On The Road

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.

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.

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.

Well, it stopped snowing cause I left Utah.  After staying put for nearly a month I just happened to get a three day weekend from my boss so I decided to go somewhere. I figured Los Angeles would be the best use of my time since there’s not too much time spent on planes or in airports.  (If it was a four day weekend I was going to try a trip to Belgium.)

I tried to leave on Friday evening at eight o’clock but the stand-by gods frowned upon me and I was the only stand-by left in the boarding lounge as the plane pushed back.  Oh well, that just means my chances would be better the following morning.  So I crashed at Brooks for a quick four hours and headed back to the airport very early on Saturday to catch a six o’clock flight.  This time I made it.

I got in to Long Beach airport, grabbed a cab to the nearest Metro Station and made my way to my brother’s.  I thought I was going to surprise him by showing up at his front door without him giving me the directions on how to get there from the Metro station (thanks to the google maps app on my phone).  I was wrong.  Instead I got to his house and called him for over an hour and a half waiting for him to wake up and let me in.  I tried knocking but no one answered (odd for a house with twelve people living in it).  I wandered around his neighborhood (Silver Lake) for a while and got something to eat at the farmer’s market down the street and continued to call incessantly.  Eventually I gave up and started walking back to the Metro station.  I figured I could go find something more exciting to do somewhere else in the city.  Luckily he called me just before I got to the station so I turned around and went back.

It was clear by this point that it was going to be a lot hotter than Utah on Saturday.  We walked around a bit and got some vegan food but then went back to the shade and shelter of the house after a while.  We kinda lounged around during the hottest part of the day and he showed me the garden behind the house and a vacant lot behind that where there used to be another garden.

In the evening we went to an art exhibit down by where he used to live just off of skid row.  The event was called LA vs. War.  There was pretty cool stuff to see and there was a group silk screening images onto whatever you wanted.  After that we went to a show in a part of L.A. I don’t think I’ve ever been to, called Atwater.  The show was interesting and it was the first time I saw someone rock out on an electric banjo.

After that I was pretty tired and had a nice sized headache so around one I called it a night.

Well, the trip didn’t turn out as crazy as originally planned.  The flights just wouldn’t work out for me to arrive in Salt Lake and hop on a flight and head back to Pittsburgh for the weekend.  So I just drove across most of the country and called it a trip.

We just drove I-70 from PA to UT.  In UT we hopped on US-6 then drove through Price Canyon and Spanish Fork Canyon (one of the more deadly stretches of highway in the U.S.) and ended up on I-15 about six miles from home.  It was a good trip.  The first two days had a little more scenery but on the third day we ready for the trip to be over cause the driving was getting boring.  But it really wasn’t bad and Mark has a decent truck now.

Since there really isn’t too much to say about the trip, I’ll just post some pictures.

This trip’s itinerary doesn’t really make a lot of sense so I won’t try and explain.  I’ll just post as I go.

I made it to Pittsburgh Wednesday morning.  Mark and I flew on the red-eye to JFK then flew to PIT and Adam picked us up.  We started the trip off with a stop at Sheetz to get some Shmagels and Shimscuit’s.  Tasty. Then we went down to the strip district.  (If you’re not from Pittsburgh, it’s not what you’re thinking, it’s the wholesale foods district, and it’s awesome.)  Mark met up with his dad down there and Adam and I headed back to Moon.

Because of the red-eye, I ended up crashing for about an hour and a half.  Then we rolled out the Karman Ghia to do some trouble shooting on a fuel leak.  After that we went to Primanti’s Bros for dinner.  Again, Tasty.  I took a picture of my Double Egg and Cheese sandwich to show it’s coleslaw and fries awesomeness to those who have not had the opportunity to partake.

After dinner we went down to the Igloo to see the Penguins game.  It was really cool, even though Crosby didn’t play.  It was their 43rd consectutive sell out game, spanning two seasons.  They beat the Sabres soundly 7-3.  Good times.

Today I’m heading down to the intersection of I-70 and I-79 to meet up with Mark and his newly acquired truck to begin the drive back to Utah.  I’ll try and take pictures and blog along the way, Internet connection permitting.

My last trip was the first one that I would say really wasn’t of my choosing.  I went to Dallas, TX for some training for Uncle Sherwin.

Dallas is where the training center is for the Southwest Division of SW so, they sent twenty three assistant managers to sit in a classroom for a week and drink a few cases of Dr. Pepper.

It was actually pretty interesting and I learned some interesting stuff about the company and the way we’re supposed to do our jobs.  For example, I found out it’s a bad idea to put a chair on a pallet, have an employee sit in the chair, then raise that pallet up about twelve feet into the air with the forklift and drive around, having the employee in the air counting product to do inventory.  And less death defying stuff like Sherwin Williams recycles it’s waste water from the manufacturing of paint.  We also got to tour the Garland Emulsion Plant and see the largest paint manufacturing facility in the U.S. which was cool to see.  I can now say I’ve seen 5,000 gallons of paint being mixed at once.  No pictures of that though since we weren’t allowed to take our cameras or cell phones in with us.  One night I also went downtown Dallas cause I figured I can’t say I’ve been to Dallas if I actually spend all my time in Garland and Richardson.

I went downtown on Valentine’s day which happened to be the night that the museum was open late and free.  Bonus.  So that’s about all I did downtown, just check out the museum, which was pretty alright, and ride their light rail to and from the hotel.

All in all it was a pretty good trip and hopefully it made me into some sort of Super Assistant Manager so I can get a big fat bonus at the end of the year.  Probably not though, I think I just learned a whole bunch of things that you can get fired for.

Here’s the training class before we went into the emulsion plant.  Pretty sweet lab coats huh?