July 18, 2007:
In the morning Janet took us down to the beach for breakfast. It was a gorgeous day and the place where we stopped to eat was right on the beach itself. There was a dozen or more beach volleyball courts set up with a number of games going at 9 am on a Wednesday. Only in California I guess (or maybe Hawaii?).
After a nice sunny breakfast, we bid adieu and hopped in the car for a quick jaunt across town to spend the day with Nathan in West Hollywood. It was an approximately 20 mile trip, but as Google Maps will tell you, it's a 35 minute trip, or up to an hour and 40 minutes in traffic. We took I-405 to I-10 and managed to get there eventually. It could have been a lot worse, compared to a 20 mile commuting trip which many of us have experienced at one time or another, but after a couple of weeks on the road, mostly on highways, we were used to knocking out 20 miles in something under 20 minutes.
It's also amazing to see how big the interstates in southern California are. The new mixing bowl in Springfield, VA is 24 lanes across at the widest point, but you can only see maybe a third of those at one time. All these major interstates are 4, 5, or 6 lanes across for miles at a time--and most distressingly full for miles at a time.
Nathan's complex is in the Park La Brea area of L.A. One of the first things we learned was that somebody from Laguna Beach or the spinoff lived in the gourmet-looking complex across the street. I think they've even filmed some pool-side shots there--not that Nathan has a view from his apartment; we checked. His apartment is a regular two bedroom apartment with a big living room and a small kitchen, like most apartments built a long time ago.
We dropped our stuff off inside and then he took us on a drive around L.A. to see the sights that us regular schlubs only hear about or see on Entourage (no, we didn't make it by the Playboy Mansion). He drove us by a couple of the tv studios nearby (CBS and NBC??); we saw the Hollywood sign from the city (face north on N Gower St at Hollywood Blvd or Franklin Ave); we drove by the Whisky a Go Go and that place where River Phoenix overdosed (the Viper Room); we drove by the Chinese Theatre; we passed through some famous L.A. intersections of pop culture such as Hollywood and Vine; we drove down Rodeo Dr and saw the naked silver torso statue as well as two Ferrarris; I think we saw three Bentleys and two Rolls along the way as well; we also drove through some of the tony neighborhoods just to see some of the houses and palm trees.
Eventually we got hungry, and fortunately Nathan took us to one of the greatest restaurants I have ever experienced: Roscoe's House of Chicken N Waffles. I think there are several locations around L.A. It was a mid-size, basic restaurant, somewhere between an IHOP and Waffle House in design and amenities. There is a full menu, but you more or less order one of several combos of waffles and fried chicken. I think most of us have eaten enough good fried chicken in our lives to have a hard time saying any one batch was the best they'd ever had; that being said, this was as good fried chicken as I have ever had. The waffle, on the other hand, was definitively the best waffle I'd ever had. We all overate dramatically, but I left that placed convinced there was some sort of drug in the waffle or its butter or syrup. Can't recommend 'Scoes enough.
We went out later for the evening and stopped at a couple of Nathan's preferred places in L.A. We hit up Barney's Beanery, which was a cool dive to have a couple pitchers. We also headed over to another place which had more of a lounge vibe going on. We ran into a couple of Nathan's friends who were Syracuse TRF (television, radio, film) grads a year or two before my brother. It was pretty cool to go back and tell my brother that people from his program are working in L.A. Eventually we made it back to Nathan's place to crash before the long and awesome PCH drive to San Fran coming up in the morning.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Going back in time...Eleventh Day
Well, I'm making my first effort to re-create the trip blog. I WILL succeed.
July 17, 2007:
Picking up where I left off in San Diego, (which by the way, was named after Saint Didacus of Alcalá--more commonly known as San Diego--who was was a lay brother of the Order of Friars Minor, and not an animal part) in the morning Jason and I got up and went to the Hash House a Go Go for breakfast. We received this recommendation from John and Kristen. This place is midwest farm food on mega-amounts of HGH, or food GH or something. It has a rockabilly/punk feel about it. Each breakfast dish that we saw served that morning comes out on a white, oval platter about 3 feet long and a foot across at the widest point.
I ordered the smoked salmon, basil pesto, tomato and brie egg scramble which came with crispy breakfast potatoes and a biscuit, and Jason got the sage fried chicken eggs benedict which included spinach, smoked bacon, tomato, mozzarella and a chipotle cream. My salmon scramble was the best egg dish I've ever had in my life. I finished a little over half of it. There were a number of other tourists in the place and everyone kept leaning over to neighboring tables to see what other people had ordered. A nearby couple split a pancake that was about 18 inches across and 2 inches thick.
There are Hash Houses in SD, Las Vegas and now open in KC. You have to make an effort to go to one of them if you can.
After breakfast we knew that we had to walk it off a little before sitting in the car for a couple hours. We headed to Balboa Park to check it out. There are quite a number of interesting sights in the Park. One of the first things we stumbled across was a very nice bocce court with some games in progress. When we walked closer to check it out, one of the participants came over to say hello and recruit us for the club. I think they are looking for young blood to keep the club going. In all seriousness, though, it does look kind of fun. I think I got hooked on this genre of competition after watching curling in the last Winter Olympics. If anyone wants to go curling with me this winter there's a complex in MD that I want to go check out.
OK, tangent done. We then walked on to the museum area of the park. There are a number of cool museums that we didn't have time to see but I would like to next time I'm in town. The Museum of Man is pretty famous and there were several other exhibits including art galleries and a Globe Theater replica. The San Diego Zoo also borders Balboa Park, but we had to settle for the awesome stop at the Wild Animal Park.
Balboa Park was cool and a place that I look forward to checking out in greater detail. But we had to hit the road and head on to the City of Angels, or the LA greater metro area anyway. We hit I-5 and drove up the coast, which was a pretty nice drive. Saw a carrier a few miles offshore. Been there done that, though. (In another life I got to land on a carrier, spend the night and watch flight operations on the deck. Ask me if you're interested to hear about that.) We also drove past a number of really large houses with great views and no doubt manufactured drama being created and videotaped inside (i.e. we passed Laguna and Newport Beaches).
We made it to Phil and Janet's house in Hermosa Beach mid-afternoon that day. And while I hate commuting in the DC area, let's just say I'm not in a hurry to move to South Cali and have a 20 mile commute out there. Sheesh. Janet was stuck in jury duty til the evening, so we hung with Phil, had some libations (Phil makes a mean and delicious rum and coke) and told some stories. We also met the guard dogs, who while not too bad on the bite, had a hell of a bark.
We went down to the beach and saw the view down to Redondo Beach and Palos Verdes and up to Manhattan Beach at sunset. Absolutely stunning! We went to a great little Mexican place where they knew everyone on staff and had a great dinner. After dinner Jason and I walked around the beach bar area and found a place that had live band karaoke. We got there too late to sing (the line was real long) but it was cool too watch folks get up on stage with a live band and sing their favorite tunes. At the end of the night we caught a cab back and crashed in our respective rooms at Janet and Phil's. (They had separate rooms for us, which was the ultimate luxury on this trip.)
Another amazing day on the road and in California.
July 17, 2007:
Picking up where I left off in San Diego, (which by the way, was named after Saint Didacus of Alcalá--more commonly known as San Diego--who was was a lay brother of the Order of Friars Minor, and not an animal part) in the morning Jason and I got up and went to the Hash House a Go Go for breakfast. We received this recommendation from John and Kristen. This place is midwest farm food on mega-amounts of HGH, or food GH or something. It has a rockabilly/punk feel about it. Each breakfast dish that we saw served that morning comes out on a white, oval platter about 3 feet long and a foot across at the widest point.
I ordered the smoked salmon, basil pesto, tomato and brie egg scramble which came with crispy breakfast potatoes and a biscuit, and Jason got the sage fried chicken eggs benedict which included spinach, smoked bacon, tomato, mozzarella and a chipotle cream. My salmon scramble was the best egg dish I've ever had in my life. I finished a little over half of it. There were a number of other tourists in the place and everyone kept leaning over to neighboring tables to see what other people had ordered. A nearby couple split a pancake that was about 18 inches across and 2 inches thick.
There are Hash Houses in SD, Las Vegas and now open in KC. You have to make an effort to go to one of them if you can.
After breakfast we knew that we had to walk it off a little before sitting in the car for a couple hours. We headed to Balboa Park to check it out. There are quite a number of interesting sights in the Park. One of the first things we stumbled across was a very nice bocce court with some games in progress. When we walked closer to check it out, one of the participants came over to say hello and recruit us for the club. I think they are looking for young blood to keep the club going. In all seriousness, though, it does look kind of fun. I think I got hooked on this genre of competition after watching curling in the last Winter Olympics. If anyone wants to go curling with me this winter there's a complex in MD that I want to go check out.
OK, tangent done. We then walked on to the museum area of the park. There are a number of cool museums that we didn't have time to see but I would like to next time I'm in town. The Museum of Man is pretty famous and there were several other exhibits including art galleries and a Globe Theater replica. The San Diego Zoo also borders Balboa Park, but we had to settle for the awesome stop at the Wild Animal Park.
Balboa Park was cool and a place that I look forward to checking out in greater detail. But we had to hit the road and head on to the City of Angels, or the LA greater metro area anyway. We hit I-5 and drove up the coast, which was a pretty nice drive. Saw a carrier a few miles offshore. Been there done that, though. (In another life I got to land on a carrier, spend the night and watch flight operations on the deck. Ask me if you're interested to hear about that.) We also drove past a number of really large houses with great views and no doubt manufactured drama being created and videotaped inside (i.e. we passed Laguna and Newport Beaches).
We made it to Phil and Janet's house in Hermosa Beach mid-afternoon that day. And while I hate commuting in the DC area, let's just say I'm not in a hurry to move to South Cali and have a 20 mile commute out there. Sheesh. Janet was stuck in jury duty til the evening, so we hung with Phil, had some libations (Phil makes a mean and delicious rum and coke) and told some stories. We also met the guard dogs, who while not too bad on the bite, had a hell of a bark.
We went down to the beach and saw the view down to Redondo Beach and Palos Verdes and up to Manhattan Beach at sunset. Absolutely stunning! We went to a great little Mexican place where they knew everyone on staff and had a great dinner. After dinner Jason and I walked around the beach bar area and found a place that had live band karaoke. We got there too late to sing (the line was real long) but it was cool too watch folks get up on stage with a live band and sing their favorite tunes. At the end of the night we caught a cab back and crashed in our respective rooms at Janet and Phil's. (They had separate rooms for us, which was the ultimate luxury on this trip.)
Another amazing day on the road and in California.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Twenty-eighth Day: We're Home!
Saturday August 4, 2007, 3 pm:
Well, Jason and I made it home safe and sound late last night, sometime after midnight. We left Kingsport, TN after dinner at Jason's mom's house and made the final leg of the drive up I-81 to I-66 all the way to Arlington, VA.
We are slightly ahead of ourselves after deciding not to spend the night in Memphis, and have been a night ahead of the original plan throughout the state of Tennessee. Thus, we got to Kingsport after dinner on Thursday, and decided to spend the day in Kingsport and hit the road at night, which brought us home to our own beds for the night on Friday.
Now that we've had a good night's sleep we're going to go out camping for our buddy, Brian Tallman's bachelor party. We're heading out to the park in Reston to meet up with the rest of the gang that is doing lunch at the Dominion Brewing Company. It should be a great time telling Tallman stories and probably a few from this trip as well.
Please keep checking back as I continue to retroactively add entries from the trip. I'm still working on pictures as well. So please stay tuned!
Well, Jason and I made it home safe and sound late last night, sometime after midnight. We left Kingsport, TN after dinner at Jason's mom's house and made the final leg of the drive up I-81 to I-66 all the way to Arlington, VA.
We are slightly ahead of ourselves after deciding not to spend the night in Memphis, and have been a night ahead of the original plan throughout the state of Tennessee. Thus, we got to Kingsport after dinner on Thursday, and decided to spend the day in Kingsport and hit the road at night, which brought us home to our own beds for the night on Friday.
Now that we've had a good night's sleep we're going to go out camping for our buddy, Brian Tallman's bachelor party. We're heading out to the park in Reston to meet up with the rest of the gang that is doing lunch at the Dominion Brewing Company. It should be a great time telling Tallman stories and probably a few from this trip as well.
Please keep checking back as I continue to retroactively add entries from the trip. I'm still working on pictures as well. So please stay tuned!
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Twenty-sixth Day: in Nashville
So, in retrospect, I wish I had set the blog up from the beginning, rather than a week and a half in. I've been chasing myself to make entries and falling farther and farther behind the way I've been going. Oh well. I will continue to make entries until I get all my trip logs up anyway, but as I sit here in Nashville, after a fun night out, and its late... I can still mash out a few sentences for all the fans out there.
We've had a fun time in Nashville, even though we didn't make it to the Opry. We found Broadway in downtown Nashville, where the bulk of the live music in the city is going on, or so it was as far as we could tell. We saw a couple of good Rockabilly-type groups as well as a couple of other twang-y country-western-rock bands, including an all-women group that was pretty good.
Had some good Mexican at the San Antonio Taco Company over by the Vandy campus. Does anyone know if this is a national chain? It was pretty good Mexican food, and there are at least two of them here in Nashville.
On the way to tacos, we got lost and in making a turn to try to get back onto the road we wanted, we stumbled onto the national headquarters of Chi Psi, our college fraternity. I'm not kidding. We literally made a turn onto a random street that we thought was a cross street to get us back going in the right direction when we went past the sign for the building and I yelled at Jason to pull over. We met the couple of guys in there preparing for our national convention this weekend, including the exec dir who we had met while in college. It's a nice building and it was cool to pop in and say hello.
It was a fun day, and I'll try to get some more stuff up tomorrow. Goodnight.
We've had a fun time in Nashville, even though we didn't make it to the Opry. We found Broadway in downtown Nashville, where the bulk of the live music in the city is going on, or so it was as far as we could tell. We saw a couple of good Rockabilly-type groups as well as a couple of other twang-y country-western-rock bands, including an all-women group that was pretty good.
Had some good Mexican at the San Antonio Taco Company over by the Vandy campus. Does anyone know if this is a national chain? It was pretty good Mexican food, and there are at least two of them here in Nashville.
On the way to tacos, we got lost and in making a turn to try to get back onto the road we wanted, we stumbled onto the national headquarters of Chi Psi, our college fraternity. I'm not kidding. We literally made a turn onto a random street that we thought was a cross street to get us back going in the right direction when we went past the sign for the building and I yelled at Jason to pull over. We met the couple of guys in there preparing for our national convention this weekend, including the exec dir who we had met while in college. It's a nice building and it was cool to pop in and say hello.
It was a fun day, and I'll try to get some more stuff up tomorrow. Goodnight.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Tenth Day: to San Diego
OK, a concession to time and reality: Jason and I have made it all the way into Tennessee and are staying in Jackson, after a fun afternoon nearby in Memphis. Saw some good blues and R&B, and had some really good pork barbecue on Beale Street, the historic area of nightclubs in Memphis. Now back to your regularly scheduled update...
Monday July 16, 2007, 11 pm:
We slept in a little after crashing somewhat early in Vegas. We got driving and it is through a lot of desert from Nevada into Southern California. At times it felt like we were driving on the moon or something. A couple of times we went over some mountains, and then back into more desert. We took I-15 to I-215 and skirted west of LA through San Bernardino and Riverside to get to San Diego. We passed through Zzyxx, CA, which is a funny name for a town.
Once you get to San Bernardino, everything starts to look like California. And everything starts to look like everything else. Although around San Diego in particular, they haven’t finished building any bridges as far as we could tell, as every overpass in sight was under construction and detours abounded. I thought San Diego has been around for a long time now, but I guess they’re still building it. Also, several times we thought we’d seen the elusive Hawaii license plate, only to discover that it was a Mexican plate. We saw a lot of those.
Along the way Jason remembered that Janet, his dad's friend who we’ll be staying with in L.A. told us about the San Diego Wild Animal Park outside of San Diego. We looked it up in the trusty AAA book and discovered it is 30 miles north of the city, which we were rapidly approaching. It was mid-afternoon, so we decided to make a stop at the place. It is a pretty cool park that is largely an Africa-themed zoo where everything is outdoors. It is quite large with a couple of areas that are best seen by tram, which we accomplished. We walked most of the rest of the park and took copious pictures. The largest giraffe in the U.S. is at this park, as are a number of large African animals I’d never heard of. Also: gorillas, cheetahs, lions, meerkats, rhinos, elephants, etc. At one point on the tram tour we passed by a young, 6-point buck that walked right next to the tram, but the tour guide continued to talk about the zebras way at the bottom of the hill below. We also caught a show with a caracal (like a lynx) that was on a leash with a trainer and jumping 6 feet in the air after a toy. Quite impressive.
After the park, we checked into our Days Inn that we had reserved the night before. We then drove on to Coronado, which is an island/isthmus across the bay from San Diego. I had visited there once before through work on a Navy-sponsored trip. It was quite breezy and mile, to the point that I was getting cold and thought that we had hit possibly the coldest point of the trip. I was grateful that I brought my windbreaker for the evening. We had a nice seafood dinner at the Brigantine. Then we checked out the Hotel Del Coronado, which is one of the nicest hotels in the area. We walked through the nice lobby to the back deck and had our first sighting of the Pacific Ocean. Success! We made it all the way across the continent. Now to see if we can make it back…
Monday July 16, 2007, 11 pm:
We slept in a little after crashing somewhat early in Vegas. We got driving and it is through a lot of desert from Nevada into Southern California. At times it felt like we were driving on the moon or something. A couple of times we went over some mountains, and then back into more desert. We took I-15 to I-215 and skirted west of LA through San Bernardino and Riverside to get to San Diego. We passed through Zzyxx, CA, which is a funny name for a town.
Once you get to San Bernardino, everything starts to look like California. And everything starts to look like everything else. Although around San Diego in particular, they haven’t finished building any bridges as far as we could tell, as every overpass in sight was under construction and detours abounded. I thought San Diego has been around for a long time now, but I guess they’re still building it. Also, several times we thought we’d seen the elusive Hawaii license plate, only to discover that it was a Mexican plate. We saw a lot of those.
Along the way Jason remembered that Janet, his dad's friend who we’ll be staying with in L.A. told us about the San Diego Wild Animal Park outside of San Diego. We looked it up in the trusty AAA book and discovered it is 30 miles north of the city, which we were rapidly approaching. It was mid-afternoon, so we decided to make a stop at the place. It is a pretty cool park that is largely an Africa-themed zoo where everything is outdoors. It is quite large with a couple of areas that are best seen by tram, which we accomplished. We walked most of the rest of the park and took copious pictures. The largest giraffe in the U.S. is at this park, as are a number of large African animals I’d never heard of. Also: gorillas, cheetahs, lions, meerkats, rhinos, elephants, etc. At one point on the tram tour we passed by a young, 6-point buck that walked right next to the tram, but the tour guide continued to talk about the zebras way at the bottom of the hill below. We also caught a show with a caracal (like a lynx) that was on a leash with a trainer and jumping 6 feet in the air after a toy. Quite impressive.
After the park, we checked into our Days Inn that we had reserved the night before. We then drove on to Coronado, which is an island/isthmus across the bay from San Diego. I had visited there once before through work on a Navy-sponsored trip. It was quite breezy and mile, to the point that I was getting cold and thought that we had hit possibly the coldest point of the trip. I was grateful that I brought my windbreaker for the evening. We had a nice seafood dinner at the Brigantine. Then we checked out the Hotel Del Coronado, which is one of the nicest hotels in the area. We walked through the nice lobby to the back deck and had our first sighting of the Pacific Ocean. Success! We made it all the way across the continent. Now to see if we can make it back…
Monday, July 30, 2007
Ninth Day: in Las Vegas
Sunday, July 15, 2007, 10 pm:
Lee left for airport around 6 am. Suraj left around 10 am.
Dave and I went down to the Imperial Palace in the morning and very quickly started giving all our winnings back. We took a break and went to Denny’s for brunch. At some point when Dave and I were playing blackjack at the IP we played at one of the Dealertainer tables, where all of the dealers in this area are dressed up and look like real life entertainers, such as Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Madonna, etc. They take turns performing on a stage in the center of the pit area. There was also a guy claiming to be Elvis who was a dead ringer in the face and even the hair for Johnny Cash. We played with Alice Cooper. At one point after losing the fourth hand in a row and being almost out of chips, Alice gave me a laugh by telling me that “There’s no shame in getting your ass kicked by Alice Cooper.”
Jason and Konlee got up and ended up going to Denny’s for lunch after us.
We eventually met up with Jason and Konlee and played some blackjack. We were sitting at a table with a guy who was going for a Fidel Castro look. He wasn’t a dealertainer I don’t think, but he really looked like Fidel with the beard, hat and coat. He split 10s three different times because as he explained to us, the dealer had 4 through 6, and that’s the worst card the dealer could have there. He made a lot of money while all of us lost ours, and it was all really annoying because the guy barely understood blackjack. Twice he split the 10 out to four ways because he kept getting more 10s.
Konlee and I checked out the IP’s classic car collection, which is something like the biggest permanent viewable car collection in the world. And almost all of the cars are for sale. We saw a bunch of classics: several rarities valued in the millions, a few from movie sets, some randoms like a 1974 VW with only 600 miles on sale for $6,000, also some road race or rally cars including a mid-80s rally car that went 0 to 60 in 2.2 seconds, which I didn’t even know was possible. That was a cool exhibit.
Konlee left for the airport mid-afternoon.
Dave, Jason and I went to the Italian place at the IP for dinner which was passable. Nothing like a classic Vegas buffet or anything—the place seated maybe thirty people and was mostly empty.
Dave headed to the airport early evening, and Jason and I, exhausted, have decided to make it an early night to keep our bodies functioning on this trip. Goodnight.
Lee left for airport around 6 am. Suraj left around 10 am.
Dave and I went down to the Imperial Palace in the morning and very quickly started giving all our winnings back. We took a break and went to Denny’s for brunch. At some point when Dave and I were playing blackjack at the IP we played at one of the Dealertainer tables, where all of the dealers in this area are dressed up and look like real life entertainers, such as Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Madonna, etc. They take turns performing on a stage in the center of the pit area. There was also a guy claiming to be Elvis who was a dead ringer in the face and even the hair for Johnny Cash. We played with Alice Cooper. At one point after losing the fourth hand in a row and being almost out of chips, Alice gave me a laugh by telling me that “There’s no shame in getting your ass kicked by Alice Cooper.”
Jason and Konlee got up and ended up going to Denny’s for lunch after us.
We eventually met up with Jason and Konlee and played some blackjack. We were sitting at a table with a guy who was going for a Fidel Castro look. He wasn’t a dealertainer I don’t think, but he really looked like Fidel with the beard, hat and coat. He split 10s three different times because as he explained to us, the dealer had 4 through 6, and that’s the worst card the dealer could have there. He made a lot of money while all of us lost ours, and it was all really annoying because the guy barely understood blackjack. Twice he split the 10 out to four ways because he kept getting more 10s.
Konlee and I checked out the IP’s classic car collection, which is something like the biggest permanent viewable car collection in the world. And almost all of the cars are for sale. We saw a bunch of classics: several rarities valued in the millions, a few from movie sets, some randoms like a 1974 VW with only 600 miles on sale for $6,000, also some road race or rally cars including a mid-80s rally car that went 0 to 60 in 2.2 seconds, which I didn’t even know was possible. That was a cool exhibit.
Konlee left for the airport mid-afternoon.
Dave, Jason and I went to the Italian place at the IP for dinner which was passable. Nothing like a classic Vegas buffet or anything—the place seated maybe thirty people and was mostly empty.
Dave headed to the airport early evening, and Jason and I, exhausted, have decided to make it an early night to keep our bodies functioning on this trip. Goodnight.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Eighth Day: in Las Vegas
Sunday July 15, 2007, 9 am:
Dave and I got up and went to the tables early.
Met up with everyone for lunch, which ended up being a trip to In-N-Out Burger. That was a major goal for the trip, and it was successfully accomplished. While there, Jason got a text from Suraj that seemed to suggest he was in Vegas (he was a maybe due to family), but at the end of it he said “just kidding.” We were confused. Then Suraj called someone else to find out where to meet us. So it turned out he is in town, and he met us at the In-N-Out Burger. Of course, we forgot to get a picture of the In-N-Out Burger accomplishment, but if we made too big a deal of it, we wouldn't have a reason to keep going on the trip.
Discovered O’Shea’s, the Dr. Dremo’s/Irish Pub/Dive Bar of the Strip. Has beer pong in the back, a Burger King and a Subway for its food options, and has “Strip Poker.” Strip Poker is a couple of tables of poker in the front looking out at the Strip.
Lee remembered that Saturday was Bastille Day so we eventually went down to the casino Paris. We figured there would be some sort of extra celebration because of Bastille Day, but alas, we were disappointed. Not only was there no extra festivities for Bastille Day, but none of the staff that we spoke to had any idea what we were talking about. None of the strangers we went up to knew about it either. We decided that they were saving the big party for Super Bastille Day, which comes the next day, July 15, and recognizes the French bourgeois who came back to seize power from the poor.
There was more gambling, etc. and we were out until 5:30 am. Goodnight.
Seventh Day: in Las Vegas
Saturday, July 14, 2007, 5 am:
We got up and got going from John and Kristen’s on the way to Vegas. We took some back roads that John told us about to avoid going backwards for a while and got onto I-15. We made it into Arizona for about 15 minutes on the way to I-15 and we went through the town of Beaver Dam. This was about the most depressed town I’ve ever seen. There were several bad looking trailer parks and a number of deserted buildings and one small resort section. It was like something out of a movie, possibly horror or Stephen King.
The rest of the drive to Las Vegas was pretty easy. You know when you hit Nevada because the town of Mesquite, NV on the border has a number of casinos and resorts. We hit some traffic on the way into town which slowed us a little. It was about noon on a Friday so I’m not too surprised. In addition, the main event of the World Series of Poker is ongoing, so that may create more traffic for the weekend.
Drove straight to Mandalay Bay where Mike and Hillary were checking out. Met up with them and went to a great buffet for lunch at Planet Hollywood (formerly the Aladdin). Then on to the local poker room. I had to wait a long time for a seat to open up at a 1-2 table, but I did, and eventually everyone else moved over. I had beginner’s luck with the cards, and won $100 total, even with some bad plays. At one point I had the best hand possible, but I forgot and accidentally slow played a guy when I had him beat—kind of a jerk move. Fortunately Jason and Mike were sitting near him and told him that I didn’t know better. I also had a full house with Kings over Aces but didn’t know it and didn’t raise when I should have. Oh well. Good learning experience.
Jason and I went and checked in at the Imperial Palace, which is the Motel 6 of the Strip, though it is a good location. Then our friends Konlee Dobbins and Lee Demaree got in from the airport. Lee purchased his ticket this morning at the airport. Very excited to see him. Went out to the Orleans off the strip to meet up with Mike and Hillary. Played some 2 deck blackjack and won some money. Mike and Hillary left. Other four of us ate at TGI Friday’s. Lee and I went off to a club (Tabu?) at MGM Grand. Had fun there and saw several bachelorette parties. Dave Cunningham got in later that evening. He, Jason and Konlee came to MGM and more gambling occurred. At the end of the night someone said I should go take the $100 chip I had and bet it on a hand of blackjack. I was suggestible at that point in the evening apparently, so before anyone else could stop me, I went and bet the chip and won the hand! Then everyone went home, got in around 4:30 am, and Lee got back around 5:30 am.
Ended up about $230 up the first day…pretty good for Friday the 13th.
We got up and got going from John and Kristen’s on the way to Vegas. We took some back roads that John told us about to avoid going backwards for a while and got onto I-15. We made it into Arizona for about 15 minutes on the way to I-15 and we went through the town of Beaver Dam. This was about the most depressed town I’ve ever seen. There were several bad looking trailer parks and a number of deserted buildings and one small resort section. It was like something out of a movie, possibly horror or Stephen King.
The rest of the drive to Las Vegas was pretty easy. You know when you hit Nevada because the town of Mesquite, NV on the border has a number of casinos and resorts. We hit some traffic on the way into town which slowed us a little. It was about noon on a Friday so I’m not too surprised. In addition, the main event of the World Series of Poker is ongoing, so that may create more traffic for the weekend.
Drove straight to Mandalay Bay where Mike and Hillary were checking out. Met up with them and went to a great buffet for lunch at Planet Hollywood (formerly the Aladdin). Then on to the local poker room. I had to wait a long time for a seat to open up at a 1-2 table, but I did, and eventually everyone else moved over. I had beginner’s luck with the cards, and won $100 total, even with some bad plays. At one point I had the best hand possible, but I forgot and accidentally slow played a guy when I had him beat—kind of a jerk move. Fortunately Jason and Mike were sitting near him and told him that I didn’t know better. I also had a full house with Kings over Aces but didn’t know it and didn’t raise when I should have. Oh well. Good learning experience.
Jason and I went and checked in at the Imperial Palace, which is the Motel 6 of the Strip, though it is a good location. Then our friends Konlee Dobbins and Lee Demaree got in from the airport. Lee purchased his ticket this morning at the airport. Very excited to see him. Went out to the Orleans off the strip to meet up with Mike and Hillary. Played some 2 deck blackjack and won some money. Mike and Hillary left. Other four of us ate at TGI Friday’s. Lee and I went off to a club (Tabu?) at MGM Grand. Had fun there and saw several bachelorette parties. Dave Cunningham got in later that evening. He, Jason and Konlee came to MGM and more gambling occurred. At the end of the night someone said I should go take the $100 chip I had and bet it on a hand of blackjack. I was suggestible at that point in the evening apparently, so before anyone else could stop me, I went and bet the chip and won the hand! Then everyone went home, got in around 4:30 am, and Lee got back around 5:30 am.
Ended up about $230 up the first day…pretty good for Friday the 13th.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Sixth Day: in southern UT
Thursday, July 12, 2007, 10:20 pm:
Jason, John and I went down to the neighborhood art gallery area which also has a coffeeshop/restaurant attached to it. I mean, this is right in the middle of the houses of the community. We had good iced lattes and Jason and I had the specialty Belgian waffle, which is covered peanut butter sauce, strawberries and whipped cream and is delicious. After breakfast we met up with Kristen and then we headed out on our great adventure in southern Utah.
Essentially, we visited three parks and monuments with some cool driving in between. (A national park requires congressional action to establish, whereas the President can create a national monument by executive order. I’m not sure what benefits parks have over monuments.) Cedar Breaks National Monument was the first stop. We drove up to the viewing station of the rock formations, and it was an amazing view. It was also very windy, to the point that I was surprised how cold I was and thought that it was the coldest I would be on the trip.
Then we drove over to Brian Head Peak, which is approximately the next mountain over from Cedar Breaks, but is not in a national park or monument. There is a neat building on top of the peak which was built during the depression by one of the New Deal organizations. We drove above the tree line to get to the top, which led to some interesting views as well, including of some tiny, tortured looking trees that were attempting to grow at altitudes that they just shouldn’t be.
From Brian Head we drove into what amounted to the back entrance of Zion National Park. We saw some gorgeous views of the mountains and rock formations in the park until we got to a parking area near a short hike. Though it was about 105 degrees outside, it was quite dry and a little breezy, so it didn’t feel too bad. We walked the trail for about a mile until we got to an amazing lookout point in the middle of the park. From this point you could see several nearby peaks, many of which were named for their appearances. There was a deep blue sky and puffy white clouds, all of which enhanced the views. Most of the other tourists we saw appeared to be European and not interested in talking or saying hello.
After the hike, we drove through the tunnel to begin exiting the park. The tunnel has several windows where the rock that was removed to form the tunnel was dumped out the side of the tunnel to the canyon floor below. We also jumped on a tour bus that took us around several other parts of the park. There were a number of great views of towering rock formations as well as entry points for many different hikes in the park.
We drove into the nearby town for dinner and stopped at a burger/taco place. Jason had a 39 oz. beer that didn’t give him a buzz because we figured, eventually, that Utah only has 3.2 beer. So it only made him over full and not buzzed. When we got back to St. George, we stopped off at Nielsen’s for frozen custard, which had been sold to us for an hour as being better than most any ice cream ever had. I was hard pressed to believe it, but it’s true. The frozen custard of Nielsen’s is smoother and tastier than regular ice cream. It was amazing.
We finally made it back to John and Kristen’s, where we talked for a little while before retiring to bed. I couldn’t get to sleep for quite a while because I was so full. Goodnight…
Jason, John and I went down to the neighborhood art gallery area which also has a coffeeshop/restaurant attached to it. I mean, this is right in the middle of the houses of the community. We had good iced lattes and Jason and I had the specialty Belgian waffle, which is covered peanut butter sauce, strawberries and whipped cream and is delicious. After breakfast we met up with Kristen and then we headed out on our great adventure in southern Utah.
Essentially, we visited three parks and monuments with some cool driving in between. (A national park requires congressional action to establish, whereas the President can create a national monument by executive order. I’m not sure what benefits parks have over monuments.) Cedar Breaks National Monument was the first stop. We drove up to the viewing station of the rock formations, and it was an amazing view. It was also very windy, to the point that I was surprised how cold I was and thought that it was the coldest I would be on the trip.
Then we drove over to Brian Head Peak, which is approximately the next mountain over from Cedar Breaks, but is not in a national park or monument. There is a neat building on top of the peak which was built during the depression by one of the New Deal organizations. We drove above the tree line to get to the top, which led to some interesting views as well, including of some tiny, tortured looking trees that were attempting to grow at altitudes that they just shouldn’t be.
From Brian Head we drove into what amounted to the back entrance of Zion National Park. We saw some gorgeous views of the mountains and rock formations in the park until we got to a parking area near a short hike. Though it was about 105 degrees outside, it was quite dry and a little breezy, so it didn’t feel too bad. We walked the trail for about a mile until we got to an amazing lookout point in the middle of the park. From this point you could see several nearby peaks, many of which were named for their appearances. There was a deep blue sky and puffy white clouds, all of which enhanced the views. Most of the other tourists we saw appeared to be European and not interested in talking or saying hello.
After the hike, we drove through the tunnel to begin exiting the park. The tunnel has several windows where the rock that was removed to form the tunnel was dumped out the side of the tunnel to the canyon floor below. We also jumped on a tour bus that took us around several other parts of the park. There were a number of great views of towering rock formations as well as entry points for many different hikes in the park.
We drove into the nearby town for dinner and stopped at a burger/taco place. Jason had a 39 oz. beer that didn’t give him a buzz because we figured, eventually, that Utah only has 3.2 beer. So it only made him over full and not buzzed. When we got back to St. George, we stopped off at Nielsen’s for frozen custard, which had been sold to us for an hour as being better than most any ice cream ever had. I was hard pressed to believe it, but it’s true. The frozen custard of Nielsen’s is smoother and tastier than regular ice cream. It was amazing.
We finally made it back to John and Kristen’s, where we talked for a little while before retiring to bed. I couldn’t get to sleep for quite a while because I was so full. Goodnight…
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Fifth Day: to Ivins, UT
Wednesday July 11, 2007, 11 pm:
Knowing that we had a long day of driving ahead of us, and having had a good night’s sleep the night before, we were up and at ‘em on Wed. morning. Jason walked Skadi and Ares with Becca while I packed things up. We were on the road from Becca’s by 7:50 a.m., which may prove to be the early point of the trip.
Once we got going on I-70 west of Denver we got into the Rockies for real. No more straight, flat driving. We were able to keep moving, but we went up and down some serious grades, and curved around some serious peaks. It was pretty fun to see and a little hairy to drive in a couple of spots. At one point we came over a hill and all of a sudden we came upon a town nestled (as all such towns must be described) in the mountains at the foot of a peak sitting on a mountain lake. I believe the town was Frisco. We pulled off for some pictures and cardio. At something over 9,000 feet, it was one of the highest points we’d experienced so far, and about the highest altitude I’ve ever been at. Jason convinced me to check out the effect of the altitude, so I took off for a jog about 100 yards down the parking area, looped around and came running back. The whole way running I felt pretty good; the breathing was working fine. When I pulled up to a stop, I was wheezing like nothing else. I thought I had just run clear from Denver. Jason, bastion of fitness and cardio that he is, pointed and laughed.
The driving through the Rockies was gorgeous. We passed several ski resorts that were exhibiting their summer coloring—that is had big green slopes down their sides. We passed Copper Mountain, Vail, and Eagle among other communities.
After a while you get somewhat accustomed to the American Alps appearance of the ski resort communities in the Rockies, but pretty soon after I got to that point we were driving uphill and we saw a sign ahead welcoming us to Utah. That was kind of a good feeling, like we were making progress. Then we crested the hill, came out of the mountains and saw an amazing, expansive view of the huge valley that we had just entered. You go from green mountains to desert with distant, desolate mountains and rocks in all directions. Some of the views are great, especially in the area of Arches Nat’l Park, which we drove near on I-70. We stopped at several scenic overlooks and got pictures. Many of them looked kind of like the Grand Canyon, or so I imagine. It took longer than planned to get through Utah, but we didn’t have a particular time to get to St. George, UT, where we were staying with John and Kristen Hunt.
You may have heard that there have been quite a number of fires burning out west this summer. We had heard a couple of days before driving in Utah that part of our path through the state had been recently blocked by one of the fires. In fact, Utah was currently experiencing the single largest fire in state history. The first evidence of fires we saw was along the side of I-70 in Utah. We drove up multiple cars worth of firefighting officials finishing putting out a fire that stretched for several hundred yards down the road. I speculated that it was from a cigarette butt or something. We could see multiple locations where the ground was still smoking and they were still using the hose on a section, though we didn’t see any flames.
We worked our way across Utah to I-15 in the middle of the state. Soon after getting on I-15 we saw where some of the wildfires had burned entire hillsides of foliage. There was a spot where the fire had jumped over I-15. We had heard that I-15 was closed in this area a couple of days prior, but fortunately it was open by that point. Along the way, we saw several other burnt areas and smoke coming out of the mountains to the west of I-15. We even saw a helicopter with the bucket underneath drop its contents onto the mountain below. I couldn’t see any flames there either, but it was a dramatic sight.
We finally arrived at John and Kristen Hunt’s house in Ivins, Utah, which is a small community a little outside of St. George, Utah. The drive was about 12.5 hours, which is the longest so far, but it wasn’t too bad a drive, with a lot of great sights to see along the way.
All for now, good night…
Knowing that we had a long day of driving ahead of us, and having had a good night’s sleep the night before, we were up and at ‘em on Wed. morning. Jason walked Skadi and Ares with Becca while I packed things up. We were on the road from Becca’s by 7:50 a.m., which may prove to be the early point of the trip.
Once we got going on I-70 west of Denver we got into the Rockies for real. No more straight, flat driving. We were able to keep moving, but we went up and down some serious grades, and curved around some serious peaks. It was pretty fun to see and a little hairy to drive in a couple of spots. At one point we came over a hill and all of a sudden we came upon a town nestled (as all such towns must be described) in the mountains at the foot of a peak sitting on a mountain lake. I believe the town was Frisco. We pulled off for some pictures and cardio. At something over 9,000 feet, it was one of the highest points we’d experienced so far, and about the highest altitude I’ve ever been at. Jason convinced me to check out the effect of the altitude, so I took off for a jog about 100 yards down the parking area, looped around and came running back. The whole way running I felt pretty good; the breathing was working fine. When I pulled up to a stop, I was wheezing like nothing else. I thought I had just run clear from Denver. Jason, bastion of fitness and cardio that he is, pointed and laughed.
The driving through the Rockies was gorgeous. We passed several ski resorts that were exhibiting their summer coloring—that is had big green slopes down their sides. We passed Copper Mountain, Vail, and Eagle among other communities.
After a while you get somewhat accustomed to the American Alps appearance of the ski resort communities in the Rockies, but pretty soon after I got to that point we were driving uphill and we saw a sign ahead welcoming us to Utah. That was kind of a good feeling, like we were making progress. Then we crested the hill, came out of the mountains and saw an amazing, expansive view of the huge valley that we had just entered. You go from green mountains to desert with distant, desolate mountains and rocks in all directions. Some of the views are great, especially in the area of Arches Nat’l Park, which we drove near on I-70. We stopped at several scenic overlooks and got pictures. Many of them looked kind of like the Grand Canyon, or so I imagine. It took longer than planned to get through Utah, but we didn’t have a particular time to get to St. George, UT, where we were staying with John and Kristen Hunt.
You may have heard that there have been quite a number of fires burning out west this summer. We had heard a couple of days before driving in Utah that part of our path through the state had been recently blocked by one of the fires. In fact, Utah was currently experiencing the single largest fire in state history. The first evidence of fires we saw was along the side of I-70 in Utah. We drove up multiple cars worth of firefighting officials finishing putting out a fire that stretched for several hundred yards down the road. I speculated that it was from a cigarette butt or something. We could see multiple locations where the ground was still smoking and they were still using the hose on a section, though we didn’t see any flames.
We worked our way across Utah to I-15 in the middle of the state. Soon after getting on I-15 we saw where some of the wildfires had burned entire hillsides of foliage. There was a spot where the fire had jumped over I-15. We had heard that I-15 was closed in this area a couple of days prior, but fortunately it was open by that point. Along the way, we saw several other burnt areas and smoke coming out of the mountains to the west of I-15. We even saw a helicopter with the bucket underneath drop its contents onto the mountain below. I couldn’t see any flames there either, but it was a dramatic sight.
We finally arrived at John and Kristen Hunt’s house in Ivins, Utah, which is a small community a little outside of St. George, Utah. The drive was about 12.5 hours, which is the longest so far, but it wasn’t too bad a drive, with a lot of great sights to see along the way.
All for now, good night…
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