The Vacation Part 1: The Arrival

It all started with me being out of uniform. What's that you say? You didn't know there was a uniform for vacation travel? Oh yes, especially when you travel during the week, first flight out of the day. You see, that's when most of your business travelers are out and about and there is a specific male uniform that you wear. Starting at the bottom, brown or black shoes to go with khaki pants (gray pants are acceptable if they are light gray). Moving along you should wear a blue shirt, freshly ironed. Color blue is the choice of the wearer. Over the shirt, dark blue sports coat. Yellow tie optional. I forgot to wear my sports coat.

It was a pretty amazing sight there at the airport that morning. There must have been hundreds of them, all walking around with their carry-ons and brief cases. They all matched. Most of them carried a styrofoam cup of coffee and had the Wall Street Journal tucked under one arm. Those in lower management had USA Today under their arm. Salesmen had either Sports Illustrated or a copy of the local paper.

We boarded the plane and crawled into our seats. Coach. Oh yes, how fondly I remember coach from my last flight. You know, the seat on the plane in coach is actually smaller than the seats in the waiting area at the gate. The ones in the waiting area probably recline further too.

Nothing eventful happened to us though. There was a pug in the row behind us. Never heard a peep out of it. We spent the 4 hours just reading and dozing and playing video games. At one point CC borrowed my PDA to listen to some music but that's it.

And so we reached LA. Exiting the gate in LA is quite a bit like walking into a shopping mall. Apparently that's how they've chosen to decorate the airport there, at least at the level where the gates are. Must make people feel more comfortable before they fly. It's just another trip to the mall, no big deal.

Anyway, out of the gate, through the airport to grab our one suitcase and out to wait for the shuttle. Our rental car agency operates out of the Radisson hotel by the airport so we hopped the shuttle to the hotel and picked up our car. That's it right there, a PT Cruiser with the touring package. I have no idea what's included in the touring package but I do know that it was pretty comfortable and got great gas mileage. Over the course of our whole vacation we only used up 3/4 of a tank.

We arrived pretty early in the day so we had quite a bit of time to kill before anyone expected us. Tuesday night we were staying with CC's grand aunt Lola Baby somewhere in the suburbs but we weren't expected until later. So what to do with the free time? First we had lunch. Our flight didn't offer lunch to those of us stuck in cattle class. Best we could do was a snack box for a few bucks. So we drove around the airport area until we came across a Boston Market and had lunch.

We then decided that since I hadn't seen the beach from the ground in YEARS, we'd drive towards the ocean and see if we could find our way to the beach. At the time, our GPS had yet to figure out just where we were so we did all this by map. Not bad when you consider that I've never been to LA before and CC hadn't driven there.

Anyway, we found ourselves at Venice Beach. You've seen it on TV, it's a notoriously weird place that's supposed to be filled with all sorts of colorful characters, assorted beach bunnies, muscle men, etc.

I can say for certain that it was filled with colorful characters. Granted there weren't as many of them as you see on TV but I took that to be because we arrived early and on a Tuesday. And while we did see a few surfers out there, the place was pretty much free of beach bunnies and muscle men. I guess they import them for special occasions or something. Or maybe they're only available on the weekends.

All that aside, it was a very nice beach and we enjoyed walking in the surf and feeling the sand between our toes. At one point I wandered out a little TOO far though and the water went a LITTLE deeper than I had planned. Not that it really mattered. By the time we got back to the car I was pretty much dry anyway. We were hoping to make it back later in the week but we just ran out of time. No big deal though. I'm sure Venice Beach will be around a while.

Then we hit the highway. You know how they always show scenes of LA traffic on TV? You know how it's always REALLY bad? You know what? They aren't just doing that for TV. LA traffic is HORRIBLE. We left the beach early, around 2 or so and by 2:30 we were stuck in traffic. On the plus side, I have to hand it to them, traffic was actually MOVING but still, it's been a LONG time since I had to share the road with that many other people.

About an hour or so later we managed to reach the suburbs and get to where we were staying. It was a great house up in the hills. Pool, hot tub, you name it, they had it. Not that we had time for any of that of course. It was very nice of them to let us stay though and it did save us a bit on hotel expenses and food and so forth. And given the prices of everything along the way, trust me, any time you can cut costs on a vacation like this it's good :-)

I noticed something kinda funny though during our stay. You know that show J.A.G.? It used to run on CBS a while back and now they show it on USA in the mornings. Well, apparently that show is in CC's blood because her family out there in LA watches it too. I figure given the different personalities, taste in TV and movies, different locations, it HAS to be something in the blood :-)

After dinner and chatting it was off to bed for us. We'd had a busy day and another busy day was in store for us. Tuesday we arrived in LA but Wednesday we were going to Disneyland!

Fall Classic

Currently Reading: God Emperor Dune by Frank Herbert

Ok, I'm right back where I started with my reading list, at least where the Dune chronicles is concerned. I know, not much of a big announcement right? Just warming up, that's all. You'll have to cut me a little slack.

You see, as September starts to slip away, we're entering one of my favorite times of year: fall. Why fall? Well, the colors for one. I mean, how can you go wrong with all the great orange and red trees all over the place. Yes, there are lots of falling leaves and those leaves will have to be raked up. But not by me, which is another part of the attraction I suppose. Besides that, unlike the spring flowers which color my OTHER favorite season, the fall leaves do NOT leave me sneezing and coughing and wishing I was indoors.

And let's talk sports too because that's another big part of the season. You've got football for real now. The teams are starting to get their acts together, they're playing more like teams, they're not screwing up nearly as much as they were in pre-season. Of course, the games actually count now too, I've mentioned that in a previous blog. You've also got a HUGE array of weather to play football in this time of year. Out on the west coast and in the south, it's still warm if not downright HOT. On the sidelines you'll see those misting machines to cool down players between downs. But up north and back east, well the temperature is slowly dropping and pretty soon, during those night games especially, you'll start seeing long sleeve shirts, the sweatshirts, then jackets and coats and finally, my favorite, snow :-) Oh sure it's too early for snow right NOW, we probably won't start seeing that until November but we're close. You can feel it right around the corner. Just a little nip in the air, maybe a brisk wind from time to time. It's out there.

The baseball season is winding down now as well and the fall classic will start up in October. Looking at the standings, we'll probably see quite a few of the usual suspects in the playoffs. Who knows, we might even see another Yankees vs Red Sox series and those are always great. They're gearing up for one now in fact. Unfortunately it'll be played over the weekend and I'll be working so I doubt I'll get to see any of it. That's another thing I like about the playoffs. To maximize television exposure, they play most of their games at night when I'm off so I'll get to see them. Yes, I know, all you non-fans out there will complain about having to wait a little later for the new episodes of your favorite FOX shows and I can understand that. Just remember, this only happens once a year and hey, overall it means fewer repeats down the line right?

And let's not forget one of the HUGE attractions this time of year: fall temperatures! FINALLY we can shut off the air conditioners and open up the windows. Let the apartment air out a bit so it's not so stuffy. We can go out and enjoy our balcony and our lounge chairs out there and just watch things go by out in the parking lot. Dangerous to do that this time of year though, if you're prone to naps that is. You might just end up sleeping half the day away. I know I've felt like that the past few days.

September also means we've got to finish up the paperwork for the INS. I sent out an e-mail to a lot of people (most of whom read this blog anyway so you already know about it) asking them to write up a little letter telling the INS that yes, CC and I are still married and aren't faking it. It's all part of making sure you don't have people getting married JUST for the green card like they used to in the old days. Now you get a conditional green card for a few years then you can apply to have that condition removed. That's what we're doing now. Next step after that is citizenship for CC if she wants it. She says she's going to go for it but I told her she doesn't have to. It's not like we force it on anyone. I guess she really wants to vote. She's already been called for jury duty so she probably already feels like one of us (no, she didn't have to serve on a jury; she's not qualified under the rules due to her not being a citizen).

We're going to California in a few weeks too, that's sort of our anniversary present to each other. We're taking a nice short vacation and visiting some of her relatives in L.A. We're also going to DISNEYLAND! I could only get 5 days off though. Yes, we'd prefer a longer vacation but the salon can't afford for me to miss more than 5 days. It's just not possible. On the plus side though, it's probably better for us financially to only stay the 5 days. The longer we stay, the more money we spend, the less we have for the holidays and you know the holiday season gets more expensive every year.

I think I'm going to go outside and enjoy that fall weather for a little bit. Maybe have a nap on the balcony while I'm at it. This season only comes once a year you know :-)

We're Back!

Just Finished Reading: The Prestige by Christopher Priest

Home again.

Unlike CC, I haven't been posting my vacation blog along the way. I could have. It wasn't like she was keeping me away from her machine or anything like that. I just figured that since I was on vacation, I'd stay on vacation pretty much all the way. I did manage to record my thoughts on my PDA though so I have a blog entry all ready for posting more or less. I didn't stick in pictures and video like CC did. Just head on over to her blog for a more visual approach to our vacation :-)

Day One:

Thursday Night

Arrived in Nashville with no major problems. The drive was uneventful and I managed the entire thing myself. Usually when we go on vacation I have CC drive the first leg while I catch up on my sleep but because of the early work schedule I've been on, that wasn't a problem.

It was also interesting to see the familiar stretch of road all GREEN. All of our past trips have been in the fall so everything is fall-colored. Not this time. All green and bright sun. I did notice that along several stretches of highway, the smaller towns have been building up quite a bit. That was most evident in Jackson, TN.

We arrived at about 1 pm and checked into our hotel room. It's a nice place. We're just two doors down from the little gym (complete with whirlpool thank you!). We also were able to park the truck right outside the window. It's almost like it's watching us.

We had lunch at a mini-mall that's right next door then we went out looking at apartments. Remember, we're moving up here in a year or so and CC wanted to check out a few places. We found one that's very promising and were also able to cross a few off our list. It's all helpful for when the time comes to make the big move.

One funny little note. Among the other guests at this particular hotel is the Christian Brothers High School baseball team. They must be here for a tournament or perhaps they've made the playoffs. Either way, you can imagine my surprise when I saw all of those purple baseball jerseys. Talk about weird. This is a high school that's right up the road from our Memphis apartment. Small world.

We've also decided pretty much what we're going to do while we're here. Friday we're going to the zoo. Saturday we're going go Historic Franklin. Sunday we're going to the big Renaissance fair which looks WAY cool. We're going to have SUCH a good time on this vacation AND we'll see jousting! That's right, they're jousting this weekend. Those guys are NUTS! Can't wait to see it!

Time for bed.

Day Two:

Friday Night

Slight change of plans. We actually went to Historic Franklin today instead of Saturday. We had so much time left after the zoo, we needed something to fill the gap.

But let's back things up a bit. Woke up this morning and had beakfast. It's almost exactly the same as the one at the La Quina in Gatlinburg. They even had the same waffel maker.

After that, off to the zoo! First interesting thing I noticed was the neighborhood that the zoo is located in. The whole area is like a little version of San Antonio. Seriously, same types of stores and everything. For example, on one corner you've got an old gas station that's gone out of business and now sells tacos. Then down the street there's a Pizza Hut that's been sold and turned into a Mexican restaurant. Of course, the shape of the building is clearly Pizza Hut but they've tried really hard to make it look more Mexican. Even the bilboards were in Spanish.

We got to the zoo at around 9:30 and there were already quite a few people there. The zoo itself isn't all that big. In fact, in terms of the number of animals on display it's much smaller than The Memphis Zoo. However, it's on a HUGE plot of land and everything is spread out. According to their map, they're building quite a few new enclosures which will double or triple the size. A few years from now it'll be a pretty nice place.

What came as a surprise was an historic farm house that was on the property. CC and I went on the tour. It wasn't particularlly big but it was certainly old. It dates back to around 1810. Nice place really. CC has pictures of all of this on her blog of course.

We spent three and a half hours at the zoo in all and can you believe it, I kept getting reminded of work. We fed birds, I got sprayed with water and we watched a llama get shaved. They have an enclosure for lorikeets and the most popular place for them to congregate was near a sprinkler. Given what I do for a living, a little water spray wasn't going to stop me from playing with the birds :-)

The llama was a total surprise though. Apparently today was shave the llamas day because when we got to the petting zoo part, two of them had already been shaved and they were working on the third. It was pretty cool seeing the same sorts of equipment I use at work only industrial size.

After the zoo, it was still early so CC wanted to go check out a few more floorplans for apartments in the area that we liked. Well, I can tell you this, we've pretty much decided on which apartment complex we went to live in when we move. The question now is whether or not we can afford the two bedroom which would give us a little more space to spread out. Both layouts are great though so we'll be happy with either of them.

It was still pretty early when we finished up there so we drove over to Historic Franklin. For those of you who have been to the Texas Hill Country, it was a lot like Boerne or Fredricksburg. If you haven't, well, think of a small town in the US. Think older though, like back to the 40's and 50's. Lots of little shops. Lots of antique shops too.

Now, after all of that, we were finally feeling a bit tired so we headed back to the hotel. We stopped at Shoney's for dinner then had a quick soak in the whirlpool tub again. And that was our day two.

Tomorrow our main plan is to ckeck out the showboat tour. It starts at 11 am and runs for three hours. After that we don't really have anthing planned so we'll just sort of play it by ear.

Day Three:

Saturday Evening

One of the things CC and I have wanted to do ever since she moved to the US was go to a Renaissance Fair. Obviously they don't have things like that in Manila and she really likes all of knights and ladies thing. As for me, I took an entire semister in college of JUST Arthurian Literature. That doesn't count all the other classes along the way that featured a little bit here and there.

As luck would have it, the Tennessee Renaissance Fair is going on right now not too far away from where we're staying. Even better, they're holding their jousting tournament this weekend and that's one of the things CC really wanted to see. We were going to save it for tomorrow but we were in more of a Renaissance mood this morning so off we went.

I will confess that along the way we had one slight misadventure. CC has already documented that in her blog, complete with pictures, so I'm not going to go into that at all. I'll just skip right over that and get to the fair.

We really had a great time. We got there just as the gates were opening and our first stop was a magic/comedy show. Great way to start off the day. CC and I were both laughing.

After the show we had just enough time to walk through the fair over to the jousting field and get a good seat. It was a bit warm out this afternoon so we also picked up some drinks too.

We had really good seats and the jousting was VERY cool. CC has a whole bunch of pictures and several vdeo clips over on her blog so it's best to go and check those out instead

.

At that point we were both really dragging from the heat. We decided to cool things off with a tour of the castle. It's not actually a castle of course. In fact, it's not even finished yet. The guy who owns it is a photographer and he's slowly been building this castle for years and years. It's his house you see, and he opens it up for tours during the fair.

After that, let's see, well we walked around a bit more. CC was hungry so she had a bite to eat and then we walked around the fair a little more. I was trying to find something that would make a good souvenir. I've already got a kabillion t-shirts from all sorts of places so I've kinda been avoiding getting more on this trip. So instead I got a gladius. That's a Roman sword. It's not REAL mind you, it just looks pretty cool. I was thinking of getting a rapier but they were a little too expensive.

Back to the hotel and a shower for us both. The grounds at the fair were VERY dusty. You should see my shoes. They're gray. Even the blue parts are gray now from all the dust.

Fabulous time today. No idea what we're going to do tomorrow but we'll probably go check out downtown or maybe visit the Grand Ole Opry. Whatever we do, I'm going to push for something indoors because I've got the weirdest sunburn pattern on my neck. There's a very clear white stripe where the strap from the camera bag rested most of the day. Plus, I've got several patches on my arms and neck that are REALLY close to being burned and I don't want to risk it. But you know, if we find something cool tomorrow that's outside I doubt that will stop me.

Day Four:

Sunday Evening

CC decided we'd take the cruise today and maybe hit the mall. It was actually kinda funny, she was going back and forth about whether or not to take the cruise right up until she got the tickets. We were walking around the waiting area on the docks and she still wasn't sure what she wanted to do.

Fortunately, she decided she wanted to go on the boat. I say fortunately because we had a GREAT time, way better than I expected. CC made a joke right before the boat pulled away from the shore that they were going to be playing country music and I was stuck with it. No chance to escape. Turns out I actually knew more of the songs they played than SHE did. Oh yes, I'm serious. They played country but most of what they played was OLD country. In fact, the only songs I didn't know were the more recent ones and CC knew most of those.

We spent the entire trip on the hurricane deck, that's upstairs by the bar. They had a four man band playing and every so often one of them would take a break. This changed the sound and mood of the band the whole way through because when certain members were there, they knew more of the old stuff. Other guys knew the newer stuff or non-country stuff.

The tour was pretty funny too. There was one moment that still makes me chuckle. The lead singer in the band at one point turns and talks about this big scrap metal yard on one side of the river. Then he turns and points up on a bluff where they'll be building a huge condo place with a view of . . . the scrap metal yard. Oh, and the other one was when we were passing the stadium where the Tennessee Titans play. He says, "You know that LP Stadium, the LP doesn't stand for Last Place. We were second to last."

In all it was a REALLY relaxing trip. We followed that up with a walk around the mall then came back to the hotel. CC fell asleep early and pretty much stayed that way until morning. I went out and grabbed some Jack in the Box.

And that was pretty much it for our vacation. The rest was us packing and driving back here to Memphis. We picked up the dogs, who were VERY happy to see us of course. Katya hasn't really left my side since I got back. She even spent the whole night sleeping at the foot of the bed too. Usually she'll move off into the bathroom or get up with CC and follow her around for a bit but not today. No, today she just wasn't going to leave me :-)

Now remember, pictures are available over at CC's blog so go and vist that, ccslish.blogspot.com ok? She's even got video of the jousting :-)