Here and There Blog

Mid-week check-in. Hotel life.  Wake up, coffee, go to destination, meetings, work, dinner, back to hotel (late), sleep (sort of), repeat. 

 1 pizza per person and not the personal pan! Well 3 pizzas and OB ate healthy.  Life should always be surrounded by pizza!

 Tamarack Surf Beach - Saturday morning.  It really doesn't get much better than this!

Microsoft, HP, and Staples made some nice change off me today. The laptop got a virus by playing with a local PC in Mexico City. Off and away it went. Realized that I couldn't work from home as planned since the free Beta test of Office 2010 was over. Time for Staples! While I was there, I bought the last portable printer in stock (of course not on sale) as I have a Mid-East trip coming up and experience has shown that hotel/office printers never work when I'm there. If only Kinko's Office had a franchise in Kuwait.  Are you listening Kinko's? Tomorrow I'm still set loose at home. I have a cruise coming up which means time to shop! Can't let all those strangers that I'll never see again think I'm a slacker.  Old Navy (gotta stay with a bargain) here I come! Seriously, this is only 48 hours at home. I need to be back on the road. After all, I can't be responsible for stimulating all the economy.

Leaving beer behind, we took the tram to the Snowbird Peak. Above Karen & Robert and below Karen & Stacy. This was the kind of day where every photo was made perfect by the backdrop! Stacy at the tram area. Karen and Stacy. It didn't seem that windy but we have the windblown hair! Kicking back, waiting for the tram ride down. Karen, Mary, Stacy.

Arrival at Oktoberfest - Robert, Karen, Stacy. We all have different Utah craft beer. Robert was brave and got the Pumpkin Ale. Very mild. Mine was Black Bier and Stacy stuck with an ale. All good! Below, Mary joins in, minus a beer. In the tent. Ein Prosit! Stacy and Karen raise the toast!

Snowbird, Utah - September 18, around 2:00 pm. Splashes of color are about the mountain and yellow and red are having their day. At the top of the peak we were treated to clear horizons that showcased the valley. Hey! My beer is almost empty! How'd that happen? Below - Emigration Canyon as the sun was finally cresting over the mountain around 8:30 am on September 19.

Afternoon baseball games always seem so much more fun than the night games. You really get to relax, hopefully enjoy a good game and eat and drink at the park. Last Saturday's game against the Giants was fun, the Padres' won, and we were in good seats in the shade with jumbotron view. Haven't sat in this area before. It was mixed fan area which led to the usual shouting. Pre-game unexcitement. Even the ball boy is bored in his seat. Guess we didn't miss out on much by being on the other side of the park.

It wouldn't be the weekend with a stop here for Padre Porter! Go Padres!

8:00 am knocks on the front door on a Saturday are never good. Normally it means the kid's next door want a ball back but there was no sound of that nature. It's not Sunday so the churchies are not out, Saturday so the witnesses are quiet.  I ignored the frantic knocking and then I heard a suspicious sound and ran to see...the jumpy thing about to inflate. I had enough time to move the car out of the garage and now it's time to run!

This is what it's like to be home but not home.  I spend as much time in Anaheim hotels as my own bed. Walk in, check for people and bugs, look out the window for the view. Power up computer, quickly get bored and ready for office and meetings to get out of the room.   At some point, walk over to Oggi's for dinner and beer. Thank-you Oggi's for opening here! 

Sunday afternoon was perfect for swimming and this was the view as I did my laps. Really it can't be beat! The other view. Not the same at all - OB watching me take pictures while in the pool.

Carlsbad is famous for the surf, flowers, golf, and Legoland. What visitors don't realize but any local can tell you is that Carlsbad is also one of the fog pockets of the world. Normally I can see to the coast and ocean but this morning even the park was obscured.

Who needs Italy? In OB, there's The Vine for wine and food. Check out the fruit and cheese plate! Everything was fresh, tasted perfect, and went well with water and wine!

Face it. Summer is about swimming, picnics, baseball, beer. All good things. At the heart of it all, no matter how old we get, it's ice cream. And when you are craving a huge, giant, sundae, you gotta give in or you'll obsess for days. So when Mr. & Mrs. OB were debating the merits of ice cream only for dinner, I had to jump on that band-wagon. Quarterback Crunch with some kind of chocolate/vanilla mousse, topped with marshmallow sauce and whipped cream - now that's a sundae!