Ladybug

Colby was in California for a week working which meant I had to hold down the fort!  He brought me back the most adorable chocolate lady bug as a prize for being good and not eating Thai food everyday!

I was very tempted to bite it!  However it was a Momma lady bug so I had to see what her babies looked like first!

 

Good thing I waited as the babies were in a bag.

Aren't they cute? Must say they were oh so delish!!

New Kicks

Daddy went to Canada and brought me back new kicks! I had to try them out right away in the jumperoo!

These do make me jump higher!

Posts From The Road

Well, I'm back on the road again and I have some time to spare here in the airport.  Luckily, Google is offering free wi-fi in a lot of the airports around the country so I have a chance to share what I have been up to and let you figure out where I am.

After an all day flight yesterday, I arrived with enough spare time to wander around downtown and headed to Quincy Market to find some dinner. 

I headed straight for a place Kim and I had seen on Food Network; Durgin Park.  I had an excellend roast prime rib but I missed out on the beans. 

I called it a night and woke up early to work this morning but once again, I found myself with enough time to get some lunch at a place advertised as the oldest restaurant in america; the Union Oyster House

Have you figured out where I am yet???

I headed across town to check another famous baseball park off my list.  This is a statue of their most beloved player that's out front; Ted Williams

Yes, I was at Fenway Park, Home of the Boston Red Sox

I had to share a picture of the coolest view from a urinal I have ever seen (I promise, nothing gross)

In the Bleacher Bar, there is one-way glass overlooking the bar and the opening onto the field.  Granted you can probably only see the right fielder and a ball hit to deep center field but at least you can see grass. 

(I have to note here that I always laughed at kim for taking a picture inside a bathroom on one or two other occasions so I guess that ribbing has to end.)

Well, wish me good luck on getting a complimentary upgrade and I hope everyone is doing well!!

Cleveland Rocks! (Part 1)

I spent this past week in Cleveland and since I was working overnights, I had a couple of afternoons to wander around..


I have a strange attraction to stadiums. No matter how good (or bad in this case) a team is, I can't help but take a picture of their stadium. Here is the home of the Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Browns Stadium. It's so weird not to have a corporate sponsorship pasted on the stadium I had to look it up to make sure I didn't miss it.

The weather started to get bad by the end of the week and the winds were picking up on Lake Erie. It had worse waves than most of the ocean beaches I have been to.

The USS Cod is tied up along the waterfront but unfortunately, it is only open to tours through September.

Cleveland Rocks! (part 2)

I continued my tour of the waterfront over to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum

This was the only picture I was able to smuggle out from inside the museum. They haven't yet followed the lead of EMP and allowed cameras inside. I actually had to leave my camera at coat check while I was inside but the ZZ Top car was in the lobby.

Outside, they had Johnny Cash's tour bus parked and available for tours. Unfortunately, the tour guide must have been on his lunch break.

Cleveland Rocks! (Part 3)

Late in the week, I wandered into downtown Cleveland to check out their other Stadiums. When the parking attendant asked me if I was going to Quicken Loans I said no, I'm headed to wander around the stadiums. He gave me a funny look but I didn't think twice till I turned the corner to see...Quicken Loans Arena, the home of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Aah, back to the old corporate buyout.
Right next door is the Home of the Cleveland Indians, Progressive Field, formerly Jacobs Field.

As usual, I wasn't able to get inside to see a game but it is still intriguing.

As I was headed back to the car, This building caught my eye. I have no idea what it is but it was still awesome.

Chicago Downtime

A couple of weeks ago I was in Chicago for work and had a little time to kill on my way back to the airport. If I get the chance, I usually gravitate towards the closest MLB or NFL park. I have eaten several times in the resturant that overlooks the BOB in Phoenix though I have never watched a game there. What baseball purist could resist walking around Wrigley field?

Even though he butchered the song that my grandfather adored (it's take me out with the crowd), you can't resist taking a picture of Harry Caray's statue.



They had the door opened up in right field and I was able to get mere feet from the grass

All of the buildings across the street have continued the bleachers on their roofs. I wonder if they get peanut vendors walking their stairs.

Map Pins

This is one of my favorte jokes from the late comedian Mitch Hedberg:

"I want to hang a map of the world in my house, then I am going to put pins into all the locations I have traveled to, but first I will have to travel to the top two corners of the map, so it won't fall down."

Here are the places I have gone to that hold up my map...

This is an old picture from before I got my job travelling. It was a special project that sent me up to Juneau, Alaska. I got to spend a week at Grandma's Featherbed Inn. If you ever travel to Juneau, it's the place to stay. Grandma cooks breakfast and is nice and close to the Mendenhal Glacier. The picture is from a day trip I took up to the side of the glacier - it's only about 10 miles outside of town.

(See, even back in 2000 I was a Coug fan)

This picture is from our vacation to Kona, HI. We had a great time and I can't wait to go back.

One of my notorious pictures from our honeymoon. Cancun, MX was the perfect place to unwind after the wedding. I still have the bottle and it is storing my loose change that will hopefully take us somewhere fun again.

This last one isn't the greatest picture but it was taken at night. St. John's, NL is 4 1/2 hours away and I wasn't there long enough to adjust to the time change. This picture is at Cape Spear which is as far East as you can go in North America. Next stop, Europe. (actually it would have been faster to fly to Poland from there than it was to fly home)

I will be going back soon so hopefully I can get some better pictures during the day. It's really a beautiful place.

So this is what the North Pole feels like...

I was in Grande Prairie, Alberta yesterday and I had to take this picture on my way to the airport.

It might be hard to see, but yes, that says -17. Standing outside for 2 minutes to get gas in the rental car was torture.

I guess we were lucky, it was -29 last Friday. I tried to look for the picture I took a little over a year ago when I was in Little Rock, AR. The temperature on the car there said 117.

Aaahhh, the pleasant experiences I have on the road sometimes :O)

Whoa there Big Boy!

I guess I am becoming a travel nerd of sorts. I saw this jet as I was waiting for a flight at LAX last week and just had to stop and take a picture. This is the newest plane for Qantas Airlines out of Australia, the A-380. I had actually looked at the stats after a recent contest on the Alaska Air site. The plane is 238 feet long, 79 feet tall and the wing area is 4 1/2 times the square footage of our house!

It has 4 different classes inside - economy, economy plus, business, and first. All but the economy are first-class size seats and all come with power ports, USB, Internet access, and your own travel kit. I guess you need those types of things on a 10-20 hour flight with 450 people on board.



To give you some perspective, that little plane next to it is what I normally fly on - a 737!!

Unique New York

I thought I would give you a look at one of the more interesting buildings I have been to. Our warehouse in Queens was built on a site in which some old buildings couldn't be torn down. You can kind of tell by the picture that the buildings were basically combined together , with a covered walkway in one instance, to create the space we needed. It makes for some very interesting architecture and nice pictures.

Also, the site is directly on the water overlooking Manhattan. There is only a small walking trail separating the parking lot from the water.

When I finished my work at the building, it was after dark and I couldn't miss out on the opportunity to take some nice nighttime shots

As close as I get to Manhattan

I am not really the adventurous type while and I am on the road and I REALLY hate driving in New York traffic. After almost getting in countless accidents driving from my hotel in Queens to two buildings and back, I wasn't exactly up for sightseeing. I just admired my view out the hotel window and left it at that. Here you go...

From New York to New York

So I spent the weekend in New York on Long Island in very muggy 95 degree heat. So where do I end up at the end of the week? At the New York, New York casino in a very dry 106 degree heat. I needed to run to Vegas for a day for work and I decided to do some recognisance (sp?) for our mini-vacation we are planning for next weekend. I couldn't resist swinging by the strip and going into the hotel and seeing all the "sights" that I didn't see over the weekend. My co-workers and I may have made it to the beach but I have still yet to go to downtown New York. I guess one if these days we will have to break down and head to the Big Apple for a vacation.

I also wandered next door to the MGM Grand and found one of their lion playing in their pen (honest, the picture is of a lion. It's name was Bora and he's a 7th generation decendant of the Lion at the beginning of the old MGM movies) We will definitely be going back next weekend with a real camera and not just a cell phone camera.

Here's looking forward to a nice and "comfortable" 80 degrees in Seattle!

Beachin'

I was in New York for the weekend and on Saturday my co-workers and I got to go to the beach for about an hour. It was just a little busy there and pretty hot. I think it was somewhere around 90 with great blue skies.