This Valentine’s Day I gave D a multipart gift/surprise which started with playing our favorite Foster the People song on the acoustic guitar (awww), followed by a box of Ethel M chocolates, and building up to reservations for a long weekend in Vegas with VIP tickets to see Foster out there.
After a couple months of waiting, the time finally came, and it was a great trip. At this point we’ve taken trips of every sort to Vegas. Family trips, trips with lots of friends, budget trips, lavish trips, outdoorsy trips, and so on. So, it’s awesome we can still have go out, just the two of us, and have a truly great weekend that feels almost entirely new. Staying at the Cosmo was new to us and seeing a concert right at their pool was even better.
Besides the concert, another night we checked out the Rose Rabbit Lie experience at the hotel. I say experience because it’s sort of a dinner + drinks + performance all combined. It’s drafted like a edgy, new variety act like Absinthe, but has it’s own flavor since it extends performances into the dining and bar spaces.
Together Dave and Christian, D and I spent 10 days vacationing out West. No recap here can do it justice, so I’ll keep this exceptionally short.
We started with three days in Vegas. Despite the ridiculous computer problems plaguing the MGM properties, there were amazing days at the pool, (less amazing for me) nights in the casino, a couple awesome meals, and a huge 1400 sq ft 2-bedroom suite complete with five TVs. From there we drove to the Grand Canyon (by way of bits of Route 66). We caught the canyon at dusk, spend the night there, and got up early to catch the sunrise the next day. After breakfast and more site-seeing we hit the road again.
We spent the next three days in Sedona enjoying some great meals, a 4×4 Jeep tour, some hiking and rock climbing, and another pool. After those three days, we took another roadtrip to Tucson along a very scenic (read: long) route. We all expected boring stretches of desert, but instead we saw so much variety in the Arizona landscape. There were mountains, and in the higher elevations, pine forests, areas scorched by forest fires in years past, and eventually the Saguaros.
We spend our last three days of vacation in Tucson staying at some multi-million dollar residence on the side of Tuscon’s highest mountain. Those three days continued with more of the same awesomeness: pools, amazing food, and hiking (with disc golf in the desert!).
Posted Saturday, June 23rd, 2012 11:19 AMNo Comments
The infamous foot race / human spectacle, Bay to Breakers, held their 100th running last weekend and D and I made the trip out to San Francisco to participate in the silly first-hand. My college bud Al has posted photos from the event over the past few years, and between the centennial mark and our renewed interest in running, we knew this was this year to finally check it out. On the one hand, flying across the country for a 12k race (which, due to injuries, we didn’t even plan to run seriously) is pretty extravagant, but then again we were due for a jolt out of Ohio, and I can’t think of anything less like Ohio than B2B.
Bay to Breakers is unique from other races in so many ways. Its course covers 7.46 miles all mostly in a straight line as spans from the bay side of the city, all the way across town to the beach at the edge of the pacific. It takes you through a diverse slice of neighborhoods as well as a long trek through one of the nation’s most impressive city parks. About a third of the way into it there’s even a signature San Francisco hill that raises steeply over multiple blocks.
But the real magic, and mayhem, of B2B are the participants. While the race does draw some of the world’s best distance runners, the vast majority of the crowd are there to party across the city. This year the race registration was capped at 55,000 people – which they sold out – and most sources are estimating there was another 10-30k participating roguely. There are costumed runners and walkers of all sorts. Superheroes, cartoon and video game characters, people dressed as cops, people not dressed all (argh, my eyes!), and even inanimate objects (like a box of crayons or a barrel of monkeys).
Absent this year were floats, such as kegs in shopping carts and tequila bars pulled by go-karts, but there was still plenty of drinking along the route. Everyone is saying what a nice tame B2B it was, but it’s still a lightyear of crazy beyond anything you’d see in Cincinnati. Heck, the news from this year’s marathon in Cinci was a sole naked runner that got arrested. After he was tased. In the rain. At mostly walking pace we finished the trek in 2 hours and 32 minutes. It may be fun to go back and run the whole thing, but I wonder if I’d even want to blast through it that quickly. There’s far too much to experience in a quick hour run.
Posted Saturday, May 21st, 2011 7:01 PMNo Comments
Our trip to New Orleans was only five days, but it spanned so much awesomeness that I’ll break this into a couple posts.
Wednesday was our travel day. The nice thing about New Orleans is that it feels pretty distant, but isn’t terrible tough to get to. Some friends were even driving down, but at 12+ hours we were gladly flying. Airline checked bags fees aside, the flights were uneventful and we were in the Big Easy by mid-afternoon.
Our hotel was right in the French Quarter, less then half a block off Bourbon Street. Shortly after checking in we ran into Brian and Amanda (the bride and groom to be) and we opted for an early happy hour at the bar right next to our hotel, The Old Absinthe House. Bourbon street is really interesting. Besides all the cheesy bars selling tropical drinks by the yard and all the houses of ill repute (er, Gentlemen clubs) there are also some very historic bars and some very exclusive restaurants. There’s no such thing as a good end or bad of Bourbon Street – like gumbo it’s all mixed up from door to door. The Old Absinthe House is a dusty old corner bar, but has stood there since 1807. Faded pictures on the wall showed that the bar hadn’t changed much through the last two centuries. We relaxed into the NOLA scene with a couple rounds.
Then it was time to head to House of Blues, for some much needed food and a concert later in the evening. The HOB was only about five blocks away and there was no wait for a table. D and I torn into some of the best skillet cornbread we’ve ever had before moving onto yummy Cajun entrees.
Making our way into their music hall I didn’t know how large of a venue to expect. I’ve always heard of big acts playing at various HOBs, but never seen a show at one. Luckily it turned out to be a pretty small room with elevated sides and a cool wrap around balcony. As a restaurant patron we got in sooner than most and snagged a great elevated spot at house left. The opening band was Brahms, a sort of dark-wave three piece from NYC. They did a pretty decent set, and I dug their all electronic setup, but they seem a bit out of their element playing to the sizable HOB crowd. Next up was the Canadian indie band Tokyo Police Club. They brought more energy to the stage and helped amp things up for the main act. I’m a fan of their singles, but their other tunes seem to lack a few hooks, and their style works best with a good hook.
By the time Passion Pit took the stage the house was packed. They are still touring off their first full album, Manners, from 2009 so the setlist was as predicted, except for the awesome encore cover of the Cranberries’ “Dreams”. Hardly any other male singer could attempt the soaring vocals in that song, but it was right up the alley of Michael Angelakos. You can tell they’d been touring behind that material for a solid year, everything was well-paced and effortless. I’ve been enjoying that album since it came out and it was great to see it live after skipping their set at Lollapalooza last summer. All in all, a super fun show and a great finish for our first night in the Big Easy.
We spent the long Memorial Day weekend as we usually do, camping. From Friday night to Monday afternoon there were no computers, no video games, and no internet (self-imposed BlackBerry ban). We camped at the O’Bannon Woods State Park in Indiana, which is on the Ohio River a little west of Louisville. The weather was really hot and humid, with no breeze for relief, so we did more relaxing and less hiking than usual; which isn’t all bad.
Along with Dave, Christian, Nigel, and Mark the two sites we had were pretty packed. All together there were 4 tents, two screened shelters, and 7 coolers! We played hours of dominoes, made some great meals, and enjoyed countless beers.
It’s funny, the Aztek is approaching ten years old, but it still gets as many comments from other campers as ever (favorable, thank you very much). I can’t count how many kids stopped and said “wow, cool, there’s a tent on their car!” and one adult stopped and mentioned that she was bringing over everyone in their group to see. I might just have to keep this car running for several years to come. At this point we’re too spoiled to sleep on the ground and still too young to graduate to an RV.
Just had a great weekend of camping in southern Indiana with Dave, Christian, and Nigel. The weather was absolutely perfect – very warm days with a little breeze and nice chilly nights – with none of the downpours that we usually get.
We did a 5+ hour hike on Saturday in the 80 degree weather. It started with a pretty treacherous climb down a steep muddy hill. From there, the hike turned wet and rocky as we followed a creek until we eventually got up to a set of waterfalls. After the falls we had to wind our way back up the cliffs and way back around the creek on high ground.
Back at camp we relaxed with games and beers and an awesome meal of steaks, brats, potatoes, peppers, and of course, s’mores. I think as we get older the camp food we eat is about the same, but we use better ingredients (gourmet meats and cheeses, etc).
Posted Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 12:28 PMNo Comments
Last Thursday in Vegas I entered the evening Texas Hold ’em tournament at the MGM Grand casino. The MGM is kind of unique in how they feature a nice poker room and their sports book prominently near their entrance, whereas most casinos tuck them toward a back corner. In the poker room they run hold ’em tournaments most days in addition to the on-going cash tables. The night I played there were about 45 players in the tournament. A buy-in of $80 got you 3000 in tourney chips. They run their tourneys pretty aggressively, the blinds doubling every 20 minutes, and after 80 minutes, an ante is added for all players which also doubles every 20 minutes. They force the action pretty strong and I was a little worried how my usual tight play would hold out. By 80 minutes in, after our first break, the blinds had reached 400/800 and I was barely hanging in with 1200. I had been in a few hands and had to get out of a few I knew I was behind in. Luckily my next hand was a good one, a nut flush, and my all-in took down a good pot.
Not a hand or two after, all the players redrew for seats at two final tables. Within 20 minutes, the blinds were up to 800/1600 and I was short stacked again with 900 in chips. I don’t call the blind of the next hand and the dealer leans over, sees I’m down to less than the blinds and asks “what are you waiting for”. I tell him “better cards”. The next hand I get dealt a big slick (A-K) and go all-in (which after the ante of 200 is only 700 – less than the SMALL blind). There are plenty of callers, and even though I only get a portion of the pot, it floats me way back up.
A few hands later and we redraw for seats as we are down to the final table. A couple more players fall out. A little later, the blinds are up to 1500/3000 and I make another desperate all-in push, pull in the pot, and come back from the brink AGAIN. As we get down to four players we know we’ve all made it to the money. With blinds now at 3000/6000 (not to mention an ante of 500) I have only a couple hands worth of chips left once again. I go all-in with pocket sevens and the chip leader calls me with pocket 8’s. With no help for either of us on the board, I finish in 4th and make $288 (10% of the pot). It’s a shame I couldn’t outlast one more player or I would have had double the payout, but I counted myself lucky to make it as far as I did. That was my first casino tourney and even though it was a small one it was awesome to finish 4th out of 45 and make some dough.
Posted Friday, April 17th, 2009 12:25 PMNo Comments
Another fantastic week in Las Vegas has come and gone. This time out we were joined by Mr&Mrs; Boom and Prof Xomox and wife (protecting the names of the guilty, of course). We all stayed at New York, New York which has really become our usual destination – this being D and I’s forth stay with them. NYNY is a good midrange property, with a good location and rooms that aren’t too pricey. It’s certainly not the glitziest or trendiest place to stay, but has gotten to feel like a home away from home. The casino is decent sized – almost a little small as far as the tables go, but easy to get around and scan the usual areas for friends when you need to. The casino was remodeled over the past year. Some of the changes I like a lot (the central bar and new pit layout) and others not so much (removing the leafy Central Park theme from the pits). I’m growing less impressed with their rooms with each stay, but for the money they aren’t bad.
Sunday started out good (besides running to catch both of our flights!). We got in fairly late, but checked in, met up with everyone, and enjoyed some drinks and games. Toward the end of the evening I decided I needed to make my first trip to the blackjack tables and made a nice $175 in fairly short order.
Monday was one of those days that Vegas was made for. The guys started with a craps lesson followed by a craps beating. Then the ladies appeared all wearing sparkling and flashing tiaras, and we knew there would be trouble. The NCAA final was that night so I placed (and lost) some big bets at the sports book. Meanwhile, we had taken up our now infamous perch on the balcony of the Irish pub. This spot is a little known area which affords you a nice view of the strip and some quiet for conversation (well, until the drinks start taking effect). We noshed out on a nice spread of appetizers, but it was too late; too many free drinks had already gone to our heads. I remember a lot of laughing, some cowering, and a nice conversation with a film engineer and family from California.
Tuesday and Wednesday brought more gaming (including a slot tournament which we all tried), more huge meals (like the MGM Grand’s pricey, but awesome buffet), more stiff drinks, and our usual visits to Red Rocks and the Ethel M chocolate factory and cactus garden. Catching Red Rocks at sunset was as awesome as ever – as the sun sank behind the mountains the distant lights of the strip came out with the stars.
When Thursday rolled around, our companions had gone, and we were left to our own sick selves – D and I had both come down with bad colds by then. But Vegas has a way of helping you forget your ailments. We started with winning a few bucks on some penny slots. Next we went to the MGM Grand and had a great time on the craps table with our dealer Teddy. We had to leave after only making about 20 bucks though so we could get back to NYNY for another Slot Tournament. D racked up a nice score this time around and finished in 6th (out of something like 70 players) and scored fifty free slot bucks. We spun the slots for a while more and did well – but not as well as the guy who hit the 100 free spins on the machine next to us (he snared about 300 bucks off that bonus). Then we headed back to MGM for more craps. The same table was still hot and I pulled in another $250. Next I played in a Texas Hold’em tournament and finished well, but that’s the topic of the next post. In all, Thursday brought me back (and then some) from the past three days of gradual losses.
D and I headed home on Friday and spent the next three days on the couch sick. Not the best ending to a vacation, but it was a great trip anyway.
Posted Wednesday, April 15th, 2009 10:50 AMNo Comments
Seven days, all-inclusive, in the Virgin Islands. It doesn’t get much better. D and I set off with another couple for a final week of play before the return of the school year and as a belated birthday bash for myself. It wasn’t a last minute trip by any means, but it was only planned out about a month ahead of time which kept the pangs of anticipation to a moderate level. Best of all I didn’t have to plan a thing – D set the whole thing up with her travel agent buddy (who steered us right before with our trip to Riviera Maya a few years past).
Getting There 5am came really early wed morning as we got up and got ready ready to head out. After long term parking, check in, security, and the rest of the morning hustle, we were greated at the gate with notice that our flight had been delayed forty minutes due to a mechanical problem. About a half hour later, the maintenance crew was still working and the departure time was pushed back another half hour. At this point it was clear we’d never make our Atlanta connection to St Thomas so we started working with the gate agents. Turns out, the flight to St Thomas that we’d be missing was Delta’s only flight there that day. After checking many other cities and other airlines, a Delta rep finally found a plan that would get us to the island that day. Instead of flying to Atlanta, we caught a Delta flight to Fort Lauderdale. From there a car service transported us to Miami International and we checked in for an America Airlines flight to St Thomas. After much trouble checking in for the AA flight and an extremely thorough security screening, we got to this gate and, after waiting over two hours, found this flight too was delayed about 45 minutes. Eventually we did get to the island (around 10pm)- about seven hours later than planned.
Home Away From Home We stayed at the Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort – a pretty awesome facility that sits atop a steep shore line and wraps around its own little peninsula. We couldn’t see much in the dark the night we got in and our ocean view was completely black except for a few points of light from St John. But that made waking up to our view all that more spectacular.
The resort has a great set of pools (and a really HOT hot tub) complete with waterfalls, grotto, and foot bridge.
There were also two restaurants, a couple bars, a video poker lounge, a nice fitness center, a spa, and more. The resort’s beach was small and pretty rocky, but there was tons of coral and other sea creatures putting on a nice show for the snorkelers among us.
We spent the first couple days mostly hanging out in the pool or on the beach while enjoying fruity cocktails in the sun. We soon saw how the resort’s beach is a hot spot for weddings. During our stay there’s was an average of about one wedding per day. Although the views are scenic, the choice of location is far from private considering all the hotel guests (including kids) strolling about. In first wedding we saw the groom looked just like Bernie Mac. Two days later we heard the news of Bernie’s death, which caused us to suspect he pulled an Elvis and retired to the islands.
Heart Shaped Beach Our first trip out of the resort was to the biggest beach on St Thomas, and reportedly the 7th best in the world, Magen’s Bay. After spending time at the small Wyndham beach, Meagan’s Bay was very nice. The beach was very long, soft and sandy, and beautifully framed by the bay. There was a bar on the beach with a waitress that would actually wade out into the water to take your drink order. The only downside to this beach was that you had to watch out for dive bombing sea birds.
Island Hopping Amanda’s cousin, Pete, lives on St John and Sunday we grabbed a ferry over from St Thomas and hooked up with him. Pete owns a powerboat rental shop and was kind enough to boat us around (free of charge!!). After walking around the port area, having a morning drink at a local biker bar, and meeting some of Pete’s crew, we spun around St John and over to the British Virgin Island, Jost Van Dyke. As much as St John is more natural and primitive than St Thomas, JVD is equally more so than St John. JVD only has one dock on the whole island and it’s at the customs office/police station. While Pete was checking us in through customs we checked out Foxy’s bar – he’s a local celebrity of sorts, always cracking jokes and spinning tales.
From there we went to the next beach over at White Bay. Since there’s no dock, boats just pull in, drop anchor, and you swim/wade to shore. There are about 5-6 bar/restaurants on the beach and the most famous of them, the Soggy Dollar, gets its name literally from everyone’s wet money from coming ashore. The beach here was absolutely awesome – a palm tree lined long stretch of white sand against a clear blue shallow shore.
The Soggy Dollar is the home of the “Painkiller”, a rum drink which is true to its name. We had several. It was mind blowing to see the number of painkillers they serve up. At one point the bartender Mic made 23 at once. Take a look as he burns through a bottle and a half of rum.
Toward evening Pete picked us up and brought our drunken selves back to St John where we had more drinks and some great late night eats. By the time we caught the last ferry back to St Thomas I was beat and couldn’t keep my eyes open!
One More Time! Turns out we spent our last full day of vacation doing almost the same thing – a ride to JVD, a stop at Foxy’s, several drinks at the Soggy Dollar, and many hours on the beach. One new stop was a walk further down the beach to Ivan’s Stress Free Bar. Ivan’s is an honor bar. With no one working inside, you go in, see what’s behind the bar, make yourself a drink, and leave some cash in a tackle box. Nothing else sums up the spirit of the islands quite like that! This adventure ended with a death-defying boat ride back to St Thomas as Pete fired up his throttle and sent his fastest boat crashing over the waves. I don’t know what’s worse, hearing the cry of the engines as they came out of the water, or the crash you feel when the boat comes down.
This post is getting really long… To sum up the other sights around St Thomas…wild chickens, wild cows, hundreds of jewelry shops, beautiful botanical gardens, duty free liquor, the home of the banana daiquiri, and breathtaking views everywhere.
Posted Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 1:54 PMNo Comments
I’ve been a Kevin Smith fan since Clerks. Not to a religious degree or anything, there are still movies of his I haven’t seen, but I have been reading his blog for a couple years and following his discussion boards for almost as long, and listening to his podcasts with Scott Mosier since they started about a year ago. As I have followed each of these I have been so impressed with not just his knack for turning a phrase or spinning a tale, but his honesty and raw candor. I can understand if his flicks aren’t someone’s preference, but flat out undeniable is that’s he’s good people.
Well, to get on with it, Kevin quite enjoys playing poker and he regularly holds a friendly little game, usually at his comic store in Red Bank, New Jersey (Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash). The best part is that the game is open to pretty much anyone and limited in numbers – the Stash can only hold three tables, and barely. I’ve been hearing about these games since last Fall, but until now the timing never was right. Cue a free Saturday in July following my birthday and this time I was in luck. D and I decided to make a fun weekend for us both out of it. We’d get a room in NYC, and she’d shop in the city while I went to the game in Jersey.
D and I started the trek about 6:00 after work on Friday. By around 2 or 3 in the morning we were most of the way through Pennsylvania and exhausted. We crashed in the ‘tek at a rest stop for a few hours and hit the road again around 7. We made it to NYC before noon, got through the Lincoln tunnel without incident (very creepy if you’ve read The Stand), found ridiculously priced parking, and were checked into the New Yorker by noon. We walked around a while, grabbed a good lunch, and stopped in the Manolo Blahnik store (a very nondescript store from the outside with pairs of shoes running over $1k inside). After I ushered D outta there it was about time for me to head back to Jersey.
I had no problem with directions and got to Red Bank about an hour before the game. I spent some time checking out the Stash (they have some sweet merch and props) and bought a set of Hold’em McNeal poker cards as a fitting souvie. Then I walked over to the bar across the street to meet up some of the other players already waiting and grab a drink.
We walked back to the store about 6, milled around a bit, Kevin showed up a few minutes later and we began setting up the tables and chairs. So it was three tables (with custom Chasing Amy inspired felts, by the way), 10 seats each, and it was tight – barely enough room to walk by the tables. Kevin and a couple guys took several minutes getting chip stacks ready (all custom chips, by the way) while his assistant got the game software going on his laptop. Kevin did a role call of sorts where he gave each player a name badge and our seat location while we bought in. The buy-in by the way was not ridiculous – just a little more than a neighborhood game I play in. Kevin’s very cool about not throwing his movie money around.
I didn’t end up at Kevin’s table for the tournament – a mixed blessing because I know he has some skill. I was at the center of the side of my table and informed that all the dealing would be alternating between me and the guy across from me, rather than passing it around to harder to reach players. More effort than I bargained for, but no problem, it was cool running the cards for one of Kevin’s tables – even after I was knocked out. Speaking of which happened about an hour and a half in. By 8:00 my pocket rockets got taken down by a pocket pair of 7’s that turned into a set on a lucky flop. I wasn’t the first knocked out, but I was the first at our table. I felt in better company when Kevin was the 6th person knocked out just a little after me.
By about 8:30 there were enough of us out to start a cash game at Kevin’s table while the rest of the tournament continued (and continue it did until around 1am). I grabbed a seat one away from the boss man, and bought in again. I played there for the next seven hours. They had some modest munchies to keep us going. Soda, beer, several pizzas, cookies, etc. There were a good mix of players at the cash game; a few newbies like myself and some regulars who were unexpectedly knocked out of the tournament early. A couple of the guys were locals and long time friends of Kevin. They talked about so-and-so from high school and what they’re up to lately, and stories dating back to when Kevin worked at Quik Stop (long before the world saw it in Clerks). There were stories about Affleck and Jason Lee. Talk about sci-fi/action movies coming out next summer. And some long, spirited discussions about music, especially old school rap. Much of the talk (like debating the impact of Run DMC versus the Beastie Boys) could have easily fit into any Smith film.
By about 3:30 my stacks had dwindled, along with my alertness, and I knew I needed to head back to midtown to get some sleep before the long drive back. I chatted with Kevin for few before taking off, he signed my Joker, and I headed out. By noon, D and I were checked out of the hotel and enjoying a final slice of NY pizza and hitting the road. All together it was about 1500 miles and several expensive tanks of gas, but I’m already looking forward to the next time I can get out there.
