A Cheese-Head's Vacation...Continued

The following day, we went to the National Railroad Museum, one of the oldest and largest museums that deal with preserving and keeping this part of the history of the locomotive days. I can’t tell you how impressed we were by this museum. We thought that it was one of those places that you lose your money because it is crap. But I tell you, this ain’t that kinda place! It is filled with history, nice anecdote; the guide was extremely knowledgeable and had nice snippets of history that made the day so much fun. If you go, don’t forget to hop on the little train that goes around the area of the museum. It is really big the area of the museum. And as you go along, you can see trains from all size and shapes. One of the impressive trains is the one called “Dwight” for it was the train used by Dwight Eisenhower during WWII where he talked about the plans for D-Day. Another one that really caught our attention was the Union Pacific Big Boy that is the biggest train in the world! We had a blast seeing pieces of history and stories that has been recollected over the years by various people that worked with those machines.

At night, we went to this awesome place that its building dates back to the late 1890s. There was a person that told us that before this building was use as headquarters for the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, and in the mid 1990s was turned into a Brewery. Today the Brewery continues but they added a Restaurant that has amazing food and a great variety of Beers. It’s called Titletown Brewing Company, and they had a sign that told us that this year they won the gold medal for the Great American Beer Festival Competition, which is the greatest beer competition in the US. We tasted their “Boathouse Pilsner” with Brewer’s Burger. You pick the toppings, I personally got it with mushrooms, bacon and Blue Cheese Crumbs, but Juan (who is Chicano) got the Jalapeño, grilled onions, pepper jack cheese, and before he took a bite he added “a little bit” (ok, it was dripping) of Tabasco Sauce! All I can say is that the group stare at him open mouth cause the guy didn’t flinch not even a bit, he was with his usual big smile and wince at us, what a trooper!

This place is awesome. Not only filled with Football memorabilia, but with incredible history and super duper restaurants served by amazing people that made the time so much fun and great! Made some friends in the process and can’t wait for the Super Bowl party that is definitely going to be incredible! Our Cheese Head Hat will go out to all Green Bay locals, and Go Badgers!

 

Zion National Park

We decided to make a trip to Utah to visit Zion National Park, one o the parks that has been on the top of our list for awhile. Now it has always been part of our vacation tradition to rent a vehicle so when we landed in Utah International Airport we instantly rented a vehicle from Budget right in the terminal. They had a Prius available so we took it, we aren't very picky.

We headed for our cabin... yes a cabin that we decided to stay in while we were there. It is just a short distance from the park and this time of the year with all the snow it seemed like a fun idea. The best part was that it was loaded with logs and had a stone fireplace, so we had a warm fire the entire time we were there.

The next morning we headed for Zion to see the canyons and monoliths. We had done a lot of research into finding key places we could access the valleys and get great pictures from up high, so we spent several hours driving from place to place. I cant even begin to tell you how beautiful the views were. I mean just gorgeous views where you could see nothing but miles and miles and miles of bright green forest with a light dusting of snow.

We actually went into the valley for a little while. Because it is so long and narrow the wind this time of year was freezing and strong, but at the end of the day we didn't mind. Zion Canyon is huge, but surprisingly it is one of the smallest parks in the U.S.

We don't usually go back to these parks but I don't know if I can help myself with this one. If we ever end up in the state of Utah again I will be here in a heartbeat!

A Cheese-Head's Vacation

I live in Miami. It is sunny and warm. Right now, it has some cold days around 40s or 30s. You’ll probably laugh with me about that weather, specially since I come from Green Bay, thus when my team comes to visit the Dolphins or the Buccaneers then I wear my golden and green n. 12 Jersey with my Cheese Head helmet!

So, I went to visit my childhood place, and other attractions that Green Bay Wisconsin has. As soon as my friends and I got off from the plane, everyone at the airport was wearing their appropriate dress code, but with some Green Bay colors. However, we saw too, few people with the colors of the Badgers, which is the name of the University of Wisconsin team which is playing this New Year at the Rose Bowl (n. 3 vs. n. 4, can’t wait!).

We got our car this time from Hertz, and it wasn’t a bad price cuz it came up to $72.44 per each 5 of us. We went to the hotel, left our things and went to this nice Restaurant called Cat & Jim’s Art and Soul Café. I tell you, is like bringing the flavors of the Florida South to the northern freezing tundra! If you go there, don’t forget to ask for the Ribs, oh boy! That sauce is a killer, definitely a keeper!

Next morning we woke up and went straight to the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame Museum. It was absolutely awesome. We are football fans, and went to Canton for the Football Hall of Fame. To be honest, nothing compares to this one. They have lots of history. We even saw the rings that Bart Starr won in Super Bowl I and II, which we were like in awe cause they looked absolutely beautiful man! They were interactive touch-screens were you can check out stats, bio and other information from the players. Another thing that got us all like giddy was the replica of Coach Lombardi’s office. That man truly was a visionary and a workaholic, but still the best Coach in the history of the sport and I am glad that the Super Bowl trophy has his name! And they had in three cases the Super Bowl Trophies that the team has won. We laughed so much at a section of the field with some natural life-like statues of players in their position for the offensive team. all in all, we had so much fun and an unforgettable time with the greatest of the sports!

Culinary Connectors

So we found ourselves in Denver this week on our way home from another one of our great adventures to a National park. We ended up hearing about this Culinary Connectors thing from a website and figured we would give it a try, since it would only be about thirty minutes out of the way. So as we were heading for home we called and made reservations.

Culinary Connectors is hard to explain, so I think you will understand as I explain the story. We pulled off the highway and into Denver, went to the designated meeting spot and met up with two other families. Our tour guide was waiting on the side walk and asked if we were ready to start.

Now we started off walking towards the first gourmet restaurant when he started explaining exactly what we were about to do. They had worked out deals with restaurants in town to allow us to stop in and get appetizers of all their biggest meals on the menu. That means we get to try a little bit of everything before moving on to the next restaurant.

You wouldn't believe some of the dishes we had, the whole thing was just fantastic! If your a fan of food and you want to see what Denver has to offer I don't think there is a better way! We sampled twelve different restaurants before we called it a night.

From sea-food to fast-food they had it all, it was really enjoyable and we think we will visit some of the places again if we ever revisit Denver.

Windy City Road Trip Continued

The next place we went was the Willis Tower, that before was commonly known as the Sears Tower. It is the tallest building in the US and 6th in the world! It has an observatory, where you can see the entire Chicago landscape that is located in the 103rd floor. They have in there a section that is called “The Ledge”, which are 4 balconies that are totally made by glass. It is awesome and there are lots of signs that tells you “Dare to stand out!” We made the lines and waited for our turn and got in. we all had our cameras, but we asked one of their photographers to take one picture with each of our cameras and one with his. We all got in the floor of the ledge, and let me tell you, that is really one way to look down, Maggie and Roger were freaking out, thinking that the thing was going to fall, we all were joking and couldn’t contain the laughter.

After this, we saw that the sun was still up, but it was getting close to 4pm, so we went to the Millennium Park, following the suggestion of the guy in Lucky’s. It is a park, not entirely like central park in NY, but it has many interactive things, plus, areas where many artist put their work in there. One that truly is spectacular is the Cloud Gate, which looks like if it was a humongous liquid mercury drop. However, it is made up of stainless steel plates, it is jokingly called by the locals “The Bean”, and it sure looks like one!

After this, we saw that the sun was getting down, so we decided to bring the end of today to the marvelous and old Navy Pier. It is a whole boardwalk-type of area, that feels as if you’ve gone to Atlantic city. It has a huge Ferris wheel, that allows you to see another view of the Willis Tower. It has that 1930s feel to it, but also a little bit of the new feel to it. At the end of the pier, there’s a lighthouse, which you can take pictures and also they have a boat’s anchor.

I tell you, Chicago is an awesome city. We had soo much fun, and one good thing is that the places to visit are all so close to one another and that makes it easy to access. The windy city is indeed windy, but it’s people are so warm and friendly, which makes it for a great vacation!

Windy City Road Trip

My friends and I met in college, and one the classes where we met for the first time was an optional class on architectural design. In that class, we learned about different designs on buildings, either the newer ones or the old ones. Our luck brought us together, cause the professor in that class put us together for one paper that we needed to submit. And the rest, as the story goes, is history! It was our yearly schedule vacation, and it was sort of our anniversary also since the first time we met. Roger, “Bam Bam” (as we call Jimmy), Susan, Maggie, Alejandra (Miss Hotness!), and I decided that a nice way to celebrate it will be to go to one our professors favorite town, Chicago. The professor in each session talked about Chicago with fondness for its history and architecture, so we wanted to visit the city.

We figured that the best way was to get thru O’Hare International Airport, which is the second busiest airport in the world! I tell you how impress we were, even though we saw tons of airplanes, we got out pretty fast. Right from the bat, we were in awe cause we thought we were going to spend the whole day just to get out from the airport!

We went to Thrifty this time around cause they had an awesome price. A nice SUV for a nice price, which for the spring break was not bad at all!

We settle everything in our room and decided to try the best Pizza on town, Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria. It was recommended by the bellboy and the check-in staff girl. All I have to say is that we all loved the pizza, their deep-dish has slices of mozzarella in the dough which makes it yummy. They have their secret recipe sauce, which feels homemade, and the people were catering to us in a nice, friendly, part-of-the-family type of service. We’ll definitely give it two thumbs up! (still, we all say that NY pizza is THE best! But since we’re in Chicago, we cant say that, jejejeej).

The next morning, we went with our SUV and went to one of the oldest places in town, the Wrigley Field. It is home to the Chicago Cubs, one of the oldest teams in baseball. Bam-Bam is such a nutcase Yankee’s fanatic, he loves baseball! He told us that this is the place where Babe Ruth call the home run and pointed to the stand where the ball would drop, and it happened the way the ‘babe’ predicted! We went thru the tour and we had fun, the guide knew every little tidbit of information and make it a riot with every tall-tell. We came in a good day, cause he said that one of the traditions was the waiving of the flag with the ‘W’ for games won. We were a little bit hungry; Susan and Alejandra saw in the “Man vs Food” program this place with the ‘overstuff sandwich’ and the guide told us immediately that it was in “Lucky’s” right there by the park. So we all went along wrigleyville (as locals called the area around the park). To my surprise, it was run by a chicano, so i immediately talked to him in Spanish and it was a nice chitchat about the beauty of Chicago and other tips for things to see. We all got the super huge Overstuff, and let me tell you, you have to try it, it is that good!

San Francisco: My Heart is still Lost

We got into the end of the stop which was California Street and then walked toward Grant Avenue, that is the starting of the famous Chinatown. We immediately saw that all around here had Chinese names and in very little letters you get their translation. We all thought this place was amazingly cool, and they had some kinda parade, we didn’t know what it was until Michelle saw the signs of the New Year Parade. We didn’t mingle cause it was a lot of people, but we stop to see the big humongous dragon that lead the parade, it was better than in the movies, I tell you!

We hop into the cable car and head to our SUV. Before, though, we wanted to see the Letterman Digital Arts Center which is the headquarters of ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) the awesome company where all special effects (from Star Wars films to the Harry Potter films and other super cool movies) are done! Outside they have a public fountain that is on the form of non-other than Yoda! And inside, we were fortunate to get into the lobby and saw all sort of real memorabilia and posters and original art from the Star Wars movie! Since we all are Star Wars fan, you can bet that we all were like a kid in a candy store!

We got our car and headed toward the famous and one of the most beautiful bridges I’ve ever seen, The Golden Bridge! It is amazing, to say the least. Definitely, you can fall in love with this marvelous bridge, not only it is loved by pedestrians and bike-riders, but also by people who wanna commit suicide (it is one of the top places), but there’s lots of phones and signs to deter people from doing that! We went from end-to-end and then return back and head to Pier 33.

Once there, we took the ferry to Alcatraz island! The girls were like messing with us that if we misbehave we’ll be stuck in there. It was awesome and fill with lots of history. They took us to the Al Capone cell. Also, they put us in a group and then the guides put us in different cells and close the door, so we can feel how it would have been staying in the cells. It was fun and people started making jokes, it was a total riot! The guides show us places where you can spot American Indian graffiti that was from the Indian occupation. One of the nicest areas that the girls really weren’t expecting was the gardens, which were fill with different species of flowers and other vegetation that was done by military wives during the time where Alcatraz was a military base and from inmates. It was totally cool and at the end, we couldn’t stop ourselves and bought the “I escape Alcatraz” T-Shirt!

San Francisco really did got into our hearts and we cant wait until we can come here again, it was a perfect vacation, and the food and the places to visit were many and varied. All that had one thing in common, definitely we had sooo much FUN!

I left my heart in San Francisco

My friends and I decided to take a vacation to the west side. We took a flight to San Francisco (CA) international airport (aka SFO). Once we arrive, we went directly to the Dollar rent-a-car desk and pick up our SUV. As usual, I did the reservation in their website, which is a nifty little tool and extremely user friendly. Plus, the offer I took was wonderful, only $94 per the 5 of us (total $470).

We arrange everything to start tomorrow, since we wanted to rest because of the jetlag, and also to get used to the time zone!

In the morning we woke up and took an awesome breakfast! With that energy we were ready to have fun here in this marvelous city!

The first stop was the San Francisco Bay Aquarium. One thing that is awesome here is that during the winter time there’s a lot of Sea Lions in the rocks nearby ‘K’ Dock. We overheard some people that were saying that you can view them awesomely great by pier 41, and let me tell you, we took excellent pictures and it was a spectacular view! Then we head to the entrance of the aquarium and visited the different exhibits. One in particular that we all liked was the “Under the Bay” exhibition, that is a recreation of the San Francisco Bay that is 300-feet long with tunnels that shows sea creatures and thousands of other aquatic animals in their natural habitat, the whole tank is 707,000 gallons of bay water! We were so thrill with the animals that we interacted and touched in the “Touch the Bay” exhibit. All in all, it was an awesome pick from the girls.

After this we took the SUV and drove to the Ghirardelli Chocolate Soda & Café. It was windy and also cold in winter, so the girls wanted to get something hot, but something “chocolaty”. We bought few of their excellent milk chocolate, and some dark chocolate (cause the girls wanted to taste their other varieties of chocolate). My and Rachel have hot cocoa, Michelle and Mike (you can bet we call them M&M!) had cappuccinos, and Simon had Frappuccino. We sit outside and the excellent view was simply amazing. We were talking and having fun and getting ready for our next stop.

Since we were close to the area, we left the car in the parking garage, and then took the cable car! I tell you, if you come to Sanfran and don’t take the cable car, it will be like if you haven’t been here at all! We took the Powell-Hyde line (which is one of three lines). We got into the car and one thing that we discover is that people didn’t ring the bell (which is for the use of the driver only), but shouted “Next stop, Please”. It was terrific to be in the car and to our surprise, it went pretty fast. One section that had us with our cameras was when we reach the Lombard Street section cause it is the crookedest in SanFran. It is a street that has 8-tight hairpin turns, and it looks like a zigzag-y type of street, awesome to look at but I wouldn’t be caught in traffic in that street!

Alaska...continued

We drove north toward Fairbanks, but stopped a little in the way there in a town named Colorado and veered toward Mt. McKinley, which has an amazing bar. There we walked a little and saw the river and the highest mountain in the U.S. its name is taken from one gold prospector that was giving political support to then presidential candidate William McKinley of Ohio. However, the locals wanna keep the real name which is Denali, in their tongue means “the high one”. Personally, we all liked the Alaskan name cause it sounds cooler! Finally, we reach Fairbanks and stayed the night there. We went to see the statue in memorial to the first settlers of Alaska.

After that we took the road back to Anchorage, specially in Lake Hood, and travel to Nome thru one of those Bush Seaplane. It was awesome to be traveling this way, we’ve never done it. It was funny that we had to go thru a port like terminal and there were lots of seaplanes, and I had the super chance to be in the cockpit with the pilot. We were talking and he said that this is a regular way that Alaskans travel. We arrive to Nome, and then we head to the cabin we were staying.

The next morning we woke up and head to the finished line for the Iditarod Sled Dog race. We waited and waited. It was getting a little dark, here in winter time the night sets so faster than in the “southern” states (or northern if you are in Florida!) Then, suddenly, one kid scream “They are coming!”, and it was awesome to see those dogs pulling their last drop of energy and stirring the sled toward the finish line. Once the first racer gets there, everyone, including us, started to scream in joy and congrats were flying right to left! The dogs were like exhausted, and they get their official reward, the golden harness; mushers (which is how they call the drivers) get their awards as well, not only a winning purse (that is base on their finishing position), but also they have nice awards as well: the rookie of the year, and a special one which is called the Red Lantern that is awarded for perseverance to the last musher to cross the finishing. The winner of this race was Lance Mackey, and what a joy cause his dad and brother won the race, which was totally awesome!

We returned to Orlando with so many memories and pictures. We were totally impressed with the Alaskan locals, they were extremely friendly and welcoming. This land indeed has so many more things to see, and the sceneries are spectacular. I can’t wait to come back again with my friends, we heard that in the western side and the cruises are terrific adventures too! Indeed, Alaska is the last frontier!

Alaska...the Last Frontier

As you probably notice, my friends and I love nature. Everything that combines traveling, vacation and pure natural environments will get us crazy! So in our regular time, we decided that we heard a lot about Alaska to make us getting a trip there.

As usual, we inquired to the visitor’s bureau for information and destinations. We found good prices during the winter time, I guess everyone wants to get out of the darn winter and head to the warmer states. We went to our favorite car rental place, Thrifty. We found an excellent price (for Alaska that is!) that will be around $132 per person, and that is driving a SUV!

We made our arrangements, and we went from Orlando Florida, stopping in Seattle (WA), to Anchorage (AK). We figured out that the best that we could do is to leave the first day off, cause Alaska has its own time zone, (if in Orlando is 5pm in Anchorage is 1pm!).

After a nice sleeping time and renewing our energies from the jetlag, we took our SUV and got a super nice breakfast. We went to the start of THE race. When you are in Alaska and you say “THE race” you are talking about the Iditarod Sled Dog’s race, one of the major events in Alaska! We went to Willow, which is the place where they begin, and their travel sets them up north to Nome. It is a 1049 mile race, in frigid weather bellow zero, and during the race the temperature reaches to -100F, definitely I love Florida right now! The girls were all lovey dopey with the dogs, specially this one with clear-blue-skies type of eyes that was called Marc Anthony and it was funny that the “musher” (as they called the drivers) had another dog called Cleo. Some of the dogs were waiting and had this little boot type of socks to keep their paws warm. It was awesome to see them in their attire and sliding their couch to the place where the race will start. And we were exceptionally amazed by how they keep their company ready for the start of the race. When the gun blasted, it was like totally crazy, those dogs really go fast, and you can see them in the distance pulling the sled. We saw a post that read the record, which was almost 8 days and 22 minutes, which we’ll be there!

Kobuk Valley National Park

It has been awhile since we have been to Alaska, almost a full year. Normally people wouldn’t see that as being a long time, but since I retired we have spend the last ten years of our lives becoming expert travelers and spending most of our time and money going from place to place. Most of the time we stay in the U.S. because it’s easier and there is a lot to see here when you really look. About a year ago we made plans to visit all the National Parks in the U.S. that looked interesting. Over this last year we have visited most of them, and we are narrowing down on the list of available parks to visit.

We decided to head to Kobuk Valley National Park, located in north Alaska. Finding a hotel or place to stay in Alaska is usually easy, but this far up north in the Northwest Arctic Borough it wasn’t so easy. When we finally found a place to stay we made plans to fly in. Now it is our tradition to rent a vehicle every trip, we always enjoy choosing and driving around in brand new cars. But this time of year up in Alaska we wouldn’t be able to drive without local help, so for the first time in nearly a hundred trips we did without a rental car.

When we landed in Fairbanks we were driven to our lodge in the bitter cold. The roads were completely iced over so it was slow going, but we asked if they could take us to Kobuk Valley in the morning and they simply said “Well see what the roads look like.” Early in the morning they showed up and said we could go and the whether was good for the park this time of year.

When we got there we were told that we were visiting the best part of the park. The guides walked with us for almost fifteen miles up the hills till we hit some of the most spectacular views. The park is roughly the size of Delaware, so there wasn’t a chance in the world we would get to see the whole thing. They said most people take flights over the park, but we were thoroughly enjoying walking along the streams and cresting the high rolling hills.

If we ever return to Kobuk Valley we will be sure to take a flight. If you do visit be sure to pick a better time of the year where it is easier to get around and you don’t freeze after stepping out of the car.

Our Lovely Capital - Continued

After this, we drove to the most recognized street in the U.S., Pennsylvania Avenue. Immediately, we saw the amazing garden. I tell you, if that was my house, I don’t wanna pass the lawnmower there, it will take me the whole week! We walked around the fence by the sidewalk and took marvelous pictures of The White House. My sister was like waving her hand and saying “Hi Mr. Obama”, which cracked us laughing.

We went nearby to the Washington Monument. It is breathtaking. We walked inside and they have a bronze statue of Washington, took the elevator to the top observation area, and you could see DC and that was really spectacular!

Our next stop was one of the best Smithsonian museums, the National Air & Space Museum. We parked there and went straight and it is really impressive to walk and see all those exhibits. My brother-in-law and I were totally flabbergasted and open-mouth with the exhibits. Seeing the Wright Brother’s first airplane, then the Spirit of St. Louis that flew Charles Lindbergh, the X-15, Apollo 11. My dad is a major Trekkie, as the Star Trek fans are known, and they even had one of the production models from the movie. You could see how giddy he was. I totally got floored by the exhibition that held the Concord, imagining how awesome would have been to flight that in just minutes to the other side of the Atlantic! Plus the girls were walking toward the exhibit of the 747 cockpit. Us guys were in heaven with all those gadgets and airplanes and space suits.

We ate something and immediately were heading to our hotel, and as soon as we open the door, we totally crashed onto our beds. However, we had such a blast and couldn’t wait for the next day and what it had in store for us!

Our Lovely Capital - Part 1

We always as a family like to travel around the US. We think it is the best country to do a road trip. Not only it offers amazing natural beauty, but also there’s so much history and incredible sounds and sights. That is why as family we decided to go to our nation’s capital, Washington DC.

To say that there’s a lot to do is an understatement. In such little land, it’s cramped with so many buildings and so many monuments and museums to fill the other 50-states!

As usual, included in our plans were the airline tickets, the closest airport is the often-called National Airport (which is named after our 40th President, Ronald Reagan); also, we wanted to have our freedom, that’s why we rented a minivan. We thought that it will be more comfy for all six of us, my two sisters, brother-in-law, mom & dad. It came up pretty good with Dollar rent-a-car. We ended up paying $116.37 each.

The following day, we were ready to rumble! In our car, we went directly to the U.S. Supreme Court building, were major landmark events have make this one of the best countries to live! After that, we went to The Capitol, where our government writes the law that governs us, and the meeting place for congress. I tell you, one thing is to see it on TV when they show the building on the news reel, and another is to see it in person. This is a beautiful building! We parked our minivan and got inside to the visitor’s desk where they were waiting for a few more people and the tour went underway. The rooms inside were absolutely awesome, and the tour guy gave us a nice exposition. She seemed very knowledgeable and she had funny takes on the events, which added to the awesome presentation. We saw the old senate chamber, and one thing that struck out with the old chambers is how they painstakingly went to the original furniture builders and the great-grand sons or daughters of the original designers to put everything as it was in those years. Everything looked new and it wowed us! We took several pictures inside, however, the guards reminded us to make sure not to include them for security reasons.

Grey's Anatomy Adventure - Part Two

 After our trip to the aquarium, we took the road to Pike Place Fish Market, which is THE place to go in Seattle. We saw at the opening of MTV’s Real World Seattle, when they throw the fishes from inside the cubicles to the other side, where another man is waiting for the fish to package it for you! What a catch, I’ll tell you! It is one of the oldest markets in the U.S. and to our surprise they not only sell fish, but also fruit, veggies, comic books!, and many other things. We were walking and walking looking for the Starbucks that started it all up, but we couldn’t find it at first. Then after many questions, the people pointed to a building with a brownish logo and a full siren with two fins, even with the breasts covered by shells! And the girl that was attending us inside said that that was the original logo of the company. We all look at each other and saying no wonder why we couldn’t find it, cause we were looking for the green logo!

Our stomachs were giving a symphony, so we asked to the girl with the black “Coffee Master” apron to give us a tip to which is the best restaurant in the area. And she asked us what kinda food we wanted to eat. We went for the safest bet, which was Italian food. The girl send us to this section of the market that is called post alley, which is a very picturesque section of the pike place market. It is filled with restaurant along the way, and we saw the one she recommended us called The Pink Door. All I have to say is that when we saw the menu, our mouths were watering with the smell and we already looked ourselves eating their specialty, plus the prices were very accessible! We sit down in the cozy atmosphere that the restaurant has, and were immediately tended by our courteous waiter. One of my picks was the Penn Cove Mussels and Clams, which was fantastic and the aroma was to die for! Rosalie came from Italian parents, so she went to the Don & Joe’s Spicy Italian sausage.

After having dinner, we hop into the bus and drove to the Westlake terminal, and then we got into the Seattle Monorail, which is one of the fastest in the country. We follow the route to the last terminal, which will get us to the space needle and also to our car. And since we stop in the Space Needle, then we can do what the girls wanted to do for a long time…which is, you got that right!, the Space Orbiter Cake! The girls didn’t lose any time in ordering and once it was brought to our table they went like piranhas and munch the whole thing. If you asked how good it was, you only have to point to their fingers which were licked and licked and licked until they were no slight microscopic pieces of chocolate!

Their grin was so mischievous that I thought that the boys and I were getting the payback for making them suffer by waiting for the dessert. But how surprise we were when we all go the hugs and kisses that let us know that they were happy.

All I have to say is how please I was to have visited this amazing city. The sights, the sounds, and the beauty was everywhere. I will come again to Seattle. And what’s better, we find that the food and the entertainment can be found here as well. Cant wait for our next trip, we all have terrific fun!

Grey's Anatomy Adventure - Part One

One of the things our friends and I do every Thursday at 9pm is seat down and watch the awesome show Grey’s Anatomy on ABC. Each night, we rotate to which house we are going and watch bemused with each passing week the many adventures of the residents, interns and doctors of the fictional Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital.

We laugh, have a good time, eat, drinking wine or beer (depending on the mood), the girls cry with the broke ups and other bittersweet announcements, they sigh with each romantic gesture; the boys and I watch each cute and other hotties that are doctors and resident nurses that passes by and tell the girls “I am having a pain here ms nurse!”, with the girls rolling their eyes and or telling us some other silly phrases!

So one day, we decided that since we love that show so much that we wanted to visit the city where everything takes place, Seattle. We got our airplane tickets, we made the reservation for the hotel and we got into a nice car by Dollar with an amazing price. We paid about 314.00 that between the five of us each paid $63.00! The time came and we were ready to go to this amazing trip. Excited and all, we got into the airplane and flew about 3 hours and 25 minutes!

We familiarize with the city; therefore, we left out the first day of arrival to get used to the time difference from the jet-lag. In the front desk, we saw that they have the CityPass which includes passes to all the majority of the places we wanted to visit and much more, and we thought that the price was very good! We ate something small, and then hit the bed.

We woke up and started the sightseeing of this amazing city. So, we thought that the best way was to have an awesome view of the entire city, and what better place to start than the Space Needle! This was the place where Jessica Alba was sitting at the end of several episodes of that TV series she was in that was produced by James Cameron, Dark Angel. At 520-feet high it’s the observatory, which will give you a perfect opportunity to see this beautiful city. But first we brought our tickets at the SpaceBase store, which also acts as the gift shop for the needle. Then we head to the elevator, which always runs at 10-mph unless there’s win, which we heard that they drop the speed to 5-mph! we made a quick stop in the SkyCity Restaurant, and there was this waiter that told us immediately not to forget trying the Lunar Orbiter dessert! You can see the girls beaming with their “Do not forget” look. Then we head to the O-Deck which is the observatory, and I have to say is the highlight of the needle. You can see the entire city from here! One of the things that the guys and I thought was so super cool was the SkyQ, which is an interactive touch screens around the observatory. And one of the tools can make you see a portion of the city and sort of roll it, as if you are rolling the wheels on your ipod to surf the music, but in this case when you roll it, the scenery changes from all hours of the day, from early morning to late night, which we thought was totally awesome! We didn’t forget to buy some souvenirs, I got the wire space needle statue, and the girls got either a pen or a t-shirt, plus the guys got the construction mug.

After this, we went to the Seattle Aquarium, cause the girls saw in their site that they have a terrific show. So we went there, and it is a great place. It was built in the site of one of the historical docks, dock 59. one the exhibits we thought was cool was the “window on Washington waters” that feels like someone reproduce an underwater look of the Neah Bay, a diver goes inside and swim, and you can hear him too! Very interactive and we all took pictures with the diver, he was pretty amazing. Another super cool thing is the underwater dome. It looks as if they have created the cockpit of the Star Trek USS Enterprise! But instead of seeing stars, you’ll see a bank of Salmon, Cod, Sturgeon, and Shark. It is huge cause it is a 400,000 gallon tank in a 360 view, it is the largest of their exhibits! We almost forgot, but Greg kinda saw the “Marine Mammals” exhibit entrance, and boy what an experience! We saw Lootas that is one of the otters that lives in the exhibit, and what a funny gal she is!

Boston Party - Part 2

Driving from Merchants Row toward Washington St there’s the Old Corner bookstore, which gets its name for its impressive location, exactly in a corner street! This building was made in 1711 and originally was an apothecary, but later was home to Ticknor and Fields that was an important publishing company in the 19th century. The site has a long history, cause it was house to Anne Hutchinson who was expelled from the state in 1638 for heresy. We drove a little more to the State House and found the statue of Anne Hutchinson. Boy times really change perceptions! In the last line of the statue reads “courageous exponent of civil liberty and religious toleration“

We went on with our car and Alejandra, like me, likes to read. One her favorite authors is Louisa May Alcott, whom perhaps you recognized as the author of the book “Little Women”, and she was a resident of the Louisburg square in Boston. This is a very affluent part of the town, and not only does it look beautiful the townhouses, but also the streets are cobblestone, which add to the picturesque feel to the area. When finally we stopped in Louisa May Alcotts’ house, you can see Alejandra’s smile, she didn’t notice, but I took a picture of her, priceless!

Nearby is the Boston public garden, and we couldn’t miss the chance to take a picture of one of the nicest and most tender looks is the statue of the Ducks in the Public Garden and its base on a famous children books, which is the official children book in the state. Christie and Simon pose together and the guys all pushed Alejandra and me to do the same, and we both went red, which got them to laugh really hard!

We were extremely hungry, doing lots of driving and picture taking, and looking at the sights of this amazing city. That we went along the Charles River when we saw the billboard for Cheers in Boston. We all say “where everybody knows your name…” and made the sound of the funniest sitcom since Friends. We were extremely close, we stop the car in a parking lot near Beacon Street, and then walked to the place. Even tho it doesn’t look exactly as the sitcom, they have a board with all the actors, and some empty spaces that people uses to take pictures. We all got guiness ales and also ordered the ultra amazingly humongalitious “the Norm Burger”. Its funny that all the names refers to the series. Of course, we bought the souvenir Dimple Mug, which was an awesome looking crystal Mug, recommended to anyone that goes to Boston not to miss Cheers, well is call Bull and Finch but everyone called it Cheers!

What is a visit to Boston without going to Fenway park? Go Sox is what you’ll hear there. Sox Nation is alive and kicking all cylinders, specially when the Yankees are visiting. Going to Fenway Park where a lot of historic games have happen, and sport history was made, it is in itself sucha incredible feeling. So we stop in the store, and brought some hats and other apparels that has the Red Sox’s logo, and also some souvenirs to all the friends. And we went to Bleacher Bar which is, you got it!, a bar that is exactly inside the Green Monster! And we all got very giddy, chanting “Yankees sux!” and the whole people in there were such a hoot!

All in all, it was a beautiful and incredible day visiting Boston, and what everyone notice was how comfy we all were with our car, and to have an awesome great price was the cherry on top!

Boston Party Part 1

I was awesomely excited to touchdown land. As soon as our airplane landed, we were awesomely excited to get underway with our vacation. It’s been a long time since I been to Boston. You see, before getting to Orlando Florida, I used to live in Beantown as is commonly known in this area. Christie, Simon, Ms Hotness Alejandra and I, rented out a Dodge Charger before hand and found a really great discount with Thrifty Car Rental at $313.38 for the 4 of us, it came about $78.35, which for the holidays is not bad at all!

So finally we got into our car, which to our surprise was very incredibly comfy, plus our luggages fit nicely. Of course, Simon and I helped the ladies get with the bags. Funny to see them carrying their Coach and Louie bags and us boys were carrying the real deal! We got into the hotel and ask something for room service, and went to bed early.

The next morning, we all woke up with high energy. We were ready to tackle the city. And boy! What a city it is! This is the most history filled city in the U.S. Everything here breaths history, and also is one of the oldest cities in the U.S. as well.

The girls wanted to see THE place of higher learning. There’s no other place like Hardvard college, and one of the sections that is really incredibly transited with lots to see is Harvard Square, where shops and eatery and other stores can be found. We didn’t know this, but I guess we couldn’t pick a better time, even if we planned it. The reason being was that they were celebrating the 100th year anniversary to this area! There’s so much history, and the girls couldn’t say enough about how their favorite authors (like E.E. Cummings, T.S. Elliott, to name a few). However, I was telling them that this is the place for my favorite movie “Good Will Hunting”, and “The Paper Chase” which both were filmed in the area! We then got into the famous store and one of the oldest, The Harvard Coop (established in 1882!). The girls brought some shirts and sweaters, and Simon and I got the “Harvard vs Yale” commemorative hat, cause we’re College Football fans and this is one of the oldest and most competitive rivalries in and outside the classroom!

We then drove from Massachusetts avenue crossing the famous Charles River and then finding the Red Auerbach Way (named after a Celtics coach that won 9 titles), which let us know that we were close to the TD Garden home to the NBA’s Boston Celtics and the NHL’s Boston Bruins. The Celtics are the winningest Basketball team in the NBA, that featured player like Bird, Russell KG, Pierce, Rondo, and Ray Allen. And, the Boston Bruins that plays ice hockey and has won several Stanley Cups. We went to the store and got some scarf to the ladies and some hats for us boys.

Then we headed to our next stop, Faneuil hall. you’ll find it by driving passed Logan Airport and toward government center. This is a marketplace and a meeting hall since 1742, so there’s a lot of history in it. We all went to the west side of the building and pose in the Samuel Adams statue. One of the awesome buildings that they have in the marketplace is the Quincy Market that was built in 1824, once you get inside you’ll find a long array of little shops where you’ll enjoy a great variety of food, from Indian to irish to Italian to Spanish (that also shows you the diversity that is the city of Boston), you’ll be licking your fingers with the taste of the food in here!

Back to the Great Smoky Mountains

Some friends of ours recently suffered a loss in the family, and they were feeling really down, so we decided to head up to North Carolina and offer them our condolences. My wife was really close to them and it meant a lot to them having her around. In the process of going up there we were invited to stay an entire week for the funeral, we kind of expected this invitation so we stayed. Most of our week was spent with the family, we helped in any we could, but after all was said and done we ended up talking about or previous visit to the area.

Last time we came here we visit the Great Smoky Mountains national park, when we told them about it they asked if we were sure it was the right place. Turns out there are two entrances to the park, one that leads you straight up the mountain and another that puts you half way up the mountain already. Now last time we were here we got about a quarter of the way up the mountain before we got to tired and headed back down before the sun dropped. So we decided since we were in the area that we would visit again, this time using the instructions of our friends to go higher up the mountain.

Turns out they wanted to go with us as well, so when we parked the car we could tell right off the bat that we were near the top of one of the mountains. The name suddenly made sense, because just around the corner of the bend we looked up and saw a cloud not twenty feet above us. The further we walked the closer we came to the cloud, and eventually we were in it.

The view from the top of the Great Smoky Mountain’s is incredible; the pine covered mountains are just gorgeous. My wife took a million pictures which makes her collective pictures from all our vacations top somewhere in the zillions; that must have been the best present I could have gotten her. Anyway, if you head up to the Great Smoky Mountains be sure to take the Alum Cave Bluffs trail, it’s the best one.

Yellow Stone Park - Part 2

Definitely one beautiful area is the Old Faithful geyser. This not only comprises of the geyser, but also an Inn that is part of the Historical District. Exactly we got there an hour after leaving the entrance to the park, about 9am. We waited patiently, and then suddenly we got a little wondering what happen to the “erupts on the hour every hour”, when we finally saw the sign that read that it was one of the major misconception. However, we heard the rumblings of the land, and then there was this flushing of water being spit into the air. It was 9:19am, and for almost 2-minutes the water still was rushing out of the hole. It was incredible and the most impressive was that the water formed a little cloud at the end. It was like seeing a waterfall to the inverse. We took pictures of Old Faithful as we were standing in the benches that were around the geyser. One thing that capture my attention was that even with the little distance between us and the geyser, you can still can feel the warm water in your face, so I imagined how it would be standing right at the hole, it must be really incredibly hot! On the way to the geyser, we read that there was also a waterfall nearby. So we look for it. It was called Kepler Cascades, which are like a postcard ready picture kinda waterfall. As you go thru the mountain trail, there’s a parking area and if you walk a little you’ll reach the overlooking tram. We all were staring at the magnificent look of nature and how beautiful it is, but also it kind of remind you how we all have to do our part to conserve such a beautiful landscape for the posterity!

We were all glad that we got a SUV, cause the distances tend to be a little farther inside the park. Glad that we knew this and also when we were at the entrance we asked for different places where we can do barbecue. We got our carbons and our meat, plus the girls prepared pinchos with sprouts, and cauliflower and avocado salad that kept everything healthy. We listened to the advise of the friends at that party and everything we had it double wrapping so the animals wont smell the food. We saw several people, including this Florida family that was super funny cause some of their kids were wearing their Gators T-shirt and others were wearing their ‘Noles T-shirt, plus our Simon was wearing his Golden Knights shirt, and we all laugh so hard that we had to take a picture cause it looked pretty darn funny!

We finished eating and we got under way to the “Lower Falls”, which is an amazing sight. Within the canyon there was this waterfall, which in the sign read as the highest fall in the park. It rises 308-feet, and it was funny cause the cartographers put it as “Lower” but the everyday people called it “Great” Fall. And let me tell you, if you want a spot where you wanna put it a big frame, this is the place! Definitely you have to take a picture, cause the place is worth the price of admission alone!

But the one that really capture our attention was the Gran Prismatic Spring, which is a big pool with geothermal water. However, the thing that sets this one from all other are the vivid colors. It feels as if it was a blue or sapphire color sun with the huge flames with vivid yellow, oranges and reds. Once you are there you’ll be stunned with the colors and also for the sheer size of the whole spring. We parked our car and then we walk all the way, thru a large wooded bridge that gets closer to the actual pool. We took pictures of this one too. It was breathtaking, to say the least!

All in all, I think we have to eat our words cause our friend was really seriously and incredibly right! This is a beautiful place where you can feel that every scenery and every waterfall or geyser, even the wildlife is all made as a humongous postcard. It is an enchanting place that reminded us that this country has to offer lots of interesting places to be. And somehow, let us feel for a little bit of time as if we were Lewis and Clark exploring this part of the world!

Yellow Stone Park - Part 1

My friends and I went to this party and the host was like non-stop talking about his trip to Montana and Wyoming and how fun it was, that surely was a little over board. However, after a few days, we all decided to take on his word and decided to go to the often talked about Yellowstone National Park.

The first thing we did was searching for travelling air fair to Billings Logan Airport in Montana. And then since its going to be a drive, we went on to rent a car. We found this amazing price for a SUV of $495.35, which divided into the 6 of us, came to $71.56 per person, which is totally not bad at all!

Originally, it said that it was going to be a Ford Escape, but somehow they run out of them, so the agent at Dollar Rent-a-car was so amazingly nice to lend us a XTerra, and what a drive! The drive to the cabins at West Yellowstone (which don’t confuse it with the actual park) was totally like riding on silk, was smooth and didn’t feel like a ride at all, felt more like going in the air, that’s how good it was!

We kind of left that day off, so we can buy some groceries, and also, to enjoy the time around town. The next day we woke up early in the morning with lots of energy with the purpose to visit one the major national parks in the U.S., Yellowstone National Park.

We drove to the West entrance that was really nearby to the cabin. One thing out of the bat that surely stunned us was the magnitude of the park. Jessie read that it was larger than the Rhode Island and Delaware parks combine! I knew that this was the first National Park in the world, which shows why they had lots of signs that reminded us to keep the premises clean and to not throw garbage, so we can protect the environment. As soon as we got a map, we device a plan to see all the major things and we all decided to keep it loose, so we don’t go rushing ourselves and missed out on seeing things that are spectacular and a must. And good thing we did that, cause certainly, we never thought it was going to be like really awe inspiring.

On the pamphlet we read that there was about 1,700 species of trees and plants, various flowers that are exotic and non-native. There’s also 60 species of mammals, and we heard that this was one of the best places to see the American Bison. Since Miranda, Miss Hotness Alejandra and I are major “Dances with Wolves” fan, we thought it was neat to see them in living colors! Michael and Damien were wolves nutcases, if only you can see their crib, its all with wolves as sculptures, figurines, decoration, and here they got the chance to see one of the more than 326 wolves that are within the confines of this park. One thing that is impressive is that there’s like 600 grizzly bears. Plus, Simon is a bird watcher, and as soon as we got underway into the park, he was like a kid in a candy store. He immediately took a picture of a Falcon, which was awesome. We read that there’s like 311 species of birds, plus major nesting areas for many of this species including about 26 pairs of nesting bald eagles. Must of all the sightseeing places are closer to the main road which goes like a circle around the park with many little roads in between that goes deeper into other areas in the park, like stores, gas stations, and sightseeing stations that are run by national park employees and other guards, which guarantees that no one is gonna do harm to this amazing place.

We went directly to the northern entrance where there’s the Roosevelt Arch, which has a quote that reads: “For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People.” This was erected by then president Theodore Roosevelt which happened to be a very stern advocate to the protection of the natural parks around the United States! We took pictures of that, which was nice.

To be continued....