flights, first to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and then on to our final destination of Honolulu, Hawaii.

The drop-off went without a hitch, we breezed through security, and then got a decent breakfast at the Rams Head Tavern location within the airport that consisted of omelets that were much better than expected. Nice. We then boarded our flight to DFW, which was a very pleasant flight where I got a decent amount of writing in…in fun news, I’m now writing a book! My proposal to a major technology published company was accepted so now I’m writing. Combine that with everything else I’m doing these days and this vacation is all that much more needed. J

Once at DFW, we walked around a bit and found that the best restaurants in this airport are in the D concourse. C, where we arrived into, is pretty lacking, but D has awesome choices. We ate at one of the Mexican joints here last time we were in this airport but this time chose to eat at the Tigin Irish Pub (their webpage is here), where I had some Guinness BBQ wings and Cin had a roast beef and cheddar sandwich. I also had two Black and Golds, which is Guinness and Stella Artois, which was delicious. We then headed over to our gate and boarded our flight to Honolulu, which took off after only a slight delay due to a malfunctioning latch on an overhead bin.

The flight to Honolulu, which takes about eight and a half hours, was as long as it sounds. I did some more writing for my book and worked on some other projects I am currently working on until I had exhausted the battery on my Macbook Pro. Booooo. I did watch the first of the two movies on the flight, Thor, and found it much better than expected. Then I played some games on my iPad and just relaxed a bit, until we finally landed, me with some very tired eyes due to staring at so many screens for so long.

Despite traveling for over fourteen hours, it was only 4.30pm when we landed in Honolulu and brightly sunny. We picked up our rental car, a red, convertible, Mustang, and drove to Waikiki, where we were staying for this leg of our trip (six nights on Oahu and four on the Big Island). We eventually found our hotel, the Doubletree Alana Hotel (their website is here and their TripAdvisor page is here). This hotel is a pretty standard Doubletree. It is, however, right across the street from the Hilton Hawaiian Village (their webpage is here and their TripAdvisor page is here), which is right on Waikiki Beach. I had stayed at the Hilton the last two times I was here and loved it. The Doubletree proved to be cheaper and only a quick three minute walk from the Hilton and the beach, which made it a good choice. Note, however, that this hotel is not directly on the beach and feels like a pretty standard Doubletree, so be prepared for that should you choose to stay here.

After we checked in, we walked over to the Hilton and then down Waikiki for a while to go to Duke’s Barefoot Bar and Restaurant (their webpage is here and their TripAdvisor page is here), which is a staple of Oahu and in a beautiful location right on the beach. The wait for a table was over an hour and the bar area pretty crowded, so we opted to just get a drink and then headed back towards our hotel. I had a Kona Pale Ale, which was delicious. We stopped at the beachside bar at the Sheridan on the way back and had dinner, which was delicious. I had two Primo beers and a beef hotdog for dinner and Cin had a sandwich that was also quite good and a delicious fruity concoction. We then walked all the way back and went up to our room, where we promptly showered and went to sleep, exhausted.

17 May 2011: Orlando, Florida

2011-05-17T08:55:00.000-07:00

Cin and I slept in, still very tired but having slept very well. We headed down to the shop in the Beach Club and got French Toast sticks for breakfast (another quick service meal on the dining plan). We then headed out to Epcot via the Friendship boats and learned that the boats drop you off at an entrance to the park back in the World Showcase, as opposed to the front where the giant sphere is. Interesting...this is also the entrance to the park that we used when we ran the Disney Marathon back in 2010, something we did not recognize until now.

We went up to Soarin', one of my most favorite rides ever (if you haven't done this, it is worth the price of admission to Epcot alone...you are suspended in front of a huge screen with simulated landscape flyovers so it makes you feel like you are soaring over some very famous places...sheer awesomeness!), and both rode it and got Fastpasses for later. After that, we checked out some of the Innoventions stations and then headed back to Italy in the World Showcase for our first of two Italian meals of the day...at the new brick oven pizza place, Via Napoli (their TripAdvisor page is here). This is a new place, that just opened in the past year, with a menu that has pasta and such but is clearly focused on their pizza. Cin and I split an appetizer that was fried risoto and mozzarella balls and then a large pizza which was very thin, very saucy, and had fresh mozzarella that was a little less generous (basically, just how I love fresh Italian pizza). It was delicious and provided quite a meal. Via Napoli itself was really cool and they have three ovens, each of which has its own name. Cool, very cool.

From here, we went to the front of the park and picked up the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom. Initially, we had planned to split the previous day between Hollywood Studios and the Magic Kingdom, but then Star Tours was open and our Imagineer lunch was long, so we spent the whole day there. This meant we needed to do the Magic Kingdom today, which was fine. On the monorail ride over, the train in front of us broke down and we had to wait about fifteen minutes, which was a bit annoying, but oh well. While there, we rode Buzz Lightyear's shoot-em-up ride (where Cin kicked my butt, somehow), Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Mickey's PhilharMagic show, Pirates of the Caribbean, Space Mountain, The Haunted Mansion, and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. The Winnie the Pooh ride has a new queue that is highly interactive for all of the small children that will be waiting in it...and my wife. :) The Haunted Mansion also has a new interactive queue with all sorts of spooks and haunts. Both are VERY well done and these new queues that Disney is putting in are welcome additions.

After a snack, we headed back to Epcot via monorail and then rode Spaceship Earth, which I really enjoy, and find very inspiring, every time we do it. We did not have enough time before our dinner reservations to enjoy Soarin' again, so we gave our Fastpasses away to some very happy folks. We then ate dinner at Tutto Italia (their TripAdvisor page is here). I had some short rib that was quite good ... the pizza from lunch filled me up with carbs and I was not in the mood for pasta. But everything was quite good, including the tomato and mozzarella we had as an appetizer. Dinner was pretty quick, which was good as Epcot closed at 9pm. On the way back to the boats, I grabbed a quick beer at the French area, a Kronenbourg 1664, which I really enjoy, for some reason. I had this back in France a number of years ago and still enjoy it very much. Awesomeness. A short boat ride back to the Beach Club and we packed up for the drive home the next day. Lots of things accomplished in three parks over two days...exhausting, so off we went to bed.

16 May 2011: Orlando, Florida

2011-05-16T19:24:00.000-07:00

Day after the race. After almost falling asleep at dinner the night before, we got a good, long, night of rest in and woke up around 9am. We headed out from the Beach Club to the bus stop to pick up a bus to Hollywood Studios and then realized that such a bus does not exist...transit from the Beach Club to both Epcot and Hollywood Studios is by boat. Sweet. We did not have to wait long and our Friendship boat took us up to Hollywood Studios, our favorite of all the parks at Walt Disney World. We headed right over to Toy Story Midway Mania and picked up some Fastpasses...and then waited in line to play right away. This ride has changed a bit since we were last around, and it is just as much fun as before...maybe even more so.

After riding the Tower of Terror (our most favorite ride ever!), we headed over to The Hollywood Brown Derby (a replica of a famous Hollywood restaurant) for our special lunch...Dining with an Imagineer. This is a special event where you are part of small group (12 people in our case) that sit in a small room and have lunch with one of Disney's Imagineers. Disney Imagineering is their organization that does design and implementation of pretty much anything on Disney property, from a new addition to a restaurant to a new ride. It's pretty much design/engineering/construction services for Disney. In short...my dream job. :) The Imagineer that hosted our lunch was a Project Estimator, which is basically a construction and finance job, and he had worked on many fun projects in the past couple years that he told us all about. I learned a great deal from his presentation and answers to other people's questions about how Disney engineering works. This was a really interesting experience and allowed Cin and I to get some backstage information about a very specific aspect of Disney that I was really interested in. The lunch itself was delicious and the entire event took about three hours...which was totally worth it. This is a great function and should you be interested about how the Imagineering function works and want to learn more about it, I highly recommend this event.

After lunch, we walked over to Star Tours. Now, this ride has been out of commission for quite some time as they (as in, Disney Imagineering) have been completely redoing it. The launch weekend for this was announced as being 21-22 May, right after we left. However...we learned at our lunch that it was undergoing "flight testing" ... meaning it was open. So, we hustled over and rode it...four times in a row. The cool thing about the new Star Tours is that it changes every time you ride it. There is something on the order of 50 combinations of the ride and we have multiple very different experience. The refresh is totally awesome and worth a trip to Disney just to experience. Totally awesome. The waiting queue area is also totally redone and the "security droids" are hilarious...pay attention to what is in the luggage scanners as you go by! After multiple Star Tours rides, we rode the Tower of Terror a few more times, rode the Rockin' Rollercoaster, and had a quick dinner at Pizza Planet (using one of the quick service meals on our dining plan).

We left the park a little earlier than we would have liked to in order to meet up with an old friend, Jack, and his girlfriend, who live in Orlando. We rode the boat back to The Boardwalk area and waited for him to arrive. Once they showed up, we got a table at the Big River Grille and Brewing Works (their TripAdvisor page is here), where they had dinner and we had some drinks. We did not eat much so I cannot comment on the food, but their microbrew selections were excellent...especially their IPA. It was great seeing Jack and Lauren...we haven't seen him in a long time and it was great catching up. After we were done, we walked back to the Beach Club and hit the bed...exhausted. What a great day at Hollywood Studios, a great lunch experience, and catching up with old friends.

15 May 2011: Orlando, Florida

2011-05-15T08:07:00.000-07:00

Cin and I got up at 4am for Florida Ironman 70.3 and headed out to the race site. For details on the race, check out my Race Report over on Tri,Jeff,Tri! Really...it's a good writeup. :)

We ended up back at the Beach Club around 3pm or so, exhausted. As you can probably tell from the writeup, this race was very hard ... the hardest that either myself or Cin have ever done. We were very tired, but not as sore as we thought we would be, so that was a positive. After getting back to our room, we split a bottle of Disney Fairy Tale Champagne, which was quite good, took some long showers, and ended up stretched out on the bed, exhausted. After an hour an a half or so, we put some decent clothes on and headed out for our celebratory dinner reservation, at the Yachtsman Steakhouse (their TripAdvisor page is here) over in the (connected) Yacht Club Resort. We ate at this place the day before the Disney Marathon in 2010 and remember it being very good, so we decided to go after the race this time since we would (1) need protein, and (2) wanted to relax in a nice setting with great food, after such a long event. We ended up at the bar for a few minutes to wait for our table and I found that they had Sam Adams Boston Brick Red, which I only remember ever seeing before at this same place last time we were here. It was quite good...yummy. After we got seated, we had a delicious dinner. I had a caesar salad and the rib-eye steak and Cin had a tomato salad, a filet, and a side of mac and cheese that was quite good as well. We ended up with dessert too thanks to the Disney Dining Plan (more about that in a bit) and I had the Habañero-infused flourless chocolate cake, which was quite spicy and deliciously chocolately as well. By the time we had finished our steaks, we were exhausted and it was a real effort to even stay away at the table, but we pushed through. After dessert, we headed back to our room and right into bed...such a long race and such a long day.

As mentioned, Cin and I tried the Disney Dining Plan this time around. Basically, for an added cost to your resort reservations, you can add dining on that includes one snack, one quick service meal, and one table service meal, per day per person. As we knew we would be on Disney property for the entire trip, we decided to see how this would work out. A snack ends up being things like muffins, big cookies, fresh-popped popcorn (in the parks), a bag of chips, and also things like sodas and bottled waters. A quick service meal includes things like a individual pizza or french toast sticks at the resorts, things that are designed to be obtained from a counter and then eaten. At the parks, these sometimes includes dessert too. A table service meal would be a sit-down restaurant and some of the more high-end restaurants require two table service meals per person for a meal (as did the Yachtsman Steakhouse). For these, you get a main dish, a dessert, and a non-alcoholic beverage. At this visit to the Yachtsman, each two-meal-set that we used included the steak, dessert, and some iced tea. We paid additional for the salads, the side item, and the beer, as well as the tip on the entire value of the meal.

From this trip, we learned that we tend to favor the table service meals (duh!) and also had no problem getting through our snack credits. The quick service meals are really designed for use in the parks (there are sooooo many more options in the parks than at the resorts for these) and ideally for grabbing something quick between rides and attractions. As we had not been to a park yet at this point in this trip (it's coming tomorrow!), we hadn't used any of the quick service meals and did not know how we would get through five each. So, the dining plan is really designed for families (as kids make quick service meals much more appealing) as they visit the parks and resorts. However, we made this work for us and ended up using all of our table service meals (this was the easy part), all of our snacks, and most of our quick service meals by the end of the trip (stay tuned!). More about this as the trip progresses.

14 May 2011: Orlando, Florida

2011-05-14T04:54:00.000-07:00

We had planned to take care of race check-in and then go around to various Disney resorts that we had not been to before to check them out. Yeah...that didn't happen. We got up, cleaned up a bit, and then went down to the Marketplace in the resort (this is a combination store and quick-service food location) to pick up some quick breakfast food. I ended up with a coffee cake that was quite tasty and Cin had a muffin. We walked out to our truck and drove over to Magic Kingdom parking to take care of all of our race stuff...if you are interested in that, check out the Race Report over on Tri,Jeff,Tri!

We did not end up back at the Beach Club until around 3pm and we had planned a 5.15pm dinner reservation. Ah, the greatest part of endurance events...pre-race carb loading. :) We walked the short distance from the Beach Club over to Il Mulino (their webpage is here and their TripAdvisor page is here), an Italian restaurant that we had eaten at when we came down for the Disney Marathon in 2010 that is located in the Swan hotel. Again, the spicy bread in the bread service was a big hit...so delicious. I had a caesar salad (which tasted a bit dry) and Cin the tomato mozzarella, both of which we split, and then I had a pizza and her a gnocchi dish. Pizza has long ago become my go-to food for a pre-race dinner...the combination of carbs, protein, and fat seems to provide good nutrition and fuel for endurance racing for me. We ended dinner with the complimentary shot of limoncello that we remembered from last time. Dinner here was good, but not quite as good as we remembered it. The service was very fast and friendly and the environment nice, but we seem to remember both the service and the food being somewhat better than it was. Nevertheless, the food was good and gave us what we needed for the night before a long race.

We walked back over to the Beach Club (one of the great advantages of the Beach and Yacht Club resorts is that they are within easy walking distance of both the Swan and Dolphin hotels and the Disney Boardwalk, with both Epcot and Hollywood Studios only a slightly longer walk away). We prepared all of our gear for the race, got ourselves mentally calm, and headed off to bed, ready to race Florida Ironman 70.3 the next morning.

12-13 May 2011: The East Coast, Maryland -> Florida

2011-05-13T15:33:00.000-07:00

Ah, the beginning of a new triathlon season. Having already completed one goal with my first running race, Cin and I were ready to continue on with the season into our first multisport event. We decided a while ago to do the Florida Ironman 70.3, which is a triathlon consisting of a 1.2mi swim, 56mi bike, and then a 13.1mi half-marathon run. Lots of fun. Part of this also involved us buying a new SUV (a Honda Pilot SE 4WD) and me crafting up some interior bike mounts to ferry our bikes down to Florida. We also made this into a vacation, staying at Walt Disney World and then spending a few days at the parks after the race. The Travel Log will describe the trip and the vacation...the race itself is covered over at my other blog, Tri,Jeff,Tri! Check it out here.

We decided to leave on a Thursday evening and get some miles behind us so that the drive from Maryland to Orlando, Florida, did not feel quite as long. After Cin got done work, we loaded up the truck and drove through Washington, DC, which took just as long as it usually does (driving out of DC in to Northern Virginia is hell on a weekend evening...there are no two ways about this). Once we got to Fredericksburg, Virginia, we picked up some takeout Italian food from Bella J Cucina, a small place in Locust Grove, and brought it back to the house of Rachel and Wes. Rachel was Cin's roommate in college and these two are good friends of ours, even if we do not see them anywhere near as often as we would like. They graciously offered to put us up for the night so that we could get some visiting in and also not need to spring for a hotel. Awesome. The food from Bella J Cucina was pretty good...I had spaghetti with oil/garlic/spice and Cin had some chicken, spinach, and pasta meal. Each meal came with bread and a salad for a decent price, so this place turned out A-OK in our books. We briefly hung out with Rachel and Wes's kids, who promptly went to bed without any fuss (wow!) and then spent some time catching up before all four of us went to bed around 11pm. We woke up around 6am, had some much needed coffee, and then Cin and I were off. Back on good old I-95, headed south, with a lot of miles to go.

The drive down was so much easier than we expected. The time flew by and we ended up taking turns driving based on the state (I drove through Virginia, Cin drove through North Carolina, etc). We stopped at, where else but Cracker Barrel, for both breakfast and lunch (pancakes and eggs for breakfast and the usual grilled chicken and green beans and corn for lunch, for me) and did not stop anywhere else except to go to the bathroom, stretch, and get gas. There's not too much else I can say about the drive...I-95 goes from a six-lane road to mainly two lanes through the Carolinas and then opens up a bit in Georgia and Florida. For the most part, people stay to the right and get out of the way when you come up to them in the left lane, which makes for easy and relaxing driving. The Pilot proved itself to be very comfortable and capable and served as excellent transport for this trip. Soon enough, we got off I-95 onto I-4 and ended up at our resort for this trip, Disney's Beach Club Resort (their TripAdvisor page is here), around 7pm...we made really good time.

We checked in and found ourselves in a Hospitality Suite, which is really just a bigger room. A big and nice room. We have stayed at the Beach Club before and like this one a lot; it was a good selection for this trip. After we relaxed a bit, we strolled over to Disney's Boardwalk (there is a boat shuttle that runs from the Beach and Yacht Club Resorts (they are connected) to the Boardwalk, but it is only a ten minute or so walk, so we did that after a full day sitting in the car). The Boardwalk is a resort (the Boardwalk Inn) but it is also a collection of stores and restaurants. After looking at some menus, we decided to splurge and got dinner at the Flying Fish Cafe (their TripAdvisor page is here). This place is quite expensive...and it totally lives up to that fact. The menu is pretty extensive and they have a full bar with good selections. I ended up with an orange pilsner beer that I had not had before (and cannot remember the name of) that was excellent and Cin had some fancy fruity drink that was also excellent. We split a tomato mozzarella appetizer and then I got a strip steak and Cin some salmon, both of which were amazing. This was one of the best steaks I've had and Cin's fish was awesome as well. The bill was somewhat expensive, but you get an amazingly good meal. If you want good seafood (or steak!), and you're willing to pay for it, check out the Flying Fish Cafe...it is absolutely worth the cost.

After dinner, we walked back to our room and went to sleep in our huge bed...exhausted from the drive, full from the amazing dinner, and ready to embrace the race check-in/expo the next day!

Topic: Local food, and others, on the decline (?)

2011-04-21T14:16:00.000-07:00

The closing of the West Ocean City location of The Dough Roller had me thinking. So, here is a topic post, somewhat unusual for this blog, but I think it is worth writing.

The closing of the West OC location of The Dough Roller is indicative of a large number of recent changes at Ocean City. When I used to come here as a kid, everything was local businesses, with nothing chain-related around. There were no hotel or motel chains that you could recognize and everything in OC was condos that you would rent for a week or two. Now, you see many chains, both food and lodging. There are now lots of Pizza Huts and Dominos, and less Dough Rollers. There's a big Wal-Mart and a Carrabba's, but the local general/department store (Rose's) is a shell of its former self and the local Italian restaurant (Salvatores) is closed and looking for a new leaser. Now, I'm a firm believer in capitalism and progress; in many ways, these are great developments as Rose's has become a dump over the past decade and we had a less-than-stellar report about Salvatores. Wal-Mart has a great selection of what you need at good prices and the food at Carrabba's is very, very, good.

However, it is the same everywhere. We can get Pizza Hut pizza anywhere and it is always the same and is very tasty. We can get Dough Roller pizza in Ocean City and nowhere else. We truly look forward to eating at Dough Roller each and every time we come down here. All of the local attractions are slowly leaving, giving rise to larger chains that do a great job serving their customers but provide the same experience everywhere. If this keeps happening, Ocean City will be just like Columbia, which will be just like every other city in the United States, with the same food and same other experiences. And that would just plain suck.

Now, I'm not going to tell you to go and find your local establishment and support them just because they are not bigger competitors. America is based on free market capitalism and I am a firm believer that the business that offers me the best quality product for the least amount of money is the one I will support. For example, the episode of South Park that I'm watching as I write this is about when Starbucks comes into South Park and causes the local coffee shop to close. The point of the episode is that everyone rallies around the local shop owner until they actually compare the coffee and realize that the Starbucks coffee really is better. In real life, Starbucks got big by offering good products and managing the experience they provide to their customers very well. I, for one, really like Starbucks coffee, and know that where ever I am, I can get a good product at a fair price at the nearest location. However, I know it will always be the same. So, I will often seek out a local coffee place to try theirs (in Howard County, check out Mad City Coffee near the Hospital...awesome, awesome, awesome!). It may be awesome, but it may be horrible. Same with local pizza...I always seek out local pizza places when I travel; some have been great (such as Zaffiro's in Milwaukee) and some ridiculously nasty. I've learned over the past couple months from the magic of HoCoBlogs and HowChow, among others, about the great local food scene in Howard County (hocofood@@@). And just like in HoCo, all of the local restaurants in Ocean City offer compelling, and different than chain offering, foods. You will love some. You will hate some. But, it is different and variety is the spice of life.

TJ has a great writeup over at the Elkridge Patch with a similar (and somewhat more forceful :)) opinion on this same manner. It's a good read, so check it out here.

In that spirit, I'd like to offer some suggestions should you come to Ocean City and the surrounding area.

For pizza, try The Dough Roller.
For ice cream and related treats, try Dumser's Dairyland.
For cupcakes and delicious bakes goods, try The Original Smith Island Cake Company.
For pit beef, try Bull On The Beach (the Open Pit Beef sandwich is awesome).
For barbecue, try J'Rs Ribs.
For seafood, try Harpoon Hannah's or Harrison's Harborwatch (the homemade bread at Harpoon Hannah's is awesome).
For bagels, try A Bagel & (great pizza bagels!).
For pancakes, try The Little House of Pancakes (the chocolate chip ones are great).
For a big menu of many different types of food, try Big Peckers (the tacos and the burgers are my favorite here).
For a bodacious biscuit (the thing is huge!), try Brass Balls Saloon.
For a damn good bar, try Smitty McGees (three words...garlic... parmesan...wings).
For a family-style restaurant (and decent bar), try Taylors.
For bayside dining with awesome views and good food, try Fagers's Island and Mackys (both do a Sunset Celebration and Mackys even has a bayside beach with tables, so you can eat with your feet in the sand).

So there you go. I'm not sure what I'm trying to say here, but there it is. Local food, and other, establishments offer something different than what you can get at chain-based establishments. There is always a place for a consistent experience (sometimes, you really want an Outback steak, for example, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that). But if you get the same things from the same places everywhere you go, there is no point in going anywhere. Local offerings are different, some better and some worse. As a traveler, you're better for the experience, one way or the other. So seek out local establishments, be they where you live or where you visit. They are what make that location unique and worth traveling to (or living in). So support what makes every area unique and worth traveling to.

Any more opinions on great places to eat at Ocean City / Ocean Pines / nearby? Let me know!

19-20 April 2011: Ocean City, Maryland

2011-04-20T17:45:00.000-07:00

We slept in. Surprise, surprise. We got up and then headed right into Ocean City, where we grabbed some lunch at one of the best pit beef places we know, Bull On The Beach (their website is here and their TripAdvisor page is here), getting open pit beef sandwiches. Afterwards, we headed out to the beach for some very much needed toes-in-the-sand time. The problem was that it was quite windy and cold on the beach. We ended up spending a good hour and a half, with me reading a good amount on my Kindle and Cin doing some magazine reading and taking a whole lot of pictures (her new camera has really inspired her!).

After we were done with the coldness and wind, we headed back to the beach house and spent some time on the couch, with me getting caught up on blog writing, schoolwork for my MBA, and a few other things (for example, getting familiar with new procedures for handling bleeding in a first-aid context, per the American Heart Association...apparently raising blood vessels above the level of the heart is not effective, so we're not doing that anymore). I felt very productive for a few hours there and also finished all of the requirements for one of my two MBA classes this term. Sweet. Then, Cin and I headed to Harpoon Hannah's (their webpage is here and their TripAdvisor page is here) for dinner. We try to come here as often as we can as the seafood is always fresh and they have a selection of unique breads and rolls and muffins that are awesome tasting. I had a creamy lobster bisque soup, Caesar salad, and crabcake, while Cin had a piece of grilled salmon, all of which were quite tasty. The coconut muffins we had before were most awesome...sweet with a great crunchiness on the outside. Delicious! This is a great independent and local seafood place...check it out for some delicious fish and crab creations.

After dinner, we headed home and caught up on a little TV before headed back to the Ocean Downs Casino for a little more gambling...gotta take advantage of the opportunity while we are down here! Cin ended up a few bucks ahead and me down more than a few bucks...just like yesterday. Ugh. But, it's fun. And I really enjoyed playing the roulette with the real wheel, much fun. Afterwards, we headed back to the house and off to sleep.

On Wednesday, we got up and went into Ocean City to The Little House of Pancakes (their TripAdvisor page is here) for breakfasts. Things were very busy in this little shop, but we got our food without too long a wait and it was totally worth it (this was our first time here). Cin got chocolate chip pancakes with one egg and I got two pancakes with an egg an some bacon. The pancakes here were amazing...so good. The eggs were also quite big and the bacon cooked just right. The small size (it's kinda indicated in the name) may make this place hard to get into sometimes, but the food (especially the pancakes!) make it totally worth it. After eating, we headed back home using a very clear US50.

Spring break ... success!

18 April 2011: Ocean City, Maryland

2011-04-18T10:27:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning to an early (8am...gotta love spring break!) alarm as registration for summer session in the MBA program I'm taking opened and I needed to get into a specific class in order to keep my progression on track. After I took care of that, I did a few pieces of schoolwork and had a small snack until Cin got up and then we got ready and headed out for a bike ride. We have the Florida Half Ironman triathlon coming up soon so we needed to get a solid biking session in while down here. The original intent was to get 40 miles in, but we ended up at 27 miles and happy to be done, largely due to some time commitments. The ride was good, with a litte more traffic than we'd like, except for one part where we almost got run off the road by an elderly driver. Now, we are in Ocean Pines and a lot of the folks here, especially in the off-season, are, well...older, but if you are headed into a tight tunnel (there is barely enough room in there for one car, much less a car and anything else) you don't accelerate to pass two bikes right into the tunnel. That's just irresponsible and piss poor driving. We were able to react in time to prevent any problems, but we were quite unhappy at the driver that either didn't care or didn't notice.

After our ride, we headed out with my parents up to the Dogfish Head Brewery in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware (their TripAdvisor page is here). Now, I am very fortunate in that Dogfish Head is my favorite brewery and their main location is only about an hour from my parents' beach house. We try to head out there often and since we hadn't been there in quite some time, this was a good choice for this trip. It took a while to get up there, due to being behind a slow-moving concrete truck for most of the ride, but then we arrived and only had to wait about five minutes until we got our table (the fact that we had to wait at all at 1pm on a Monday afternoon on the beach in April should tell you about how popular DFH is). I had long been ready to taste the pizza at this place and since today was Monday (Cin and I do Meatless Mondays), I decided today was the today to try it. My pizza was AWESOME. This was one of the best pizzas I have ever had! I got their standard crust, red sauce, mozzarella and cheddar cheeses, and sliced tomatoes. So awesomely good! I also had two beers that are only available at the Dogfish Head location here, the Fungus Tea'mungus and the Noble Rot. Both beers were delicious and I especially enjoyed the tea-based Fungus...so delicious! We filled up our DFH growlers with 60 Minute IPA and headed back towards Ocean City.

We got into Fenwick Island and then we hit an unexpected surprise. We were driving and saw a large SUV that looked like it had just run off the road and the driver looked to have her head down. We drove south until we found the next available u-turn and turned around until we were able to turn around again and pull up behind the SUV. Our u-turn strategy actually followed another vehicle, a propane truck, that did the exact same thing and we ended up behind two other vehicles that also stopped. We all ended up running out and seeing if the driver was OK and got the door open (I was the only one able to do so as my skinny arms could fit in the slightly open window :)) right before a Delaware State Trooper pulled up, having already called for an ambulance. It turns out that the driver was conscious but mostly unresponsive and we stayed with her until the ambulance crew arrived and I filled them in on what we saw with regard to her current state and then headed out, leaving her in capable hands. I ended up with mud all up to my knees (this accident happened in something of a swamp right off the main road), but it was good to help out someone that needed it. We ended up driving back through Ocean City and back to the house without further incident.

We relaxed a bit and I took a shower to clean up my legs after all the mud. We then went down to the new Ocean Downs Casino (right next to Ocean Pines!) and did a little gambling, with me losing a small amount of money in slot machines and Cin ending up a little ahead with roulette. Now, the new casinos in Maryland cannot host table games but the Ocean Downs location has a virtual roulette station with a real wheel and virtual betting stations, which is so much better than other virtual roulette approaches I've seen. It looked like a lot of fun and I look forward to playing there. After dinner, we went into OC and had dinner at Fager's Island (their webpage is here and their TripAdvisor page is here), which was delicious...this is one of our favorite locations for bay-side dining in OC. Awesome fresh mozzarella and tomato appetizers and fries. We then headed back and stopped at Dumser's Dairyland (their webpage is here and their TripAdvisor page is here) for AWESOME ice cream, which was, as expected, awesome. Dumser's is a great place for ice cream and also makes a really delicious breakfast...a great OC location. A short trip back to Ocean Pines and we were done for the night...what a long and involved day!

15-17 April 2011: Ocean City, Maryland

2011-04-17T13:42:00.000-07:00

Middle of April...what's it time for? Yep, spring break. Having a wife that is a teacher requires us to take our vacations around her schedule, so we decided to get out of town for a little while as a nice break. Last year we went to Las Vegas for spring break. This year we decided to do something a little more local and headed down to Ocean City / Ocean Pines, Maryland. If you are unfamiliar with the area, Ocean City is Maryland's biggest tourist destination and is an extremely crowded beach town in the summer. During the off-season, it is still a decently busy town with about 8,000 full-time residents. Ocean Pines is a smaller community off to the west that is in the woods and has a number of houses, ranging from very small trailer-like homes all the way up to multi-million dollar mansions. My parents have a beach house in Ocean Pines that we can use for free, so this is a very appealing destination, usually during the weekends in the spring and fall. We decided to spend a longer time, five days or so, for spring break down here, so we loaded up our new truck and headed out on Friday, after Cin got home from work.

We headed down US50 to Ocean City. We ran into a bit of traffic on the way down, but nothing horrible, especially compared to what you'd expect on a Friday afternoon more in-season. We got over the Bay Bridge and stopped at the Cracker Barrel for dinner, which is always a great meal. Some short hours later and we pulled into the house. My parents were already there (also spending some time down at the beach for spring break) and we relaxed a bit, ready to begin vacation after a long, hard, work week.

We woke up somewhat early on Saturday and then Cin went with my mom up to the Outlet Shopping Center up in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. While they did that, I got busy installing a new faucet in my parents' house, a project that should have taken about 30min but ended up taking me 2h30min, including two trips to Home Depot due to a (1) lack of plumber's putty, and (2) supply connections that were too short. Oh well. After done, I relaxed and watched some television with my dad until my mom and Cin got back. Dad and Mom went out to dinner with some other relatives of ours and Cin and I went up to Delaware and ate at one of our favorite bars, Smitty McGees (their website is here and their TripAdvisor page is here). This is a locals place and is always busy, regardless of what time of year you go. We love the confetti salads (this is a Caesar salad with tomato, onion, and cucumber in it) and the garlic parmesan wings...so delicious. They also have a great beer selection and always friendly service. If you're around the Ocean City area and looking for a good bar, this one is highly recommended. After dinner, we headed home and then hung around with my parents and our other relatives for a little while and then went to bed, quite tired.

On Sunday, we woke up late (again) and decided to head to The Dough Roller for some lunch. The Dough Roller is a local pizza (and pancakes) chain that we've been going to be many years. They have some of the best pizza around and we head here every time we are down in Ocean City. A few years ago they opened a location in West Ocean City, which is not really Ocean City as it is on the west side of the Assawoman Bay right on US50. This new location was very close to Ocean Pines, so we started going there. This time, I drove right by it without seeing it and, once we turned around, we saw why...it had closed (after just under a year and a half of being open). Now, this location is out of the way and not in OC-proper and it always seemed much less busy than the other locations, but we did not expect this. The Dough Roller also used to have a location in Crofton, Maryland, but that closed many years ago, and another in the northern part of Ocean City, which also recently closed. Both the wife and I are a little concerned about this development, as we really love this chain of restaurants and they are down to four locations instead of seven. We hope this does not continue as The Dough Roller is one of the best pizzas around. Check out my thoughts on this, and related matters, here on a special Topics post.

Anyway, we ended up driving into Ocean City and went to the 41st Street location of The Dough Roller, where we braved a very crowded place (this location is right next to the OC Convention Center, where almost all of the diners came from) to get our delicious pizza fix...and it was soooo delicious. They also have really good iced tea at this place. After eating, we headed back to the house and then took my parents' dog to the beach, where he rolled around and enjoyed playing in the sand with the large number of other dogs that were also out. Dogs are only allowed on the beach in the off-season, so we have to take advantage of this while we can. This is because the beach is largely desserted this time of year, as you can see.

Cin also got some really good pictures of this using her new camera (much better than my picture, above). I ended up walking for a bit in the ocean (just up to my calves) and that water was crazy cold...probably in the mid 40s. There is no way I would go swimming in that ocean without a full wetsuit, booties, and a hood. :) But that coldness/stinging that the cold water caused was strangely relaxing and I spent more time than I probably should have standing there.

After the beach, we headed back to the house and went to the Ruth's Chris Steak House for dinner. While a chain (again, more on that here), the consistently perfect experience and food at these places is worth it. A Caesar salad, some shoestring potatoes, some garlic green beans, and a huge 11oz filet later, I was filled up! Back to the beach house for some relaxing and then off to bed...stuffed and exhausted. Full day two of spring break ... complete!

Summary - 2010/2011 in Key West, Florida

2011-01-03T12:22:00.000-08:00

If you watched the Christmas Special for the BBC program Doctor Who (which is easily the best show on TV, by the way), then you know how the Winter Solstice, and Christmas to an extent, are halfway through the winter times when the long, dark, cold, days start getting shorter. People from many traditions and cultures come together to celebrate this, Half Way Out of the Dark, time. The wife and I, being warm weather people, try to get out of our dark, cold, climate whenever we can. Two years ago, we flew down to the Florida Keys, visiting Key Largo and Key West, and decided to do that again to welcome in 2011. This set of travellog entries documents the trip. If you have any comments or questions, drop a comment here and I'll get back to you.

Enjoy reading!

Day 1: The Trip Down -- Featuring our adventures getting into Key West. After the last trip had us returning home instead of to the Keys on day one, would this trip go better? And why is it so cold in the islands?

Day 2: Enjoying Paradise -- We're in Key West! Time for a good run, some badly needed beach time, a great Italian dinner, and some drinks and good music at a Key West classic!

Day 3: Time to Dive -- SCUBA. I rarely get to do it and I enjoy it so. Cin...not so much. ;)

Day 4: New Years Eve -- Good beach time, a good dinner at a high-end local steakhouse, and New Years craziness on Duvall Street.

Day 5: The Trip Back -- A good morning run, time by the pool, and then a trip home through an airport that now features the only in-airport beach bar!

Special Appendix: Running in Paradise -- A quick summary of running in Key West and why such trips are so important to our training schedules. Includes my all-the-way-around-the-island running plan.

1 January 2011: Key West, Florida

2011-01-01T11:42:00.000-08:00

We woke up in 2011 a little earlier than we would have liked. We got up and went out for an early morning run. We opted not to run that far and went with a 6.5mi course as this would let us sleep in for a bit, run, and still have plenty of time until we needed to check out to shower and clean ourselves us. The run went very well, with great temps and we enjoyed our last run along beautiful A1A. If you care to, you care read more about running in Key West, including my mapped out path to run around the entire island, over on my other blog, Tri Jeff Tri!

After running, we took showers, packed up the room, and went downstairs to check out, right at noon. We checked out luggage with the ever friendly and helpful bell staff and then got some lunch at the poolside bar. We then grabbed some lounge chairs right next to the jacuzzi and spent the next two hours or so reading (I finished Wikinomics and began reading The Cobweb by my favorite author, Neal Stephenson). Around 2.30pm, we went back in, got our bags, and took the shuttle to the airport (we opted not to walk so that we could maximize the time by the pool). We checked in and went through security and then found that, unlike last time we were here, Key West International Airport now has a bar (this has both indoor and outdoor seating...yes, this is a beach bar IN an airport!). Looks like they got major gate upgrades, and the Last Call Beach Bar, in 2009...these are a most welcome addition, making time in the airport much better while not losing the tiny beach town feel! We got some drinks and a slice of Key Lime Pie to pass the hour or so until our flight boarded. While in the bar, we had some jokes with the friendly but abrupt bartender and talked to a couple that was supposed to have been on a 12.00n flight but kept getting pushed back to where the airline was telling them it would be 5pm at the earliest. Not the best situation...been there, done that. But, if you're going to get stuck, Key West is the place to do it. Our flight, unlike theirs, boarded and left pretty close to on-time and, two hours later, we were back at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.

We had dinner at the Tequileria restaurant (no TripAdvisor page, so here is their Yelp page) we saw on the way out, with me getting barbacoa tacos and Cin a quesadilla with barbacoa meat in it. Both were very good, but a tad small. After dinner, we headed to our gate, boarded and took off about 45min late or so and then, one quick hour later, were back in BWI. We got our luggage and picked up the shuttle van to Airport FastPark (Blue Lot, of course). Quick car ride and we were back home.

Key West vacation -> a success!

31 December 2010: Key West, Florida

2010-12-31T09:48:00.000-08:00

We got up a little earlier than we have been getting up (around 9am :)) and went down for the free breakfast. After more of the same, we decided to forgo the morning's run as my SCUBA fins from yesterday had done a number on my ankles (as in, some cuts, located right where my running shoe hits my ankle, that were very ouchy whenever they were touched) and running would be quite painful. So, we opted to walk up to Smathers Beach rather than catching the shuttle (it is about a 2.5mi walk). We did so without any problems and then camped out on some lounge chairs for a number of hours, reading (the new book is Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, which is decent but is not going to give any new insight into this type of topic for someone who has been living it for the past few years; if, however, you're still confused about open source, mass collaboration efforts, crowdsourcing, web service mashups, and other similar topics, it's a great introduction for you), getting some sun, and relaxing on our last full day of vacation.

For lunch, I ended up getting a taco (light lunch, since we were planning for a big dinner) from one of the street food trucks and it was fantastically good. We also discovered that not only did one of the street food trucks have unsweetened iced tea, but two of them did, which is great to know when the first one runs out since you've been buying it all week. :) In case you're new to reading about us traveling, one thing that Cin and I share is a passion for really good, fresh, unsweetened, iced tea. There really is no more perfect beverage in the world. So it is very refreshing that they had this here. My respect for the food served off street food trucks grows with every experience.

We catch the shuttle back (to maximize our beach time) and cleaned up for dinner. Once ready, we boarded the shuttle back to Duvall Street and walked through the old Key West Marina to find our dinner location, Prime 951 Steakhouse (here is their webpage and here is their TripAdvisor page).We arrived early, around 5.30pm for our 6.00pm dinner reservation and they did not look open yet, so we strolled through the marina again before arriving back right at our reservation time. We did find a really cool looking, very small, palm tree nearby.

This place looks very similar to any Ruth's Chris Steakhouse you may have been too...it's fancy and nice, with good decorations on the wall, but it is closed-in and you do not get any views of the wonderful marina from the dining room. The drink selection here is excellent; Cin got a cucumber martini (two, actually) that was very unique and delicious, and I chose an Anchor Steam off their somewhat-limited, but still decent, beer selection. Cin got "The Stack," a tomato/mozzarella caprese salad and I had the Caesar, both of which were quite good. For dinner, Cin got the filet mignon and I got the special, an 8oz buffalo filet (sorry, Anne). This one was a little pricey ($49 for 8oz, as opposed to $39 for the 10oz beef filet), but it did come with mashed potatoes, which I was able to trade for asparagus, unlike the rest of the dishes where all sides were a la carte. We ended up sharing the asparagus and an order of hash browns. The salads were fantastic. The steaks were very tasty but could have been seasoned a bit more (the buffalo steak was VERY tender and quite delicious). The sides were nothing remarkable (steamed asparagus is so less tasty than when it is grilled...). The service was really, really, good. So, if you're looking for a good steakhouse with very good food and excellent service, check out Prime 951. Here is what The Stack looks like...

After dinner, we got the shuttle back to the hotel and changed our clothes before heading back to Duvall, once again, for the New Years Eve celebrations. We picked up some beers from Captain Tony's and then walked down Duvall Street (it was closed to traffic as there as a zillion people, most of which are drunk, on the street during NYE). We saw a whole bunch of crazy looking people (the people watching on Duvall Street is crazy fun on a normal day; New Years Eve is just insanity) and then walked in front of the Bourbon Street Pub where they do a drag show every year and drop a big high-heeled shoe at the stroke of midnight. Passing through here was crazy as everyone is watching the show; it is OK as long as everyone is cooperative but once you get one person shoving or pushing, it can rapidly deteriorate. We made it through OK, but opted to walk around the block on the way back.

We headed back to the top of Duvall, got some more beers from Captain Tony's, and then found a good standing spot outside Sloppy Joe's, where we waited until midnight and the conch shell drop.

We stood next to a couple folks, one of whom had a bare chest with the Batman symbol painted on. He gave me his Happy New Year hat; I'm not about to turn down Batman giving me his hat! After the midnight celebration, we walked back to the shuttle bus and got on right away. Again, the Doubletree shuttle service is wonderful and made the evening. We got back to the hotel and went to bed, exhausted.

What a perfect way to welcome in 2011!

30 December 2010: Key West, Florida

2010-12-30T06:45:00.000-08:00

Today, we got up around 9am and got breakfast at the buffet again (we both made waffles today and they were awesome!). We then sat around the room a bit and caught the shuttle to Duvall at noon. From there, we hiked up to the Southpoint Divers shop and checked in for today's adventure, SCUBA diving for me and snorkeling for Cin (she's not a diver). We met up with the other folks (we had a full boat of 18 people, including five other certified divers, four sisters all taking the PADI open water course and using this trip as their final certification dives, and some others that were staying at a local resort and were buddy-diving with instructors) and headed out. The ride out was very choppy. I was buddied up with another diver, Mark, who had not dove for many years but just took a refresher course. We did a 50 minute or so reef dive and then the boat moved to another section and we did another dive of about 40 minutes. Both dives were a lot of fun and I saw some really cool fish, corals, and other things. Mark did great for his first dives in a while. :) Cin did not enjoy her snorkeling too much as the water was very choppy, as was the boat. I'm really glad she went out there with me, however.

Here is me, diving.

We found the dive crew, especially Steve, who served as the Divemaster, and Tropical Mike, who captained the boat, to be excellent and I recommend these guys for dive trips in Key West. I will say that this outfit seems to be very much a FIY outfit, where the dive crew did not try to plan everyone to go around with them but just turned us certified divers loose (they did explain how to dive the site to see everything very clearly onboard the boat). This may be a artifact of how busy the boat was with so much non-certified divers, but other commentary seems to indicate this is SOP throughout Key West. While I really like this approach (I like being able to explore on my own), sometimes it is very helpful to have someone who knows the dive site well leading so that you can see all the good sites without missing any. Just keep this in mind if you're planning a Key West diving trip; if you prefer a hands-on, leading the dives directly, Divemaster, you may need to ask specifically for this.

The Southpoint boats leaves out of a dock behind the Hyatt hotel, on Front Street. This hotel hosts a turtle pond, which has a ridiculous number of turtles that, apparently, spent their days chillin'. We also spotted a momma hen with her little babies walking around the parking lot. Check it out.

After we got back, we both cleaned up a bit and then hiked down to Margaritaville (here is the webpage and the TripAdvisor page) for dinner, where we both got Landshark Lagers and hamburgers (sorry…Cheeseburgers in Paradise, mine without cheese :)). That was a delicious meal and then we headed back up and caught the shuttle back to the hotel, both of us very much in need of a shower! After showering and such, we got the shuttle back to Duvall Street. We checked out some shops that Cin wanted to go into and then headed over to the Hogs Breath Saloon (their webpage is here and their TripAdvisor page is here), where we had a few beers and listened to a great local musician who did all cover music. He had a really good voice and sang every song we listened to very well (and he picked a great song list!). Out of the past three nights, I'd say that this was clearly the best music we've listened to…very nice! We then picked up a Key Lime Pie on a Stick, which was pretty good, and then headed back to the hotel in the shuttle, which was very busy. We ended up talking to a very nice older lady who had some good stories and then, once we got back to the hotel, went right to bed.

I'm really glad that I got to go SCUBA diving today. This is something that I very seldom get to do and I really enjoy it every time I do. Being able to breathe effortlessly underwater is an amazing accomplishment for the human race and I love being down there with the fishes, coral, and other awesome things. Life under the water is amazing and I truly hope that we, as the human race, can understand the importance of protecting this life and this environment. SCUBA has given me the great gift of being able to see the underwater environment firsthand and for that I am forever grateful. Also, Cin didn't have that great of a time today and I'm really happy that she put that effort in so that I could have a good time. Great day today!

29 December 2010: Key West, Florida

2010-12-29T06:45:00.000-08:00

We slept in until 10am or so and then went downstairs for our complementary breakfast buffet (love those Hilton HHonors benefits!), which was quite good for a hotel buffet. Then we relaxed a bit and hit the path that runs along A1A for a good 4mi run in the sun. Despite the previous day's coldness, it was quite warm and we sweated quite a bit…good run! After our run, we picked up the shuttle and headed to the beach this time. A new feature this year is that since we are staying at the Doubletree, we get free lounge chairs at Smathers Beach…this is sweet.

At this beach, there is also a collection of food trucks that will serve just about anything you want…and one of them serves delicious unsweetened iced tea, which is the favorite drink for both Cin and myself! We also got a hot dog and a soft pretzel and both were excellent. I finished reading How to Live Safely in a Science Fiction Universe by Charles Yu, which is an excellent read. I loved this book very much and will read it again very soon. Again, the Kindle proved its worth…such an awesome device. After having a great time at the beach, with great sun (it was so much warmer than Tuesday was!), a good book, good food, and great company, we headed back to the hotel on the shuttle.

We cleaned ourselves up from the shower and the run and then caught the shuttle back to Duvall Street. We walked down and did some shopping at both Key West Aloe and Key West Olive Oil Company (we got some really good blood orange olive oil to take home, among other tasties) and then found ourselves at La Trattoria about 30 minutes ahead of schedule (their webpage is here and their TripAdvisor page is here). Luckily, they were able to take us early and we then had an amazingly good pasta dinner. This place is really good as the pasta is fresh, the salads are delicious, and the service is the best part of the entire evening. I had a penne in spicy tomato and garlic sauce and Caesar salad, both of which were as awesome as I remember the food from this place being. Look at how amazing this tomato/mozzarella caprese was!

After our good meal, we hiked up to Captain Tony's Saloon (their webpage is here and their TripAdvisor page is here), remembering to bring our cups from two years ago as drink refills are much cheaper this way, and listened to a solo musician who was pretty good (not as much fun as the band from Sloppy Joe's yesterday). The Last Mango in Paris words were still on the wall in the mens room, but I was unable to locate my business card that I left on the wall two years ago. I did find a new location to put one that is much less likely to get torn down. :)

After a few drinks and some good music, we headed back to the shuttle and the hotel and went right to sleep…exhausted.

28 December 2010: Key West, Florida

2010-12-28T06:44:00.000-08:00

Two years ago, Cin and I traveled to the Florida Keys for New Years. That trip started off horribly, as you can read about here. This time, we thought we'd do the same thing as we had an awesome time last time, once we got there. This time, however, we decided to fly out of BWI instead of Dulles and right to Key West, as opposed to Miami. Oh, and on US Airways and not United. Hopefully, the curse of traveling south for New Years would not hit us this year.

We got to BWI nice and early and checked out luggage without much hassle. We then got in the LONG security line and got though quickly and without any issue. Sweet. We got some breakfast at the airport (about the only time I'll eat McDonalds food :)) and waited patiently outside our gate for our flight to Charlotte, North Carolina, and then on to Key West. Then…the curse came back with a vengeance. Our flight was supposed to depart at 6.55am. At about that time, they announced there was some battery issue on the plane and we would be delayed. Time passed, more announcements about upcoming boarding were made and ignored, and then, around 9.15am, we boarded the plane. Our lengthly layover window in Charlotte was gone and we were going to have to run from our gate to the Key West flight. Then we sat on the plane, at BWI, for another thirty minutes, making it impossible to catch our Key West flight. I turned my cell back on to get email updates and, low and behold, I had both a voicemail and email from US Air telling me that they regretted to inform me that my Charlotte to Key West flight was going to be delay for at least an hour. I've never been so happy to hear about a flight delay! We eventually took off and made to to Charlotte. As we walked from our gate to the gate for our Key West flight, we saw a beer-themed restaurant, then a wine bar, then a rum-themed restaurant, and then a tequila-themed restaurant. Wow, these NC folks must love their alcohol! We figured we didn't have enough time to eat at one of the sit-down places, so we got some Sabarro for lunch, picked up some iced teas from Starbucks, and then it was time to board! The flight got off without a hitch (even though it was late…which was fine with us!) and we landed in Key West, Florida, on the same day we were supposed to, only an hour or so late. Awesome.

We got our bag and then walked to the hotel. The Key West International Airport is on the eastern side of the island, right on A1A, and our Hotel, the Doubletree Grand Key Resort (their webpage is here and their TripAdvisor page is here) is very close, resulting in a walk that is a little less than one mile. The luggage made it fun once the sidewalk ended, but we made it OK.

Our room was not ready yet (we arrived at 2pm and check-in is at 3pm), which was odd since I've never had this happen since I hit the higher levels of the Hilton HHonors program. Oh well, can't complain. We found a spot at the poolside bar and had some drinks and lunch. Around 3pm, we checked in and found our room to have a worse view than last time, but the room itself was very nice. We relaxed for a bit; I took a shower; and then we picked up the shuttle to downtown Duvall Street. The shuttle service here is just like it was before, picking up at the hotel on the hour from early morning until 11pm, and stopping at both Smathers Beach (this is the busiest beach on Key West, with lots of watersport activities, tourists and locals, and a great place to spent the day; the TripAdvisor page is here) and then Duvall Street, both at the top of the island and the bottom. This is a wonderful service and makes getting around the island easy as (Key Lime) pie, despite the hotel's distance from the nightlife (which, when you think about it, is ideal as all the craziness is close-by but you still get to stay in a quieter area). We love this shuttle service and this was a big factor in our decision to return to the Doubletree this year. The shuttle dropped us off at the north end of Duvall and off we went.

Ever since we arrived, we noticed it was much colder than expected. The temperature was down to the mid-to-high 50s when we got to Duvall, not quite the vacation we expected, but so much better than back home! The first thing we did was head up to Mallory Square for the evening Sunset Celebration.

We then walked down Duvall, checking out the normal sites, and then tried to figure out where to eat dinner. We kept walking past places we liked, such as Margharitaville and La Trattoria, an excellent Italian joint we ate at last time (more about them to come). None were very crowded so we kept going trying to decide where to eat. Sure enough, as we walked up the street, decided on the Italian place, it was filled, as were all of the other ones. Nuts. We ended up getting an outside table (under heaters!) at Fogarty's, the restaurant part of the Flying Monkeys Saloon, one of Cin's favorite places that has lots of frozen drinks machines going all the time. I had a raspberry and rum combination that was delicious and we both enjoyed our dinners (Cin's salmon was excellent!). We then walked back up Duvall and went into Sloppy Joe's Bar, where we sat down with beers and listened to the band, Bong Hits for Geezers, which was a trio of (much) older gentlemen who made some really good music. I had a few Key West Sunset Ales (a delicious beer!) and we stayed there for about an hour before leaving and picking up the shuttle back to the hotel. Once back, we hit the bed and collapsed…what a long day!

14 November 2010: Milwaukee, Wisconsin

2010-11-14T09:57:00.000-08:00

We got up at 10.30am, still tired. What a long day previous! We got up, took a shower, and cleaned up the room. Cin went up to the local Dunkin Donuts to get us a small snack while I checked out and picked up the car from the valets. We then headed to MrKeith's house for a post-wedding brunch. A short drive later and we were there, at their house right across the street from Lake Michigan. We went in and visited; MrKeith gave us a great tour of his house, which is awesome and has some really cool features that stem from its construction in the 1920s (including an awesome room with a dirt floor and a big pile of...something...that looked like a great place to led wine age). Pretty sweet. Their home is also right near the sunken wreckage of the Steamer Appomattox, which is apparently a really good SCUBA site...going to need to come back up here to dive this! After a while, some good food and visiting, we headed out with Chris, Tammy, and Shelley, to the Harley Davidson Museum in downtown Milwaukee (their Yelp is here).

The Harley Davidson Museum does a very good job documenting the history of the iconic American motorcycle company and is full with many different bikes from many different points in the company's history. It is a really cool place and very much worth the cost of admission (which is not that expensive).

When done at the museum, we split ways with our group (they had an earlier flight home than we did) and headed out to find a local pizza place. We found it, Zaffiro's Pizza (their Yelp is here), and got some cheesy garlic bread and a pizza to share. The pizza had crazy thin crust; it was very much like a cracker, and it was very, very, good. The garlic bread was really great too. This place was quite tasty and a good local pizza find; highly recommend.

After pizza, we headed to the airport and dropped off the rental car. We checked in for our flight and dropped off the luggage. After confirming the times, and realizing we had three hours until our flight left (ugh), we sat in the Miller Brewhouse in the airport and watched some of the afternoon's football game. I had a Leingenkugel Red Lager beer, which was OK, and a Spotted Cow, which was a Belgium white-style beer and was pretty decent as well. Both were good, but nothing to write home about. We then did a bit of shopping, went through security, and did some reading while waiting for our flight. The flight was uneventful (a bit late, unfortunately), but we soon landed in BWI. Weekend trip over. Best wishes to MrKeith and Rachel for a wonderful marriage...this amazing weekend is an excellent way to start it and both Cin and me very much appreciate being invited and being able to be part of such an amazing event!

13 November 2010: Milwaukee, Wisconsin

2010-11-13T10:41:00.000-08:00

This weekend, Cin and I traveled up to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for the wedding of a good friend of ours, MrKeith. The wedding was scheduled for 3pm on Saturday, so we booked a flight from BWI to Milwaukee leaving at 7am, which put us in Milwaukee, once the time zone shift was put in to affect, at 8am. We got up nice and early, at 4.45am, and went to BWI. We checked in, went thru security, and then sat down at our gate, reading some books on our Kindles (awesome buy, especially if you travel a lot…makes bringing along a large selection of reading material effortless). We did end up checking a bag, which was my new garnet bag that Cin got me for my birthday, since I had a suit and Cin a dress for the wedding…this is our first experience with a garnet bag and we both hoped it kept the clothes looking really sharp. Pretty soon, we were on the flight with no one else in our row, and then we arrived in Milwaukee with no complications. I love flights like this. :)

After getting to the airport, I checked in for our rental car while Cin called the hotel and saw if our room could be ready when we got here (it was only 8.15am). Luckily, it could be so we had a good place to unpack and base our operations until the wedding. The car check-in went fine, but the girl that was helping us was a really good salesman and, before I knew what had happened, I had agreed to rental agency coverage again collision (I didn't realize this until we got out of the airport). This was a rare slip up and it ended up costing up a good amount of money (~$50), but it's my fault for agreeing to it…oh well. We got on the road and arrived at our hotel, the Doubletree City Center, Milwaukee (here is their webpage and here is their TripAdvisor page). No issues checking in and we made our way to our room, which had a very large and comfortable bed and would meet our needs well. The two free bottles of water in the fridge (courtesy of being a Hilton HHonors Gold member), were a nice touch too.

After getting settled, we decided to explore Milwaukee and see what we could find in the city. We ended up walking to the Milwaukee Public Market (read their Yelp page here), which has a large assortment of local vendors and shops inside, all selling food. Some sold grocery-style food-to-go, some sandwiches and other things to eat there, and some both. We walked around and looked at all of the selections and figured we would eat lunch here, as everything looked amazingly good. We both could easily eat here every day for a month without running out of delicious options. If you are in Milwaukee, you need to go to the Public Market and check it out, especially if you love food. Since it was not lunch time yet, we left and walked up in search of The Safe House, a spy-themed bar (Yelp is here). We found it (it is in an alleyway, with a door claiming to be an import/export business!) but it was not open yet. So, we decided to go back to the market for lunch and then come back here for drinks afterwards. When we got back to the market, we stopped off at a local microbrewery that had a shop there, Buffalo Water. I got a beer flight, which had four 4oz glasses, each with one of their brews and all four were very good. The porter was especially good; I do not usually like porter, but this one was very smooth and delicious. The bartender provided good conversation and if you're a beer-lover in Milwaukee, you should check this microbrew out. After the beer flight, we had a delicious lunch at the market; Cin had a custom-made salad that she really enjoyed and I had some tacos that were very good as well. After eating the food and walking thru the market again, we decided to head up to The Safe House and check it out. Here is a shot of my beer flight and the delicious tacos.

On the way, we passed by a bagel shop and heard some knocking on the window; we looked up and saw MrKeith, the groom of the day, yelling to us. We headed in to the shop and caught up; he seemed very calm and ready-to-go for his wedding day. It was really good to find MrKeith here, as it gave us a chance to catch up (we haven't seen him in a couple months) before all of the craziness of a wedding. After a good discussion, he headed on his way with breakfast and we went to The Safe House. We found the import/export-marked door and went in…to find a small room with two blocked doors. We did not know what to do until we heard a voice thru a speaker on the wall, asking us for the password. Now, I did some research and found the password on the Internets, so Cin gave that into the speaker, only to be told that only a fool would publish their password on the Internet. So, the voice then instructed us to do a Russian dance in order to gain admission, which we did, following directions very well. Once we finished that, the bookshelf slid open and we walked into the place. Once we got to the bar, we could see that there were TV monitors all over the place centered on the little room, so people inside could see those trying to get in. We sat at the bar, since we had already eaten lunch (they have a big menu and the restaurant part seemed very family-friendly). We watched some people come in and think we learned the "correct" way in…but I'll never tell. :) Anyway, we both had some drinks and split an order of fries, which were very crinkly and pretty tasty. We watched at least one group have to do a (different) dance to gain admission and had a great time here. When it was time to leave, we were told there was the "normal" way out and a secret way out and were given directions to find it. We did so, and found it, but were unable to make it function the way it should (again…I'll never tell ;)). So, we found the normal way out and headed back to the hotel. The Safe House was an excellent place and is very well done. The entire place totally sells the theme, as do all of the employees. It is quite a hoot and absolutely something you need to visit if you are in Milwaukee.

After we got back to the hotel, we relaxed a bit and got ready for the wedding. We then drove to the church, the Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist. We parked and walked in and were led to our seats by a friend from back home, Chris. Him and his wife Tammy, as well as our friend Shelley, were the other folks from our area that flew up. The Cathedral was beautiful…simply amazing looking. After a short time, the wedding got started and was a really beautiful ceremony. MrKeith and his new wife Rachel looked wonderful, Shelley did a great job with her reading, and everything went off without a hitch. And the ceremony ended with them leaving down the aisle to a bagpiper! After the ceremony was over, we hung out and watched the picture-taking for a while and then walked with Chris, Tammy, and Shelley back to their hotel, the Pfister (their webpage is here and their TripAdvisor page is here). We got a drink in their hotel bar…that place is very high-end! This hotel has a good mix of old-world charm and modern conveniences and looks really cool. We then drove our rental car back to our hotel and got a cab in the reception, since we did not want to have to drink back after that was over. We had a quick cab ride over, with some degree of the cabbie taking a longer route than necessary (ugh), and then arrived to the reception at the Lake Park Bistro (find their Yelp here).

The restaurant that the reception was at was very amazing. Cin tells me that they only close for one day per year for special functions, so MrKeith and Rachel must have gone all out. When we got here, they were passing our champagne and wine on trays and you could also go to the bar for beer or cocktails. The appetizers that came around, especially the beef pieces and the crabcakes (in Wisconsin!), were quite delicious. We did all of the usual wedding reception functions and had a great time. We both had filet mignon for dinner and it was quite good. Then, the live band started and they were really good too. Throughout the reception, they kept brining around more and more food, all of which was really good. The reception was also quite long, totaling seven hours. This is a long time and we both got really full well before the end; the pacing for eating this evening was off and we were not prepared for the amount of food. I guess that's a good problem to have. :) Towards the end, the five of us (Chris, Tammy, Shelley, Cin, and me) ended up in one cab back to our two hotels, again subjected to more going-out-of-the-way routing :(.

Once back at our hotel, we crashed on the bed…exhausted. We got up at 4.45am and didn't get to the bed until a little after 1.00am, with a very full day in between. Ah…sleep!

15 August 2010: Carnival Pride; Baltimore, Maryland

2010-08-15T15:52:00.000-07:00

We woke up and the ship was almost docked at Baltimore. We left our stateroom for the last time and got some breakfast on the Lido deck. We then sat down here for a few hours until our deck was called for disembarking. We did so, checked in through customs, and picked up our luggage. My dad picked us up and the cruise was over.

This was our first cruise and we really enjoyed it. You are basically paying to stay on a floating resort, which features many of the same things as any vacation destination. The casino was great and we really enjoyed that. The comedy shows were great and better than many we have seen in comedy clubs before. The 24/7 pizza was amazingly good and I took advantage of this quite a bit. While the alcohol is expensive, they have tons of options and the beer selection is good. The iced tea is free and plentiful. The gym, and available classes, are well equipped and can cater to the athletes among us that like to travel. The housekeeping staff makes a towel into a new animal every night and this is really fun to see...this quickly turned in to one of our favorite parts of the cruise!

On this cruise, we hit up Florida, Nassau, and Freeport. The Florida stop is what you make of it...I was very disappointed by Universal and would have had a much better time had we gone to Disney's Hollywood Studios and rode the Tower of Terror a few dozen times, but the Harry Potter area in Universal was really well done and I'm glad we did that. Nassau is amazing and Atlantis could deliver at least a full week of fun and entertainment. If you visit there, keep in mind that Atlantis is a high-end resort that is in/near Nassau and it is NOT Nassau. Our brief stopover in the Green Parrot Bar revealed that and we were very glad we stopped in there, so you should do the same to soak up a little bit of the local culture. Freeport was a tourist trap...if we were there for a longer time and had done more research to take advantage of it, it might have been better, indeed some folks I know that have been there had a great time, but we were quite disappointed.

The cruise was awesome. We will absolutely be back. Thanks, Carnival!

14 August 2010: Carnival Pride; somewhere in the Atlantic

2010-08-14T15:48:00.000-07:00

This was our last day on the Carnival Pride, a day spent at sea on the way back up to Baltimore.

We got up and did some relaxing on the deck, reading and getting some sun. We ate a good lunch at the Mermaid Grill, and did an afternoon spin class in the gym. Even thought a full set of 12 people signed up for it, only us and three others showed up and two of them left halfway through. Oh well...it was challenging and a good workout. After spin class, we got ready for dinner and went to the Normandie, where the staff was great, the food was great, and we enjoyed the staff singing their goodbye song. After that, we went to the casino again, where we won some more money on roulette, and then to a comedy show, which featured a new show by the last comic we saw, who was hilarious.

We also went shopping at the formal picture area, where all of the pictures we had taken during our cruise were found and we bought a bunch of them as they looked really good. We never get formal pictures taken so this was a very nice opportunity.

After a full evening, we headed back to the room and went to sleep, very unhappy that our vacation was about to end!

13 August 2010: Carnival Pride; Freeport, Bahamas

2010-08-13T15:41:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Freeport early, got some breakfast (another delicious omelette) and then disembarked. We got in the line for our excursion of the day, Deluxe Beach and Shopping. Basically, we got on a bus and they took us to Our Lucaya, which is a Radisson resort, a beach, and a shopping market that had a bunch of stalls with local merchants selling their wares. The package included the ride and rental of some beach chairs and towels on the beach. The others in our traveling group actually got a taxi to this same spot and then did some of the watersport activities, which cost much less since the taxi ride was only $5 per person. Having never been here before, we now know we could have done this cheaper, but since we did not know and this was our first cruise, I'm OK with booking the bus package the first time through. We spent four hours on the beach, walked around the shopping area for a little while, and then got back on the bus back to the ship. Shore time in Freeport is limited, 7am until 1pm, so this was a short excursion.

The beach seemed similar to what you would find on Key West, which is not the Key known for its beaches. The water was clear but not super clear, the swimming area and sand area was pretty small, and boats kept coming right up to the shore to pick people up for banana boat rides, dolphin viewing, parasailing, and so forth. This was quite distracting and prevented any good swimming in the water. Cin brought goggles and a snorkel and did not use them much as the environment just was not good for it. There were also a lot of folks walking around, selling jewelry, shirts, etc, and it seemed like one would come up to us every five minutes or so. After the beach, we went to the shops and saw pretty much the same stuff in most of them, all generic stuff with BAHAMAS stitched on to them. Ugh. After the bus ride back, we went to another collection of shops right at the cruise port. Cin almost bought a Coach bag at a really good price until we decided it was almost surely not real. Oh well.

All in all, Freeport was a major disappointment. The beach was nothing to write home about, the shopping lame, and the whole experience a big let down, especially compared to Nassau. One of the very good things was the bus driver on the way back, Ernest, who went by Teddy Bear, who sang most of the way and was really quite good. Good show, Teddy Bear.

Once back on the ship, we did a bunch of reading and relaxing in the room. Today I finished up Cell by Stephen King. It was pretty good and very similar to almost all of his other books that I have read recently. Dinner was pretty good…I had two good salads and then some Mahi Mahi, which was pretty tasty but kind of dry. Cin ended up getting a pasta dish, which she seemed to enjoy. Dessert was a chocolate cake, which was very rich and very delicious. After dinner, we headed to the casino and spent some more time at the roulette wheel, where I played on $20 for a long time but ended up losing it, and Cin won at the table and also on a quick-win raffle ticket they had. After the casino, we caught the 11.45pm comedy show and this guy was hilarious. Well worth staying up for. After the show, we headed back to the room and went to sleep, already under way back to Baltimore. One more full day at sea and this vacation will be over. Too short…way too short.

12 August 2010: Carnival Pride; Nassau, Bahamas

2010-08-12T15:35:00.000-07:00

We got up around 10am, when the ship was about to port at Nassau in the Bahamas. We got some breakfast and then headed off the ship, where we waited in line for this excursion, a visit to the Atlantis resort waterpark. It took some time to get the group processed but then we were on a bus and on our way. We rode through Nassau and to Atlantis, which is enormous and beautiful. We met our escort/guide and she walked up over to the waterpark and aquarium area and gave us a brief outline of the layout. At that point, we waited in a long line to get a locker (ugh) which was slow because they only had one cashier working (the line was around 40 people long when we joined it) and she was not exactly a model of efficiency. Oh well. Once we got the locker, we stored our stuff and headed out.

We first waited in line (see a pattern here?) for the Leap of Faith. This is a slide that is a 60 foot drop and then slides, underwater, through a shark tank. Now this is sweet. This slide was actually one of the final challenges on a past season of The Amazing Race and there were plenty of people who felt like the girl on that show did and couldn't convince themselves to go down. We then went on the companion slide, where you go down on tubes (you can go single or on a two person tube) that is a twisty, dark, slide and then ended up in the shark tank, in an enclosed tube, where you stop and move forward in bursts of 10 feet or so, inching your way through the tube, looking at sharks and fish all around while you do so. This is so sweet…it much be experienced. We did this one twice and then did the Jungle Slide, which was a little less intense but still a lot of fun. We then moved to the other tower of slides (the main slides are arranged in to two different towers) and went on The Abyss, which is a 120 foot drop where most of the slide is dark…really cool slide. Then, on to the Surge, which is a water coaster equipped slide where you go down on a tube then the coaster portion pushes you up with high intensity water jets and then down and then back up. This was quite cool but when you go on it, make sure your butt doesn't ride too low in the tube or it will hurt big time. That slide emptied into The Rapids, which is their version of a lazy river. You ride around in a tube and there are various sections with different attractions, ranging from rapids areas to one where big waves get generated from an offshoot and put you forward at a really fast clip. There is also a conveyor which pulls the tubes up a hill and then down. Finally, there is the entrance to two of the other Power Tower slides. Basically, you float down an offshoot of The Rapids and wait in this small waterway (you float and wait in line here instead of climbing up stairs and waiting there…awesome idea!). Whn you get to the Power Tower, a conveyor pulls you pul and you can float in one of two directions, each leading to a slide, The Falls or The Drop. Both include water coaster portions that push you up hills and both are lots and lots of fun. We rode The Falls first and then floated around the river again and rode The Drop.

We ate lunch here (normal theme park food at normal theme park prices) and, after hitting up all of the slides, we went on the Leap of Faith and the companion slides again and then figured it was time to head back to the bus to the ship. Atlantis closed at 7pm and the last bus left then too, so we got on the 6.30pm bus as we didn't want to cut it too close. The bus dropped us off near the port around 7.00pm and we did not have to be back onboard until 9.30pm, although dinner was at 8.15pm. So, we walked over to the Green Parrot Bar and talked to the very friendly and helpful bartender and had some beers for an hour or so. I saw they had Kalik on draft, which is a good beer I have had many times, but asked to see if they had anything I could not get in the States. On his recommendation, I had some High Rock and Cin had some Sands Light, which is a Bahamas beer that she really enjoyed. We had some good conversation with the bartender and Cin sat next to a guy that looked much like Samuel Clemens (yep…Mark Twain). Cool place…very local but not "too local" where we would have felt horribly out of place. :) If you're near the port at Nassau and want a good time and drinks, check this place out. Highly recommended.

After the bar, we walked up to some shops but most closed at 7pm. Nuts. Back on the ship. We cleaned up and then went to dinner, which was pretty good, but not the best I've had. I got the tomato mozzarella salad, which was delicious, another Caesar salad, and a flat iron steak. Cin had vegetable lasagna, which had a ton of spinach and she enjoyed it quite a bit. After dinner, we headed back to the casino where we spent some time but I lost today, $40 down. Cin was a big winner, ending up $100 up. Sweet. After that, time for bed. One more excursion to go…off to Freeport.

11 August 2010: Carnival Pride; Port Canaveral, Florida

2010-08-11T15:25:00.000-07:00

This is the first excursion day and our ship docked at Port Canaveral, Florida, early in the morning. Shortly thereafter, we disembarked and got on a bus which whisked us away to Universal's Islands of Adventure, in Orlando. We entered the park and headed right to the Harry Potter world, their new and star attraction. The map suggests that many people go there early and to save it for last, post 3pm, to avoid lines. All of the lines for the other rides were around a 5-10 minute ride. Since we needed to be on the bus back to the ship around 5pm, we couldn't risk this as the Harry Potter world was what we came for. We waited in line for around two hours and then went on the main attraction, where you walk through a recreation of Hogwarts Castle and then go on a 3D immersion ride, where you go flying around with Harry and company through Hogwarts and then into a Quidditch match. The lines outside the castle were long and you waited for a really long time. Then, once you got into the castle, it was not very crowded and they rushed you through the castle and we did not get very much time to look at all of the recreations, which were all well done. Would it not be better to have longer lines in the castle and not rush people through the entire attraction? Poor execution. The ride itself was a lot of fun and a lot of the flying reminded me of Soarin' at Epcot, which is an amazing ride. So, while the execution of the walking through the castle part was not done very well, the entire thing is awesome and the ride is quite worth the wait. After the castle, we went on the Dragon Challenge roller coaster, which is a repurposed ride with a Harry Potter branding applied to it; it's still a good roller coaster. Then, we went into Ollivander's Wand Shop and Cin bought a wand that was selected for her. You can wait in the much longer front line where they let in small groups of four or so and then the wand master does a show and picks a wand for one person in the group, or you can go in another line and just go in to the shop, skipping the show, which was still a long wait and led into a horribly crowded shop. Still fun. We then waited in line (can you see a pattern?) for butterbeer, which we eventually got and was, surprisingly, quite good. It was like a really good creme soda. After that, we left the Harry Potter area, having spent over half our day there.

Then, on to the rest of Universal. I was quite disappointed. We spent much of the afternoon in line, including a 42 minute wait for "lunch," which was chicken tenders and soda. There were three groups of folks in front of us when we got in line and it took 42 minutes. Unbelievable. After eating, we went on the Spider-Man 3D ride, which has another hour wait; the ride was really good, however. We then tried to go the Hulk roller coaster and found that temporarily closed. So, we went on the Doctor Seuss Sneetches ride, where we waiting for another hour or so for a ride that was really lame. At that point…we left. We had about an hour until we needed to board the buses to head back to the ship and the Hulk, now reopened, had a 45min wait, which was cutting it too close. So, we left and went to Margharitaville for a snack and drinks. We met up with some friends from home who had driven down for a vacation and were headed in to Universal for a while, and then got back on the bus, where we drove through a lot of rain to get back to the ship.

This was my first trip to Universal and I was quite disappointed. I loved the Harry Potter area and understand the lines there. Everything else was ridiculous. We were at that park for eight hours and rode four (four!) rides. Unacceptable. The insane wait for quick take-out food was unacceptable. Having been to parks that have much bigger crowds and handle everything sooooo much better (Disney), it is easy to see why Universal is a second rate park in this area and always will be.

One thing that really bothered me was the Universal ExpressPass. Both Disney and Universal offer guests the opportunity to get passes that allow one to bypass most of the line on the major attractions. With Disney, you go to the ride and get a ticket that has a return on indicated on it, based on how long the line currently is. So, basically the ticket holds your spot in line and you can go do other things. It's free, available to anyone, and seems like a fair and equitable approach. With Universal, you can buy the pass. That's the option. This, in effect, creates two classes of guests, the "normal" ones and the "elite" ones that get to skip the lines. While this is capitalism at its finest, it seems very unappealing and nasty to me. What's next, a third tier where you get to kick other people off the ride right now so you don't have to wait at all? The approach Universal is using here is very unappealing and it really bothers me. So, while the rides we went on were quite good (except the Dr. Seuss ride, which was lame), the waits and overall logistics ruined the entire experience. Really bad showing, Universal. Really bad.

After we got back to the ship, we cleaned up and went to dinner. The rest of our party spent the evening at the steakhouse for dinner, so we were on our own, which ended up making dinner much quicker. During the dinner, all of the wait staff (and that's a lot of people) danced to a song from the Slumdog Millionaire movie and all (well, most) of the women in the dining hall got up and danced too. Cin did a really good job. :) After dinner, we went to the casino and ended up spending the entire evening, until around 1am, playing roulette. I ended up about $220 up and Cin was up a more modest amount. The casino was very lively and there were two elderly women who kept dancing to all of the music being played, which was hilarious. At that late hour, we headed back to the room and slept. And slept well.

10 August 2010: Carnival Pride; somewhere in the Atlantic

2010-08-10T15:18:00.000-07:00

We woke up around 10am again. We had planned to get up earlier and go to Normanie for the fancier breakfast, but failed. Oh well…vacation. We did head up to Mermaid Grill and I found the omelette station that I missed yesterday. I got a tomato omelette and some bacon. The omelette was absolutely delicious and I plan to get a few more of these during the cruise. I was quite happy that we missed the other restaurant, as the omelette was that good. After that, we headed up to deck 10 and found some lounge chairs to relax on and spent the new few hours there, reading and drinking iced tea. Cin went to Daniel's Steakhouse for a cooking demonstration, which she seemed to enjoy. I went down the waterside (yes, there is a waterside on the ship and yes, it is actually a lot of fun and you can get going pretty fast on it) twice and enjoyed that quite a bit.

A little about drinks on the cruise. As mentioned, alcohol costs and it is pretty expensive. They do have draft beer that is $5.25 per glass (Heineken and Amstel Light are the two offered) and bottled beer is available that is variable in pricing. The selection of bottled beer is actually pretty good and they have some of my favorite such as Stella Artois and Grolsch. Soda also costs, but you can buy a soda card which will allow unlimited soda during the cruise. If you're good with water, juice, and iced tea, you can drink all you want for free at any time. As both Cin and I are major iced tea drinkers, this works really well for us.

After that, we headed down to Mermaid Grill for lunch and got some decent food and then headed to the spin class in the gym. This was quite a bit different than the ones we are used to back home and I found it very challenging...the focus is absolutely on general fitness and not cycling, as the ones we do at home generally are. Then Cin stayed on for another abs class and I went back to the cabin to shower and get ready for dinner. Cin came back after a while and did the same…more formal attire today, as we had dinner reservations at Daniel's Steakhouse, the high-end restaurant on the ship (reservations only and there is a fee of $30 per person for dinner here). Daniel's was very nice. For the $30 per person extra fee, you get a really good five course meal, on the caliber of a Ruth's Chris or other similar level steakhouse. We split a bottle of Riesling and after we ordered, they brought out free appetizers, where I got a steak tartar that was delicious and Cin got some creamy thing that was also good. Over the course of dinner, I got lobster bisque soup, tomato salad, broccoli, and a porterhouse steak, finishing up with some sorbet. Cin really enjoyed her meal as well, which included a tableside-prepared Caesar salad and filet mignon. Delicious.

After dinner, we went to the comedy show, which was done by a comedian who had cerebral palsy. That was interesting and he used his condition as the subject of many of the jokes. He was quite funny and we enjoyed the show a lot. After that, off to bed…first excursion tomorrow!

9 August 2010: Carnival Pride; somewhere in the Atlantic

2010-08-09T15:14:00.000-07:00

We woke up around 10am. Ahhh, vacation. We headed up to the Mermaid Grill and had some breakfast, which was pretty good but not amazing. We then went down to bingo, which was fun but we lost early and it did not last too long. Oh well. From there, off to the casino for roulette! Cin played on $20 for 45min or so and I played on 20min for only about 5min. Oh well. We then went up on the Lido deck for sunbathing and reading for a while, which was nice and relaxing. Right now I am reading Spook Country by William Gibson, which is really good. After that, off to the room to clean up and to the Normandie Dining Room (the room where we eat dinner, the more formal of the dining options) for lunch. I had a generic salad and spaghetti, both of which were pretty good, and then stole some of Cin's chocolate cake for dessert, which was excellent. After that, Cin took a nap and I went down for some pizza (to supplement our lunch :)) and the casino for a bit, and then we tried to lie out some more but it started to rain, which was disappointing.

After that, Cin went to the gym for an abs class and I ran on the treadmill for a while (six miles). The treadmills face the front of the boat, which was cool. It is somewhat odd to run on these as the ship rocks back and forth slightly and that makes running on the treadmills quite a bit more difficult and strange. After that, back to our cabin for a shower and then we dressed up for the Captain's Celebration. This was elegant dress, where Cin put on a dress and me a suit complete with bow tie (Bow ties are cool). We mingled in the main bar/atrium and got our pictures taken in front of a number of different backdrops, including one on the grand staircase with the entire travel group. We got stuck in lines for these and did not get to go up and meet the Captain and the other senior officers, which would have been cool, but oh well. After that, it was off to Normanie for dinner. Tonight I had a strawberry bisque soup (this tasted pretty much like what you would think it would), Caesar salad, prime rib, and a baked potato, all of which were really tasty. For dessert, I had a cherry and ice cream option, which was also good. Cin ended up with spaghetti in a creamy and bacon sauce and an apple dessert, which were also delicious.

After dinner, we got a few more pictures taken and then headed off to the piano bar, where we had a few drinks and listened to the musician, who was really good. He did a great job interacting with the audience and played pretty much everything that was requested. Good times. This bar was not too busy and that's a shame as it was a hugely fun time. After an hour or so there, we headed back to the room and off to sleep, exhausted.

8 August 2010: Carnival Pride; Baltimore, MD

2010-08-08T15:10:00.000-07:00

We awoke on cruise day to begin with a 40mi bike ride down the B&A Trail. That was quite tiring and we then hit up Noodles and Company for lunch…very good. We then went home and my dad picked us up for our cruise. We headed to the Cruise Maryland terminal in Baltimore and began the embarkation process. There are a lot of similarities to an airport here, with security and check-in. We were over halfway through the line for security until I realized we were the only folks in line with our checked luggage. Whoops. We bailed on the line and headed back outside, where we dropped that off and went back into line, this time choosing the other entrance, where the line actually moved a lot faster. Once we got through security to the check-in desk, we saw that we actually saved quite a bit of time doing that and ended up in line quicker than the folks we were behind in the first line. Score. :) Anyway, we checked in at the desk and got our boarding assignment squared away. We had to wait for a few more minutes in a seating area and then they called our area. We headed up the plank (yep, a plank) and onto the ship, the Carnival Pride.

Once we got on, we had no idea what to do. We got on board around 2.00pm and our rooms would not be ready until 4.00pm. The boarding guide indicated that the buffet/casual restaurant would be open and serving lunch so we headed up there. We ended up sitting on some lounge chairs on the rear Lido deck (deck 9), right outside of the restaurant, and got some of the daily special drinks, which were a mix of run and a few other liquors. Very delicious. Here is one thing you need to know about cruises…most of everything is included but not alcohol, and it is expensive. The daily drinks were $7.50 each and that was cheap for a mixed drink. Oh well, all the food is included so it's all good. :) Anyway, while we were waiting on the deck chairs, I found the 24/7 pizzeria, which is part of the restaurant, the Mermaid Grill, and got some…it was delicious, quite thin with a small amount of sauce and very delicious. I can tell I'll be eating a lot of this pizza. After a while, around 3.45pm, we figured our room would be available and we were right.

We found our room and found it to be very nice. The balcony in our room is just big enough for two to sit outside on chairs with a small table between them, and enjoy the view. It was quite awesome and we were immediately sure that we made a good decision in getting the balcony room (if you plan to do any relaxing on-board, and value some privacy and quiet with a great view, spring for the balcony...totally worth it!). We unpacked and then reported for the mandatory safety drill, where they go over where to go in the event of an emergency and how to use the lifejackets. Very exciting. ;) After that, we got ready and explored the book somewhat, finding the piano bar, the casino, the Taj Mahal where they do many of the shows, the various pools, the gym and spa (where we signed up for two spin classes during our cruise..geez), and various other spots. The Pride is quite an extensive ship and there is a lot to see! We made sure to be on the Lido deck when the boat shoved off, which was quite cool to see.

We had the late dining option, eating at 8.15pm each night. We were assigned to a table with the rest of the group that we booked with. Cin's co-worker and friend has been on this cruise multiple times and her friend is a travel agent that books it. We booked through her so we ended up grouped with all of the folks in that group, a collection of family and friends. They all seem very nice and talkative, which is good. For dinner the first night, I had a Caesar salad, some ribs, and then a melting chocolate cake, all of which were quite good. After dinner, we headed back to the room and off to sleep…very tired!

7 August 2010: Chantilly, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Columbia, Maryland

2010-08-07T15:06:00.000-07:00

This vacation is somewhat different than the past couple. If you've read this blog, know me, or am somehow intrigued by that statement and just spent a few hours reading of our past vacations on this travel log, you know that the past couple of years, Cin and I traveled to Bora Bora, a few countries in Europe, and other fun places. All of these vacations were very logistically intense and required a lot of planning and effort to get a lot of things in. While they were amazingly fun and great trips, we decided that this year would be less intense so we picked a cruise. Our cruise leaves tomorrow, 8 August, from Baltimore, and will sail first to Port Canaveral, Florida, and then on to two stops in the Bahamas. Should be pretty sweet. But, that is tomorrow, so let's talk about today and the first day of vacation.

Today, we met up with our friend (and Cin's co-worker), Erinn, her husband Jim, and their daughter Z, and headed down to Chantilly, Virginia. First up was Cracker Barrel for a delicious breakfast. I had a huge meal of four pieces of sourdough french toast, some bacon, turkey sausage, and two eggs. Delicious, as always. We then headed to the Dulles Expo Center for BrickFair 2010 (website is here). This is an annual show/convention based on Lego bricks, where people exhibit what they've built using Lego. The exhibits range from huge cityscapes, to the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters, to working twenty foot tall cranes, to working Ferris wheels. Amazing displays. We spent a good two hours or so there and saw everything, which was quite fun. We then departed and headed into Washington, DC, where we met up with my sister and her boyfriend to see how progress on their new place was going and then had lunch at Chop't (website is here). They make a delicious custom made salad and, despite our huge breakfast, I ate it all. After that, we headed back home.

We packed up for the trip tomorrow and then headed to our friends, Danny and Suzy's, place for her birthday. We relaxed there for a while and then headed to Michael's Pub, where we had some good times. We left somewhat early as the next day was going to be quite busy. Bring on the cruise!

7 April 2010: Las Vegas, Nevada

2010-04-14T14:35:00.000-07:00

We woke up on our last full day in Vegas nice and late. We then headed down to the front desk to see about a late check-out, as our flight back home did not leave until 11pm. I let Cin do the talking, since she did such a nice job getting us awesome seats together on the flight out. The lady at the desk said that normal check-out time could be extended until 1pm without charge, but until 6pm would cost a half-day's worth of money. There must have been a jump in cost for this evening, as she quoted $80 for this (more than a full day's worth of our rate) and then told us that she was going to comp that and we could stay until 6pm for free. So that was really nice. After this, we went to the restaurant and had some breakfast. Cin got french toast and I got a combination of eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns. The hashbrowns were excellent and we both enjoyed eating them. Yummmm.

After breakfast, we headed out to the pool area and stayed out there for a good portion of the day. I ended up with a sunburn along most of my chest and arms, which hurt quite a bit. Stupid Jeff not wearing sunblock. :( Around 4pm, we headed back to the room and showered off. We then took our luggage down to the bell desk for them to hold and we headed to the Italian place in Mandalay Place, Giorgio Cafe (TripAdvisor page is here) for dinner, so that my craving for pasta could finally be satisfied. I had a Caesar salad and spaghetti with oil and garlic and Cin got a mixed green salad and macaroni with cheese and bacon. Both were quite good. This place was a good Italian restaurant, with decent but not amazing pasta, and it really hit the spot. After dinner, we went back to the Luxor casino and played Rapid Roulette for a quite. At the collection of tables next to us, there was a series of girls dancing while people gambled, wearing small outfits, which was fun to watch. :) This was the only time we noticed anything like this at the Luxor. When it was time to go to the airport, we went to the bell desk and collected our bags and then decided to put a couple of dollars in the slot machines nearby. My initial $3 won something like $25 and I cashed it out immediately. :)

We had a short taxi ride to the airport (much quicker and shorter than the one to the hotel...) and then relaxed at the airport with some good soft pretzels for snacks. We then boarded the redeye flight back home. I tried to sleep the entire time while Cin read and watched the movie (I don't remember what it was but it did not look very appealing). I got almost no sleep, which was not fun. Anyway, we landed after a decent flight, collected our luggage, and then had to wait about 15 minutes for a shuttle back to our parking lot. This was the first thing about either Dulles Airport or United's airline service that was not good. We usually have horrible experiences with both Dulles and United, but they both did really well on this trip, save this somewhat small, but still very annoying, item. We picked up the car and drove home, in not-so-bad DC rush-hour traffic, and then hit up Eggspectations, our favorite local breakfast place, when we got back home. After a good mean, we headed home and slept for a few hours, to try to make ourselves useful. :)

End of trip. This was a good spring break. Viva Las Vegas!

6 April 2010: Las Vegas, Nevada

2010-04-13T13:21:00.000-07:00

We got up somewhat early when Marie, Cin's sister, called. She flew in for the day from Albuquerque and had never been to Vegas before. She booked a room at the Luxor and was able to check-in very early (it was 8am!) for a small early check-in fee. Not bad. We got the morning started by heading over to NYNY, where we found some breakfast and then proceeded to walk down the strip all the way down to the Venetian. We picked up our tickets for the evening's show of Phantom of the Opera that we planned to see, and then started walking back up, stopped at Jimmy Buffett's Margharitaville for lunch. They had a (very) limited menu for lunch, which was very disappointing. We then walked back to NYNY, where we played some slots and more of the Rapid Roulette, and then headed back to our hotel for a little relaxing.

We then walked all the way back to the Venetian and watch the evening's showing of Phantom. This was amazing. The show is put on in a theater custom built for Phantom and this allows some of the most amazing sets to be used, since the play is set in a theater. I have never seen this show before and it was amazing. Very nicely done. We then walked back up to the Luxor (two up and back trips on the strip = ~7 miles on the day) and Cin and Marie got some crepes from the place in Mandalay Place for dinner (I found the options unappealing). Marie then headed back to her room to sleep and get ready for her flight home early the next morning and we stopped at the quick-order restaurant so I could get a hamburger for dinner. After that, we headed back up and went to sleep, ready for a relaxing day the following morning.

5 April 2010: Las Vegas, Nevada

2010-04-12T12:31:00.000-07:00

We got up pretty late on Monday, since we went to bed very late due to the flights and the time change. Cin decided to go to the gym, first thing. I stayed in bed for a little while and then went downstairs to play some slot machines. The previous night I won $20, which I had in the form of a slot payout coupon, that you can insert into any of the slot machines and keep playing with (you can also cash it in). I went among a couple of different machines and ended up cashing out with a $120 payout coupon, which was pretty nice for an hour or so. I decided to keep the coupon in my wallet and not keep playing with it, figuring if I could do the same with a couple more $20s, I would leave Las Vegas with enough money in winnings to buy a new iPad, which I can only justify buying if I won the money. :)

Anyway, Cin came back up, we cleaned up, and then went down and found some lunch at a restaurant in the Mandalay Place. This is a mall-like area that connects the Luxor and the Mandalay Bay. They have shopping, as well as an Italian restaurant, a Mexican restaurant, a build-your-own-burger restaurant (with many different types of meat to use as a base and then a whole slew of toppings, from the normal mustard to the exotic lobster meat and others), a crepes place, an ice bar (bar where it is -5 degrees - you need to put on coats and such to go in!), and a higher-end seafood place. Pretty neat environment. I was in the mood for pasta, but we opted to go to the Mexican place, Hussong's Cantina. Apparently this a another location of a famous, and well-regarded, place in Ensenada, Mexico, of the same name. The website is here and the Las Vegas location has no TripAdvisor page. Anyway, we had GREAT food here. We started with chips and salsa, which came with two salsas, one red and one green that were both delicious and both very unique. We ordered some guacamole, which was very fresh and very chunky, plus it was light on the onions which is always good. For lunch, Cin had a salad with delicious grilled chicken on it, and I had three steak tacos, with tomatos and cheese. These were some of the freshest and most delicious tacos I have ever had (and I'd had a lot of tacos). Fantastic place with great food and great service. If you want a really good Mexican meal in Vegas, go here!

After lunch, we walked over to New York New York and did some roulette there. Most of the casinos now have this system called Rapid Roulette where there is still a physical wheel and dealer, but you put money into and select your bets on, a computer screen. This lets them do more with less people, so it is a pretty interesting concept. The plus is that the minimums are generally lower, as low as $2.50 per spin at NYNY. This was really nice. We played for a while, had a few drinks while we played, and had a good time at NYNY casino.

After gambling, we went back and got ready for dinner. We had sinner at the Tender Steakhouse, which is the higher-end place in the Luxor, supposed to be of Ruth Chris / Mortons / etc quality. Their webpage is here and the TripAdvisor page is here. We found this place to be very good. You can select from many different cuts of steak, from many different sources, offering American Kobe beef, grass-raised beef, organic beef, varieties of bison, and a few others. Cin had an organic, grass-fed filet and I opted for the grass-fed bison strip, which was fantastic. Both were prepared excellently and they were quite delicious. I opted for a Caesar salad (that came with anchovies and had a delicious homemade dressing) and then we got an order of grilled asparagus, that was plentiful and very delicious. All-in-all, this was a very good meal and I recommend the Tender Steakhouse for a good meal if you're in Vegas.

After our dinner, we didn't feel like doing much else, so we went to the room to relax and go to sleep. Cin's sister, Marie, was flying out early the next morning to spend the day with us, so we needed to get some sleep as that promised to be a busy day.

4 April 2010: Las Vegas, Nevada

2010-04-09T11:53:00.000-07:00

As it was Cin's spring break, and we had some United credits to use (based on all the issues we had with them the last time we tried to go to Florida for vacation), we opted to go to Vegas for a short stay. While we looked forward to the trip, we braced for problems as we have never had a good experience flying United out of Dulles Airport. So here we go.

We flew out on Easter Sunday and the airport did not look any more or less busy than any other Sunday. We got to the airport, parked our car in the Economy Parking area ($10/day) and caught the shuttle over to the airport, with almost no wait. We got off, checked in with no problems are the kiosk (we could not use online check-in because our flight schedule had changed a bit since we booked it - why this prevents you from doing online check-in is beyond me), and went thru security with no problems. Dulles had a new security checkpoint that was nice, efficient, and quick, and then we rode the AeroTrain, which is a replacement for the "moving room" system that they have had since forever. The new train system is much, much, much better and I like it a lot.

Since we had a few hours until we took off, we went off in search of food and found a Gordon Biersch, where I had two of their Kolsch-style beers and we split an order of their excellent garlic fries. We relaxed a bit in this very crowded bar and then went to our gate. At this point, we had seats that were not next to each other so Cin went up to the counter to see if she could fix this. Not only did she get us seats together on the first flight, but got us seats together on the second flight as well. Nicely done.

The flight to Denver was uneventful. They showed The Blind Side (we flew on a big 777), which was pretty good and had the amazing (and hot!) Sandra Bullock in a great performance. Once we got to Denver, we found a French-style bar for dinner. I had a few beers (some kind of spring wheat beer that was pretty good) and some bread-and-dippings along with a salad. Quite good. We then got on to the next flight and found that our seats together were exit row, facing the jump seats for the flight attendants, meaning they had about three feet of legroom. We also were sitting in the middle of a cluster of USMC pilots, who were flying out to Nellis AFB (right outside of Vegas) for training, which was fun. Talking to them and the flight attendants was quite a change of pace and we enjoyed this flight very much.

We got to Vegas a little after 10pm local time, which was 1am for us. It being Easter Sunday, we were up early anyway so we were really tired. We picked up Cin's checked bag and then went to the taxi line, where the guy in front of us jumped the chain and then got into a shouting match with the guy running the line. It got pretty heated since apparently the in-charge-guy "didn't know who he was talking to" but the guy just grabbed a cab and everything cooled down. We took the long way around (lousy cabbie) to our hotel, the Luxor (website is here and TripAdvisor page is here).

The check-in line was long which was disappointing since this is Vegas, but moved at a decent clip. We ended up with a room with two queen beds instead of the reserved king. Now, I've stayed at the Luxor before, about six or seven years ago, and remember it being much nicer than what we saw this time. The room was very bare and looked like something you would get at a Motel Six. It was clean and comfortable and we had a view of the (really, really, nice) pool area, but the room itself was very uninteresting. Granted, we did not plan to stay there much, but the room we had last time at New York New York (webpage is here and TripAdvisor page is here) was much nicer for around the same price. The casino also seemed very generic and unthemed. Luxor goes for an Egyptian theme (they are shaped like a giant pyramid) but there is little to indicate that in the rooms or the casino floor. NYNY, on the other hand, looks like the city all throughout the hotel. Oh well. We went down to the casino floor and played some slots for about thirty minutes and then headed back up, since we were both exhausted. Tomorrow...gambling!

28 February - 2 March 2010: West Palm Beach, Florida

2010-03-02T07:13:00.000-08:00

This was a business trip and an odd one at that. I left for the airport on Sunday morning, after Cin made me a delicious breakfast consisting of heart-shaped pancakes. I got to BWI, parked at the usual lot, and then went through security with no issues. I met up with the guys from work I was traveling with and got a good two hours of reading a book for my MBA classes done on the plane. Aisle seat and good AirTran service made for a nice flight. Once we got to Palm Beach International, things got a little different that most of my trips. I flew down here for a workshop with leaders from a number of companies in my employer's line of business, all fairly high-up folks. So, once we got to the airport, we were met by a driver who showed us to our Cadillac and then drove us to the workshop location, the Four Seasons. This was the first time I have ever stayed at one of these and it was pretty sweet.

Palm Beach is a really nice place, with a good amount of "old Florida" that is fun to drive through and watch. We got to the Four Seasons, checked in, and then registered for the workshop. It was a little after noon and our rooms were not ready yet. So, we asked about a low-key place to eat and were referred to John G's, a place about a quarter of a mile walk. We hiked over there and saw a huge line, so we opted to eat at the NYPD Pizza place next door. They made great food ... I had a bruschetta pizza that was crust, olive oil, garlic, spices, tomato sauce, and then covered in diced tomatoes with a little cheese sprinkled on. Delicious! After that, we headed back to the hotel and got our rooms around 2pm, with nothing to do until the 7pm dinner/reception. So...I ran 5 miles in some of the best weather I have seen in a long time. Great run, not too fast and not too far, just perfect. I then showered off and went down to the reception.

The reception was good, with great food, an open bar, and some good networking and conversation with the other folks attending the workshop. It was on a section of deck right off the beach and we saw a really nice moonrise that looked amazing. After it was over, I hiked back to my room and went to sleep, exhausted.

The next morning, I got up and went to the workshop all day. It was a very long day. The lunch was great with multiple color tomatoes and really thick & fresh mozzarella for the salad course. The dinner and reception that was after was very nice as well, with some good food. Not too much to say about Monday.

I woke up on Tuesday and checked out of the room before going to the last session of the workshop. After that was over, the three of us got into another Cadillac and were taken to the airport, where we went through security (the woman in front of me filled up five of those trays they give you to put thru the scanner...five!), and waited for our flight. Middle seat this time, but I got almost all of my book done and the aisle and window seat folks were quiet. :) After getting home, I picked up my car and drove home. End of trip.

This trip was unique for me in that everything was included by the folks organizing the workshop. It was at a high-end hotel, included car service to/from the airport, and had some great meals as well. High lap of luxury. This was a really good time, but also very tiring as the workshop was a lot of work. A great experience, all around.

13 January 2010 - Orlando, Florida

2010-01-13T14:51:00.000-08:00

We woke up on our last day of this trip and headed out to the Contemporary resort to do some last-minute shopping. We picked up some stuff and then headed back to the Grand Floridian. We packed out the room and then checked out. We dropped off the luggage with the Magical Express service, where they would deliver it to the airport and check it all the way to BWI (awesome service!) The Magical Express bus was leaving around 12.15pm, so we went to the Grand Floridian Cafe restaurant, where we had not eaten yet. They serve breakfast until 11.30am, so we had to get that. I had a really good combo with eggs, bacon, sausage, and biscuits, all of which were quite good. Cin got french toast but did not eat much because her stomach was really starting to bother her. We finished up and then went out to the pool to sit and ready the newspaper until our bus was due. After it was, we went on the short ride back to the MCO airport, watched the fun Disney goodbye video on the bus and went into the airport, unhappy to be going home.

We went thru security and then sat down at the bar at the Outback in the airport. This is one thing I love about MCO...the Outback. I had a beer and a Caesar salad and Cin did not get anything due to her stomach issues. We got on the plane, which was almost empty, and had a good flight back. Since there were only about 20 people on the plane, we moved back to the exit row and got the entire row to ourselves, which was awesome. We did some reading, Cin's stomach continued bothering her, and we arrived shortly at BWI. DrMo picked us up on time and back home we went. Marathon and awesome Disney World park visits complete. :)

12 January 2010 - Orlando, Florida

2010-01-12T10:00:00.000-08:00

The original plan had been to go to Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios the previous day and then hit up Animal Kingdom and Epcot today. That was not to be, as we decided we wanted more time in Hollywood Studios (we did not even get to play Toy Story Midway Mania yesterday!), so we opted to skip Animal Kingdom in favor of returning to Hollywood Studios and then hit up Epcot in the evening. So, we got up and took the bus to Hollywood Studios, where we got FastPass tickets to the Midway Mania for the early afternoon and then rode the Tower of Terror and Rockin' Rollercoaster some more. We also went on Star Tours, which is fun but in need of a rehab/enhancement, ate some popcorn, saw the Muppets 3D show, and had lunch at Mama Melrose's Ristorante Italiano (website is here and TripAdvisor page is here), where we had excellent food before (and this time did not disappoint, either). After our Midway Mania time, we rode the Tower of Terror one more time and then headed off to Epcot. Lots of fun at Hollywood Studios, but nothing we had not done before.

Epcot was fun. We got FastPass tickets for Soarin' in the evening and then did some walking thru the World Showcase, where I got some French, Moroccan, and German beers. We discovered that we had lost the PhotoPass and went to the service center. We told them where and when we had a picture taken and they found that photo, which let them find all of the photos on the missing PhotoPass and transfer them to a new one, all in about five minutes. Awesome service! We then went on the Living with the Land ride where you take a boat ride thru the working gardens where they develop new plant growing techniques in their working gardens. This is really cool.

We liked that so much (we did it last time and liked it just as much) that we inquired about a tour of the working gardens and, lucky for us, there was a group leaving right then! We paid the fee and went on that hour-long tour, which was awesome. We saw all of the animals they had (including a huge number of alligators...it is amazing how they can just float in the water with their heads up but body drifting), fed the tilapia, saw some really innovative ways of growing crops (they had a huge tomato tree...yes, a tree!), sampled some of the food (the tomatoes were really tasty!), put ladybugs onto a certain plant so they would eat more destructive pests, and learned a lot. The tour was really cool and I highly recommend it to anyone.

After the tour, we went on Soarin', which was awesome. This time we were on the bottom of the three levels and you could see the bottom parts of the screen which turned Cin off a bit. I didn't mind but I can see how it lessened the immersion. Still cool, however. After the ride, we headed back to the World Showcase for dinner and got "on the list" for the San Angel Inn, the Mexican restaurant (their website is here and TripAdvisor page is here). They took reservations at the top of every hour and walk-ins at the bottom of every hour. We killed twenty minutes or so looking around the Mexican shops and getting drinks at the bar and then were seated right at 8.30p. This place is neat...it is right on the waterway that the boats go down so it looks like you are at a riverside restaurant. It is very dark and is meant to be romantic, which is hard with all the yelling kids there. It is a really nice location, however. The service was decent and the food was awesome. It was authentic Mexican and I had tacos like I had not had before with ribeye steak meat, avocado, a red pepper sauce, and tomatoes. They were REALLY good. If you want a good Mexican meal while in Disney World, this is the place to go.

After dinner, we headed back to our hotel. We only had two days in the parks on this trip and we really enjoyed them both. So far on the trip, we visited a lot of the hotels, ran our first marathon, and had a great time at all three parks we visited. It is a real shame this trip would soon be over.

11 January 2010 - Orlando, Florida

2010-01-11T10:31:00.000-08:00

We woke up late after a good night's sleep (wonder why? :)). We headed off to the Magic Kingdom, our first park of the day. We rode the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and then hiked over to Space Mountain, which we rode twice. We took a train ride around the area, which is something we have never done before, and then waited in line to get our picture taken with Buzz Lightyear (that was fun). Afterward, we went on Buzz Lightyear ride where you shoot at various things and The Haunted Mansion. Pretty good set of rides this time around. We had lunch at the Liberty Tree Tavern (their TripAdvisor page is here), where lunch was served "family style" meaning they brought out good size portions in bowls for everyone (meaning, me and Cin) to share. It was pretty good and there were characters going around as well; we got our pictures taken with Chip & Dale, Minnie, and Pluto (who was begging for table scraps). We had a good morning at the Magic Kingdom and then we made our way over to Hollywood Studios (our favorite!).

Once at Hollywood Studios, we went on the Tower of Terror and the Rockin' Rollercoast a few times. Lots of fun. We misjudged the dinner plans. It seems that when a park has Extra Magic Hours (they are open late for guests if you are staying at a Disney hotel), they restaurants do not all stay open that late. We ended up snagging a table at the Sci-Fi Drive In Diner, which we enjoyed last time we ate there. I had ribs and they were good. We saw some good fun clips on the "drive in" screen and had a good time. After dinner and some more rides on the Tower of Terror, we headed back to the hotel, relaxed a bit, and went to sleep, ready for another fun day at the parks the next day.

10 January 2010 - Orlando, Florida

2010-01-10T14:06:00.000-08:00

2.50am alarm and we're up! We ate a small meal of some pastries we got the night before (blueberry muffin for me and an apple cake thing for Cin), drank some fluids, triple checked everything we needed, and headed to the monorail for our first marathon!

We got on the monorail in 28 degree weather. Again with the cold...we cannot escape it even in Florida. The previous day's temperature set an all-time-low for that day. Geez. We had on lots of layers and were still very cold. Anyway, we took the monorail to the Ticket and Transportation Center where we got on another monorail and then got off at Epcot for the start. As we got off, one of the Disney personnel welcomed us to "Disney Alaska." Felt that way. :) We went to the starting area and went to the bathroom, checked our bag (with sweatshirts for later!) and then walked to the starting area with everyone else. We huddled in with the masses to keep warm. Once we got to the starting corral, we did not have to wait long and we were off!

The marathon was a long experience and I can, in no way, do it justice here. We warmed up as we ran and shedded some layers. We drank a lot of water and Powerade. We ate a bunch of energy fuels (Clif Shot Bloks work well for us). We had some really good high points (like running through the parks) and some lows (like finding motivation during the very long stretches between parks). We finished and we finished strong. The last three miles or so were wonderful, with tons of spectators and cheering people on both sides the entire way. Awesome. The race was wonderful and we had a great time. It felt really good to earn that 26.2 sticker. :)

After the race, we collected our medals, some food and drinks, and got the bus back to the hotel. We got back to the room and cracked open the bottle of champagne that we bought for this occasion. It was delicious and well earned. We spent the next couple hours stretching, relaxing, and watching the Ravens administer a royal ass-whooping to the Patriots on TV. Wonderful way to relax after the marathon. The initial plan had been to go to the pool and do some swimming around to get the legs loose and prevent soreness and tightness but the cold temperatures prevented that. We had also talked about going to the ESPNZone at the Disney Boardwalk area for the Ravens game but opted not to do that as we simply didn't want to go that far and we also had dinner reservations right in our hotel. The large amount of stretching we did paid off and we kept any major soreness or tightness away, which was a wonderful accomplishment.

After a few hours, we headed over to Citricos (webpage is here and TripAdvisor page is here), one of the restaurants in the hotel. We ate there the last time we were in Disney and really enjoyed it. Tonight was no different. We had a great meal with good service. I again had the beef short ribs, which were fantastic. We ended up getting dessert, which was good, and they provided us with souvenir Disney Marathon menus that congratulated us on our accomplishment. Sweet. This was a great experience...we have had two really good meals at Citricos and I highly recommend it if you are in Disney and want a good meal.

After the meal, we headed back to the room and saw the end of the Green Bay and Arizona playoff game, which was amazing. We did some relaxing and then hit the bed, very tired and eager to go to the parks the next day. Marathon One, check. :)

9 January 2010 - Orlando, Florida

2010-01-09T13:42:00.000-08:00

We slept in pretty late and then went over to pick up the bus to Disney's Wide World of Sports for the Marathon Expo. The bus ride took a while as there was a huge mass of cars all trying to get into the parking lots for the expo. Once let off the bus, we walked in the somewhat-heavy rain to the entrance. The half-marathon was run this morning and we felt pretty bad for those that ran in the cold and rain (and some hail during the start of the race!). We purposefully picked Disney for two reasons - (1) lots to look at during the race, and (2) good, warm weather. So much for (2).

Anyway, we made our way in and picked up your bibs and timing chips. From there, it was off to the expo, which was very crowded, to the point of not being able to walk around. Cin bought some running socks. We both wanted to get the marathon jacket they had but the only sizes they had were XXL. This seemed like some really poor planning, which is very unusual for Disney. After we got home from this trip, Cin spoke to a rep from Disney and they said that the very cold weather is the reason they sold many more jackets than ever before and that was the reason they were all out of the normal sizes. I can understand that, but it still sucks as we really wanted these as they looked really cool and it was our first marathon. Pretty annoying and frustrating. Anyway, we ended up purchasing Marathon pint glasses and sweatshirts, which are nice but no where near as nice as the jackets. Oh well...they are still nice.

After we were done, we got back on the bus back to our room and then spent some time traveling to the other hotels on the monorail service, including the Contemporary (webpage is here and TripAdvisor page is here) and the Polynesian (webpage is here and TripAdvisor page is here). Both were really cool and the Contemporary is the one where the monorail comes right into the building (this is even part of the logo for the hotel). Being a monorail geek, I found this awesome. We also discovered that the Contemporary has a much better quick-service food joint than the Grand Floridian. We did some shopping and ended up back at our hotel for a little relaxing before dinner.

Dinner was at the Yachtsman Steakhouse (webpage is here and TripAdvisor page is here) at the Yacht Club hotel. This is connected to the Beach Club hotel, where we stayed during the last trip down to Disney World. I had beef short ribs and Cin had a salad and order of macaroni and cheese. She wasn't in the mood for a steakhouse so we could have planned this better. We had tried to switch to somewhere else but everything was filled up. The food was really good but not what she was in the mood for, so this would have been better on another night. A would-be-plus is that they had Sam Adams Cherry Wheat on draft (never seen this really good beer on draft before!). The downside is that they were out when we were there. Bummer! The beef short ribs, however, were excellent.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and went to sleep nice and early. Our first marathon and a 2.50am wake-up awaits!

8 January 2010 - Orlando, Florida

2010-01-08T06:01:00.000-08:00

This trip is down to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, for me and Cin to run our first full marathon. We've done a bunch of half marathons and trained up in the ice and cold for the full 26.2 miles, so this should be something. Then we get to relax in Disney World for a few days, which we plan to use as a replacement for a winter break vacation, which we did not get to do on.

DrMo picked us up at the house in the morning and we all headed out to one of the best places in Columbia to eat breakfast, Eggspectation. I had my usual combination of egg whites, grilled potatoes, turkey bacon, and toast, all of which was delicious. We then headed to BWI and DrMo dropped us off and wished us luck on the run. Our AirTran flight was delayed a half hour, but then pulled back to its initial departure time, and ended up leaving only a few minutes late. Many kudos to the AirTran staff for doing all they could to get us off as quickly as possible...it was obvious they were working hard. We ended up with an exit row, which provides a LOT more legroom on the 717-200. Sweet! After an uneventful flight, we landed in Orlando.

We walked down to the Disney's Magical Express service center, where we got on a nice big bus that took us directly to our resort. We have never used this service before and it was excellent. It was timely, efficient, and they showed a cool video highlighting some of the parks on the way. Much better than dealing with the roads and traffic ourselves. Another good part about this service is that they take care of your luggage. We put a special tag on our bag and they picked it up from the airport and delivered it to our room...awesome feature. If you are going to Disney World, staying at a Disney resort, and have no plans to travel outside of Disney that require a rental car, this is the way to go.

The bus dropped us off at our resort, Disney's Grand Floridian Resort and Spa (their webpage is here and the TripAdvisor page is here). This is Disney's premiere resort (read...most expensive). And it is worth it. It is a huge, Victorian style, hotel that is top notch in every way. We ate at a restaurant within when we were here for a long vacation in 2008 and loved it so we figured that if we were coming down here to run our first marathon, we would do it right. Good decision. Our room was nice, had a king size bed, and was very comfortable. Top notch. Our bag from the airport was delivered a short time later and then we headed off for an Italian dinner at Il Munino (their website is here and the TripAdvisor page is here).

This place is a restaurant in Disney's Swan hotel. The Swan and the Dolphin (their webpage is here and the TripAdvisor page is here) are interesting hotels in that they are on Disney property, have the bus service and such, but are not managed and run by Disney. They are kind of a hybrid between Disney and non-Disney hotels. To get to the hotel, we took the monorail (yes, I sang the Monorail song) to the Magic Kingdom and then took a bus to the Boardwalk area where we ran (the bus ride took a bit longer than expected) to the Swan and our dinner. Dinner itself was awesome. I had a really good Caesar salad and a pizza and Cin got a wide-noodle pasta dish. The spicy bread in the bread basket they provide is amazing! Both were excellent and then we split a dessert and they gave us complementary shots of a lemon-based liquor that was quite good.

After this filling dinner, we got on another bus to Downtown Disney, the nightlife area. We walked around a bit, visited the Lego store (!), and then decided it was too cold so we picked up another bus directly back to the Grand Floridian. Once back, we settled in for a good night sleep. Tomorrow would bring the marathon expo and other visits so we needed to be well rested. Great first day of this trip!

17 August 2009 - London, England

2009-08-17T06:30:00.000-07:00

We got up around 9.30am, a little ahead of our alarm. We ordered room service for breakfast (what a good way to relax on our last day of being in London). Breakfast arrived closed to 10am and was pretty good. I had eggs with toast and hash browns and Cin had an omelet with rolls and hash browns. We both had some good, fresh, English tea and it was all quite good. After the breakfast, I showered off while Cin took some of the stuff we had purchased on our trip down to the concierge to see about shipping it home as packing all of it would be difficult. She spent a good amount of time down there, as shipping is a lot more than we thought so she needed to figure out what really needed to be shipping and what we could being home ourselves. After packing all of that up, she came back to the room and packed in a rush. Noon came and we were out. We got a taxi from our hotel direct to Heathrow and the ride was quite relaxing and nice. While we were perfectly willing to take the Tube from the airport to the hotel when we arrived, we just wanted a relaxing ride back at this point, being very tired for jamming so much into the past two weeks or so. Money well spent.

We checked in with no issues and then went thru security. We ate some snack-style food and got some fresh drinks (Gaymers Cider for Cin, which is a new one, and a pint each of Carling and Guinness for me...first Carling I have ever had and was decent, if somewhat unremarkable). Then we went to the gate, I got an iced tea at the Starbucks (they didn't seem surprised with my order, so lots of Americans must come by there, as iced tea just is not popular in the UK but Starbucks will happily make it for you if you ask) and then we boarded the plane. Off we went.

Odd flight. We spent a long time at the gate and then on the way to the runway, due to Heathrow being down to one runway for some reason. I watched Star Trek (again) and, towards the end of the movie, they came on the speaker asking if there was a doctor on board. We could not see what was going on. About five minutes later, they came on again and asked for anyone with medical training. No one else seemed to be getting up, so I went to the back of the plane (I was an EMT years ago, something that has expired but much of which is still fresh in my mind). It seems someone had passed out and was unresponsive when the flight attendants had gotten to her. She came to quickly and had been given oxygen by the flight staff and seemed to be fine, even improving during the few minutes I was there and talking to her. I advised her to drink some water (slowly) and eat a roll or something similar (again, slowly) as pretty much anything can cause this type of spell but water and some carbs/sugar can do some good. She seemed OK at that point and I learned that this had happened to her a few times before and her doctor believed it to be caused by dehydration. Anyway, she seemed OK and the flight attendants kept an eye on her for the rest of the flight, during which she felt much better, which is very good.

The rest of the flight was pretty uneventful; I did watch two episodes of Scrubs (which had the xray slide at the end of the credits replaced with one that read "Docs;" must be a UK version or something) and most of Star Trek again (one viewing on the way out and two on the way back...still awesome!). We arrived at Newark's Liberty International Airport, got off the plane, cleared passport control, and picked up our luggage. We went thru customs with no issues and then rechecked our luggage (this still seems really weird to me...when you arrive on an international flight, you need to pick up your luggage, walk it thru customs, and then recheck it to your final destination).

We then found ourselves outside of security in Terminal C, with our flight leaving from Terminal A. We got on the train to take us to that terminal and then we had to go thru a security checkpoint for a certain subset of A gates, which took some time but was not bad (some folks ahead of us and behind us were very close to missing their flights, however). Once we got thru, we found that our flight had moved gates and was now leaving from a different gate with a separate security checkout. Ugh. While we were struggling with this, an airline captain heard us and told us we could get to the new gate using a shuttle bus without leaving security, which was very nice...he was also the pilot for our flight back to BWI. Cool beans. Being very hungry, we contemplated eating at the bar in this area before leaving on the bus, but decided time was not the best for this so we got on the bus. At first, we were quite happy as there was a bar in the new area...but then we found it was closed. Everything in this small area was closed, saved for a Hudson News shop that had a fruit and cheese plate that we shared (some dinner). Crappy services available at Liberty International at 9pm! The flight back home was uneventful and our luggage popped up at BWI baggage claim very quickly. DrMo picked us up and we were home.

London vacation complete.

16 August 2009 - London, England

2009-08-16T06:28:00.000-07:00

We woke up late, having no immediate need that would require us to get up early. After some cleaning up, we headed off to the London Zoo. We rode the Tube to Baker Street Station, where they have some pretty awesome Sherlock Holmes decorations on the wall. Right outside of the station, we found 221B Baker Street, home of the famous detective. The location is home to the Sherlock Holmes Museum and looked pretty cool from the outside. Right next door is a place with an Elvis theme that had three Elvis impersonators outside singing; they attracted quite a crowd on both sides of the street. Pretty cool. After some confusion, we picked up the bus that would take us to the zoo entrance, as it would be about a 45 minute walk from the Tube station. After we went for a short bus ride, we arrived at the zoo and went in.

The London Zoo is pretty good and well worth a stop. We saw pretty much every animal exhibit and it took us a little more than three hours, something that was largely due to the compact space the zoo occupies and is quite nice. We saw the usual assortment of animals and some that I had never seen live before, including a red panda (also known as a firefox)...that guy was really cool...and a seventy year old tortoise, who was huge. The zoo had a big kids area that looked really good and had ample attractions to make it worth the price of admission. Pretty cool.

We left the zoo, picked up the bus, went into the Tube, and got off at London Bridge station. We were heading to Shakespeare's Globe Theater as we had tickets to the 6.30p showing of Troilus and Cressida. This is a less-well-known play and tells the story of the death of Hector at the hands of Achilles, the love and then tragedy of Troilus and Cressida of Troy, and some infighting within the Greek camp outside of Troy. The Globe Theater is a fantastic place to see a Shakespeare show as it is a recreation of the actual theater where Shakespeare himself put on the plays (if you believe he existed ;)). While the theater had burned down twice, the current version looks very much like it did back then, with wooden bench seats, lots of obstructions (I had a great view of a pole right in front of me), and plenty of standing-only tickets, where the collection of people filled the floor. The standers, right up to the stage, are supposed to back able to heckle the actors freely and I was very disappointed when no such heckling was performed at our show. Oh well. The play itself was somewhat hard to follow, but enjoyable none the less. The show did last just about three hours, and, luckily, included an intermission. If you have any interest in Shakespeare and want to see one of his works in an arena that is close, if not the same, as the way they were originally presented, this is one stop that is not to be missed.

After the show, we walked along the Thames to meet up with Anne and her boyfriend Tyler, the friends of Cin's who were now living in London and that we met up with before at the Sherlock Holmes Pub. We found an Italian place that was not only open but very lively and headed in there, as many things close early in London and we (Cin and me, anyway) needed food. We both got dinner and Anne an Tyler just got drinks. I had a Pizza Bufala, which is like a normal pizza but with fresh buffalo mozzarella instead of normal mozzarella and Cin had a pasta with pesto-type sauce. Both were good, although my pizza could have used some more sauce (and the promised plum tomatoes on top were missing). Oh well. We ended up there until we were among the last two tables left, so we said our goodbyes and then Cin and I walked back to our hotel. So ends the last full day in London. Tomorrow, it is off to the States, and then home.

15 August 2009 - Mottingham & London, England

2009-08-15T06:26:00.000-07:00

We got up at a decent hour and hit up the breakfast for a light meal (meaning, for me, a roll and some juice). We then walked over to the Charing Cross train station, about a seven minute walk from the hotel, and caught a train to Motthingham, a suburb of London southeast of Greenwich. For there, it was a short ten minute walk to the aquathlon we were competing in, The Clash of the Tritons. We had decided to do an event here to keep us used to competing and make sure we kept up on the training. So far, I have done an amazing amount of walking during the trip, but nothing else, so this race would be interesting since all of the aspects of this vacation have me feeling very much not a triathlete.

This was a unique event. The swim was put on in the pool of this College gymnasium, which was quite nice (note: College means High School in this context). There were only six lanes and 240 or so athletes, so everyone had start times and ours were 10.45a and 10.55a (so we got way more sleep than I thought we would...thank goodness!). Once we arrived and set up our transition area, we headed to the pool where we got our timing chips and then we discovered that they were ahead and we could start very shortly (we got there quite a bit early so we started about 45 minutes ahead of schedule). Cin started a few minutes before me and shared a lane with a guy who swam much slower than her, as she is an amazingly fast swimmer, whom she had to pass twice during the 500m swim. Yep, they did two to a lane with circle swimming. Well, for everyone but me apparently as no one else joined my lane during my swim. The swim itself was fine and I put up a decent time (nine minutes and change). Out of the pool and on to the run. My transition sucked, as it always does, and then I started the two loop, 5K, run. The run was twice around the field area of the school and felt a lot longer than the 5K distance, most likely due to my lack of training over the past two weeks...5K should not feel as tough as this did! Anyway, I finished and was surprised to see that my time was 23:17, which is a PR for me (this works out to about a 7:30/mile pace, which is really fast for me). Wow. Since my legs felt like crap the entire time and I felt like I was standing still, this is really good. PR for Cin too. Cin got a cupcake thing without realized we had to pay for them (we got the money and went back to pay) and the announcer called us our for being American, which was fun. We then picked up our stuff, hiked back to the train station, and were back in London shortly thereafter.

This was a pretty cool event. It seems that it was mainly geared for the various triathlon clubs in the London area to compete and was put on by the Greenwich Tritons. I had emailed ahead and asked if it was appropriate for us to sign up and was told yes and that we would receive a warm welcome. All of this proved very true. Everyone there was very nice and helpful and we think very highly of the event. We both especially liked how the marshals and volunteers out on the run course had a list of everyone's numbers and names so they called out to encourage you by name when you ran by. We did not know if the athletes would be very fast and competitive or slower and more relaxed and found some really high quality, very fast, athletes here. All were equally nice and polite, which we have found to be true of triathletes everywhere. Overall, we had a blast. Hats off to the Greenwich Titans for putting on a great event.

Once we got back to the hotel, I took a long, hot, relaxing shower and Cin went to the included fitness center for a while. Afterward, we headed downstairs to the champagne bar for tea. Tea is something of a fourth meal in the UK, typically happening between 2.30p and 5p, with dinner being later, typically starting around 7p. We checked out the menu and decided against ordering the "traditional" tea service, which included a big range of pastry/dessert dishes. For the price it cost (22GBP per person), I needed something more substantial since I had not eaten all day. So, I got some Earl Grey tea and a Caesar salad and Cin got a cheese & cucumber sandwich and champagne drink. All was very good. We then checked with the concierge for dinner reservations. Attempts to secure a reservation at the steak-themed Gordan Ramsey restaurant had failed, so we asked for recommendations of a high-end steak place. The person we spoke to, the Head Concierge, was very knowledgeable and told us of a place he ate in a few days ago that was a London chain that specialized in Argentinian steaks, called the Gaucho Grill. There was also a location very near (10 minute walk) from out hotel. We made a reservation and then went back to the room to read and relax for a few hours before dinner.

Dinner was amazing at the Gaucho Grill (webpage is here and the TripAdvisor page is here). All of the beef here is from Argentina. They have all of the usual cuts of steak (filet, rib eye, sirloin) and each cut is available in 225g, 300g, and 400g sizes. The atmosphere is very posh and the place very high end. The chairs, which are probably the only thing we did not like, were decorated in cow hide material, which was not the most appealing. Anyway, I had a 400g (about 14oz) filet with a tomato salad (many tomatoes, including some delicious yellow ones, cut up into halves) and Cin had a 225g filet with spinach with lemon & garlic. Everything was awesome. The tomato salad was delicious, especially with the yellow tomatoes in there (I love yellow tomatoes). My steak was one of the best I have ever had and I have been to some high end steak locations. The bread they serve beforehand, especially the cheese biscuits, is delicious. I also had a Bavarian-style wheat beer (well, two actually) that was brewed in Greenwich just for this restaurant and it was amazing. Perfect meal. If you are in London and want a high-end steakhouse experience, I highly suggest Gaucho Grill.

After dinner, we hiked back to the hotel, got some drinks and free Internet access in the Executive Lounge, and headed back to the room to read and relax some more. To bed somewhat early, as tomorrow is our last full day in England.

14 August 2009 - Windsor, Stonehenge, & Bath, England

2009-08-14T06:25:00.000-07:00

We got up early and got the free breakfast in the Executive Lounge, which was quite good. We then did a short hike over to the Strand Palace Hotel, where the bus for our tour would pick us up. The Strand is a major road thru London and the Waldorf is just off it. It was only about a five minute walk to the other hotel. We waited there for a bit and the tour driver came and got us. We then traveled to the Victoria Coach Station, which is like a train station except for buses. Lucky for us, the coach that picked us up was the one for our tour, so we just stayed put while many others got on board and found their seats. A short time later, we were on our way.

On the way to Windsor Castle, we passed by the house made famous in the chimney-sweeping scene from Mary Poppins, which our tour guide pointed out. We got to Windsor and found it a nice little town. After our tour guide got into a bit of an argument with another guide in Italian, we got our tickets and made our way in. Our guide gave us a brief overview and instructions on when to report back to the coach. Windsor Castle is very much like Buckingham Palace. We did the tour of the State Rooms, which look very much like the State Rooms over there. Queen Mary's Dolls' House was cool...this is a huge dollhouse with everything in it working properly...it even has working plumbing! Very cool. After touring those sites, we walked over and saw where Henry VIII is buried in the Cathedral and then watched the beginning of the Changing of the Guard, which was pretty cool. We then left the Castle, picked up a snack, Cin went shopping in an oil and vinegar shop they had, and then we boarded the bus to head off to our next destination.

And that destination was ... lunch. We preordered food on the coach and then it was ready when we got to The Bell, which is a pub near Stonehenge. It was pretty good food. I had roasted pork, which is unusual for me but I was having stomach issues and it seemed safest, and Cin had vegetable lasagna, which she seemed to like. I order a lager while filling out the form on the bus and was disappointed it was a Fosters, but it was very cold and good so that is OK. I did buy a second pint while there, this time a London Pride ale, which was good but not nearly as cold. We also started chatting with the couple sitting in front of us on the bus (we sat with them at lunch) and found they are also from the Baltimore, Maryland, area. We figured we would run into at least one person from our neck of the woods while over here, so here it was. They were very nice and were only on their second day in London, so we provided them a rundown on what we had done (that we could remember) and what we recommended. They were also planning to do Paris for a couple days, so we helped out there too, as best we could. After lunch, we were off to Stonehenge.

I really wanted to "feel" something at Stonehenge. I have heard plenty of stories about how people get weird sensations, have religious experiences, and similar things, while visiting. I didn't feel anything. It was a very impressive monument and the configuration was very unique. The properties of how it is organized lead to the conclusion that Stonehenge is a calendar and I think that is very possible. But it is amazing to see and we both enjoyed that opportunity very much. It would have been nice to bring a lunch and sit there for a while, taking it all in and trying to see what it meant when you spent some time on the site. But the tour approach did not allow for that, having only forty minutes on the site. We got some good pictures, hit up the loo, and got back on the bus.

Next stop, Bath. This is now a fairly small UK town, with shops and (a limited supply of) pubs. It is, however, the discharge area for heated water that has collected over many thousands of years and is where the Romans built an elaborate set of public baths, where folks could sit in the heated water, drink it, and so on. The concept is really similar to a modern spa. We wandering around the town a bit and then hit up the tour, which had a very funny and very cool introduction by a chap dressed up as a Roman solider, who acted every bit the part. We saw a lot of what had been uncovered in the area and saw the water flowing thru the system that was still in use. We ended the tour at The Pump Room (TripAdvisor page is here), which is a restaurant next door that serves a glass of the water for 50p. We split a glass and it tasted pretty good, honestly. We then got back on the bus and enjoyed the 2.5 hour trip back to London, where we said goodbye to our Baltimore friends, got on the Tube, and went back to the hotel. We stopped off for dinner at a modern Italian place on The Strand called Zizzi (webpage is here and TripAdvisor page is here), which was pretty good (this restaurant also apparently has an odd history). My body was craving carbs (I think that was what we causing my stomach issues earlier that lasted thru most of the day) and the pizza I got here was really good, as was Cin's dinner of pasta and salad. We went back to the hotel, relaxed a bit, and then hit up the bed, ready for our race the next day, an aquathlon (swim/run race, think a triathlon without the bike).

This was the first organized, bus, tour that Cin and I have ever done. There are some real positives and some real negatives. The positives are that we got to see three really interesting places that were quite a bit outside of London, all in one day. Should we tried to do this ourselves, we would have needed to rent a car and would have seen only one or two of them, with a high price due to the car rental. The tour guide was very friendly and very knowledgeable. The downside is that we did not get enough time at the sites. Windsor Castle was probably enough time, as much of that castle was not open to the public, but we could have taken hours more at Stonehenge and Bath. But, this was a really good way to see the sights and then decide what you want to do more of later (very wide but not very deep). For example, we learned that the next time we come back to this area, we want to spent a few hours at Stonehenge. Without the tour, we would not have been able to determine that. So, for an overview, this is a good idea, just do not expect a huge amount of time at any of the sights, just enough to see it and move on. For the record, we used Premium Tours and found the guide, the bus driver, and coach itself, and pretty much everything else about the tour, very well done. If you are going to do a bus tour leaving from London to see English sites, this is a good company to do with.

13 August 2009 - Paris, France

2009-08-13T06:24:00.000-07:00

We got up in time to get our free breakfast at the hotel (this is a perk of my Hilton HHonors status and would have cost 33euro per person without it), which was awesome. They had an amazing spread that was delicious...we ate a lot. We then went back to the room, showered, and got ready for our second, and last, day in Paris. We checked out and stored out baggage with the hotel, as even the day bags were quite heavy. We then went to the Louvre, which was fun. When we got out of the Metro, there were directions for tickets, which led to a long line. Cin got in the line and I went exploring. Sure enough, you do not need to wait in the line as it appears. One level up from the end of the Metro stop, there is an automated ticket machine that had no line. I bought tickets, pulled Cin out of line, and we went into the museum.

When you enter, you pass thru security and then hit the main lobby, which is right underneath the I. M. Pei designed pyramid. You can buy tickets there, with all the counters having less lines than the outside one. So, the lesson here is, do not buy tickets right when you get off the Metro. We entered the museum and walked down the Grand Gallery, saw the Mona Lisa, and then hiked over to see the Venus de Milo. Cool stuff. We then found the basement for the Medieval Louvre exhibit, where you see the castle walls that are under the museum. This is a really good part that many people miss...go see it! They also have a temporary exhibit here that is a photo essay of the Louvre during WWII and how the artworks were evacuated, less they be destroyed. Very cool.

We left the Louvre and headed back to St Germain-des-Prés. We found Les Deux Magots (webpage is here, Wikipedia article is here, and TripAdvisor page is here), which is a famous cafe that is right around where we stayed the first time we were in Paris. The chocolate here, which is melted pure chocolate, is amazing and is one of the key reasons we chose to come back to Paris for this brief stay. We ordered a carafe, which was enough for three cups, Cin got a cheese sandwich, and I got a beer. All was really good and the chocolate was as amazing as I remember it. If you're in Paris, even for a day, go here and get some. The rest of the menu is also good and the service very good. Afterward, we secured some additional Metro tickets (word of advice...not every Metro station has a ticketing machine that accepts paper money) and back to the hotel. We got our bags, freshened up a bit, picked up some ice for Cin's water bottle (very much needed as the weather is hot!), and headed back up the Metro to the train station, Gare de Nord. The Hilton Arc de Triomphe is a really good hotel. The service is unmatched, the hotel beautiful, and the rooms very comfortable. This is one of the finest hotels we have ever stayed at. There was also a collection of very fancy (and expensive!) cars, belonging to guests, outside, including a gold Ferrari and a high-end Bentley sports car, that were awesome to see. The walk to/from the Metro is a little long, but not too bad. All-in-all, a good place to stay.

We found the departure area for international trains at Gare de Nord (following the Eurostar signs that lead upstairs) and went thru passport control and security again. This time we went thru French control, who stamped us out, and the UK control, which stamped us in. We then went to the waiting area, where I got some chocolate ice cream, waited a bit, and got on our train. We ended up being the only two in a four seater (two seats on each side of a table), so that gave us a good amount of space. Off to London and our third and final hotel for the trip, the Waldorf London.

The train ride back was very smooth and relaxing. We picked up the Tube and headed to out new hotel. The Waldorf London (webpage is here and TripAdvisor page is here) is, very possibly, the nicest hotel we have ever stayed at (and we have stayed at some really swanky hotels!) We have an Executive Room, which is a result of our Hilton HHonors status again (very nice!). The room is beautiful, with a comfortable king bed, a heated towel rack, a leather couch, and many other very cool things. The do-not-disturb signal is not a hanging sign but a light controlled via switch. They also have normal UK 220V electrical outlets, standard European 220V outlets, and some US 110V outlets (sweet!). We have access to the Executive Lounge, which has free breakfast (many of the same items from the place in Paris, just less), newspapers and magazines, and wine/snacks in the evening. Very posh. We cleaned up and then had dinner at a small Italian place nearby that was decent, but nothing amazing. This hotel is located on Aldwych, which is right in the center of the theater district, so all of the restaurants stay open late for post-show crowds. After that meal, we headed to bed since we had to get up early for tomorrow's adventure, a tour of Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath.

12 August 2009 - Paris, France

2009-08-12T06:22:00.000-07:00

We got up really early (5am, which is 12m EDT...ugh) and checked out of our hotel. The Holiday Inn Express Limehouse was pretty good to us. The hotel itself is fairly new and the rooms are comfortable, if a big sparse. The shower was really good. The location is mixed, as it is not really near anything else but it is close to the DLR stop (once you figure out how to get from one to the other) which puts you near central London and the Docklands area without much hassle. So, if you do not mind being a little out of the way for your home base in exploring London, you should be good with this hotel. The free breakfast is also more than serviceable.

Anyway, we checked out with no problems and picked up the DLR to the Tube to the Kings Cross Saint Pancras station. We went to Kings Cross, which handles domestic trains and found Platform 9 3/4 from the Harry Potter books and movies (it is somewhat undramatic, but still kinda neat) and then crossed back to Saint Pancras for our train to Paris. We found the ticketing office and secured our tickets, with very much an airport feel (check passports, etc). We then found some breakfast (I had a basic roll thing and Cin had a mozzarella and avocado sandwich that was really good). We then checked in, again with an airport feel. We had to go thru security with metal detectors and bag X-rays and then thru French passport control, where they examined our documents and stamped us into France. Cool stuff. We then got some Euros out of an ATM, bought some water for our journey, and got on the train for Paris.

I did not even realize it when we went thru the Chunnel. It is not well marked and the inside looks just like any other tunnel, dark. Very undramatic. Oh well. We traveled thru rural France and then into Paris. A cool thing is that they sell Paris Metro tickets (one ticket = one ride and you can buy them in packs of ten) on the train. That and normal food and drinks, which proved useful. I got a good organic apple juice and marveled at those drinking beer and wine at 8am...even I don't drink that early. :)

We got to Paris and walked right out of the train platform with no further border control...doing it all at the origin saved a lot of time and hassle. We picked up the Metro out of the Gare du Nord station and got to our hotel, the Hilton Arc de Triomphe (webpage is here and TripAdvisor page is here), in short order. Being 11am or so, I was hoping we could check in since we both were exhausted from a late night and a very early wakeup but I did not have too much confidence. But the room was ready and it was nice, just as we remembered the hotel from our previous visit. We seem to tend to use this hotel as our one-night-in-Paris hotel, staying here before, also for one night, on our journey from Nice back to the US thru Paris. We got to our room and then decided to take a nap, as we did not feel we could do too well in the city without one. We slept for one hour, showered, and then headed out.

First stop...Champs-Élysées. We found a street-side brasserie, the Montecristo Cafe (TripAdvisor page is here), and ate there, me getting pizza and Cin pasta with salmon. Mine was OK but not great and Cin enjoyed her pasta but found the salmon not very good and did not eat much of it. The service was also very poor and the server pretty clearly attempted to short me 10euro on the change. Oh well. We then did some shopping along the street and then got back on the Metro to the Eiffel Tower. We waited in line for a long time and ended up climbing the stairs to the main levels. This was a good climb of about 600 stairs up. It was a good workout and very cool to do (the last time we visited, we bought tickets for the lift). We then bought tickets for the lift to the top (no climbing allowed) and it was very crowded. The line for the lift to get down was about the same size as to get up and it was quite long but it did move fast. So, pretty cool. The view was really good and we enjoyed ourselves very much. We also looked at the menu for the Jules Verne Restaurant, which is on the platforms of the tower and remembered why we choose not to eat there before, with its limited menu (that includes fresh pigeon, for some reason). Oh well. We then walked down. This was a good visit and we enjoyed our tower experience very much.

We then picked up the Metro and traveled to St Germain-des-Prés. We found a place we ate dinner at the last time we were in Paris, Le Petite Zinc (webpage is here and TripAdvisor page is here), and got a table there. They did not have any outside tables so we got an inside one since we remembered it being fantastic. We got the prix fixe menu, where we both started with a salad (goat cheese & vegetables for Cin and mixed greens with vegetables for me) and a main course (beer tartar for me and chicken for Cin), all of which were wonderful. We split a bottle of sweet white wine and splurged on a bottle of still water (the wine was cold but not the water). All was wonderful and the service was good as well. This place is a little expensive, but well worth it for a good, gourmet, meal. Afterward, we bought a crepe Nutella from a street-side vendor, which was amazing. We then headed back to the hotel, cleaned up a bit, and went to bed (after watching an episode of Family Guy that UK Channel Five had on :)).

11 August 2009 - London, England

2009-08-11T06:20:00.000-07:00

We got up pretty late and hit up the end of the free breakfast in the hotel. We then walked over to the DLR and took it over to Canary Wharf. This is a somewhat new area in the Docklands, which is somewhat outside of central London. Basically, the government passed a law restricting the building of skyscrapers in central London, so the business community moved to an outside part and built a huge assortment of fancy buildings there. There are many large, tall, glass buildings and it is quite a site to see. The tallest, One Canada Square, was used as the base of Torchwood One in the Series Two finale of Doctor Who. Very cool.

We wandered around for a while and then hit up Jamie's Italian (webpage is here and TripAdvisor page (forum only as it is so new) is here) for lunch. This is a brand new restaurant opened by Jamie Oliver, one of the UK's best known chefs and a host of some shows on the Food Network. The food was amazingly good. I had what was probably the best mozzarella and tomato salad I have ever had and some really good pasta. Cin really enjoyed her food too. I had two different Italian beers, Castello and Messina, both of which were very good. Really cool place.

After lunch, we got back on the DLR and took it to Greenwich. We walked thru the very cool old-school town and then headed up to the Royal Observatory Greenwich. We straddled the Prime Meridian and saw some excellent exhibits about timekeeping and position measurement, which I loved. Very cool place and highly recommended for anyone with an interest in navigation or timekeeping. We picked up some ice cream on the way back to the DLR and then headed back to the hotel. We then packed up all of our stuff, except for an overnight bag, and then headed back into London via DLR.

We took the DLR and Tube to the location of our second hotel in London. We dropped it off as they were going to hold our luggage for us while we spent the following two days in France. No issues with the drop off. We then headed down to the Sherlock Holmes Pub (webpage is here and TripAdvisor page is here), where we met up with Anne and Tyler. Anne grew up with Cin back in the States and she is in London studying the business side of art, which sounded really cool. The four of us had a number of pints and food over the following hours and had a great time catching up. I had a number of pints of Sherlock Holmes Ale, which is pretty hoppy and quite good, and also a pint of Abbot Ale, which is served colder and is also very good. Note that this place advertises a good menu but that menu is only available upstairs in the proper restaurant...the pub downstairs has a limited, and rather lame, menu.

After our visit, we headed back to the Tube, the DLR, and then the hotel. We cleaned up our room, relaxed a bit, and then went to sleep. Tomorrow is a early wakeup and off to Paris!

10 August 2009 - Oxford, England

2009-08-10T12:50:00.000-07:00

We woke up and I went down to the lobby to pick up some breakfast for Cin so she could sleep in a little longer. Once we ate and showered, we took the DLR and Tube to Paddington Station and got our tickets for a train ride to today's destination, Oxford. One short and uneventful trip later and we were there.

We walked around central Oxford for a while and found what looked to be a decent location for lunch, The Grapes, a small pub. The food and drinks were quite good. I had a burger and Cin a salad and red pepper risotto; I had two pints of Greene King IPA (pretty good but not as hoppy as I would expect from an IPA) and Cin had a pint of Strongbow. This place has a good menu and they have a Monday thru Friday deal with two food entrees for 9GBP that is really good.

After lunch, we headed down to Christ Church College (webpage is here and Wikipedia article is here), one of Oxford's largest colleges. This is also the location where many of the scenes from the Harry Potter movies were filmed. We saw the great hall and the large, impressive, staircase leading up to it, along with many large hallways, some impressive green areas known as quadrangles, and more. This was a really cool visit and really makes you see how university in UK (well, at Oxford anyway) is much different than in the US. After our visit, we wandered around for a while and then attempted to find a pub that was recommended to us. We found the street it was on but it looked like a big hike to get there thru some narrow roads, so we bailed and just caught the train back to London.

After the ride, which was much busier than the morning's, we did a bit of shopping at the Paddington Bear shop and then walked around near Paddington Station to find a place to eat dinner. We settled on Sawyers Arms (TripAdvisor page is here), which had table service on the upper level. We sat down and had a fairly small dinner, salads for each of us and a shared order of garlic bread. The salads were pretty good and the bread was fantastic. I had a pint of John Smith's, which is a very smooth and dark ale that is quite good. After our dinner, we got back on the Tube and headed back to the hotel. Since we have no more Torchwood to watch, we put some TV on and just relaxed. Good day.

9 August 2009 - London, England

2009-08-09T12:47:00.000-07:00

Today was a little off schedule as Cin took ill at breakfast. We, therefore, spent all of the morning and some of the afternoon sleeping (and reading, for me) in the room. We think this may have had something to do with how hot our room was. When we checked in, it was holding at 20 degrees C (68 degrees F) but had been up to 25 degrees C (77 degrees F) and would not get colder. So, after we had rested up, we moved rooms within the hotel to a much cooler room. Nice. Cin felt better by the early afternoon, so we decided to head out.

We went to the Tower of London (webpage is here and Wikipedia article is here) and went in. We waited a bit for a Yeoman Warder to begin the provided tour. This was cool...the Warders are carefully selected individuals that have to have a minimum of 22 years of British military service before they can apply for this posting. The Tower of London is an active palace and the Warders are officially in charge of protecting the Crown Jewels, which are located here. We got a tour of the place from our Warder and then explored on our own, seeing the chapel Anne Boleyn is buried, the Crown Jewels themselves (amazing!), and writings on the walls made by folks held as prisioners in the Tower. Very cool place that we could spent hours at. Cool stuff!

After our Tower of London visit, we walked over to the nearby Tower Bridge and walked across. This was most impressive and a real engineering marvel. Plus, they are currently cleaning and repainting one side of the bridge; the other side, which is already completed, looks awesome. After we crossed over and took some good photos, we walked down to the Thames and walked towards the London Bridge Tube station. We passed a free theater performance of Jason and the Argonauts, which looked pretty good, and then got a snack at a large mall-like complex. On the Tube for us and we then got off at Hyde Point Corner to seek out our dinner location, the Hard Rock Cafe.

We got in line for a table and after the 20 minute wait to get to the front, we got a pager and a 1.5 hour wait. Ugh. Cin went over to the shop and I headed up to the bar. There were about three chairs and five stools and some limited standing room. I got a pint of Boddingtons and stood around watching the very talented bartender do his thing. Cin then joined me and we waited for remaining time (the 1.5 hour estimate was right on). I ended up having a total of four pints of Boddingtons (very good...and even better on draft in England!) and Cin some Coke. We finally got seated and had dinner. I had ribs and Cin had a veggie burger, both of which were pretty good. I don't know if it was worth that wait, but it was good.

After dinner, we took the Tube and DLR back to the hotel and watched the last episode of series three of Torchwood. I don't know how they can continue this show after that ending, but it was really, really, good TV. Torchwood started off pretty slow in series one, but by the middle of series two, it got really good. Series three continues that trend and I highly recommend it. We finished that and off to bed!

8 August 2009 - London, England

2009-08-08T01:48:00.000-07:00

We got up at a decent hour, got some breakfast at the hotel, and rode to DLR to the Tower Gateway station. We walked over to the Tower Hill Tube station but it was closed. It seems that in addition to the announced closure of the Circle Line, the District Line was closed in central/eastern London, so we did not have much in the way of Tube access. We got directions as to which bus to take to get us to our destination, Buckingham Palace, and rode on two buses, one on top and one on the first level. Pretty cool. We ended up getting off the bus a little early as traffic was a nightmare and walked the rest of the way to the Palace. We found a spot along the gate to watch the Changing of the Guard, but we then learned that it only takes place every other day, and today was not one of those days. We did see the two sentries that were on duty do some marching and patrolling and that was pretty cool. We also saw a contingent of guards arrive via horseback, but did not really see much of them or what they did.

We then waited in line for an hour or so to buy tickets to visit the Palace and then went in. The State Rooms that are included as part of the tour were all very cool to see. Lots of history there and lots of rooms with many different functions. What stood out for me is how small and somewhat-none-impressive the thrones are. As these are really ceremonial anyway, I guess that makes some sense, but it was surprising to me. We spent a little more than an hour inside. This was a pretty cool tour and is conducted via the audio headsets where you type in numbers based on where you are and the guide explains it...much the same as Westminster Abbey.

After the tour, we headed back to the Parliament area and stopped off for lunch at a small Italian place we found called Bon Gusto. I got a pizza and Cin a salad and pasta with meat sauce. Both were pretty good and the price was decent...not bad for a quick and tasty lunch. We then walked back and came across the WWII Cabinet War Rooms (webpage is here and TripAdvisor page is here). This was something I have been looking forward to seeing so we bought our tickets, got our audioguides again, and went around. It was really cool to be down where all of the British military leadership worked during the war and gave a really good sense for what life was like for them back then. The attached, and included in the admission, Churchill Museum is also pretty good and has some good exhibits with bits of his life. All-in-all, a good way to spent two hours or so. We left the museum, saw the Horse Guards who stand at attention while folks take pictures of them all the time, and then found Downing Street, where the Prime Minister has his offices. We road is blocked off and you cannot see the famous door of 10 Downing Street, but it was neat to see anyway.

We then tried to get on the Tube but were hit with the weekend shutdowns again. The goal was to make it to Shakespeare's Globe Theater. After having some difficulty finding the correct bus stop, we decided to walk and headed out down the River Thames. There were a TON of people walking around the Parliament area. While walking down the river, we saw multiple boats converted into restaurants, bars, and nightclubs. Interesting. We eventually found a bus stop that would let us pick up a route that would get us close to our destination, so we hoped on. When we got off, we headed down a small street to get to the Globe and found a blue post that used to have a police telephone on it, much like the TARDIS-like call boxes. This post was even labeled Police Public Call Post. Sweet.

Moving on a little further, we found an Irish bar that looked to be part of the same group as the one we went to while in Dublin a few years back, O'Neill's. We hoped in for a pint and I got a Grolsch (hard to find on draft in the US) and Cin had a Strongbow. We checked out the menu and found many good deals on a lot of really good looking food. We departed, crossed the Thames, and found the Globe. While this theater stands on the same location at the original, it has been redone and the box office/shop/toilet building is new and modern. We purchased tickets for Troilus and Cressida for the following Sunday, which was the earliest show we could get, and close to our departure date!

After purchasing tickets, we walked over to the Millennium Bridge and walked back over the Thames. We saw a cool boat in the river with a big banner on it that read "I Eat Rubbish" - the boat collects trash from the river, cleaning it up a big. Very cool.

We then walked back to O'Neill's to take advantage of the good-and-cheap menu. I had a sirloin steak with chips and Cin had salmon skewers, both of which were very good. We also split some cheesy garlic bread; I had two pints of Guinness Red and Cin had another pint of Strongbow. The Guinness was poured expertly, with a shamrock appearing in the head due to the craft of the bartenders (I had two pints, one from each of the bartenders, and both had this)...very cool. This was my first experience with Guinness Red and I found it very good..very smooth and easy to drink. Even Cin liked it a bit.

After dinner, we walked back to the Bank Tube station and picked up the DLR back to the hotel. We got back, planned out the following days, and then watched two episodes of series three of Torchwood. This show has gotten so much better than series one...and I cannot wait to watch the last episode. After that, off the bed!

7 August 2009 - London, England

2009-08-07T01:46:00.000-07:00

Today we got up at 8.30a and made it down to the free breakfast. This was quite good, with a selection of rolls, pastries, toast, yogurt, cheese, and other things. We ate a good amount and then headed into the city on the DLR. We got off at Westminster and headed to the Houses of Parliament, where we bought tickets and went on the guided tour. This tour lasted a little over 75 minutes and was really, really, good. We learned a good deal about the British system of government and about the building where almost all of the work is done. Top notch.

After the tour, we headed across the street from Parliament to Saint Stephens Tavern, where we had lunch. I had a pint of Badger ale and Cin had a Blackthorn cider; both of which were quite delicious. I had some chicken wings (very good) and Cin had a Cobb salad, and then we split an order of "messy" garlic bread that was quite good. I then got a second pint, this time of Lemony Cricket, another Badger-labeled ale that tasted similar to the previous one but with a bit of lemon flavor to it. After lunch, we walked up to Westminster Abbey (webpage is here and Wikipedia article is here) and did the tour there. This one was a self-run tour with audio headsets and was very long and involved. We learned a lot about the Abbey and the many people buried there (Mary Queen of Scots, Isaac Newton, and Sir Charles Darwin stand out the most to me). This tour - and the Parliament one - are good values for the money!

After the Abbey, we hit up the Tube to take us to Earl's Court Station. Outside this station is the only current blue Police Public Call Box in London. As big fans of Doctor Who, we simply had to seek out the TARDIS in all of its glory. After a brief overlook, we found it. And it was fabulous...I was amazed at how cool it was to simply stand on the street beside a blue Police Box. Very cool stuff. We took some photos and then went to the local McDonald's so Cin could try the mozzarella sticks they offer here...not bad at all.

Here's us in front of the TARDIS...

The top looks a little different; chameleon circuit working again?

Dedication/construction plaque...

We then headed back to the Tube and got off at Monument station. We walked past another bar with hundreds of suit-clad folks outside drinking and then walked across London Bridge. We were in search of a restaurant that our guidebook pointed out on top of a local market there, but could not find it. We did see huge blocks of cheese there that were very impressive. We then found The Thameside Inn in that area and decided to eat dinner there. We opted for the table service area (as oppose to the order at the bar and sit down area that we were just getting used to). I had a chicken sandwich with some awesome fries/chips and Cin had some roasted tomato risotto that she loved. I had a HoneyDew organic ale that was pretty good and Cin had a Magners cider, both of which were really good. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel via Tube and DLR and relaxed our feet, which we both needed.

After some relaxing and watching the second episode of Torchwood series three, we headed to the hotel pub for some drinks and to earn a free Internet session. We got some drinks but had an issue hitting the minimum required bill with our two rounds of drinks spread over two bills. The hotel manager fixed this, but that is a weird situation. If the hotel staff is going to close out the bill after each round, they need to make allowances for those that want to take advantage of the offer they post. Oh well, it is cleared up now and we know to hit the 7GBP criteria on one bill to minimize issues. Off from the pub and up to the room for some relaxing and sleeping. Much more to see starting tomorrow!

6 August 2009 - London, England

2009-08-06T12:45:00.000-07:00

We did not set an alarm since we were both really tired when we went to bed, but hoped to be up before the 10am breakfast cut-off. We ended up getting out of bed around 12.30pm. Oh well...that is 7.30am EDT, so that really was not too bad. We walked to the DLR station, which is MUCH easier to find in the daytime, and took the train to Bank, which is a really big Tube station with lots of connections. We bought 7-day Travelcards (unlimited travel on the Tube, DLR, and buses), which come on Oyster (stored-value) cards that are pretty cool. We then headed to the Leadenhall Market (webpage is here and Wikipedia description is here), which is a big outdoor, but enclosed, market with lots of restaurants and shops. This is also where they filmed the Diagon Alley scenes in the Harry Potter movies...cool. The two big pubs we walked past had hundreds of suit-clad folks standing outside drinking pints...really cool. We settled on a place called Pizza Express (webpage for the chain is here and TripAdvisor page is here), which had gourmet pizzas and pastas. I got a basic pizza and Cin got a pesto chicken pasta, both of where were really good.

Here's Leadenhall Market.

After lunch, we walked back to the Bank station and took the Tube down to the station near the Eye of London, which is the really big ferris wheel on the bank of the River Thames. We signed up for tickets and waited about 45 minutes in the queue for the ride. It was really cool. We saw many sights and made use of an identification guide we purchased for 3GBP that proved to be a very good investment. This ride gave us a good grounding in where things were and was very helpful.

And here is us in the capsule looking out over the city.

After the ride, we went to Harrod's, the very huge shopping department store. We walked around for an hour or so and viewed their many diverse departments, ranging from Pet World to a gourmet market with any kinds of food you could want to a fancy art gallery. We had a snack at the Chocolate Bar, where I got a milk chocolate shake and Cin got a chocolate mousse pastry thing that was delicious A good snack, all around.

After a good long time at Harrod's (webpage is here and Wikipedia description is here), we ran thru the rain back to the Tube and got off at Bank again, trying to head to a tavern we saw earlier, Simpson's Tavern. It, however, proved to be only open for midday and was closed. We wandered around in the alleys for a bit and found The Counting House (TripAdvisor page is here), which was an super crowded pub that is a converted old bank. We ordered some beers, a Guinness for me and a Kronenbourg for Cin and then asked about food service. We have found that at most of the pubs here, all of the tables are open seating and you can drink there or order food and eat it there. If you want food, you order at the bar and tell them where you are sitting and they bring it to you. We ordered and found a table, which was a remarkable accomplishment due to the crowd. I got a steak burger, that proved to be more of a salisbury steak or meatloaf than a burger and was only OK, and Cin got vegetarian bangers and mash, which she loved. I then got a London Pride pint, which was a good, crisp, ale. The beer here is somewhat warmer than in the US when you get it on draft...this takes a little getting used to. All-in-all, this place was very cool and worth a stop...if you can find room within.

After eating and drinking, we went back to the Bank Tube station, with much less rain coming down, and headed back to the hotel on the DLR. We had to pick up a plug converter at the hotel's vending machine as the one I brought did not work (once we got here, I remembered that I lent this to my sister a while back and it came back not working...not cool). We went to our room and watched some Torchwood (IMDB page is here) on DVD. We finished out series two back home and saved the series three five-episode miniseries (Children of Earth - Wikipedia article is here) for this trip. We watched the first episode and then got ready for bed, pledging to get up in time for the breakfast tomorrow morning.

5 August 2009 - London, England

2009-08-05T12:43:00.000-07:00

We got up nice and early, 4am, and our friend DrMo picked us up and took us up to the airport. We had no issues checking in, despite it being an international flight with a domestic connection. We got Auntie Ann's pretzels for breakfast (there was not too much available this early) and got on our flight to Newark's Liberty International Airport a little late. We made up the time easily and then spent a long time in Newark, which has a really nice international terminal. Unfortunately, the place that would have pizza did not have any since it was so early. Instead, Cin and I split a tomato caprese sandwich, which was decent. We boarded but then spent a lot of time on the taxiway, eventually leaving Newark about one hour late.

The eight hour trip over was not bad. Each seat had an individual TV, so you could watch movies & TV show episodes, play games, or listen to music. I chose to watch Star Trek (IMDB page is here), which totally holds up to the amazing review I gave it when I first saw it upon a second viewing. Very cool. I then watched some of Jurassic Park (IMDB is here) and then played a bunch of games of Sudoku. This passed the time quite quickly. Eight hours later and we touched down at London Heathrow Airport. We got off the plane, went thru passport control with a short wait and no issues, got out luggage, and found the Tube (London Underground - the subway) station.

We bought one-day tickets (called Travelcards) and picked up a train into town. We rode the train and talked to a fellow traveler that helped us out at the station buying tickets for a while. We transferred lines and ended up at Tower Hill station. We then left the station and walked over the brief hike to the Tower Gateway DLR (Docklands Light Railway) station. This is part of the Travel For London mass-transit station and the one-day Travelcards we bought afforded us passage on both systems, Tube and DLR. We took the DLR train two stops to the Limehouse station, which our hotel is near. We found both the Tube and the DLR to be very comfortable, easy-to-use, and efficient...very nice. Note that the London mass-transit system is extensive; plan your trip ahead of time.

We had been told that we could see our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express Limehouse (the hotel webpage is here and the TripAdvisor page is here), from the DLR station. This proved to not be the case in the middle of the night (it was about midnight when we got off the DLR train). We wandered around for a little while and then Cin asked some construction workers for directions, which they provided. We went around in circles some more and eventually ended up back near them again, after about thirty minutes. They tried again to direct us and one decided to walk us over, in a direction I did not figure out from what he had said. He got us to where we could see the hotel and all was well at that point. Many thanks to him! It would have taken us quite some more time to find it and he helped us out majorly. Limehouse is not a bad neighborhood, but it is not the best place to be walking around in the middle of the night, carrying luggage and not knowing where you are going. :)

We checked in with no issues, found our room acceptable but small (decent size for a European room) and then headed back to the lobby to visit the bar, which actually stays open until 2am. I got a Kronenbourg and Cin a Strongbow, both of which taste much better out here. We also like how when you spent 7GBP in the bar, you get a certificate for 1 hour of Internet access (you need to pay for it at this place). So, Cin and I worked out a great deal where I drink more so she can use the Internet. Sweet. After that, we headed back up and hit the bed. A long day of travel, indeed!

28 May 2009 - Orlando, Florida

2009-05-28T13:44:00.000-07:00

We got up nice and late. The plan was to spend Thursday in the hotel, enjoying all of the nice things we paid for, and then to hit up one of the Disney parks on Friday before we needed to leave for the other side of Orlando for the wedding. We picked up some snacks/breakfast at the Marketplace in the hotel and then headed out to the pool. The pool at the Beach Club Resort was quite nice, consisting of multiple physical pools, some with sinking sand at the bottom, one with a lazy river, and a waterslide. The slide was very fun to ride and I enjoyed it very much. There was also a huge number of ducks in the pool, including a family with lots of little ducks. Very cool. We ate lunch by the pool after running inside for a brief period to avoid a nasty downpour and relaxed most of the day away by the pool. Nice points about it also included the towel service and the roaming waitresses who brought back food and drinks, including a number of good draft beers. A perfect way to relax for a day.

We got showered off and cleaned up for our dinner. Since the wedding we were going to was on Cin's birthday, we had to schedule our celebration of that day at other times and tonight was her birthday dinner. We went to Citricos in the Grand Floridian Resort (restaurant's webpage is here and TripAdvisor page is here and the hotel's webpage is here and TripAdvisor page is here). The Grand Floridian hotel is Disneyworld's most expensive and fanciest hotel and it truly shows it. It is a grand resort in every sense of the word (we plan to stay here when we return in January for the Disney Marathon and it is going to cost a small fortune!). The restaurant was amazing. We had really good first courses (romaine lettuce with feta and peppers for me and a goat cheese truffle salad for Cin), excellent main courses (braised short rib for me and chicken with polenta for Cin), and excellent drinks. We were not going to get dessert but saw this amazing looking lemon cheesecake with a big curvy cracker in it (about a foot high!) and decided we had to get that, so we did. It was amazingly good too. The service was fantastic and we had a wonderful time. We have been to many very good (and very expensive!) restaurants but this one was fantastic. Highly recommend for a good and romantic high-end meal.

After the dinner, we headed back to the Magic Kingdom on the Monorail to get the bus back to our hotel (to get from one resort to another within Disneyworld, you need to take some method of transportation to a park and then another to the other resort) and got caught in a horrible downpour trying to get to the bus station outside of Magic Kingdom. Oh well. :) Our original plan was to then go to Downtown Disney but it was raining so we passed on that. Cin went to the fitness room within the hotel and I just relaxed and watched some television and read my current book (The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson - very good!). We relaxed a bit more and then went to bed, eager to hit up the park the next day!

27 May 2009 - Orlando, Florida

2009-05-27T06:19:00.000-07:00

Cin and I drove to the airport after work today to head down to Orlando for the wedding of two good friends of ours. Since this is a decent length trip, we decided to leave early (the wedding is on Saturday) and get some mini-vacation time in. We got to BWI with no issues and sat down for dinner at the airport's version of The Greene Turtle bar. After some beers and food, we eventually headed out on our AirTran flight to Orlando, about thirty minutes late. No issues on the flight down and we picked up our rental car from Alamo just fine. We drove out with no traffic and found our way to our hotel for the next two nights, Disney's Beach Club Resort (webpage is here and TripAdvisor page is here). This is one tier up from the Coronado Springs Resort we stayed at last summer for our Disney vacation and it shows; this place is really cool.

We checked into our room and found it to be very nice and fairly large with a nice little garden balcony and a big, comfortable, king-size bed. After checking in, we walked over to the Disney Boardwalk area, where most things were closed. They had a dance club and a dueling piano bar, but it was already 10.45p and we just wanted some food. We found the ESPNZone bar and got some snacks while watching one of the NBA playoff games. After that, we walked back to our room and went to sleep. Long day and we needed the sleep.

10 April 2009 - Albuquerque, New Mexico

2009-04-16T16:24:00.000-07:00

We got to the airport with no issues, including a stop in the rain at Starbucks to get some iced teas. When we got there, I wanted to stop at the Northwest (our carrier for the day) to reprint out boarding passes since the website had printed one boarding pass for both flights on the same document. Since I had never seen this before, I wanted to make sure all was well. We walked up to the Northwest area and saw six or so self check-in kiosks that were all empty and a line of fifteen people or so waiting for something. As the kiosks were all empty, I walked up to one and reprinted our boarding passes. About halfway through, some guy near the front of the line of people yelled out that we were cutting in front of all the people in line. I then told him that I assumed they were waiting for a person as all of the kiosks were vacant and apologized if I misjudged. He then yelled that someone told him to wait there. At that point, I pointed to all of the kiosks and told him they were all open and asked why he was not using them. If he was going to wait in line, why did he have an issue with me using the vacant terminal? He didn't really say anything. The lady in line behind him then said something about her thinking I was right and then the line of all the people behind this guy spread out to all of the kiosks and formed lines of two people or so and all of these people started checking in. Oh, the wisdom of crowds! Especially crowds that queue up behind someone who (1) was an idiot, (2) was a jerk, and (3) had apparently never been in an airport before and had no idea how check-in works in the modern world. Geez.

Anyway, the one boarding pass for multiple legs of one journey turned out to be correct. How odd that this is the first time I have seen this, as it is such a good idea.

We headed thru security and noticed that one family, the family of the guy who had made a fuss over nothing at the check-in counter, was having all of their bags searched and the TSA folks were pulling out full tubes of toothpaste and other prohibited items. The guy was looking quite confused, especially when he was about five feet away from the sign outlining the prohibition on these items. Geez again! Anyway, Cin got breakfast and we boarded our flights to Minneapolis/Saint Paul airport. We had the aisle and middle seat in a row of three with a polite and quiet guy in the window seat. All-in-all an uneventful flight and I started reading Anathem by Neal Stephenson. More about that book later, once I get thru this amazingly complex and very challenging read.

No issues getting to Minneapolis. We found a bar where we got lunch (buffalo wings for me along with a beer) and then got our connecting flight back to Baltimore with no issues. Once at BWI, there was some delay in getting back to our car as the Airport FastPark buses were slow to get us. Once we got back, all was well and we were back home. Excellent spring break!

9 April 2009 - Albuquerque, New Mexico

2009-04-16T15:54:00.000-07:00

We woke up on Friday morning just as David was headed out the door to work. Marie took Liam to his tutoring session and Cin and I hung out with Chloe and caught some Doctor Who repeats on the Sci-Fi channel. Once Marie and Liam got home, we packed up for a day outdoors and piled into the car Off to Subway to pick up some sandwiches for lunch and we were ready to go. We headed to the volcano area of the Petroglyph National Monument. We parked the car and then hiked up to the top of one of the three extinct volcanoes there. This was a pretty decent climb and the view from the top was wonderful. After eating our food, we all hiked down and Cin and I hiked up to the top of another volcano while Marie and the kids rested up. We saw some more cool views, some odd plants, and then headed down to meet back up with them. Back to the car and off we went. The volcanoes were really cool and well worth the trip. Some good, but short, hikes here.

From the volcanoes, we headed to the petroglyph Visitors' Center and found a good trail that would provide a view of some good glyphs and a decent hike too. When we started the trek up the trail, Liam and I read a sign saying that rattlesnakes were sometimes in the area and this freaked Chloe out. Luckily, a nice guy coming down said that he had inspected the entire area and there were no snakes there that day. Hike saved...that will teach me not to read signs. :) We did the trail in about an hour with a really cool view at the top and lots of cool petrogylphs. Liam did a good job interpreting them. After the hike down, we piled back into the car and headed back to the house. This visit was also well worth the time. The hike was decent and the view at the top amazing. The petroglyphs themselves are really cool and it is amazing they have lasted so long. Makes one wonder about the people that created these so long ago, where they lived outside with the land, where now there is a planned trail near a Visitors' Center. Progress, huh?

Once home, we cleaned up a bit and Marie ordered dinner for the kids (pizza and chicken wings from Papa John's). Their babysitter came over and the three of us headed to El Pinto (website is here and their TripAdvisor page is here), way out on Fourth Street, for dinner. I remembered this place as being very good once I saw it and it did not disappoint. David was already there and we both had a few Alien Amber beers, which I had not had before. I had cheese enchiladas again as this would be the last time I would get to eat New Mexican food for quite some time. It was delicious and their red chili sauce is the best I had on the trip - fantastic! Cin was boring and got grilled salmon, but she really seemed to enjoy it alot more than anything New Mexican would have been. This was a fantastic dinner and I highly recommend El Pinto; check out all of the pictures on the wall with all of the famous people that have eaten there.

After dinner, we went to Billy's Long Bar (PubCrawler page is here), which I had been to many times. This is a big bar with a huge draft beer selection and a really cool atmosphere. One of the coolest things about it is when you walk in after parking in the rear parking lot. When you get near the door, you can usually see men's faces through a long window in the wall an sometimes they look strained. It can be quite confusing. When you figure it out, you realize that you are looking into the men's bathroom; there are no urinals, just one big trough that everyone goes in and the window is at head-level. Really cool. We had some good beer, Marie had a sub-optimal margarita, and we all had a good time. After some time, we headed back to the house. Everyone being tired, that was the end of the day. I printed out our boarding passes for the following morning and we went off to bed. This was a really good last day in Albuquerque.

8 April 2009 - Albuquerque, New Mexico

2009-04-15T07:20:00.000-07:00

We woke up nice and early for our first full day in Albuquerque, which means around 8am their time or 10am EDT. It is vacation after all. :) We woke up when Marie let us know that she was taking the kids to school and would be back later on. We stayed in bed for a while and then got up shortly before Marie got back. From that point, the three of us headed up to Sandia Resort and Casino, as Cin wanted to get some gambling in while we had access to a full casino, something that is not possible back in Maryland. The place was nicer than I thought, but not quite as nice as Turning Stone (website is here and previous experience is here) in upstate New York. All three of us played roulette for a little more than an hour, with me coming out $40 ahead, Cin $16 ahead, and Marie down $10 (this was her first time ever playing in a casino). We watched one guy play fairly high bets and frequently leave the table and come back with more cash. After counting, I figure he lost around $1500 in the hour or so we were there. Wow. I then promptly lost $20 of my $40 playing blackjack, but still had a really good time.

From there, we headed to Old Town Albuquerque for lunch. We ate at La Hacienda, a good New Mexican joint down there (TripAdvisor page is here). I had beef enchiladas with red chili and found them to be delicious. Cin got red chili for her lunch on the side and did not use much of it; at that point I simply drank the rest of her serving (which was fairly big), which amazed Marie. It was really good (and not super hot) red chili! We then walked around Old Town, looking at shops and the various Indian goods that were for sale on the walkways. We walked around an old church right in the main square of town and then got some iced tea and dessert (ice cream, which came in a huge cone that the three of us barely put a dent in). At this point, it was nearing the time to pick Liam up from school, so we headed back to the car and drove out to his school.

Liam goes to a charter school, which is a converted facility that used to be a strip-mall type place. It seemed really nice and all of the people there were great. We picked him up and then went to pick up Chloe. We got her from her (pre) school and then went to get some snacks for the kids as they both had gymnastics shortly thereafter. They got smoothies from a Jama Juice (I had a 1oz serving of wheatgrass juice - 1oz = the same nutrition as 2.5 pounds of vegetables!) and then we got coffees and ice teas from the Winning Coffee Company (website is here and the TripAdvisor page is here). This place was a decent local coffee place that had really good tropical-flavored iced tea. Delicious. The collection of "locals," ranging from typical college students to bikers to various hobos, was extensive and I got the feeling that some of these folks were there everyday and were likely chatting and getting along fantastically with others who would never be back here again, as if on some wandering journey. Very cool place (lots of eeePCs and MacBooks in use here, not many other laptops). Both of these locations are right near the UNM campus in Albuquerque. From there, we headed to a playground for a little while, Cin and I both rode the swings, and then we attended Chloe's and Liam's gymnastics practice which was somewhat interesting (the foam pit looks like so much fun!).

From there, we left and headed directly to dinner, at Los Cuates (webpage is here and TripAdvisor page is here). This night, I got cheese enchiladas again (notice a pattern?) and they were delicious. This place has some odd salsa that is served with their chips (It is red chili based but has something else in it that makes the flavor somewhat off and makes it very hot/spicy - some people like it but it is not for everyone. I am not a big fan and Cin hated it. The regular red chili sauce on the enchiladas was more traditional red chili and was great.). At this point, Cin was horribly sick of New Mexican food so she opted for a guacamole salad (really a pile of amazingly good guacamole and a little bit of lettuce) and a regular dinner salad for dinner. I do have to say that we have gotten guacamole at a few places out here and it is always amazingly good. It is fresh, chunky with avacado, and has few onions in it. It is so much fresher and more tasty than anything you can get on the East Coast...like all the food in Albuquerque, take advantage of it while you can!

From dinner, we headed back to the house and watched a little television before bed. We checked out Harper's Island, a new murder mystery show that was OK but not as good as I had hoped. Hopefully it will get better as it goes along (its very short planned season). We relaxed with Marie and David and the kids a bit and then went to bed, resting up for our full day with Marie and the kids (who were off from school due to the Easter/Good Friday holiday).

7 April 2009 - Albuquerque, New Mexico

2009-04-13T15:27:00.000-07:00

Over Cin's spring break this year, we headed out to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to visit her sister and family (Marie, husband David, kids Liam and Chloe). I had been to Albuquerque many times for work in a previous job but Cin had never been there. We arrived at off-site parking (Airport FastPark) at BWI airport and took their shuttle to the terminal. They had a Baltimore Sun paper waiting for us and the ride to the terminal was pleasant and uneventful. We had already checked in for our flight online and had no bags to check, so we went thru security without any issues and found our gate. We boarded our American Airlines flight and, before I knew it, we were landing at Dallas/Fort Worth airport. Along the way we watched most of Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa, which was a crappy movie except the part with the really funny penguins and monkeys. Other than that, total crap.

We had a few hours at Dallas, so we walked over to the international terminal where the bigger restaurants are. On the way over, we saw a very well put together welcome home celebration at a gate for US armed forces members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Very well put on and looked incredible. We ate at the Reata Grill (TripAdvisor page is here), where Cin got a salad and a bowl of their chicken tortilla soup and I just had the soup. It was OK but nothing special. We then went back to our terminal, saw some birds walking around the waiting area, and then boarded our flight to Albuquerque. A short ride later and we landed and found Marie and the kids there to pick us up. A good way to start the trip.

Marie and company live in the Four Hills area of southeast Albuquerque. We got Chloe to give us a tour of the house (she is four) and did a little unpacking. By then, it was about time for dinner so we headed out. The one thing I really, really, missed about Albuquerque was the amazingly good New Mexican food, so I was really looking forward to this trip to catch up on what I've missed out on for the past three years. We headed to Sadie's (TripAdvisor page is here), which is one of the favorites. The food was just as good as I remember it and I had cheese enchiladas with red chili (New Mexico is the only state with an official question - red or green? - refering to the chili ... green chilis take some getting used to and alot of people love them, but I am still partial to the red). That and a few Corona Lights and I was in heaven. Right after we were pretty much done, David showed up, coming direct from work. He grazed on the kids' leftovers (neither one ate very much, as they filled up on chips) and then we all headed back to the house. I rode with David and we stopped at their Whole Foods to pick up some green chili bagels, since Cin had never had one, and some beer for us (we are both big beer snobs). We got back to the house and Cin and I watched LOST on TV while the kids did their homework for school (their spring break was earlier in the month)....really good episode! David and I split two good beers, both from England, and then Cin and I went to sleep, exhausted.

The Twenty Most Ridiculous Travel Complaints

2009-03-17T11:29:00.000-07:00

Not a travel post by me, exactly, but quite funny. This is a list put together by a British newspaper of the 20 most ridiculous complaints about travel received by the travel agents they interviewed. Some are quite funny and some are quite sad. Wow.

The Twenty Most Ridiculous Travel Complaints

1 January 2009: Key West, Florida

2009-01-03T20:58:00.000-08:00

We woke up in Key West and, right away, got ready for our drive to Miami. We checked out, packed the car, the drove up to Miami (this time on the Florida Turnpike instead of all the way up US1). As they are doing alot of construction on US1 around Key Largo, this took alot of time. We ended up at the Alamo office on time and dropped off the car. Point of advice ... renting cars this time of year in Miami is EXPENSIVE (about five to six times what it costs during the summer!). So be careful. We turned on the car, I about fainted with our bill, and we took the shuttle to the airport.

After our trip down, I was happy to be flying home on American Airlines. We checked in with no problems, checked Cin's luggage, went through security, and all was well. We ate lunch the the Island Bar & Grill, which appeared to be an airport-only establishment. It was decent and they had a beer from the Dominican Republic that I had not had before and was pretty decent (a pilsner). We got on the plane with no issues; it took off with no issues; we arrived in Washington, DC, with no issues (to Reagan National this time, as planned); Cin's luggage arrived with no issues). My dad picked us up and took us home. No issues. Thank God for American Airlines.

That's it. I spend the next day writing long letters to executives at United Airlines about our experience and asking how they plan to make this right. When I get a response, I will update this travellog to indicate what they say. Until then, this trip is over.

UPDATE (26 Feb 2009) - Nothing to update. I sent letters (emails, actually) to both US Airways (to thank them for helping to sort out some of the mess United made of our trip down) and to United, explaining everything that happened. I heard back from US Airways a day or so later with a nice personal email that indicated they would pass my thanks on to the wonderful agent that helped us that day. Nothing from United. I contact their normal Customer Service department through their website and via direct email. No response. I elevated to their Executive Customer Service (via the contact information from The Consumerist) and heard nothing back - my emails have gone unanswered and the FAX number just rings and rings without ever being answered. The United website indicates that the gentleman mentioned is no longer the "Chief Customer Officer," so that may be why. Doing some additional research, I seem (this morning so that is why this seemed like good idea for an update), to have identified the new "Customer Officer." As I think I have figured out the United corporate email address structure, I'll try contacting this guy tonight and see if we hear back from him. Confidence is NOT high.

UPDATE (17 March 2009) - Finally heard back from United Executive Customer Service last week, first via email and then via normal letter. That's good. They apologized and said that they were speaking to the customer service management at Dulles concerning our lying CS agent. They also included two $250 travel vouchers, valid on "most" United flights, one for me and one for Cin. So that is good. They did seem sincere about trying to make up for what, I know, is a situation that occurs many times each day for them. So that is good. I'm satisfied with the resolution (but not the time it took to get it) and Cin and I are both looking forward to using our vouchers for a trip in the near future.

31 December 2008: Key West, Florida

2009-01-03T20:19:00.000-08:00

We got up for our last full day in Key West and the last day of 2008. We headed down to the hotel's restaurant for some breakfast as we knew we had a big dinner in front of us and we planned to not each much lunch. Cin got the buffet and I got some eggs with bacon and potatoes. Both were quite good and we found that the hotel did a wonderful iced tea that had some mango flavoring in it. We then caught the shuttle to the beach (Smathers Beach, again).

We lied on the beach for a number of hours. I am reading Godel, Escher, Bach, and Cin was reading the novels in the Twilight series. While there, we got some snacks and really good iced teas from the various vendors. At Smathers Beach, there is a line of vendor trucks on the road that sell all sorts of food, ice cream, snow cones, and many other things. I had a hot dog for lunch and we both had multiple iced teas. Cool beans. We both got some reading in and we both got alot of good sun...too much in fact. We both got burned, Cin alot worse than me. She was as red as a radish when we left the beach, an hour before we planned to due to the burning.

Here is the plaque dedicating Smathers Beach.

And here is a dog having fun at the beach.

When we got back to the hotel, we went directly to the poolside bar for a snack. I had a few beers and Cin got some hard cider and a pesto chicken sandwhich (she did not get lunch at the beach, as I did). All was quite tasty. Then we headed back to the room to relax and take showers. We left on the 5.00pm shuttle to Old Town for our 6.00pm reservation at Louie's Backyard (website is here and TripAdvisor page is here). We got to the place around 5.40pm thanks to the excellent shuttle driver (I cannot say enough about the Doubletree shuttle service!). We checked in and were directed to the back area bar, where everyone was waiting...the first seating for dinner was at 6.00pm. The view out here is amazing...this is why people speak so highly of Louie's. The sunset was amazing. We had some beer and then were collected for our table. We had, easily, the best table in the place. It was outside, right next to the bar, and had a great view of the water. Our dinner was quite good. The service was very good and the food very tasty as well. I had prime rib (came out as I ordered it ... extra rare!) and a Caesar salad and Cin had roasted chicken (very juicy!) and a mixed green salad. My Caesar salad had fried anchoves on it but the waitress pointed them off so I could pick them off...how fun! We then split a berry tart for dessert that was fantastic. At that point, Cin was very cold, probably due to a reaction from her bad sunburn. We finished our meal and then walked very fast back to the shuttle stop to head back to the hotel. We intended to just hang out on Duvall until midnight but she needed to change clothes. We got back to the hotel OK and changed. We then opted to hang out until 9pm or so to head back, so as not to be bored. That turned out to be a good idea and we watched the first hour or so of Ocean's 13, which is pretty good. At 9pm, we headed back to the shuttle, suitably dressed, and off to Old Town for New Years!

Here is the sunset view from Louie's.

And here is us at Louie's.

We picked up the shuttle and got back to Old Town. We headed to the northern end of Duvall Street and got some beers outside of a cowboy bar next to Captain Tony's Saloon. Most of the bars were doing outdoor bars so you did not have to go inside to buy beer. The bartender recognized Cin's Johns Hopkins University sweatshirt and asked us where from in Maryland we were from...turns out that she was from Glen Burnie. Fun! We then found some open public bathrooms at Mallory Square and then walked down Duvall Street from the northern end to the area the most south that was closed to traffic. We walked past many interesting people, including a woman without any shirt on who just painted on a shirt to cover her breasts to women with eight inch heels on. Crazy. There was also a drag strip show and many other odd sights. We then walked back up to Sloppy Joe's Bar and hung out outside that bar until midnight. There was alot of good music here and there was a collection of people on the roof throwing beads to the crowd (that we were in!). We did not catch any but it was fun. There was a middle-age women (probably late 30s or early 40s) that decided to pole dance on a streetlight pole...this is suprisingly hot. :) The crowd was fun and very relaxed, save a few people.

Here is us in the crowd in front of Sloppy Joe's.

Here is the conch shell, ready to drop.

Here is the "sushi shoe" ready to drop, much further down Duvall.

Here is the crowd to Hip, Hop, Hooray!

At midnight, the conch shell dropped (just like the ball in NYC) and 2009 came in to being. It was fun. Alot of people sprayed champagne all over the place and we got drenched. That part was not fun, but oh well. We then headed back to the shuttle stop, waited 20 minutes or so, and headed back to the hotel, with 50 people on the 25 people-capacity bus. Lots of people standing everywhere. We got back by 12.45am and went right to bed. Happy 2009!

Here is the conch shell drop.