Tag: travel

We’re in Florida!

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We got into Ft. Myers, yesterday, maybe half an hour late. Kelly’s parents picked us up from the airport and took us back to their house. The weather here is outstanding! It was in the 70s when we got here. Before dinner, Kelly and I went for a bike ride around the community and I got a tour of the recreation area, the gym, pools, spa, etc.

After that, I helped decorate the Christmas tree with ornaments. Kelly actually did most of the work, with her dad helping out too. I just handed them ornaments to place on the tree.

We had an outstanding caesar salad for dinner with salmon and chicken and garlic bread. I even tried a couple of olives in my salad for the heck of it. (I don’t really like olives, but I figured I’d give them a second chance. They weren’t as terrible as I remember them, nor were they delicious. We sat around chatting until almost 10 PM when we finally went to bed. Kelly and I watched more of the movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks and still haven’t finished it. I keep falling asleep during our attempts to watch the film and the movie is something like 2-1/2 hours long!

Atlanta, Georgia

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Apparently there is some debate as to whether sitting in an airport counts as being in a state. Personally I don’t see why it wouldn’t. That being said, Kelly and I are sitting in the airport in Atlanta, and I count it as my first visit to both Atlanta and Georgia. The flight down was uneventful. I packed lunch for Kelly and I and that came in handy since they didn’t serve food on the flight. So we ate peanut butter and jelly, Oreo cookies and bananas. Our flight to Ft. Myers boards in about 10 minutes.

Red eyes

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[Written on 11/26/2007]

I took the red eye back from LAX last night. Doug, Rachel and Dad dropped me off at LAX at about 8 PM (and even thought PCH was closed due to the Malibu fires, we hit no traffic on the way to the airport, which came as a mild surprise).

There was no line at the security checkpoint. Not a single person. First time I can recall that was the case. I was sitting in the Red Carpet Club 10 minutes after I had been dropped off at the curb. I’d upgraded my seat to First Class on the return flight and boarded on-time at 9:40 PM. The flight itself was mostly uneventful save for the facts that (a) we hit about 30 minutes of moderate turbulence somewhere over the middle of the country; and (b) I couldn’t sleep.

We arrived about 10 minutes early into Dulles (about 5:50 AM) and the driver, Don, was there to meet me at the baggage claim. He made it a quick ride back to my house. I’m beat. Zeke was glad to see me, I think. Kelly is coming over around 11 AM, but for now, I’m heading off to bed for a few hours.

Scuba

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Yesterday, while the girls went to their fancy spa to get their fancy facials and whatever else people get in spas, the boy went scuba-diving.

Mom arranged it with a friend of hers who teaches scuba diving. Doug, stubiebrother and I headed to Thousand Oaks to the Sports Chalet, where at about 10 AM, we signed our lives away and proceeded to learn how to scuba dive in the 13 foot-deep pool that they had on site. The pool was kept very warm so that we didn’t need wet suits.

We learned how to wear the gear. We learned how to clear out our masks. We learned how to breath through the regulator. We learned to different ways for clearing the regulator while underwater. We even learned how to recover the regulator underwater if we lost it. We learned some basic hand signals as well. Once we’d done a few practice runs, we headed for the deep end. We spent a total of about 40 minutes underwater, and might have spent a little longer if Doug hadn’t come close to running out of air. (When we finally surfaced, me and Jason’s tanks were at about the 1,000 PSI mark. Doug’s was almost at 0 PSI.)

It was an interesting experience. For the first few minutes, I found myself much more conscious of my breathing than normal. I made sure to practice removing the regulator from my mouth, clearing it, and getting it back in. It was easy. We tossed around underwater frisbees. We swam through hoops. We laid down on the bottom of the pool (making sure to equalize the pressure in our ears). It was a lot of fun.

After it was all over, Doug, Jason and I headed to a nearby T.G.I. Friday’s for lunch.

We spent the afternoon hanging around the house. Then, in the evening, we headed to Wood Ranch grill for dinner. Almost everyone had tri-tip and it was excellent! We celebrated Ruby’s birthday after dinner, with a birthday cake from Coldstone, and a bunch of presents (Ruby turns 4 on December 1). By the time that was over, I was exhausted. Mom, Jen and Jason put on a movie but I was out cold. When I next woke up, the lights were out and everyone had done to sleep.

I head back home tonight. My flight departs LAX at 10:20 PM. I’ve used some more upgrade credits to upgrade to first class. The airplane is a 767 on the flight home so First Class may be a little bit nicer than on a 757. There are fires in Malibu, so we’ll probably have to take the freeways to LAX this evening, and miss the pretty ride along the coast. I get into Dulles at 6 AM, and if everything goes well, I hope to be home (and in bed for a little while) at 7 AM.

To L.A.

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I was up at 3 AM because I couldn’t sleep. My alarm was set for 4 AM, but there I was, awake at 3 AM and so I watched and episode of The West Wing before heading into the shower.

The car was there at 4:30 AM to pick me up and we headed off for Dulles airport. The roads were empty and I was at the airport at 5:15 AM. The airport was empty as well. It took only 10 minutes to go from the curb to the gate, and for those of you who know Dulles, that includes the short ride in the mobile lounge to the C-gates.

Turns out the Red Carpet Club at Dulles doesn’t open until 6 AM, so I sat around until it opened and then spent about 25 minutes there. I had a light breakfast and then left to board the plane. I boarded at 6:30 and not 5 minutes later, we had to debark the plane because of an issue with the navigational equipment. We were told there would be a 40 minute delay, but 10 minutes later, we were boarded again, and this time, without incident. The flight left 10 minutes late, at 7:10 AM.

The flight itself wasn’t too bad. I upgraded to first class. I spent some time talking to the person sitting next to me (who was quite talkative). She was from Hawaii and she was returning home. I managed to get a little sleep, too, but not much. I also added about 800 words to Graveyard Shift, not as much as I had hope to get done on the plane, but better than nothing. My word count now stands at 18,155 words.

I arrived in L.A. at 9:50 AM. Doug and Rachel were waiting for me when I got there. I hopped in the minivan and we headed to Oxnard. It took us a little over an hour.

Since then, we’ve been sitting around, waiting for he11o_sunshine and stubiebrother to get here. Mom was here when we got here, and so was Ruby and Carson. Carson is so cute–he is to Doug what “Mini-me” is to Doctor Evil. Even their facial expressions are an identical match!

Mom and Dad have had a lot of work done on their house. It’s been painted, there’s new carpeting, and new base-boards. It looks great.

My text-messaging seems to be delayed. Kelly wasn’t getting my text messages and sometime around 1 PM, she called me. This is significant because up to this point, we’d never talked to each other on the phone. It became a kind of game between us–a streak if you will. And so when I saw her calling, my first words when I answered the phone were, “You broke the streak!”

Ever other year, we have a “non-traditional” Thanksgiving dining, and this is one of those years. We’re having crab legs and prime rib for dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Upgrade confirmed

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I got an email from United this morning indicating that my first class upgrade on my flight to L.A. on Thursday morning was confirmed. Usually, I don’t have to wait until the last minute because I use miles, but this time, I used some of the upgrade credits I get for being a frequent flier, and with Premier status, you don’t find out if you got your upgrade until 48 hours within your flight time.

Morro Bay, day 4

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Labor Day. Up early again and did more reading of The Reagan Diaries. After Dan and Megan got up, we had a quick breakfast and then headed into San Luis Obispo and wandered around the town. The weather was gorgeous but surprisingly few people were out. We had lunch downtown and then headed back to Dan and Megan’s. I hit the road at 2 PM.

My flight wasn’t until 11 PM but, given that it was Labor Day, I suspected traffic. I didn ‘t hit any until just south of Santa Barbara, but then it was pretty steady from there to the airport. I was through security by 8 PM, so it took me 6 hours, when it normally takes 3. I’m glad I left early.

I was feeling a little better today. When I got to the airport I headed for the Red Carpet Club–nice setup at LAX, nicer than BWI for sure–and found a comfortable place to sit for the next 2 hours. I ordered a Margarita from the bar (Kelly had been texting me over the weekend and on a number of occasions, mentioned she was having a Margarita, so I was craving one by this point) and watched a few episodes of The Office on my iPod. I boarded the plane at 10:30 PM, first class, and had an uneventful flight home. I even managed to get a little sleep.

There was traffic coming down B/W Parkway but I was home by 8 AM. Zeke was fine, happy to see me. I had a note from the town of Riverdale that my grass it too long and I have to cut it within 10 days. Such sticklers!

Morro Bay day 1

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Long day. I was up at 4 am eastern time. My flight to LAX left ontime and was uneventful. We even got in a little early. I picked up my rental car from Hert and headed to the Santa Monica office to visit some friends there. I spent about an hour there and then headed up to Morro Bay. The drive tool about 3 hours and I was tired by the end of it. Great to see Dan and Megan though. We spent the rest of the day catching up. We grabbed some food in the early evening and I had an excellent tri-tip sandwich.

Weather us great here–much better than inland where it hit 100 on my drive. Calling it an early night because I’m exhausted. More tomorrow.

Trip-prep

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Went out for drinks with Kelly after work, which was a lot of fun, so I just got home a little while ago and I now have to wait for the laundry to run so that I have clothes to take with me to Morro Bay tomorrow. I’m getting up at 4 AM so it’s going to be a long day. You may not hear from me until pretty late in the day tomorrow, but never fear. As the beloved governor of Cali-forn-ia says, “I’ll be back.”

(I did finish up The Best Time Travel Stories of All Time this evening, and I’ll have more to say about it later.)

Long Labor Day weekend

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I’m already looking forward to my long Labor Day weekend, which starts tomorrow. I have a 6:30 AM flight to LAX, followed by a 3 hour-ish drive up to Morro Bay. I’ll be spending just about 3 full days with Dan and Megan and I can’t wait. The last time I saw them was nearly a year ago.

I still have a lot to do. The lawn could use some mowing, especially in the front yard. I don’t know if I’ll get to that today. I have a bunch of laundry to do, as well as some other minor errands and chores. And I have to get up at about 4:30 tomorrow morning. At least I don’t have to stay up late to watch the Yankee game tonight. The game is on at 1:05 PM ET.

I’m back home early in the morning on Tuesday and I’ve taken Tuesday off, so that I can rest and get the rest of my errands and chores done. More than likely I’ll cut the grass on Tuesday. I don’t think I’ll have time to do it this evening.

Incidentally, I upgraded my flight to LAX tomorrow, but hadn’t yet upgraded my flight back. But I just had a bunch of miles dumped into my Mileage Plus account so I’m going to upgrade that flight as well. I was originally planning on using some upgrade credits for that flight, but I’ll save those for shorter flights.

Backpack-less

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For the first time that I can remember (at least in the last give years) I came into work this morning without my backpack. I’m going to the Mets/Nationals game after work and didn’t want to lug a backpack to the stadium. It doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it makes the morning feel much different. I think it has a lot to do with muscle memory. When changing trains, for instance, I walked off the train feeling as though I was forgetting something. When walking up the escalator, something just didn’t feel quite right about the way I moved. It also meant that I didn’t bring a book with me to the office, which is an equally rare occasion. I passed the time on the train watching an episode of The Office on my iPhone.

I spent about 20 minutes this morning trying to book a room at the Westin Waterfront in Boston for President’s Day weekend 2008–where I will be attending Boskone 45–but for some reason, there are “temporary errors” on the Starwood website and I’m not able to book anything. (Hey, vickyandnorm, can you do something about that!) Once the site is back up and running, I’ll book my room.

I wore shorts to work today (another fairly unusual event) because I wasn’t going to bring a change of clothes with me (no backpack) and it’s going to be hot at the ballgame this evening.