Christmas Trip Part 2: Get Me Out of Manilla Now...Why Won’t You Let Me Leave...

Manilla is probably the worst place I have ever traveled too. Grant thinks it up there, but not the worst. I literally couldn’t eat meat there because of what I saw and so if you are ever looking to become a vegetarian and need the motivation should visit this place.

Again, waking up at 4 am in SD to LAX, 12-hour flight to Tokyo, 8+ hour layover in Tokyo, 1:30 am flight and 5:30 am arrival to Manilla on minimal sleep is nuts. Grant will be happy to see that I am writing this as he definitely shared his thoughts on this...multiple times...during the stay. I turn into “Travel Luke,” which is essentially a machine that can function on no sleep and food, while Grant functions like normal requiring both. These two people do not get along and butted heads in Manila.

Upon arrival, it is a requirement that you go through customs and border security. Never have we been greeted by such chaos and confusion. If you are a Phillipino and have your appropriate documentation this is a breeze to get through... if you are a foreign traveler...this is your worst nightmare. At 5:30 am, the line was so long that you couldn’t see the end. There was a total of 6 people checking hundreds if not thousands of people in. Each person entering was required to answer questions and take a photo. We found the fastest line and waited well over 2 hours for them to look at us, see how ragged we looked, to quickly stamp our passport and snap a photo of us.

AT&T has a program with most countries where we get the same plan for $10 a month. Shocker...The Philippines is not on this plan and so we had to get a local SIM card. We went with “Globe,” a local cellular provider I had researched and after negotiating the rate she quickly grabbed my phone and did something to it. She was either moving at incredible speed or the sleep deprivation really was getting to us. 15 seconds later she had activated my card, updated my phone to accept the carrier, put in the Sim Card and I was ready to go.

Next up was transportation. If the border crossing was not bad enough we were then greeted by a hoard of people trying to get us to go with their taxi service. This is not uncommon for poverty-stricken countries such as this, but Grant and I were in no mood for such shenanigans. Knowing that there were limited things to do in Manila — Grant booked us a nice hotel near the airport at Resort World. When we had looked it up previously waking was only 15 minutes. We looked it up again and our GPS had changed it to an hour and 20 minutes. So we needed a ride.

Of course, the Taxi wanted close to $40 to go this distance and that was only disclosed to us because we refused to get in the car until he told us upfront. We laughed and said no way. We called the hotel and they had a free shuttle that came every hour. We found it, hopped on, and headed to our hotel for a solid rest.

The hotel room was NY city small, but it had two beds and AC so we were set. I was excited to check out this Resort World area as it was supposed to be nice. It was the strangest thing to me seeing absolutely gorgeous newly built resorts next to shanties that if you sneezed wrong could blowdown. Security was extremely tight and it seemed that every corner had an armed official ready to subdue any malefactor.

I wandered through the resorts, casino, mall area and hit a dead end. Instead of returning the way I came I wanted to see what the area behind the resorts was like. Signs were highlighting how this was a tourist area and it definitely was culturally enriching. With a Chanel and Gucci within sight, the locals in this area were living in rubble and highly unsanitary conditions. The area had local markets and shops designed to allure the clientele from these areas to the area.

It was close to 90 degrees with the sun beating down and meat and fish laid strewn about tables being chopped. If the smell was not putrid enough the number of flys that infested the bloody carcasses definitely would turn your stomach. The stall purveyors would dump the liquified innards and bloody remnants from their overflowing buckets on the street in front where people stood. It was beyond gag-inducing. Animals littered the streets and began to ingest these contents only to turn to the locals for affirmation of their good deeds. That’s a site I will not be able to lose for a while.

The area was littered with Jeepneys (think extended jeeps that act as buses) and trikes that carry locals. The area locals were not pleasant to tourists and I had to be cautious not to be hit by these folks. I wandered around for another 2 hours weaving in and out of the city streets trying to get a feel for how people live.

I made it back to the hotel and came in to find Grant had still been sleeping. He has no interest in Manila and I can’t say I blame him after that depressing outing. There were two places on my list to see and I decided to scratch them both. The sites were equally depressing as one was Intramuros, which was a Spanish fort that served as a prison during some war. It was known for its Spanish architecture and was extremely somber with over 600 bodies of captured soldiers laid in a mass burial spot. The other was the 4th largest mall, but it contained more Western-based stores than Eastern so I passed.

Grant eventually woke up and we rendezvoused to the Marriott restaurant. His thought process was that they would have quality food as a global brand and were less likely to get sick. I ordered the adobo, which was just a chicken-based dish but couldn’t stomach it. I took a few bites and ate the rice only. You know it’s bad if this carnivore who prides himself on getting meat sweats from his consumption is turned off. We left to go to the airport early to avoid having to deal with any unforeseen surprises. Manila was not our scene and if you the blogs were clearly correct...get out as soon as you can. The rest of the islands that made the Philippines are to be something special, but the population and infrastructure need major improvements.

Ninoy Aquino International Airport had been voted constantly the worst airport in the world for years. They recently got off that list, but I am not sure why. There are no kiosks to check-in so everyone must do it at the counter. We got to the airport 3 hours early and it took well over 1.5 hours to just get our boarding pass. Having not spent any money we planned on blowing all of it on random items at the souvenir shop. I found a nice wood carved mask and Grant found cookies, but that was pretty much it. We didn’t have that much time to look around and left with about half the money we brought in.

The next stop of our journey is where I am now writing this blog...Singapore. To be continued.

Christmas Trip Part 1: Subway Surfing in Tokyo

I just realized how bad of a speller I am. Thank god for the person whoever created spell check because my blogs would be non-comprehensible without it. Tokyo is not hard to spell and I somehow keep spelling it Tokoyo. It is now 7 am in Singapore on Saturday the 28th and have a splitting caffeine-related headache. My body is craving caffeine so I took medication that had some to knock it out. Grant is next to me snoring his heart out so going back to sleep is a bit of a challenge. He’s finally catching up on sleep, which is good because we have been running ragged on this crazy whirlwind Asia trip.

We woke up at 4:15 am in San Diego on Christmas morning. Tip: if you want to avoid any traffic in LA leave on Christmas Day as it was wonderful. We checked in, got situated in the American Airlines Lounge and eat breakfast at their buffet. It wouldn’t be LA if you didn’t spot a celebrity so on this trip we ran into Aunt Jackie or Laurie Metcalf from Roseanne/Conners fame. Both of them were getting food from the lounge buffet when I spotted her. I yelled “Grant” pretty loud and both of them looked at me like I was crazy. But, I got his attention and he saw her too. We then played a silly game of guess the celebrity with the rest of the Botoxed LA people in the lounge.

Our first leg of the flight was LA to Tokyo with a long layover. We purchased business class back in May so we could sleep and that’s what we did for the majority of the flight. We landed in Haneda Airport, which was much closer to the city than the larger/more common airport Narita. This helped us get out of the airport faster and let us see more.

All of Tokyo is connected with super intricate subway lines that run throughout the city. Grant and I are used to subways in New York and San Francisco, but this was something else. Fortunately and unfortunately they have an app JapanTravel, which is somewhat useful, but still didn’t tell you which line to try and where it was at.

We had three spots in mind, but after realizing how complicated the subway was we narrowed it down to two. I wanted to see Asakusa, which housed Sensoji, the famous Buddhist Temple and Nakamise shopping center, a street lined with shops, cafes and other random oddities. After running around the sites and hitting up a few stalls we made our way to an owl cafe.

Animal cafes are all the rage and there was a variety of different options. We saw teacup puppies, bunnies and even a cafe dedicated to owls. Even though Grant and I have no particular fascination with owls we were drawn to it because of the crowd that had formed outside its door. We were initially hesitant to waste our money but were drawn in when an American suggest we try it. He told us that these cafes are a bit odd, that they legally can’t charge you for seeing the animals, but can charge you a high price for a “drink,” which is essentially your admission ticket. We paid our admission ticket and walked into what can best be described as a tropical apartment with over 30 owls just hanging out all around you. Definitely, something to see, but next time we should probably do something cutter like puppies rather than owls. Lol.

The next stop was Shibuya, which is home to the famous Shibuya crossing. To both Grant and I this is Tokyo’s version of Times Square with lights, crowds, shops, and restaurants. I do need to point out unlike Times Square, which can be filled with “city farts” and other unpleasantries— Tokyo is clean and very pleasant considering its vast size and crowdedness.

What makes this area special is the crossing. At various points on the same street, the roadway is cut off for cars and passengers go crazy crossing in all directions. It’s a free for all with people zig-zagging for about a minute between each other trying to make it to the corner of their choosing. It also is challenging as many people have just gotten off the subway, are a bit disoriented and are quickly trying to figure out where to go amongst hundreds of locals and tourists. Pure chaos!

Surprising, Grant was the one that was inquisitive about the food. We didn’t have time for a full meal, but we did make a stop at a few stalls. When we were walking down a street we smelled something delicious, which could only be compared to the states when someone is making waffle cones. We walked down to Shibuya Square and saw the lights and bells of good fortune. On the way back we found the smell, which was a melon pan. It is a form of bread that is a combination of dough and cookie dough. So we, of course, had to try sweet strawberry bread and a savory cheese and mayo bread. Both were inhaled in a matter of seconds.

Nervous about the commute and missing our flight we went back to hang out at the Japan Airlines lounge. On our way back we realized that the Shibuya station was home to the famous Akita statue memorializing Hachiko the loyal dog so that was a fun surprise to see. This station is absolutely massive and this time we were a bit stumped as to how to return to the airport. Unfortunately, tourist information closes at 8 pm so we were on our own looking for a way back. I eventually spotted a stop that we used previously and thought it would be wise to at least make it somewhere we had been previously to get to go where we needed too. It worked out and we made our way to the lounge.

Before each trip, I try and pull out local currency so that way we don’t have to worry about exchanging anything in the country. Japan is very expensive, but I pulled out enough to make it work and had some cash leftover. The airport had a few random souvenirs, but anything we wanted including a rice bowl was out of our price range. I settled for a 3D Pikachu puzzle, which seemed appropriate considering Japan's fascination with anime. The other option was flavored KitKat bars, but the price for 8 miniature pack...like the size that is handed out without pause in Halloween (2 sticks) was 8 dollars and I refused. Back at the lounge, they had canisters full of regular bars so I routinely would go up and take a handful of these free ones so I have something to bring back to coworkers.

The flight departed at 1:30 am and mind you...we had not slept anywhere but on the plane out to Tokyo so we were ready for this flight just to sleep. We got on the plane and after take-off immediately went to bed. If we had known what we know now about our next destination, Manilla, I think Grant and I would have chosen to miss the flight and got a good night's rest. To be continued...

Ps. The Toilets in Japan are AMAZING!

First Holiday Christmas of 2019

Christmas came early this year because Grant and I are going to Singapore on the 25th. So it was decided that we were going to go to San Antonio early this year to celebrate with the family. Our adventure begins no different than any other with a plane ride to…Las Vegas? Our flight had changed from its original booking and its new iteration included a three-hour layover in Las Vegas.

Since we had just received our pre-check we wanted to take full advantage of the layover. The irony in the situation is that we had just left Vegas on Sunday and we’re back again on Friday. So we literally had two trips to Vegas in the same week. To make sure that we didn’t get into to much trouble we went to the Mandalay Bay’s buffet which was the closest to the airport that we could think of. It was nice because both Grant and I had some work that needed to be done so we were able to find a booth, complete our work, pig-out on everything that was there at the buffet, and then jet-setted back to the airport.

We made our way back without any issue, hopped on the plane and in two 1/2 hours we were in San Antonio. Carole, Grant’s mom, picked us up from the airport and took us to one of Grant’s favorite places, La Fonda. Their queso was really on point as they included guacamole and fajita beef. Something that we would definitely get it again next time we go. Grant was hooting and hollering about their enchiladas but I didn’t see it. Truth be told I was hooting and hollering about La Hacienda the restaurant I grew up on and he didn’t think the enchiladas were that great-- so I guess it’s what you grow up on.

After we ate, Grant and I parted ways with Grant’s parents and rendezvoused to The Pearl. This was a weird area that use to be a former brewery operating from 1883 to 2001 that had been converted to mixed use space of high end and trendy restaurants with residential. Most everything was closed but there was an ice cream place called Lick that was open. Grant and I both got weird ice cream, which definitely ruined our diet but we didn’t care as our previous meal was a buffet. Cheat day.

The next morning the rest of the family including Jake, Jillian, and Clint came over so that way we could exchange presents. Last year, Grant got everybody gag gifts in Port Aransas and so he wanted to continue that tradition but spend way more money doing it this year. One of the gifts I was most excited about receiving from the Beckwith clan was a pass to Six Flags Fiesta Texas as I was the only one who had never been.

Following presents, we cleaned up a bit and then headed to an arts and craft festival where we ate barbecue. There was a lengthy conversation about cars and who was going where and when. Eventually, Grant and I just snuck out to head to the theme park to avoid the kerfuffle.

We made it to the park relatively quickly and then began riding rides. Unfortunately, age is a bitch and the rides that we grew up with were clearly more chaotic than our bodies were used to. After riding the first rollercoaster, our next stop was to the theme parks convenience store to purchase Advil. Not a shock but they had a wide selection there to choose from so it was comforting to know that we were not alone in our wallowing.

The rest of the gang showed up and we continued to ride these crazy roller coasters. Some of the roller coasters that were there were not there when Grant was a kid so he got to experience some of the new roller coasters for the first time like me. Our favorite roller coaster by far was The Joker, a new pendulum ride that was advertised as the world’s tallest pendulum ride. Afterward, for surviving I treated myself to a smore which as everyone knows or should know is my favorite food on earth. The marshmallow was incredibly good as it wasn’t a standard generic basic marshmallow but had way more substance and density. The firepits throughout the park were a nice touch as it was getting cold for sure.

When we left we all decided to go to a restaurant. My only request was that it was not a chain so of course, we ended up at Cheesecake Factory. The service was abysmal, but the food when it eventually came out was pretty good.

The next morning Carol wanted to have a family luncheon and so Grant’s Aunt Ann and her significant other Dan came over to celebrate. We had ham, turkey and all the fixins for a scrumptious meal. Due to the timing of our flights, we had to pack up and jet-set out of the luncheon pretty quickly to make our flight.

Due to Southwest weird flight frequency and destinations, our flight ended up going to Houston and then to San Diego. There was a 45-minute layover in Houston and we were hoping to get dinner there. Southwest was late in San Antonio and it caused us to literally get off the flight in Houston and run to our next flight. We made it. I scored brownie points because I ran to Rocky Mountain Chocolate that was right by our gate and picked up Grant’s favorite candy bar. I lost half the points though because I ate half the candy bar to Grant’s dismay.

One holiday celebration down and one to go in Asia.

Better Late Than Never. Piece of Thanksgiving.

Better late than never. This blog is being recorded almost a week after Thanksgiving because AHHH….our lives are crazy right now. Before we left we began installing ductless splits for our house, which right now have been amazing. The construction is still ongoing and growing due to what happened on Thanksgiving (foreshadowing), but it is going well so far.

Our normal tradition of going to San Francisco was back into effect and we were ready to go. We left this year on Wednesday with the intent of coming back Saturday mid-day to have some rest and relaxation before the workweek. Our first stop back in the city was to Kate’s place (Grant’s Aunt) who was kind enough to relinquish her North Beach penthouse to us. From there we walked over to Tony’s and got their extremely tasty coccoli (fried dough with prosciutto) and a calzone.

The next morning was Thanksgiving and I was up early purchasing more crap than I like to admit. Black Friday sales were happening early due to Thanksgiving falling late this year and so I jumped on it. At 10:00 am I had to wake Grant up so we could get a present for Menchin who was hosting Thanksgiving. We walked to the Embarcadero, which was about 25 minutes away to pick up some high-end soap for her. It wasn’t until we were back at Kate’s place and Grant looked up as I was walking up the stairs did he mention that my pants were ripped in the butt. So I, needless to say, walked all of SF mooning people without even knowing. Talk about oblivious on my part.

After changing, we met up with Kate and Russ and headed to Marin. We arrived on time, which never happens and started chowing down. The conversations were great and it was fun seeing friends this time every year. It’s crazy to see how big the kids are getting year after year. It is extremely noticeable considering that we only really see them once a year. After chowing down on some yummy food and talking about flavored “moisturizers” with Annaliese we made our way back to the city.

Having eaten at 1:00 pm, I was a bit hungry for something yummy. Surprisingly there were quite a few different places open that evening and we decided to eat at Pinocchio’s, which was the first restaurant Grant and I ate together. The place was busy, but not overwhelming. The waiter failed to cover over for a while, but Grant and I talked while we waited. Eventually, he came over and took our order. It came out quickly and we asked for the bill. Then we asked again. Then we asked again. We were annoyed because it was taking forever and we were ready to kick our feet up and relax.

Finally, the bill came and we left a 10% tip because we were dissatisfied with the service. You would have thought the world ended because of this. We were outside of the building and the waiter chased us down to ask what was wrong with the service. I don’t think Grant or I have ever been questioned on our tip and we barked back what was wrong with the service. The waiter told us to get out and never come back to this restaurant. It was a large scene, but we could care less because simultaneously we had a bigger issue.

Our great friend Emily had gone over to check on the dogs for us. When she arrived she noticed there was a large puddle in the living room. Except it was not urine from the dogs, but rather a leak. So while this waiter is screaming at us for leaving a sub-par tip-- I am Facetiming with Emily looking at the damage in the house. She was smart enough to find a bowl that the leak could flow into and at least it was covered for the time being. A week later as I write this and we are making solid progress in having it fixed.

This kind of ruined the day, but after reviewing the costs for coming home early and knowing there was not much that we could do, we both decided it was better to stay and deal with that nightmare when we returned.

Black Friday was pretty calm for us as we had done most of our shopping online. We did go around to a few stores like Gap—found what we wanted and then ordered it only. We met up with Kate and Russ at Yang Sing my favorite Dim Sum restaurant and continued our glutinous Thanksgiving food-a-thon. Asian food in San Diego is awful compared to the worst place in San Francisco. So anytime we are here I want to get some sort of Asian inspired ethnic food.

By the time we got out of there, it was time for our first play—Groundhogs Day. I have never seen the movie, but it was a favorite of Russ and Grant. For those that haven’t seen it—skip to the last 20 minutes of the movie and you will have seen the entire movie. It was fun to see their interpretation of the Bill Murray classic and they did a really nice job with switching between the sets over and over. There were even some moments that had a magical element with the lead actor appearing in bed to start the cycle over again when a minute before he was jumping out of a building.

We parted ways with Kate and Russ and wandered around Union Square a bit longer. My next play was Hamilton, while Grant’s next play was some Drag spoof of Harry Potter. If this is not indicative of our personalities I don’t know what is. We ate at this random fast food joint before the show began. We sat at a shared table, which was inhabited by some weird individuals. The most interesting one was the individual that began coughing in our direction and spitting on the ground right by Grant’s feet. This behavior was to get us to leave and as we got up to dispose of our food he quickly grabbed our remanence. I offered additional food, but he grunted and continued to spit on the floor. Fearful of having him turn his faucet of a mouth on to me-- we left.

Grant said his play was hysterical. It was sold out and this was the second to last remaining showings before the end of its run. Hamilton was sold-out as well. The Orpheum Theater, where the play was housed, was absolutely gorgeous inside. The only problem was the limited number of bathrooms. This would have been Grant’s worst nightmare so its probably better he didn’t come with me. The play itself was fun to watch. My preference is musicals that mix dialogue with music rather than ones that tell the entire story through music. I bolted as soon as people began bowing to avoid the madhouse that was about to commence.

Saturday we slowly got up and began to pack. We met at Russ’s house for some lemon ricotta pancakes to celebrate his birthday. His family in the area were in town and we got to see them, which was nice. We left for the airport soon after, and even with the delay and turbulence made it back in one piece. Now we are trying to put our house back together, but that will be something that happens piece by piece.

Blue and Green Seattle Autumn Weekend

In a blink of an eye, we were in Seattle and with a second blink we were gone and back in San Diego. We were very laisse-fair with this trip not having planned much besides one show and the intent to hang out with the Newmans who were also going to be there. Upon arrival, we picked up our rental car and jet-setted to our hotel – The Warwick. Grant particularly liked this hotel because it had a pool and jacuzzi. He used it multiple times so it looks like it was a wise move.

Our stomachs got the best of us before we made it to the hotel and so we decided to make a pitstop for food. The first place we attempted to go was a steakhouse called Bateau. After telling us that they had a table we were eventually told we would have to wait. A ten-minute wait was creeping on twenty-five minutes and our stomachs rather than our brains told us to move on. We ended up at this very hole in the wall place called Marjorie’s, which was a hodge-podge of southern soul, Indian, and steak. It was okay but enough to fill us up.

Finally, we made it to the hotel, checked in, and went to bed. The next morning, we got up and wanted to go exploring. Our first stop was an Amazon Go store. If you have never gone to one of these stores you will be in shock and awe. The premise is that you walk into the store, open the Amazon app, and go shopping. Anything you pick up is placed in your virtual cart and when you are done you just leave. No standing in line, no digging out credit cards, no small talk—just grab your stuff and go. Eventually, they will send you an invoice for your purchases via email. Grant picked up water and I picked up a meat pack that had steak and garlic sauce.

This was the beginning of our weird lunch that we were going to have. The next stop was for donuts at Seattle’s local donut place, Top Pot Donuts. I bought two, but a homeless man asked for food and so I gave him one. Then we scuttled our way down to Pike’s Place home of the throwing fish. While I didn’t see any flying fish this trip—I did see lot of yummy food to snack on. We stopped at Piroshky Piroshky and grabbed two pastries. We stopped at Beecher’s Handmade Cheese and ate some cheese curds. There were a few other random stops we made, but everything was small and we shared so no judgment.

The Newmans had not arrived yet so we wanted to do see some of the top tourist sites that we had not done in our previous trips. Our first stop was the Fremont Troll that resides under a bridge. It was featured in 10 Things I Hate About You and a few other movies so we thought we would check out this landmark. The troll was actually fun to check out and decorated in Seattle Sounder FC gear. This weekend was actually the championship game between Seattle and Toronto and so the whole city was showing their support for their favorite Green and Blue team. So the troll, Space Needle and anything else iconic Seattle were decked out in this gear.

Our next stop was the Starbucks Tasting Room, which is every Starbucks lover's dream. Unfortunately, Grant and I do not drink Starbucks nor like coffee. The only things we ever get our iced drinks or tea so we quickly made a loop around the place and left. It was fun though as we ran into Jason Mraz twice…both times I had to point to Grant and say…That’s Jason Mraz. To which both times, Grant shrugged and said “cool.” Haha.

Finally, the Newmans made it into the city and we met them at a brewery in Pike’s Place. We wandered around the market again and eventually convinced Emily to go to the Space Needle with us. We walked around the area, played on the swing, and took strange photos of us in a sculpture. The visibility was low and the price was high so we decided not to go up the tower as we had already done it previously. We did make our way over to the EMP museum, which is now the Museum of Pop Culture. Outside was a really terrifying jungle gym that Grant and I climbed like children. PSA to all parents: do not let your children on this playground as it’s extremely dangerous. We finished by going down the slide and dropping Emily back off at her hotel.

Grant booked us one show and it was for Teatro ZinZani his favorite dinner and a show. We had seen this rotating variety show twice before and so we had an idea of what to expect. The show was about 45 minutes outside of Seattle having to relocate due to their previously lease ran out. The new location was set in the wine country of Seattle and was very scenic to get to. Everyone down to the waiters was involved in this show and we saw a mixture of singers, dancers, jugglers, acrobats, and other performers entertain a sold-out crowd. In between acts, the food would come out in courses and in the end confetti filled the tent. Grant and I quickly left and fell asleep.

The next morning was the Sounder’s game and there was going to be a parade to the stadium. The team is partly owned by Macklemore and so he gave a free concert to those in attendance. We attempted to see the concert, but due to the crowd size, it was nearly impossible. We saw bits and pieces and heard the songs so that is all that matters. There were so many blue and green fans waving their “Scarfs Up” around it was a bit of a madhouse. They ended up winning 3-1.

Eventually, we pushed our way to the exit and made our way over to Zeke’s Pizza. There is nothing special about Zeke’s and the only reason I am even mentioning it is to serve as a reminder not to go back here again as we somehow have made it here every single time on our trip. Future Luke or Grant who reads this—DON’T GO AGAIN.

The next stop was to meet up with the Newmans on the Bainbridge Islands. For some reason, Grant thought that we could make it to the islands without having to take a ferry, but that wasn’t the case. We caught the next ferry and made our way to the islands. The ride itself was calm and really had some great views of the city. The islands were pretty with the foliage changing, but we didn’t get to explore all that much due to time constraints. No sooner than we arrived it felt like we had to hop back on the ferry and head to the airport.

We grabbed a quick bite as we made our way to the airport, returned the rental car, and boarded our flight. Seattle is a gorgeous place to visit, but we do seem to be running out of things to do and see. I think it may be a while before we come back to this city. Although, if we blink and find ourselves in Seattle somehow, I think Grant and I would find a way to entertain ourselves. Maybe when Blink 182 is in town?

Crossing Borders into Mexico and Costa Rica

We haven’t traveled internationally in a little while so we decided in June to look for something exciting. Being so close to the border affords us the opportunity to look at airports in Tijuana as well as San Diego. There just so happened to have been a trip from Tijuana to San Jose, Costa Rica in October for $155 roundtrip. It was a short Thursday through Sunday trip, but heck for that price why not.

The Cross Border Express is a secured border crossing that allows people to skip the traditional border crossing and go straight from San Diego to the Tijuana Airport or vice versa. There is an additional cost of $15 per way, but from a time standpoint it cannot be beaten. We went through the entire process in less than 15 minutes and most of that was just walking across the border in the air-conditioned bridge.

Tijuana airport is surprisingly nice. With the border not being the nicest of places our expectations were low, but as soon as we walked in we were shocked that it actually was nicer than Terminal 1 in San Diego. We ate a torta, which was delicious and we were on our way to Mexico City. The flight landed early and so we began our 17-hour layover by checking into our hotel. The good news was that Uber is in Mexico City so we called an Uber and were to our hotel in a jiffy.

Most 5-Star hotels should have an individual that speaks more than Spanish at their front desk, but not at this place. We struggled through language barriers but eventually got our room. We were escorted up to our hotel by this random English speaking woman. Both Grant and I thought she was an employee staff, but come to find out she was a resident of the hotel. There are two towers – one that is for guests and the other is for owners. It was all very strange and it definitely got weird when Grant tried to tip her for the service. We politely ushered her out of our room as she clearly wanted to stay in chat.

Our first stop was to the Zocalo in Mexico City. This was their city center and outdoor mall. It was hustling and bustling and something that we had not seen on our previous trip. We walked around and saw some really interesting characters. We stayed and wandered around for a little bit before we hopped in an Uber to La Proveleta.

The last time we were there it ranked on my top 5 steaks I have ever had. This time around it was bad. Like the top 5 worst steaks I have ever had. There was clearly a change that went on so this restaurant shall never be mentioned again. After that disappoint outing, we went to go get a churro from the same place we went last time. Unfortunately, it was closed. So the whole evening left a bad taste in our mouth figuratively and literally.

The next morning we got up and headed to the Mexico City airport. I am sorry, but one men’s bathroom with 4 urinals and 4 stalls for 10 gates is not enough. We boarded the plane and got the aisle and middle seat. The problem was that there was a large Mexican man who was put in the window. This individual did not fit into one seat. The armrest could not be put down and so he extended into Grant’s seat. These seats are not very large to begin with and as the plane was going off he encroached more and more. Eventually, the man was laying on top of Grant and he was wearing him like a blanket. I offered to change seats and so I got to endure that the last hour. The 4-hour flight felt like an eternity, but we had officially arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica.

All the sites that are out there say—use Uber. It’s cheaper and easy to use. What they do not tell you is that Uber is ILLEGAL in Costa Rica! So when we made our way outside we were accosted by taxi driver after taxi driver. Pushing through the hoard we were advised by the app to meet at the bus station. Huh? That’s strange…so we asked where the bus station was. The driver was there in no time and he politely asked one of us to sit in the front. Odd, so we asked why? He said it is because Uber is illegal in Costa Rica, and we must act like we know each other to avoid penalties. Cool!

We arrived in now time to our resort, Xandari Resort and Spa, and were greeted with coconuts. It was off-season in Costa Rica so we knew it would be a little empty, but we were not expecting to have the whole resort to ourselves! Our room was great, nice view, beds were fine…there were a salt-water pool and Jacuzzi right outside our door. The coolest feature of the property was that there were 5 waterfalls on-site that we could trek to.

After changing from our airplane clothes, we were off with a bamboo walking stick in hand to the rainforest. We made it to the first waterfall and then the rain hit. We were ill-prepared as the rain caught us off guard. Instead of turning back we trekked deeper into the rainforest to see the additional rainfalls. Soaking wet we made our way back to the pool where instead of hosing off—we cleaned ourselves in the community pool we commandeered for ourselves.

That evening we headed back to the main lobby where the restaurant was attached. After having lackluster food in Mexico we were crossing our fingers that the food here would be good. Thankfully it delivered. Again, there was more wait staff than guests as Grant and I had the entire place to ourselves. Upon returning home, Grant was the first to try the bathroom toilet. When you flush the toilet – it talks back. I really thought that the food was not settling well with Grant. It wasn’t until I tried it that I realized what was happening.

The main reason why I booked this trip was my desire to go white river rafting. We had done this in Tahoe recently, but it was a little to calm for us. We had a private driver who drove us the two hours to the tour. We were the only two people at the rafting company. So instead of getting in a large raft – Grant and I both went in small kayaks with a personal tour guide. They were a lot of fun and all of us fell out a few times. My tour guide actually fell out the most, which is probably scary for most people. They let us cliff dive in some of the deeper parts and we concluded the tour with big smiles on our faces.

We ate lunch at a local eatery and again were the only people there. The whole city was a ghost town. After eating, we went on a chocolate tour, which was really cool. We went through each and every step of making chocolate. But what made it really cool was that we actually did each step that we could. Granted it was like a cooking show on TV where we “grounded the cacao beans” and then came out the fine grain result, but it was still cool. We got to try the cacao drink of the gods and then we added the sugar and ate the paste, then through the magic of Costa Rican chefs we got to eat the bars. It was chocolate overload, but a really fun experience.

The driver picked us up from the tour and we went back to the hotel. After parting ways with him, we hung out in the pool and jacuzzi just soaking in all of Costa Rica. There is something so peaceful about hanging out in a pool in the rain. The next morning, I woke up super early and cleaned the entire hotel room. Grant woke up to all his clothes folded and myself packed and ready to go. We cleaned the bill up with the hotel and Uber was there in a jiffy to take us to the airport.

Just a side note—Costa Rice is very expensive. For a third world country, the rates that they charge foreigners are ridiculous. There is a large western influence in certain areas (predominately tourist areas). Maybe I am just a little bitter that we spent $35 at the airport on a 6-inch Quiznos sandwich and a ¼ pound Smashburger and fries.

Mango Flavored Florida

'Tis the season for horror, which means going to the scariest place on earth to me—Florida. As anyone knows my deepest fear is the state of Florida as the rules and regulations that are traditionally associated with any normal functioning society are thrown out the window for debauchery and identity theft. As I write this on the plane ride back, I am already preparing myself for the bevy of fraudulent charges that are often associated with our annual travel to Florida.

The cross-nation flight began bright and early at 7 am on Friday. The goal was to get to Florida as fast as possible to take advantage of the Orlando nightlife. Not sure what we were expecting as the majority of the town shuts down unless you’re at a theme park that stays open. However, if anyone was going to find something ridiculous and over the top to do it would be Grant. Insert Mango’s Latin Cuisine. This dinner and a show venue featured an over the top tropical island theme with Latin based dancers and performances.

We expected two friends to join us for the show, but there was some miscommunication and so the four-top right in front of the stage was only occupied by the two of us. To compensate for the lost revenue that the two would have generated for the restaurant I went ahead and ordered an appetizer to snack on. This meant that I spent $18 extra dollars on top of the mandatory $39 or $49 prix fixe menu on fried cheese. While they were good…the price was outrageous. The rest of the food arrived as the show was happening. We ate salad and the show was going on. We ate dinner and the show was happening. We ate dessert and the show was still happening. Finally, it became apparent that the show would never end. After 3 1/2 hours, I finally asked Grant to leave, which he graciously obliged. He was hopped up on chocolate cake and so I made him drive home.

Fortunately, our hotel was out of the touristy area, but that did make the commute back to the hotel a pain. We crashed hard and I didn’t wake up until 12:20 pm. On California time, that’s only 9:20 am. When I woke, Grant was coming in from having worked out at the fitness center. I had no idea that he left. The plan for the day was that we would eat at Cici’s for lunch and then take advantage of our resort amenities until the main attraction—Universal Studio’s Halloween Horror Night 2019. Grant put us at the Omni Hotel which contained an adult pool, a wave pool, and a lazy river. Grant loved Cici’s so much it just made my day. In fact, this meal would go down as his favorite meal of the day.

After hitting the water for a while, we made our way over to Universal. Florida has so much space that I think it’s crazy that they charge $26 for parking. However, the theme parks will get you one way or the other as this was an avoidable charge for sure. We made our way in much faster than last year and decided that we would do the rollercoaster first. This resulted in a classic photo of Grant looking like he smelled his own flatulent that will be in our house next to other classic theme park photos.

This year there were 10 haunted houses throughout the park with the main attractions being focused on the movie Us, Ghostbusters, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, and House of a 1000 Corpses. Each one offered something new and different and none of them were duds. The one criticism that I do have to say is that unlike Hollywood, Orlando herds you like cattle through these mazes. To combat that we just go really slow to create separation between ourselves and the people in front of you. This way the “monsters:” have time to hide so we get to experience the full scares as intended. The people working there hate it, but with the amount paid for these tickets I don’t think Grant, or I care all that much.

House 10 this year was Killer Klowns, which was my favorite because I absolutely love that atrocious 80’s B-movie. Having eaten awful food in the park we stopped at CowFish at Citywalk. The premise was that you could get sushi, a burger, or burger sushi. This weird concoction was pretty yummy as we got Cheeseburger Sushi and BBQ sushi. I don’t know of any other place that serves this type of “sushi,” so it was a bit of a fun mashup. The check arrived at about 1 am and we quickly paid to head back to the hotel.

We were burned out on theme parks and so Sunday was a bit of a plan by the seat of our pants. Of course, Grant wanted to eat at Carrabba’s because he loves this place. Since we don’t have it in California, I thought it was only fair after my lunch of Cici’s the day before. The food was better than normal and the conversation with our waiter was…. interesting. I left to go to the bathroom and when I came back, I found Grant having a riveting conversation about how our waiter did not believe that global warming was actually occurring. Gotta love Floridians.

Afterward, we debated a bit as to what to do and finally settled on Grant’ suggestion of going to the beach. The closest beach to where we were located was Cocoa Beach. We drove the hour without traffic and ended up there in no-time. The town itself reminded us of Port Aransas, which was comforting and familiar. We stopped, got out, and walked on the beach for a little bit. Since we didn’t have a shower readily available, we didn’t want to go all the way in. It was a nice time killer and much more enjoyable than just hanging out at the airport. On the way back we stopped at a Wawa (local gas station) to fill up and have an impromptu picnic. We ended up bringing some Carabbas with us and instead of letting it go to waste we added some gas station fine culinary treats to make it a meal.

We dropped off the rental car and made our way into the zoo that is Orlando International Airport. This city loves lines so it should surprise no one that the security was rough. The signs said 20-29 minutes, but it was longer than that. We finally made our way through and quickly boarded the plane. Another successful two-person trip in the books.

Funny people of Florida we saw along the way…

Lady hiding a bag under a blanket, random guy showing up on stage to take photos, and an interesting bike rider.

How Many Shows Can We See in Less Than 3 Days.....

Each time we go to New York we try and figure how to squeeze as much out of it as possible in a limited amount of time. This past trip we successfully squeezed every last drop of NYC and made sure to make the most of it. NY was originally planned for just Grant and his parents, but he asked me to tag along so we could all be together. At the time we were planning this rendezvous I had just gotten my new job at CAMFT so I was a bit unsure of the amount of time that I would be allowed to take off. To combat this we decided that Grant would leave on Friday and I would leave on Saturday.

Grant had a pretty innocuous trip with a brief layover in Chicago before he finished in NY at night. My flight was with Alaska and it had a rocky start. For some reason, when you book the super cheap flight with Alaska they don’t assign you a seat until you are literally in front of the gate agent. This of course resulted in any decent seats being taken and only the middle seat remaining. The silver lining in this was that the couple that I shared my row with and gambled and booked the aisle in the window. Their hope was that they would have the middle themselves. Of course, when I showed up they were disappointed, but graciously allowed me to have the aisle seat.

The only other memorable moment about the travel was at the end when the flight attendant came around offering additional snacks. The “husband” asked for a cheese plate. The flight attendant then asked if I wanted anything and I said that I would take a cheese plate as well. Unfortunately, the cheese plate the husband ordered was the last one. He graciously offered to take a Protein pack instead. As a response to this goodwill gesture, I offered to pay for both mine and his. The flight attendant so moved by the actions decided to waive the fee for both items. Eventually, the pay it forward idea works on airplanes!

I arrived at 3 pm in Newark and made my way into the city. I dropped off my backpack and met up with Grant who was waiting in the lobby for me. The hotel was nothing fancy, but the location was in the heart of Time Square, which made going to the shows extremely easy. Grant had just gotten out of a show called Okay Cupid, but he commented that the show was half full and clearly lacking in the substance department. We stumbled upon this COMP ticket on Goldstar and so $12 for a show on Broadway is probably a good indicator of the quality.

Our first show was off-broadway called Contact High. It was really off-broadway in a small theater. It turned out to be more of young adult production revolving around an individual who had a fear of being touched and drugs. The two never really melded together so I am not sure why both were being addressed. My biggest complaint was that it was a small theater and they gave the actors microphones. They literally could have talked with their normal voices and the back of the audience would have been able to hear them. When they projected the walls shook and I was afraid for my eardrums. Bad singing is one thing, but bad singing at high volume is potentially hazardous! Haha.

Immediately following this we went and saw Betrayal. Originating in the West End, this story dealt with a husband’s best friend having an affair with his wife. It starred Charlie Cox as the cheater and Tom Hiddleston as the dutiful and oblivious husband. What was twisted about this performance was that the story progressed backward. So at the introduction we found the cast 2 years after the affair ended and dealing with the consequences of actions we had yet to find out about. I loved it as this was literally three people on a stage with two chairs. The acting was superb. What made it even more enjoyable was that Grant earlier in the day was able to get us rush tickets in orchestra for only $40. Well worth every cent in my opinion!

Having only gotten 4 hours of sleep the night before or same day…it was all kind of a confusing blur…I was entering a point of delirium. After eating dinner we found a bakery and cookies sounded amazing. The place was called Schmuckery and they had exotic flavored cookies. Instead of getting one or maybe two Grant and I got a half dozen to have a cookie tasting party to end the night. My favorite was the coconut white chocolate, while Grant inhaled the chocolate chip.

The next morning we were slow to rise, but eventually got dressed and met up with Grant’s parents for lunch at Jekel and Hyde. It was a horror-themed restaurant that had “an actor” and animatronics throughout. Think Chucky Cheese meets some classic horror nerds fantasy. The combo was an unforgettable lunch with actually pretty decent food, which may have been the biggest surprise of all. During the lunch we procured tickets to Hadestown for Grant and I’s afternoon show as well as Tootsie for Grant and his mom to see the next day.

Hadestown was amazing. We had perfect seats in the middle of the orchestra and for whatever reason the seats in front of us were vacant (the only ones in Orchestra). Grant was excited when I point out Jennifer Tilly was there who is known for her excellent work on Liar Liar and Bride of Chucky. Going in Grant was a bit skeptical because the premise was strange. Essentially it was the story of Orpheus and Eurydice who sang a song to reunited with his love who was in the underworld. Not something that sounds exciting, but add a full band and a New Orleans jazz theme and you have an 8-time Tony winner.

The show got out around 7 and the final show of the evening was Moulin Rouge. A hot ticket item right now and sold out for months. This was the one show Grant requested to see so we wanted to make sure we got to see it. With less than hour to show time and no tickets in hand I was getting a bit nervous as this was close even for our standards. We waited patiently in the canceled ticket line with the hopes of securing tickets. Grant and I stood 6th and 7th in line when the box office attendant stated he expected there to only be six tickets. So we got out our phones and purchased last-minute mezzanine tickets for half the price they were being offered early that day. With it being an instant download we waved goodbye to the friend we had made in line and simply went from the cancelled line into the theater.

The set was absolutely amazing. The story was similar to the movie. The music was atrocious. Instead of creating their own music they utilized songs from current artists like Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Adele and mashed them up to fit the story. To me…and the people around me…it didn’t work. In fact, the girl that was sitting next to me who was scoffing the majority of the first half didn’t even bother coming back for the second half. A clear disappointment, but a success to see a play that was clearly difficult to see.

Afterward, we met up with Grant’s mom, Carol, who had wanted to see Chicago instead. Not a bad decisions considering the scathing comments Grant and I shared walking to pick her up. We found her leaving the theater and then went to NY’s Little Italy for some good Italian food. Our normal stomping grounds is La Mela, which is a whole in the wall Italian restaurant that is open to 3am. This was the first time we visited this place not after getting off a plane starving so the food was good but not as good as it usually is with us starving. We all parted ways and went to bed on full stomachs.

My final morning in NY, Grant and I woke up and tried to come up with a game-plan for the day. We originally discussed going to Coney Island, but after reviewing the time requirements we decided against it. After picking up Carol, instead we walked through Central Park and after a bit of bad navigation on my part ate a restaurant in the park called Tavern on the Green. Carol mentioned that she had heard of it before, but Grant and I were clueless. Fortunately we were full as we would need the energy to climb our next stop—the Brooklyn Bridge. The bridge itself was just okay in my opinion, but having climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge has caused my expectations to be abnormally high compared to others. This was the last point for me as when I got to the end of the bridge I called an Uber to get a ride to the airport. Grant went back and met up with his mom and finished the trek. The plane took off on time and nothing adventurous to report.

The next morning I woke up to several messages from Grant who was all excited about the Tootsie show he saw with his mother. He absolutely loved the show and even got to take a picture with the lead actor. Needless to say he was much happier about this musical than Moulin Rouge. In the end, I saw 4 shows in 52 hours and Grant saw 6 shows in about 70 hours so I think we maximized our time wisely and saw as much as we could in the time we gave ourselves there. Well done.

Best of San Diego Party and Hollywood Forever Cemetery

One event that Grant and I look forward to all year is the Best of San Diego Party hosted by San Diego Magazine. The event takes all of the best restaurants in San Diego and has them provide samples or tastings of their cuisine. Like the previous few years, we went with the Newman/Baker/Brandel clan and ate and drank like gods. The location was a bit different this year as it was across the street in an empty field as compared to the permanent structure at Liberty Station.

My personal favorite food item was Puesto’s shrimp taco, which is opening a location in Mission Valley soon! My other two favorites were the pork and shrimp dumplings for the Dumpling Inn and the ice cream from Ann’s Dry Cleaning. All of the food was delicious and I expect us to continue participating in this event for the foreseeable future.

The next day, Grant, Lara, and Michael and I hopped in a car and began our trek to Los Angeles for Cinespia’s Slumber Party at the Forever Hollywood Cemetery. Louis drove and was going to meet us up there. Traffic was a nightmare and it took us about 4 hours to make it Los Angeles with one pit stop at Raising Canes for lunch. Finally, we made our way to our hotel—Westin Bonaventure Hotel to get ready for the evening. The hotel has been used in multiple films and it was really neat walking around remembering random scenes from movies. It also didn’t hurt that the hotel reminded us of the movie with placards.

The pool for the hotel was on a rooftop on the fourth floor. It was really neat lounging in a pool with skyscrapers surrounding us and made from some really cool photos. Time wasn’t our friend due to the late arrival so we were only able to stay for a little while. After getting cleaned up, we all piled into the Mini Cooper to go pick up a sandwich from a local place that Lara choose. The last time that Lara navigated was in Colorado and we ended up at a Yogi Bear Park in Colorado Springs. Instead, of a spa and resort in Denver. This year, she took the lead to find the food and while the directions were great the restaurant was closed. Of course, we are going to tease her about this for the rest of her life.

Instead of sandwiches, we ended up grabbing Little Ceasers, which is right outside the cemetery. The event opens at 6:45 pm and you rush through a graveyard to an empty plot of land where a projector is set up. If you get there late you have to set up next to a mausoleum. You set up chairs, food, drinks and have an evening with hundreds of other people watching 90’s movies. This year’s movies were Never Been Kissed, I Know What You Did Last Summer and JawBreaker.

We got a decent spot and watched the first movie. People provided their own commentary throughout and we laughed at how ridiculous the movie has become over the years. After the first movie, a DJ was brought in and a dance party erupted at the cemetery. Definitely, something you are only going to do in LA. After a bit of time, Pizza Hut, who was a sponsor of the movie showed up to provide the audience with free pizza. This, of course, created a frenzy of people wanting to grab and snatch, but eventually, we got one of the pizzas. To our surprise, it was still hot! Way to go Pizza Hut on that one.

The second movie began right at midnight. Another movie that doesn’t hold up well is I Know What You Did Last Summer. The acting in the movie is atrocious and the plot has so many holes in it that you cannot remember why you thought at one point in your life this was a good movie. At the end of the movie, the DJ came out again, but the majority of the people left. Everyone was tired so we retreated to our hotel room and fell right to sleep.

Next morning we got up and went to the Grand Central Market, which was about 10, 12, 14, or 15 minutes away from the hotel. Anytime we looked at a map for directions it would change so needless to say it was reasonably close. The majority of us wanted to try Eggslut, which is an egg-centric food stand offering egg sandwiches. Of course, this place had the longest line in the entire market, but we wanted to try it so we waited. When the sandwiches arrived—they were okay. I deconstructed mine and thought it tasted better separate than all together.

On the way back, we went through a tunnel. A strange man was on the other side of the tunnel and he randomly stopped walking midway through the tunnel. We continued walking. It turns out he was getting out a syringe to inject himself in the arm with some sort of concoction in a water bottle. Needless to say, LA has a drug problem and we got to witness it firsthand. We drove back following this strange occurrence and made it home in about 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Down the Tube....Schlitterbahn 2019

This trip to Schlitterbahn will go down as probably the “most interesting.” Instead of flying into San Antonio or Dallas, we flew into Austin, which was about 45 minutes from the waterpark. We flew into the South Terminal in Austin, which looked like a private airport. They ended up opening the front and rear exits of the plane and we walked outside on the tarmac before heading inside. Due to traffic, Grant’s parents were a bit late so we Ubered to our hotel. His parents were there when we arrived and we quickly unloaded our belongings and speed off to dinner.

Grant had organized a dinner with family at his favorite Italian chain—Carrabba’s Italian Grill. Dinner was nice as it was great seeing everyone since I was unable to attend the wedding. Afterward, we parted ways with the parents and headed back to Clint and Jillian’s casa to hang out. We watched a few TV shows and conversed over Clint’s handmade old fashions.

The time difference is always a bit of a headache as it requires us to go to bed early and wake up early, which is a bit of a challenge for Grant. I take an Ambien and am out no matter what time of the day. Wendy and Dylan were running a bit late so we proceeded to walk around our hotel. Needless to say, there was nothing around our hotel within walking distance. It was fun watching the plastic bags catch the wind, but if that is the most exciting activity in the area you know you are in a dull space.

Eventually, we met up with Wendy and Dylan on the side of the road and we were off. A quick pit stop to Taco Cabana and then the ice-cold water was to commence. Upon entering, we found that purchasing tickets online were cheaper than in person. So we attempted to get the tickets online, but for whatever reason, none of our cards would work with their system. We went to a turn stall and purchased them in person without issue.

Upon entering the park, you walk through a gift shop. Having forgotten to bring a wetsuit shirt to avoid sunburn—we went crazy and bought shirts, towels, and also a waterproof phone case. I ended up buying a large instead of a medium for the shirt because these types of shirts run small. I should have bought an XXXL because I had to have Grant help me into the shirt.

Unlike prior years were the masterbaster watches required you to synchronize your watches with your group at a stand—this year's new and improved watches were an all-in-one where you could simply select the ride on your watch. I loved this feature because as soon as we were scanned in for our selected ride we simply choose our next ride at our convenience. The problem though is that Grant’s died along the way and we did have to “reactivate it.”

With the “fast pass,” all the rides waits were cut in half and we were jumping from one ride to the next. The oldest part of the park, which utilizes the river water-- we finished in record time. We then made our way to the newer side of the park and rode the main attractions over there. I will say it was nice cutting the line that people had been waiting hours for as it made us seem like VIPs.

However, our joy of cutting the line came back to hit us 3x fold. The lazy river, which is usually busy was beyond chaotic. Collecting the required tubes were near impossible and we had to catch people leaving to get them. We rode the river once and then Wendy and Dylan disappeared. We stopped multiple times to find them but to no avail. Grant and I finally got out to call them only to find that Grant’s iPhone X was not working. The screen had completely died and we were unable to make calls. The phone has an emergency or 911 call feature so we thought we had accidentally triggered this. So how we were able to answer the call without seeing who was on the line and it turned out it was Wendy dealing with her issues.

Wendy exited the lazy river because Dylan was not feeling well. He had a migraine that was causing him to emesis. Wendy brought him to the health station and just like a school nurse—they had bandaids and not much else. Grant and I quickly retreated to the health station where we caught Wendy wrangling the car. Wendy got Dylan into a hotel room, we grabbed dinner at Los Cucos and then we headed back to your hotel for an early morning flight back to SD.

Scared Boys Cracking Jokes at Museums

The real start to Comic-Con happens weeks before it officially begins with random drawings and ticket grabs happening in the blink of an eye. This year we continued our luck and were able to secure tickets to ScareDiego and the Conan taping on Saturday.

ScareDiego is in its 3rd year and is dedicated to horror movies that are about to come out. This year it was all about the future blockbuster—It Chapter 2. We saw the world premiere of the trailer, 2 exclusive clips and got a full-interview from the cast and director. It was interesting learning about some of the behind the scenes aspects including how they used fake blood. A fact I didn’t know— the blood has to be cold otherwise it putrefies and begins to smell like vomit.

The first real day of Comic-Con was on Thursday and it began by going to the Amazon Prime Activation. They were promoting three shows— The Expanse, The Boys, and Carnival Row. I decided to spend the majority of my time trying to get into “The Boys” activation. The premise behind this show is that superheroes have run amok and they are crooked as can be. Comic-con is nicknamed “Line-Con” and for good reason, as sometimes it takes forever to get through anything. The great news was that Amazon provided food including pretzel bites, churros, fruit, etc, which made the waiting more tolerable. Eventually, I made my way up to the front and got to participate in an interactive room escape with a cool smoking car.

Later that day, I attempted to go down to the convention center, but I was stopped on the street when a live band began to play right in front of me. I recorded a bit of their session, which is below.

After stopping multiple times to admire some of the cosplay, watch the live entertainment, and eat free food— I went to the Indigo Ballroom to watch various panels. I saw a table reading of the upcoming second season of Netflix’s The Order, two episodes of Amazon Prime’s Endure, the pilot of ABC’s Emergence, and some clips from Stumptown. This was all well and good, but the highlight was to see Crank Yankers. Grant made his way down for this one panel and it did not disappoint. The panelists were hilarious, we saw/heard various prank calls and even witnessed the panelist turn on the audience. They proceeded to make fun of certain audience members including calling out “an obvious cat lady.” We found it hysterical and are both thrilled for the upcoming season.

Friday was the opening of the Epic’s Pennyworth Activation, which found us in the basement of Oxford Social Club. The club had been completely transformed into 1960’s London with multiple actors and sets being brought in to sell the effect. Afterward, I made my way into Ballroom 20 where I saw the premiere episode of Hulu’s Veronica Mars and stayed to watch the panel for The Boys. After wandering around the convention floor I took off back home for a restful night sleep.

Saturday was the day that we were going to see a taping of the Conan O’Brien show with special guests from Carnival Row. Everyone loves going to these tapings because we are awarded a limited edition Pop figure, which we always turn around for cold hard cash. This year we received the Woody figure, which was sold in a matter of seconds for $80. This year I was joined by Tarina, Emily, and Lara as Grant had run off to San Francisco for a show. After the taping, we ate at Sushi Deli and made our way to see “Baby Trump.” This year the balloon that has been flying over various parts of the country to mock President Trump landed in San Diego. We made it just before they started to deflate him so we got a few pictures and were happy!

Sunday was the last day at Comic-Con and I was burned out. Jake, Grant’s brother was still going strong, but I wanted to do something different. Since San Diego is no longer a sports town with the recent departure of the SD Chargers render the Hall of Champions Museum a bit obsolete. San Diego Comic-Con was awarded the museum to bring about a new place to highlight pop culture. They had a pop-up Batman Exhibit that Tarina, Jake and myself attended. It was cool, but I was hoping for a bit more. They had a unique “Her Universe” design section, which had some really neat outfits made out of legos.

The day and con ended with a visit to Mona Lisa for some obligatory pizza. It was a great convention and I hope to go again next year. :)

We are VIPS...Even Though Our Tickets Say General Admission...

This past weekend found us heading up north to the Bay Area once again with the goal of laughing until it hurt. On Friday night, we found our way onto an awful United flight that was bound for San Francisco. [PSA: Don’t fly United basic economy—it’s worse than Spirit]. Checking in late caused us both to get middle seats in the back of the plane. Upon landing, we got in an Uber that was being driven by a guy who was jamming out to Elton John’s “Can You Feel the Love Tonight...” He was really going for it with his vocal inflections and it was difficult for Grant and me not to snicker. Laughing at an Uber driver was probably a good indication that the trip was going to be laughable.

Our first stop was to Tony’s in North Beach, which has the best pizzas I have probably ever had. They know it’s good too as they charge people $30+ for a normal size pizza. We even had to get it to go as it was impossible to get a table before they closed with wait times exceeding their business hours. We chowed down at Kate’s before turning in for the night.

Grant slept until 10:30 am. I want to make sure I document that because he always claims to not be able to sleep past 9:00 am, but he definitely did! Haha. I got bored waiting for him so I took off to explore the streets on my own. We eventually met up and had a burger before heading down to the “capital” according to Jonathan Van Ness (Queer Eye guy) during his not-so-funny segment.

The main allure of this trip was to go to Clusterfest. Sponsored by Comedy Central, this three-day festival housed some of the biggest names in comedy scheduled sporadically throughout the day. The venue was pretty spectacular as it was smooshed in the middle of a park that was between SF’s city hall, civic auditorium, and their museums.

What became quite clear was that Grant and I got there really early. Having not learned from past festivals, just because the venue is open doesn’t mean anything is going on. We quickly made a b-line to the Crank Yankers installation. The show is coming back in the fall, which we are extremely excited about.

The festival implemented a new reservation ticket system for some of the smaller venues. Instead of waiting in the standby line, you would “reserve your spot” and wait in a far smaller line that guaranteed entry. The only problem was that as soon as the reservations were released (on the hour) they would instantly sell-out. The only tickets that would be available were VIP tickets, but those were issued to individuals who spent a fortune on their tickets.

There were 4 stages spread out through the venue with some you could just walk in. Most of the walk-in were duds so we eventually waited in one of the long lines and made it in. The show was hilarious — Jonathan Veiht— and it really served as a turning point for the festival. Here's a video of one that we loved. that he has done previously

The next reservation came available and like the previous 3 attempts—it sold out beside the VIP. Frustrated, I signed up for the VIP tickets and for whatever reason it gave me passes. It did warn that a “VIP” bracket would be checked, but based upon how lacks security had been we felt that we could "chance it." We were successful! We got into the next show and watched as comic after comic did their own version of stand-up.

After about the third show, our friend Levent showed up with this girlfriend. They were in the main room that was housing John Mulaney who is my favorite comic right now. The stadium was packed and they were in the middle standing room section. The show let out and I rushed to find actual seats. Again, nothing was available in the general admission side, but there was plenty in the VIP section. I casually went under the rope divider and secured us left orchestra seats about 7 rows back from the stage. The only catch was that we were not the only ones who had the same idea.

Security came lurking around and caught everyone around us who had the same idea. However, after coaching Grant to avoid eye contact with the security guards we were good. The opening acts were hilarious and John Mulaney’s set did not disappoint. Afterward, we ran over to the “Colossal Stage” where the next large act of the night, Leslie Jones from SNL was to perform.

Having done it all day, I casually walked again to the VIP section, which had availability center orchestra about 5 rows back again. Again, we had no problem and were able to have a seat in a mostly standing room only type of venue. The show was great and we accomplished our main goal, which was to laugh until it hurt.

The rest of the trip had us hanging out with Kate. We visited Fisherman’s Wharf and the Jack London Square in Oakland. Hoped on a Southwest flight on the way back and made it home ready for another day at work.

Let’s Visit My New Home…And How About You Come to My New Home….

When you start a new job it is important to make a good first impression. The unknowns such as is the employee reliable, are they flaky, are they serious about this position… are usually sorted out by their behavior during this period of time. So of course, Grant schedules a trip to Dallas to visit friends during the first week of my new job. This was not his fault as the trip was planned well in advance and I agreed to it, but walking that tightrope of personal and professional can be challenging for avid travelers such as us because of the unknowns. The good news was that the flight was scheduled for a Friday at 6pm well after work hours so it would not impair or jeopardize my first week completely.

Reliability of an airliner getting you from Point A to Point B is nevermore critical when there is the added pressure of showing up for your second week of work. So of course, Grant schedules us on Spirit Airlines. The ultra-low cost carrier with the stellar reputation of being late more often than on time. Its reputation was accurate as throughout the day we received notification that the airliners was delayed an hour, then another, then another, then another half an hour. The flight that was supposed to leave at 6pm and arrive at 11pm (2 hour time difference) was now leaving at 9:30pm and arriving at 2:30am. The silver lining was that due to the delays Spirit gave both Grant and I a $100 credit each, which is pretty great considering the entire round trip flight cost $150. They also upgraded us to the big seats for free, which made the trip go by super fast!

The hotel we stayed at used to be the Night Hotel. It was a privately owned hotel that had a nightclub like feel to it. The hotel was bought out by Wyndam, but we wanted to try it and see if it retained the unique vibe that it had. Well…it still had remnants of the Night Inn, but the vibe was completely different. The hotel was home to a Bango Music Camp this weekend, which brought out some of the more interesting folk of Texas. It definitely made walking through the hotel feel really country-like.

After sleeping in we made our way to Carabbas. There are a lot of chains in Texas that we cannot get in California and this was one that Grant loves. It was a bit of a tumultuous meal as both Grant and I were a bit “hangry” and the poor waiter had to deal with us bickering back and forth trying to order. Like eating a Snickers commercial, we were back to our normal perky selves after a solid meal.

Our first real stop on the trip was to our good friend Wendy’s new casa-de-amazing. She had just moved in a month ago and the house was gorgeous. The floor plan was really unique as the main living room and kitchen was located on the 2nd floor, which was a bit of a departure from the norm. We hung out for a bit and met her new boyfriend, Dylan whom both Grant and I liked very much. The two were annoyingly cute together and genuinely seemed to make each other happy.

Grant was dying to go to the spa so he stole Wendy’s car and ran away to the spa. Wendy, Dylan and I decided to go to Regeneration, which is a classic arcade palace that lets you play all the games I use to play as a kid. My favorite part was that I was able to try out some different strategies with these games that I never wanted to do because I was having to pay for each attempt. I died more often than I like to admit in the games, but since it was unlimited play it did not matter at all.

Keeping with the theme of dying, our next stop was watching medieval jousters lunge big lances at one an another in an attempt to kill the other—ie. Medieval Times. Dylan was super awesome and surprised us with upgrading our seats to the front row, which made our experience even better. The only problem was our knight sucked. He was the first one to joust and the first one to die. He came back later for the loser round and lost again. It was hard to cheer for him, but he really did make it easy to cheer against him.

Barely able to keep my eyes open, Grant somehow convinced me to visit S4. This venue is home to his favorite drag queen Cassie Nova. Now, I am not the biggest fan of drag, but I do know good drag when I see it. While the performers at the Rose Room were not up to my caliber of drag this evening the highlight was clearly Cassie Nova’s opening monologue where she tore into anyone and everyone breathing. Heckling is an art form and can turn the audience against you if not done right. But she was able to masterfully read the room and spit out just the right amount of venom for the audience.

The next morning we slowly got up and met up with Wendy, Dylan, Blake and Austin at “Stock and Barrel” in Bishop Arts. Everyone liked the restaurant and the carafe of mimosas shared between Grant and I made the whole brunch even better.

Afterwards, we stopped by Blake and Austin’s new place (that technically they have had for a little while, but we have not seen). Their house was immaculate as if it was staged by a professional. The small details in coloring really made everything stand out and pop. We weren’t able to stay long, but got the full tour of the house and got to say hello to their adorable puppies.

The final stop on our whirlwind trip was to a Voodoo room escape in Addison. The one thing I will complain about Texas is nothing is close. People say 15 minutes is close. I think 15 minutes is far. This is probably because I am spoiled in San Diego, but I just loathe long commutes. It was about 25 minutes from Blake/Austin’s to the Room Escape and then 25/30 minutes from the room escape to the airport.

We arrived at the room escape late— not a shocker for those that know us. Our time was from 1:30 to 2:30. With a 30 minute commute, that would put us to the airport at 3:00pm. Our flight boards at 3:20 and leaves at 4:00. Cutting it close is normally our modus operandi, but as I am getting older I am getting more paranoid about missing flights. Again…new job…

Dylan and Wendy were the true MVP’s of this room as I just ran around mostly confused. We ended up completing the room and getting out with about 10 minutes to spare. We hopped in Dylan’s Prius and floored it to the airport. For those curious, priuses can go above 50mph. So its more the driver’s fault than the car when you're angry at the car for crawling on the highway.

We boarded the flight and had the last row all to ourselves. Smooth trip and back in one piece for Monday at work.

An Escaping Angel in the Zombie Apocalypse

Needing a break from a stressful month of remodeling, job hopping, and life— Grant and I decided to take a quick weekend trip to Vegas. Grant just went to Vegas and is always trying to get me to go. I finally caved under the condition that this weekend was not going to be about weird shows, but rather activities or hands-on experiences.

Our flight left Saturday morning and it was delayed. Evidently, its extremely difficult to get a flight crew the day before Easter for a 45 minute flight. So even though the plane was here and ready to go— we had a 2 hour delay due to flight attendants having to be brought in. A minor snafu because everything was already scheduled, but Vegas is really great about being flexible with rescheduling things if needed.

We took an uber from the airport to our grand hotel— The Linq. Straight up real talk— don’t stay at The Linq. It sucks. The food is awful, gambling is awful, rooms are tiny, weird smells, and a $35 resort fee per night. We originally were going to stay at Park MGM, but due to the timing of our flight this was a better deal. Upon entering our room we opened the window to find that we were looking at a cement wall. Needless to say our room looked like a prison.

Needing substance since we had only eaten junk food at the airport— we went over to Julian Serano’s Tapas at the Aria. Tapas are expensive little bits of Spanish food that are super flavorful. We ordered about 6 of them and our total skyrocketed north of $150.

The only thing memoriable thing about the lunch was when Grnat and I started intentionally saying super embarassing things. A guy leaned over the glass wall that was next to our table to talk to the table beside us. Finding this rude, instead of just being quite I started saying really perverted and inappropraite things really loud to embarass the guy to leave. It worked and we had a very nice remaining time at the resturant.

On a full stomach we left to go shoot zombies. We signed up for this Zombie Apocalypse experience taught by marines where we would storm buildings and shoot up anything in sight. We geared up and were taught the basics of breaching doors and where to go upon entering. If your the last person in you become the lookout. The experiecne on a whole was cool even though the zombies were a bit cheesy. Basically, guys dressed up in bunny costumes, clown costumes, and football costumes.

Having survived out encourter we then ran over to see Chris Angel’s new show Mindfreak. Fair warning. I hate Chris Angel. I find his show boring and dumb. Grant on the otherhand loves the show. Found it to be amazing and one of his favorite shows. My favorite part was sitting next to this “local” who had seen the show a few times, was clearly apart of Chris Angel’s fan club, and narrated the entire show. Even though everyone kept yelling at her to “shut-up” he beligerant demeanor and love of Chris Angel prevented her from shutting her trap. The real show was her.

I couldn’t convice Grant to leave early so we were running a bit late to our last stop, which was the Saw Escape Room. They dropped us off at a random meat packing plant, which was a cover for the game. Not knowing this in advance, we circled the block, which was not a smart idea considering where we were. Thankfully we were not mugged and made our way back to the store front. This time a security guard was there to usher us in.

Our team included Grant, myself, and 3 other random girls. We tried to be friendly and ask them if they had ever done an escape room. There response was “no we have never done an escape room, but we have done a room escape.” I was a bit puzzled by this response, but just said “cool.” The entire escape room was top notch and a lot of fun to do. Jigsaw was there to greet us and explained the rules of the game.

Once it got started Grant and I took over and tried giving people tasks. The other team members kind of just stood around. We would give them codes to put into doors and they would “attempt it” and it wouldn’t work. So I would then try it and it miraculously worked. Since its timed it is critical to be able to get everything done in a timely manner and they were not helping. We completed 4 out of the 7 rooms, which I took as a win. At the end we were brought into a gift shop. Grant and I looked around and the girls we were with just sat down. We went to leave and the girls who were super confused thought the gift shop was apart of the game. They literally got stuck in a gift shop. lol. We ended the night with room service.

The next morning we ate at our favorite Italian buffet — Buddy V’s. It was delicious as always and was a good price of $40 for a buffet on Easter. We then walked the strip up and down looking at the different hotels. Grant took off to go to the spa and I went back to the room to chill and watch the game. We checked out, our plane was again 2 hours late due to the flight attendants, and made our way home that is under construction. Fun times.

Lighting Up and Zipping Through Puerto Rico

Somehow, we went from Colombia/Brazil to Puerto Rico, but it was a fun trip, so we are happy with the way it played out. We left on a Wednesday and got in bright and early on Thursday morning. With the kitchen and bathroom remodel going on, work, extra classes, and probably just a little laziness on our part—we had nothing planned. So, after sleeping in we took off and made our way to Old San Juan.

Old San Juan reminded us of Havana a bit with the brightly colored buildings and general buzz in the air. Tip for anyone—do not drive in Old San Juan. Take a taxi, uber, or just walk it. Parking is a zoo with people parking on top of each other and its virtually a one way out type of place. We parked next to a police station and walked about a mile back. It was a fun time and I, of course, got the most important item of the trip, which is my mask. We have a little collection started now, and I hope for it to grow even bigger.

That night we stopped at the beach and splashed around for a bit. There were several hotels in the area that were abandoned and/or still being renovated from Hurricane Maria. It was an eerie feeling as it felt like half the city was missing or closed. It felt as if Thanos snapped his finger in Puerto Rico and we were living post-defeat. Once back at the hotel we came up with a gameplan for tours and sorted out the rest of the trip.

Friday morning, we started early and were off to do a jet ski tour of Old San Juan. The tour directions were wrong, but we eventually made our way to where we needed to go. We met our tour guide who clearly was not a big fan of mainlanders. He said as much on the actual tour. This was great because it was just two mainlanders (Grant and I) on the tour. He briefly showed us how to operate the jet ski and then he was off. Our mission was to catch up to him as best we could. The water was choppy and unless we were going 50 mph we thought we were going to fly off. We made our way around Old San Juan, snapped some cool photos, ate the local dish (Mofongo) and then headed to El Yunque National Park.

The park was in the “rainforest,” which is a must do for Grant and me on any trip that has this type of topography. Again, a lot was closed due to the hurricane. We did climb a bit and there was a pretty waterfall right at the beginning. We hiked a tower that had awesome views of the area and then headed back down for our final event of the evening the bioluminescent tour.

This tour was a mess. The idea was that we would kayak the bay to the Laguna Grande lagoon. There we would kayak a lagoon that lit up every time we paddled. It lights up because of these single-celled microorganisms called dinoflagellates. These microorganisms glow briefly, usually in a blue-green color, whenever they are disturbed. The problem with the tour was that there were about 30 kayaks and it was pitch black. People went with wrong tours, people didn’t expect it to be so physical, and then the tour guides did not speak English well. It was an experience that we will remember as there are only 5 lagoons in the world like this and 3 are in Puerto Rico.

The final day found us tackling the world’s longest zip line “El Mostruo” at ToroVerde. We got there and met up with some of Grant’s co-workers that just so happened to have been honeymooning in the area. The first part of the adventure was tackling 8 fairly long zip lines for about 2 hours. Then came the Monster.

This zip line was a bit different because we had to lay in a harness and do our best Superman impression, which is not something we have done before. In total, the zip line was 1.5 miles long and reached speeds of 95 mph. The whole experience was a blur, but it was an incredible feeling while it was happening. We took a few pictures to commemorate our experience and then headed back to San Juan.

For whatever reason, I may have booked our hotel next to a Fogo De Chao, which may be one of my favorite restaurants. It just so happened that it was also the only restaurant that was open, and walkable, and I had a coupon…and I definitely planned this.

We definitely needed to get out of the house and let off some steam and we did just that in Puerto Rico. On to the next adventure! 😊

Day 3, 4 and 5 in Bali

Day 3

Water the Elephants

After a disappointing end to Day 2, we wanted to make sure our next day was better. The good news was Day 3 was the day I was looking forward to the most. Our day was, to begin with, white river rafting, followed by riding elephants at a sanctuary, and ending with a two-hour spa service.

To everyone’s dismay we had to wake up a bit early (8 am), but we had prearranged with the hotel to have our breakfast made early so it wasn’t all that rough. Our driver/tour guide Alid was on time and ready to drive us to the river rafting. What we did not know was that the river rafting and elephant experience were at the same place.

After a minimal wait, we were off and trekking down a path in a jungle to our river. What we learned quite quickly in Bali was that there really was no safety instructions and we kind of could do whatever we wanted as long as we tipped. To this end, we hopped in the river blindly and were met almost instantly with repeated drops. We quickly became soaked and remained that way throughout as there were waterfalls and rapids that came crashing into our poor raft.

Our tour guide was a bit quirky. He tried to make jokes, but they were strange and only half funny. His movements in the boat were also counter-intuitive. Why we would turn 270 degrees instead of a quick 90 sharp turn bewildered me, but we got through it. At one point he found it funny to ask us to paddle back into a drop and our boat became flooded. Instead of being concerned he laughed and started splashing us with the water in the boat. We stopped at a few places and cliff dived. Eventually, we got back in the raft and completed the experience.

After a quick shower, we walked to the other end of the park and started our elephant experience. The elephants came quickly and we hopped on them. The only thing holding us in was a single elastic strap that was knotted. After no instructions or warning, we were off riding an elephant. Unsurprising, it was not a smooth experience and going downhill on an elephant is quite challenging.

We made our way around the park and to a watering/bathing hole for the elephant. Up until this point, we were sitting on a bench on the elephants back. This is when the guide who was leading asked if we wanted to change spots. Meaning I would be driving the elephant and sitting right behinds its head. With its big ears flapping and hitting my knees, we submerged ourselves in the water and went back to where we started. Holding on for dear life the elephant sat down to pose for pictures and I was forced to clutch the elephant as to not fall off. All the while the guide laughing and coaxing me on. The elephant had repeated this path numerous times I am sure, got up, and made its way back to the launch pad.

After getting back Grant and Erica were given the same choice and Grant, of course, wanted to try this for himself. It was obvious that this unique opportunity was not without calculation as it was clear that the guide wanted remuneration. We obliged as this is likely a once in a lifetime opportunity.

We met our driver and we started the journey to the spa. It was frustrating for us as the tour company did not plan our tours correctly. Instead of going to a local spa we had to go to where we were in Day 2. A person can only be so agitated and any tension quickly melted away when the spa service began. After an hour Balinese massage, we completed a body scrub and a tub soak. Our relaxed bodies sauntered back to the car to be driven to dinner.

We ate dinner on the sand watching the sunset. It was nice, but not that memorable.

On the way back we asked our driver to stop at a store where we could pick up a few souvenirs. Bali is all about negotiation and being a tourist means everything is 5x as expensive as it needs to be. Our driver scored major brownie points with me as he took us to an actual store that had all of the souvenirs that flooded the market at rock bottom prices. We didn’t have to negotiate at all and were able to get anything we wanted. I stocked up and spent 1.5 million IDR...or $100 USD.

Day 4

Relaxing at the Cave; Sipping Holy Water

At dinner the day before we reviewed our itinerary and realized our tours had us zig-zagging throughout all of Indonesia. We decided to forgo going to the volcano we had planned and see the waterfall, elephant cave, and the holy spring temple. Traffic had played a large role in our choices as Bali has more traffic then one would imagine. The main road is the equivalent of one lane in the US divided into two with cars and scooters going in both directions.

As I tried to wake Grant up in the morning he politely asked to stay at the hotel and skip the day's activities. Erica and I then headed out as a duo to the waterfall. When we arrived we were shocked by the number of people. This was clearly a tourist hotspot as there were more people here than any of the previous locations we visited.

We got out and made our way down the never-ending staircase. Along the way, they had really great spots to take pictures. It was clear they were pandering to those that wanted selfies or Instagram moments, but we were rather receptive to this stopping at each spot. The waterfall itself was nice and we got some great photos. The way back up was torture and an elevator was not an option. Knowing we wanted to make this a quick tour we pressed on and were back on the road to the elephant cave temple.

Another tourist destination, the Elephant Cave Temple got its name for a cave that was used to pray to the elephant god, Ganesha. What was really cool was that there were statues that acted as water fountains you could drink from to purify yourself. Both Erica and I took part in this ritual drinking what and cleaning ourselves in this holy water. After wandering around a bit more we made our way to a few souvenirs shops. In an attempt to get the best deal we decided to speak in a different language. I showed my skill at Spanglish and Erica German. It sorta worked and we picked up a few of the souvenirs we missed the day before.

Our last stop was the holy spring temple where you actually bathe in the holy water. As customary, men and women are required to were sarongs into the temple. I grabbed mine, but Erica did not grab one as she had been cleared at the other temples with her long dress. When the time came to hop into the water I began waffling. Should I or shouldn’t I. I was a bit ill, the water was cold, I had open sores on my feet, but I said fine why not. Right, when I was about to get in an attendant stopped Erica and asked her to put on a sarong. You could only get this at the front as we didn’t have one and I took this as divine intervention to skip this one. We left after navigating through a maze of gift shops where they literally were grabbing you and forcing you into their stores.

Back at the hotel, we ate at the hotel restaurant, got another massage and swam at our pool.

Day 5

Scooter Crashing Requires Another Massage Before Performance

Our last day in paradise and are truly only free day of the trip. We got up slowly and went to pick up the scooters we rented from the hotel. After learning how to turn them on we made our way down to the rice fields. We stopped for a little while and walked around looking at the fields. Everything is so green and lush in a Bali because of the extensive canals they created that feed water everywhere.

We hopped back on our bikes and drove to a restaurant that was recommended. It was okay, but Grant was thrilled because they had chicken parmigiana. Having eaten nothing but rice and chicken for the last few days I could understand why he made the choice. After settling the bill, we decided to stop attempting to drive in this crazy city as we were going to get run over.

As we left Grant did not turn the bike hard and fast enough so he fell over instead of crashing into the ditch. With a little bit of a bruised ego, there was no convincing him of staying out any later. We rode back to the hotel where we decided to get more spa services. If this seems excessive to anyone—1. It definitely was, but 2. The services were so cheap that it seemed dumb not too. After a 2 hour massage and facial we cleaned up for the hotels pre-New Years party.

The hotel turned the top layer of a rice terrace into a stage where we were greeted with a show full of local villagers performing their various talents and an all you could eat buffet. The food was good and the talent was interesting. Having seen nearly every show in Vegas our standards are pretty high for variety shows. After watching the first act we definitely lowered those quite a bit. However, it was fascinating watching their talents and learning what Indonesia considered art. The show ended at the same time we needed to head to the airport so we slipped out a few minutes early.

We drove to the airport and started our 22-hour flight back home. The trip was great and our first of many trips to Asia. The lifestyle and living conditions are extremely different and really just shows how truly diverse the world really is.

Day 1 and 2 in Bali

Day One in Bali

Monkey Temple Closed for Dancing

It’s great to have a plan. The problem is when you’re the only one following the plan. Upon landing, we contacted Erica as she was joining us for the trip. She mentioned that we needed to ask for an “express pass” at customs. Evidentially, if you pay $20 US Dollars to a customs attendant you get to skip the line. We paid, got our stamp and made it through in 10 minutes.

This must have messed up the driver because there was no driver waiting for us. We found a taxi driver and headed to the villa. Fast forward an hour and we are there...or so we thought. The driver told us it was right down a path, but due to the terrain, it would not be possible to drive down there. So we grabbed our bags and were off. The only problem was that it was not the correct spot. We entered some random property and called the hotel. They were confused and not helpful. We decided to take the other path and we got to what we thought was our hotel. So at the front desk, the lights were on, but no one in site. All of a sudden a man jumps up from behind the desk who does not speak any English. Thinking this was the person we just spoke with we attempted to request our keys. The only problem was they didn’t have our reservation. Not a shocker since it was the wrong hotel. Fortunately, I had printed a receipt and they showed us the correct area to go. Mind you this is about 3 am Bali time and we are running on minimal food and sleep. So the fact that we found our hotel and were not sleeping in rice patties is a miracle.

The villa we stayed in was just wonderful. The views from our bed/deck were picturesque and the infinity pool was exquisite. The decoration surrounding the area created a peaceful and tranquil environment ripe from our Western culture to exploit. Here are some photos.

We woke from what I would consider a nap since we got minimal sleep and began our tour for that day. We were a bit late because Erica could not figure out how to unlock the bathroom. Turning the handle was the key. I walked over turned the handle and magically it unlocked.

Our first stop was the Ubud Monkey Forest. This area is known for their wild monkey population who are revered and protected. Everywhere you looked was a monkey and they were a bit curious about us. If you ever visit think twice before bringing food In here as they will attack you. We politely gave one monkey a bottle of water to drink. When I tried picking up the bottle to recycle it glared and showed its teeth at me. The monkey could litter.

Traffic is horrible in Bali. There is always a celebration where they just walk the street and block it for cars. Add that and the fastest our driver would max go 60 Kmh (which in miles is like 30 mph) and it felt like an eternity. Finally, we crawled to a temple and took lots of pictures. It was beautiful to see and you could see the level of dedication these individuals put into their religion, which was inspiring.

Our last stop was another temple on the water. It was very pretty but not as impressive as the landlocked temple we visited. This temple just so happened to have a Fire Dance, which we stayed back to attend. Having been to a few fire shows, we had an idea of what to expect. But, nope we’re we wrong. Random flying monkeys, lighting a fire from brush and chanting from 70 men. That one was a new one for me.

Our tour guide then took us out for our dinner. The only problem was that the restaurant closed. Not sure where the miscommunication happened, but we doubled back and ate at an Indian restaurant. It was not stellar, but I guess food in the stomach is better than none at all.

The night ended with a 2-hour car ride home and a fine fair-well to the first night in Bali.

Day Two

Muddy Mess at the Beach

Exhausted from day one activities we toned it down. All we had planned was ATVs, parasailing, fly fishing, glass bottom boat, and Turtle Island. Basically, two half-day tours combined to create a really epic day.

The day started out right. The hotel had free yoga so Erica and I attempted this after breakfast. Not knowing my rights and lefts proved to be my demise as it was obvious that

I was clearly out of my element. It was fun though stretching and at least I can say that I attempted yoga in Bali.

Grant woke from his hibernation and the three of us were driven to our first stop of the day— ATVs. We had to wait a few minutes due to multiple tours going on, but eventually, we were off. The ATV tour was through rice fields, jungle and mud...lots and lots of mud. We got to really be as rough on these machines as we wanted and were really even encouraged to do so. I mean they literally had a mud circle where they let all 6 ATVs go in at once and proceed to cut each other off and splash as much mud on the surrounding people. This would have never been even fathomed in America, but here anything goes.

Leaving a muddy mess, but with a smile, on our faces, we headed to do our water sports. This is when it turned south. You hear of tourist traps and we found ourselves faced with one of the worst. Upon entering we had everything mapped out and planned, but the boat guides had a different idea.

The first thing we were told was that the parasailing was canceled due to the wind. However, the parasailing adventure was not. Confused? Yes so were we. The winds were too strong to do parasailing, but you could do a parasailing adventure for $20 each. Huh? It was obvious we were not from Kansas and were unwilling to let this go. Our hired tour guide stepped in and stated it was now $10. We grudgingly paid as we were not going to miss this opportunity over $30.

So we started with parasailing. It was cool. We had done it once before, but this was Erica’s first time. I went with her and we talked the entire time. It was really awesome being up that high and seeing everything that was around us.

The next adventure was fly fishing. This term does not mean the same thing as it does in the US. It means that you crawl into a tube with wings and are dragged so fast from the attached boat that the tube catches air. So you are literally flying in the air like a fly fish. The closest comparison I could think of is Aladdin’s carpet, but with water and a high-speed boat.

What was extremely fascinating or terrifying was that there was a Balinese man that was on the same tube with us. His sole purpose was to balance the weight when the wind caught the tube so that we would not flip around or fly off. Grant loved it so much that he paid to do it twice.

The final activity was a doozy in all the worst way. A glass bottom boat that took us to turtle island. First, the boat captain spoke no English, which was the only individual that did not at this establishment. Worst of all there was absolutely nothing to look at in the boat. It was confusing if we were to see fish on the way there or back or both. The water was extremely murky and Erica got excited to see a leaf. Dud!

The glass bottom boat was just an extra attraction they could hawk as it really was just a ferry ride to turtle island. The island itself was disgusting. No free range turtles just captive turtles. It was quite sad to see the state of some of these animals. We tipped our guide who showed us the beach who does this as a volunteer. A volunteer who is employed by the turtle beach tour company and works for tips. It was just strange all around and we all got bad vibes. We escaped as quickly as possible to return back to our villa for a nice dip in the pool and room service.