On The Road

This screen shot taken at 17:55 MST from abcnews.com shows one of two things: That the whole Toyota recall is a little more serious than I thought or news organizations have become so lazy and unprofessional that they can’t even take the time to proofread what they’re writing before posting it.

Judging by the HUGE amount of grammatical errors that abcnews.com posts on a daily basis I’m guessing it’s the second option, but just in case, I’ll assume all Toyota owners are part of ‘A Very Serious Plot’ until I’m told otherwise.

Thanks Disney Corp. for making us all a little dumber

UPDATE:

I was curious to see how long it would take abcnews to catch their mistake or tell me that I can start trusting Toyota owners again and it turns out the runaway Toyota’s are now causing ex-VP Dick ‘Let’s Torture Everyone’ Cheney to have chest pains!!  Someone has got to stop these Toyotas!!

Although my birthday was over a month ago, I still haven’t published the exciting conclusion to the day!

So after getting to go up in a glider and getting other sweet presents we went to Red Lobster for some tasty food then we opened up some more presents that included more awesome t-shirts, a cool book about Everest from my parents and a gift card for more cool books from my In-Laws.

As if that wasn’t enough, Dustin, Jenna, Ryan, another girl whose name we will not mention, Karleigh, and me all piled into the car and started driving north.  This was another surprise so I didn’t know how long the drive was or anything about what was going on.

Eventually we got off I-15 up in the Big O (aka Ogden, UT).  I was somewhat confused since Ogden is generally a crappy place (in my opinion).  Well it all became clear when we pulled up to a new shopping/entertainment complex and there was a huge sign on the side of the building that said Fly Utah: Indoor Skydiving. 

Yep, after going up in a glider that morning we were all going indoor skydiving that night.

We had a brief class on how to do it then we got suited up and ready to go.  Since it was my birthday and the guys working there knew this I got the purple and yellow flight suit with the pink goggles just to make sure I felt extra special.  But no one really looks good in those flight suits so it’s all good.

   
The skydiving was awesome.  It’s crazy how the smallest movement changes how you fly.  We all flew two sessions of one minute each.  I posted the first round of everyone flying here and the second round here.  The instructor flying at the end of the second round is incredible.  (Of course me biffing it hard in the first video was pretty good too.)  You’ll have to play your own music since Google took the audio off of the video.  And to answer the most common question from people who see the video, ‘Yes, that is filmed in real time and nothing is altered, sped up, or slowed down.’

So to wrap up my awesome B-Day I recommend that anyone who has the chance to take a ride on a glider or go indoor skydiving should jump at the opportunity.  Of course, it’s always a little better when your wife knows you so well and plans it all out for you.  Thanks Kar.

For the past few weeks (maybe months) Karleigh has been getting really excited about what she planned for my birthday.  She knows I don’t really ever do anything big for my birthday so she decided to change that this year.

My real birthday is in two days but she planned a lot of stuff for today.  She told me I had to get work off today and that she would kill my boss if he didn’t let me have it off.  He wisely obliged my request but I still had no idea why I was taking it off.

This morning we got up and went to Kneaders for some french toast before heading out on my mystery trip.  I tried throwing out a few guesses as to where we were going but I really had no idea.  Karleigh was driving and we headed down 800 N. in Orem so I knew we were going up Provo Canyon but that was about it.  The canyon leads to a ton of stuff.  She said we weren’t going out of the state so Wyoming and Colorado were off the list which left me thinking about Heber, Park City, and that’s about it.  There are more options, I’ve just never been on a lot of the highways out there so I have no idea where they go.

When we got to Heber she turned right which is a road I have never been on (I have only ever turned left when pulling into Heber).  We drove down the road a while then she started laughing and pulled a U turn and went back to Heber then turned like we were going back down the canyon back to Utah Valley.  I was very confused.  Then we turned off the highway and went to the small Heber airport.  I started getting some ideas but I couldn’t really nail down what it was quite yet.  They have an air museum up there and some cool planes outside and also a small flight school and a company that does glider rides.  Well… it was the last one.  She got me a glider flight which was awesome and I’ve never been up in one before.

The flight was awesome.  We flew over the Heber airport while we gained altitude then headed towards the backside of Timpanogos and then kinda in the direction of Snowbird.  Since it was still early and there weren’t a ton of thermals yet we were towed up to 10,000′ (the airport is at about 5,600′).  When the cable was released it was a weird feeling, I just watched it spring forward and the tow plane banked right, dropped altitude, and was gone and we were left just hanging above the mountains.

We were able to catch some small updrafts from the wind that comes up the canyon and then hits the mountains to gain some altitude but it was amazing how little altitude we lost over time even without the thermals.  When we crossed over Deer Creek Reservoir he let me take the controls and I flew us over to the mountains above Wallsburg.  I caught a small updraft on the way there too but our time was soon running out.  Tom (the instructor) took the controls and flew us back to the airport after that.

It was really cool to fly in something like that where you don’t hear the engine roaring and you don’t have to wear a headset to communicate, you can just talk normally.   The crazy thing is the fun isn’t even over yet.  Apparently there is still something planned for tonight and I already got a new Wii game, a sweet t-shirt, and new sunglasses.  I think it’s going to be a birthday to remember.

For a few years I’ve been wanting to try setting up a slackline and giving it a try and on Sunday I finally did.

The other day i Stumbled on a site that had some videos of people slacklining and doing some crazy tricks like backflips and what not.  I showed Karleigh and we decided to try it out in her parent’s backyard.  I had most of the stuff in my climbing gear and since we live in Utah, the Mecca of rock climbing, the other stuff like webbing isn’t too hard to come by.

It was pretty to easy to set up and in no time we were falling off the line and breaking each others collar bones trying to regain our balance.  Luckily my wife is a great photographer so she got some pictures that make it look like we already know what we’re doing.

We’ll keep practicing and maybe some time we’ll be posting videos of us actually walking on it instead of pictures of the split second where we look balanced.

After two years of traveling almost every single month my travels have been drastically scaled back to save up for some big trips in the planning stages right now.  So with no flying trips to write about I figured I could post about the small trip made this past weekend to Hill Air Force Base.

This week was Air Force Week in Salt Lake City followed by the Hill AFB Air Show.  Hill AFB is a huge sprawling complex about seventy miles north of my house.  In reality, most of Utah is either a National Park of some sort of Military playground.

I haven’t been to an air show in a while and I’ve never been to one in the West and Karleigh and Ryan had never been to one so I was looking forward to it all week.  Plus I needed a pick me up after watching game five in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. (It’s still painful to think about.)

The layout was a bit different than the airshows I’ve been to in the past but that’s just because of the location of the hangars on the base so it kinda broke up the static display area into two different areas.  It also wasn’t as big as the others but that’s because I’ve been spoiled with the Dayton air show and the Andrews AFB/Department of Defense Open House.  It was still awesome and had plenty to see.

They only had a few planes that you could go through and the lines for those were pretty long.  The line for the C-5 for example was the length of the entire aircraft which is a bit too long of a line for me.  The main thing I wanted to see though was the aerial demonstrations.

Right as we got there an F-16 screamed overhead then as we walked closer another one took off along with a P-51 Mustang and an F-4 Phantom.  Then there were some aerobatic demonstrations which are always cool and I saw my favorite move, the hammerhead, a few times.  Then there was a C-130, F-16, A-10, and an F-22 all flying in formation then the F-22 broke off and did a few maneuvers which was way cool because I’ve never seen one of those in real life before.  Then there was an F-18 demo and some bi-planes followed by the Thunderbirds.

Just as the Thunderbirds were getting ready to go a huge rain cloud started rolling overhead again.  It had rained earlier in the day but it was mostly cleared up by around noon.  The Thunderbirds took off and started their show but halfway through they had to stop because it started raining a ton and it even hailed for a bit (which kinda hurt).  Luckily they stayed airborne and after the clouds rolled through and visibility improved they finished their show.  It was awesome and I kinda laughed when they would scream overhead and all the little kids would start crying.

After they landed we walked around and got a few more pictures then headed home for some Five Guys Burgers and Fries for dinner.  In the pics I’ve posted keep in mind, my wife is the professional photographer not me, we forgot the zoom lens in the car, and the light was pretty bad with all the crappy weather.  So if it’s a cool pic, Karleigh probably took it

Ok, so I guess it’s about time for another post especially since what’s been going on in the past month.  I haven’t posted recently because my whole point for this blog was to track my travels not my personal life… but I suppose getting married is noteworthy (plus we did travel some).

Karleigh and I got married a month ago on February 12th.  It was pretty much a blur so I have to look at pictures to really remember what happened but it all went pretty smoothly and fun was had by all (I’m pretty sure anyway).

Karleigh’s blog has all the pictures so I’ll just link to that for wedding pics since I never had a chance to touch a camera that day plus I was really the subject of all of the pics

After the wedding we went up to SLC for a few days and just hung out with our phones turned off and went shopping up in Park City.  Then we headed back down to our place in Orem to open up all the gifts and try putting our apartment together.

We relaxed for a few days then headed to Pittsburgh for some sightseeing and an open house.  We left Wednesday night on a red-eye and Karleigh’s parents and brothers left Thursday morning and we all met up in PIT. (Pictures Here)
In PIT it was a bit cold with near hurricane force winds kicking up snow in our faces.  Well, it was windy anyway.  But we braved the wind and cold and toured Pittsburgh Thursday afternoon and into the evening and picked up again on Friday morning.

We managed to see most of the Pittsburgh staples like Mt. Washington, the Duquesne incline (and the Monongahela incline for some), Station Square, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, The Strip, and driving through the Ft. Pitt tunnel to the Ft. Pitt bridge.  We also ate at Primanti’s, the Hunan (in Moon), Wholey’s, and had a few different flavors of Pierogies from Forgotten Tastes (also in Moon).

On Saturday night, after decorating all day, we had the open house.  A ton of people came including Colby, who drove all the way from Philthydelphia to hang out for just a few hours and drove back in the morning.  It was great to see all of the people who showed up since I hadn’t seen most of them in a pretty long time.  After everyone left we just hung around in the living room with all of the family that was there (the Dobson’s out numbered the Haglund’s in Moon Twp.!) and then the younger crew went to Eat’n Park for some dessert around midnight.

Sunday was when everyone started to head home.  Colby left before we even got up then Doug, Julie, Ryan, and Dustin took off after breakfast.  Karleigh and I left that afternoon while my mom and dad finished taking down a few decorations around the house.  Since we had to connect through JFK our flights of course didn’t go too smoothly. (Travel Alert: Avoid JFK at all costs!)
After ground holds and taking forever to get de-iced we took off for JFK a few hours late.  After flying for a little while we were put into a holding pattern then released from that one and put into another one a little bit closer to the airport.  By this time I was getting queasy and ready to be on the ground.  We finally landed and both Karleigh and I were nauseous.  We stumbled into the airport where our connection had left over an hour earlier.  Luckily we had shiny new keys to my parent’s apartment in Queens.  We made it to the apartment and promptly crashed.

In the morning we left for San Diego.  Yes, that’s correct, San Diego.  In order to get back to SLC at a reasonable hour we decided to fly through San Diego and make it back around six.  Luckily the flights that day went pretty smoothly and we made it home in time to go to sleep again and go back to work on Tuesday after a week and a half off.

Now the gifts are all put away in the apartment and things seem to be back to normal.

The past month my boss and I have been trying to use up the rest of our vacation before we lose it at the end of the year.  The problem is that Uncle Sherwin just laid off our third key so we have to work open to close while the other one is on vacation and it’s not too much fun.  So I realized a week or so ago that I actually had four days off from Sunday through Wednesday so I decided it was time to go somewhere again.

I checked the flights and I could make it pretty easily to Long Beach to see my brother but then I realized I also had enough time to go hang out with my sister and her family in Maine.  The flights were wide open so I mentioned the trip to Alexis and she asked if Karleigh was coming so I asked my dad for a buddy pass and he said no problem.  It was kinda last second for Karleigh so we weren’t sure if it would work out for her to get time off so that was left in the air for a bit.

On Saturday Karleigh picked me up from work and on the way home as I figured out what time I needed to leave to catch the red-eye to JFK she got a text from her boss saying she could have the time off.  So we quickly figured out a schedule, packed some bags, and went to the airport.

(more…)

Ok, part three is finally here.

We took a short flight on US Airways from Philly to Pittsburgh where they tried to get us to pay for everything from the first checked bag to the formerly complimentary glass of water.  Other than that the flight was ok.

We found the car in the long term lot at the airport and headed off to my old house!  We got there and I showed Karleigh around the house with all of my mom’s furniture from around the world and all the trees and greeness everywhere.  It was pretty much lunch time by this point so we headed off to Primanti’s for some tasty ’sammiches’.  Then we headed downtown to check some stuff out.

Luckily we had some really nice weather for our drive and the awesome entrance to the city through the Fort Pitt tunnel and across the Fort Pitt bridge.  We drove through Oakland (where PITT and CMU are) and then across the Hot Metal bridge to the South Side.  We went to the Southside Works to go to H&M and so I could not put enough quarters in the meter and get a parking ticket.  We had a good time at H&M and I got a new suit and then when outside and found my ticket on the windshield.  Ooops.  Oh well, it was only like $11.

We continued our tour of the South Side and went to Station Square where I found an awesome store to get some black and gold stuff with Pirates, Penguins, and Steelers logos for my car.  Then we took the incline up to Mount Washington.

Mount Washington, for those who don’t know, is the hill above the Monongahela River (one of the Three Rivers) that looks over the city of Pittsburgh.  And the incline is an inclined cable railway or funicular that goes up the side of Mt. Washington.  On top there are lookouts that stick out off the edge of the hill that give you an awesome view of the city.  Then we took the incline back down and headed off to my friend Mike’s house.

The next day we went down to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Art (same building actually).  Of course there were a ton of cool paintings and sculptures which I try to check out almost every time I make it home.  We also went to the new Dinosaur Hall which was really cool.  On the way out there was a wall with ribbons stuck in the wall that had wishes on them.  You could take a wish and then write a new one down on paper and stick it back in a hole on the wall so we each took a wish.  Mine says ‘I Wish I Knew’.
Also at some point in the museum there was a dead cat.  I have no idea why or what the theme of that exhibit was but it was hilarious.  Please enjoy –>

We did some other stuff over the next few days that I really don’t remember the exact chronological order to but it was fun.  We got dressed up and went to the Church Brew Works for dinner which is an old church with cool stained glass windows that is now a tasty restaurant.  We also went to the mall by my house and ate breakfast at Eggs ‘n-at.  And one night the remnants of hurricane Ike blew through and knocked out the power and a really big tree in the yard and a piece of the neighbors tree into our yard.  (Which I tried to clean up the next day along with mowing the lawn.)

It was a really good trip to Pittsburgh and a lot of fun to show Karleigh around.  And it was a good trip all over the east coast and fun was had by all.

Philthydelphia

When I told Mike I was going to Philly for almost four days he asked me what on earth there is to do in Philly that could take four days to do.  I wasn’t really sure but it turns out there is plenty to do.

On Monday we went and did some of the historical stuff.  We went to Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and other assorted sites in that area.  We tried to go to the U.S. Mint but it closes at 3:00 and we were a bit late for that.

That night Karleigh’s nephew, Lincoln, wanted to play Twister so Karleigh, Lincoln, and Colby (Karleigh’s brother) played twister for a little while which was quite entertaining.  Fun was had by all.

On Tuesday we decided to go to Valley Forge.  First though, it was Lincoln’s first day of pre-school so while he was doing whatever little kids do, we went to visit Trader Joe’s.  I showed Alyssa (Karleigh’s sister-in-law) all of my favorite stuff there and I think she found some new favorites of her own.  After that we went home, dropped all off the goodies, picked up Lincoln and we took off for Valley Forge.

Alyssa borrowed a CD that gave an audio tour so after a quick stop in the visitor center we drove all over Valley Forge which was really pretty cool.  We skipped the twister that night and just watched Colby and Karleigh do a little sibling butt kicking for a bit which was also quite entertaining.

On Wednesday we went to the USS New Jersey.  The USS New Jersey is the largest battleship in U.S. history, the most decorated battleship in U.S. history and the last operating battleship in the U.S. fleet.  It was really cool.

The ship was commissioned one year after Pearl Harbor and it’s final decommission was in 1991.  It actually served off the coast of Lebanon during the whole Beirut fiasco of the late ’80s.  It was also the first U.S. naval vessel to fire a tomahawk cruise missile.

We took the guided ‘Firepower’ tour which took as all over the ship and even into one of the main 16″ gun turrets.  Those things are huge.  If anyone goes to Philly I serious recommend seeing it, it’s really cool and has a ton of history.  The ship is still floating unlike some other naval vessels that become museums which I think is pretty cool.

Since the tour took about two hours, Lincoln was pretty tired after all of the climbing and stuff so we went back to Colby and Alyssa’s place and chilled for a while.  We went to feed the ducks in a stream not far form their apartment and just kinda hung out.  Colby went off that night to work his rounds at the Emergency Room at some downtown hospital and we got ready to leave.

At eight the next morning we said our goodbyes and were dropped off at the airport to head off to Pittsburgh.  Thus ends part two of the East Coast Extravaganza.

Karleigh and I decided to take a trip back east to see her brother in Philadelphia and to see my family and friends in NYC and Pittsburgh.

Part one of our trip started with a three hour delay in Salt Lake City due to weather in NYC.  Followed shortly thereafter by moderate to severe turbulence through most of the flight and ending up in an eighty mile radius holding pattern somewhere over the PA - NY border while still getting bumped around at 40,000 feet.  When the fuel was running short we landed at the beautiful Wilksbarre-Scranton airport where we waited for the weather in NYC to clear a bit and for our stomachs to calm down.  I’m not sure what I did different but instead of just being sick to my stomach at 40,000 feet, my face actually went flush and I almost passed out.  The tingling feeling over my entire upper body was actually a welcome relief to the sickness in my stomach.  Anyway, we were eventually cleared, got more fuel, and hopped over to JFK.

The one bag we checked full of baby clothes to give to Karleigh’s brother made its to San Diego instead of NYC so while it would be there soon, we didn’t want to wait so we met my parent’s out front of the airport and went to a Brazilian churrascaria.  For those who have never been, it’s a ton of Brazilian food and tons of red meat.  Quite tasty.

After that we went for a drive around Brooklyn and across the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan and around Time Square, past Rockefeller Center and St. Patrick’s Cathedral.  Then back across the Queensboro Bridge and to my parent’s apartment in Rego Park.  We got back around one a.m. and my parents still had more energy than me or Karleigh.

I thought the sixty percent humidity in the apartment would make it hard to sleep but I passed out and slept pretty well.

We got up the next morning and headed out for Battery Park.  We took the subway down to Ground Zero and walked along the Hudson River down to Battery Park.  The lines to get tickets to get on the ferry to go over to Ellis Island and Liberty Island were too long so we got a good view of them from the pier then headed uptown to go to the MET.

We checked out a ton of good art in the MET along with some amazing sculptures and one amazing artist sitting there drawing the sculptures.

After that we met my parents in Central Park for a picnic then grabbed a cab down to Penn Station and caught the train to Philadelphia.  The train ride, like the plane ride, did not go as smoothly as would be hoped for.  We stopped in Newark and filled the train up with passengers from another train that was apparently disabled or something so that delayed us for a little bit but we eventually made it to Philthydelphia and Colby picked us up.

Not bad for being on the east coast for about twenty four hours.