No post yesterday because I was in Las Vegas for my friend’s bachelor party. Believe it or not I haven’t had much of a chance to spend online. This morning I spent 2 hours people watching on the strip and here are a few things that I learned from that and the weekend as a whole:
- Good Times Follow Good Friends – It pays to have friends you love and who you care about. When you are around your good friends it doesn’t matter what you are doing you can have a good time.
- Flattery Will Get You Nowhere – If you tell me that I am handsome I will believe you because it’s true. If you tell me I am handsome because you want me to buy a lapdance I will think you are disingenuous and I will tell you to get away from me. That pisses me off and you will get nothing (which is what you were going to get anyway).
- Long Walks – Buildings in Las Vegas are tall and just because it looks like they are close doesn’t mean they actually are. After walking for an hour to get to a hotel “you can see” you learn that lesson real fast.
- Food Fight – Throwing pancakes in a hotel eatery may cause a family to move, but you can take champagne bottles with you anywhere. In front of cops and everyone.
- Wake Up – Sleep is a luxury not a necessity. Celebrating is more important than rest.
Better list will happen once I have had more rest. List 5 things you learned from a vacation.
July 21, 2008 at 10:59 am
1. Watch how much you pack. Definitely take everything out that you are trying to pack, cut it in half and then re-pack. I have learned again (hopefully) what I have learned on pretty much every long trip I take, that I pack way too much. It definitely hit me this trip when I was moving every 2-3 days with a huge suitcase, a duffel bag, a backpack and a purse. We definitely got fingers pointed at us for it and laughed at by a group of German girls who were like 15.
2. Talk to people/meet people. That’s how you’re going to have the best time is by meeting new people wherever you go and making memories with them.
3. Don’t go into something with expectations. If you have expectations, what you expect won’t happen so expect nothing and you’ll get everything!
4. Find either a good map or someone who knows their way around…it’ll help.
5. Learn to read transportation maps (subway/bus/trolley/ferry, etc). The systems work in most places and most of the time are worth the money (except at UA).
July 21, 2008 at 3:54 pm
1.) It’s always funner when nobody can reach you. You vacation to get away. It’s purely for relaxation and fun. Nobody wants to take their work or family problems on vacation with them. I love getting away and not having to listen to the BS from everyday life.
2.) The more time, the harder it is to come back. I know that from taking one PTO day. But when you’re off for a week or two, you just don’t want to get up and drag ass back to work the next day. It’s possibly the most mentally draining thing in the world.
3.) Road trips are fun! If I’m going to be gone for a long time, I like to be able to drive to where I’m going and see the sights. I do like the quickness of flying, but if there’s a lot between your start and destination then you’re missing out on a good experience.
4.) Save money! Vacations are a lot of fun, but when you go somewhere and just sit in your hotel room all day, you may feel as though you should have just stayed home. So if you save some money, you should be able to get out and do more while on your time off.
5.) Don’t take the dead weight… This is a lot like the first one. If somebody depresses you or is always bringing you down, then make sure they aren’t sharing a vacation with you. Because while you are trying to get away from work, 24 hours of depression from your friend of loved one is more draining than work. And actually your work is a get away from this depressing loved one…
July 22, 2008 at 8:14 am
1. Pack lightly, even if you have to trick yourself. I pack up the day before I’m going to leave, and then sleep on it. When I get up, I haul everything out of my bag and put about half of it back in my closet, bringing out a few other items I hadn’t realized I’d wanted to pack in my frenzy the day before.
2. Pick your traveling companion wisely. I love traveling with Jamie because we really complement each other’s traveling styles (as far as what we are interested in and what we want to see). We also run at about the same rate. It’s much nicer traveling with someone who gets hungry, gets tired, or gets going at about the same general times as you do!
3. Find a pair of comfortable, yet stylish, shoes! You want something you can dress up or down, but wouldn’t mind walking in for miles either… Don’t assume because you’re going to a city that there will be mass transportation. Because then you end up in Venice hauling suitcases over tiny bridges and canals. Since you might not want to waste time going back to your hotel to change during the day, find a pair of shoes that can walk the miles, yet still get you into a decent restaurant when you need to refuel.
4. Don’t try to cram too much “planned activity” into your trip schedule. Make sure you leave time to relax, and to wander. Sometimes the best parts of your trip are things you just stumbled into or turned the corner and found.
5. Take a camera, and don’t forget to use it! You want memories of what you saw, but also pictures with you and your traveling partner in them! Bonus points if your camera can accept plain batteries (go with lithium, they last longer) and doesn’t have a battery pack that needs to be charged… Power converters won’t always work and it sucks to lug around dead camera weight if you can’t recharge the battery. And if you’re digital – bring enough memory. I opt for more memory cards of smaller MB, so if something happens to one I don’t lose ALL of my trip pictures.
July 22, 2008 at 11:23 pm
1. Portable DVD players for kids – I was adamently opposed to this for our child. However, after spending 16 hours round trip with him in a car travelling on one trip this summer and we purchased one immediately upon returning home. It only makes an appearance on long trips but it is a necessity to keep your sanity. Our one trip since with it he essentially watched a movie about an hour and then slept the remaining three. It was well worth the money.
2. Satellite radio or CDs are a necessity – It never fails but each summer on our trip to southeast Georgia we have the opportunity to hear the same song 10-15 times each way. One year it was “Crazy in Love”. Another it was “Fergilicious”. Our most recent trip it was “Damaged” and “Bleeing Love”. Thankfully we had a first aid kit handy because after hearing “Damaged” for the 10th time I felt the need to shove my phone charger into my eye. Because if I’m going to be in that much pain, I at least want have some control over the situation.
3. Never stop at the Texaco in Shreveport just past the Stadium – One summer trip with a group of friends to Texas we were in need of gas and a break around Shreveport. It is usually our general rule not to stop in Louisianna. One , because I’m certain that Louisianna is the gateway to Hell an I just don’t want to take the chance of being out of my car when the state is engulfed in flames and swallowed into the belly of the beast. Two, it just freakin stinks and I assume the smell is worse out of the car than in. Unfortunately on this particular trip we did not have a choice. Due to poor planning we were out of gas and needed to stop. So we pull off of the highway just past the stadium where the Independence Bowl is played. Normally neighborhoods do not scare me but I must admit I was a little on edge here. I think this was mainly due to the fact that the nice gentleman greeting us as we exited the car and entered the Texaco had only one eye and did not bother to cover the eye-less socket that resided on his face. I’m not a big fan of wearing patches but this is a case where looking like a pirate would have been far more appropriate than walking around with a hole in your head.
But wait the story gets better. My friend (the creator of this blog) and I went inside to buy drinks and food. The clerk was housed behind a protective glass in an almost cage-like set up. As you may expect, she was not the most vibrant personality and was essentially mad that we entered the store and bothered her. We paid and due to the amount of food requested a bag. This is when our “Little Ms. Sunshine” directed us to the opposite corner of her cage and said, “Get them yourself”. I understand that she was limited by her cage but as I reflect on the story I find it hard not to believe that she was in her cage for a reason. I truly feel that she was there in order to protect the man with one eye. Because deep down in my heart I think it was that woman who physically removed his missing eye probably because he asked something trivial like, “Can I have my receipt?” or “Where’s the bathroom?”.
Thus, it is now a rule in my circle of acquaintances that you do not stop in Louisianna and under no circumstances should you ever stop in Shreveport. Unless you’re doing a study on traumatic eye loss.
4. Alcatraz is windy – In a wonderful get away to San Francisco my wife played the role of typical tourist and went to Alcatraz. After going through the actual prison we decided to head to the yard. Little did we know that the wind typically slams that side of the island and drops the temp about 15 degrees. I felt like Jim Cantore on site during a Hurricane for the Weather Channel. I was leaning forward at a good 45 degree angle and could not make it across the yard. It was a good one time experience but if you decide to ever take a trip to San Francisco just take a rain check on the Alcatraz tour. You can get everything you need to know from Clint Eastwood.
5. Don’t feed the animals or the homeless – I’m a very charitable person but I always seem to get stuck with the crazies. This goes for both animals and people. While on a trip to San Francisco I did both and basically all it led to was a bird riot at Pac Bell and being followed by a crazy lady. Trying to be a good person I was approached by a young lady requesting money to feed her and her children. Instead of giving money I did the next best thing. I bought her ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s. Who knew that Cherry Garcia was popular in the homeless circles? After buying ice cream she continued to follow us up and down the streets asking for money. I then offered to buy her more food which just made her even more irrate. Eventually my wife and I ducked into a store and stayed there until we watched her walk away. The whole time she was cursing us out loud and eventually threw away her ice cream. I guess the moral of the story is even the homeless hate fascist liberal ice cream too.
July 24, 2008 at 12:07 pm
1. No more family vacations. My sister and I do not travel well together and we have completely divergent interests that cannot be reconciled. The vacation is a guaranteed disaster.
2. No matter how carefully you pack, you will always forget one essential item. This is either packing for the trip or packing to go home. It never fails.
3. No matter how much starch you use, how carefully you iron your clothes, you’re going to be a wrinkled mess.
4. It’s usually the lazy, leisurely moments I remember or enjoy the most and not the manic, planned schedule.
5. Wear comfortable shoes. Period.
July 25, 2008 at 4:50 pm
1. If there are jellyfish on the beach, there are probably jellyfish in the water.
2. When you’re “Up North,” you really DO have to ask for *iced* tea; they weren’t kidding about that.
3. Women from Brooklyn are probably the scariest women in the continental United States. Especially when the Yankees are losing. Don’t cross them or you may get an acrylic nail in your eye.
4. Just because I… I mean, “you’re traveling companion” is in her 20s, it doesn’t mean she travels like a adult. You still have to provide entertainment and snacks for long car trips if she can’t do the driving. And just because she’s a woman does not mean she’s a bad driver.
5. Cracker Barrel and Subway are the two best places to stop on long trips. Cracker Barrel has always smells like potporri, serves pancakes all day long, and lets you trade out books on tape like at the library. Subway has cheap sandwiches. If you order a footlong and only eat half, that other half comes in really handy when you stop for the night at a motel and the vending machine eats your dollar bills.