Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Thanksgiving Eve
It’s that time of year again when we’re about to slam into a string of holidays. For many of us, it’s a fun-filled chunk of the year when we celebrate with our families and friends, have a lot on our social calendars, and experience the joy of giving to others. I always go into the holiday season with a mixture of emotions, because for all of the fun events on the calendar, there’s usually a level of stress that accompanies it and lots of scrambling to complete everything that we want to do. We set expectations of sending out cards, shopping for gifts, cooking more elaborate meals that usual, and generally filling our calendars a bit too full. It’s hard to cut back on the traditions that we love so much, especially when we benefit from hearing from friends or spending time with friends and family whom we might not see as often as we’d like the rest of the year. I hope that you can find a good balance for yourself during this holiday season so that you stay happy, healthy, and sane!
Sunday, September 27, 2009
There Oughtta be Laws to Regulate Common Sense!
It’s a sad statement about human nature when there has to be a discussion about passing a law to prohibit sending text messages while driving. Common sense tells us that it’s dangerous to take your eyes off the road while you’re driving a car. Unfortunately, it’s very common for drivers to be distracted for multiple reasons – texting, dialing a phone number, talking on the phone, talking with one of your passengers, looking at something outside, eating, reading a map, etc. If we don’t have enough common sense to pay attention to our driving, maybe we should make it illegal to do any of the activities that distract us in our cars. The tricky part is that the people who act carelessly are not just endangering themselves, but they impact other people out on the roads. For that reason, I would support a law against texting while driving as well as laws requiring the use of hands-free cell phone devices when you’re driving a car. If it will save more lives, it’s worth it.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
We Fear Change
People like to complain when something is altered, even when it’s an arguably trivial makeover. I saw an article this week about how Ikea changed the font of the lettering in their catalog, and thousands of people wrote to complain about it. One group even started a petition against the change! I don’t really understand why anyone would care all that much about something seemingly insignificant like that. When Facebook changed the look of their homepage about 6 months ago, there was a giant uproar from a lot of people who were opposed to the change. Why does it matter? Can you remember now what it looked like prior to the update? Why are we so afraid to try new things? Changes like that stir up our comfortable routine, but we need to prioritize which changes are scary and significant and which ones are really not a big deal. If people give themselves time to adjust to something different, they will be able to accept it or even grow to like it after a while. It’s too bad we waste so much energy fighting the small changes.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
My Trip to Ireland and London
11 & 12 July
On Saturday afternoon, Bernie drove us to O’Hare for our flight. Jessica and I had been eagerly waiting to leave on our trip for a long time. We were able to get two seats with lots of legroom, so we were relatively comfortable for the flight. Aer Lingus has monitors in front of every seat with a menu of movies and TV shows and games to keep folks occupied for a long flight. We didn’t get a whole lot of sleep, but we squeezed in a couple of hours. We got into Dublin around 8 am, went through customs, and met the bus driver who took us to our hotel – Bewley’s Hotel in Ballsbridge. We weren’t able to check into the hotel yet since it was still too early in the day, but we left our luggage in the corner of the lobby and walked around the neighborhood. The bus driver had told us that there was a big outdoor arena across the street from the hotel, and Bruce Springsteen would be performing there that night, so there were lots of people out on the streets and around the hotel all day long. Walking down the street, we had two different sets of people ask us where the line was for some kind of hand stamps for the concert that night…apparently we looked like locals.
When we came back to the hotel, they had a room ready for us, so we were thrilled to go up and take a nap! At 2 pm we got on the bus for an afternoon tour of Dublin. We viewed the Book of Kells and the cool, old library at Trinity College, and we had a little time to walk around downtown. We learned on the tour that Dublin has more coffee shops per capita than any other European city, and Handel’s Messiah had its world premiere in Dublin. For dinner, Jessica and I walked over to a wonderful burger place across the street from where people were lining up to get into the stadium. We were given a table right away, in spite of the humongous crowds of people filling the streets outside. We soon realized that most of the drunken concert-goers were just milling around on the street anyway waiting to go into the stadium.
Monday, 13 July
Our tour group had a “Full Irish Breakfast” (eggs, sausage, cooked tomatoes, sautéed mushrooms, blood sausage, cereal, and pastries) in the hotel restaurant before heading out of Dublin to roam the countryside. Our first stop, a couple of hours down the road, was the Rock of Cashel. We were given a guided tour as the rain started coming down slowly, and then more forcefully, and everyone was shivering and hoping we’d move inside. The last part of the tour was in a cozy little room – one of the few with a roof inside the ancient, crumbling buildings.
We drove through Cork and stopped at Blarney Castle for lunch. I had a delicious, traditional Irish Stew, and then we walked around and did some shopping. Kissing the Blarney Stone wasn’t a big draw for Jessica and me, but there were a few folks from our group who climbed the steps of the castle to do some kissing. We were fortunate to have about 2 hours of sunny, warm weather during our stop in Blarney, and then another rain shower came down shortly after we climbed back on the bus.
An hour and a half of driving through green, hilly areas and we were in Killarney. We stayed at the Killarney Towers Hotel, which was a nice, downtown boutique hotel with a lot of charm. I can’t imagine actually paying the rack rate though – the price posted on the back of the door in our room – 250 Euros per person per night… That means at that price it would cost 2 people approximately 750 dollars to stay there for one night!! We had a huge buffet dinner in the hotel restaurant, started to get acquainted with some of our traveling companions, and checked our email in the lobby. Jessica and I took a short walk around downtown Killarney, and we agreed that it was a really adorable, colorful little town. We had been told that most pubs in town had live music nearly every night of the week, and that certainly seemed to be accurate. We walked past a few places where we heard music pouring out onto the street, and we stood and listened to a band at one pub’s outdoor patio for a bit. That was around 9 or 10 pm, and I’m sure the music lasts long into the night at many of the pubs.
Tuesday, 14 July
We ate another big breakfast, and then took off for a day of touring on the bus, beginning with a short stop on the outskirts of Killarney in a field that overlooked a river lined with mountains. It was really a gorgeous view, and we were lucky to enjoy it before the first rainy sprinkles of the day began. We spent a good portion of the day driving around the Ring of Kerry, stopping frequently to enjoy the beautiful vistas – the green hillsides covered with sheep and cows, mountain slopes, coastline, and views of the Dingle Peninsula across the bay. Our tour was supposed to include a stop at Muckross Gardens on our way back into Killarney in the late afternoon, but our bus driver, John, explained that we would have to skip it because of a local strike that was occurring. The horse and buggy drivers were protesting a recent ordinance requiring their horses to wear nappies (diapers). John told us that crossing the picket line might possibly endanger our safety; the protesters might throw rocks at the bus or harass tourists who enter the Gardens. I didn’t fully understand the circumstances of the protest, but it made sense to skip that part of the tour.
Jessica and I took a walk along a path at the edge of the Killarney National Park and then sat with Ron & Aimee and Adam & Melissa at dinner. They were the folks we bonded with the most on our trip, partly because Aimee is a teacher and Adam went to school at UW. After dinner, Jessica and I walked around a little bit more, and then we met Ron & Aimee at the hotel bar for a drink and some good conversation before going to bed.
Wednesday, 15 July
Our bus left Killarney around 8 am in the midst of a few rain sprinkles, but then the entire rest of the day was sunny and beautiful! We took a ferry ride across the River Shannon and enjoyed views of sheep-filled hillsides under a blue sky with big, puffy, white clouds. A short while after crossing the river, we stopped for lunch at a quaint restaurant where the whole group packed into a small back room. Jessica and I tried the fish and chips and thoroughly enjoyed the meal!
In the afternoon we were treated to one of the most beautiful, memorable sights I’ve ever witnessed – the Cliffs of Moher. The views were spectacular! The cliffs are about 5 miles long and 700 feet high and they drop straight into the water. We were lucky enough to enjoy the view under sunshine with just a slight haze in the air. There are paths along the top where visitors can walk along to look out over the cliffs and take pictures. At one end, there is a sign warning not to go any farther because it’s not safe and it’s someone’s private property. But there’s no fence preventing it, so lots of people walked beyond the sign, and some went pretty far along the edge of the cliffs. The bus driver warned us to be careful, because nearly every year someone either falls or is blown off the edge into the sea! A short distance away from the cliffs, we drove through the area known as The Burren. It’s very rocky landscape with lots of hand-built stone walls on people’s land, even built in tidy rows up steep, rocky hillsides.
On our way into Galway, we were taken on a short tour of the city and John took us to our hotel, the Courtyard Marriott. Jessica and I ate dinner with Adam and Melissa. After dinner, we walked into the city center, which was about 20 minutes from the hotel. Galway is a city with a lot of young people and a definite college vibe. Even on a weeknight, there were lots of young people out walking around, lounging on the grass in the park, and eating & drinking in the restaurants and pubs that line the 6 or 7 block long pedestrian street.
Thursday, 16 July
We ate another large breakfast in the hotel, hopped on the bus, and headed north out of Galway. We were treated to a catamaran ride on the only fjord in Ireland; a fjord is defined as a long, narrow inlet with steep sides, in a valley carved by glacial activity. On the catamaran we cruised out to the sea and back, looking at beautiful scenery all along the way. We ate lunch at a restaurant called Peacocks, and then spent the afternoon riding through the mountains.
We made a stop at the Celtic Crystal Factory, where we were given a tour of the showroom by the woman whose family has owned the business for over 30 years. She explained some of the different cuts of glass and designs on the bowls, stemware, and other pieces of art. The masters who create the works of art are required to do a 5 year internship before being hired on as employees at the factory. One of the masters did a short demonstration and impressed us with how easy he made it look!
Back in Galway, the bus driver dropped us off in the city center, and we had an hour and a half to walk around and do some shopping. It was nice until a rain shower came down, but at that point it was almost time to head back to the hotel, so we climbed on the bus and went back a short while later. We ate dinner with Ron, Aimee, Adam, and Melissa. Jessica and I decided we weren’t completely worn out from our full day, so we walked back to the city center to do some more people-watching. Some things I observed throughout Ireland were that people often smile as you pass by on the street and the drivers are very polite and yield willingly to pedestrians or other drivers (you rarely hear car horns). People there are very social and enjoy going out to restaurants and pubs any night of the week to chat and hear live music. I noticed that Mohawks and mullets are somewhat popular with teenagers…That doesn’t make much sense to me…
Friday, 17 July
We packed up the bus and left Galway to head east to Dublin for our last day of the tour. On the way, we toured Clonmacnoise, a monastic settlement with remnants of old buildings, a cemetery, and a watchtower. It was a sunny morning, but there was a constant cold, blustery wind, so we actually hoped the tour wouldn’t last too long. The settlement is on a hill so it must be windy there quite often. We grabbed a bite to eat and then traveled the rest of the way to Dublin. We arrived in the city about 2:15 pm and John dropped us off in the city center and told us which city buses we could take to the hotel whenever we were ready to head over there. Jessica and I walked around, dodged some more raindrops, did a little shopping, and watched several different street performers. There were a lot of people out walking around, and the sidewalks and shops were rather packed in some places.
A couple hours later, we got on a city bus, and it was only about a 10 minute ride to our hotel. When we stepped out at the bus stop we saw Ron and Aimee walking back from the city center, so we chatted with them on the way into the hotel. We had some time to relax in the room, change clothes, and get ready for dinner. The bus driver took everyone across town to the Abbey Tavern; it was up on a hill overlooking the bay in a very nice area with expensive, beautiful homes. We enjoyed a nice dinner complete with entertainment by a small band and some Irish dancing. Then we headed back to the hotel around 11pm.
Saturday, 18 July
We were told to have our luggage outside the room by 6 am for our transfer to the airport. The hotel provided us each with a sack lunch – a sandwich, an apple, and a bottle of Fanta – and then about 20 of us rode to the airport for various morning flights. Jessica and I were on a 9:50 flight to London, so we had plenty of time to check our bags, go through customs, and turn in shopping receipts to get the VAT tax refunds. The flight was just a short hop, and we landed in London around 11 am.
In Heathrow, we walked through the long hallways and underground tunnels until we found the Paddington Express train. It was a quick, easy way to get into downtown London. And then in the Paddington station, we bought tickets for the underground and just had to go one stop to the Bayswater station to get to our hotel, which was about 4 blocks from the station. The Grand Plaza Hotel was a converted apartment building, and we had a nice room on the lower ground floor level. The only unfortunate aspect of the hotel was that the shower was really low, and the glass partition only went halfway down the length of the tub, so when either of us took a shower, the floor would get drenched with water. I suppose they’re used to cleaning that up, but it was a bit of an inconvenience. Aside from that, the room was good and spacious, and we had several TV stations, so we watched some strange game shows and good old American sitcoms each night before going to bed.
Our first afternoon in London after we unpacked our bags, we walked down the street to the corner of Hyde Park. On the way, we bought sandwiches and drinks at what would become our favorite, oh-so-convenient “Pret a Manger” café 2 blocks from the hotel. We ate a picnic lunch in Kensington Gardens, walked through to the south end of the park, and then spent a while just wandering down various streets in the neighborhood.
We had big plans for our first night in London – tickets to see “Wicked” in the West End. We got dressed up and took the underground to the Victoria Station. We knew the theatre would be somewhere in the vicinity, and we were happy to see upon exiting the station that it was directly across the street! We had plenty of time to find a place for dinner and look around before the musical started. Just a few blocks away, we found a great restaurant called “Giraffe”. While we were eating dinner, a few women who appeared to be cast members from a show came in (one was wearing thick, white stage makeup). Our waitress confirmed what we suspected – they were the 4 main actresses from “Wicked”! If we had seen them after the show instead of beforehand, I’m sure we would have been gushing about how wonderful their performance was! We absolutely loved the musical – the acting, the staging, the story, the music. It was all incredible. I’m so glad that we had the opportunity to see a live musical on stage in London. Jessica and I were a little surprised by how many audience members came pouring into the theatre just minutes before the show started, and lots of them were clearly tourists carrying shopping bags in with them. We also thought it was quirky that over half the audience was purchasing and eating little cups of Haagen Dazs ice cream during intermission; it must be a London theatre tradition.
Sunday, 19 July
On our way out of the hotel in the morning, we stopped at Pret a Manger to buy pastries and juice. We had to go back to the Paddington station to exchange our vouchers for the 2 day London Passes that I had purchased prior to the trip. Then we took the underground to a station at the edge of the river and walked over to Gabriel’s Wharf for the guided bike tour. While we were sitting outside the bicycle rental shop waiting for the tour to start, Jessica spotted David Hasselhoff sitting two tables away from us eating breakfast. We chuckled about our celebrity sighting and slyly took pictures of him and the woman with him. As it turned out, they were renting bikes for the day but weren’t part of our tour. Our guide, Steve, took about 15 of us on a 1 ½ hour tour of central London. It was one of our favorite activities on the whole trip! We leisurely biked along the water’s edge, on quiet little side streets, on busy streets, and over bridges across the river. At various points along the way we stopped to learn a bit about the sights, like Westminster Abbey, St. Stephen’s Tower (that contains Big Ben), the Tate Modern museum, Leicester Square, Chinatown, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Trafalgar Square, the London Eye, and the Millennium Bridge. We also passed a group of bikers who were doing a leukemia fundraising ride.
Jessica and I walked down the wharf and ate lunch at the café inside the Royal National Theatre and watched a group of jugglers who were doing an entertaining performance outside. After lunch we rode the underground to the Tower of London, an ancient castle on the river that was used to defend London and house prisoners hundreds of years ago. From there we walked over to the Tower Bridge, walked up the long staircase to the top, learned some of the history of the bridge, and made our way back to the Tower of London to the underground station to go back to the hotel. We ate yummy fish and chips at a pub a block from our hotel that evening and then shopped for some souvenirs.
Monday, 20 July
We had no specific time to be anywhere this morning, so we slept in and had more pastries and juice for breakfast. We took a stroll through Hyde Park and toured Kensington Palace, where they had rooms displaying furnishings and information about Queen Victoria’s childhood. They also had displays about debutante balls and 10 or 12 of Princess Diana’s dresses.
We took the underground to Leicester Square so we could sit for a bit and do some people-watching, we ate a delicious lunch in Chinatown, and then we went to Trafalgar Square. We walked from there to the Florence Nightingale Museum and enjoyed the displays in there. Afterwards we bought tickets and rode on the London Eye, which is sort of like a huge ferris wheel. It took about 20 to 30 minutes to get to the front of the line, they put 15 or so people into each large glass-enclosed car, and then you get one loop around. During the 25 minute ride, we snapped lots of photos and were able to look out and see views of the city in all directions.
We went back to the hotel to relax for a little while. Then we got back on the underground and went just a couple of stops and came out at the Marble Arch on the northeast corner of Hyde Park. We ate dinner at Marks & Spencer, did a little shopping, and then checked out Primark, which was quite the shopping experience. We had seen many people walking in that neighborhood carrying “Primark” shopping bags, and once we entered the store, we could see why it was so popular. It was gigantic and had unbelievably low prices for surprisingly high quality clothing! I bought a pair of jeans for $6 and a few t-shirts and a dress shirt for even less than that!
Tuesday, 21 July
Since we had gone into Primark near closing time the previous night, we started our day with another trip back there for more shopping. The store appears to be busy no matter what time of day. Jessica and I walked across Hyde Park on the eastern edge and then over to Harrod’s, which was a lot more highbrow than Primark! We just did a short walk-through of some of the fancy sections of the store, including the gourmet foods section. Then we went across the street and ate lunch at a café called EAT. We took the underground back to the hotel, relaxed for a couple of hours, and then got back on the underground and went to Covington Garden. We wandered around the area in the rain, made our way back to the hotel, and then ate dinner at Bella Italia and packed for our trip home the next day.
Wednesday, 22 July
We had a long morning of multiple forms of transportation ahead of us, so we had one last round of pastries and juice for breakfast, gathered up our luggage, and walked to the Baysbridge station. We took the underground to Paddington, where we boarded the Heathrow Express. At Heathrow, we wound our way through the airport, checked our bags, and went through a few levels of security – we had to show our passport, have a photo taken of our face, go through the security line, and in a different area had to show our passport again where a security guy looked at the photos of our faces on a video screen. Then after a long walk to the gate and showing our boarding passes two different times, we could finally relax and wait to board the plane.
In Dublin, security was tight as well. We went through customs (where the officer on duty was playing solitaire on his computer) and then passed through what I thought was the main security checkpoint. I then filled my water bottle, we went up some steps, and saw that we had to go through another security line. I explained that I had just filled my bottle at a drinking fountain downstairs, but they still made me dump it out and carry my water bottle empty to the other side. Whatever.
We quickly ate lunch, bought some chocolates to use up our last few Euro coins, filled out customs forms at the gate while hearing them announce “final boarding” overhead…even though it was 30 minutes until the departure time. We showed our passports one last time upon boarding the plane, and settled in for our flight. Everything went smoothly, and 7 hours later we were on the ground in Chicago where customs/security was a breeze, and Bernie was waiting there to drive us home.
On Saturday afternoon, Bernie drove us to O’Hare for our flight. Jessica and I had been eagerly waiting to leave on our trip for a long time. We were able to get two seats with lots of legroom, so we were relatively comfortable for the flight. Aer Lingus has monitors in front of every seat with a menu of movies and TV shows and games to keep folks occupied for a long flight. We didn’t get a whole lot of sleep, but we squeezed in a couple of hours. We got into Dublin around 8 am, went through customs, and met the bus driver who took us to our hotel – Bewley’s Hotel in Ballsbridge. We weren’t able to check into the hotel yet since it was still too early in the day, but we left our luggage in the corner of the lobby and walked around the neighborhood. The bus driver had told us that there was a big outdoor arena across the street from the hotel, and Bruce Springsteen would be performing there that night, so there were lots of people out on the streets and around the hotel all day long. Walking down the street, we had two different sets of people ask us where the line was for some kind of hand stamps for the concert that night…apparently we looked like locals.
When we came back to the hotel, they had a room ready for us, so we were thrilled to go up and take a nap! At 2 pm we got on the bus for an afternoon tour of Dublin. We viewed the Book of Kells and the cool, old library at Trinity College, and we had a little time to walk around downtown. We learned on the tour that Dublin has more coffee shops per capita than any other European city, and Handel’s Messiah had its world premiere in Dublin. For dinner, Jessica and I walked over to a wonderful burger place across the street from where people were lining up to get into the stadium. We were given a table right away, in spite of the humongous crowds of people filling the streets outside. We soon realized that most of the drunken concert-goers were just milling around on the street anyway waiting to go into the stadium.
Monday, 13 July
Our tour group had a “Full Irish Breakfast” (eggs, sausage, cooked tomatoes, sautéed mushrooms, blood sausage, cereal, and pastries) in the hotel restaurant before heading out of Dublin to roam the countryside. Our first stop, a couple of hours down the road, was the Rock of Cashel. We were given a guided tour as the rain started coming down slowly, and then more forcefully, and everyone was shivering and hoping we’d move inside. The last part of the tour was in a cozy little room – one of the few with a roof inside the ancient, crumbling buildings.
We drove through Cork and stopped at Blarney Castle for lunch. I had a delicious, traditional Irish Stew, and then we walked around and did some shopping. Kissing the Blarney Stone wasn’t a big draw for Jessica and me, but there were a few folks from our group who climbed the steps of the castle to do some kissing. We were fortunate to have about 2 hours of sunny, warm weather during our stop in Blarney, and then another rain shower came down shortly after we climbed back on the bus.
An hour and a half of driving through green, hilly areas and we were in Killarney. We stayed at the Killarney Towers Hotel, which was a nice, downtown boutique hotel with a lot of charm. I can’t imagine actually paying the rack rate though – the price posted on the back of the door in our room – 250 Euros per person per night… That means at that price it would cost 2 people approximately 750 dollars to stay there for one night!! We had a huge buffet dinner in the hotel restaurant, started to get acquainted with some of our traveling companions, and checked our email in the lobby. Jessica and I took a short walk around downtown Killarney, and we agreed that it was a really adorable, colorful little town. We had been told that most pubs in town had live music nearly every night of the week, and that certainly seemed to be accurate. We walked past a few places where we heard music pouring out onto the street, and we stood and listened to a band at one pub’s outdoor patio for a bit. That was around 9 or 10 pm, and I’m sure the music lasts long into the night at many of the pubs.
Tuesday, 14 July
We ate another big breakfast, and then took off for a day of touring on the bus, beginning with a short stop on the outskirts of Killarney in a field that overlooked a river lined with mountains. It was really a gorgeous view, and we were lucky to enjoy it before the first rainy sprinkles of the day began. We spent a good portion of the day driving around the Ring of Kerry, stopping frequently to enjoy the beautiful vistas – the green hillsides covered with sheep and cows, mountain slopes, coastline, and views of the Dingle Peninsula across the bay. Our tour was supposed to include a stop at Muckross Gardens on our way back into Killarney in the late afternoon, but our bus driver, John, explained that we would have to skip it because of a local strike that was occurring. The horse and buggy drivers were protesting a recent ordinance requiring their horses to wear nappies (diapers). John told us that crossing the picket line might possibly endanger our safety; the protesters might throw rocks at the bus or harass tourists who enter the Gardens. I didn’t fully understand the circumstances of the protest, but it made sense to skip that part of the tour.
Jessica and I took a walk along a path at the edge of the Killarney National Park and then sat with Ron & Aimee and Adam & Melissa at dinner. They were the folks we bonded with the most on our trip, partly because Aimee is a teacher and Adam went to school at UW. After dinner, Jessica and I walked around a little bit more, and then we met Ron & Aimee at the hotel bar for a drink and some good conversation before going to bed.
Wednesday, 15 July
Our bus left Killarney around 8 am in the midst of a few rain sprinkles, but then the entire rest of the day was sunny and beautiful! We took a ferry ride across the River Shannon and enjoyed views of sheep-filled hillsides under a blue sky with big, puffy, white clouds. A short while after crossing the river, we stopped for lunch at a quaint restaurant where the whole group packed into a small back room. Jessica and I tried the fish and chips and thoroughly enjoyed the meal!
In the afternoon we were treated to one of the most beautiful, memorable sights I’ve ever witnessed – the Cliffs of Moher. The views were spectacular! The cliffs are about 5 miles long and 700 feet high and they drop straight into the water. We were lucky enough to enjoy the view under sunshine with just a slight haze in the air. There are paths along the top where visitors can walk along to look out over the cliffs and take pictures. At one end, there is a sign warning not to go any farther because it’s not safe and it’s someone’s private property. But there’s no fence preventing it, so lots of people walked beyond the sign, and some went pretty far along the edge of the cliffs. The bus driver warned us to be careful, because nearly every year someone either falls or is blown off the edge into the sea! A short distance away from the cliffs, we drove through the area known as The Burren. It’s very rocky landscape with lots of hand-built stone walls on people’s land, even built in tidy rows up steep, rocky hillsides.
On our way into Galway, we were taken on a short tour of the city and John took us to our hotel, the Courtyard Marriott. Jessica and I ate dinner with Adam and Melissa. After dinner, we walked into the city center, which was about 20 minutes from the hotel. Galway is a city with a lot of young people and a definite college vibe. Even on a weeknight, there were lots of young people out walking around, lounging on the grass in the park, and eating & drinking in the restaurants and pubs that line the 6 or 7 block long pedestrian street.
Thursday, 16 July
We ate another large breakfast in the hotel, hopped on the bus, and headed north out of Galway. We were treated to a catamaran ride on the only fjord in Ireland; a fjord is defined as a long, narrow inlet with steep sides, in a valley carved by glacial activity. On the catamaran we cruised out to the sea and back, looking at beautiful scenery all along the way. We ate lunch at a restaurant called Peacocks, and then spent the afternoon riding through the mountains.
We made a stop at the Celtic Crystal Factory, where we were given a tour of the showroom by the woman whose family has owned the business for over 30 years. She explained some of the different cuts of glass and designs on the bowls, stemware, and other pieces of art. The masters who create the works of art are required to do a 5 year internship before being hired on as employees at the factory. One of the masters did a short demonstration and impressed us with how easy he made it look!
Back in Galway, the bus driver dropped us off in the city center, and we had an hour and a half to walk around and do some shopping. It was nice until a rain shower came down, but at that point it was almost time to head back to the hotel, so we climbed on the bus and went back a short while later. We ate dinner with Ron, Aimee, Adam, and Melissa. Jessica and I decided we weren’t completely worn out from our full day, so we walked back to the city center to do some more people-watching. Some things I observed throughout Ireland were that people often smile as you pass by on the street and the drivers are very polite and yield willingly to pedestrians or other drivers (you rarely hear car horns). People there are very social and enjoy going out to restaurants and pubs any night of the week to chat and hear live music. I noticed that Mohawks and mullets are somewhat popular with teenagers…That doesn’t make much sense to me…
Friday, 17 July
We packed up the bus and left Galway to head east to Dublin for our last day of the tour. On the way, we toured Clonmacnoise, a monastic settlement with remnants of old buildings, a cemetery, and a watchtower. It was a sunny morning, but there was a constant cold, blustery wind, so we actually hoped the tour wouldn’t last too long. The settlement is on a hill so it must be windy there quite often. We grabbed a bite to eat and then traveled the rest of the way to Dublin. We arrived in the city about 2:15 pm and John dropped us off in the city center and told us which city buses we could take to the hotel whenever we were ready to head over there. Jessica and I walked around, dodged some more raindrops, did a little shopping, and watched several different street performers. There were a lot of people out walking around, and the sidewalks and shops were rather packed in some places.
A couple hours later, we got on a city bus, and it was only about a 10 minute ride to our hotel. When we stepped out at the bus stop we saw Ron and Aimee walking back from the city center, so we chatted with them on the way into the hotel. We had some time to relax in the room, change clothes, and get ready for dinner. The bus driver took everyone across town to the Abbey Tavern; it was up on a hill overlooking the bay in a very nice area with expensive, beautiful homes. We enjoyed a nice dinner complete with entertainment by a small band and some Irish dancing. Then we headed back to the hotel around 11pm.
Saturday, 18 July
We were told to have our luggage outside the room by 6 am for our transfer to the airport. The hotel provided us each with a sack lunch – a sandwich, an apple, and a bottle of Fanta – and then about 20 of us rode to the airport for various morning flights. Jessica and I were on a 9:50 flight to London, so we had plenty of time to check our bags, go through customs, and turn in shopping receipts to get the VAT tax refunds. The flight was just a short hop, and we landed in London around 11 am.
In Heathrow, we walked through the long hallways and underground tunnels until we found the Paddington Express train. It was a quick, easy way to get into downtown London. And then in the Paddington station, we bought tickets for the underground and just had to go one stop to the Bayswater station to get to our hotel, which was about 4 blocks from the station. The Grand Plaza Hotel was a converted apartment building, and we had a nice room on the lower ground floor level. The only unfortunate aspect of the hotel was that the shower was really low, and the glass partition only went halfway down the length of the tub, so when either of us took a shower, the floor would get drenched with water. I suppose they’re used to cleaning that up, but it was a bit of an inconvenience. Aside from that, the room was good and spacious, and we had several TV stations, so we watched some strange game shows and good old American sitcoms each night before going to bed.
Our first afternoon in London after we unpacked our bags, we walked down the street to the corner of Hyde Park. On the way, we bought sandwiches and drinks at what would become our favorite, oh-so-convenient “Pret a Manger” café 2 blocks from the hotel. We ate a picnic lunch in Kensington Gardens, walked through to the south end of the park, and then spent a while just wandering down various streets in the neighborhood.
We had big plans for our first night in London – tickets to see “Wicked” in the West End. We got dressed up and took the underground to the Victoria Station. We knew the theatre would be somewhere in the vicinity, and we were happy to see upon exiting the station that it was directly across the street! We had plenty of time to find a place for dinner and look around before the musical started. Just a few blocks away, we found a great restaurant called “Giraffe”. While we were eating dinner, a few women who appeared to be cast members from a show came in (one was wearing thick, white stage makeup). Our waitress confirmed what we suspected – they were the 4 main actresses from “Wicked”! If we had seen them after the show instead of beforehand, I’m sure we would have been gushing about how wonderful their performance was! We absolutely loved the musical – the acting, the staging, the story, the music. It was all incredible. I’m so glad that we had the opportunity to see a live musical on stage in London. Jessica and I were a little surprised by how many audience members came pouring into the theatre just minutes before the show started, and lots of them were clearly tourists carrying shopping bags in with them. We also thought it was quirky that over half the audience was purchasing and eating little cups of Haagen Dazs ice cream during intermission; it must be a London theatre tradition.
Sunday, 19 July
On our way out of the hotel in the morning, we stopped at Pret a Manger to buy pastries and juice. We had to go back to the Paddington station to exchange our vouchers for the 2 day London Passes that I had purchased prior to the trip. Then we took the underground to a station at the edge of the river and walked over to Gabriel’s Wharf for the guided bike tour. While we were sitting outside the bicycle rental shop waiting for the tour to start, Jessica spotted David Hasselhoff sitting two tables away from us eating breakfast. We chuckled about our celebrity sighting and slyly took pictures of him and the woman with him. As it turned out, they were renting bikes for the day but weren’t part of our tour. Our guide, Steve, took about 15 of us on a 1 ½ hour tour of central London. It was one of our favorite activities on the whole trip! We leisurely biked along the water’s edge, on quiet little side streets, on busy streets, and over bridges across the river. At various points along the way we stopped to learn a bit about the sights, like Westminster Abbey, St. Stephen’s Tower (that contains Big Ben), the Tate Modern museum, Leicester Square, Chinatown, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Trafalgar Square, the London Eye, and the Millennium Bridge. We also passed a group of bikers who were doing a leukemia fundraising ride.
Jessica and I walked down the wharf and ate lunch at the café inside the Royal National Theatre and watched a group of jugglers who were doing an entertaining performance outside. After lunch we rode the underground to the Tower of London, an ancient castle on the river that was used to defend London and house prisoners hundreds of years ago. From there we walked over to the Tower Bridge, walked up the long staircase to the top, learned some of the history of the bridge, and made our way back to the Tower of London to the underground station to go back to the hotel. We ate yummy fish and chips at a pub a block from our hotel that evening and then shopped for some souvenirs.
Monday, 20 July
We had no specific time to be anywhere this morning, so we slept in and had more pastries and juice for breakfast. We took a stroll through Hyde Park and toured Kensington Palace, where they had rooms displaying furnishings and information about Queen Victoria’s childhood. They also had displays about debutante balls and 10 or 12 of Princess Diana’s dresses.
We took the underground to Leicester Square so we could sit for a bit and do some people-watching, we ate a delicious lunch in Chinatown, and then we went to Trafalgar Square. We walked from there to the Florence Nightingale Museum and enjoyed the displays in there. Afterwards we bought tickets and rode on the London Eye, which is sort of like a huge ferris wheel. It took about 20 to 30 minutes to get to the front of the line, they put 15 or so people into each large glass-enclosed car, and then you get one loop around. During the 25 minute ride, we snapped lots of photos and were able to look out and see views of the city in all directions.
We went back to the hotel to relax for a little while. Then we got back on the underground and went just a couple of stops and came out at the Marble Arch on the northeast corner of Hyde Park. We ate dinner at Marks & Spencer, did a little shopping, and then checked out Primark, which was quite the shopping experience. We had seen many people walking in that neighborhood carrying “Primark” shopping bags, and once we entered the store, we could see why it was so popular. It was gigantic and had unbelievably low prices for surprisingly high quality clothing! I bought a pair of jeans for $6 and a few t-shirts and a dress shirt for even less than that!
Tuesday, 21 July
Since we had gone into Primark near closing time the previous night, we started our day with another trip back there for more shopping. The store appears to be busy no matter what time of day. Jessica and I walked across Hyde Park on the eastern edge and then over to Harrod’s, which was a lot more highbrow than Primark! We just did a short walk-through of some of the fancy sections of the store, including the gourmet foods section. Then we went across the street and ate lunch at a café called EAT. We took the underground back to the hotel, relaxed for a couple of hours, and then got back on the underground and went to Covington Garden. We wandered around the area in the rain, made our way back to the hotel, and then ate dinner at Bella Italia and packed for our trip home the next day.
Wednesday, 22 July
We had a long morning of multiple forms of transportation ahead of us, so we had one last round of pastries and juice for breakfast, gathered up our luggage, and walked to the Baysbridge station. We took the underground to Paddington, where we boarded the Heathrow Express. At Heathrow, we wound our way through the airport, checked our bags, and went through a few levels of security – we had to show our passport, have a photo taken of our face, go through the security line, and in a different area had to show our passport again where a security guy looked at the photos of our faces on a video screen. Then after a long walk to the gate and showing our boarding passes two different times, we could finally relax and wait to board the plane.
In Dublin, security was tight as well. We went through customs (where the officer on duty was playing solitaire on his computer) and then passed through what I thought was the main security checkpoint. I then filled my water bottle, we went up some steps, and saw that we had to go through another security line. I explained that I had just filled my bottle at a drinking fountain downstairs, but they still made me dump it out and carry my water bottle empty to the other side. Whatever.
We quickly ate lunch, bought some chocolates to use up our last few Euro coins, filled out customs forms at the gate while hearing them announce “final boarding” overhead…even though it was 30 minutes until the departure time. We showed our passports one last time upon boarding the plane, and settled in for our flight. Everything went smoothly, and 7 hours later we were on the ground in Chicago where customs/security was a breeze, and Bernie was waiting there to drive us home.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
My Trip to Puerto Rico
In June, 2009 I took a trip to San Juan, Puerto Rico with Bernie. This is my journal of the trip.
Saturday, 6 June
We flew into San Juan, arrived around 3 pm, and picked up our rental car, one of the few vehicles in San Juan that is NOT a huge SUV. Apparently car size / model is a status symbol here because those large cars really don’t seem practical on the many narrow, traffic-clogged streets. We had our first getting-lost experience driving to the Numero Uno guest house. Fortunately it only added 10 or 15 minutes to our drive, so it wasn’t very stressful in long run.
The Numero Uno was a nice, beautiful little guest house on the beach with about 15 rooms or less, a small pool, a wonderful restaurant, and a very friendly staff. After unpacking and putting on shorts, Bernie and I went to explore the neighborhood in search of dinner. We walked down Santa Ana Street, turned left, and discovered the next day that a right turn would have taken us to a much better neighborhood. Oh well… to the left we found streets and houses that were filthy and crumbling, several hole-in-the-wall bars with blaring music spilling onto the street, and a Walgreen’s. J slightly discouraged and a little worried about safety, we settled on dinner at Wendy’s. It was fine, and in general we felt safe and comfortable at the guest house.
We sat on the beach for a bit and went swimming in the warm waves. We soon found that the stretch of beach there was quite popular with the locals. There was a lot of smooth, white sand and a variety of food and beverage vendors. They also have an excessive amount of police officers patrolling the beach every day. The cabana boy, Christian, told us that the police are looking for people who are smoking marijuana. Must be a big problem there, but it hardly seems worthy of the police presence. We walked along the beach after dark and admired the highrises adjacent to our neighborhood.
Late that evening, we met Karam and John, Bernie’s colleagues, for drinks. We strolled in the area of Ponce de Leon Street and found a hip, popular bar off the beaten path. We sat there for a while chatting, then walked to Krash, a club that Bernie and I had read about. It was surprisingly empty for a Saturday night. After one drink, we left and walked a few blocks down the street to Starz – THAT is where everybody was! The place was packed to the rafters. We squeezed our way through and stood on the balcony for a bit and talked outside as we watched people walk by down below. Then we went back inside for a little while before heading back to the hotel.
Sunday, 7 June
Bernie and I had breakfast each morning at Numero Uno – fruit, pastries, and juice. We spent the rest of Sunday morning on the beach, and the weather was beautiful. There was enough of a breeze that it felt great by the water. When you’d get away from the water it was very hot and sticky in the city.
We walked over to Ashford Street to find a place to eat lunch and happened to turn a corner and stumble into a Pride Parade that was assembling! We spent the next couple of hours watching the parade as we slowly moved up the street. There were a lot of people in it and lots of spectators! We ate paninis at an outdoor patio as we watched the remnants of spectators strolling by. Then we walked a few blocks further to see the Atlantic Beach Hotel, a gay hotel with a large outdoor bar. We just sat relaxing in the shade there for a bit and then walked back to the guest house.
In the evening, we walked back to the Atlantic Beach Hotel to see if it was the hotspot described on its website. Upon walking in, we recognized a guy we had seen around Madison – Dan – who struck up conversation with us. We had a nice time chatting, and then walked down the street and had dinner at a restaurant nearby.
Bernie and I drove to Krash (the bar) later that night. This time it was filled with people, and they were having a foam party. We weren’t dressed for it, so we watched the dancing from the upper level. Then we walked down Ponce de Leon in search of a particular bar that was advertised online. It was nowhere to be found in the 1200 block, the exact address didn’t even exist, and we discovered the next day that the bar is on a different stretch of Ponce de Leon about a 10 minute drive from that area. That can cause some confusion…but the streets sure aren’t laid out as clearly there as Madison or other cities where we’ve traveled.
We were ready to head back to our hotel, and we couldn’t find an easy way in the car to cut over to the parallel one way street from Ponce de Leon. So we “got lost” on the exact same route as the previous day’s trip from the airport. San Juan is ridiculously laid out as a series of mostly one way streets, and the drivers only follow one rule – anything goes! We were surprised to see that they park all over the place, including on street corners, and apparently yellow zones don’t necessarily prohibit parking. We’re certain that there’s no parking enforcement department in the city.
Monday, 8 June
Around noon we picked up Dan and his friend, Todd, at their hotel and drove out to see the El Yunque rain forest an hour outside of the city. Highway driving was ironically very calm and easy compared to what we experienced in the city. Traffic was relatively light in most areas, and folks tend to drive below the speed limit. I certainly wasn’t expecting that on the highways.
The entrance to the National Forest was poorly marked and began with a narrow, poverty-stricken street. Then we had a beautiful drive past a muddy river and green fields for about 10 minutes before hitting the official entrance to El Yunque. We had a great time enjoying the visitors’ center, the long twisty road up the mountains, the spectacular views, a couple of downpours, taking pictures, and having lunch at a roadside stand. We had a good hike down the stone steps by the creek. After about 20 minutes of walking we came to the bottom and swam in a cool, rocky pool under the waterfall. There were lots of other hikers, and we actually bumped into Brandon and a couple of other people from Bernie’s company on our hike back up to the parking lot.
The four of us admired the scenery some more on our drive back down the road through the rain forest and then we headed back to San Juan. Bernie and I ate a delicious dinner at Pamela’s – the restaurant in the guest house - and went to bed early and exhausted.
Tuesday, 9 June
Bernie wanted to get out of bed and just walk right into the ocean, because how often do you get to do that in your life? From our room to the water it was 125 steps. We ate breakfast, mailed postcards, and then drove over to Old San Juan. Traffic was a bit tied up on the way into the old part of the city because of a film crew and a small crowd standing around. We didn’t know what they were filming, but we found out later that Johnny Depp was shooting a film in Puerto Rico, so we probably just missed seeing him.
We walked around for a couple of hours admiring the beautiful, European style, candy-colored buildings and the many hilly brick streets. We ate lunch at a delicious sandwich shop that seemed to be off the main tourist streets. Old San Juan is on a small island that is easy to traverse in a short amount of time; it’s about 7 square blocks.
Back at the guest house we swam a little, napped on the beach, and relaxed until dinnertime. Then we drove over to Ashford Street and ate dinner at an Italian restaurant. Our waitress was lousy…barely speaking or making eye contact with us, but we loved watching the people go by on the street. Jogging seems to be a popular evening activity – we saw people run by about every 30 seconds during our dinner.
Wednesday, 10 June
Today we opted to do lots of relaxing and very little activity. We spent most of the day on the beach. Our observations of the locals included this: many of the men and women are attractive and enjoy dressing in glamorous clothes day or night (or when they go to the beach it’s small, colorful bikinis). Many of the men shave or wax the hair off their chests and legs, and quite a few have tattoos, sometimes covering most of their back. Another interesting pattern – as people come walking onto the beach from the street, when it’s a man and woman together, the man is almost always walking a few steps ahead of the woman. It appeared too consistent to be a random thing. Paddle ball is a very popular pastime on the beach as well; every day we saw several couples playing right along the water’s edge.
We had lunch at the deli down the street from the guest house today. They had a surprisingly large selection of desserts – yum! We saw lots of people having long, leisurely lunches – and we were there around 2:00 in the afternoon. We just had some leftover pizza for dinner, then later we drove to Tia Maria to have a couple of drinks. The bar was quite full, and it had a nice, friendly neighborhood bar vibe to it.
Thursday, 11 June
We spent some more time on the beach today before we had to pack our bags and check out. The first significant rain storm of the week happened while we were packing, and it was done and hot & steamy outside when we loaded the car at noon and walked back to the deli for lunch.
We drove to Ashford intending to walk around for a little while, but when we couldn’t find any place to park, we just decided we might as well head to the rental car drop-off. The guy driving the shuttle to the airport offered to take us over to the Ritz, so that made it quite simple for us, and we were at the official start of Bernie’s company gathering – AGM!
We registered around 1:30 and were fortunate to be able to get into our hotel room right away. Then we walked around the lobby and pool area saying hello to folks as they arrived. We swam in the ocean for a little while, had a $14 mixed drink (par for the course at the Ritz Carlton!), and then went up to our room to get cleaned up for the evening. The welcome reception was outside around the pool with a few bars and food tables set up. We kept looking around for Kara and Jacob, and we were surprised that we weren’t seeing them. Laura and Mike told us they had eaten in one of the hotel restaurants the previous night, and the couple at the next table had ordered 2 bottles of wine and 7 rounds of shots. Bernie and I knew right away that they were talking about Kara and Jacob.
On the way to the after-party, we chatted with Will and Nancy. They’re such a sweet couple, and they invited us to come visit them in Boise sometime. Will also gave Bernie a wonderful compliment when he said that the interview dinner with Bernie 4 years ago is one of his most memorable, enjoyable ones. I wish we would have had time to talk with them more during the weekend.
We finally did see Kara and Jacob as we entered the Mares Bar/Restaurant. We also saw Seth later in the evening; his flight had been canceled and Fast Enterprises had re-routed their group through NYC so that they could make it to PR sooner. Otherwise they would have had to wait for a flight the next day. Bernie and I danced with a few people for a little while, drank a lot, caught up with everyone, and took a late night swim in the ocean. It was so much fun!
Friday, 12 June
Bernie and I had breakfast with the Fasties up on the outdoor dining area, and then he was off to his meeting for the morning. I went right back to the room and took a nap. When I woke up, it was raining, but the rain ended shortly after that. I took a long walk along the beach and then swam my way back to the Ritz. On one stretch of public beach, I was surprised to see how lax the lifeguards were – one was stretching and doing exercises while casually watching the swimmers, and another one was laying on a lounge chair with his feet up on a railing, reading a magazine. I hope they spring into action if/when there is a crisis! After my walk, I talked with Melanie for a little while and then swam in the pool.
After Bernie’s meeting, we ate lunch in the Mares restaurant. It was good, but everything is way over-priced at the Ritz. Our burger, sandwich, and calamari (no drinks included) came to $60 with tax and tip! We went to the beach and congregated in the water with most of the Wisconsin team. We entertained ourselves by digging holes and a trench and laughing at our handiwork.
We went up to the room to rest for a bit and get dressed for the formal. The evening began with cocktails on the beach. It was a nice idea and there was a beautiful sunset. Reclaiming our bagged shoes at the small tables afterwards was a little frustrating. Everyone was feeling hot, sticky, and uncomfortable from the humidity – we were more than ready to go inside for dinner.
We sat at a table with a group of fun people from Denver – Kara, Jacob, Seth, Beth, Asmaa, Monica, Sam, and Adam. We really enjoyed eating with them, and a few of us sat and had a fascinating conversation for a while after dinner was over. We grabbed an assortment of delicious desserts and continued talking a bit more. Later on, we went outside by the bar…it was a very humid night! We had a couple of drinks and a round of kamikaze shots at the prompting of Twin, a teeny woman who LOVES doing shots! J Late in the evening, a group of us went for a swim in the ocean, and then some folks went to the hot tub. I jumped in the pool and played volleyball with some people for at least an hour. It was mostly laughing and trash-talk with a little bit of serious playing thrown in…it was great! I lost track of Bernie and found out the next day that he had gone inside to have more drinks with some people. He made it to bed around 5 am.
Saturday, 13 June
Bernie and I had breakfast outside again, and then he went to his meeting. I gathered a few things and went to the beach. I looked around for someone familiar to sit by, but not many people were out there and I didn’t see anyone I knew. I dozed on my lounge chair for a bit, went for a quick dip, and then sat under an umbrella as a light rain turned to a heavier rain. Eventually I moved under the canopy near the outdoor bar with some other folks. The rain came pouring down in sheets for at least a half an hour. It was nice watching it and staying relatively dry, but I couldn’t help wondering how long it might rain during the day.
I went to the room and cleaned up. Bernie got out of his meeting a little early and told me where Fast will be taking us next year – Marco Island, Florida! Fast even brought in reps from the Marco Island Marriott to share information and answer questions for people. Bernie and I walked down the street to Chile’s for lunch, and then Bernie took a nap while I swam at the beach.
Around 3:30 everyone loaded onto several buses to go to Old San Juan for the evening. It was only about a 10 minute drive from the hotel, but we sat on the bus for a long time at the entrance to Old San Juan waiting for a police escort to lead us in. I’m not sure why that was necessary…maybe traffic gets really snarled around there. A lot of us spent an hour or so wandering around in the fort taking pictures. Some people did a little kite flying on the windy, grassy field by the fort, and a group of us from the Wisconsin site did a walking tour led by a humorous, energetic woman who told us a lot of interesting facts. When we walked down “cat alley” we saw a BUNCH of cats lounging on rocks near the beach, taking baths, walking by the fortress walls, and even one cat who was laying peacefully on the sand a few feet from the water.
Fast treated us all to dinner and entertainment in a big courtyard of a building that used to house soldiers and then was used as a hospital many years ago. We wandered around chatting with people and tasted samples from “Rums of Puerto Rico” and then took the bus back to the hotel around 9 pm. Some people stayed out in Old San Juan later into the night, but Bernie and I (and LOTS of other Fasties) opted for a refreshing swim in the hotel pool. Bernie and I went to bed just before midnight exhausted and wanting to get a little sleep knowing we had to get up at 6 am to pack and have breakfast before our transfer to the airport.
Sunday, 14 June
We ate breakfast and flew home with about 12 or 13 folks from the Wisconsin group. It’s always nice traveling home with the group because we’re all worn out from a fun shared experience, we don’t necessarily mind a long layover since we can hang out together, and the group enjoys meandering through the airports together braving the security screenings, reminiscing about the fun from the weekend, and eating lunch as a group.
We returned to a sunny, beautiful evening in Madison. Bernie and I dropped off Karam at his apartment and then went home to do laundry and catch up on a few things to finish out the weekend. The trip was definitely fun and memorable!
Saturday, 6 June
We flew into San Juan, arrived around 3 pm, and picked up our rental car, one of the few vehicles in San Juan that is NOT a huge SUV. Apparently car size / model is a status symbol here because those large cars really don’t seem practical on the many narrow, traffic-clogged streets. We had our first getting-lost experience driving to the Numero Uno guest house. Fortunately it only added 10 or 15 minutes to our drive, so it wasn’t very stressful in long run.
The Numero Uno was a nice, beautiful little guest house on the beach with about 15 rooms or less, a small pool, a wonderful restaurant, and a very friendly staff. After unpacking and putting on shorts, Bernie and I went to explore the neighborhood in search of dinner. We walked down Santa Ana Street, turned left, and discovered the next day that a right turn would have taken us to a much better neighborhood. Oh well… to the left we found streets and houses that were filthy and crumbling, several hole-in-the-wall bars with blaring music spilling onto the street, and a Walgreen’s. J slightly discouraged and a little worried about safety, we settled on dinner at Wendy’s. It was fine, and in general we felt safe and comfortable at the guest house.
We sat on the beach for a bit and went swimming in the warm waves. We soon found that the stretch of beach there was quite popular with the locals. There was a lot of smooth, white sand and a variety of food and beverage vendors. They also have an excessive amount of police officers patrolling the beach every day. The cabana boy, Christian, told us that the police are looking for people who are smoking marijuana. Must be a big problem there, but it hardly seems worthy of the police presence. We walked along the beach after dark and admired the highrises adjacent to our neighborhood.
Late that evening, we met Karam and John, Bernie’s colleagues, for drinks. We strolled in the area of Ponce de Leon Street and found a hip, popular bar off the beaten path. We sat there for a while chatting, then walked to Krash, a club that Bernie and I had read about. It was surprisingly empty for a Saturday night. After one drink, we left and walked a few blocks down the street to Starz – THAT is where everybody was! The place was packed to the rafters. We squeezed our way through and stood on the balcony for a bit and talked outside as we watched people walk by down below. Then we went back inside for a little while before heading back to the hotel.
Sunday, 7 June
Bernie and I had breakfast each morning at Numero Uno – fruit, pastries, and juice. We spent the rest of Sunday morning on the beach, and the weather was beautiful. There was enough of a breeze that it felt great by the water. When you’d get away from the water it was very hot and sticky in the city.
We walked over to Ashford Street to find a place to eat lunch and happened to turn a corner and stumble into a Pride Parade that was assembling! We spent the next couple of hours watching the parade as we slowly moved up the street. There were a lot of people in it and lots of spectators! We ate paninis at an outdoor patio as we watched the remnants of spectators strolling by. Then we walked a few blocks further to see the Atlantic Beach Hotel, a gay hotel with a large outdoor bar. We just sat relaxing in the shade there for a bit and then walked back to the guest house.
In the evening, we walked back to the Atlantic Beach Hotel to see if it was the hotspot described on its website. Upon walking in, we recognized a guy we had seen around Madison – Dan – who struck up conversation with us. We had a nice time chatting, and then walked down the street and had dinner at a restaurant nearby.
Bernie and I drove to Krash (the bar) later that night. This time it was filled with people, and they were having a foam party. We weren’t dressed for it, so we watched the dancing from the upper level. Then we walked down Ponce de Leon in search of a particular bar that was advertised online. It was nowhere to be found in the 1200 block, the exact address didn’t even exist, and we discovered the next day that the bar is on a different stretch of Ponce de Leon about a 10 minute drive from that area. That can cause some confusion…but the streets sure aren’t laid out as clearly there as Madison or other cities where we’ve traveled.
We were ready to head back to our hotel, and we couldn’t find an easy way in the car to cut over to the parallel one way street from Ponce de Leon. So we “got lost” on the exact same route as the previous day’s trip from the airport. San Juan is ridiculously laid out as a series of mostly one way streets, and the drivers only follow one rule – anything goes! We were surprised to see that they park all over the place, including on street corners, and apparently yellow zones don’t necessarily prohibit parking. We’re certain that there’s no parking enforcement department in the city.
Monday, 8 June
Around noon we picked up Dan and his friend, Todd, at their hotel and drove out to see the El Yunque rain forest an hour outside of the city. Highway driving was ironically very calm and easy compared to what we experienced in the city. Traffic was relatively light in most areas, and folks tend to drive below the speed limit. I certainly wasn’t expecting that on the highways.
The entrance to the National Forest was poorly marked and began with a narrow, poverty-stricken street. Then we had a beautiful drive past a muddy river and green fields for about 10 minutes before hitting the official entrance to El Yunque. We had a great time enjoying the visitors’ center, the long twisty road up the mountains, the spectacular views, a couple of downpours, taking pictures, and having lunch at a roadside stand. We had a good hike down the stone steps by the creek. After about 20 minutes of walking we came to the bottom and swam in a cool, rocky pool under the waterfall. There were lots of other hikers, and we actually bumped into Brandon and a couple of other people from Bernie’s company on our hike back up to the parking lot.
The four of us admired the scenery some more on our drive back down the road through the rain forest and then we headed back to San Juan. Bernie and I ate a delicious dinner at Pamela’s – the restaurant in the guest house - and went to bed early and exhausted.
Tuesday, 9 June
Bernie wanted to get out of bed and just walk right into the ocean, because how often do you get to do that in your life? From our room to the water it was 125 steps. We ate breakfast, mailed postcards, and then drove over to Old San Juan. Traffic was a bit tied up on the way into the old part of the city because of a film crew and a small crowd standing around. We didn’t know what they were filming, but we found out later that Johnny Depp was shooting a film in Puerto Rico, so we probably just missed seeing him.
We walked around for a couple of hours admiring the beautiful, European style, candy-colored buildings and the many hilly brick streets. We ate lunch at a delicious sandwich shop that seemed to be off the main tourist streets. Old San Juan is on a small island that is easy to traverse in a short amount of time; it’s about 7 square blocks.
Back at the guest house we swam a little, napped on the beach, and relaxed until dinnertime. Then we drove over to Ashford Street and ate dinner at an Italian restaurant. Our waitress was lousy…barely speaking or making eye contact with us, but we loved watching the people go by on the street. Jogging seems to be a popular evening activity – we saw people run by about every 30 seconds during our dinner.
Wednesday, 10 June
Today we opted to do lots of relaxing and very little activity. We spent most of the day on the beach. Our observations of the locals included this: many of the men and women are attractive and enjoy dressing in glamorous clothes day or night (or when they go to the beach it’s small, colorful bikinis). Many of the men shave or wax the hair off their chests and legs, and quite a few have tattoos, sometimes covering most of their back. Another interesting pattern – as people come walking onto the beach from the street, when it’s a man and woman together, the man is almost always walking a few steps ahead of the woman. It appeared too consistent to be a random thing. Paddle ball is a very popular pastime on the beach as well; every day we saw several couples playing right along the water’s edge.
We had lunch at the deli down the street from the guest house today. They had a surprisingly large selection of desserts – yum! We saw lots of people having long, leisurely lunches – and we were there around 2:00 in the afternoon. We just had some leftover pizza for dinner, then later we drove to Tia Maria to have a couple of drinks. The bar was quite full, and it had a nice, friendly neighborhood bar vibe to it.
Thursday, 11 June
We spent some more time on the beach today before we had to pack our bags and check out. The first significant rain storm of the week happened while we were packing, and it was done and hot & steamy outside when we loaded the car at noon and walked back to the deli for lunch.
We drove to Ashford intending to walk around for a little while, but when we couldn’t find any place to park, we just decided we might as well head to the rental car drop-off. The guy driving the shuttle to the airport offered to take us over to the Ritz, so that made it quite simple for us, and we were at the official start of Bernie’s company gathering – AGM!
We registered around 1:30 and were fortunate to be able to get into our hotel room right away. Then we walked around the lobby and pool area saying hello to folks as they arrived. We swam in the ocean for a little while, had a $14 mixed drink (par for the course at the Ritz Carlton!), and then went up to our room to get cleaned up for the evening. The welcome reception was outside around the pool with a few bars and food tables set up. We kept looking around for Kara and Jacob, and we were surprised that we weren’t seeing them. Laura and Mike told us they had eaten in one of the hotel restaurants the previous night, and the couple at the next table had ordered 2 bottles of wine and 7 rounds of shots. Bernie and I knew right away that they were talking about Kara and Jacob.
On the way to the after-party, we chatted with Will and Nancy. They’re such a sweet couple, and they invited us to come visit them in Boise sometime. Will also gave Bernie a wonderful compliment when he said that the interview dinner with Bernie 4 years ago is one of his most memorable, enjoyable ones. I wish we would have had time to talk with them more during the weekend.
We finally did see Kara and Jacob as we entered the Mares Bar/Restaurant. We also saw Seth later in the evening; his flight had been canceled and Fast Enterprises had re-routed their group through NYC so that they could make it to PR sooner. Otherwise they would have had to wait for a flight the next day. Bernie and I danced with a few people for a little while, drank a lot, caught up with everyone, and took a late night swim in the ocean. It was so much fun!
Friday, 12 June
Bernie and I had breakfast with the Fasties up on the outdoor dining area, and then he was off to his meeting for the morning. I went right back to the room and took a nap. When I woke up, it was raining, but the rain ended shortly after that. I took a long walk along the beach and then swam my way back to the Ritz. On one stretch of public beach, I was surprised to see how lax the lifeguards were – one was stretching and doing exercises while casually watching the swimmers, and another one was laying on a lounge chair with his feet up on a railing, reading a magazine. I hope they spring into action if/when there is a crisis! After my walk, I talked with Melanie for a little while and then swam in the pool.
After Bernie’s meeting, we ate lunch in the Mares restaurant. It was good, but everything is way over-priced at the Ritz. Our burger, sandwich, and calamari (no drinks included) came to $60 with tax and tip! We went to the beach and congregated in the water with most of the Wisconsin team. We entertained ourselves by digging holes and a trench and laughing at our handiwork.
We went up to the room to rest for a bit and get dressed for the formal. The evening began with cocktails on the beach. It was a nice idea and there was a beautiful sunset. Reclaiming our bagged shoes at the small tables afterwards was a little frustrating. Everyone was feeling hot, sticky, and uncomfortable from the humidity – we were more than ready to go inside for dinner.
We sat at a table with a group of fun people from Denver – Kara, Jacob, Seth, Beth, Asmaa, Monica, Sam, and Adam. We really enjoyed eating with them, and a few of us sat and had a fascinating conversation for a while after dinner was over. We grabbed an assortment of delicious desserts and continued talking a bit more. Later on, we went outside by the bar…it was a very humid night! We had a couple of drinks and a round of kamikaze shots at the prompting of Twin, a teeny woman who LOVES doing shots! J Late in the evening, a group of us went for a swim in the ocean, and then some folks went to the hot tub. I jumped in the pool and played volleyball with some people for at least an hour. It was mostly laughing and trash-talk with a little bit of serious playing thrown in…it was great! I lost track of Bernie and found out the next day that he had gone inside to have more drinks with some people. He made it to bed around 5 am.
Saturday, 13 June
Bernie and I had breakfast outside again, and then he went to his meeting. I gathered a few things and went to the beach. I looked around for someone familiar to sit by, but not many people were out there and I didn’t see anyone I knew. I dozed on my lounge chair for a bit, went for a quick dip, and then sat under an umbrella as a light rain turned to a heavier rain. Eventually I moved under the canopy near the outdoor bar with some other folks. The rain came pouring down in sheets for at least a half an hour. It was nice watching it and staying relatively dry, but I couldn’t help wondering how long it might rain during the day.
I went to the room and cleaned up. Bernie got out of his meeting a little early and told me where Fast will be taking us next year – Marco Island, Florida! Fast even brought in reps from the Marco Island Marriott to share information and answer questions for people. Bernie and I walked down the street to Chile’s for lunch, and then Bernie took a nap while I swam at the beach.
Around 3:30 everyone loaded onto several buses to go to Old San Juan for the evening. It was only about a 10 minute drive from the hotel, but we sat on the bus for a long time at the entrance to Old San Juan waiting for a police escort to lead us in. I’m not sure why that was necessary…maybe traffic gets really snarled around there. A lot of us spent an hour or so wandering around in the fort taking pictures. Some people did a little kite flying on the windy, grassy field by the fort, and a group of us from the Wisconsin site did a walking tour led by a humorous, energetic woman who told us a lot of interesting facts. When we walked down “cat alley” we saw a BUNCH of cats lounging on rocks near the beach, taking baths, walking by the fortress walls, and even one cat who was laying peacefully on the sand a few feet from the water.
Fast treated us all to dinner and entertainment in a big courtyard of a building that used to house soldiers and then was used as a hospital many years ago. We wandered around chatting with people and tasted samples from “Rums of Puerto Rico” and then took the bus back to the hotel around 9 pm. Some people stayed out in Old San Juan later into the night, but Bernie and I (and LOTS of other Fasties) opted for a refreshing swim in the hotel pool. Bernie and I went to bed just before midnight exhausted and wanting to get a little sleep knowing we had to get up at 6 am to pack and have breakfast before our transfer to the airport.
Sunday, 14 June
We ate breakfast and flew home with about 12 or 13 folks from the Wisconsin group. It’s always nice traveling home with the group because we’re all worn out from a fun shared experience, we don’t necessarily mind a long layover since we can hang out together, and the group enjoys meandering through the airports together braving the security screenings, reminiscing about the fun from the weekend, and eating lunch as a group.
We returned to a sunny, beautiful evening in Madison. Bernie and I dropped off Karam at his apartment and then went home to do laundry and catch up on a few things to finish out the weekend. The trip was definitely fun and memorable!
Friday, June 26, 2009
Mourning Celebrities
It's fascinating to see how the world mourns the passing of big celebrities in such a communal way. Last night Facebook was all abuzz with people talking about the deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. It's nice to see our humanity shine through even though, realistically, not every human being is shedding tears or necessarily thinking about a given celebrity's death for more than a short time. It's just comforting when so many people take a moment to pause and reflect on the person's career, sucesses, struggles, impact on pop culture, or whatever personal connections an individual might have had with a famous icon who lived so much of their life in the limelight.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
The Beauty of a Holiday Weekend
The great thing about national holidays is that most people in the working world are all looking forward to having time off at the same time. Of course, not everyone works a "standard" job with typical Monday through Friday hours, but for those of us who do, we can all share in the excitement for an upcoming long weekend. In my office, we spend the whole week leading up to these sorts of weekends asking each other what fun activities and trips and family gatherings are planned for the time off. Some of us will stretch it out to longer than 3 days, so we aren't really sure exactly what day we'll all see each other again or how sparse the office might be on the days adjacent to the weekend. Then after people start to roll into work after the holiday, we enjoy comparing notes on all of the fun things we did, and we collectively bemoan the fact that the time goes by way too fast, and "Wouldn't it be great if we could have a 3 day weekend every week?!" :)
Saturday, April 18, 2009
How Green are we Willing to Be?
We hear a lot of talk about the threat of global warming…saving the planet…being green…it’s unfortunate that so many people ignore these conversations. And some folks are aware of this ever-present topic, but they assume that it’s up to someone else to do what it takes to save our planet. We need to make it a part of our daily habit to reduce, reuse, recycle. Americans have made some efforts to gradually change their ways over the years, but we really have a long way to go if we want to reverse the effects of our wasteful, damaging ways. Sadly, laziness plays a big part in people’s habits, but think about how little effort it really takes to make a difference. Turn off light switches when you leave an empty room. Reduce the amount of paper products and water that you use. In fact, reduce the amount of food that you purchase, consume, and throw away! Keep scrap paper on hand when a whole sheet of paper is not necessary. Print documents on both sides to use half as much paper. If we aren’t willing to lessen our impact on the earth now, when will we take it seriously? When summertime temperatures regularly go above 130°? When one or two of our coastal cities have washed away due to higher ocean levels? When our national parks become garbage dumps? When we have to pay $10 a gallon for clean drinking water? Forgive the preachy nature of this, but conservationism is a cause that’s always been very important to me. Let’s green it up!!
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Getting Out of Touch
We have so many ways to stay in touch and check in with each other these days that it makes a person’s head spin. Email and cell phones have been revolutionary enhancements to our lives, and after all of these years it’s hard to imagine life without them. Add to that the many social networking sites, Twitter, instant messaging, GPS systems…and it starts to feel like we’re supposed to keep everyone constantly apprised of our every move and every thought in our heads. Maybe we’re going too far. Sometimes it’s refreshing to spend time alone; a good, healthy dose of escapism is good for the soul. It’s also good to be present with our friends when we are spending physical time with them, rather than allowing ourselves to be distracted by phone calls and other pulling and tugging from outside sources. Allow yourself to get out of touch every once in a while and reap the benefits of tuning out and focusing your attention on the present moment.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Proud to be an American?
How many of us are truly proud to call ourselves Americans? We do live in the "land of opportunity" and "it's a free country", but things aren't necessarily all that rosy these days. The president we had through most of this past decade was a source of embarrassment for a lot of us, and our economy is growing ever darker right now. There are a shocking amount of corrupt people in politics, business, banking, etc. Admittedly, people usually will say that we're lucky to be born in the United States, particularly if you’re born into a good family. We have a lot of advantages, comforts, and opportunities that are not available in many other countries. However, is that enough of a reason to be proud to be an American? Some of us are proud to live in a certain city, or proud of our state; some are content to say that they are making a positive difference in their own little family/neighborhood/corner of the world. Maybe that’s really what’s important, because you can have a powerful impact in the smallest ways. Are you proud of yourself as a human being?
Saturday, January 24, 2009
MyFacebookSpace
Social Networking sites have become very popular lately, and I can see why. It’s an easy, entertaining way to stay in touch with people and to dig up friends and acquaintances with whom we had lost touch at some point in life. It allows us to create and maintain a sort of community with a combination of folks that we see all the time and others whom we haven’t seen for many years. One thing that’s ironic about these sites is when people get a friend request from someone they don’t know very well, don’t like all that much, or barely knew in high school. It begs the question: Do I accept this person’s request? The down side to having this person on your list is that you don’t necessarily want them thinking they are your “friend”. They are then allowed access to your personal corner of the internet. One of the main pros AND cons to having people linked to your page is that it’s very easy to share photos and information with them. Regardless of the good and the bad aspects of these sites, they’ve definitely carved a place in our culture. People become addicted to spending time posting their random thoughts and reading other people’s thoughts and comments about their daily activities. I’m all for it. :)
Friday, January 9, 2009
Ages of Enlightenment
It's interesting to see how our perspectives change as we get older, primarily our view of what's considered old and young. As a young child, we think everyone who's over 20 is elderly. Most teenagers are eager to add years onto their young life so they will be taken more seriously by adults, so they can move out of the house, so they can have the perks that come with adulthood, etc. Then as we move through our adult years, the concept of "middle age" or "old" tend to glide farther into the higher numbers. Having recently turned 40, I've been pondering how my friends and I might appear to others. When I'm out somewhere with my friends, laughing and having a grand old time, it's quite possible that teenagers who see us think that we're just a group of "old folks". It doesn't matter what they think; I just find it humorous because there are times when I still feel like I'm 15 years old, and that certainly colors my perspective. Sometimes it actually feels like my group of friends is just a bunch of goofy, energetic kids who just happen to look older on the outside. Maybe keeping that youthful internal core is the true secret to staying young.
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