Gary and Mreg Anger

So I'm jumping ahead a bit in the Sept/Oct wandering across the countryside a bit (sorta).

Anyways. I looked at my blogstats and clicked on the Mary blog. Figuring I haven't looked at it in a while. skimming and scrolling down, down down. I see something a bit odd.



(I pixelated Mreg to protect the not so innocent)

NO one takes pictures like that unless...

scroll down

"We found out the day before I left for Yosemite! "

Spent all day sitting there playing board games (wooo Provo!!!!) which was WELL AFTER Yosemite. I think in between collecting Monopoly rent and laying track and especially after I joked that who knows, with all of Greg's medical issues if his boys even swim.

Personally I would have shouted out, "whateva!!! My wife is heavy with child! I'm the gawd damn paterfamilias. St James Place, you owe me an apology and fourteen dollas!!!"

For shame Gary and Mreg. For shame.

Orlando Sept 13-14 (Like 20 hours)

So Orlando isn't exactly a public transit friendly city. I pricelined the Wyndham at the airport for about $40 after taxes. I asked her if the bus went anywhere. She just said, "Nothing but restaurants, so you might as well stay here and save yourself some time." (There were about 10 different restaurants within a half a mile radius of the hotel).

So Orlando was a rest stop. I did laundry. I watched HBO. I ate. Stocked up on free Continental breakfast items. I didn't have much time anyways, landed at 5:30 pm and I had to be at the airport for my "International" flight at 11-ish.


Jetting

Clouds

Martin's BBQ Puerto Rican BBQ chain hitting the mainland (the East Coast L&L circa 2003?)

Sunset

New York, NY Sept 11-13, Sept 29-Oct 2

Five nights in New York. It's kinda overrated. I get the big city feel out of Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston. whatever. It rained or was overcast for the whole trip (except when I flew out on Sept 13 and Oct 2).

The food was pretty good.
Katz deli, tasty but twice as much as it should cost
Shake Shack, tasty, but pricey.
couple hole in the wall pizza places were pretty good.

Favorite thing I saw was the High line park. It'd be interesting to see how it ends up turning out when they finish other parts of it.

Cousin's studio apt, it was pretty sweet.


People doing... something in Central Park.


Central Park


Ottawa @ New York Rangers.


Empire State Building


Grand Central


Citi Field


The Guggenheim


Ellis Island


High Line Park. Though it was a ridiculously awesome park.


Statue of Liberty


Katz deli


Time Square


30 Rock


Yankee Stadium


Babe



Morris Jumel Mansion


Ground Zero



Its not bad, Just don't expect me to be sporting I <3 New York t-shirts anytime... ever.

Seattle Sept 8-11

After Long Beach, I headed up the coast to Seattle. I've spent a whole lot of time in Seattle without ever residing there. So the touristy things weren't really done. Went fishing, did a Safeco Field tour, wandered down to the EMP/Science Fiction Museum. Not bad with a 2-for-1 coupon. Without the coupon, it would be a bit overpriced.

It never rained while I was there. It was over cast til the late afternoon and then the sun would poke out. So pretty much all my time in the first two cities, I saw maybe three hours of the sun.

So five nights of the trip so far and $0 spent on lodging. Yay for family and friends.

EMP

EMP

Family

Family

Still Family


Safeco Field

Safeco

Old roommate

Sound

Fishing

Not raining

Long Beach, CA Sept 7-8th, Oct 5-6th

So I sandwiched the trip in between a visit to the last "home".

Left Oakland
<
There was some baby-sitting. Some were less thrilled about it.

Some of us need to be tucked in.

Day 1 and 2.
Cafe Rio at Manhattan Beach. Slightly disappointing. Lake Forest Cafe Rio rocked it in May. Did some babysitting. He'd grab something. Show it to me, then throw it behind him under a dresser and give me a shoulder shrug and "where did it go?" look.

Day 29 and 30.
On the way back. Hit up the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Did the Symphonian Tour. Visited all four theaters at the Music Center. It was interesting. Free tour, parking is validated for three hours, well worth your time.

Ended up eating at the At Last Cafe in Long Beach. Was pretty good. Comfort food at diner prices. win-win. Strawberry shortcake FTW. probably would have took a picture of it if I didn't eat it up in two minutes.

Was overcast at the beginning and end. Whats up with that sunny southern California?








The smallest California State Park.




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The Facts

Dropping $499 on jetblue's All You can Jet program (and $149.07 in international taxes and Puerto Rico fees) got me $1895 (and $149.07 in int'l fees taxes and Puerto Rico fees) worth of air travel. (And some AYCJ swag)


That was 17 flights, zipping me 15,704 miles through 15 airports. I only spent 115 minutes of waiting in line for security. Which wasn't bad I thought, especially since 30 of those minutes were at 6 in the morning in the Bahamas. Come on islanders, more than one person at security could help for all the ridiculous taxation and gratitude already added in. There was a lot of waiting around in the Bahamas... 18% gratitude added for shoddy service. Oddly enough 1/5 of my trip budget was dropped in a place I only spent 1/15th of the trip.

Lugging 37 pounds of clothes/laptop/ipod/toiletries through nine states, a US district, a US territory and two other countries wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be (good job Kelty backpacks). And I never had to gate check my backpack. Yay for not being the last person on the plane.

I used the five major rapid transit systems in the US (New York, DC, Chicago, Boston, SF bay area) and was not mugged or assaulted. (Handful of metro cards > knife wounds)



A month of dodging tropical depressions and being in a new city every other day has made for some withdrawals since returning home to sunny ole CaliforkneeA.

Where Were You Last Month?

Oak->Sea->NY->Orlando->Nassau->San Juan->Cancun->DC
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=233995&id=617773682&l=5faeb4350d

DC->Boston->Chicago->New York
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=235152&id=617773682&l=e50074b8a5

New York->Salt Lake->Long Beach->San Francisco
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=235315&id=617773682&l=7b6b3669d9

Correction

Apparently someone is pointing out an error on "One of These Things is Not Like the Other..."

So, Larrie gets Longest Mormon friendship, female category.

hahahahahahaha

Hey SJ YSAers: You're all welcome to come over and watch the BYU vs TCU game at my place tomorrow. We have a 60'' TV and plenty of seating. I know BYU is supposed to get killed in this game, but for some reason I have a gut feeling that we could be in for a good one. Kickoff: 1:00pm, Sat, Oct 16 Address: 815 Hiawatha Dr, San Jose, CA [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Nothing like foolish optimism. The same BYU team that got killed by Utah state giving TCU a run for its money?! Probably one of the many SF Giant fans that declared this is the best postseason ever after winning game 1 of the NLDS.

One of These Things is Not Like the Other...

Posted this.


which got this reply.
"you guys all make me look so tan... pretty awesome"

tangent: happy birthday Larrie, been a good eight-year long friendship. Yay for longest mormon friendship ever.

tangent finished.


Also posted by someone's cousin was this



Larrie's comment actually applies here for me.
Stick the non-white kid in the shadows of a tree and look how dark I look.