The Food Was Great, but The Scares Were Not...

Halloween is a big deal for Grant and me. We travel from coast to coast going to haunted houses to find that next big scare. This year we did not need to leave our home to be scared with all that is going on in the world, but being the thrill-seekers we decided to go out anyway. With Las Vegas “unofficially open” we rolled the dice and took a chance for a fun time.

Our Saturday morning flight out was normal. Grabbed our rental car and headed to our hotel. Grant procured a reservation for $18 a night at Stratosphere because our Halloween events were on that side of the strip. We won’t talk about how much the resort fee was... That’s where they get you.

The first stop was Mon Ami Gabi; the French bistro at the Paris Hotel. Grant loves the caesar salad at this place and constantly rants and raves. We had a very nice meal and then headed out to the Hoover Dam.

Having been to Las Vegas a million times and seen the signs for Hoover Dam tours everywhere it’s strange, but I have never been. Grant went as a child so he was excited to see it as an adult. The tours were closed, but we got to see the bridge and stand on the dam. Travel Tip: don’t park on the Nevada side. Keep going across the dam and into Arizona to save yourself the $10 parking fee Nevada tries to charge people.

We drove back to the hotel and got freshened up for our evening Haunted House. Our first stop was the Haunted Ride. This was an offshoot of the now de-funked Fright Doom at Circus Circus’s Adventure Dome and the Saw Escape Room. The premise behind this was that you would enter a haunted medical facility with doctors carrying cattle prods and usher you to a golf cart. You would then be personally chauffeured by this doctor through a maze of zombies, demons, clowns, that would chase you in the golf cart. Considering the limitations and social distancing guidelines— they did a stellar job hiding behind the fog, strobe lights and being able to sneak up on you.

Haunted houses rarely get my heart going, but it gets my stomach. Grant scored major major brownie points for getting a reservation at a restaurant that has long eluded me— Lotus of Siam. This unassuming Thai restaurant in a strip center off of the Vegas strip is anything but average. This restaurant has been featured in multiple television shows and has even been visited by the Queen of England. Grant is not a huge Thai fan so he had no idea what or how much I was ordering. I somehow managed to slip 2 appetizers, 1 soup, and 3 entrees for the two of us by him without objection. We also somehow found a way to eat all of that food. Highly recommend the Nam Kao Tod (crispy rice with sausage appetizer) and the Chef Special Crispy Duck Panang. Everything we ordered was $15 or less beside the duck, which was $30 (but the duck is usually expensive).

After licking multiple plates clean enough that they didn’t need to go through the dishwasher— Grant wheeled me out to our next haunted house. This was a new haunted house called Asylum and Hotel Fear that was found at the Meadows Mall.

There were people everywhere, but we had reservations so we were confident that we would not have to wait too long. However, as we parked and started walking to the event a gunman in a hoodie pulled out a handgun and began shooting. Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam. We had a perfect view of the guy shooting five shots away from us and others. We were close enough to see the red and orange glow of the barrel of the gun. Screams ran out and people began dispersing in every direction. We turned around, ducked our heads, and ran for the car. Grant got us out of there as quickly as he could. As we got on the highway and looked back police lights were already flashing. A bit shocked by what just happened —we returned to our hotel and called it an early night. We turned on the local news thinking that there would be some mention of the event, but there was nothing. The top story was far more sadistic and as the movie Nightcrawler put it best “if it bleeds, it leads.” So we took the non-mention as a positive that no one was hurt.

The next morning I scoured the news to see if there was any mention of our eventful evening and it didn’t even register as newsworthy in print. If Las Vegas wasn’t going to make a big deal about it neither were we. So we lounged around our room for a bit and then got up to try a restaurant Grant wanted to eat at called Firefly Tapas Kitchen and Bar. The food was spot on and continued our trend of having excellent food. Give me a bacon-wrapped date and you won’t see it for very long.

As we finished lunch, we realized we had nothing else planned. Our flight wasn’t until 7 pm so we needed something. Having looked up some side trips we kept seeing Red Rock Canyon come up over and over again. We had been to Red Rock Casino before with the Newmans, but never to the conservation area. So we jumped in our Kia Soul and set off for our next adventure highly unprepared. As we pulled off for the entrance for the scenic route there was a line of cars trying to get in. We also saw a $15 price tag and started having doubts. I was all set to turn around and leave when we saw a one-way sign that gave notice that exiting would pierce the tires. We didn’t need a clearer sign that we were going in.

Not realizing what we were in store for we were pleasantly surprised that it was a hike/climb on boulders and dunes. The one downfall of not knowing what we were doing was that both Grant and I were climbing with leather sandals, not tennis shoes. We somehow made it up pretty high with limited traction issues, snapped a few photos, and only had one little mishap where Grant slipped while leaping from boulder to boulder. The poor nearby hikers heard lots of expletives as Grant peeled himself up off the giant rock and limped the rest of the way. There were other places to stop and get out of the car for more climbing but for some reason, Grant wanted to keep driving.

As we were leaving the reserve we received notification that our flight was delayed by over two hours. This was disappointing as we were already ready to go. We went back to the hotel room and took a nap. We woke up hungry after our big day of exploring and ended up going to Las Vegas’s Town Square. I am not sure how long this has been opened, but it’s a high-end shopping and restaurant area right by the airport, which is a perfect place to waste time. We ate at Brio Italian and split some dishes. The only thing that Grant refused to eat was the beef carpaccio, which came out on a plate wider than a foot-long sub from Subway. I gobbled up everything on the plate including the last caper that fell on the table. Yummy.

We returned the rental car and then waited at the airport. The winds were extremely bad which explained why our flight was delayed. Take off was a bit rocky but the landing at home was smooth. Now to go to the scariest house of all— our own where our dogs have been left with minimal supervision for the last 48 hours. Yikes!

Are We in Kansas or Misery?

After being rescheduled not once, not twice, but three times — we finally were able to use our Delta credit for Kansas City. I am sitting here on the plane writing this and I still don’t know which state I am currently in— Kansas or Missouri. The running joke of this trip was what state am I in? Grant thought it hilarious to call it Kansas or Misery, but there was nothing miserable about this trip.

Since Grant is still “newish” at his job (less than one year) he didn’t want to take time off for a quick trip since we do have more travel so the trip we ended up getting was a quick late-Friday to late-Sunday trip. With the time change of adding two hours we barely made it in on Friday, but we made it just under the wire with 30 minutes to spare. Finding decent food is always difficult late at night, but especially during COVID.

We did luck out and find a little bar/restaurant called Caddy Shack that offered fried food and pizza. We ordered a few things and got some drinks. The bill came and it was a nice round number of $30. Grant and I thought it strange since we calculated that we got over $30 worth of stuff, but we paid it. Jon Taffer from Bar Rescue would have been seething if he saw this, but we were super appreciative. Again— not sure what state to thank for the hospitality?

Our next stop was our hotel, which was the Holiday Inn courtesy of Roger Sissom. We were pretty stoked about this as Roger hooked us up with this hotel room for free. The hotel had just been completely redone and had extremely comfortable beds. Grant began to lay down and I quickly laid down the hammer that we didn’t have time for sleep. He got up and we walked down to the Power and Light District that was just down the block.

This area was right next to the T-Mobile Arena and home to Kansas City Live where there was lively selection of bars, restaurant and live music. There was a dance club with laser light going, but I couldn’t swing Grant to going. So we wandered around a bit more and we ended up finding an Insomnia Cookies. It’s a cookie store that is open extremely late— like 3 or 4 am for a late night sugar fix. I turned Grant onto this place when we went to Atlanta and he was thrilled to see it. He was even more overjoyed when it turned out they serve Blue Bell Ice Cream. This may sound like nothing special to some, but for those of us in California that cannot get this brand it was a real treat. We wandered around a bit more before turning in for the night.

The next morning, we got up and started checking off things that I wanted to see starting with the City Market. I was quite impressed with the size of this market compared to most states. Having more stalls open than most cities and the added benefit of permanent vendors made this one a very memorable market. However, you don’t go to Kansas City for their fruits and vegetables, but rather their meat.

When you looked up Kansas City and BBQ the restaurant that came up the most was Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que. A line out the door is always a good sign that the food is going to be good, but I am sad to report—dud. If this is your one chance to get quality Kansas City BBQ I would recommend looking elsewhere. Being originally for Texas, I have eaten some brisket and was extremely excited to try Kansas City’s burnt ends. The bark of the brisket that is often tough doused in sauce sounded amazing. Unfortunately, they just were just soggy ends of fat with only a minor char. Now the good news is that we did have the opportunity to make it up and we definitely have different referrals that are way better including Slaps and Jack Stack.

We made a few more stops including Country Club Plaza and then began our long descent down to Branson. It’s a bit of a drive so it was perfect that we had a virtual baby shower to attend. Grant’s brother and sister-in-law were having a shower to celebrate the birth of their first child. Shh...I can’t say what the gender is, but if your curious ask Grant as he nearly blabbed it to everyone - sorta. After I told him what he had done - something about mentioning a dress in the nursery - he laughed and said he was sure there was a family bet going as to how long he could keep it a secret. Even though he argues “technically” he didn’t reveal the gender. Regardless the shower went off without a hitch and it was fun seeing family that we haven’t talked with in a while. It also entertained us for an hour of the commute; a welcome distraction considering there is absolutely nothing between the two cities.

The commute was long, but it was well worth it to see all that Branson had. The main reason we went was because they had live shows. The problem though was those live shows were either country music themed or religious, or both. I asked Grant— what do you want to see? He looked at me stressed and said “Jesus” as if something was wrong. I asked again and he said more angrily, “Jesus! I already told you!” I said what’s wrong? He said — “nothing that’s the name of the play. He loves dad humor. Corny, yet aptly described the options. So we decided to find entertainment with some of the smaller attractions. We started with going to downtown Branson Landing, did the Branson Roller Coaster and then went strolling down their Main Street. Branson Landing was Grant’s favorite because it had, you guessed it, Blue Bell.

The stroll made us hungry so we had to of course go to the World’s Largest CiCis housed of course in Branson. Ok maybe that was a me requirement... We ate, ate some more, and then eventually ate so much that I began to feel sick. Let’s just say Branson quickly began to be one of the smelliest places we have ever been to. Needing an escape from the skunk that had infested our car we tried to figure out what to do. We ended up settling on going to Silver Dollar City, an amusement park area just north of the main area of Branson.

This park was spectacular. Probably the cleanest and best decorated/themed park I have ever been to. The fall decorations were up and the whole park was decorated in hundreds of jack-o-lanterns and larger than life pumpkin statues. The park usually has a flood of tourists, but with COVID the park was relatively empty. It was interesting that before each attraction the ride attendant would spray hand sanitizer onto our hands. Masks were required, but the six feet rule was out the door as people smushed together. After riding almost all their rides— we drove back to our hotel.

The next morning the warm sunny weather had turned cloudy and wet so we got up early to venture to caverns to escape the rain. The highway is littered with advertisements for caves and I finally caved—pun intended—and we went. It was nice, but having been to other places it really not the most memorable of caves. Grant said it best, “when you’ve gone spelunking through an underground river driving through one in a jeep is just okay.”

We hit the road again and made our way to Slaps BBQ in Kansas City, Kansas. Now this BBQ was good. Solid burnt ends, warm potato casserole, and cheese curds— we got a better taste in our mouths as to why Kansas City BBQ has a reputation of being one of the best. The good food all seemed to be on the Kansas side of KC even though the good ice cream was in Misery.

The last stop of the Kansas City trip found us meeting up with one of Grants relatives in Overland Park. I am not sure what the connection is but it’s likely a cousin sister’s son married twice removed type of situation, but family. We had a lovely conversation about life, family, and travel. Due to time constraints we didn’t have that much time, but Don did surprise us with Jack Stack BBQ. The brisket was quite delicious and definitely something we would be back for.

A quick layover in Salt Lake and then back to California. Being in a state with loosened restrictions has been great! With all the restrictions still in place back home I think Grant may have gotten his geography confused as to where misery really is; between Arizona and the Pacific Ocean.

Sunshine State is Always Cloudy

Grant raised a good question on this trip. He asked, “why do they call Florida the sunshine state when every time we come here it is raining?” Evidently, there are times of the year when it is sunny in Florida, but we tend to always miss those times. When we visit it tends to be sunny on one block then we drive five minutes down the road and there is an isolated shower. We wait five minutes and the storm is down the street. Like the weather, our trip had some were some sunny bright spots and a few isolated showers that passed quickly.

Name an airliner and we flew it on this trip. Grant originally planned to gone alone to Fort Lauderdale and then I decided last minute to tag along. He flew Jetblue out and was returning on Southwest. I decided to fly Spirit out because of the layover situation and flew American back based on availability. Out of all of the airlines— the only one that did not alter our flight was Spirit…so this was already a very strange start to this adventure.

My flight with Spirit left at 6 am and arrived in Houston at noon. I choose this flight so I could visit my family. My mom and dad picked me up and we were off to go eat lunch at Gringos. They surprised me with ranger cookies (my favorite) and I only ate half of one. I say this as I regret not eating more because the remainder of the cookies were inhaled by Grant as soon as I met up with him and they were good. Note to anyone reading this— do not put cookies near Grant unless you want them immediately consumed.

Gringos is a Tex-Mex place near my parent's house that has really really good green salsa. In California, its salsa verde. In Texas, its green salsa as the contents are a bit more “gringo-ified.” Between my mother and myself, we must have consumed probably 4 or 5 bowls full of the stuff. Then our food actually came out and we still found room to consume more. Afterward, we drove around a bit to see how developed Cypress actually has become. It is crazy how in such a short period since I have left how developed the area actually has become.

When we arrived home, I was greeted by 4 monsters. 2 that I like, 1 that I dislike (it’s mutual), and 1 new puppy named Babs that I had not met before. The new one was a bit standoffish at first, but after throwing her ball a bit she opened up and we became friends. It wouldn’t be my family if after settling in I was not greeted with 4 different cupcakes to sample. It wasn’t long before my dad came out and said that we need to go ASAP. The flight started boarding at 3:45 and we were just getting in the car at 3:30. Thankfully, with TSA pre-check it doesn’t take long to get through security and as they were calling “last-call” I slipped right on the plane.

Upon landing, I was to meet up with Grant who had arrived about 2 hours before me. The plan was that with the rental car in hand, he would have checked into the hotel, and I was to hop in the car for a nice dinner in Miami. Poor Grant was greeted with a long line of irate people at Alamo as they had oversold with no rental cars available. After promising him that a car would be available in the morning we readjusted and went to our hotel called Fortuna Hotel. We expected friends from Orlando to visit so we got a two-bedroom apartment with 3 beds. Since they weren’t able to make it— Grant and I decided that each of us would have our own wing and own bathroom. I would highly recommend this for anyone as it was awesome. After putting our stuff down, we dined at Casablanca Cafe in Fort Lauderdale. This piano bar right on the water has tasty food and a nice ocean breeze to cut some of the heat. We walked along the beach until exhaustion hit in and then skedaddled back to the hotel for a good night sleep.

The next morning I woke up late. Grant had gotten up early and had not only went to the beach but also went to get the rental car.

With the car in hand, we hightailed it to Little Havana in Miami to go to the Cuban restaurant we intended to go to the night before. We ate at Versailles and got anything that had the word sampler in its title on the menu. We just had an assortment of empanadas, yucca, croquettes, plantains, vacca frita, and other yummy stuff. Afterward, we attempted to find the heart of Little Havana. If you put it in Apple Maps you end up at the Dolphin stadium for some reason. We tried multiple addresses and there wasn’t anything like a street or sign that we could find. So we gave up and drove over to Wynwood Walls.

This area is incredible. A predominantly warehouse area has been transformed into a street art gallery with murals everywhere and eccentric pop-up shops and restaurants. Although the Wynwood Walls themselves were closed the surrounding area was filled with incredible street art. The whole area got in on the vibe and the local shops/ vendors all had bright graffiti-like decor to blend in. We stopped at a few shops and perused around until settling on just snacking at an awesome ice cream shop.

With the city still sleepy with COVID, we hit downtown to see what trouble we could get ourselves into. Nothing called us so we decided to check out the cruise docks. The highway you cross to the cruise ship docks was empty. So like normal tourists we hopped out of the car on the highway and took some “great photos” with downtown as the background. Pretty sure we weren’t supposed to do that, but if opportunity knocks you have to answer.

We double backed and took the road parallel that got us into Miami Beach. Parking is a nightmare there any time of the year, but Labor Day weekend was especially difficult. 20 minutes of circling ended up translating into a parking spot about 10 blocks away. The water was clear, warm, and not overly crowded. We spent a little over an hour swimming or as Grant has coined it “bobbing around” until we left to go back to Fort Lauderdale.

Our night activity was a cruise on the Jungle Queen. Developed in the 1930s, this outdoor open-air cruise ship took you from the city, through millionaires row, and stopping at their location for an all-you-can-eat bbq. The houses along the river were incredible and unbeknownst to us, it’s a tradition for homeowners to “moon” the boat so we had a very cheeky time.

The boat docked at a private area where we had our food. The meat was fine, but their bread and butter was the star. It was just Hawaiian rolls, but I love those things. Warm with melted butter. Delicious. Hahaha. As dinner concluded the stage that was playing live music turned into the show. We had a singer, a magician, a comedian, and a Hawaiian dance number. The audience was the absolute worst as none of them clapped or even pretended to be interested in the performers. We thought it was great and tried laughing harder to drown out some of the moans. It was especially hysterical when the comedian turned on the audience and started making jokes about the sour-looking people in the front row. They took us back to where we started and called it an early night.

On Labor Day, we got up and went bobbing again in the ocean. We returned the rental car to the airport to avoid late fees and then double-backed by taking an Uber to Carrabba's. Grant got his favorite chain this trip, which means I get CiCis next time.

With Everything Closed, Ride A Spirit Flight to Indianapolis for Entertainment

Flight out to Indianapolis started with a thud. Let’s set the scene: Spirit flight, full, I am on the aisle, middle guy is a weirdo, and the window is a lady decked out in mask, face shield, gloves...clearly, someone being cautious. The plane ride itself was uneventful. When we begin deplaning COVID-prep lady at the window freaks out. She screamed, “LET ME OUT.” With all her gear on it was super muffled and no one paid her any attention. She seemed embarrassed as it’s clear she was expecting a reaction. The guy in the middle turns to her and asks, “Where would you like me to go?” She didn’t care...”I can climb over you. Let me out.” His response, “Go, ahead...” Shocked- she just waited with everyone else.

Best part. As the middle guy was exiting down the tarmac, he noticed her behind him and being a total jerk slowed down on purpose. She balls up her fists and swipes at the guy's face. She yells, “Don’t play with me. I ain’t to be played with.” Spirit! Good ole spirit! Alive and well.

Layover in Vegas for 45 minutes. Next flight to Indianapolis. I try and sweet talk the gate agent for a free upgrade. No deal. I end up just buying it. Try to go to my upgraded seat 1F and it’s already taken. The people behind me are in 2D and 2F and their seats are taken as well. A nice family is sitting there fully settled. The attendant asks for their tickets and they rummage through their phones. Excuse. Excuse. Horrible Airline later...turns out they had the seats earlier in the day, but the gate agent who checked them in accidentally/on-purpose removed their premium seats and put them in the very last row of the plane. Evidently, they ticked someone off real good. Spirit! Good ole spirit! Alive and well.

I took the red-eye/early morning trip and landed at 6:00 am Friday to Indianapolis. Got my rental car. They upgraded my car from an economy to an SUV and took off to get a nap at the hotel. By 10 am, I was ready to go having slept a few hours on the plane.

The first stop was the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It was actually kind of cool because they actually let you inside the facility and you could get right next to the track. I might have zoomed and revved my engine a bit to be more in the moment.

After that, I went to Mug N’ Bun, which is Indiana’s oldest drive-in. It is what I imagined Sonic was like back in the day as you had to turn on your headlights to signify you wanted someone to take your order rather than go through the drive-thru. The food was awful, but if your a fan of root beer it was stellar. They make their own and probably the best I have ever had. Next, I drove down to the City Farmers Market and got some grub down there. The tamale shop was a surprise hit! Recommend getting the Pork in Banana Leaf the next time you are in Indy. Yummy.

Indianapolis’s downtown is extremely walkable. I checked out the Soldier’s Monument, their capital, and the stadiums the Colts and Pacers stadiums. Grant was flying into Louisville to join me at 4 pm so I packed it up and drove from Indy to Louisville (2 hours) to meet him there.

We quickly checked into our hotel and rented scooters to tour the downtown. Note to everyone: never ride scooters with Grant as he is bad luck. Something always happens to his scooters and he tries to steal yours. Hahaha! The city was a ghost town as there were some streets that we didn't see another soul. By Louisville Slugger Museum, it was so quiet that our voices echoed off the buildings. Creepy.

Since nothing was open we decided to create our own food tour. We went to NuLu, which is the new Louisville with the trendy restaurants. We started at Harvest with appetizers, however, there claim to fame is chicken. We didn’t order it because I stubbornly refused to pay $30 for a piece of fried chicken no matter how good it was. Next, we ate a feast at Feast BBQ and followed it up with Nashville Hot Chicken at Royals Chicken. I finally got Grant to eat hot chicken not cooked by me and he hated it. He said it tasted like the one I made. I think that was supposed to be a diss, but I took it as a compliment that I made such a similar recipe.

With most things closed, we wanted to get out of Louisville as soon as possible. Our next stop was supposed to be Santa Claus, Indiana. Along the way, Grant saw a sign that read Butt Drugs and he demanded that I get a picture of him in front of it. So we made a pit stop in Corydon. A small sleepy town that was propped up by the fact that they housed Indiana Caves near them.

We stopped to grab our picture. I thought they didn’t know the name was a joke so I told Grant to be a bit cautious about getting a picture. Then we walked in and realized they were in on the joke. In fact, they even made a hilarious video that was on Ellen below:

After grabbing a quick bite at 1816 (a surprisingly great stop) we made our way to Santa Claus to go to Holiday World and Splashin Safari. A wild and crazy theme and water park in the middle of nowhere surrounded by cornfields. While we both enjoyed it...we are slowly realizing that it is getting harder to ride roller coasters. Grant said this—not me—I am still young as he technically is a year older.

Grant hadn’t seen Indianapolis so he wanted to check it out. We decided to take a different route back and that let us make a quick pitstop through Bloomington. We figured we are probably never going to be in this area again or at least not for a long while so why not see as much of it as possible. It was a cute college town with a square similar to Denton where Grant and I went to college.

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We finally made it back to Indianapolis and checked into our amazing hotel. We stayed at the Crown Plaza Downtown/ Union Station. They converted an old train station into a hotel. What was even cooler was before they sealed the building they rolled in old train cars and converted them into hotel rooms. When I saw that I had to stay there. They were super accommodating and let us stay there without any upcharge. I don’t think I will ever sleep on a train car again without comparing it to this experience!

We rented scooters, I showed Grant around a bit, ate some lunch, and then headed to the airport. This flight was pretty uneventful although the women next to me was a character that kept me entertained. She was praying profusely and with all the rocking method her wig liner started to ride up and it was not a good look. She told me that she hopped on this flight from Indy to move to Las Vegas without a plan. I tried to give her some advice about the things to do, but she said she just wanted to party. I didn’t have the heart tell her that it was 108 degrees out and most everything was closed...I do hope she found her party.

Upon landing in Vegas, we hopped an Uber and made it over to Paris. We ate at Mon Ami Gabi again like last time, gambled— I won $87 on the slots and we high tailed it back to the airport to not lose anymore. Boarded the last Spirit flight plane and headed home.

The last flight was a bit of a thriller without a satisfactory climax. The lady next to me, who loved Kim Kardashians' look, sat down in the middle seat with myself on the aisle. She openly let me know that she was pregnant and had thrown up on the way out there. Her husband who was in front of her turned around and joked...be careful it went everywhere. I politely offered her my barf bag, but looking at how small the bag was in comparison to an adult mouth— I was anxious. Fortunately, we made it through without any incident, but I was on the edge of my seat— literally— the entire flight.

The Wisconsin Dells and Chicago (2x)

Have you ever heard of the Wisconsin Dells? No, neither had I until I went about researching waterparks. With an uptick in COVID cases in Texas, we needed to find an alternative than our normal Schlitterbahn trip. Insert Noah’s Ark in Wisconsin Dells. Touted as America’s Largest Waterpark and the Dells being touted as the Waterpark Capital of the World it seemed like a no-brainer to experience —Wisconsin.

Flights vary in price, but we got a steal on a non-stop from San Diego to Chicago. With Wisconsin only being a few hours away we figured we would make this a road-trip style trip. Starting in a known commodity like Chicago and venturing to the unknowns in Wisconsin. Our flight was expected to in late so we were a bit anxious about dinner, but our flight was super smooth and we even arrived early. Upon landing, we went to get our rental car. Grant began to gab with the lady at the counter and low and behold the gabbing worked as we were rewarded with an upgrade— a 4 door Jeep Wrangler. Not the ideal car for a long road trip, but with a removal top and gas cheap we thought why not!

Anytime we are in Chicago we habitually go to our favorite modern Italian restaurant, Siena Tavern. Not expecting to get in until after close we did not make reservations. As Grant drove into the city, I quickly found reservations at their sister restaurant Bar Siena. Just as good and whenever your starving it tastes even better. The last few times we have been to restaurants Grant has surprisingly been the one who has been over-ordering and this time was no different. He ordered— a Caesar salad. I mean come on….when there is a slew of cheese bread, meatballs, gnocchi, pizza… the idea of getting a salad after all that is just ridiculous. HAHA….had to tease him as I am usually the one getting in trouble for over-ordering.

We walked around the city a bit and then drove to our hotel. We had booked a nice 4-star hotel in central downtown. Upon entering, we were told that the room we had booked was unavailable and the whole hotel had been overbooked. They were super helpful and booked a hotel down the street for us. So from the Rafello to the Talbott, we went. Overnight parking in downtown Chicago is insane. Our hotel room was $100, and the parking was $50. Bad call on our part, but lesson learned.

The next morning Grant wanted to wander around Chicago and I put a kaput to that. This was a Wisconsin trip and not an Illinois trip. So we ran over to Whole Foods got my morning orange juice and started driving. There isn’t a lot to see between Chicago and Milwaukee, but they do have a cheese castle. Mars Cheese Castle in Kenosha, Wi is a must stop. A tourist trap in the shape of a castle is filled with cheese and any other snacks you can imagine. They also had a small restaurant inside that served fried cheese curds, cheeseburgers, and other random goodies. So of course we got the local house-specials and hit the road for the remainder of our trip. While it didn’t look fancy or even good— the taste was pretty spectacular. Going to have to try and make fried cheese curds myself. We attempted to make it to the Jelly Belly Factory that was also there, but it was closed due to the holiday.

Not much further and we were in Milwaukee. The city didn’t resonate with us. It was charming and had some quaint spots such as the Riverwalk and the Old Third Ward, but it seemed like it was struggling. A lot of places were closed, which was expected because of COVID, but a lot just seemed out completely. The Milwaukee Public Market was a nice treat and we grabbed some snacks there. The prize waterfront was well-manicured and surrounded by museums. The largest and most popular museum was the Harley Davidson Museum but again didn’t get either Grant’s or my heart racing to visit. Upon doing a bit of research we learned that Kopp’s Frozen Custard was the place to try and eat. Kopps was like the equivalent of In-and-Out in California with custard instead of ice cream. We grabbed another cheeseburger and hit the road to Madison.

Madison was about an hour outside of Milwaukee. I think the expectation was that there were going to be a lot of roadside attractions to see. However, we only saw cheese stands, firework stands, antique stands, and farms. It was a peaceful drive and eventually, we would make it over to Madison. Before we got there we decided to stop one additional time at Culver’s. Wisconsin loves this place as every exit had one. I think there were more Culver’s than McDonald's and Jack-In-The-Boxes combined on this trip. Culver’s claim to fame is their butter burger. A burger that adds butter to the cooking process, bun, and anything else you can imagine. I noticed the butter, but Grant did not. For those keeping count— that was our third burger that day.

Because Madison was halfway between Milwaukee and the Dells I thought it would be the perfect in-between spot for this trip. Madison is a lot like Sacramento in that there is a capital, surrounding colleges, and some charming local restaurants. You would not have guessed it, but the city was virtually a ghost town. A lot was closed due to COVID, a lot was still closed because of protests, and the few remaining restaurants open were chains that did not interest us. Striking out in both Milwaukee and Madison we decided to fast-track Wisconsin Dells.

What a random city! If you ever want to relive traveling in the 90’s go here. Arcades, old-time photoshops, fudge making, horrible tacky tourist spots like haunted houses… I mean anything you can imagine its there. It should come as no surprise to anyone who is reading this that we of course did the horrible haunted house. Like a haunted house at a fair— not only was it not scary, but funnier than anything. The next stop was Wizard’s Quest. This required a bit of convincing for Grant. A) he does not like wizards; B) this was a scavenger hunt and Grant can’t find the croutons in the panty when they are right in front of him. However, he was a good sport and did this for me. A 13k square foot scavenger hunt divided into 4 sections that had us traveling down slides, entering secret passageways, and crawling on the floor. After 30 minutes we finding things we were over it, but we still had a few more clues. 10 minutes later we wrapped it up and officially wrapped up our first night in the Dells.

The next morning as a compromise for doing Wizard’s Quest Grant got to sleep in. There was not a lot to see or eat in between Madison or the Dells and a hungry Grant means we are stopping anywhere that won’t get us sick. We ended up stopping at Pizza Ranch, which was like CiCis pizza so I was secretly in heaven. We drove over to the Dells and went to our main attraction for this trip—Noah’s Ark. Well…let’s just say we won’t be coming back here. The majority of rides were closed, people were everywhere, and what was open had ridiculous wait times. We rode everything open and then decided to cut our losses. We went back to the main area of the Dells and went on a riverboat tour of the Wisconsin River. The tour took us up and down the river and stopped at the Witches Gultch to get out and view the unique rock formation up close and personal. To us, this was the highlight of the trip and quickly rescued a day that was spiraling.

After the tour, Grant and I talked about returning to Madison or driving back to Chicago early. It was mutually decided to skip Madison and head back to Chicago to avoid having to get up early for our flight. So we drove back and along the way realized that we would be back in time for Siena Tavern. Along the way, we were treated to a firework show as soon as 9 pm hit the fireworks were lit from all sides of us blazing away into the city. We ate our restaurant and walked around the city a bit. We checked into our third hotel and then checked out for the night.

With COVID going on we decided that we would see some of the places that we would not normally go to. I never thought I would go to Wisconsin, but I am glad that I did. Up next is Boise and Minnesota so I am excited about what trouble we can into there.

Mission For A Free Meal in Vegas

Covid-19 is still around, but evidently Las Vegas has decided to ignore the memo. Having decided to reopen about a week ago, Grant and I decided to sit out opening week to let things settle in. With a week in the books, we hopped a quick Spirit flight with previously cancelled vouchers for a quick Saturday to Sunday trip.

The flight itself was uneventful. Most people kept their masks on until we landed in Nevada and then all bets were off. Even the dutiful flight attendants removed their masks and smiles their goodbye as we departed the plane. Our first stop was to pick up our rental car from Budget. The last few trips we have booked with Costco Travel exclusively for rental cars and not only are they usually the cheapest, but usually come with a free upgrade.

We initally intended to go to Bobby’s Burger Palace as a quick burger sounded good, but we quickly came to realize that it was still temporarily closed. Not all of the casinos and restaurants were open and even those that were had strange modifications. We ended up going to Mon Ami Gabi, which was a Parisian resturant at the Paris. They sat us in the perfect spot— right in the middle of their La Cantina Doors so we had one foot in the patio and one foot inside the resturant. The air conditioning was wastefully blasting and so while it was close to 90+ degrees you couldn’t tell from the AC. We also had a great view of the Foutains of Bellagio, which we got to see from our table.

We got our steps in as we walked back from Paris to New York, New York and grabbed the car to check into MGM Grand. We got our room and Grant went to the pool, while I laid around relaxing. He came back to get me and we went lounging in the lazy river.

After getting cleaned up, we got ready to go to Jaleo by Jose Andres. The resturant specialized in Spanish Tapas, which have been our jam since visiting Spain. I ordered anything that looked good and then the bill came. Grant and I were somewhat full, and after our bill totaling $210 came our brain told our stomachs it was cut off. Everything we had was good, but nothing earth shattering or memorable.

The only memorable thing was Grant making an “I-Spy” joke about a woman sleeping at the bar. I kept looking and couldn’t see her. Defeated he explained it me and I laughed at how corny he is.

As we left, Grant kept muttering how expensive the dinner was and that he was going to be hungry later. That triggered a competition in me to get the dinner cheaper so I wouldn’t hear him complain. We had pulled out $100 to gamble and so I decided to not only not lose it, but try and get it to increase. This delusion is usually never actualized, but I was determined. So I started playing slots at the Cosmopolitan and ended up winning $50. So that shaved the bill to $160.

Since I didn’t want to press my luck to much we left and went to Fremont Street to witness the Fremont Street Light Show. It was pretty spectacular watching the screen roof above our head turn into an outdoor rave with people dancing in the street and jamming out to Steve Aoki. Again. No social distancing. We could almost picture CNN doing a live shot above the crowds scolding and talking about how people weren’t taking this seriously - like they do Florida beaches. We decided CNN wouldn’t be wrong; people were too close for our comfort so we took off after that and made our way back to the hotel.

The next morning I woke up and started responding to various student emails. Grant slowly woke up and we got ready to leave. Every hotel in Vegas charges a ridiculous resort fee and is always that “hidden gotcha” fee that no one likes. I called the front desk from our hotel room phone and politely asked for them to remove it. I also might have thrown in something like “I did not enjoy my hotel stay enough to willingly consent to pay an extra $39 plus tax.” Without a debate, they said “sure we will remove it!” I generously applied that $45 credit to our $160 remaining bill, which brought it down to $115.

We got out of the hotel without incident and ate at Viva Las Arapas at a little local shop off the strip. We drove around looking at different sites and tried to go to the Palms. It wasn’t open so we backtracked and made our way to Gold Coast Casino as we had no idea it was even over there. We entered played the Mad Max Game and won another $50 after hitting two bonuses. $65 for dinner now.

Now this may be cheating, but the expectation was that we were going to lose the $100 we had to gamble. After playing at multiple casinos and spending some here and there we ended up with $145 in my pocket. So $145 - $65 means the dinner was free and that Grant owes me $80. I am sure my math may be off somewhere.....really off....but I think the meal is at least somewhat affordable if you considered all the offsets. Hahahaha!

Flight home, Uber to car, and home with our Whole Foods delivery 15 minutes later. Not a bad weekend at all.

Fact Checker Needs to Review: “Atlanta Open”

The news would have you believe that Georgia is open and operating just like normal. The news is wrong. Anything remotely touristy and even the majority of restaurants (even though allowed for a few weeks) to open have chosen to remain closed or operational only for take-out/delivery. Having just visited Phoenix and Nashville that were open, this came as a huge shock to travelers hoping to engage in activities circa February 2020.

After traveling from Nashville to Atlanta, I was excited to pick up Grant from the airport and begin our adventure in Atlanta together. Our flights were a little more than a day off as I had just spent about 36 hours in Nashville prior. About an hour before his arrival the weather shifted. This should have been an indicator as to what was about to come as it started to pour and lightning zigzagged through the sky. This ominous sign was completely ignored by me as I was more focused on trying to navigate the airport. Eventually, Grant found his way out and the rain subsided.

He was on California time and I was on Tennessee time, which means he wanted to go out and I wanted to go in. I relented and went out with him touring a mostly closed Midtown Atlanta. After about an hour the excitement for him wore off and we decided to check into our hotel — Crown Plaza. At about 2:15am, we were awoken by sirens going off notifying us that a potential fire was happening in the building. At first, Grant and I just laid there and did nothing…hoping that it would go away. Eventually, we got dressed and grabbed our valuables. As soon as we walked toward the door the PA went off letting everyone know it was a false alarm. We did open the door and the entire floor smelled like marijuana so we are pretty sure someone lit up in one of the neighboring rooms and set off a smoke detector.

With very little sleep in our systems, we woke up with a spring in our step to go explore. Our spring quickly got sprung when we found that most of the city's iconic tourist spots including the World of Coca-Cola, CNN tour, Aquarium …were all closed. We made the best of it and walked through the Centennial Park commemorating the 1996 Olympics. We did stop at the giant CNN sign, which made a great photo opportunity. Even though the signs clearly say— No climbing….Grant decided to do just that and even got inside the C. When it was my turn to take a photo— the security guard rushed out scolding me. I guess being a security guard is essential to guard against heathens such as Grant and I. We did get a few fun photos that we probably would not have been able to if the city was open.

Knowing that there were going to be unexpected closures we paused to do a little bit of research on places that actually would be open. The first place on our list was the Junkman’s Daughter. A weird hippy shop that is known to have a good assortment of vintage and new items to peruse. When we arrived we knew something was off. The store was dark and alas they were closed. While the website reflected “open” the newly printed sign on their door told a different story. So we did a quick circle around the block and wandered over to our next stop the Krogg Street Market. This time the market was open, but when we went inside there were only 3 or 4 vendors who decided to offer items for sale. There was really nothing of interest.

At the point it came clear that we needed to change our approach. We were not going to be able to go into anything, but we could see things that we would not normally see. This led us to drive to the Tyler Perry Studio. Then we went to the original Chick-Fil-A known as the Dwarf House that was open and operational. On our way back, we saw quite a few people on an overpass taking photos. As we went to see what was occurring, I quickly realized that this was the iconic shot from the Walking Dead series that is filmed in Atlanta. We stopped and got our version of the shot, which came out great! Finally, we stopped at our intended destination the Ponce City Market. This place was an old factory that they repurposed for mixed residential and commercial use. People were out in full force walking around, eating, and shopping. This was by far the most people we saw in one location and probably about 2/3 of them were not wearing masks.

What we did find in doing our research earlier that day was the one attraction that was open for visitors was the Atlanta Botanical Garden. This is not normally something Grant and I would flock to, but beggars can’t be choosers at this point. I am particularly fond of sculptures and to see the Alice and Wonderland sculptures made from plants was of particular interest to me. We snapped a few photos and is it got toasty we decided to vacate before we needed to be hosed off.

Having eaten fried chicken every day so far on this trip-- I wanted anything besides fried chicken for dinner. While I was thinking Italian, Grant who hadn’t eaten anything southern wanted to eat some local cuisine. So I found a place that was open for dine-in and looked like it had a good mix of non-friend chicken items. Upon arrival, I quickly noticed that the menu they had to order from was different than the one online. In fact, the main protein in 95% of the entrees was….you guessed it…fried chicken. When in Rome….I mean when in the South! After eating this hardy meal and exploring all we could— the bed was calling.

Right before we were going to turn out the lights, Grant received an emergency text from one of his staff about a situation that needed his immediate attention. Of course, due to the severity and sensitivity, he took the call and tried to ameliorate the situation the best he could from far away. Due to him dealing with this issue— neither of us was able to get a good night's sleep. In the morning, Grant checked out and I went to get the car. Without even noticing I drove right through the gate to get out without paying. In looking in the rearview mirror, I realized someone had just driven right through the bar and it laid in several broken pieces behind me. With parking being $36 a night I said—WOOOHOO and kept driving.

I dropped Grant off at the airport for the second part of his trip (Miami) and I drove back to Nashville to get home to San Diego. For a city that houses CNN you would think that the news would accurately depict the city being open. What we learned and what we are taking from this trip is even though something says open-- call just to be sure.

Rome Falls…Nashville Rises?

Due to COVID-19, traveling the world has changed. Back in October of 2019, I found a smoking good deal for Rome roundtrip for $385. Grant was asleep so I only booked myself. By the time he woke up the price had doubled. So I was going to Rome by myself. Having a very tit-for-tat relationship he decided to go somewhere that I had no interest in visiting— Atlanta. So the running joke was that I was going to Rome and he was going to….Atlanta. Fast-forward to May and my Rome flight was canceled and Grant’s flight was still a go. Now it was me who was wanting to go to Atlanta to at least get out of San Diego. Roundtrip tickets to Atlanta were well over $600, but for some reason there was a cheap roundtrip flight to Nashville. I grabbed it before it went away and planned on driving down to Atlanta to meet up with Grant when he arrived.

San Diego airport was a ghost town, but that didn’t stop my flight from being packed. About 1/3 of the people in the San Diego airport did not wear masks including our pilot and one flight attendant. On the plane, even though American advertises the middle seat being empty there was definitely someone next to me, behind me, in front of me… Another big difference was that the flight attendant did not provide beverages or snacks so this American flight could have easily been a Spirit flight.

After a roundabout way of getting to Nashville by way of Chicago— I made it to the Volunteer State. I rented a car, checked into my hotel, and then made my way to the Nashville's staple-- Hot Hattie B’s for some hot fried chicken. There is a rivalry between Hattie B’s and the original Nashville fried chicken joint- Prince’s Hot Chicken. Having tried both I have to give it to Hattie B's. I can handle my spice and ordered the "Hot," which had a nice kick to it. Next time, I'll probably upgrade to "Shut the Cluck Up!"

I made my way around the Broadway area in downtown Nashville and even ended up going into a few of the half-empty bars. It's clear that these bars are usually overflowing with people, but the majority of tourists have not returned just yet.

Before going on this trip the only place that I knew in Nashville was the Grand Ole Opry. For those that are clueless like me as to what it is— its the longest-running radio show that broadcasts a weekly country music stage concert. It’s right next to Opry Mills Mall, which is just like Katy, Ontario, or Arizona Mills mall. I parked the car right next to the hall and hopped out and walked around. While the music hall itself was closed there was not any security that prevented you from walking the grounds at night. I just helped myself and took some fun photos before turning in for the night.

The next morning was my day to explore Nashville more, day to explore other parts of Tennessee day, to drive to Atlanta to meet Grant. I started the day by heading to Biscuit Love in the Gluch area. It would not be a true southern experience without getting more fried chicken and biscuits and gravy. After clogging my arteries further, I stopped at Vanderbilt University, the Parthenon replica in the middle of their city park, and toured the bars and clubs during the day for a different experience. Nashville is a social city and would be perfect to visit with a group of friends. Since I was traveling solo I ran out of landmarks to see quite quickly. Packing it up, I bid Nashville adieu and hit the road for Atlanta.

The car ride was pleasant from Nashville to Chattanooga (half-way point to Atlanta). Along the way there are a million signs that highlighted the upcoming attractions— Ruby Falls and Rock City. Having never heard of these I quickly got out my phone to see if this was worth a visit. Not being any clearer as to what these were I decided that since I had the time to stop. Ruby Falls was a bust because all the tour times were sold out. I kept driving down the windy road lined with American flags and made my way to Rock City. This weird, gnome obsessed, botanical garden on a cliff with a massive waterfall overlooking 7 states with a German fairytale land was amazing. Having no expectations this place over-delivered with some spectacular views and served as a really fun way of breaking up the trip.

As soon as you leave Tennessee the topography quickly changes for the worse. Atlanta itself is comparatively flatter with little to nothing to look at. The only thing that kept me focused was a million cops that were patrolling looking for speeding cars. After about another 1.5 hours I made my way into Atlanta. I stopped for dinner at a Spanish tapa’s place called Bulla and then headed to the Atlanta airport to pick up Grant who was arriving that evening for the first part of his Atlanta/Miami trip.

While Nashville is no Rome it did serve as a great escape from the new normal. San Diego appears to be opening up and hopefully by this upcoming weekend it will resemble something like normal. Grant's also instructed me that when I buy my ticket to Rome again that I buy him one as well. Lesson learned.

I did get to see 7 states at once on this trip so that’s something!

A Taste of Normal

In March, I was put into quarantine/isolation from my co-workers due to our last trip to Mexico. Since then Grant and I tried our best to be respectful of the unfolding developments with COVID-19 and adhere to the stay-at-home orders. When we found out that our neighboring state to the east—Arizona— was opening back up we decided it was time for a road trip.

Friday night we left and crossed the state line into Yuma, Arizona. With a mask in hand, we entered our favorite road trip restaurant Cracker Barrel to eat. This was the first restaurant we have dined-in in over two months so we had no idea what to expect. Like we had seen in the news tables were separated, no one was seated next to us, and the servers wore gloves and masks. What was the most unique thing about this eating experience was just the joy of everyone there. Everyone in the restaurant was just thankful to either be working or in our case— not having to cook. We chowed down and then headed out to Phoenix.

3 hours later due to construction, we made it to our hotel. Some random hotel that Grant found off Priceline that did the trick. The only problem was “our systems are down.” Tired after having driven for so long all we wanted to do was go to bed. However, the attendant that was there struggled to find a room. He didn’t take Grants ID or credit card, and after 20 minutes of talking to technical support just handed us a key to a random room. We hit the pillow and we’re out.

The next morning we went to the Phoenix Farmer’s Market. We had been to this market before and fell in love with the Chile Acre Farm’s vodka chocolate balls. Unfortunately, the booth was there, but they did not have the chocolates. People in Phoenix were so nice that instead of saying “so sorry” they gave us the recipe! So now we know how to make them whenever we want, which is even better.

For lunch, we ate at Carrabba's because Grant loves that place. After chowing down on way too much food we drove to Arizona Mills Mall. The mall itself was a mixed bag. One in three stores were open. For example, Express and Forever 21 were open, but places like Bath and Body Works and the movie theater we’re closed. There was a super interesting store called Black Market Minerals that sold masks, crystals, and other random exotic stuff. We had to wait a while, but we found some fun stuff as souvenirs. What was open and didn’t have a wait was their arcade. I ended up winning enough tickets for a stress ball so I guess that was a win? $20 for a $1 stress ball.

Somehow without even planning it, our hotel was only five minutes from this mall. Grant decided to get a stay at the Arizona Grand Hotel because it had an outdoor water park that included a wave pool, lazy river, and multiple water slides. It wasn’t the best one we have ever been to, but boy was it the best one we had been to in 2020 for sure!

After swimming, Grant decided to go for a run and so I went exploring on my own. We actually ended up at the same point after a bit so he hopped in my car. He had watched the news and they made sure to point out Oldtown Scottsdale as a place of importance so we went there. It was a charming little area with a focus on art. There were art shops everywhere and it was amazing walking around looking at it even if we did have to peek through the windows for the closed ones.

The Beverly was a cute little bar/restaurant that seemed like a perfect place for dinner. Unfortunately, Grant was not dressed for this place so we went back to the hotel and then double-backed. The food wasn’t extraordinary, but the ambiance was just what we wanted. We back to the hotel and crashed.

The next morning we got up and headed back to San Diego. We stopped in Dateland, AZ, and got a date shake. We stopped in Yuma, AZ, and got a steak. We stopped in El Centro, CA, and got kicked out... we forgot our face masks. Welcome back to Cali!

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?

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.