This collection of entries is from the Category "Travel".
Monday, January 10, 2005
Time shiftedI hate the first few days of a time change. Our bodies are still on Central Time out here. It's pitch black outside, but we're up at 5am - because at 7am back home we've showered and had breakfast already.
Don't know what we're doing today. There's no water on the window, so maybe it'll start to dry-up. Carol's getting into the shower and is going downstairs to hit the tables.
posted at 07:09 AM | Link | Las Vegas § |
Sunday, January 09, 2005
ConnectedIt turns out that the Luxor has high speed Internet connections in the rooms. Cost: $10.99 for 24 hours of access. Looks like I'll be connected after all! Unfortunately, I'm having some FTP problems to one of my boxes, so I won't be able to "embellish" my entries. (Update: Crap. I lost the server itself and I can't get at it remotely - no more live webcam shots. Oh no! We can't watch Indy & Chip while we're gone! We can't see them get fed when my sister Diane comes over! Maybe I can get her to go upstairs and reboot a machine...)
Well, after some napping, we went next door to Mandalay Bay and had a quick dinner at Red White and Blue. Didn't feel like anything extravagant.
Haven't gambled yet. Well, throwing money into a Wheel of Fortune machine on the way back doesn't really count - I never sat down.
Looks like it's raining like hell outside - I can tell by the amount of water flowing down the pyramid windows.
posted at 08:26 PM | Link | Las Vegas § |
A very wet VegasWell, nothing much to report other than we're here in Las Vegas.
We flew out on Ted and I would highly recommend flying them. Yes, they're cheap, yes, you don't get a lot of amenities (hell, on our flight today we had no food even tough we were supposed to be able to purchase snacks). We left pretty much on time around 7am and immediately climbed into a cloud deck. The clouds were with us almost all the way across the country. We had some pretty good headwinds and even a bit of turbulence over the mountains. We landed about 10-15 minutes late.
But we're back in Las Vegas. We grabbed the Hertz shuttle and got a car from the #1 Gold members pavilion. When we landed, the sun was out. By the time we walked to the car, it was drizzling. We drove to Bellagio and carol treated me to the Champagne brunch buffet, which is one of our favorites in town (though I didn't enjoy the champagne this time around).
After brunch we walked through the casino and the shops and went outside to walk to Caesars across the street. The drizzle was getting a bit heavier. We went to Caesars for two things 1) see the expansion to the Forum Shops (and WOW! very impressive as well as all of the new restaurants! and who would believe circular escalators!) and 2) pickup our tickets for a show Thursday night.
Yes we're going to see a show, one that is actually pretty critically acclaimed.
We got 9th row Center tickets for Celine Dion. Say what you will about her (we're not fans of hers), but the production of the show itself is supposed to be OUT OF THIS WORLD.
By the time we were ready to get back to the car (still parked at Bellagio), the rain was really starting to come down. The travel down Las Vegas Boulevard in the car was tricky - the right-hand lane was flooded most of the way.
Carol went through registration at Luxor and got us a room on the 18th floor. As we were walking to our assigned "inclinator", we were greeted by the fire alarm going off (for no reason). We get upstairs to find out that our room was LEAKING from all of the rain outside, so we had to change rooms - down one floor.
We're both exhausted - Carol has been napping on the bed making all kinds or snoring noises. I'm watching the air traffic at McCarran Airport - right across the street. We need to rest and find some place simple for dinner.
posted at 04:05 PM | Link | Las Vegas § |
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Swimming pigs, cream puffs and bunniesCarol took the day off and we drove up to Milwaukee to go to the Wisconsin State Fair.
We love going to this thing. I would rather go to the Illinois State Fair, but Milwaukee is much closer than Springfield. Our family has been going up there for years. The draw for us has been the animals, the absolutely crappy merchandise being sold in the pavilions and the food food FOOD!!!
The weather isn't the best - cloudy, breezy and temps in the high 60's.
We try to go on a day when the rabbits are being judged so we can see all the breeds. It's always a highlight for us.
We started walking around to get an idea of food choices. Every year there's more and more and more food stands, which of course make the choice even harder. I thought I read somewhere that there are 172 stands here. We got a few ideas and then it was post time for the pig races. Carol hadn't seem them before, and this year they added a swimming pool. Yes, the last race was also a water race as the pigs swam the length of the pool. No, seriously!
So, after the races, we picked-up some Reuben Rolls (like eggrolls, but filled with corned beef, sauerkraut... everything to make a reuben sandwich), potato pancakes, brats, and pierogi's.
Well, we needed to walk that off, so we walked all the way down to the exhibit halls to look at the real bad merchandise for sale. Now, yes, there are a few good products, but how many juicers, mops and pieces of fudge do you really need?
The Milwaukee Admirals had the AHL Calder Cup at their booth. Boy, is it in bad shape!
Well, we got what we were looking for - a pet carrier - and started heading back across the park, stopping for a World Famous creme puff along the way.
Creme puff.... augggllllll.....
Anyway, it was getting darker out and it was getting later into the afternoon, so it was time to go pick-up our purchase and take him home.
read more of this entry »
What? What am I talking about?
Well, yes, I sort of didn't tell you about what took up most of our day.
Well, when we went to go see the rabbits, there was this little house with a pen just outside the entrance. There was at least 50 baby bunnies hopping around and there was a girl that was allowing people to hold the bunnies. These were all rabbits from breeders at the fair. The bunnies were not "show quality", but still cute as all hell.
So we stopped by, and got a baby bunny to hold. Carol had him first and he was really sweet, allowing her to hold him with no problem (not like our Indy who doesn't like being held AT ALL). The Carol gave him to me to hold and he was just really sweet. He didn't struggle at all. He had a number 53 written inside his ear.
That's when we found out that they were selling them for $25. I looked at Carol and she just looked at me and loudly said "Oh, no we're NOT!" I didn't say anything and just held him and petted him some more. We must have been out there for half an hour.
We must have been back 3 more times to find out how to get him home. Carol actually paid for him. We thought we would have to take him home on Sunday, but found out it could be today, and that's when I thought we'd be able to find a pet carrier in the exhibit hall.
So we picked-up our little boy at the end of the day. He was in the carrier on Carol's lap all the way home. He was awake the whole time, but flopped on his side and relaxed as much as possible. When we got home, Carol went to the pet store and got a small temporary cage for him and we put him up right next to Indy.
Indy went from inquisitive to agitated. She went nose to nose with him and bit him. You could tell by the way he was rubbing his nose and upper lip that she really hurt him.
Indy is pissed. It's going to be a lot of work to get these two to live together in harmony.
But the new guy is sooooo cute and sweet.
This will be interesting bunny times in the house...
« hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 08:07 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Sunday, July 18, 2004
AWAYI am sitting on the deck of my sister's house in Michigan. It's not completely dark yet, so I'm taking what little time I have just to sit back and enjoy the semi-quiet.
read more of this entry »
This morning, Carol & I picked-up our friends Barry & Buffy to enjoy a quick (read "cheap") getaway for the week - staying at my sister's house. The drive was totally uneventful. As soon as we got up here and unloaded the car, we went to Joe Jackson's Fruit Stand in New Buffalo to get some particular things we needed for the week. Then it was off to Martin's to do the major grocery shopping, and then finally to Falatic's for all the meat shopping. It was back to Diane's and then out to lunch at the Red Arrow Road House. On the way back to the house, we stopped at at a jewelry store that, well, we were told we had to see. It was Abigail Heche. This was some seriously gorgeous jewelry in this place. Yes, pricey, but damn the quality is there... (Oh, and yes, that's Ann's sister... we met Abigail and her mom and she was showing us a gorgeous necklace...). It was back to the house and we're all zombies.
Diane & Melinda must have left sometime after 4 I think. I just grilled some hotdogs and hour ago, just so we could eat something tonight.
We really have no schedule to meet, no times to keep. We're away from the city and just enjoying the time.
Of course, there's a ton of mosquitoes buzzing around me right now as the sun sets. I have a Black & Decker Halo™ Mosquito Inhibitor System sitting next to me and not being very effective.
It would be a perfect evening other than that... oh, yes, and the "hooligans" (as we call them) that are next store. They're just outside and being noisy. Hopefully that won't be S.O.P. for the week.
Just nice being out here... Have I mentioned that yet? « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 08:11 PM | Link | Travel § |
Sunday, July 04, 2004
Lazy painSo, at 2:30 this morning, my left leg which has become numb, decides to throw me a cramp in my left calf. The ol' Charlie Horse at 2:30 in the morning. Carol get up and tries to get the cramp to stop while I'm trying not to scream. It felt like I didn't sleep all night long.
Well, here it s the fourth and we've got nothing really going on. The girls go out shopping while I stay home trying to sleep/recuperate. I feel like crap. I sleep on the couch while watching Ground Force America. Diane & Melinda spin-up another great meal and the day just passes on.
There's no "local amateur" fireworks in the neighborhood. The night is quiet...
posted at 10:12 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Saturday, July 03, 2004
Let's celebrateWell, as I was getting dressed, I realize that my entire left leg from above my butt to my toes is slightly numb. No tingly sensation, no pain, just everything feels simultaneously cold and hot and muted. Crap, I'm screwed-up.
There was NO traffic all the way to Diane's house. It only took us about 1:45 to get there.
read more of this entry »
Our first stop of the day was to go to a craft fair in Lakeside, just down the road. It actually was a small but nice fair. I had a hell of a time there, though. Walking in the gravel, dirt, and uneven grass I was just all over the place. Every step was unsteady, hard to keep my balance. This sucked. After shopping it was off for burgers at Redamaks.
The afternoon was hanging around the house, playing in the pool. I brought with one of our DirecTV receivers. I wanted to plug into Diane's dish and see if her house in southwest Michigan is still within the spot-beam of the Chicago local stations, and it is. Carol & I are bring B&B up here to spend the week in about two weeks, so this is perfect - we'll be able to get all of our movie channels, sports, and local channels.
Diane & Melinda worked-up a pork roast (actually multiple with different marinades) for dinner. The food up there just tastes better. Go figure.
The fireworks were in Three Oaks tonight at 11pm local time (10pm Chicago time - up here you have to say Michigan Time for everything because a lot of the people are actually from Chicago, so they stay on Chicago time, like we do). Well, the Blues Fest was going on and it started to rain. People started to leave because the show just wasn't starting (also, because Blues Fest was still going and not stopping). Eventually, we had 20 minutes of good fireworks. Let's just say we were all taken aback by the display. I mean, we've seen it before, but this was different as they set up hundreds of feet closer to us than in the past, so we really felt that we were in the fireworks. « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 11:10 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Sunday, May 09, 2004
Mother's Day and home
Well, we went to church this morning in this wonderful small church in Sawyer. Great sermon from a priest that was visiting - my guess is that he teaches medical ethics at Notre Dame.
When to the butcher and bought tons of meat (that Carol vacusealed immediately). We just sort of hung around the house, took naps, and basically just got ourselves ready for the long drivve home. The Sunday traffic wasn't too bad, but it still took us about 3 hours.
I just love being up there...
posted at 06:15 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Saturday, May 08, 2004
Tulip Time in Holland MichiganToday we took about an hour's drive up to Holland Michigan for the 75th Diamond Anniversary of the Tulip Time festival.
read more of this entry »
It's cloudy, cool, and a little "rainy". We pulled into town and I realized that this was pretty big judging by the people trying to park in an empty lot.
The first thing we did is head for 8th Street because all up and down the street - for a few blocks - were Klompen Dancers that danced for about 15-20 minutes. We were all waiting for some major medical emergency due to flying wooden shoes. Alas, no shoes flew. (Here's a quick 30 sec video of the start of the dancing.)
We noticed as we walked up and down 8th Street that everyone had come by much earlier and "staked-out" spots along the sidewalks and curbs with chairs and blankets.
We decided to grab some lunch at the New Holland Brewing Company. I wanted to take some pictures of the outside of the place and when I went outside, I realized I heard marching bands. Well, I guess, they were having the major festival parade in a bit and they were showcasing a few of the bands.
Well, I guess that explains why people were staking-out their territory. The grand finale of the festival, the Muziekparade, features nearly 50 marching bands from across the state as well as floats, giant helium balloons, horses, more Klompen Dancers and other typical small-town parade stuff.
Quite honestly, the parade was a blast. We saw just under half of it - we need to do this again and camp-out to actually get a good seat. It was actually fun.
We got back in the car and drove just a little but further north to the Veldheer Tulip Farm. Holy crap - seven acres of tulips. They have hundreds of different bulbs here on display, and you can actually order any one you want. Hell, I never knew there were that many available.
We found something very odd when we were there - us. We were actually in the minority of whites that were there - the vast majority of people there were Indian. I have no idea why - heavy population in the area or something with a tie to tulips. Everyone were taking extensive time trying to take pictures of themselves with the tulips. I don't get it. Anyway, took pictures, too - just to fit in.
After a quick stop at the garden shops and gift shops, it was a bit of a drive home and another great dinner cooked-up by Diane and Melinda. « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 06:11 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Friday, May 07, 2004
Getaway to Michigan
Carol got off work a little early and we packed up the car and drove to my sister's house in Michigan. I love going up here... just to get away. Diane picked-up mom and Melinda and got there about 5 minutes after us. Tonight we had dinner at the Red Arrow Road House. (Had a long wait - well over an hour just standing in one place, waiting for a table the seats 5 people to come open). I had the House-Made Blue Cheese Potato Chips
Hot, seasoned potato chips with melted Maytag blue cheese, sour cream & chives followed by the Stir-Fried Beef Fillet Mignon with Shiitake Mushrooms Shredded carrots, red onion, zucchini, tri-colored sweet peppers, garlic & ginger tossed in an Oriental hoisin sauce…steamed white rice. Pretty good for a "Road House"!
posted at 10:26 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Wednesday, December 31, 2003
Did hell freeze over?Did you see what happened in my favorite town - Las Vegas - yesterday?
It snowed.
OK, it snows there every once in a while. Not a big deal. It rarely accumulates.
This time it was 1 to 3 inches of snow. It was supposed to rain instead, but the temperature was just right. But, alas, it didn't last. I mean, this is the desert. Still... it makes you wonder what the hell is going on with the weather...
posted at 09:07 AM | Link | Mundane § |
Saturday, September 27, 2003
LAX-ORDTerminal 7 at LAX. The Hertz shuttle bus driver was nice for so frickin' early in the morning.
read more of this entry »
Airport Security wasn't bad at all. Not as good as O'Hare, but there's hardly anybody in line, so it's a cake walk. I'm through the line at 5:45am for my 7am flight (United 102). That's a long time to kill. I decide to try and find a bottle of Coke for the trip. Nobody that's open are selling soda. Just water. And it's not cold either. Water is better than nothing. Eventually, after a lot of people watching, it's time to go.
My seat is 31B. Great, a center seat... except no one takes the window! Whoo Hoo! Sweet. It's foggy outside again. Hard to see anything while taxiing. We take off from 25R and we can't see a thing. We pop out on top of the fog/clouds and I never see Los Angeles again. As we head west, the clouds dissipate. We fly right over Las Vegas and you can see and identify everything. We get served a egg-ham-cheese croissant and get The Italian Job as a film (edited, of course). I'm am so friggin' exhausted, but I can't sleep a wink. I instead listen to the movie and Air Traffic Control on Audio Channel 9. We take the Bradford 3 into Chicago and land on 22R at 12:48pm, flying right over the Allstate Arena. Carol was waiting for me in baggage claim, even though I didn't check any bags. (Hey, we needed a place to meet.) Well, I'm back home again. I am happy to be home, but happy to have made the trip. I'm happy to see old family ties and I'm happy to have been able to take a few hours for myself.
I'd do this again in a heartbeat. « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 01:47 PM | Link | Travel § |
Oh, that was a short night...Ooooooh, craaaaap...
I went to bed around 1am. I just got up at 4:45am...
Well, at least the sleep was solid and deep. It's still black outside. Time to get dressed, checkout, and turn in the car at the airport...
posted at 05:04 AM | Link | Travel § |
Oh, this is a long day...I left Universal and got on the 101 West. That's when I saw the sign for Highland and decided that I needed to get off and see what Hollywood and Highland looked like.
read more of this entry »
I get off the Hollywood Freeway and pass the Hollywood Bowl. There's a show tonight, and it looks like it getting out. A sign says James Brown and Macy Gray, but it's hard to tell by the people leaving. The area doesn't look the same as it was the last time I saw it about 16 years ago. I come up toward Hollywood Boulevard and see the entrance to the new parking garage. My family and Carol & I have stayed at the hotel here, but that was decades ago. The whole corner is just so different now. In fact, I'm lost in a maze of stores and restaurants and levels and plazas. I finally got outside and went across the street to take some pictures of the facility. The area on a Friday night is still not the greatest place to be. I was hoping that it would have gotten, um, "cleaned up" a bit. Still, the amount of people walking down Highland from the Bowl and the amount of people outside make the place hopping.
I grab my pictures and get back in the car. I zig-zag down Highland, Santa Monica and La Cienega to I-10 to get to the Airport. The clubs in West Hollywood look like they were jumpin'.
Anyway, I get to the parking garage at the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza at the airport at 12:12 in the morning. The room is really quite nice and again, I'd stay here again. They have high speed internet access through an RJ-45 cable... but it's been too long of a day and I'm really exhausted.
I really pushed it today. I wish I had at least another day. But, I'm not out here for a vacation - I'm out here for my family... I just happened to have taken a few hours here and there for me. I'm finally eating my honey baked ham sandwhich. Yum. It hits the spot...
I've got to get to sleep... I'm going home in a few hours... « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 12:37 AM | Link | Travel § |
Friday, September 26, 2003
"A Foreign Affair" THEME
read more of this entry »
I left Montclair/Chino and tried my damnedest to get to Burbank by 5:30. But that's over 25 miles away, and it's a Friday rush hour in Los Angeles. The traffic is horrendous and I decided to override "Wendy" (That's what I called my Hertz Neverlost GPS Navigation system) and found a route that had no traffic. I programmed the wrong end point, though. I'm heading to Universal Studios, but I didn't want the main gate. I needed to go in the back way, and enter at Barnham Blvd. and Lakeside Plaza Drive.
I made it at 6pm and park in a special lot after I clear the security at the gate. I have to walk through a metal detector in the middle of the parking lot. I'm at a studio again, and again I can't take any photos. I hate that. I get to stand around and wait. I don't mind. Really. It's a gorgeous evening. The sun is setting, there's a slight breeze and it feels good just to stand around. I'm still in my suit from the funeral today. I had hoped I had enough time to check into the hotel and change before I came here, but there was no way in hell that was going to work out that way. The girls in front of me in line are eating dinner from In-n-Out Burger. That's when I realize that I didn't eat my honey baked ham sandwich during the drive.
There's a bunch of yellow signs everywhere that say "Paramount" and "Enterprise". I wonder if there's something shooting here today?
Two white shuttle buses pull up that have the Paramount Pictures logos on them. We board the buses and head over to Stage 42 at Universal.
I'm here to be in the audience for NBC's new show Coupling. It's a direct rip-off of the BBC version of Coupling (that's shown here on BBC America), which is actually a rip-off of Friends.
Tonight's episode is called "A Foreign Affair" (but the BBC version was called "The Girl with Two Breasts"... I wonder if they're using the same scripts???)
Allan Murray is the warm-up, and for the first time in my life, I actually get picked on a few times, interviewed by Allan, get a t-shirt, get tickets to the Laugh Factory (where he's performing tomorrow night) and I even get some quiet kudos for doing a good job laughing and reacting. Cool.
We get to watch the pilot episode of the show, since it was just on last night and we may not have seen it (I was eating Jack in the Box watching CSI - sorry). The cast is introduced and we start shooting.
Now, this is were it starts to get difficult.
Each scene is shot. The audience is good, the actors are OK, and the script just feels like it needs work. There's a large huddle that happens in front of me after each scene is shot, where there is hardly any major changes made. The scene is then reshot. Almost every scene that we see during the course of the evening is shot three times. It's really difficult as an audience to even try to laugh naturally after seeing the same thing three times in a row. I feel bad for the cast. It almost feels like the life is being sucked-out of the show. The cast is really pretty good. The show is getting scathing reviews, but it's more about the reheated "translated" scripts that seem to almost not work on American television. The original BBC series is a scream and somehow doesn't "translate" well to American prime-time audiences.
The curtain calls come at around 10:15pm and I'm back at my car by 10:25. It's time to get some sleep. It's been a long day. « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 10:25 PM | Link | Travel § |
Good Bye, Uncle Babe
I'm dressed and on the road at 7:27am, out amidst the fog again. I drive to Montclair. What a lovely little town. Clean, nice. The church, Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, is this nice, small mission-style church. Children were going to school as I pulled into the parking lot.
read more of this entry »
I quietly make my way into the church. I'm trying to be as nondescript as possible, but slowly people are starting to recognize me, even though I may not have seen them in quite a while. I meet my cousin Karen who looks exactly the same as I remember her from my childhood. She's the only person that - in my mind's eye - never changed. Weird. Then my cousin Mark the kid I traveled to California with back in the 60's. He doesn't look the same, but I see the boy in the face of the man in front of me. He finally introduces me to his sister Laurie, who I haven't seen in decades. She too doesn't look the same but I see the kid in the lady in front of me. She looks at me and has no recollection of me at all until Mark whispers a few words to her: "Beam me up". The electric smile comes to her face and she gives me a big hug. Laurie had wheeled in Aunt Mary. She's in a wheelchair now, and I can hardly recognize her.
The family slowly gathers. There's a bulletin board full of photos of Uncle Frank and Aunt Mary's life (or, as we all call them here , Babe and May). I notice a box on the table in the vestibule, next to the picture.
That's when I realize that it's Uncle Babe. In the box. The label says he was cremated on th 12th. Uncle Babe is gathered up, along with a US Flag for his military service and we go inside.
Mark has a eulogy prepared, and it's long and complete and I learn more about the uncle that I thought I knew. Then we had a full Catholic funeral mass.
After mass, we gathered all out front again. We all drove a mile or two into Chino to a Marie Callender's that opened early just for us. It was the site of their 50th anniversary not so long ago.
After lunch, we went over to Mary's brother's condo, to socialize, drink, eat, and watch old 8mm film transfered to videotape. Uncle Babe was never without his camera. Laurie had the film transfered, and it now fills two 2-hour videotapes. It was a wonderful, sweet trip down memory lane.
I didn't know there was going to be a dinner to end the day. I had made plans to be in Burbank (again) by 5:30-6:00 tonight. I had over 30 miles to get there in Friday afternoon rush hour traffic.
I didn't want to leave. I wish I didn't set this up, but my time out here is very limited. Laurie made me a sandwich to eat on the way, along with some cookies.
I slowly say my goodbyes. It's been years since I've seen some of these people, and I don't know if I will ever see any of them again. I hope that's not the case, but life takes odd twists and turns. Most of these people live out here and it's not like I visit California very often at all.
It's hard leaving family, even if it's extended family. I have done what I've been sent out here to do.
It's 4:20 and I slowly walk to my car. « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 04:22 PM | Link | Family § |
Thursday, September 25, 2003
PlacentiaWell, I'm finally at my hotel in Placentia - a Holiday Inn Express. Since I'm trying to do this trip "on the cheap" for my mom, I needed a cheap place to stay. My sister Diane said she'd recommend the Holiday Inn Express and I have to concur. This is a very nice facility, complete wit a continental breakfast in the morning. It's clean and looks pretty new. If this is what the chain is like, I'd highly recommend them.
So, now I have to find some place to eat and settle down for the evening. Placentia doesn't seem to have that big of a choice for food. In fact, all I saw was a Jack In The Box, which I wouldn't mind going to so that I can get my Jack In The Box taco fix.
I'm still going to have at least a 17 mile drive in the morning to get to Montclair. I may have found something closer, but may not have been cheaper or cleaner.
I need a taco... Survivor is coming on in a little while...
posted at 06:40 PM | Link | Travel § |
Warner Brothers StudiosIt's 9:30am and I pull off of Olive into the parking structure that's also gate 3 for Warner Brothers Studios.
I'm here to do what Carol & I did the last time we were out here - take the Warner Brothers Studios VIP Tour. But, this time, instead of a tour that takes about 2-2˝ hours, I'm going to do the Warner Brothers Studios Deluxe VIP Tour and take about double the time. I am soooo excited about this. My sister Diane and Melinda were just here a few weeks ago taking the regular VIP tour, and when I found out they had this Deluxe tour, I had to sign up for that.
Look,if you enjoy movies and/or television, and want to see what a real working studio is like (no trams, no fake or staged productions), you must do this tour.
There's a nice waiting area on the first floor of the parking structure. At about 10:00am, a gentlemen comes around to walk us across the street to go into the main gate - Gate 2. We had to go through a metal detector, and then get on an extended golf cart for the trip across the lot to the tour offices.
read more of this entry »
The tour office is not anything like it was back in the 80's, when they only had two tours a day out of a dark, dingy office. Now there's a huge waiting room with costumes and props from ER, Drew Carey, West Wing, Smallville and Gilmore Girls. There's also a little store (but this being Warner Brothers, it looks like stuff that was in the old Warner Brothers Studio Stores).
At 10:30, we are called into a small theater to watch a quick video about the studios and listen to the rules and regulations about the tour. Then one of the tour guides -
Dean Ricca - calls out three names. It's me and 2 ladies from Atlanta. The three of us are going to be on the Deluxe tour! Cool! The small, intimate group should allow us to do some pretty neat things!
One of the major rules - photography is extremely restricted. Movie people are possessive about copyrighted material. Our stuff will be locked-up in our golf cart and we'll only be able to bring them out at specific places. Nuts.
All of the tour groups get into stretched gold carts. Dean has a little gift for us - our own bottle of water for the day. Our first stop is at the Warner Brothers Museum. Its a really nice small museum that has a lot of costumes and props in it. - Like an entire George Clooney area (with costumes from Ocean's Eleven like George's tuxedo, Julia Roberts' gold gown and Brad Pitt's ugly shirt and jacket, his Batman cowl, his costume from The Perfect Storm... hey, did you know they're making Ocean's Twelve?), the Time Machine from The Time Machine (apparently, the thing was pretty dangerous when it was in operation with all of the spinning panels on it. They had to make a 15 foot safety area around it and no one was allowed inside that area otherwise they could get severely injured), the laptops from You've Got Mail, costumes from The Matrix and Christopher Reeve's Superman, a fake Haley Joel Osment and a "David" box from Artificial Intelligence: AI, and the crucifix from The Exorcist (creepy).
The 2nd floor of the museum is all from Harry Potter, like Hagrid's outfit with sling for baby Harry when he delivered him to the Dursley's, boxes and boxes of wands, Dobby the house elf, the set of Harry's room under the stairs, a petrified Hermione when she was in the hospital (spooky!), and Quidditch costumes and the carrying case for the balls and snitch. They had a "working" Sorting Hat that a security guy would place on your head to sort you into the different houses.
We left the golf cart at the museum and the rest of the regular tour people and walked down a street (are these things called "streets"?) to the Eastwood Scoring Stage. This is where scoring is done for productions. (yes, it's named after that Eastwood). It's a gorgeous, wooden stage. Acoustically, it was dead in there - not a single echo or reflection from anything. They were setting up for a recording session. Dean thought it could have been for Matrix Revolutions, even though it's going to be out in just weeks. Did you know that the musicians that play on these soundtracks don't get the sheet music until they sit down to record the piece?
We walked next door to Dubbing rooms 3 & 4. Because it's a working studio, Warner Brothers rents out facilities to anyone. Today, people from Disney were in house to do sound editing on the Saturday morning cartoon The Adventures of Lilo & Stitch. Since we were such a small group, the engineers sat around and talked with us for a while. Then, one of them took us to the "back room" (since the group was small), to show us the equipment used for editing. They're finally starting to edit all digitally, using swappable hard drives. But they still have to keep old analog equipment (including old film audio equipment) because the booming international markets are having studios re-edit existing productions for dubbed versions. They also had an "ISDN Room" which, from a technology perspective isn't that impressive, but from a production value perspective sure is. In the other dubbing room, techs were editing an episode of Third Watch. The ISDN Room allows the editing to be done in Los Angeles while the cast and crew are filming in New York. They use it to view the edits as well as doing ADR work with the actors (ADR is Additional Dialog Recording, or "looping").
We walk back to our golf cart and Dean takes us around the studio property. We can see a lot of construction going on inside a few of the stages. We pass by the ER stage. It's all buttoned-up, but I see a few women walking around in scrubs outside. All of the active stages have tons of trailers outside of them for the actors. They're all from the same company: Star Waggons. Why is it spelled that way? Why, it's because the owner is Lyle Waggoner from the old Carol Burnett Show.
We pull up to Stage 17. Dean has a master key to all of the stages and we go in. It's dark and it takes time to adjust to the light. We walk up some stairs and we're sitting in an audience area for The Drew Carey Show. They're not in production today, but it gives us a chance to sit and talk about a typical weekly sitcom production. The sets are all lined up in a row in front of the audience, with (from right to left) the backyard, Drew's kitchen Drew's living room, Winfred-Louder, and The Warsaw.
We walk next door to Stage 14. Now we're in a hour drama (actually "dramedy") Gilmore Girls. This stage only has all of the new sets that for Yale. Normally, sets are made with paint that looks like wood, or paint that looks like wood flooring, linoleum, or paving. In these sets, it's all real. That's because they want to make sure the look is correct (so that Yale approves!). These are gorgeous sets - hallways, classrooms, dorm rooms, cafeteria (with real pads of butter that seem to be melting...). We get to see how "wild" walls work - the ability to fly a wall out of the way to allow cameras behind to get a different perspective of a set.
Back to the cart and we visit Stage 16 - the largest movie soundstage in the US. We're outside because the doors are open and set construction is going on inside for a new movie with Keanu Reeves called Constantine. The stage is over 75' tall and it has a 25' deep tank in the floor (The Perfect Storm was shot inside here). The stage wasn't always this high. It was a normal studio, but years ago (for reasons I cannot remember exactly) they decided to make it bigger. They had people with hand jacks at every major load-bearing point around the periphery. They had 4 drummers, one in each corner of the building. They started a slow drum beat, and on each beat each person ratcheted their hand jack. When the entire structure moved up 6 inches, they threw in a railroad tie. The kept doing this until it was over 25' off the ground. Then new load bearing walls were built underneath. There was still an inch or two difference between the new walls and the base of the old stage walls, so they brought in huge slabs of ice to put between the two and removed the jacks. As the ice melted, the stage settled on to the new walls!
Back into the cart and we ride all the way across the property. Dean is giddy as he tells us we're going to Transportation since he knows the people there. We walk into a building that is a very large garage and auto/truck repair place for the studio. We walk through a chain link gate and there in front of us is a large group of cars. Dean goes over to one and throws the cover off of it. It's the General Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard. It's an original and it's in working order. There's another one next to it, but it's being used for parts - the last one available for parts. Next to them are two limos under tarps. The taps have the Presidential Seal on them - yes, they're limos for The West Wing. There's a DC Police car and escort motorcycles as well. Then there's a vehicle under canvas that looks pretty damn big. It's a bit wider than normal but it must be close to 30 feet long. It seems to go up in the back, like wings. Dean pulls the cover off - it's the friggin' Batmobile!!!! This is the last one (from Batman & Robin). It's huge. The tires are custom - the tread is the bat logo. Unfortunately, it's not street legal.
We walk over to the prop department and look at tons of furniture in a 4 story building. Set designers were walking through looking for items and tagging them to use for their own productions. Every once in a while you pass a piece of furniture that is so unique and it seems so familiar and yet you can't figure out what it's from. There's a pair of lamps that were listed as "Tiffany-style" that were used in one of the Batman movies. After they were hung, one of the art people took a good look at them and actually find a real Tiffany mark on them, They're no longer available for rental.
It's already 1pm and it's time for lunch. We jump in the cart and ride over to the Studio Commissary. We have passes for a complimentary lunch, so we head inside. The facility has only been open for 3 weeks. It's a gorgeous facility (as commissaries go), with many "stations" inside. The most popular one is "Paquito Mas" which is a mexican food chain, which is not included in our complimentary lunch. We all go to the Pasta bar and I get some Penne with a Tomato & Garlic sauce. Damn, that was good. I'm impressed. As we're sitting at a table having lunch,
Sherry Stringfield came through the line. She looked great, and looked shorter and thinner in real life than on TV (could be the white coat she always has to wear). After lunch we saw Jon Cryer walking into the Commissary.
Dean has been working the radio. He's trying to get permission from a production company to gain access to a set. We start driving around the lot when the radio crackles to life. We are given clearance. We head across the lot to Stage 23. It looks like just another soundstage... until we turn the corner on the back side. The exterior of the stage is... the side portico to the White House. We're going to see the set for THE WEST WING! Outside are the Star Waggons for the stars. There are 2 Jamaican flags flying over Dulé Hill's trailer, and a flamingo wind whirligig thing over Allison Janney's trailer (remember - her character's Secret Service code name is "Flamingo"). There's also a basketball hoop and a huge deck with chairs and tables for R&R time.
We walk into the "White House". The set is dark. The cast and crew are at another facility shooting scenes inside the Air Force One set. This side entrance is alongside C.J. Cregg's office.. We step into CJ's office. There's no goldfish on the desk, but everything else is there, including briefing notes on the desk as well as "while you were out" phone messages from Josh. Dean points out something we saw at the Gilmore Girls set. All of the windows on the set can pivot. This allows the crew to tilt the windows ever so slightly to make sure the reflections doesn't show a crew or anything off-set. Take a look next time you watch the show - you'll see windows just slightly out of "flush".
We walk into Josh's office. Dean tells us a story of a congressman who visited the set and actually saw his name on the blackboard in Josh's office as voting "Nay" against some bill going through the house. In a twisted piece of reality, the congressman actually erased his name and put it on the "Yea" side, Then he proceeded to write a message on a yellow legal pad to the character Josh telling him why he changed his vote.
We walk through the bullpen, past Donna's office. The entire set all fits together so that you can have those long "pedaconferences" done in all one shot. Wow. We go into the Roosevelt Room. Apparently the real Roosevelt Room doesn't have all these french-style door in it. When real White House staff people visit, they always ask why there's all those people walking around outside the doors. I guess either they never see them or they just don't have the people walking around in the real place. The Mural Room is across the hall. This room doesn't exist in the real White House, but was built for The American President. (Did you know that these are the same sets?) We see how the sets are lit using what look like spheres like paper lanterns. It diffuses the light for effect. Also, the set tops actually have a ceiling of muslin or canvas on top of them - something we haven't seen on any other set.
We go through another entrance and there is Charlie's and Deborah Fiderer's desks. There's a painting on the wall of an American flag done in kids hand prints. Apparently there have been a lot of letters asking where someone could get a copy of it. Turns out it's just something that one of the art people put together with their kids.
So, if we're here, that must mean that if we walk through this door we're in... The Oval Office. Oh, this is friggin' cool. Then the three of us just had to do it.
We each took turns sitting in President Josiah 'Jed' Bartlet's chair. Sitting on the desk in front of the chair was that small book of the US Constitution. Not a great chair but what an interesting view!
We briefly walk through the door "outside" which is where that long outside corridor outside the White House is, usually where President Bartlet goes outside for a cigarette. The backdrop is actually a photo of the exact views from the same places in the White House. The Clinton administration allowed the crew to come and photograph it. In fact, underneath one of the bushes on the backdrop, you can see Socks the cat!
A guard comes over, saying he has to lock up the set. We quickly walk through the rest of the set. We brush by Leo's office door and we look in toward Toby and Will's office but it's pitch dark - it's the only set with a real acoustical tile ceiling. If you look, you always see the ceiling in the shots around those offices. We pass by that "Visitor's Entrance" lobby, with its marble floors (actually paint) and columns (which are movable) nd the Presidential seal in the floor.
Then, it's back out the portico entrance and we leave the set.
Wow.
We drive off to "The Mill" Here's is were, under one roof, everything is built. Lumber shops, metal shops, plaster molding. It's all here in huge shops. Unfortunately, it's getting later in the day and the shops are pretty empty. The Scenic Art department is here, painting backdrops. It's a huge room that has a 35' drop on either side of the room. This allows the backdrops to be raised or lowered to paint - the painters never have to work on a ladder. We go into the basement to the Large Format Digital Printing shop. Here' instead of painting backdrops, here a large format digital printer prints backdrops and signage. this allows the use of digital images such as accurate photographs to be used. The printer looks like it's at least 10'-12' wide. When the piece is larger than that, a special microwave seamer is used to put multiple pieces together. Today, the printer is spitting out large advertising posters for Elf.
Our next stop is actually an appointment. Somebody wanted to meet us. We go to Costuming and meet Costuming Manager Elaine Maser. She's been doing costuming on productions for quite a while. We go into one of the large "Star" fitting rooms. We sit down and talk for at least 30-45 minutes about costuming and color palettes of productions. She even brought some wacky costumes for us to try on and "play dress-up with". I wound up getting into some Camelot thing (that looked more Moroccan than Camelot). Talk about feeling special, this was it. the head of costuming for Warner Brothers wanted to talk to us. This was so special, two other tour guides joined us so they could get the info as well. Wow.
We went downstairs. Here was the costuming "lockers" for all of the shows in production. We peeked into a few of them. They're about the size of a semi trailer, full of costumes, each group clearly listed for each actor. West Wing has three lockers, one of which is just uniforms. I looked into another locker and saw Mathew Perry's wardrobe - could he be coming back to the West Wing? There's laundry areas down her, too.
We then went into the costume rental area. Each aisle is the length of a football field, 3 racks high with ladders. Everything is sorted into categories. If you need ball gowns, suits, maternity wear, men's fedoras - they're all here, all cataloged and inventoried. Rentals are either single week (this allows music video shoots just to rent for about a week of production) or 12-weeks. (They don't rent to employees for Halloween - Dean asked - though that would be wickedly cool). The end wall that we were standing in front of was all womens shoes, sorted by color, then size. The whole wall. This was a really cool stop. I didn't think I'd enjoy it but I really did. Elaine made us feel "special"
It's off to the back lot now. We have our cameras and everything looks like we can shoot what we want. The main town square area is all dressed-up for what looks like a Fall Festival of some sort for the Gilmore Girls. I think the place is called Stars Hallow (sorry, I don't watch the show). I remember the town square from O Brother, Where Art Thou?. Dean knows I'm from chicago, so he's excited as we go to the next exterior set - it's the exterior of County General Hospital for ER. Specifically, the ambulance bay. But we can't get into the actual ambulance bay area - there is a crew in there working on pyrotechnics for a hoot (hmmm... another explosion in the ER?) Good old Doc Magoo's is gone (it burned down last season), replaced by a convenience store. We go around the back side to a street area that is being set for an episode of The Practice (no pictures here). Next to the street exterior is a studio parking lot. If you look closely, there is a box painted across quite a few parking spaces. Looking at the backside of the sets, It turns out that this parking lot gets re-dressed and it's the helipad on top of County General. (Yes, this is where Romano lost his arm.)
It's time to go back to the tour office. Time? 4:45! It's the longest Deluxe tour they've ever run at 6 hours and 15 minutes. We say our goodbye's to Dean and catch another golf cart back to Gate 2.
OK people, listen up. If you are in the Los Angeles area and can carve out about 5 hours of time and can spend about $95, DO THIS TOUR. You will not be sorry.
Now I'm off to my hotel. I've got at least a 30 mile ride ahead of me... « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 04:46 PM | Link | Travel § |
LA Rush Hour
My flight gets in a little early. I find the men's room for a pit stop and then look for a gift shop to grab something to eat. A large 3 Musketeers bar is exactly what I needed. It's been at least 16 years since I've been here. I'm in Terminal 6 and it looks really run down compared to it's hay day. It's off to Hertz to get a car - I need to get to Burbank.
read more of this entry »
I can't tell you how much of a pleasure it is to have Hertz Number One Gold service, to just jump on a shuttle bus and have a car waiting for you. I love that. I always get a car with the Hertz NeverLost GPS Navigation system (by Magellan). The last trip, we decided to call it "Wendy" (As in NeverLand... gotta be close to NeverLost, right?) Anyway, I always listen to Wendy as she tells me where to go.
I jump on the 405 North at 8:40. It's 22 miles to my destination in Burbank and I am not moving. At all. I'm starting to believe that 22 miles in under 2 hours could be a problem in morning rush hour in LA. As I'm sitting in traffic, I witness a California law that scares the hell out of me. In Illinois, a motorcycle must stay within the lane markers, taking up a space. Out here, motorcycles ride the lane markers in between the lanes. Scared the hell out of me when tow of them passed me when I was standing still.
After a few miles of crawl, I see that there's a car broken down in the left lane of this 5-lane freeway. As soon as I pass, I'm doing over 70mph. Burbank isn't all that far.
I decided to get a 6am flight and get out here just after 8am so that I could have a day to myself. I have an appointment that should take up most of the day and I can't wait to get there. Carol & I were there 16 years ago and I can't wait to see it again. « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 08:46 AM | Link | Travel § |
Uncle Frank
Well, here I am. I've been up for more than 3 hours now. I am sitting in seat 21F on an Airbus A320 which is United Flight 101 from Chicago to Los Angeles, a 4 hour and 14 minute flight for 1,750 miles. I've got to tell you, I never thought I'd be doing this, but I'm feeling good about this. Why am I here? It's because of my Uncle Frank.
read more of this entry »
He died over a week ago. He and his wife Mary moved away from Chicago years ago, first to Brownsville, Texas and then out to California to be near my aunt's family.He's the last of my mom's sibling's to go. My mom has been a bit down about this, as she is now "all alone". I'm not doing anything lately (being unemployed) and my mom - who didn't feel like flying - asked if I would "represent us" at the memorial service. I love traveling, I love flying. So, mom's paying for the trip and here I am somewhere over the midwest eating a Michael Angelo's Egg, Ham & Cheese Panini and watching Bruce Almighty.
Uncle Frank and Aunt Mary (or Babe and May as others call them) hold an unusual spot in my heart. Back in 1967, Aunt Mary took me and her nephew Mark to Los Angeles on a train trip. What a great thing to do, showing a kid America from a Santa Fe El Capitan train. I don't remember why Uncle Frank wasn't with us, but he was with us when we flew to LA in 1969. I only have one picture of him in my old photos - it's him on the pier in Santa Monica.
He was a great guy with kids. A tall man with a deep, booming voice that always drank Pepsi out of a bottle. And here, years later, I find a few more odd parallels with my life - he and Mary never had kids, like Carol & I. He proposed to Mary the first week he met her. So did I with Carol.
You see, I had to go to Los Angeles. « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 06:46 AM | Link | Family § |
Sunday, July 06, 2003
Getting homeThis turned out to be a long day for no good reason.
read more of this entry »
The day started with breakfast at the Blue Plate Cafe. Very uneven and actually a bit disappointing. Service was fair to poor and the food was... OK.
We spent the day back at the house resting or bobbing in the pool. I actually, for the first time in my life, sat down with a game console all by myself. I played harry Potter on Diane's PlayStation 2. It was my first experience just playing a game for that platform. It was interesting and kept me entertained for hours. Diane and Melinda whipped up a lunch for us as well - mostly Sloppy Joe's that my mom made and they reheated, as well as leftovers from yesterday.
We decided to leave about 4 o'clock to try and beat some of the traffic back into the city. The radio kept telling us about the severe weather in the Chicago area and you can hear the crackle of lightning over the AM reception. The traffic on 94 started getting bad. Then it started to crawl. We stopped in Portage Indiana to get gas and pick up Powerball tickets ($240 million!!!). It was still crawling and actually getting worse on I-94. I decided to take US 12 into the city. I just couldn't take the "not moving" part of this and at this rate, it felt like it would be hours before we got home.
US 12 took us through, um, "interesting" areas of Gary, Whiting, and Hammond. When driving to Diane's on Friday, I had noticed that the Skyway had two lanes open going eastbound but only one lane open going westbound. I really wanted to avoid that at all costs. We did, however, get up to a Skyway entrance ramp and saw that the traffic was actually moving pretty well. I decide to get on - and found out that instead of a single lane, they had flipped the configuration over the weekend and we had 2 lanes going westbound. The weather started moving-in as soon as we got to that stupid $2 Toll Plaza. It started to rain. Hard. Winds shook the car. Traffic was crawling again, but we were closer to town now. Once we got to the Dan Ryan, things started to clear-up - both in traffic and weather, though the standing water was pretty bad in many places.
We got to my mom's house after 7pm. I just happen to go inside to, um, "use the facilities" when I noticed that the power was out. Sort of. Most of the circuits were out, but the air conditioning was on, the refrigerator was on, and a few lights worked. The rest of the house was dark. One of the neighbors came over to try to help us figure out what was going on.
That's when we found out the scary part. We found out from a next door neighbor that there were "flames" coming from where the electrical wire entered the house! Thank God it's a brick house! Sure enough, you can see where the insulation was gone on the wires going into the pipe that goes to the electric meter which feeds the house. Calling Commonwealth Edison was a trip - because of the tens of thousands of people without power due to all the storms over the past days, the automated attendant now just tells you to call again later and hangs up! We got mom settled and she felt OK about staying there overnight.
We finally got home after 9pm. We're exhausted. Indy is pissed (she didn't like being left alone for all that time).
Not a great finish to the 4th of July weekend, but we had some good times. « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 09:21 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Saturday, July 05, 2003
Milly's (mostly music) Hootenanny IIIt was a late start this morning... everyone is taking time waking up and getting ready for the day.
read more of this entry »
Diane & Melinda whipped up a breakfast of pancakes and bacon. Mom swept the deck to try to get the rain and debris off of it. I skimmed the pool, which was a mess due to all of the huge trees surrounding their back yard.
We're starting to find out about the sirens yesterday - 7 people drowned in Lake Michigan (one at the beach at the end of the road). Apparently the storms were really bad and caused huge waves with a hellacious undertow. They haven't found all of the bodies...
Carol & I stayed "home" while the rest of the crew went to Michigan City to the Lighthouse Outlet Mall. Around 2pm, we all met at Redamak's for a lunch of greasy burgers with fries and onion rings. Then it was back to the house to get ready for our full evening of events.
We're off to Dewey Cannon Park in Three Oaks, not too far from the house. Tonight is "Milly's (mostly music) Hootenanny II". Milly is Milly May Smithy, the alter-ego of Chicago-based performance artist (and also former alto saxophonist of Poi Dog Pondering) Brigid Murphy. She's been putting on these revues since 1987 with "Milly's Orchid Show", comprising mostly of friends that's she's met along her way (tonight it's Robbie & Donna Fulks, Anna Fermin's Trigger Gospel, The Rip Tones, Jane's Kountry Kin and The Village Square Dancers, for starter).
What really got me tonight, other than Milly's entrance on the back of a huge chicken in the back of a pickup, was the overwhelming sense of community at this event. It's a small park, next to some high-speed Amtrak tracks that cut through town. It takes place in the gazebo in he center of this small park. Milly's entrance was preceded by a parade of kids in dress-up clothes (that they got to keep). There also was a Bake Sale and Barbecue for the Little league.
The show was over two hours, was a bit uneven with some of the acts, but was just an absolute wonderful time that I could not imagine missing.
After the show, we headed over to the 6th Annual Harbor Country Blues Festival at Watkins Park in Three Oaks. Well, actually, we didn't go in. Watkins Park is where the fireworks were scheduled to go off at 11:00. Diane and I scoured the area to find a good spot outside of Blues Fest, and find a spot over the centerfield wall at the ball fields there. We were basically alone and just waited for darkness, and then waited for the fireworks. Blues Fest didn't sound all that great - we were able to hear it from out location. I'm glad we saved the money. Anyway, the fireworks were pretty cool - there's no music, no other sound since there was no one else around us. Just the sound of the motor igniting and the fireworks igniting. Weird. Quiet. Eerie, in a way. They lasted almost 20 minutes and then we went back home and crashed. « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 11:55 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Stormin'Been up for a few hours now, off and on. A pretty bad thunderstorm system has been moving through since 4am. Lots of lightning, thunder, rain and wind. Pretty dark outside during all of this, but it looks like it's moving on.
posted at 09:17 AM | Link | Mundane § |
Friday, July 04, 2003
Happy 4th!What a great, relaxing day. Carol & I picked-up my mom just before 9 o'clock and drove up to Diane's house in Michigan. Traffic was almost non-existent. We hung around, had lunch, and went into the pool.
read more of this entry »
Yes, I actually put on a bathing suit and got into the pool. It's been over a decade since I've done that. Was in the water for a few hours, tossing these floating balls back and forth down the length of the pool. For some reason, the dogs (well, Chelsea more than Gracie) just love to chase the balls. Chelsea even tries to get them out of the pool. She got a bit excited and actually fell in and I had to scoop her up and push her out of the pool.
Even though Harbert, Michigan is a very very quiet little town, we've been hearing sirens that seem to be going up and down Read Arrow Highway. Then there have been an ambulance and a (cool looking) Rescue Hummer that went screaming down the road out front, coming from the beach. Something is up.
After a few hours of thrashing around, I got real nauseous and got this huge headache, so I crawled out of the pool, got dressed, and laid down and the couch and passed-out for a few hours. I have no idea what that was about.
Dinner tonight, again cooked by Diane and Melinda, was steak and lobster tails, corn and baked potatoes, all done on the grill. I was still not feeling the greatest, and I felt bad for not eating everything, but it was all very good. That was the first time I had grilled lobster tail and I could definitely do that again!
So, we watched what little TV we could up here (no cable, no satellite) - watched coverage of 4th of July festivities from Washington, Boston, and New York. There weren't any fireworks up here today - we're doing that tomorrow night (fireworks at 11pm just sounds late to me...)
Off to bed - can barely stay awake... « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 10:35 PM | Link | Mundane | 1 comment § |
Saturday, June 21, 2003
Liki Tiki Village
read more of this entry »
The landing in Orlando was the worst I've experienced for no good reason - no wind, no rain, just a hard, smackdown landing. A 757-300 should have handled better. Baggage claim was long - it just seems to get longer with every flight. A quick shuttle bus to Hertz Number 1 Gold to get a Ford Taurus (hey, it's a full-size car and it really wasn't bad).
It became obvious that we needed food now. Fortunately, outside the Hertz lot was a Cracker Barrel. After a lunch that was delayed by over 40 minutes, we went out to the car, plugged in our destination coordinates into the NeverLost GPS system, and we're off to our condo at Liki Tiki Village. It's a timeshare place and much better looking than the name implies (Carol won a week for us in a Christmas raffle at work). The condo is a 2-story villa, with 2 bedrooms, 2 full baths, complete kitchen washer & drier. Perfect for our stay.
We took a quick trip to a Publix for some snacks and necessities for the week, Walgreen's for things that we couldn't find at Publix, and it was off to Downtown Disney for dinner. We had made reservations at Gloria Estefan's Bongos Cuban Cafe . Really fell in love with the place and the food is just great. It was a great find and we'd go there again in a heartbeat. After 9 o'clock they had live salsa music and dancing. it was just a great vibe... Oh! and we discovered Mojito's!!! YES!!!
Drove back home to the condo and watched the Lennox Lewis fight on HBO. Gruesome. There must be a re-match... « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 09:59 PM | Link | Travel § |
American Trans Air 536Well, here I am, stuck in seat 26A on ATA Flight 536. We're somewhere in the air - have no idea where - on or way to Orlando.
read more of this entry »
This has been an experience this morning. I didn't expect that getting to to a small airport like Midway 2˝ hours in advance of your flight was unreasonable. We got on the plane 20 minutes after it started boarding. The check-in lines for ATA were horrendous. Note to self - always get an e-ticket. The new buildings at Midway, though nice, can't handle the new security procedures. I'm used to just going up to a ticket counter and checking your bag. Those days are gone now. First you have the extremely long line to get up to the counter. We hit the counter an hour before the flight. We were lucky that the rep was good and processed people quickly, unlike others who where lallygagging (Yes, I actually used that word). From there, it was over to the baggage scanner to make sure the luggage clears - and they did without a problem. Then it was the long walk to the security checkpoint - I didn't make it through. My damn Rockports have metal shanks in them for the arch support! I'll remember that for the return flight. Then it was the mad sprint for the door. Of course, the plane pushed-back late, so the rushing was a bit moot.
So here we are in the air. As you would expect, there are kids on the flight. Not a lot, but quite a few. I think I have heard every single one of them during the flight. « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 11:22 AM | Link | Travel § |
VA-CA-TION!!!!!I'm up early to go pick up Barry & Buffy - We're on our way to a week in Orlando!!!! I am off for a WEEK!!!! Hopefully I will fill you in during the week - if not, you'll know where I am.
See ya!
posted at 05:04 AM | Link | Mundane § |
Thursday, November 07, 2002
So long, National
Our Favorite Airline to Las Vegas™, National Airlines, shut down last night. We've traveled a few times with them and absolutely loved their service. It's niche was serving Las Vegas. They flew only 757's and the cabins were always clean and well kept. We had great meals on their flights when they first started up. Like so many other airlines, they discontinued meal service slowly, then altogether. The crews were great as well. The airline started on May 27, 1999 and filed for bankruptcy December 6, 2000. When 9/11 hit, it just killed the carrier. They filed for a loan with the Air Transportation Safety Board, but got rejected and that just about sealed the deal. We're going to miss the airline.
posted at 07:29 AM | Link | Las Vegas § |
Thursday, September 19, 2002
Sleepy drive homeLast day in Michigan. Woke up and packed to get on the road early (do you belive Carol has to go to work today?). Drove to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. and then drove home - got to our house around 11:15am. Carol went to work and I crashed hard on the couch, with Indy wanting to lay next to me (she missed us!).
posted at 02:29 PM | Link | Travel § |
Wednesday, September 18, 2002
Gambling, shopping, snoozing and eatingThis morning, we made breakfast. Buffy wound up doing the eggs (good omelette). Eventually we got ready and went to Falatic's Meat Market. Spent over $100 on meat (though Barry & Buffy spent about $42 and looks like the have more meat than we do). The quality of meat at this place is wonderful. We dashed back to my sister's and put the meat in the fridge for later. Then, it was off down Red Arrow Highway, to Michigan City, Indiana. First stop - the Blue Chip Casino. Buffy put a $20 in a $1 Read White and Blue Wheel of Fortune and won $300. She cashed out. The rest of us did diddly. The boat is OK, but I think we got spoiled by going to the MGM Grand in Detroit. Next stop - Lighthouse Place Premium Outlets mall where much walking and shopping ensued. Getting tired, so drove all the way up to Stevensville to go to Cracker Barrel for lunch. Went back to D&W's to buy Brie and bread for dinner tonight. Crashed back at my sister's. I decided to drive up to St. Joseph to go to Best Buy to buy Monsters, Inc. on DVD for tonight's entertainment. On the way back, stopped at A&W on Red Arrow Highway to get a half gallon of root beer. When I got back, everyone was vaccu-sealing their meat that was bought this morning (we brought our FoodSaver with us to vaccu-seal the meat). Barry cooked pork chops and steaks (that we got at the butcher this morning). Watched last season's finale of the West Wing and then Monsters, Inc., and off to bed.
posted at 10:33 PM | Link | Travel § |
Tuesday, September 17, 2002
Henry Ford Museum and drive to Harbor CountryChecked out of the hotel this morning. Has breakfast at a Big Boy's down the street. Had to stop at CVS again to get Barry some different meds (he sounds terrible), the off to the Henry Ford Museum. Somehow, even though the museum is significantly smaller than Greenfield Village, it's a harder day. We're walking on wooden floors, and never changing texture, so our legs and feet are killing us. After the museum, a quick refreshment in the Michigan Cafe, then into the car to get some gas, and then we streak westward across the state back to my sister's house. We make the trip, including a stop, in about three hours. We can't go to the restaurant that we wanted to for dinner tonight because we have started the winter season in Harbor Country and many places aren't open all week. We decide, instead, to celebrate our anniversary at Schulers Restaurant in Stevensville. Great food and a great looking place inside - sort of prairie style. It was back to my sister's to crash. We watched ABC tonight (Diane's TV can just barely pull-in WLS-7 from Chicago). We watched 8 Simple Rules for Dating my Teenage Daughter (eh), Life with Bonnie (enjoyed and will probably watch the season) and Push, Nevada (got sucked into and need to watch more). Then we just crashed and went to bed.
posted at 09:41 PM | Link | Travel | 1 comment § |
Check outA very good night's sleep. On the agenda for today - check out of the hotel, spend the day at the Henry Ford Museum, drive back across the state to my sisters' place, and out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary (hey, I guess I never mentioned that this past Sunday was our 23rd Wedding Anniversary?)
posted at 07:23 AM | Link | Travel | 1 comment § |
Monday, September 16, 2002
MGM GrandBack at the hotel from the MGM Grand Casino. The buffet had a nice, wide selection of items, but - WORST. PRIME-RIB. EVER. Dry. Over-cooked. The meat shredded like in a pot roast. Blech. Put a $20 bill in a quarter Five Times Pay Wheel of Fortune slot and walked away with $100. The casino is much bigger than I anticipated. Wasn't crazy about the look of the clientele. Barry sounds really bad. Hopefully the drugs we got him at CVS this afternoon will help.
posted at 10:32 PM | Link | Travel § |
Greenfield VillageBack at the hotel. Breakfast at IHOP (oh, what a THRILL that was. *gack*) Spent all day at Greenfield Village. Had lunch at the Eagle Tavern. Took in the Space Station IMAX movie in 3-D. Wow. WOW. WOW! Breathtaking. Absoloutely. Breathtaking. Must see. Anyway, back at the hotel. Barry is coming down with something. He's been hacking-up a lung for the past hour or so. Think we'll try the buffet at the MGM Grand Casino tonight.
posted at 06:16 PM | Link | Travel § |
Not as bad as I had thought...Well, the beds at the Quality Inn were better than I thought they would be. Got a good night's sleep after the champagne and The Sopranos. Looks like it'll be a good season - Tony's life should become unglued, I think. Wonder how many guys will still be part of "The Family" at the end of the season?
Off to breakfast and Greenfield Village.
posted at 06:35 AM | Link | Travel § |
Sunday, September 15, 2002
Mongolian BarbecueWell, we went down the street to a BD's Mongolian Barbeque - a chain that we don't have around Chicago. Nice vibe, great service, good selections of meat and seafood. Would do it again. Back at the hotel now, waiting for The Sopranos to start...
posted at 07:48 PM | Link | Travel | 1 comment § |
DeabornWell, here we are in Dearborn, Michigan. The drive was a breeze. We stopped in Sawyer to get some groceries for Wednesday, stopped at the Swedish Bakery in Harbert for snacks, then drove to my sister's house. All of us had lunch at Horsefeathers, then back to Diane's for a Pit Stop. Back on the road to D&W's to get some champagne & brie for tonight, and then on the road. Took us less than 3 hours to get here. We're going cheap - a Quality Inn. Clean, nice, and has HBO for The Sopranos season premiere tonight. Now, it's time to figure out dinner...
posted at 05:48 PM | Link | Travel § |
Saturday, September 14, 2002
*THUMP*
I got woken up by a large sound that seems to be coming from underneath the bed. When I abruptly sat up, Indy popped out from under the bed. It was after 8am, and Carol was downstairs cleaning Indy's cage. She must have lost track of Indy, because she decided to venture out into "BunnyLand" and came upstairs for a visit. I didn't sleep all that well - the skunk's odor didn't dissipate until after 2am.
Well, I got the car washed at Turtle Wax in anticipation of our little trip. Every year, since 1994, we've gone to Las Vegas either at this time of year, or in Spring, or sometime both. This year, with my unemployment situation being as bad as it is, there's no way we could go. Instead, we're doing a driving trip. We're going with Barry & Buffy up to my sister's house in Michigan, then driving over to Dearborn, Michigan to visit Greenfield Village on Monday and the Henry Ford Museum on Tuesday, then driving back to my sisters' and spending at least a day there, before driving home. Much much cheaper. We had to do Greenfield Village on Monday, since it is closing until June of 2003 for some underground restoration project.
Don't know how often I'll be able to Blog from the road - we'll have to see how this works out. We all need to get away for a while, though.
posted at 09:37 AM | Link | Mundane § |
Sunday, July 14, 2002
ROAD TRIP!
Carol and I get up early, drive to Riverside to pickup Janie & Gary, and then it's off to Midway Airport, where we meet Jeff and we're on our way to Detroit. I've never flown on Southwest before, and getting an "A" boarding pass, I'm told, is good, but it doesn't matter - plane is empty. The flight is really short - just barely enough time for the complimentary juice & coffee service. The Detroit airport (DTW) is... well, let's just say, now that Midway has started it's remodeling, this airport is the pits. We get on the Hertz shuttle to get our Crown Vic and drive into the city.
Finding Comerica Park was actually a bit difficult - you can't see it from a distance. Heck, you can't see it a block or two away. It's tucked into a small area downtown. We got to the park pretty early - somehow we lost sight of the fact that the game started at 2:05 (we thought 1:05). So, we slowly walked around the outside of the park to see what it looked like.
We went in as soon as the gates opened, and proceeded to walk around the park. The food selection was a bit pitiful. It wasn't until later did I find the better food at "Big Cat Court", and that made things better, but within the normal stands it was a bit plain & boring (though I had a Kielbasa that was very tasty).
Our seats were 28 rows behind the plate - great view, but in the sun all through the game. This caused a major problem for Carol, who got what seems to be minor heatstroke even before the game started. She had to sit in a different area in the shade and we had to help her out with wet towels, lots of water, and some ice cream to help her cool down. She was better by about the 4th inning, but we kept in the shade for the whole game.
The game itself was OK. It looked like the Sox were going to lose again, but Carlos Lee had two homeruns, and then Jose Valentin hit a triple in the eighth that scored two and then scored himself when the throw to third went wild (sort of an in-the-park homerun, but not really). Sox win 6-4.
After the game, we walked (!) over to Greektown to have dinner at Pegasus. Well, I wasn't hungry after being out there all day, so Jeff and I took a walk through the Greektown Casino while the others ate dinner. It was weird being in Detroit and being in a land-based casino. It was a nice place, two floors - larger than I thought it would be. Sunday afternoon, almost every single table game we saw were $10 tables. I think we saw one $15 table.
Back to the restaurant, the group finished up, and then it was off to the airport. This time we all got "B" boarding passes - not a good omen. Sure enough, the flight home was packed. We got in 10 minutes early, and had to wait 20 minutes for a gate. Then we drove Jeff home, drove Janie & Gary home, and finally drove home ourselves. A very long day. Would we do it again? You bet!
posted at 10:06 PM | Link | White Sox § |
Monday, June 17, 2002
Ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking...We've all been on flights where the captain addresses the passengers from the cockpit before takeoff. But how about this United Airlines pilot that stepped out of the cockpit to make his announcement? Way cool.
posted at 10:02 AM | Link | Mundane § |
Saturday, April 27, 2002
Trouble in Laughlin
A little digression... last September Carol & I along with our Friends Barry & Buffy were in Las Vegas for our annual (or last year - our semi-annual) trip. After spending 4 days at the Rio, we were off driving about 80 miles to a little town called Laughlin (population 8,000) on the Colorado River, next to Bullhead City Arizona. It's a very small gambling town. We stayed at Harrah's, right on the river, where we had tickets to see Patricia Yearwood at the amphitheater. Well, it was hot. Our room faced an asphalt parking lot. We found the rooms small, almost motel-like. The air conditioning just couldn't keep up with the heat. Then we find out that the amphitheater is outside and it was 105°. Well, after being really spoiled in a Rio suite for 4 nights, we decide that we're not going to stay in Laughlin the second night and we make reservations back at Rio. We also return our Yearwood tickets (the concert was oversold, so they were happy to get them back). We just didn't enjoy being in Laughlin - I guess it wasn't our "style". We're out of there at 8:30 in the morning and are back in our rooms at the Rio by 10:30.
Flash forward to today.
At 2:15 am this morning, 3 people were killed and 13 others injured when members of Hell's Angels and The Mongols started fighting in the Harrah's Laughlin casino, escalating into gunfire. The gangs were in town for the 20th annual "River Run," an event which annually draws 50,000 to 80,000 motorcycle enthusiasts. Police, who said it was the worst shooting incident in the history of Nevada casinos, actually locked-down the town while they searched for possible combatants. Las Vegas SWAT even went room-to-room in the hotel itself.
Weird.
posted at 03:43 PM | Link | Current Events § |
|