Wednesday

Long day on Wednesday! I woke up from my long slumber and checked out of the hotel around 11am. After that, I decided to try to find some sports apparel stores in the area to buy some Ducks gear without paying arena prices. The tour guide from my hotel recommended some places, so I was off on my tour of Anaheim to find them!

The first place I went to was in a place called the Block of Orange. It’s basically like an outdoor mall. It was next to a place called the Crystal Cathedral. I’m not a hundred percent sure what it was, but I think it was a daycare center? Perhaps? Maybe I should research it a little. The store I went to didn’t have all that much hockey (much like the east coast!) I did find a few cool Ducks things though, and I had a fun conversation with one of the workers who is a Kings fan (sucker!). After that place, I went up State College Blvd to a dirty little shack that had some old school Mighty Ducks stuff. Really cool (but very dirty…and a little creepy).

After my shopping excursion I headed back to Disneyland. I wanted to go on the Carosel of Progress and the Tomorrowland people mover. Turns out the Carosel is not that anymore, and the people mover was no open (don’t even know if it ever was). So I headed over to California Adventure for a little while. I’m not a ‘rides guy’, so I wasn’t all that impressed, but it was okay. I think having a “Hollywood” section was silly, since the real Hollywood is about a halfhour away.

After a quick bite to eat (chicken nuggets! Yum!!) I went to my car to get my hockey tickets don my jersey. My buddy who was coming to the game with me was stuck in traffic driving from LA, so I went back into Disneyland for a bit.

My buddy finally got to Anaheim and we headed to the game.

I gotta say, a LOT of Ducks jerseys at the game – more than I’ve noticed at other arenas, though maybe it just catches my eye some. I did do a little shopping in the team store, and even weaseled a discount by saying I flew all the way from New York for the game.

After grabbing some Jack Daniels, we headed to our seats. Pretty good for $11 a piece! Looking around I don’t think there is a bad seat in the house. Intermissioins were quiet, which I like – and the fans were quiet during play but erupted with each goal. I was surprised the celebratory song wasn’t louder on the PA, but that foghorn rattles your bones! Awesome.

After the game (A 4-2 Ducks victory, upping my personal Ducks winning streak to 4-in-a-row) I followed my buddy into Hollywood to visit his fiancé on the set of a new ABC show debuting in March. She is also a former co-worker of mine, so it was nice to see her too, if only briefly.

But I had to cut it shorter than I’d like, because I was soooo tired and I still had to drive to Santa Barbara! I rolled into the hotel around 1:45 and was asleep by two. A nice hotel…from what I gathered in the 15 minutes I was awake in it.

More later!

I've realized what I never liked about Disney...

Tourists! Last night was awesome, and I realized the Parks are so much better when there aren't any of those pesky tourists around! But I guess I can say the same thing about Times Square.

I weaseled my way into the Park last night and had a wonderful time. Perhaps it was the severe lack of sleep, combined with my second wind, but I felt like I was 10 years old again. The shear giddiness I felt on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride was embarrassing. I also rode some Snow White ride and Pirates again.

They had Sleeping Beauty's castle decked out with holiday lights. It was quite amazing.

Sleeping Beauty's Castle decked out for the Holidays!

They also decorated the It's A Small World ride for Christmas in a way that would have made my mother cry it was so amazing. I had to ride that because if I didn't she'd have beat me mercilessly. So there you go Ma, I rode Small World for you. They had the whole ride decorated and adjusted for the holidays. They kept going between "It's a Small World" and "Jingle Bells". I think I'm good with that ride for another decade now.

This is "It's a Small World"

I was also able to get about 90% of my Christmas shopping done last night, which is pretty awesome.

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised with Disneyland. So many people have told me that it would pale in comparison to Disney World. And it does, but it was better than I thought it would be. One thing I noticed were the type of tourist that were there. Disneyland seems like it caters to more American tourists, while Disney World seems more international. Perhaps flights from Europe to Florida are cheaper/quicker? Or that Disney World is so much bigger that you get more bang for you already stretched buck? I don't know. But it has been a great experience so far.

Today I go back to the Parks for the day. I have to check out California Adventure, and there are a few more things to do at Disneyland that were closed last night.

Tonight I go to the Pond for the first time! So excited!!

Okay - time to get motivated and moving. Sleep was definitely awesome last night, but I must go out and enjoy this Southern California morning.

I'll try to make another post tonight when I get to Santa Barbara, if I'm not too exhausted!

Greetings from the OC! (don't call it that)

I made it!

If I can offer advice to anyone, it would be "Don't plan a 6:40am flight on the first day of your vacation." What a dumb idea! Waking up at 3am was not fun. But, driving to JFK at 4am was a breeze, as was parking. The security checkin? Not so much. That took longer than it should. A bright spot that I found was that I was standing in line behind to passengers (mid-50's businessmen) who were business/first-class passengers. Due to construction, there was no separate line for them. One of them started to complain to a security supervisor, who in so many words said "blow it out your ear." That made my morning. We're all on line pal, deal with it.

I dozed for the most part the entire flight out here, which was nice. A lot of Hesidic Jews were on the flight, which was interesting. I felt bad for them when they walked out into the sunny California air with their black overcoats and hats.

The car rental was uneventful, as was the drive to Anaheim. Triptik got a little confusing around the 101 and 5 merge, but I figured it out.

After getting to Anaheim, I drove around a bit to get my bearings, and saw Honda Center for the first time. It's a pretty building. When I came back through, I passed it from behind, where it looks like it's situated on barren wasteland. It really looked like the model home from Arrested Development.

Around 2pm pt I drove over to Disneyland and spent the day there. It was my first trip there, and I found myself comparing it to Disney World too much. It was a fun day. I really enjoyed Pirates of the Carribean and the Haunted Mansion. I also got a tip on a little after-park-hours shindig that I'm gonna go check out. Shhh...

I'm a little tired - as one might imagine, and I think I'll take a quick nap before heading back to the park.

I'll try to write more later!

Off to California!

The plans are made. The hotels are booked. The tickets are purchased.

Now I just have to figure out long-term parking at JFK and I'm all set!

I fly out of JFK tomorrow at 6:40 am et, landing at LAX at 10am pt. I am renting my car through Enterprise as they gave me the best one-way rental rate. After I leave the airport I drive down to Anaheim and spend one night there at the Ramada Main Gate.

On Wednesday, I check out of the hotel and spend the day at Disneyland (most likely). I hit the Ducks game that night (vs the Blues) and head to Santa Barbara immediately after the game. That night I stay at another Ramada right off the 101.

Thursday morning I trek up the Pacific Coast Highway on what most people say will be a drive I'll never forget. My destination for lunch is Nepenthe in Big Sur. After lunch, I'll be rolling into San Jose to hit up the Shark Tank for Ducks/Sharks. Once that game is through, I head up to Redwood City to a Best Western to unwind after a looooong day of driving. Thank god for XM! The MyFi will be with me for the whole trip.

When I wake up Friday morning, I will ride into San Francisco for the first time, dropping the car off downtown. Then a quick bus ride or, if the weather is nice, brisk walk will take me to my final hotel, the Westin St Francis in Union Square. I've heard that every President since Taft has stayed there (thanks to my trusty Frommer's Guide Book). My activities for San Francisco are still up in the air, but a visit to Alcatraz is very much in the cards.

Saturday, I check out of the hotel and enjoy the morning in San Francisco. I fly out of SFO around 3:30pm pt and land just before midnight eastern at JFK. I'm sure I will freeze my buns off while I look for my car in the long-term parking lot!

I booked the Westin St Francis on Hotwire.com. It's an awesome site - if you're ever traveling to a big city and don't care what chain hotel you stay at I highly recommend this tool. You can pretty much narrow it down to one or two hotels before you book it if you look here. I was spot on with the Westin.

AAA was also a huge help in planning this trip. I reserved all of my other hotels through their website and got the best rates. I also used their Triptik tool to map all of my routes, printing out the PDFs they produced. I suppose I'll know how accurate they are after this trip!

I bought my tickets to the Ducks game from Stubhub. I tried to do that for the Sharks game too, but they had less available, especially for just one ticket. I went through ticketmaster, and cursed my way through the $15 in fees they tacked onto the price. Bunch of savages.

I'm hoping my next update will be from sunny Orange County! If it's from an airport you can be sure that I am grumpy!

California Here I Come!

Details for the great California Adventure are being worked out as we speak. Here is the tentative plan:

Fly from JFK to LAX on December 9, arriving at 10am PT. From there, I rent a car and drive down to Anaheim.

Spend the day/night in Anaheim, visiting DisneyLand, and perhaps a beach.

December 10th will mark my first trip to Honda Center to see the Ducks play the Blues. After the game I plan to drive up to Santa Barbara, assuming it hasn't totally burned up.

The next morning I set up the Pacific Coast Highway to San Jose. Should be quite gorgeous from what I hear. That evening (December 11th) I will see the Ducks take on the Sharks at the HP Pavilion in San Jose.

After the game I will drive up either to a suburb of, or downtown San Francisco and spend a day and a half there, flying home on Saturday, December 13th, landing at JFK around midnight eastern time.

Pretty ambitious trip, but it should be a nice way to celebrate the end of the season for me and the start of my vacation.

So far I have the flight booked, as well as a hotel room in Anaheim and Santa Barbara. Tomorrow I will figure out what I am doing up in San Jose and San Francisco, and after booking those hotels I will book my car. I want to make sure to give back the car once I get into SFO since I won't really need it to see the city.

Hopefully I'll have another update tomorrow.

Stay Tuned!!

I am currently planning a trip to California for a little Ducks tour. It'll be great to see my favorite team on Home Ice! Plus, you know, Disneyland. This is turning out to be quite an ambitious undertaking, so keep an eye on this blog as details get finalized and released.

By the way - the airline tickets have just been purchased!!

The Rest of the Trip

Sorry I never finished the rest of the Buenos Aires trip. After getting home I was very tired, then got busy. I'll now fill in on the rest of the trip.

Friday was the first time I had seen rain in South America. It was raining when I was getting ready for work, but stopped for the commute. After we got inside the building it was pouring like I hadn't seen in a long time. A long, sustained drenching, accompanied by some glorious thunder. See what happens when you overstay your welcome??

I wasn't feeling well all day - I was hoping I wasn't coming down with anything - but it turns out it was just a day thing. I think the sprite from the previous night was the culprit.

Lunch was the same as the previous day - empanandas on site. No more Lion's Cafe. I was disappointed, but busy, so it didn't really bug me all that much.

We worked until around 6, when the dweeb's boss said "we're leaving". He had to leave for his flight at 9pm and he wanted to take us out for a nice dinner first. Who was I to argue??

We went to a different restaurant - near where we had been going all week. I have the details written down at home. I'll have to fill you in later. I was still not feeling all that great, but I figured this was my last opportunity for a big meal in Buenos Aires, so I had to make the most of it.

We did the normal grouping of appetizers - the sausage being the best. I didn't eat too much of it as I wanted to save my energy for the steak. We had some great wine - again, I'll have to get back to you on it.

Dinner was Bife de Lomo. So damned yummy! We also ordered a bunch of different kinds of fries - thin cut, Spanish chips, and the little balls like I had during one of my first meals the previous trip (scroll down and read!). We had the second bottle of wine with the meal, and it did not disappoint.

Unfortunately, Boss man had to leave for his flight, so we finished the meal without him. Dessert was Panqueque con dulce de leche - where panqueque is a crepe. That was sooooo good. Filling, but delicious. I will really miss the desserts from there.

After dinner, the remaining colleagues and I (there were 4 of us) decided to just walk that dinner off and strolled around down town. Since everyone was kinda waiting for someone else to figure out where to go, I just stepped up and lead. It was rather uneventful, just walking around Buenos Aires. It was nice to walk though...I hadn't been able to do any exploring on this trip for the most part. Even though it was with other people, it was still nice.

After checking out the next day we headed to the new building one last time. We tied up any loose ends, did a little extra training, and said goodbye to our gracious hosts. I was given a bottle of wine, which was unexpected. They really are a nice group of people down there, and it was a pleasure working with them. I hope to get a chance to get back there.

We headed back to the hotel to drop off the bags we brought with us and had a few hours before we had to leave for the airport. The dweeb had arranged for a party bus to take us there. 4 of us had 10pm flights, and 2 had 11pm flights, so we planned to take the bus at 7 to give us enough time to get checked in and whatnot.

Shopping downtown was fun, but I was feeling a little confined with the group. 4 of us went to Calle Florida while the Dweeb and Pink Panther went to Recoleta. I broke off from the group and found a cool little leather shop to get a belt for my father (and one for me too!).

After meeting up with the group, we headed to a music store. One of my colleagues was tasked with bringing his wife some Tango music. I purchased some as well, and it was at this time that I realized that I no longer had my credit card!! Oh no!!

I immediately realized that I had to have left it at the leather shop. After giving directions to the group on where to go for lunch (La Rienta) I ran back to the shop, where the guys had my card locked in the cash register. Whew! Crisis averted!

The grill at La Rienta was closed for lunch, but we were still able to get tenderloin sandwiches, which were really good. After lunch we stopped by Havana to get some Dulce de Leche and afrijoles to bring home, and we might have stopped by a cigar shop, where someone might have bought a Cuban or two...but I don't remember that.

We get back to the hotel at about 10 to 7. At a few minutes after 7, our driver showed up, but he said (in VERY limited English) that he had a car, not a bus, and he could take 3 people. After getting a hotel worker to help with the translation, we learned that he could take 3 of us with bags, and he could get another car in 45 minutes. Now, the dweeb was late at this point, and no one was stepping up to do anything.

I went to try to find out how much a cab would be - and was talking with the hotel desk about another car. A car would be $130 pesos (not bad - about $45 US) but you had to either pay cash or charge to the room. I couldn't do it as I hadn't stayed at that hotel for the past few days, and when I brought it up no one seemed to want to put it to their room. Figuring the Dweeb should have to deal with this, I said fine, wait for him.

He finally showed up around 25 minutes late, and I called him over to bring him up to speed on his screw up and his tardiness. He tries to find the confirmation email on his Treo - I guess figuring that showing this to the drive who speaks no English will cause him to magically get a bus? I don't know either. The driver again says (now through me, who apparently in times of stress can speak pretty decent Spanish) that it will still take 45 minutes to get another car - maybe 40. The dweeb pushes his luck, saying "how about 20 minutes"...I guess not realizing that you can't negotiate physics, and that if the car would get there in 45 minutes, 40 if it speeds, 20 is out of the question. Finally, we agreed (or I said - I don't remember which) that the 3 of us that were there on time that had the 10pm flight would leave, and the others (the 2 that were there on time for the 11, and the dweeb that was late, on the 10) would leave with the second car.

The driver and I had a nice laugh at the dweeb's idiocy and we had a pleasant, traffic-free ride to the airport.

The check in line was stupid long, but it was okay. I got my flight, paid my airport tax and headed to the duty-free shop. I only bought one bottle of wine this time, and headed for the gate.
The other car had arrived and everyone was now at the airport.

The flight home was okay. American oversold the flight AGAIN. They bumped 2 before we boarded, then one more once we boarded, so we were late getting out again. Stupid American Airlines. Beware of them and their poor bumping skills!

And guess who got to sit next to a 2-year-old for an 11-hour flight?!? Would you expect anything else? I wouldn't. I'm convinced that my seat on the flight Thursday night was next to a single, Argentine model who has a thing for tall, bald, sarcastic Americans. ConVINced.

The 2-year-old was fantastic (as far as 2-year-olds go) and it was nice not to have to fight for the arm-rest. Those 2-year-olds are pushovers! I slept most of the time.

So that's my trip. Sorry for the rambling, and for the delay in getting this up. I am glad that I had a chance to cool-off from the dweeb's mess-up with the airport arrangements. I learned a very valuable lesson from this - arrange my own transportation to and from airports. It is amazing the difference between the two trips. Last time I was more on my own whereas this time it was more of group-movement. Both had it's pros and cons, but I think I liked exploring on my own better - a lot less stress.

I hope to have more tales from the road here soon. I'm thinking California soon (hopefully before the end of the hockey season) and maybe Florida - I'm itching to go to Disney!

Check out the first few posts from last trip - I have some photos up now!