london in a day…or so

Posted on February 24, 2013 | 2 Comments

I had a last minute work engagement in December that resulted in a missed Brandi Carlile concert. As a consolation for working up until Christmas Eve, Col and I decided we’d go see Brandi in London. I know…poor us.

We planned the trip with a combination of miles and non-rev travel and quickly realized it is super expensive (even when your’re flying standby for almost free) to fly home from the UK (several hundred dollars in departure taxes). So, we planned a whirlwind trip that looked like this:

  • Tuesday afternoon – Depart US for London
  • Wednesday afternoon – Land in London
  • Wednesday night – See Brandi Carlile
  • Thursday – See London in a day
  • Friday – Travel to Dublin
  • Saturday – See Dublin in a day
  • Sunday – Depart Dublin for US

It was agressive, but we figured it would still be fun. We flew over on miles, and I was able to get us some Saver awards on United that meant we’d fly LAX to LHR on the 777-200 in BusinessFirst. It was worth the extra miles to have lie-flat beds, as the flight is about 10 hours and we planned on a late night at the concert. Flights were uneventful and enjoyable.

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We landed in London, passed immigration and went straight to our hotel. We paid the premium for the 15 minute Heathrow Express train into Paddington Station, which was only about three blocks from our hotel. I had booked the hotel via Booking.com, which I will never do again. The reviews were all pretty good, the rating was high and the photos of the rooms looked nice. Other than a modern, updated lobby, the hotel was a dump. The room was tiny, which is to be expected in a city like London. But, when we pulled back the duvet and found several short curlys, we were thoroughly grossed out and spent the next two nights sleeping in our clothes.

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We showered and changed and headed out for the concert. The show was in Islington, which was about a 30 minute tube ride on two lines from Paddington. We had expected Londoners to be polite and courteous. I think that’s the impression most Americans have of the Brits. Well, we threw that preconceived notion out the window. Over the two days, I found the people of London to be mostly rude and unhelpful; they made New Yorkers look like Georgia Peaches. People had no problem putting their hands on you to shove you out of the way so they could go through a turnstile first, or pushing you off the train to make room for themselves. It was nuts.

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The concert was awesome as usual. A local band called Holly and the Wolf opened. We really liked their sound and Holly’s vocals are amazing. But, after nearly 18 hours of travel, we needed something a little less mellow. So, we were happy when Brandi came on stage and started what turned out to be a two hour set. It was a fun venue and we can happily say we’ve seen her play on two continents now.

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Thursday was a long day, and we basically hit every single tourist hot spot we could to see all the iconic sites. In all we walked nearly 14.5 miles over the course of the day, but we did see Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Parliament, all the bridges, including Tower Bridge and the London Tower. We did a quick pass through one museum, and capped the night off with a ride on the London Eye, which was really cool at night. Even if Col found it a little unnerving. We finished our night with an amazing meal at Noor Jahan, a great Indian restaurant about four blocks from our hotel.

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Friday morning found us up bright and early for our departure from London. We booked a rail/ferry combo through Virgin Trains, so we took the underground from Paddington to Euston station for our direct train ride to Holyhead on the coast. The train was clean and comfortable, and the combo ticket was only about $50 USD per person. The train journey was about four hours, and we got to see some amazing views of the English countryside and Wales. And, a lot of sheep.

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We departed Holyhead on Stena Lines for the three hour or so journey across the Irish Sea to Dublin. I was impressed by the size of the ship; I was expecting something similar to the boats that ferry passengers to Catalina Island in California. But, this was a fairly large ship with many decks, free wifi and a nice bar and restaurant. We cruised over to Dublin under mostly sunny skies and calm waters, enjoying the view and the ride.

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Next up…Dublin in a Day!

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peach champagne and stogies

Posted on January 2, 2013 | 3 Comments

The latter part of December was a killer for me. With a ton of work travel and a whirlwind trip to LA for Christmas (barely 36 hours on the ground), I was really looking forward to the annual Happy Fish New Year’s trip.

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We headed up in two groups on Saturday. Lisa, Cheryl and Jer left early to do the shopping, while Jeanne, Col and I got a later start. We were the official dog carrier with Lucy, Ricky and Bailey riding with us. Fortunately the weather was clear and the drive was nice and easy.

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Lisa and Jeanne had been at the cabin for Christmas when there was a bit of snow, but not a lot. A storm blew through in the middle of the week, so there was a little more snow for New Year’s, although not as much as two years ago when we had to snowshoe in with all our supplies. We were able to get the trucks all the way in to the cabin, but people staying further up the road needed snowmobiles to make it in.

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Our schedule was a little different this year. Instead of arriving late at night, we got to Happy Fish late in the afternoon and still had plenty of daylight to get settled, make dinner and enjoy the evening. With two full days before New Year’s Eve, we paced ourselves pretty well. Sunday morning was clear and cold, so Jer, Lisa, Col and I bundled up and made the trek up the road to a good sledding spot. We packed a backpack of cold beer for fuel and hauled the sleds and tubes to a great spot we’ve used previously. It took a while to groom a good track, including building up some edges to prevent the sleds from shooting off into some rocks and trees, but in the end we had a great track that made for some good runs. The altitude was definitely a factor with all that activity, so we took plenty of beer breaks.

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Monday we lounged around most of the day before setting up for the evening, including our balloon drop. We had a great fajita dinner and played lots of drinking games to get ready for the main event. No NYE would be complete without the annual dollar store gift exchange complete with best wrapping prize.

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We celebrated the countdown with champagne and lots of kisses, then broke out all our glow sticks and bracelets for our own version of a disco. We capped the night off with some cigars and a wee morning romp in the snow covered meadow (Jeanne made a snow angel…and it was barely above 10 degrees!).

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It was tough leaving on New Year’s day, but we packed up and made the drive back to St. George. Col and I had dog transport duty, and also had to drive up to Scipio to pick up Sydney who had spent the holiday with Col’s parents. It was a long day of driving, but well worth the fun.

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I treasure my New Year’s trips to Happy Fish. It’s always a great way to say farewell to the outgoing year of good times and welcome a new one that will hopefully be as jam packed with adventures. Thanks, Happy Fish for all the good times!

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Here is the complete photoset from this trip: New Year’s 2013 – Happy Fish

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miles and miles

Posted on December 29, 2012 | 2 Comments

I was trying to think of some way to end the year here. I decided to make it short and sweet. It’s been a year on the road for me, my family and my friends. Even though I didn’t travel as much as 2011, I still racked up over 100K miles and added two new countries to my passport. 2013 is already shaping up to beat 2012 in all respects.

I look forward to spending a new year racking up adventures with those close to me, seeing the world and enjoying good times. See you all in 2013!

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nail holes

Posted on December 10, 2012 | 2 Comments

I’m always very slow to hang things on the walls when I move into a new place, and the new house has been no exception. I think it’s a combination of wanting to live in the space for a while to get a feel for it, and a hesitancy to put nail holes in the walls. There’s just such a “you can’t turn back now” feeling. Well, without some work with filler and paint, anyway.

Now that we’ve been in the house for about six months, we’ve been starting to get things up on the walls. With so many great adventures and travel experiences over the last several years, I have a pretty decent catalog of photos. So, I thought it would be fun to use some of my own work to hang around the house. We have a very long foyer, and there’s a wide expanse of wall that needs to be addressed. I have been thinking about using one of my landscape shots from Canyonlands or one of my Southern Utah photos to be printed to a canvas (specifically a multi-part canvas) to fill the space.

I’ve never had a photo printed to canvas, and there are a lot of options out there. Costco advertises a service, and I’ve seen a lot of advertisements for various online printers, as well. The problem is…they’re not cheap, and I haven’t wanted to fork over the cash without being sure the print won’t look…cheesy. So, when Printcopia contacted me and offered me an opportunity to review their canvas print service, I jumped on it. What better way to sample the product and see if it will look the way I want it to in the space?

The process was basically the same as any upload to print service (like Costco, Walmart, etc.). My biggest hassle was trying to find a print that looked good in the dimensions of the 8×10 canvas preview screen. I cycled through a few photos before I settled on one with some really bright colors from our NYC trip last December. My order processed quickly, even with the free shipping option, and I received UPS confirmations when it shipped and when it was delivered (since I was out of town). Total process and shipping time was about one week, which was much faster than the timeframe Printcopia provided with my order. The order was shipped securely, so there was no damage to the print.

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The canvas actually looks better than I expected. Again, I sort of thought the print to canvas process might make things look cheesy; like you’re trying to turn your photo into some fine art piece. But, it actually pops the color and gives the photo some depth and texture that isn’t there in a traditional print. I would never go overboard and put these things up all over, but used sparingly, I think they are a great way to mix things up a bit.

Printcopia’s site was easy to use, and their service was excellent in this experience. I am sure there are other companies out there that do equally as a good a job, but I’ll use these guys again since I have good experience with them, and their prices were on par or even a bit more affordable than Costco. They also do vinyl banners, car magnets and lawn signs.

We’ve been thinking of having them do a lawn sign for us to freak out all the neighbors in our subdivision. Any suggestions?

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black friday

Posted on November 23, 2012 | Leave a comment

In honor of all those lines.

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almost havana

Posted on November 20, 2012 | Leave a comment

It’s nearly Winter, and everything moves slower in Winter. Including me and my updates to this space. Since the great backpack trip over Labor Day, most of the travel has been work related, including a trip last month to Miami. But, capitalizing on an employer paid hotel, Col and I headed out a couple days early, cashed in some Hyatt points and spend one night in Key West.

I have never been to Key West, and it turns out it’s the one place in Florida that I could easily see myself living. Or, at least spending more time. We had a great time relaxing, enjoying the atmosphere and bar hopping. I can’t wait to go back and spend more time, and we’re talking everyone into a trip there in February for some hijinks.

I didn’t take my camera, but I thought it would be fun to document this adventure with my Instagram shots for a change. We flew into Miami, rented a car and made the very long drive to Key West. It’s only 100 miles, but it takes between three and four hours depending on traffic due to the bridges, low speed limits and tourists clogging the way.

 

We stayed at the Hyatt Resort and had a great waterfront room. An evening of walking, bar hopping and Cuban food rounded out the weekend before returning to Miami where we had a great city and water view room at the Epic hotel. I spent the next few days locked in a convention center during daylight hours, and entertaining clients in the evening. Col got to experience a little solo-traveler experience and explore Miami and South Beach on his own.

Sadly the trip ended too soon, and it was back to the daily grind that these days consists of early morning drives to Vegas to catch flights to Minneapolis. And so it goes.

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if you could hie…

Posted on October 7, 2012 | Leave a comment

I’m way behind with this space lately. Life is busy and other things seem to be the priority these days. Fortunately, I was able to schedule a Labor Day weekend backpacking trip with Col and MPK before my six week grind in Minneapolis started.

Originally, MPK and I though we’d head into the Dixie National Forest, but we read some posts online saying the bugs were really bad and the scenery was still a mess from all the fires over the last couple years. Instead, we decided to backpack  in the Kolob Canyon area of Zion NP, a more out-of-the-way section of the park that doesn’t see quite as much traffic as the main canyon.

MPK flew in late Friday night and as soon as Col got off work Saturday morning we headed north to the upper section of the park. We started at the Lee Pass trailhead and immediately enjoyed some beautiful scenery as we started our descent toward La Verkin Creek. I made a mental note of the immediate steep descent since MPK likes to take us on grueling hikes where we’re climbing out of steep canyons at the end of the trip. I put those thoughts aside as soon as we got to the bottom and saw the creek running full with water…this would not be a Death March. Of course, no trip can be without some mishap or close call. As I was climbing out of a dry creek bed, I put my hand toward a rock to brace myself and almost got a handful of a very large rattlesnake as he slithered away. We were all in too much shock to even take a picture, but he was HUGE.

We made it to our backcountry site by late afternoon and enjoyed our first evening soaking in the creek under beautiful clear skies. The great weather continued into Sunday as we set out for a day hike to the Kolob Arch and Beartrap Creek. The trail alternates between flat, sandy stretches and rocky, steep climbs, but the constant flow of the creek makes for a very pleasant hike the entire way. We made it to Beartrap Creek and took the split from the main canyon to head up to the waterfall. The 30 foot waterfall spills down into a rock grotto and is really beautiful. Col and MPK waded into the pool below it and were joined by a small watersnake that turned MPK into a squealing 13 year old girl.

We headed back down the canyon the way we came and took the split off to Kolob Arch. Maybe it was the heat of the late afternoon. Maybe it was the very steep and rocky half-mile trail. Maybe it was the weariness of hiking all day. But, I didn’t think the effort to get to the arch viewing point was worth what we saw. Yes, I’m a horrible person. We did find a nice shady spot on some rocks next to the flowing water to take a little afternoon nap, and that made me feel a bit more cheery.

We enjoyed a second relaxing evening soaking in the creek before packing up Monday morning and heading out of the canyon. The climb out was steep and got the better of me a few times, but we made it to the top around noon before it got too hot. We headed home and enjoyed a BBQ with MPK and Lisa and Jeanne on the patio before sending him back to SLC Tuesday morning.

This was definitely one of my favorite MPK adventures.

Here is the complete photoset from this trip: Kolob Canyon Backpack – September 2012

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