Gold Medal In Running Late to the Silver State

If there was a gold medal for running late and finding a way to still make that event on time— we would be awarded the gold medal. While this is incredibly stressful, it does make an ordinary trip a lot more interesting, but maybe not for the right reasons.

What do you do when you are in a pandemic and have a three-day weekend? How about joining a family who is already on a road trip? Sounds reasonable.

Grant and I climbed on a flight Sunday morning for Phoenix where we met up with Erica and Ashley. They had rented an SUV and have been driving from San Diego to Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. With a car full of gear and a cat named Molly— they went cruising the highways in search of the notable and obscure sites.

With a light dusting of the white stuff falling on our faces last week in Dallas, Grant booked us a flight to Denver to get the heavier stuff. With Ripley’s health (dog) still a concern I didn’t want to be away to long. The 2-hour direct flight left San Diego at 6:15am and was set to return that same night at 11:30pm. The problem—after a tumultuous night of jockeying for position in bed with Ripley (he decided to play dirty and bark as well as kick me)...I didn’t want snow, I wanted sleep.

Having traveled enough we have learned a few tricks to get steals on flights. Grant’s favorite trick is to use Skiplagged- an app that looks at layovers rather than final destinations to see if there may be a discounted rate. A trip from San Diego to Dallas direct was $200, however, a trip from San Diego to Dallas to Denver was only $100. We grabbed the cheaper one and we’re off to Dallas to celebrate Grant’s 35th birthday. This is not our usual birthday celebration for him, but since Vegas or Palm Springs is out— this works! Plus, I have been told that we are doing a mid-year birthday celebration to make up for missed time celebrating with friends. Everyone save the date in July!

To begin 2020, we were climbing the Great Wall of China. To begin 2021, we were throwing beads at people off a rooftop deck in New Orleans. Not quite the same, but this does exemplify the attitude Grant and I have shared throughout 2020– live life and have fun no matter what. With 2021 being rung in and the world still a mess— we couldn’t be more sure we made the right choice to continue living our best lives in 2020 and enjoy each day to the fullest.

Generally, this is the time of the year when we are blasting our photos of some foreign destination that we landed on when we spun a globe. With COVID-19, we have had to post-pone our normal trip for some domestic travel. So why not visit our domestic family? The first part of our Christmas vacation was our quick visit to Houston with my family. The second part of our Christmas vacation was in San Diego with our local family. The final leg of our Christmas was in San Antonio with Grant’s family.

With all that was happening in the world, it was nice to be able to focus on Christmas. My favorite part of Christmas is by far the presents, so I focused on that this year. Our Christmas tree and presents filled our entire dining room with presents for family and friends. It gave me something to do since there is not much going on right now in California being under “lock-down.”

Christmas Eve found us working. Grant was running around with a COVID outbreak at some of his properties, while I was calmly finishing up some grading for the end of the year. Finally, at 5:30 pm-- I left to go pick up Fogo De Chao for dinner. Note: Don’t buy here again. I arrived early and they were running late, but I was excited to have filet and chicken for dinner. Upon arriving home, Erica and Ashley were already there and helped us set up.

For some reason, the meat was fully cooked, but the sides were cold. So, we just started eating chunks of meat right out of the tin, while the sides were heating. As things were heating, we began part 1 of the present opening. The sides got pulled out a bit early, but warm enough to enjoy the meal. We paused the present opening to eat and then finished opening the rest of the presents. By the end of the evening the whole house was turn up, there was wrapping paper everywhere, and everyone was playing with their new toys.

Part 1 of cleaning commenced, but we didn’t make very much progress as we had to leave for the Del Mar Lights. This year the Del Mar Racetrack went all out and put on a larger-than-ever light show that you drove through. With this being the only event of its kind in San Diego—it took forever. But, to the objection of Erica and I, we listened to Grant and Ashley’s rap music to get in the mood. It was a blast looking at all of the lights and seeing everyone excited for the holidays.

After the lights, we came home, and we initiated part 2 of cleaning. As I am writing this and looking at the boxes of wrapping paper and plastic, we need to begin part 3, but we have 4 trash bins full so it will have to wait until trash comes tomorrow.

On Christmas day we got up slowly. We got up a bit too slow as we had to rush and finish packing, get the dogs set up, run last-minute errands, and not miss our flight. Last-minute I switched the bag that Grant was going to carry his family’s presents in for one that was bigger and fit things better. It of course broke going through security at the airport so we had to rush and figure out a Plan B. With most places closed, I was able to sweet-talk a nice bartender who gave me a trash bag. It ended up working out great because Grant looked like Santa Clause with his bag of presents.

After a quick layover in Phoenix, we made our way to San Antonio. Grant’s brother Jake was there ready to pick us up and we headed to the hotel on the Riverwalk. It was quite adorable as Grant’s mom and dad (Carol and Jack) had checked us in early and decorated the room with lights, pajamas, cookies, and presents. It was a nice warm welcome to start our visit. We exchanged presents and then went out to eat at the Republic of Texas.

Following dinner, we walked back to look at Carol and Jack’s room and then parted ways. Grant and I wanted to do the nighttime riverboat cruise, but we had just missed it. Instead, we walked around the river and even stopped at the Alamo for a quick photo. The night would not have been completed without some form of desert and even on Christmas—Grant was able to get his favorite Blue Bell Ice Cream and we turned in.

The next morning, Grant missed the memo that Christmas was yesterday because as soon as I woke up, he was bouncing on the bed ready to get the day started. We quickly got ready, packed, and were out the door wandering around downtown San Diego. We ended up wandering around a bit and went to El Mercado. A Mexican market downtown that has shops, restaurants, lots of souvenirs, and birds. To my absolute amusement, as we were walking around a bird pooped on Grant. Lucky him!

A quick clean up commenced and we hopped on some scooters to get to the allusive Riverboat cruise. The tour guide was a hoot, and we got some great photos of the area. Grant was very proud of himself as he knew most of the facts that the guide was sharing including the bridge that Selena was proposed to on and where Sandra Bullock stood for Miss. Congeniality. The tour wrapped up and we met up with Grant’s family for lunch.

We had a nice meal at La Fonda and then drove up to Austin to meet Grant’s niece Vivienne. There was quite a bit of traffic, but we made it. Clint and Jillian have been very disciplined with COVID and being able to see was a real treat. Parenting seems to come naturally for these two and I am glad to see that they are doing so well. They also gave us a handmade version of RuPaul’s Guess Who to play, which Grant was excited about. “…Yeah…Thanks…” said Luke who will have to play this with Grant.

Before I departed, we stopped for some chocolate at Central Market and some BBQ from Rudy’s. The South Terminal in Austin was a challenge to get to as it was so far away from the main airport. Eventually, we made it and I began part 1 of my return flight to Denver. The flight attendant was super nice and gave me an upgrade to Frontier’s version of first class for free. Once in Denver, I talked to the attendant who gave me a free upgrade to the exit row for part 2, Denver to San Diego.

Each part of our Christmas this year was special and collectively made a wonderful holiday. We had a great time seeing and spending time with everyone, and look forward to seeing what future Christmas’ will look like.

Fat Man's Paradise

The saying everything is bigger in Texas is absolutely true when it comes to the food portions. Every meal that you get is 2x the size you would normally get in California. Nothing wrong with that, but as someone who has lost weight recently and is trying to keep it off — Texas poses a new unique challenge that I never previously cared about. Even the radio in Houston seemed to understand my concern —“if your pants don’t fit; just don’t wear them anymore.” Grant and I officially deemed Houston as a fat man’s paradise.

We flew United and besides the annoyance of having to prove we were flying with a backpack, it was a swell flight. Upon landing, we were starving and I was all sorts of turned around. Eventually, Grant found the car rental shuttle, but we took the long way for sure. He will vehemently disagree with me on that claim. Haha. The car rental had a long line, but they were super nice and even upgraded our cheap intermediate car to a mustang so that was a nice surprise.

Our first stop was to find food. It couldn’t be just any food but rather needed to be Tex-Mex. A combination of Mexican food meets unhealthy American food add cheese. One of my favorite things to eat is chips, salsa, and queso. Watch out because if you are not careful it will be gone before you even reach for your first chip. Grant has cookies; I have chips and salsa. With a Tex-Mex restaurant on every corner, the first one that came up on my search was Ninfas.

I hadn’t been in forever, but remember it being great. Of course, we had to verify that memory as being true and ordered queso, some weird baked chorizo queso, fajitas, enchiladas...we ordered so much that at the end I looked over and saw that Grant had rice and beans that were not even touched. We feel that we over ate, but the waiter thought we were lightweights and should order dessert. That’s technically a lie. It wasn’t the waiter, but rather me who wanted desert, but Grant talked me down from the sugar high.

Afterward, it was time to go see some Christmas lights. Grant had mapped out a few places to go so we hopped in the car and drove to them. We wanted to walk off what we ate but didn’t have a chance as nothing was that close. Houston is not very pedestrian-friendly because it is extremely spread out, which is great if you do not like to walk. We ended up heading to George R. Brown Convention Center where they had a lighted display of Christmas lights. They even had a tree decorated with cement ornaments. We could barely keep our tree upright this year with plastic ornaments (only fell once) so kiddos to those guys for figuring it out with cement.

Right next to the convention center was the Marriott Marquis. Grant had been talking about wanting to stay at this hotel for a while because they had a lazy river in the shape of Texas on their rooftop. With COVID being so prevalent, security isn’t as focused on strays entering their hotel, going up to the fifth floor, opening the exit door, and checking out the lazy river. The rooftop is grande size, but we could see the shape of Texas all around us. After dipping a toe in the “heated” pool and realizing it was December and not heated enough we left to check into our hotel.

Before we made it we made two last-minute detours. The first was Fiesta near Willowbrook to get some Blue Bell ice cream. The second was to wander around Prestonwood Forest. I grew up going to this neighborhood to see all the lights, but it’s beginning to fade a bit with age. After driving around and see the lights we turned on “drag mode” in the car and revved our engine to the hotel for the night.

The next morning, I was greeted by a wide-awake Grant who was ready to roll out. Usually being the early riser it was a change of pace I was not thrilled with. He convinced me to get up and go to HEB Central Market to try their orange juice. It was okay, but I want to try it during the summer to compare it to Whole Food’s OJ. The grocery store was mapped out like IKEA with “shortcuts” being provided to find the exit. The smell of bread instantly triggered a craving for kolaches and so we left the grocery store in search of the delicious pastry. Every intersection in Houston has a dry cleaner, nail shop, and donut shop so it did not take us long to find what we needed.

While running around and eating kolaches, we were making arrangements to meet up with my parents to eat lunch. They ended up choosing Frio Grill in Cypress and eating outside. It wasn’t long before my dad started grilling us about getting them a grandkid and I forgot to prep Grant so he spilled the beans.

“Oh yes...we are on our fourth in-person and we have done this and that...” Grant of course glanced over and thought the look of horror I was giving him was an indication what he was saying needed further clarity. So he continued and clarified. I had intentionally not told my parents as I wanted to surprise them when we actually had a kid...and he knew this...but completely forgot. Not a huge deal. They know. And if your reading this and didn’t know yourself— surprise. Blame Grant on ruining that one. Haha. We ate and hung out for a bit before the “frio” started getting to me and we said our goodbyes. Reminder: I need to mail out their Christmas packages when I get back to SD.

Grant had never been to Galveston before always opting for Port Aransas and wanted to check it out. Along the way, we kept seeing signs for Space Center Houston so we veered off and made our way over. Note to anyone going: they don’t allow selfie sticks and it’s $30 for each adult. Unless your Grant and I who decided I don’t want to spend that...instead took turns asking to go to the bathroom, which is oddly at the back of the museum, and got to take a quick tour for free. The people collecting tickets did not care at all and even commented “they don’t pay me enough to care.” Pro-tip: try the bathroom excuse to potentially get free admission.

Space isn’t really our thing so just seeing a spaceship was all we needed. The next stop was Moody Gardens. Most of it was closed as they were gearing up for their Christmas light walk, but we were able to walk around and check out the grounds and see most of the lights. After snapping a few photos of the aquarium and rainforest housed in pyramids - we departed for Pleasure Pier. Having done no prior research on this trip this by far was the biggest letdown. The pier itself seemed nice and had standard amusement park rides, but the problem was that to even step onto the pier you had to pay an admission fee. Riding a single ride that probably lasted no more than 2 minutes for two people was approximately $32. Hard pass from us. In California, we have Belmont Park and the Santa Monica Pier all of which are free to enter with each attraction costing a fee.

To make up for the dud that was the pier we signed up for a ghost tour in Galveston’s Historic Strand area. Our tour guide was a bit “unique,” but I guess you kind of have to be to give these types of tours. He was highly animated as he was describing the 20 bedroom boarding house that is considered Galveston’s Vortex to Hell. This stop is allegedly frequented by many satanic cult members, multiple animal sacrifices have taken place, and has a sorted history of missing children. I am not saying he was...but if you had to imagine a guy who would do something like that and then looked at our tour guide...you probably get a match. The whole walking tour was 4 blocks and somehow filled an hour.

All that walking got our stomachs activated again and so we went to Grant’s favorite— Carrabba's. It was yummy. On the way back Grant had a great idea to try and get a picture of the skyline. I did some quick research and found that Buffalo Bayou Park had a spot where this could happen. The problem was that the police had blocked off the main entrance as it was so late.

So instead of calling it quits we decided to try and get photos in the middle of the street when we saw a turnout. Not a smart idea, but I am writing this so no harm befell us. We kept moving closer and closer to downtown and the pictures kept getting worse and worse. Eventually, we decided to call it. On our way out— one of the streets we needed to take was closed. This got us all turned around and eventually had us backtracking to where we started. By sheer happenstance, we stumbled on a road that ran parallel to the park that had a perfect shot of the skyline. So we found a spot, took out our selfie stick, and got the photo we had risked our lives for.

The next morning I got up and again Grant was wide awake. He had mapped the entire day out. First, was finding a candy for his co-worker and us eating more kolaches. Followed by eating at Salt Grass and then sweating everything out at a Korean spa.

Salt Grass was good. I remember loving their ranch dressing and even once eating it like a soup. Who am I kidding... I eat ranch like a soup all the time, but this was my first memory of eating ranch in this fashion. I didn’t eat it like soup this time, but that was probably because I had already eaten so many kolaches beforehand and was full before I even sat down.

We had found a Groupon for the Gangnam Spa and Grant was all excited about trying Houston’s version of a Korean spa. This one was a bit different than the ones we had been to previously, but it was very relaxing. My favorite was the furnace that cooked me at 150 degrees. I could smell the ranch and kolaches pouring out of me with each bead of sweat that fell. Fortunately, I got out before I overcooked. Grant said his favorite things were the belly jiggler (a vibrating machine that jiggles your belly fat), the footbath that looked like a coy pond, and the oxygen room that looked like we had been transported to a scene from Alice and Wonderland.

My phone was buzzing that our flight was soon so we left and headed to the airport. Of course, we made a pit stop at Great American Cookie before we headed to the airport to leave. I am realizing as I write this and have so much to say about food that I should not be generalizing Houston as a fat man’s paradise, but rather Houston is my internal fat man’s paradise. Anything I can think of food-wise I can find there...maybe next time I’ll pace myself instead of trying to eat it all in one weekend. Nah...bring me some more queso, please!

JJ in Charlotte to JJs in Tennessee the JJ’s Know Best

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As we deplaned from our American flight to Charlotte, our very unpleasant seatmate at the window called his mother (or only someone that could love him) to dive into a deep tantrum about how little the seats were on this flight. I snickered to myself thinking— this crybaby is complaining about the space in this seat... I could only imagine what he would be like on a Spirit flight. It did serve as a sharp reminder that each person has their perspective and people will view each situation differently.

With this in mind— Grant and I thought Charlotte was a bit vanilla. We had heard amazing things about North Carolina and had big expectations, but this particular part of the state just didn’t match up. We checked into our hotel courtesy again of Roger Sissom our sponsor/benefactor. This time we were able to get a suite so we were living the high life.

Upon checking-in to our hotel, we met JJ. A spunky desk agent who had an opinion about everything. He told us where we needed to go, what we should eat, and if prompted would have told us how to walk. We asked for restaurant recommendations, which was our downfall. He gave us a crazy piece of paper with red dots all over it ranking restaurants and we went to his favorite— Mert’s Heart and Soul. Afterward, we were told to check in with him again to give us a review. Followed by in the morning when we get up to speak with him to get direction for his other favorite. Grant said it was like he was an RA at a dorm.

Following dinner, we wandered around Charlotte’s downtown. I am not sure if something was happening in the city, but we were greeted with security guards and fluorescent lights everywhere. It was the best lit city we had ever been to. I don’t think the city thought about photos when making this decision as none of them came out well because of this excess lighting. We checked back in with JJ on our return and called it a night.

The next morning we got up and grabbed breakfast based on JJ’s suggestions. The city is clean and beautiful, but missing that wow factor. There seems to have been some fun water activities to do so we may have to return when it’s a bit warmer. Tennessee was calling so we jumped in the car and floored it out of town.

The real surprise on this trip was Gatlinburg. Thankfully Rachel and Emily Newman reminded us about this city as it did make the trip. Our original plan was to head straight to Pigeon Forge where we had tickets to Dollywood, but this small tourist trap is a must-do. Want to go to Ripley’s Believe It or Not— cool there are 8 different ones here. Want to go up high to look at the surrounding view— take your choice with a ski lift, aerial tram, space needle, helicopter, etc. Tip for this area: park and walk. Get your steps in. But be sure to park on the outskirts of town or else you are going to be stuck in traffic coming in and going out. The locals in traffic are extremely friendly in these parts and talk to pedestrians and they move by.

One of the most do things in this area was to stop at Ole Smokey Moonshine Distillery. They have a few spots throughout the area and of course, I convinced Grant to try a few sips. We were greeted by our bartender who also happened to be named JJ who poured Grant 7 different sips of booze. I think his favorite was the salted caramel whiskey and the mango habanero whiskey. They didn’t have a sample size so we couldn’t bring any back.

Time got away from us due to the unexpected traffic so we only got to walk half of it. We hopped back in the car and drove the rest of the way to Pigeon Forge. On the way from Charlotte, Grant and I wrestled with the idea of going to a show and due to limited capacity and availability, we settled on Pirates Voyage (think MidEvil Times with pirates). The show was Arggh-ful, but I think that’s kind of the point. It was fun watching the acrobatics and divers, but the story got lost midway through. Our “scarlet side” did prevail so we do have some bragging rights.

We bolted a smidge before the show officially ended because we still had the main attraction to go to— Dollywood. With traditional theme parks and haunted houses closed we decided to try and go somewhere that was a) open, and 2) had some sort of Halloween theme. Dollywood was celebrating the Great Pumpkin LumiNights so the park was decked out with some spectacular pumpkin displays. There were a lot of people in the park, but that was expected since it was Halloween. They allowed people to wear costumes so that was fun seeing those that participated wander around. We stayed and rode rides up until the close and then called it a night.

With daylight savings time and falling back an hour, we got to sleep in an extra hour, but not lose out on adventure time. Our first stop in the morning was the Old Mill Restaurant. Prepare for a long wait, but the food is well worth it. I would recommend getting there at 10:15 am and put your name down for lunch and get brought in at 11:00 am. Thankfully we made nice with the hostess Jan Jones (JJ x3) and she switched us from breakfast to lunch. Both Grant and I devoured the pot roast and chicken fried steak. Don’t expect substitutions at this place as they are by the menu, but that’s a good thing.

Since we didn’t finish Gatlinburg we wanted to make sure we got back over there first thing before our flight out of Knoxville. As you travel south between the cities you are going through the Great Smoky Mountains and its national park. The setting was amazing as the leaves had started to turn and so we stopped for a bit to breathe in the mountains and have leaves fall on our heads.

Once in Gatlinburg again, Grant was like a kid in a tacky candy store and wanted to do several of the silly touristy things there. The ski lift to the longest suspension bridge in North America was the first one we agreed up and so we boarded the lift and walked across the bridge. If your scared of heights this might be a bit of a challenge, but for those that can stomach it is rewarded with aerial views of the city and mountains. The next stop was an earthquake simulator. Why an ape was in a subway I will never know. Then finally we stopped at Ripley’s Haunted Adventure. Lots of the walkthrough was completely in the dark and would have made it terrifying for a kid to do. Thankfully we only act like kids and made it out unscathed.

The final leg of our trip was Knoxville so we mustered what leg strength we had and crawled to the car. It was not long until we were there and had no idea what to do. The research on this trip was a bit spotty, but our go-to is always to just hop on a scooter and just go wherever the scooter takes us. Grant loved that the main street in the city was Gay Street and kept snapping photos of any sign that mentioned it. After scooting for a while we ventured to the University of Tennessee Knoxville area before timing out and leaving for the airport.

Each person is entitled to their perspective. Some people will find Charlotte to be an exciting place; some people will find Gatlinburg excessive and trashy, but there is no denying that we are going home to the best city of them all—San Diego. Now where to find a JJ in this city?

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!

Hot...Oh So Hot...Cool Down or They Won’t Let Us In

There is a difference between “dry heat” and “humid heat.” Grant cannot do humid heat. In Puerto Vallarta, it’s hot and humid. So it was funny to see the role reversal play out with Grant walking outside and instantly become drenched in sweat. He didn’t know how good he had it in San Diego even during a heatwave.

A few months back we purchased a flight from Tijuana to Puerto Vallarta non-stop for $69 round trip each. We were pleased with our purchase and even more excited to get out of the US for a bit. All the COVID happenings, political turmoil, drama at work, and San Diego’s non-stop summer seem to make this trip a welcome distraction.

We paid a small fee to park at the border walked through the Cross Border Express bridge that takes you directly into the Tijuana airport terminal. Shortly after we hopped on the plane and got to PV in no time at all. As soon as we got off the plane it hit us— the heat. We were glistening so bad I was afraid the light bouncing off our foreheads would be distracting to the planes coming in. Having been to Mexico quite a few times we knew the airport was going to be a zoo. To circumvent it from being too bad I researched getting a private car to pick us up from the airport. However, I quickly found this was the worst thing you could do. It was a $129 round trip to go less than 15 miles down the road if you took this route. The travel blogs tell you to cross the connecting bridge (less than a 5-minute walk) and there you can connect with Uber for $4 total after tip. The problem was that we went in the wrong direction. After our own five minute walk we made our way to a random airport hotel then connected with a taxi for $10.

Most locals are used to the heat so this wasn’t anything new to them. To us we were dying sitting in the back of a car, windows down panting like dogs. When we got to our hotel the security guards had a few questions before they let us in. After those customary questions were out of the way they took our temperature. They read the driver fine. They took Grant’s temperature...to hot...moved to a different part of the arm— fine. Then they got to me. Head, arm, another part of my arm...I was just too hot. The guards were checking the temperatures of themselves and fine. They eventually just asked if I was having any negative symptoms and let me in. After getting inside in the AC—I was rechecked and didn’t have a problem afterward at each checkpoint.

We stayed at the Now Amber, which is Secrets but kids are allowed. Grant secured us a hotel room with a pool swim-up so we could just open our door and hop in. It was 2:45 and check-in was 3 pm. Our room was mysteriously not ready, but the VIP service attendant was right there to sell us tours and anything else we could need. After being given coupons, letting her know we had booked tours, and our VIP attendant out of up-sell opportunities—our room became ready.

Grant and I grabbed a quick bite to eat at the hotel buffet. He wanted to go swimming and I wanted to go walking around. So we split up and I went towards downtown. Grant was happy as can be just lounging in the cool pool. Like a little kid in a kiddy pool. I was happy as I could be wandering around aimlessly looking at the building, shops, and trying not to get lost. Eventually, I walked back after buying a souvenir mask and I joined Grant for pool time.

It wasn’t long before walking on the beach was proposed and we both agreed. The beaches in Puerto Vallarta are a little lackluster. Imagine smooth sand being replaced with rocks. If you have a zero-scaped yard with rocks and ever wandered on it without shoes— it was like that even in water shoes. The pain in our feet quickly became quieter when our stomachs started growling for attention. We grabbed some Mexican food before turning in for the evening.

Anyone that has ever stayed over or has shared a room with us knows Grant and I have the most over the top requests when it comes to sleeping arrangements. The room was supposed to have two beds, but it ended up being one king and a rollaway. This is because I am a constant tosser and turner —flipping from one side to the other and Grant is the lightest sleeper known to man but also hogs the covers (and the bed..). So I volunteered to take the rollaway the first night. Not a big deal. Except when Grant has the warm comforter in the king bed...I am left with a sheet for the rollaway and he drops the AC down to 19 degrees Celsius. That equates to 66 Fahrenheit. I don’t think he was trying to freeze me to death maybe just trying to make sure we stayed cool for our morning adventure.

The next morning we woke up early and hopped in an Uber to meet at the port, where we got on a speed boat for Vallarta Outdoor Adventures. After landing at the dock, we were met by military-like transport vehicles that took us to a ranch where we rode mules up a hillside to the actual destination. These seemed like racehorse-like mules as they were extremely competitive. Whenever one of the mules tried to pass the other it would suddenly go from sleepy to thoroughbred and hightail it to keep the lead.

The tour guides hooked us up in our zip lining gear and we were off. No cameras were allowed, but a photographer did follow us around documenting our every step. This adventure park was spectacular as it was a combination of zip lines, waterfall repelling, free-fall repelling, water slides, and even a zip line rollercoaster. There were 10 people with us and we quickly bonded with the JC of Latter-Day Saints family as the English speaking cohort. We laughed as everyone traversed what seemed like a surprise after surprise adventure. The last ride should have been terrifying but we all kind of just went with it. They got out helmets and elbow pads for us to go down a water ride that seems to have been repurposed from the water park featured on Class Action Park. It was rocky, but no one died so I guess not as bad.

After everything was all said and done we ended up at the gift shop. The photographer pulled up all of our photos and we went through each one on our own computer. Grant didn’t like any of the photos, but there was one of me that I did a zip line upside down that I thought was funny. I snapped a shot with my phone, got fussed at, but saved us $100 as that’s how much they wanted for the photos. Sorry, but I don’t need to spend that much on one silly photo. Such the rule breaker I am.

We packed it up, reversed course, and headed back to the hotel. I did get to see my blue-foot boobies on the way back so I was thrilled! Grant jokes they’re the only boobies I’m interested in. At the hotel, we grabbed a quick bite, dipped our toes in the pool, and got refreshed for our next excursion.

The next excursion was Rhythm of the Night a cirque-du-soleil-esq themed show featuring local traditions and talent. The ship was packed (one of six), masks were gone, and social distancing was out the window when the ship left the port. We didn’t buy the alcohol pass but were handed drinks. Most people were double if not triple-fisting booze as the boat cruised along the coast on the way to a private resort/theater. Servers kept refilling our glasses and the ocean breeze finally cooled us down making the ride extremely enjoyable.

Upon landing, we were greeted by tiki torches and tea light candles on an ever-expansive coast. After being herded and smiling at the required photo spots, we made our way into the theater. The show started and it was fun being at a real show in almost 8 months. For those that have been to XCARET in Cancun the show was not nearly as good as that, but still a fun show. Our buffet dinner was served next and our table was right along the water dimly lit by tea light. Fortunately, last one in, first one out rules applied here so we were the first to depart. The way back we got to enjoy a dance and comedy show put on by the cruise ship crew. The bed was calling so we quickly departed and went straight to bed. By this point, we had been up and going for 17 hours (7:30 am to 12:30 am). No wonder our VIP upseller was shocked when we told her we were doing both these events in one day... yeah we felt it by the end of the night but the fun was worth the exhaustion.

Grant took the rollaway, but still somehow managed to get the heavy blanket. The next morning we ate breakfast, checked out of the hotel, and got to the airport. Our biggest fear was that our body temperatures would be too hot to get on the plane so we made sure to have the windows down all the way and cold water nearby. Our thermometer read didn’t register anything with the guard so we were allowed on the plane without any issue. If nothing else comes out of this trip— hopefully Grant will never try and justify the heat with a comment like “it’s a dry heat” and think that it makes the melting glacier that is my face any cooler.

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!

Luke Still Not Making Friends / Grant Now Not Making Friends

The entire trip to Cancun I was not making friends, however, my bad manners must have rubbed off on Grant for whatever reason he started to really tick people off. I loved it because I finally had company, but this was clearly new territory for him.

Our last day had us going to the park that really made us want to come back to Cancun, which was XAVAGE. The idea behind the park was to do adrenaline-based activities that would never ever ever be legal in the US. Rafting, monster truck driving, speed boating in narrow waters, and the ropes course that even the best of athletes would fail at.

The rafting was our first stop and it was fun. There were several drops and waterfalls, but we had done this type of activity before so ehh… Keeping with the water theme we went onto do the speed boat. This type of activity is all around the US, but not like this. Most speed boats in the US go into open areas and do the sharp turns splashing everyone. Nope. In Mexico, you go down a narrow path and they just spin you around there barely making it past the rocks. It seemed kind of simple until your actually doing it and you realize how close your getting and then you begin to second guess…was this a smart decision today? Haha.

Afterward, we went onto the monster trucks. These things were huge, and you literally go to go sideways, climb overtires, rocks, boulders, narrow turns…I mean crazy stuff. Neither Grant nor I wanted to miss this, so we did it separately. He went first and then I went. When I got back, he told me he got scolded at because he took a corner to sharp and hit a wall. It evidently broke off and a giant rock fell onto the ground; he kind of downplayed it.. I thought this was the greatest moment as it finally put to rest who was the better driver as I did not hit anything. Although I’ve probably ruined the transmission of the rental car because I keep driving with it in 2nd gear instead of D.

Grant needed to kill time because I went second and tried to go into the water section. He attempted to go down a slide but was told it was for kids only. He replied that he was a kid. The second time today he was scolded.

Next up was the ropes course, which hovers over the highway. It looks daunting, but figured the adrenaline would kick in. I can safely say I am not scared of heights as this course was well over 8 stories tall. There were different levels and we choose the 3rd most difficult out of 4. The first one had you step up on a log and then swing to the next log. The logs were not together, and the wind definitely moves them around. After the first one Grant stepped down to level 1, while I tried to keep going. Did I mention Grant doesn’t like heights? Probably wasn’t the best activity for him but he finished so I have to give him credit.

I didn’t get a video, but this video highlight it the best.

This is when things got batshit crazy. There were skateboards swinging in the air, then it was tires that compressed down when stepping on them, tennis balls to swing you from one rope to the other, there was even just two single wires were I had to shuffle my feet and hold on for dear life. I cleared like 8 or 9 different scenarios and was pretty good. That was until I got to the net.

Again, crazy ridiculous feet above the ground there is a net that you have to traverse. So, I literally had to shuffle my feet on the rope net and spider monkey across this net until I made it to the other side. EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. Again, we are talking about being 8 stories in the air and crawling a net. This drained me. I completed one more course and headed down to a lower level. I completed more than half of the advanced course so I’ll take that as a win.

Not long after that we returned back to our hotel. Not having been to the beach today he really wanted to go. Our hotel is in the jungle, not the beach. But they told us if we wanted to go to a beach, they could help us. The hotel told us to go to El Dorado. When we got to El Dorado they shooed us away. Grant did a deep dive on his phone to find a substitute. Havana Beach Club. We go. They shooed us away again. Go to the Divanta. We go…they shoo us away. Grant’s clearly frustrated so I drive us down to Puerto Morales. Evidentially, this is where retired old people come to be in Cancun because we were the youngest people there. It was great little boat dock city and we were able to walk the crystal-clear water before returning and turning in for the night.

The flight home was fine. Lesson learned— if we ever go back to Cancun we will be staying in a 5 star hotel and chauffeured everywhere we go!

Grant Making New Friends in Cancun / They Hate Luke

Pre-travel blog we visited Cancun and absolutely loved it. Cancun has gorgeous beaches with crystal clear water and really thrilling adventure theme parks. Grant recently quit his job and had about one week before he started his new one. One week is an eternity when it comes to our travel schedule and so we took full advantage of the time off. This will probably his last trip for a while and so he got to choose where we went so Cancun 2.0.

He did score an amazing round trip flight from Tijuana to Cancun for $108 so even if it was a bust it wouldn’t be a costly one. The morning of our flight we packed, said goodbye to the dogs and went to the cross border express; a pedestrian bridge that connects the southern-most tip of San Diego to the Tijuana Airport. We made our way through the random checkpoints. At the last stop I crossed under a rope since there was no one there. The guard gave me a stern lecture about how if his boss was there, I would be sent back. Grant was smiled at and told thank you for following the rules.

The flight was normal until our “seat mate” joined us last minute. Grant sat in the middle next to a very social man that would not shut up. He kept talking and talking. You know it’s bad when Grant is taking out his headphones and the guy is tugging on his shoulder to get his attention. Eventually, we made it to Mexico City for our hour layover. We ran off the plane to avoid the guy only to run into him again in the restroom. Of course, Grant’s friend wanted to continue talking. We got away and since he was heading to Colombia it was a clean break this time.

The next flight was completely empty, so Grant had an exit row to himself and I took one on the other side. Upon landing we were quickly accosted by tour companies, taxi drivers, and rental car agencies. We made it to the gate the same time these chain-smoking foreigners did. They were literally lighting up in the airport, on the route to the car, at the official rental car agency. They even asked for a smoking car. To which the rental car said, “no and they would be charged.” Clearly, not deterred they asked… “Can you hook me up with a good smoking penalty fee?” The thought that it would be much easier and cheaper to get a nicotine patch didn’t seem to cross any of their minds.

Our hotel was in Riviera Maya area where we had stayed last time. At 10pm this area is pretty much dead so the drive there was fine. We were staying at the Hotel Amarte, which is a “4-star” eco resort. Grant thought it was a Motel 6 in the jungle with fewer amenities. Of course, when the lady checking us in offered options Grant took her up on it and we all went together to find the room that was just right. It was literally like Goldielocks and the 3 Bears where we would go into the room, Grant would lay down on the bed and then onto the next room. First room to hard. Second room to hard. Third room to hard. Eventually, it was decided that all of the beds were exactly the same and Grant choose the last room.

Sunday, we woke up and proceeded to XCARET! if you have ever heard or even looked up Cancun this is the first thing that comes up. The park itself was a zoo, with an underground river and a cultural show to tap it up. At different points there were some great photo opportunities, so we tried to take full advantage. Grant climbed a pyramid looking structure and I was able to get some great photos. I tried to do the same thing and out of nowhere a tourist guide started to yell at me for some reason. Other people were doing the same thing, so it was not as if it was inappropriate. When we tried asking her what was wrong, she just walked away.

We finished the park a bit early but wandered around to stay for the show. The show was actually really fun and quite dangerous. Our favorite stunt was the fireball game, which was like hockey but with a flaming fire ball. We left a smidge early to avoid the traffic and ate at a local restaurant on the way back.

The next morning, we got up and headed towards Cancun. Right before we made it in there was a police check point. We get stopped for a random check or so we think. Turns out it’s not a random check, but rather a shakedown. The officer alleges that we were speeding, and I was utilizing my cell phone. Both “very disrespectful actions” according to the officer. This was a red flag because I know I was not speeding, and I made Grant do the navigation so my phone was put away. We politely shared that we disagreed, and that I was not using my cell phone. He said okay okay...not two tickets just the speeding tickets. Red flag #2. He said we would have to go to the police station to clear this up tomorrow. Red flag #3. Clearly this was not a normal stop. He had his phone out like he was recording, but it wasn’t on. Red flag #4. That’s when I said that may be a problem because we leave tomorrow. We are only here in town to check out the beach and then one of the parks. (Lie)

This is when the real “shakedown” started. He lost his leverage because he knew we were leaving soon. He said...all can be forgiven if you pay me. Grant and I had exchanged $40 back in TJ so we dug that out of our wallet and handed it to him. I made sure to make it look like I was really trying as I pulled out even the little change. He took the money and yelled...no ticket to the other officers. He whispered that he is going to erase the evidence, so no one knows. Of course, we said...thank you thank you, while inside we were like “corrupt a**hole.”

Now penny-less we set out to find parking in Cancun. There were spots guarded by people expecting tips, which normally would be fine but not so much now. Laughing I told Grant I made a friend, but he was not amused. We found the JW Marriot and somehow convinced the security guard to let us in to eat food. The facilities were gorgeous, and this allowed Grant to calm down as he was quite angry about the situation. I was able to pull out cash for an absorbent amount of money at a local ATM so we were fine.

After driving to a public beach to wander around we decided to drive to Tulum, which was a little out of the way but close to our evening theme park XPLOR Fuego. On the way I stopped at a gas station to pick up some waters and snacks. Of course, when I paid 200 pesos and my total was 32 pesos they tried to give me 101 pesos as change. I just held my hand out as I am cheap and know my foreign currency. Not batting an eyelash, I just coldly looked at the cashier and said, “mas,” or more. It worked. Thank you all my former Spanish teachers for teaching me one word I remembered and could actually use in Mexico. She pulled the receipt from my hand and reviewed the change. She corrected her mistake.

After about an hour and a half we made it to the Tulum ruins. The park was only open until 5:00 pm and it being 4:00 pm we had a mad dash to see it. At the ticket counter, there was a notice that said “extended hours” from 5:00pm to 7:00pm. Breathing a sigh of relief we knew that we had plenty of time. Unfortunately, our interpretation of the sign was not the same as the man who started blowing his whistle informing us, we had to leave. There was not a question of extended hours there was a question of how fast he could herd us to the exit. The good news is that we saw a lot of the park; the bad news is we did miss a few things. I think it’s better to have seen a little than nothing at all.

Hopping back in the car we made our way to EXPLOR Fuego. It’s a theme park that is open at night that is lit up by tiki torches. The park itself consists of 4 main attractions, which are ATVs, zip lines, paddling through a cave on a raft, and then swimming through a dimly lit cave. We had done this before, and it was our favorite part of our previous trip. This time was equally fun and would recommend doing this park.