On The Road

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.

In July I took a trip back home that ended up being slightly crazy, even by my standards.  When I got home I was glad I survived so I kinda forgot about even writing anything here.  Well, now I’m on another trip and figured I should backtrack for a second and write about my trip back home in July.

I decided to try and fly home to go to the Vintage Grand Prix in Pittsburgh with my dad so we could display the Karmann Ghia that me my brothers (mostly Adam) and my dad restored.  It turned out that Brook and Linwood were also going back east that same night.  So we all flew back on a very uneventful flight and my mom picked us up from the airport in NYC where I convinced her to come back to Pittsburgh (even though she had just gotten back from there) to go to the car show.  So after a brief hour or two outside the airport we went back to the airport and flew to Pittsburgh.

When we landed my dad picked us up at the airport in the Karmann Ghia and we went straight to Schenley Park where the car show was being held.  Well… we didn’t quite go straight there.  We overheated about a mile before we got there and had to stop and let the smoking engine cool off for a bit but eventually we made it.

The car show was pretty cool and there was a lot of interest in our car.  We talked to some other VW owners and eneded up giving a guy some spare parts from our garage after the show to help him with his restoration.  Mike and KT also came up with Howie and hung out for a while.  We also overheated the poor Ghia on the way home but made it without stopping.  That poor air cooled engine just isn’t what it used to be.

That night I went out with some friends and ended up staying up till around three a.m. watching some UFC fight then crashed on Mike’s couch for a few hours, got up, went home, woke my sister up and had her drive me to the airport to go to Maine.

I made it to Maine without any real problems and got to hang out with Alexis, Ian, Little Jake and the newly arrived Benjamin.  It was a lot of fun, and since I had taken a red-eye flight the first night, and stayed up way late the second night, I got to take a nap with Little Jake that afternoon.  But the relaxation would not last.  My dad called me to let me know that the flight I was planning on taking had been cancelled the next morning so I’d better try to get out right then.  So after a quick trip to the coast to see some lighthouses and a little more of Portland, I was dropped off at the airport where I waited for a few hours to finally make it back to NYC.

 
I got in to NYC, took the AirTrain to the subway and made it to my parent’s apartment around three a.m. where I was greeted and offered root beer floats as always.  I declined and crashed on the couch for a few hours then it was time to get up again and try and fly home.  By this time my plan was to fly to San Diego then back up to Salt Lake.

With my dad and his badges we made it through security rather quickly and I made all of my flights as planned and finally made it home.  I got to see a lot of stuff and hang out with a bunch of people on that trip but it was seriously exhausting.  But I guess that’s just the kind of traveling I do.

Another trip that I haven’t posted about is my epic journey to Chicago.

My old roommate and my driver for those days we just wanted to skip class and go skiing got married on 7-11 (yes that was on purpose).  Mr Cory Stonehocker actually somewhat settled down and got married, quite surprising I know.

Carter and I planned on going to the wedding and then adding another trip on the end of it, like NYC or Boston or something but because of our work schedules and what not it didn’t happen.  (Oh, my roommate Carter who has been living in Belgium is now living in the U.S. and of A again.)

I bought my tickets to Chicago but planned on flying standby home.  As has been the case in the past for me, it is sometimes more eventful to fly as a revenue passenger than as a non-rev.  To save a little bit of money I got a ticket that connected through Cincinnati.  No big deal I thought.  It only adds a few hours on to the trip but saves me a fair amount of money.  Well, that’s what I thought when the flights were on time.

When I got to Cincinnati I walked to my new gate and saw that there was a gate change.  It was only to the next gate over so no big deal.  What Delta for some reason neglected to have the courage or the professionalism to announce was that in addition to the gate change our flight was delayed for at least three hours.  I have no idea why they didn’t announce this and I think they’re a lot crappier of an airline now because of this.  So through murmurings and whisperings everyone in the boarding area figured out about the delay and then five minutes after the flight should have left Delta kindly decided to inform us of a delay but not a reason for the delay.

So I went a found a place to sit down where I could plug in my laptop and watch a movie or something when a strange announcement came on.  “Attention all employees and passengers in the B concourse, at 9:00 we will be shutting off the water for the whole concourse and the bathrooms will no longer be available.”  Seriously? It was now 8:50 and the flight didn’t leave till 11:40.

Unfortunately for me this was the least of my problems.  Because of the delay I would not get in to Chicago until after the subways and trains stopped running.  A cab ride to Cory’s house was about as much as my plane ticket and since it was the night before the wedding no one that I knew in Chicago would have a Blood Alcohol Content low enough to drive to the airport and pick me up.  So this was my chance to add Chicago O’hare to my list of ‘Airports I’ve Slept In’.

My flight did eventually leave Cincinnati around midnight, and in Chicago I was able to lay on the cement floor with a thin layer of damp carpet and an airline blanket and close my eyes long enough to have to move again for the carpet cleaning crews until around 5:30.  At 5:30 I realized I was surrounded by people because I had moved from my unoccupied gate to one that had an early morning flight.  So I decided to make my way downtown to catch a train to get me out to Cory’s house.

Besides my shoulder feeling like someone had stepped on it and being extremely groggy, I made my way downtown on the subway, caught the right train, and Cory and Carter picked me up at the station way out in the suburbs.

Apparently the plan was to go golfing before the wedding which I of course was not appropriately attired for so I borrowed Carter’s polo shirt (which fit wonderfully) rolled up my pant legs cause it was really hot and did my best at a game the I don’t really get.

After that it was time to start getting ready for the wedding.  Carter was in the wedding party so I took his camera and basically became an unofficial photographer with his camera.  I took over a hundred pictures and I think at least two of them turned out ok, so I’m on my way to becoming a professional I think.

The wedding was nice (and short) and the reception was quite the event.  It was a lot of fun and I met some pretty cool people but around 1:00 am I was feeling a bit tired.  I went to the front desk of the hotel where the reception was and where we were staying and scheduled a taxi to the airport (we were a lot closer so it was cheaper) and a wake-up call and went to sleep.  After a restful 3 hours of sleep I got up, went to the airport and was on my way home (via Long Beach) after only 24 hours spent outside of the airport.

Perhaps I became a bit laxed in my posting habits.  I have (of course) been traveling since my visit to Belgium all the way back in May.  It’s just that some of the trips weren’t documented too well which is my own fault of course.

Anyway… In June I went to Los Angeles in search of a new car.  I figured, hey, the cars are cheaper, there’s no rust on those cars, and it’s a lot nicer weather down there, so why not go down there with Karleigh, look for a car and road trip back.  It was a good idea but of course it was a flawed idea.

The weather was nicer, the gas was more expensive, and the used cars are WAY more damaged.  Every single car I looked at had been in a fairly severe accident.  One guy even stitched the airbags shut because he said they were too expensive to replace so this way it at least looks good. What!?

–Male, 27.  Dies in survivable accident because missing airbags didn’t deploy.  But boy oh boy did that dashboard look sharp.–

Retards.

So in the end I got to hang out with my brother and Grandma and show Karleigh a slightly different Southern California than she had seen before.  At the last second I found some cheap tickets on US Airways, flew home, and found a nice green Honda Civic about a week later right here in Utah County.

As I sit here on the floor in the Philadelphia Airport, listening to gate changes, delays, and cancellations because of the lovely weather outside, my fingers are crossed that I can make it on one of two flights to Vegas so I can make it home to SLC very early tomorrow morning.  The first flight I’m trying to get on is delayed so that gives me time to update my blog as long as this super crappy AT&T connection doesn’t fail me.  (I had to show student I.D. to get a login number, otherwise they charge for Internet at this airport, which I find odd considering the city is supposed to be blanketed by free Wi-Fi in the coming months. Anyway…)

Sunday was the Iris Festival in Brussels.  Apparently the Iris is a national symbol of Belgium and even though the flower was on many flags that day, the real thing was almost nowhere to be found so I’m still a little confused by that.

The day started off by fighting through massive crowds to see the Red Bull Soap Box  car races. They were pretty funny but kinda hard to see with the bazillion or so people packed on this small street.  A few people wrecked into the hay bails and one guy’s car was pretty crappy and he had to be pushed across the finish line.  But a majority of the cars made it across the finish line under their own power and relatively unscathed.

After that we wandered over to a greek restaurant to get some lunch and on the way there we saw some bands playing, a fire and rescue squad doing rescue demos on a car in the middle of the street and a bazillion more people.

Pretty much that’s what the day was, just wandering around watching street performances and other oddities.  We did also go to the parliament building and walked through it.  That was pretty cool to see the whole inside of that building but it’s such a small country the building really wasn’t too big.  Also it was weird because in the main assembly room there was this band that I guess was supposed to be a jazz band but wasn’t really jazz, playing on the floor.  It was just odd.

Later we went to a big park and just chilled for a while people watching and avoided being hit by errant soccer balls.  After relaxing for a while we took off to get some Sushi back by Carter’s house which was quite tasty.

After dinner we headed downtown again to see some more bands.  We got there in time to see the end of the cover band ABBA Mania.  Ridiculous!  Those Europeans love their cover bands and they love their old music.  The crowd was seriously loving it and singing along and doing these weird seemingly spontaneous synchronized dances.  And half the people had horrible rhythm and couldn’t clap along with the beat.

When that wrapped up we headed to the college area of the city to get some dessert with one of Carter’s co-workers that lives over there.  We just chilled at a table on the sidewalk for a while until it started to get chilly so a little after midnight we headed home.

I made it to the airport this morning and am still sitting here in PHL just hoping that I can get on this flight to Vegas then connect to SLC and get in at 2:15am.  Then drive home, sleep, and be at work by 9am.  We’ll see.

Whatever happens it was worth it.

UPDATE: I made it to Vegas, now I’m waiting for that last flight to finally get me home.  I figure from door to door it’ll be about twenty four hours of traveling.  I think I’ll stay put for a week or two after this.

On Saturday we were off to Luxembourg.  This way I can say that I’ve been to the Benelux countries (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg).  We were going to try and also make it to Trier, Germany but the train ride to Luxembourg was three hours so we didn’t want to spend the whole day on the train and kept our international travels to a minimum.

A little background on Luxembourg: They have the highest income per capita of any country in the world and they’re all a bunch of nerdy accountants.  (That last part may not be entirely true.)  But you do need to speak Luxembourgish to work there so it kinda makes the rest of the world the ‘out crowd’ when it comes to getting a high paying job in finance in Luxembourg.

When we got there it was definitely time to eat so we finally found the restaurant area and I decided to try something from the ‘Traditional Luxembourg Cuisine’ part of the menu.  It was sausages, pork, bacon, potatoes, and sauerkraut.  The sauerkraut was kind of sweet and very different from anything I’d had before but I liked it.  After that it was off to find these old fortress walls that I saw on the map.
We found the fort with relative ease since that comprises the whole center part of town.  The center of Luxembourg is on top of this hill and the whole place is surrounded by cliffs and high walls.  Seems like it was a pretty well fortified city back in the day.  Most of the day was spent wandering around the fort, the surrounding old towns, and trying to get into these caves that dotted the side of the hill.  When we found the entrance to the caves they were closed.  As we walked into the city center and later back to the train station, we realized most everything in this place closes pretty early.  It was 7:30 and almost everything was closed.  Oh well.

When we got back to Brussels I was definitely craving a Belgian Waffle and Brussels definitley wasn’t all closed.  So we made our way through the crowds and went to my favorite Belgian Waffle place then sat down in the Grand Plaz to people watch and eat my waffle.

As often happens around midnight, we decided to head back to the apartment and call it a night.  Got to get our rest to watch the Red Bull Soap Box Car races tomorrow!!

Since I get to do the schedules at work I decided to give myself a four day weekend by putting my two days off from two weeks right after each other.  Then I decided to tack on a vacation day and take off for Europe one last time before Carter moves home.

At the last second before leaving I realized if it was going to work that I would need to fly JetBlue to JFK then fly to Philadelphia from there instead of going through Phoenix.  So I threw a few things in a bag, hopped in my car, and sped off to the airport for the red-eye flight to NYC.  I got there at 5:30am and made my way to my parent’s apartment in Queens in time to say hello and goodbye to my dad as he left for work.  Then I took a quick nap, got some breakfast and took the bus to La Guardia airport.

From LGA I caught a flight to Philthydelphia and waited for about seven hours for my flight to Brussels.  I wasn’t too sure if I was going to get on that flight so my backup plan was to catch the last flight to Portland, ME to see where Alexis, Ian and Little Jake now call home.  Luckily the stand-by gods smiled upon me yet again and I got a window seat on the Bussels flight.

I actually slept most of the flight there so I wasn’t too wiped out when we landed.  I breezed through Customs and Immigration then caught the train to Brussels where I met up with Carter outside of the Central Station.

After going back to Carter’s apartment and taking a shower to make sure I stayed awake after taking two red-eye flights in a row, we decided to go into the city to see what was going on since it’s some kind of holiday this weekend.   We walked around the city a bit and just checked out a few shops and tried to go back to the military museum that we went to last time I was here but it was closed already.  So we ended up just chilling in the park for a while.

It was getting closer to dinner time, well, American dinner time, and I wanted to try some Mussels in Brussels finally so we went to this area where there are tons of restaurants and went to a place called the Leon where we each got a pot of Mussels.  Quite tasty I must say.

After that we just chilled some more around the city.  We went to a concert thing at the botanical gardens for a bit then we went to an overlook above the old part of the city and took some pictures from up there and down at a skate park.

It was getting late so we finally went back to the apartment where I managed to stay awake for about twenty more minutes before passing out for the night.  It had been a pretty long past day and a half but I made it and it’s always good to be here hanging out.

Quick Note From The Previous Post:  I realized the day after I posted that, that I did indeed forget to mention that I was able to successfully blow up the Death Star.  So you may all sleep well tonight.  (Before the show Josh took me to the arcade not too far from his house and I blew up the Death Star but was unable to defend myself in a weird soccer/paddle type game against Josh.  Oh well, it was a lot of fun anyway.)

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So the next morning we kinda lounged around again.  Well, actually, I lounged and Josh slept.  Eventually we were both up and about and it was time for me to go and pick up McKenzie at the Burbank airport.  So I headed downtown on the bus to catch another bus that would take me all the way to the airport.  Then I picked up Kenz and also picked up a rental car to make the rest of the trip a bit easier.

When we got back to Josh’s we helped finish preparing the food for Food Not Bombs.  After the cars were loaded up we headed down to Pershing Square.

As we walked up into the square with the first armfulls of stuff to feed the homeless I saw tons of people in fairly simple dress clothes, long beards and some were wearing hats.  The Amish! (I thought)  The crowd of them had dispersed by the time we got set up but we would later find out that they were in fact Born Agains from somewhere in the south.  But they would have blended right in in good old Lancaster, PA.

Anyway, after feeding the homeless there we headed down to Skid Row.  Whenever I go to help Josh out with Food Not Bombs, Skid Row is always an interesting place to visit.  I would kinda call it the headquarters for homeless people on the West Coast.  There’s also been a lot of reports lately on how the cops and hospitals dump people on Skid Row when they don’t know what else to do with them so there are people there that really shouldn’t be but there are also some really interesting people that are more than willing to talk to you (especially if you have red hair as Kenz found out).
This visit to Skid Row was better than the others because the supposed Amish people were already there right in front of the San Julian mission where FNB always serves food.  They were out there with mics and amps and singing away.  They actually had a pretty good chorus and a lot of the people down there liked it too.  (I had to chuckle though cause they were singing about religion and being good to each other and we were the ones actually out doing something.)

Well, after we finished up there and I was done pouring gallon after gallon of water for all the thirsty people we headed back to Josh’s to clean up everything.  Then Kenz and I headed inland to Upland to visit Grandma!

There’s always a lot to do when I visit my Grandma but I was pretty tired when I got there so I didn’t get too much done that first night but I started my gardening early the next day.

Josh had given me two tomato plants to take and replant at my Grandma’s.  Since I pack light, I only had one pair of pants, the one’s I was wearing.  That meant I had to do chores around the house and yard and try not to get them any dirtier than they already were because I still had to look neat and clean for my stand-by travel home.  I was able, with the help of Kenz, to pot the tomatoes and move the large pots to a sunnier area and help water all the plants without getting too dirty.

Before I left CA this trip I was determined to make it to the Vans outlet store, so after the yard work we all went to Ontario Mills so I could buy yet another pair of vans (for super cheap).  I also got Little Jake some, I think he likes them.  After the shopping there was just enough time to eat at my Grandma’s favorite mexican restaurant, pack my stuff, and head to the airport speeding along on the often treacherous Pasadena Freeway.  Well, that’s what everyone says anyway but I don’t think it’s all that twisty turny compared to the PA Turnpike, but that’s just my opinion.

I made it to the airport in time after wandering around looking for a gas station, got my seat assignment, and headed back to Provo after another successful super fast trip.  Not too shabby if you ask me.