UMTravels

This week’s adventure involves LOTS of people (well, for me). First through the door are Seth (31) and Maia (the little girl – 5½ years old). They drove up from Corvallis for our little adventure. Before long they set off for the airport to pick up Lunetta and Onyx who flew in from San Francisco.

Dinner for five – rib-eye steaks, saffron rice, salad, couple of bottles of Bonny Doon wine…rice instead of bread as I broke yet another bread machine a couple of weeks ago – probably should say “wore out” rather than “broke”.

And a good dinner it was…finding places for people to sleep was a little more problematic.

• Maia in the single bed in the office so we could chat into the evening
• Lunetta and Onyx in my bed
• Seth and in in a double sleeping bag on the living room floor (until he couldn’t take it anymore and crawled in with the boys)

Up at 5am so we could get out of the house by six to catch our 8AM Victoria Clipper to Victoria, British Columbia.

At least it was a “pretty” early morning:

A pleasant trip north after a take-out breakfast at the Clipper Café (who also does the catering for the boat as well), though I’ll admit to sleeping through most of it – even forgoing my usual mimosa.

Wrangling a child means you are the last people off the boat and near the end of customs/immigration – which went smoothly as I’d warned Seth that he needed at a minimum a letter from Maia’s birth mother authorizing taking her out of the country. Seth made EXTRA sure and brought the custody agreement with him. Good boy.

Walked to the WorldMark Victoria, expecting to stash are luggage because it was noon, and check in is 4PM. To our surprise, our unit was ready – which rarely happens that early, but often does more in the winter than summer. Dumped everything in the room and headed out to Moka for Grilled Ham and Cheese with Potato Soup – seriously, we all got the same thing (limited menu). Thanks Lunetta for treating!

After the early morning, it was nap time for Maia, Onyx and myself – we send the engineers to the store for supplies that we didn’t bring. I’d packed:

• 4 racks of lamb
• 2 packages of shrimp (meant to bring the white fish to be breaded with the Panko, except for Maia who would get corn meal)
• 2 cubes of butter
• 1 pound of bacon
• Artichoke Bruschetta
• Cornichons
• Corn and Bean Salsa
• Panko Breading
• The WorldMark Bag (pre-packed olive oil/balsamic, curry, brown sugar, flour, skewers, birthday candles, McCormicks Steak Seasoning, coffee meat rub, Korean hot sauce, etc.)

But you also need:

• Salad (and dressing)
• Bread
• Eggs
• Mixers
• Cheese
• Gluten Free Crackers (Maia goes bi-polar when she has gluten)
• Corn Chips
• Portabellas (to stuff with the Artichoke Bruschetta and top with the Panko Breading)
• Etc.

Of course when you sent two engineers to the store, you get MANY more things in addition to those on the list. Take the generic category “Mixers”. They came back with:

• 12-pack of Tonic
• 12-pack of Diet Ginger Ale (mostly for me)
• 6 pack of tiny Cokes
• 100% Cranberry Juice
• Handful of limes

Why so much? Did I mention what we picked up at Duty Free on the boat?

That would be 4 liters of hard liquor for a party of 9 adults tonight and 4 adults for the second night – and those Canadians like to drink hard at Duty Free prices ($85 for all four). And the guests are showing up with wine to go with dinner. And what a dinner it was:

In the foreground, the racks of lamb, Then the Stuffed Portabellas – which were a HUGE HIT, not just with the Vegetarian and Vegan guests (one each). For Maia it was an “adult night” when she was allowed to stay up until she collapsed.

Good food, good conversation (though not around the dining tables since it seats 6, not 10), good hot tubbing after dessert (thanks RobinHood and CrowDog!)

A late night, but luckily not an early morning – Seth was reading the schedule I sent out a laughed when he got to the first morning there, where it said brunch at noon:

 

Yep, guess that makes me anal retentive in my planning – but that’s how it worked out.

The boys and Maia set out to explore the city while I stayed home for some quiet time (much needed after all the excitement). My job was to fill in the gaps in the night’s meal (smoked fish, more cheese, and chocolate) and to grab a little lunch snack for me at the food truck in front of “Finest At Sea” a local fish wholesaler that has a small retail shop in the back:

I got the special – three rockfish cakes with hot dipping sauce. I had one, saved the other two to share with tonight’s pupu platter. After the shopping, NAP TIME!

Tonight’s menu (after the pupu platter):

• Curried Shrimp Skewers
• Salad
• Bread (not for Maia!)
• 3 bottles of various BC Red Wine

Life is HARD on the road.

And before you knew it, it was time to check out – this is what we put in storage since the boat doesn’t leave until 5PM:

Not like we pack light. The plan for today:

• Store luggage
• Head to the Royal BC History Museum and watch an IMAX film (mostly to entertain Maia)
• Have lunch
• Go to the boat

Here is a great picture of Seth after the movie (in the gift shop):

Lunch was at Santiagos, which is close to the ferry terminal (though we had to backtrack to grab out luggage). I’ve eaten here often because they always have muscles on the menu, AND they have HUGE drinks by Canadian standards, and cheap ($11) – again, but Canadian standards.

I had the Thai Mussels, Seth and Maia the HUGE nachos, Lunetta and Onyx the Ceviche and the quesadilla. We ended up taking a bunch of the nachos for the boat trip home.

Did I mention the pitcher of Sangria? And my favorite shot of the lunch:

Yes, they supply crayons, which was great for entertaining Maia.

Got to the terminal later than I wanted, but we were already checked in and had our boarding numbers, it was just the line to check in luggage that was a pain. And luggage we had – four checked bags.

But we did get a table for all of us. Here is Seth sating his Solitaire addiction:

Technically that’s 8 seats, but on the inner section so less coveted.

Three hours later and the last people through customs and this is the scene:

Four and a half people and their crap in a Saab. Tight quarters, luckily for only 20 minutes.

Once back to the house, an exhausted Seth and Onyx claim the big bed, Maia in the small one, and the Marks (Lunetta and UncleM) on the floor after staying up for hours beyond the others.

Seth /Maia/Lunetta/Onyx were out of the house before I was up – Seth /Maia headed home and dropping Lunetta/Onyx at the Rental Car Center at Sea-Tac to pick up a car for the overnight.

Work until 4:30 for me, then back to the house to prepare dinner for the boys, Bliss and myself for the final night of the CanadaLand holiday. Tonight’s menu:

• Little lamb chops (LOTS of them)
• Salad
• A Spanish Red
• MANY COCKTAILS

After another late evening – it was time for me to head to a real bed, albeit a tiny one in the office.

I was out of the house for work before the boys were out of bed, feeling a little spent. While fun, it wasn’t one of the more “relaxing” holidays I’ve had recently.

[226.8]

While not entirely the reason for the quick trip to Kansas City, it certainly is ONE of the reasons. The other was that it was on an Alaska Flash Sale a month ago and I picked it up for $156.20 – something on the order of half price. Alaska tends to do their Flash Sales every Wednesday from 11-1PM West Coast Time. This might be the one I bought while in Mexico while on a land excursion touring wineries. Thank goodness for T-Mobile and free data roaming in over 120 countries.

Oh, what a difference a week makes in flying. You can’t even see the North Concourse (or the end of the C Concourse) the fog is so soupy.

Luckily all Alaska Airlines planes are equipped with Required Navigation Performance (which I talked about in my last post) which means all the flights out of Sea-Tac on Alaska are on-time:

Got an upgrade on the way out to Seat 1D, across the aisle from my favorite seat on the plane, 1C. Reason? You are the second person to get your cocktail and there is no one in front of you to put their seat down, and since it’s an aisle, it’s easy to make a bathroom run.

A nice little sandwich on the way to Kansas City – along with a Digi-Player, which I wasn’t expecting:

Got into KC, and Gail was there to pick me and all my bags up.

• Porter case filled with clothes, bourbon and wine.
• Wine shipper filled with Adams All-Natural Peanut Butter which they can’t get in Kansas City.
• My backpack with electronics

A lot of junk for a two-night trip.

Paul has a conference tonight so Gail and I head over to the Kansas side of the border to check out RJ’s BBQ as seen on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives (not sure which category it falls into). We just hit the end of Happy Hour so drinks were $3 and appetizers $3.95 – Where can you get a Kettle One martini for $3 or was it $5, either way, when he couldn’t find any olives (or a martini glass, or vermouth), he just brought me a double Ketel on the rocks:

And he did find some olives – the previous shift hadn’t restocked. Onion rings in the background (so-so).

Started with onion rings (so-so, not house-dipped), corn fritters (really good – chunks of corn inside, definitely house-made), and the Bison empanadas (tasty, which a zingy dipping sauce), and then I moved onto a real meal:

Ribs with a side of slaw. They serve their ribs dry, but have several different sauces (3?). That was enough food for the evening (and for lunch the next day). You can find the whole menu HERE. There are other things on the menu I’d like to try, like the Jalapeno Sausage (ground pork butt mixed with diced jalapenos, rolled up in corn husks & smoked. Served with flour tortillas, Dijon mustard & barbecue sauce – 5.95) and the Gumbo of the Day (A Cajun-spiced soup made with rice, okra and our smoked sausage. Ask your server for the variation of the day Cup – 4.45 Bowl – 6.45).

After that meal I took a several hour nap when I got back to the condo – also feeling under the weather with a sort of cold, and then with their cat, waking up at midnight for night-caps with Paul after his conference. Reminded me of when I got off work on Sunday night I came home and went straight to bed, postponing dinner until later.

Slept until noon which is when Gail showed up with the car for me to borrow so I could go off and run some errands and get some culture after polishing off the ribs and slaw:

• Gates & Son for a case of their Original Sauce for the shop
• Arthur Bryant’s for a case of their Original Sauce for the shop
• The Liberty Memorial (for my culture)

Stop number one – Gates and Sons sauce factory, across the street from one of their restaurants.

I finally got to meet Tina Starr who I’ve chatted with and emailed over the years. Sweet woman:

Not only did she ship my last case which Nita didn’t have time to pick up – FOR FREE, she gave me all sorts of sample bottles:

18oz. standard-size bottle on the left, a 3.1oz. bottle labeled “Fly With Me” and then the tiny 2oz. size. She gave me 5 of the “Fly With Me” and 24 of the sampler size. Maybe these should go in the wine club shipments!

Next up was Arthur Bryants for another case of sauce – I had Paul ship me one in November, but I’m out at home so when in Rome (or Kansas City, which is number two in the world behind Rome for public fountains) grab it while you can.

Errands done, time for a little culture in the form of the Liberty Memorial – apparently the only World War One museum in the US. It’s kind of funny that the park grounds surrounding the museum were the notorious gay cruising grounds in the 70s and 80s.

While you can’t see it too well, under the glass floored walkway is a field of poppies –not unlike the field of poppies that has been making the news in London.

My one-word comment about the museum: Sobering. Great exhibits including an amazing multimedia rendition of life in the trenches when you feared mud as much as bullets.

I happened to show up on World War Wednesday, each Wednesday all tickets are just $7.00 no matter normal, senior, child. My lucky day, though it’s certainly worth the $14 retail price. Other parts of the museum include being able to go up in the tower (elevator, then 45 steps):

And if you are looking at the first picture of the museum, this is the building to the right of the tower:

After the museum I went off in search of mixers for the bourbon I brought and ended up at Berbiglia, a chain of liquor stores in Kansas City. One of the Berbilia boys actually owns Arthur Bryants (and is seriously cranky, and demands wholesale orders start at 10 cases). Didn’t find what I was looking for, but was seriously tempted to put this in the back of the car. Had I been in Seattle, it would have been gone, gone, gone:

Paul was done with his conference at 7:30 and off to Boling’s Chinese we went – conveniently located about two blocks from the condo. I had the Hui Style Lamb with Spices (had a coating like that of salt/pepper squid) with enough left over for tomorrow and we all shared some tofu fresh rolls (I would have gone for shrimp, but oh well). After getting back to the condo, Paul suggested a night cap at Harry’s Country Club:

One nightcap turned into 4. Various Chocolate Martinis for Paul, various Manhattans for me. Yet another late night. Luckily, Harry’s is only ½ a block from the condo.

Afternoon came early (slept in again trying to kick the cold/allergies), got packed (pulled the bottle dividers out of the wine shipper and slid the two cases of BBQ sauce in their place), and we were out the door for a lunch north of town on the way to the airport. Trezo Mare would be the name of the place. Paul had a lunch combo of the Pasta Alfredo with a side of Grilled asparagus ($11). I love that they can out with the Pasta and said that the asparagus would be coming in a minute, that the first set was on the grill too long – and the Alfredo had these wonderful looking with roasted tomatoes, broccolini, roasted garlic, etc. I had the condo of Fish Tacos (yes, in an Italian Restaurant) which was marinated tilapia, soft shell tacos, spicy aioli, marinated vegetables, Trezo hot sauce with a side of the Italian Slaw. Also good.

Got to the airport in PLENTY of time – it is me, after all. Kanas City suffers from an airport that was being built just as hijackers were starting to lift airplanes at gun point, and was designed for you to be about to park about 50 years from your gate. Here is a great Wikipedia reflecting on TWA’s Flawed Design. Funny that they had a major role in the design and then when times changes they wanted the city to rebuilt it (to which the city said no, and TWA moved its hub to Saint Louis.

No upgrade on the way home – I was number one on the list until about 15 minutes before the flight, then I was suddenly number two. Considering how I felt at the moment, sleeping in seat 6D (bulkhead) is fine for me.

Came home, had a nap (just like Sunday), then got up and cooked dinner.

Home again, home again, at least for a bit. Next week brings company to town.

[228.6] OUCH.

Not THAT kind of quickie – a quick two-night visit.

Scored the ticket for $116.20, CHEAP, and a rental car for $28.40 (plus gas, which you can get right at the airport), hell my parking was $40.38 (with the Senior Discount at Wally Park for those 55+).

A great day to fly…fog causing some planes that don’t have advanced avionics – RNP—were diverting to Boeing Field. Two United flights and one Air Canada flights. One of the reasons that I like to fly Alaska Airlines. Currently only Alaska and Southwest (in the US) have adopted RNP system-wide.

My plane awaits…

And you can see the pea-soup fog in the background….and my seat awaits:

Not my favorite (1C – aisle), but right next door (1A – window).That said, it was a great day to be by the window. Mount Rainier above the fog line:

And then (I believe) Mount Adams:

And mountains I know not the names of:

Thinking Hood, and really don’t know this one:

Let’s not forget my “snack” on the way down (and on the way back as well) of the Curry Chicken Salad – wish they had warmed the pita bread like they did on one trip!

Almost before finishing my “snack” we were on the way down – it’s was a 1 hour 15 minute flight – definitely running early. In Sacramento they were unloading (and loading) from both the front and rear:

Picked up the car and set off on an errand before meeting up with Jameson at his new apartment. The errand was BevMo for a little (lot of) bourbon for the visit and to take home with me.

It’s going to be dinner at the apartment tonight, with Jameson’s girlfriend (who I met on my November trip when it was her birthday). I’d brought lots of frozen (when it was packed) protein with me. Chicken Thigh Stir Fry with rice is tonight’s meal, tomorrow will either be Garlic Rosemary Rack of Lamb (girlfriend doesn’t eat lamb) or Jerked Boneless Pork Chops – depending on party of two or party of three.

Stayed up too late (for Jameson who had to get up early for a work trip to the Bay Area) so didn’t get out of the apartment until noon.

Headed into Folsom for a lunch that wasn’t good for me, but tasty. Fish and Chips at the Fat Bunny Tavern where the “Business Lunch” with a choice of half a dozen items that come with either a glass of house wine (the Cabernet wasn’t bad) or a beer (Scottish add $2.00).

Then I was off on my daily rounds – first stop was the Gekkeikan Saké Factory Tour. Normally this is a self-guided tour, but a group tour had just started so I tagged along and got a much better experience:

Sampled six things at the end, including a “Sparkling Saké” from their Japanese parent company.

Next up was the Folsom Prison Museum, a tiny little museum with on the grounds of Folsom Prison:

And a “lovely” exhibit of “shanks”:

They are hoping to expand with a new facility, The Big House Museum:

And, of course, the view of the prison walls…

I parked near the “Visitor Intake Building” with lots of “rules” for visitors:

The one place that I wanted to visit, but didn’t figure out where is was would be the Folsom Powerhouse Museum. Instead tried to find a Goodwill for some kitchen stuff for Jameson’s new place (failed, turns out it was near the Saké Factory) but did get to Safeway to pick up other supplies for dinner, like a 9×9 Pyrex Baking Pan which you can never have too many off (though that would be just one for Jameson).

No girlfriend for dinner tonight so it was the rack of lamb, and we used some of the Jerk Sauce destined for the port as a “dipping sauce”. Damn tasty.

And we finally got to try out the hot tub – tried last night but we were WELL after 10pm when they lock the gate. Nice was to finish the evening.

Up and out by 8:30 to get the rental car back and check in all the luggage (yes, TWO checked bags, thankfully FREE). It gave me enough time before my 11:30am flight to actually have a little breakfast:

Eggs Benedict at the Esquire Grill at Sacramento International Airport.

Flight was reasonably on-time, back in Seat 1A, and another Curry Chicken Salad (again with cold Pita Bread wedges). Before you knew it I was home and taking a nap.

[? ? ?]

Left mom’s house a little after 10am after getting the snow off the rental car. They thankfully included a brush/scrapper in the car, though all it needed was to be brushed off.

Goodbye Santa Fe for a couple of months (back March and then again in July).

Picked up Dwight around 11 at the hotel I’d gotten him a discount in – wanted to see the room, but he’d already checked out. No real loss – it was an airport hotel after all.

First stop: Gruet Winery, a fine Méthode Champenoise producer in Albuquerque, New Mexico whose vineyards are outside Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, a town named after the game show (formerly known as Hot Springs). We sell their Blanc de Noir at the shop and it’s been a staple of the Souder household’s Christmastime tradition. But I had to try them all – Dwight declined as it was a little early for him…

That was a nice side trip.

We probably should have gotten lunch somewhere but I ended up dropping Dwight and all our luggage at the train station in Albuquerque while I returned the car to the airport and caught a cab back to the station. I’d thought there was a shuttle, which technically there is…three times A DAY.

Took another little side trip before turning in the car to the “aircraft viewing area” at Albuquerque’s Sun Port International Airport and found these:

These are two DC-10 based firefighting planes which you can read about at http://www.10tanker.com.

Basically three hours in the train station which is also the Greyhound Station in Albuquerque. Made for interesting people watching. Our route home is the Southwest Chief from Albuquerque to Los Angeles, then the Coast Starlight from Los Angeles to Seattle (Olympia for Dwight).

The train was running a little late…and it started raining…

I used 25,000 Chase Ink Rewards points to get a Bedroom Sleeper unit on both trains. What’s a bedroom on the train look like:

And the shower/toilet stall…

Two beds – the lower being the wider of the two, which I claimed because:

• I’m wider than Dwight
• It was my points

This gives you an idea of the amount of space.

No Parlour Car on the Southwest Chief so it was dinner in the Dining Car with random strangers…I had the steak. Noticed that the “cheapening” of Amtrak’s ‘First Class’ service continues. Amenity Kits long gone, and now it’s the Newman’s Own Thousand Island which is stunning. Ranch and Vinaigrette are the remaining choices unless you order the Caesar and they grudgingly provide ONE package. Add to this that at dinner they were completely out of desserts and we were on an early seating. Not that either of us need it, but it’s nice to know it’s there.

Slept well as did Dwight:

Normally the Southwest Chief is on-time or early getting into Los Angeles. Not this run. I got up at 5am for breakfast (supposedly served from 5-6am because of the arrival time) to find a limited menu (usual) and the train running two hours late. Needless to say, I ate and went back to bed.

The train was so late that we had 5 minutes to make our connection (which is better than being bused to catch the train up the line). At least when this happens they pull the train in just across the platform from the Coast Starlight. Downside is no time to raid the Metropolitan Lounge in LA’s Union Station.

Burger for lunch for me, on the early side since we’d eaten at 5AM. Dinner in the Parlour Car was the short rib. In the Parlour Car if you are at least two people they give you your own table.

By nightfall we were in Emeryville:

Yep – wearing my leopard print Santa Hat, cocktail in hand. While it isn’t permitted to bring your own in Coach, in the First Class Sleepers it IS permitted and they are happy to supply you with a bucket of ice. In our case, three times a day. Dwight introduced me to the concept of tipping at the BEGINNING of the trip for better service and if they are really good, adding more at the end. Ours on the Coast Starlight got more at the end as well with his excellent ice service. Dwight is a $10 a day tipper.

Another good night’s sleep for me, not so much for Dwight. I asked if I was snoring and he said no – THAT’S something new.

Omelet for breakfast, Caesar Salad for lunch…

Not much for presentation… didn’t even bother to open the croutons. But it was nice to have some greens (though the burgers ARE good). An early dinner was back in the Parlour Car, again having the Short Rib dinner – early because Dwight gets off an hour or so before me. At least this train had desserts all the way to the end of the line:

I always get mine to-go, having them a couple of hours later, especially at lunch.

Running early into Seattle after being on-time at Olympia to let Dwight off. It was fun to just hang out with him for a couple of days of doing nothing, including the dishes.

Roxy met me at the train station with my car, but not before I spotted this little number at King Street Station:

It is one of four privately owned railcars from the original California Zephyr that ran between Chicago to LA from 1948 to 1981.

More information here: http://www.calzephyrrailcar.com/California_Zephyr_Railcar_Charters/Welcome.html

And they do repositioning runs: http://www.calzephyrrailcar.com/California_Zephyr_Railcar_Charters/Positioning_Moves/Positioning_Moves.html. A couple of years ago I was on a four-car consist from San Diego to Los Angeles in the Silver Splendor which is part of the LARail group.

It was good to get home in one piece – for work it is for me in the morning.

[22.18]

All packed and ready to go:

More presents buried under the shirts… and here is the whole stack of what is going with me:

Can you say “Christmas Presents”? Good thing I get two free checked bags on Alaska.

Uber (click on link to get free $20 ride for you and me when you sign up) to the airport, man is that convenient! And somehow I got the last first class seat 2F a day and a half before the flight – which is odd because it should have loaded me at 72 hours. Not complaining and I made the woman next to me VERY happy when I lent her my tablet stand.

Really nice lunch on board – Green Chile Chicken (how New Mexican!). Wish they had put another tortilla on the plate.

And a nice view from the window seat, which I don’t usually get:

Got into Albuquerque early, got the luggage, got the car, and crammed everything in…good thing it’s just me in this tiny car:

No snow, good weather, all is good and before you know it (well, an hour plus later), I’m in Santa Fe at El Castillo with Mom waiting.

Tonight’s dinner was from 5-Star Burgers which I picked up after hitting Albertsons for booze to pack home. I wasn’t impressed with 5-Star Burgers. The burger looked OK, but even though I had a take-out menu with crab cakes on the menu – they weren’t available. And the Caesar I chose instead did not have the “shaved” parmesan, but as the beertender (where you order to-go) said was absent because “there was lots of parmesan in the dressing”. So – basically some chopped up Romaine with a container of dressing.

No sleeping in the following morning as The Colonels are picking me up at 10am for a run to Taos to see the Millicent Rogers Museum to see the exhibition “Fred Harvey and the Making of the American West“.

No pictures allowed inside, but here is the outside with The Colonels:

A late lunch afterwards at Michael’s Kitchen Café in downtown Taos, just across the street from the WorldMark Taos where I have booked The Colonels into next July in exchange for some of their Wyndham Points they used to book me into the Royal Gardens in Waikiki in March with my buddy Bliss.

At Michael’s there is this FUNNY sign posted by the two handicapped parking spaces (The Colonels have handicap plates):

We probably shouldn’t have had that big a late lunch as we are due at El Castillo’s private dining room at 6 (with cocktails at the apartment starting at 5). With seven you get eggrolls – just kidding. Seven is the magic number for reserving the private dining room.

It was a good meal even with the rather unexciting buffet choices of the evening – but they did have liver and onions which made at least three people in the crowd very happy and they even did up a fresh batch for us!

A dusting of snow greeted me in the morning:

Not enough to muck up my drive back to Albuquerque where I pick up Dwight for the remaining chunk of this trip – and a separate blog post.

[223.6]

Guess this gives me an excuse to write a Holiday Letter so here goes:

My addiction to travel continues untreated. This year found me hitting several milestones:

• In June hit United Airlines Million Mile status meaning gold for life
  
• In September made Elite Status on Princess Cruises meaning free internet minutes, free laundry/dry cleaning, and they stock my mini-bar once for free – another lifetime perk
  
• In October made Alaska Airline MVP Gold Status through 2015 meaning fairly regular free upgrades to First Class and double miles on all my flights. When I don’t get the upgrade at least they comp my first drink in Economy – and then there are the two free checked bags which is handy when heading to Santa Fe during the holiday with all the presents in tow. Leaving tomorrow staying a couple of nights and taking the train home in the bedroom sleeper.
  

As for all that travel, it’s been a CRAZY year. On United to get to that Million Mile mark, 41,543 flight miles, Alaska Airlines will be 53,440 (only needed 40,000 to qualify for Gold but there were too many great last minute deals).

The travel list for this year (including this week’s trip):

January

• Berkeley, CA
  
• Los Angeles, CA – Ensenada, Mexico – Los Angeles, CA cruise
  
• Berkeley, CA
  
• Victoria, BC
  
• Bozeman, MT
  

February

• Forks, WA
  
• Portland, OR
  
• Breitenbush Hot Springs, OR
  
• Portland, OR
  
• Berkeley, CA
  
• Denver, CO
  

March

• Boston, MA (mileage run)
  
• Boston, MA (overnight)
  
• Bucharest, Bulgaria
  
• Istanbul, Turkey
  

April

• Denver, CO
  
• Hong Kong (mileage run)
  
• Honolulu, HI
  
• Redmond, OR
  
• Vancouver, BC
  

May

• Vancouver, BC
  
• Vancouver, BC-Seattle, WA Cruise
  
• San Francisco (2 mileage runs in one day)
  
• Orlando, FL (mileage run)
  
• Oakland, CA (mileage run)
  
• Houston, TX (overnight to connect to Air France flight)
  
• Paris, France
  

June

• Santa Fe, NM
  
• New Orleans, LA; Chicago, IL; Los Angeles, CA; Seattle, WA Train Trip
  

July

• Whistler, BC
  
• Dublin, Ireland
  
• Stockholm, Sweden
  
• Amsterdam, Netherlands
  

August

• Denver, CO via Train and Plane
  
• Victoria, BC
  

September

• Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
  
• New Orleans, LA
  
• Seattle, WA to Vancouver, BC Princess Cruise
  
• Vancouver, BC to San Francisco, CA Princess Cruise
  
• Tucson, AZ
  

October

• Tucson, AZ (same as September trip)
  
• Sacramento, CA
  
• Santa Fe, NM
  

November

• Los Angeles, CA to Los Angeles, CA Princess Cruise
  
• San Diego, CA (Cruise Stop)
  
• Ensenada, Mexico (Cruise Stop)
  
• Denver, CO
  

December

• Detroit, MI
  
• Santa Fe, NM
  
• Albuquerque, NM to Los Angeles, CA Train Trip
  
• Los Angeles, CA to Seattle, WA Train Trip
  

 

2015 is starting to book up as well:

January

• Sacramento, CA
  
• Kansas City, MO
  
• Victoria, BC Canada
  
• San Antonio, TX
  

February

• Berkeley, CA
  
• Victoria, BC Canada
  
• Santa Fe, NM
  

March

• Dubai, United Arab Emirates
  
• Tokyo, Japan
  
• Komaki, Japan
  
• Forks, WA
  

April

• Honolulu, HI
  

May

June

• Whistler, BC
  

 

My business partner just shakes his head when I tell him where I’m headed. He’s much more the home body, but as long as I’m back to work my days, no harm, no foul. Speaking of the shop (that would be Madrona Wine Merchants which I have a 1/3 interest), here is a status update on how the business is going.

A little more than three years into starting the wine shop, things are frankly going better than I would have ever hoped for. We have no debt mostly because to retail wine in the state of Washington you have to pay for it first, no credit from the distributors allowed. What debt we had from the beginning were mostly store fixtures (much of which we built ourselves in my woodshop/garage) that we put on the shop’s credit cards was paid off last year. We pay ourselves for our time behind the counter and have always been current with the exception of a couple of winter months the first year. We’ve upped our take several times over the years and are on stable ground finance wise.

The shop itself is small – just 350sqft of sales space with 75sqft in the back for toilet/sink/icemaker and a small amount of storage. Small, but we pack it in with over 650 different labels (stock ranging from 4 to 12 bottles of each. The majority of the bottles are in the $10-20 range with a handful under $10 and a few that range to the low $100s. We are located in the Madrona Neighborhood of Seattle. Those of you who visited me in Seattle before I had the Boylston Street house might remember when Jim (now my business partner) and I lived at 25^th and Union – if you kept heading east on Union, at the top of the next hill you would run into 34^th Avenue, the heart of Madrona where we are on the main strip with reasonable rent. Sales have been improving year over year which is what you want in a small business.

As for the love life, I’d been seeing someone for a couple of years but with the 4 hour commute and other things he found a partner to move in with who is a much better match. We parted on good terms and are still in contact from time to time. Socially active having people over to dinner a couple of times a week (when I’m in town) and opening the house to the occasional CouchSurfer along with my friends from out of town. Mom is still holding in there though losing a lot of body strength which she is working on with the help of a therapist. Sadly, her travel days are over but she has all the memories of her own travels and still has her mind and eyes and is happy keeping current with books/magazines and the three daily papers, It is nice that she is at El Castillo, a retirement community just off the Plaza in Santa Fe. With it being a two-bedroom it gives me a place to stay on my visits to work through the “honey do” list. I try and show up every 3-4 months depending on airfare.

Looking forward to seeing The Colonels in a couple of days during their almost annual pre-Christmas visit to Santa Fe. And, of course, looking forward to taking the train home with my buddy Dwight sharing the Bedroom Sleeper on the Southwest Chief connecting to the Coast Starlight in Los Angeles.

Happy Holidays one and all.

UncleMarkie

Made my Auntie and I a nice cheese, sausage scramble before heading off on today’s adventure (followed by going to the airport).

But before we get there, I have to share the picture that I used on the cover of the “travel docs” book I made for this trip:

This is from the Library of Congress’ archives which are searchable and free to use. Go explore at: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/

Today’s adventure = Detroit Institute of Arts

It wasn’t that nice a day when I visit – snagged that shot off their website.

I’d been hearing all about the collection which was for a time going to be auctioned off as part of the city’s bankruptcy – which luckily didn’t happen. It sounded like an amazing collection – and it is. Started on the third floor with the stunning collection of Dutch Masters (artists, not cigars), including these:

But one of the most famous pieces are the Diego Rivera murals from the Depression:

After the museum it was off to the airport to return the car and check bags for the flight. The problem with one flight a day into a city by Alaska means limited check-in desk hours…this one didn’t open until 2 hours and 10 minutes before the flight – and they ask you to be there two hours in advance if you are checking bags. So, I had to wait around until they finally opened, cutting my lunch in the concourse short. Live and learn.

No lounge access in Detroit unless I wanted to use the Delta Lounge in the other terminal, and I’m not sure they would have even let me without a flight ticketed out of that terminal.

Lunch was at Ruby Tuesdays…with a very inattentive waitress – I slowly worked through the soup and when she finally brought out the fish tacos, they were cold like they’d never been under a heat lamp. Live and learn.

Got upgraded on the way back (which I knew a couple of days ago) and even got the rare drink on the ground with my menu:

I went with the parmesan crusted cod, sorry, no picture – I was too busy watching the rest of Season Six of The Big Bang Theory.

In Seattle, luggage was quick, getting the car back not so much. Usually WallyPark is much better than that. I’ll still use them, the Senior Discount starts at 55.

Back home, working early in the morning as we switch from CenturyLink to Comcast for our phone and internet – let’s hope for a smooth transition.

[224.8]

Early out of the house. Early to the airport. No upgrade – checked for the upgrade starting Friday, then Saturday, then Sunday, and gave up and checked into my seat in 6D. Bulkhead. Light load so I had the middle seat open.

And then the “miracle” happened – they were about to close the door and the flight attendant “gave me the look” and pointed at Seat 1C (my favorite). Before I knew it, gone was the prospect of the Buy On Board breakfast strata (good by the way) and it was the freebie menu:

That said, the “Turkey Sausage Eggs Benedict” was a little odd…

And no salt and pepper… they forgot to plate it. And you can see my freebie Digi-Player where I watched half a season of Season 6 of The Big Bang Theory.

Got to Detroit, grabbed my bag, grabbed my rental car, and headed off to visit my Auntie Norma for a couple of nights. And see some sights.

Got settled in and then we were off to Miller’s Bar for burgers (there goes the diet). Auntie is looking good!

We got settled and she texted her buddy Dan The Drummer Man to tell him where we are (it is one of their haunts after choir practice) and he showed up and helped us finish the fries and the onion rings. Great times, that continued back at the house. Dan’s a couple of years younger than me, but with more baggage (ex-wife, children, etc.)

Up at 8:30 (thanks Norma for the coffee) and after some deviled eggs (easier than cooking) it was off to the The Henry Ford Museum and the Rouge F-150 Truck Plant Tour.

Highlights: The Museum, or at least a small portion of it…

The 1952 Weiner Mobile.

They even had a cute little machine to Mold-A-Rama your own little Henry Ford Museum
Weiner Mobile:

And here is a little video of how it works:

Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion House made by the Cessna Aircraft Factory in Wichita, Kansas:

And the interior of said house:

And the Rosa Park bus:

And the interior of said bus:

And the row of Presidential Limousines….The Roosevelt

The Truman:

The Kennedy:

The Reagan:

Plus some fun signage…

And LOTS of cars, trucks, you name it:

And my favorite exhibit of all, the 1930’s Urinal Stand – OK, it WAS in the bathroom:

Took the bus over to the Rouge Truck Plant which produces the new all-aluminum Ford F-150 – you know I love a good factory tour (ask Jill about the Airbus Plant Tour in Toulouse, France). The routine is:

• Bus to the plant
• Theatre Number 1 – The Ford History with a seriously glossed over Ford/Union segment
• Theatre Number 2 – The new F-150 told as a Vegas-style show
• Observation Deck – The only place other than the car display where photographs are allowed
• The Plant Tour – DEFINATLY no photos here, though thoroughly interesting

The only photo:

The Rouge plant itself dates from 1917 (completed in 1928), covers 1.5 miles x 1 mile, has its own deep-water port, electrical power plant, and was designed as the first integrated auto manufacturing plant, from iron-ore coming in the front door to make steel, its own glass plant, a tire plant, the works (as they say).

After the tour, missed a turn getting back to Aunties (it’s only .5 miles from The Henry Ford) and stumbled onto a store that she mentioned taking me to – beat her to it. Merchants Fine Wine (and other things):

Where I found a bottle of Evan Williams to replace what Dan The Drummer Man and I killed last night, and a couple of interesting Vermouths that I haven’t tried before:

1. Stones Original Ginger from the UK ($13.99)
2. Vermute Lacuestra Rojo from Spain ($15.99)

Haven’t tried them yet, but will add to the stack of things Jim and I need to try.

Dinner tonight at the Elmhurst Taproom – home of the clam stew (and other things):

And the Greek Salad with beets (apparently VERY common in Michigan). We each ordered one, we should have split one:

And the MASSIVE amount of Mussels for $14:

Finished working off Auntie’s “Honey Do” list – just like visiting Mom! – after dinner.

Tomorrow, the Detroit Institute of Arts.

[226.2]

A couple of weeks at home (working lots, though) and its dinner with friends and succumbing to the joys of Cyber Monday. Here is a quick photo round-up of the last couple of weeks.

Before Turkey Day it’s a visit from friends returning from Hawaii and New Zealand and Roxy out of college (Evergreen) for Turkey Day Break:

And the return of a long lost (OK, only three years) piece of artwork – the Legs of Christ but David Best (best known for making the structures at Burning Man that get torched):

The Legs of Christ would be on the left, and weighs about a hundred pounds and comes with a box of parts. Here is it in its original state (from the Butterfield and Butterfield auction catalog in the supporting AIDS benefit in the 80’s which I tried to find the catalog for – it’s somewhere in boxes of books in the garage)

 

As you can see, the man on the top, along with the canes, and the fish at the bottom are now in a box below the painting. Another dinner had the arrival of a friend of Roxy’s who actually knows David Best, as does one of my contractors. Sorry, no pictures, but suffice it to say I ended up with a Malaysian couchsurfer in my bed in the morning. A first (bedding a couchsurfer). Sorry, no pictures – check back for and update of the evening – he took lots of pics.

 

And then we are at Thanksgiving…I worked the 11-3pm shift at the shop (http://www.madronawinemerchants.com) and then it was off to dinner at Swanda’s place, and here was the spread:

 

 

Several miscues on dinner – turkey cooked upside down (damned moist) and the combined Green Bean/Yam Casserole (it was supposed to be two different dishes, but still worked).

 

My response to the excess of Turkey the following day was just a Ribeye Steak and a Wedge Salad:

 

With the trip to Detroit and Santa Fe coming up, it’s time to start wrapping presents – it’s nice to be able to print your own wrapping paper, albeit on bright yellow paper with an image of a late seventies world map…

Saturday brought around me at work, closing the shop, and the annual Shop Small Saturday from AMEX which this year give you back $10 for each $10 you spend at three different small merchants on the Saturday after Thanksgiving… I spent it at St. Clouds:

Manhattan (2), with the cheese burger with Mexican Cheese and a Green Chili Aioli and swapped the fries out for a fresh Caesar that you could actually taste the anchovies in! GREAT.

Dinner with SalamandarHellbender on Sunday – had to send him home in an Uber as it was late and seriously COLD in Seattle. Really nice lamb chops:

And Alaska Air started their “Cyber Monday” fares at 4PM on Sunday so chock up two more (ignore Spokane, I booked that for SalamadarHellBender). Think I’m taken care of this winter for travel:

I still have two mid-weeks in February. There are two trips that aren’t on here, late January in Victoria with Lunettaand Onyx, and late February again in Victoria that I’m looking at partners for.

Monday’s project was an alcohol Menorah – keep in mind that there will be bottles on each side of the display I created since it’s nine candles/bottles for Chanukah, but only seven for the temple:

At the shop it will have nine bottles of Kosher Wine. The shop was so cold I had to come in the house and varnish the piece because my fingers were numb – not a good thing when working with power tools.

Dinner with Jonathan – another food fest – cranking up three burners on the Wolf:

50% off Safeway T-Bones on the left, asparagus center, carrots sautéed in butter, triple sec and fresh squeezed orange juice.

Black Olive Challah (with a Bloody Mary Ceviché in the small bowl next to the butter)….

And Jonathan who has his first shift as a UPS Driver Assistant in the morning. No, he isn’t having any of my wine! His is Caffeine Free Diet Coke…in a wine glass.

A crazy day at the shop today…the first work day of the month is running all the wine club sales…manually. We don’t store our customer’s credit cards electronically.

Dropped wine off with Swanda (two cocktail delivery fee, often times dinner, but not tonight as I didn’t get off until 7 and it was almost 8 by the time I arrived) and home for another steak and salad dinner.

And tomorrow it’s back in the freezing garage to build some more storage for the shop – that and the dentist (thank goodness they use Nitrous when they clean my teeth).

[226.0]

While my hands are quite shaking, it does feel weird that I’ll be at home for the next couple of weeks – maybe that’s why a spur of the moment trip to Leavenworth is looking so tempting. It’s not like I don’t have anything to look forward to:

The second Albuquerque is actually Dwight’s flight to meet up with me for our train ride back to Seattle in a Bedroom (rather than Roomette) on the Southwest Chief connecting to the Coast Starlight. What’s a bedroom on the train look like:

And the shower/toilet stall…

But the trip that I’m most excited about is my March trip to Japan to visit TokyoDave, faux nephew Julian who is teaching English as a second language, and see the Phallus Festival in Komaki where he lives. Of course, the journey is part of the adventure:

Yep – I’m going the long way around. Emirates from Seattle to Dubai, a 13-hour layover in the Business Class
Lounge, then onto Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. Haneda is the close in airport – and Emirates is even giving me car service on both ends. It was 75,000 Alaska miles for a one-way to Japan and another 75,000 on United to fly home in Business aboard an ANA
787-8. $57.70 in taxes and fees. Not bad! I pulled the price of my itinerary on Expedia and their price was $16,269.40. WOW. That means I am getting 10.8 per mile value out of those frequent flier miles – the usual calculation is that frequent flier miles are worth 1-2 cents apiece.

POST UPDATE: Here is a great article on what points are worth. According to this article, Alaska points are valued at 2 cents per mile while Uniteds are valued at 1.5 cents per mile (down from 2 cents last year because of changes redemptions). Whole article here.

Lots of firsts (but no First Class) on this trip:

• Never been to Dubai, though I might not even leave the airport
• Never flown Emirates
• Never flown into Haneda
• Never been to a Phallus Festival (technically Hōnen Matsuri or Harvest Festival)
• Never flown on a 787

So, assuming I have the right images, this is what Business Class on Emirates 777s look like:

As opposed to the Business Class seats on ANA’s
787-8:

Looking forward to experiencing both airlines. And look at the menus:

• Seattle – Dubai
• Dubai – Tokyo

Not going to lose any weight on this trip.

Here is a great picture from WikiPedia of the Phallus Festival…

So, the confession is that even when I’m in town, my mind is out of town, looking forward to the next trip – but having blown most of my stash of miles, it will be awhile before I’m back overseas.

[224.2]

Off to see my ex and his wife because the fare was so damn cheap… $135 and some change round-trip. No First Class on the way out, and a bad on-line seating chart left me in a middle seat, but at least it was an exit row.

Lisa met me at the airport and we stopped at Total Beverage to stock up the house on Bourbon and Boxed Wine, and to stock my suitcase with 3 bottles of bourbon (to replace the couple of bottles of Captain Rat Cinnamon Brandy that I brought.

And then there was the weather that greeted me:

Poor Winston who had to go out and do his “business”:

Yep, little booties and a sweater as its below freezing.

Dan was off this Wednesday (with Lisa working, so that was a change from the usual) so we ran a couple of more errands and engaged in unhealthy lunching. Yep, that would be Five Guys Burgers:

I do like their product – and even ate the bun.

The afternoon was filled with installing a recirculating pump on the hot water heater so that the hot water is almost instantaneous…got all done but the upstairs bit before we had to leave for BrightHeart’s Buddhist monk ordination. Fairly amazing that I just happened to have booked this trip before I got the invitation. It was a bit like an episode of Portlandia with nothing set-up when we all arrived at the church. We could blame the snow – took me pushing Dan’s Miata up the driveway to get us there. The ceremony was long and drawn out, with lots of audience recitations – clocked in at an hour.

We didn’t stay for the reception – the fear of more snow. Both starving we stopped at Old Chicago Pizza and split a cup of soup and a couple of crispy chicken salads, with me having a couple of Manhattans to wash it down. Nothing for Dan as he was driving.

Got back to the house and finished the plumbing project while working on some nice rye – and before you knew it, bedtime.

Noon flight back – Lisa was going to drive me since she was off, but Dan woke up sick and called in and ended up driving me because Lisa was apparently in worse shape.

Took a bit of time to check-in, luckily it turned out to be a delay with a good reason – a First Class upgrade to seat 1F. Window, but I’m not complaining. And my plane is here! It’s way at the end.

And it’s still snowy out:

Alaska has an agreement with American to use their Admiral’s Club in Denver. I’ve been there a bunch of time. Nice, airy, free booze and snacks…I ordered a Whiskey and Diet – and this is what I got:

Only one of those and a couple of cookies and it was time to head to the gate.

Now all we need is the flight crew which is stuck behind an accident on the way to the airport – luckily we did get out on time considering the number of folks onboard who had connections heading to Alaska (from cold to colder).

Not a bad lunch in First:

A nice Chicken Caesar.

I was home in plenty of time to make myself a nice quite evening meal and relax away from the cold and snow (well, away from the snow).

[225.6]

The final day of the cruise was a “Sea Day”, which for me, meant going to duty-free and buying two liters of Stoli (that would be unflavored Vodka) for was amounted to $10.50 per liter after two 10% discounts (one for buying two bottles, one for being Elite). And when it’s the last day of the cruise, they let you take them with you – which I combined with the left over double order of Cranberry Juice to have a little “nooner”.One of the other benefits of Elite Status is that you can order “Afternoon Tea” brought to your room (on six hours’ notice – I called the day before)…man what a lot of trays this comes on:

The requisite tea (with cream and sugars) and a platter of little sandwiches, sweets, scones (hot from the oven) and I forget what else…and I ate all but the sweets. Guess it’s going to be a late dinner tonight.

Dined alone tonight…just me and my book. People are nice, but often overrated. Milking my on-board credit – it’s down to $1.61, and I want to see if I’ll get a check back for the unspent balance like I did on the September cruise. Not that I really need the $1.61, but I want to figure out how the system works. Would they send me a check for the whole $250 of on-board credit if I didn’t spend it (minus the mandatory “tip” for the staff}? Time will tell – check back. Guess I would really needed to leave $51.61 credit on the account since $50 is a shareholder benefit.

Caught a final show, but took my tablet so I could exhaust my 150 minutes of dial-up (technically it’s wi-fi, but with satellite it’s like dial-up – not sure why planes can get this technology to work for 200 passengers and a cruise ship can’t.

Don’t worry, I was in one of the boxes on the corner and no one noticed. But back came the aerialists…

I think the best show I’ve ever seen was on the Norwegian Epic where they had a two-level theatre that did a Cirque de Sola type show on a rocking boat in the Caribbean.

And then there was the ginger Brit piano player that I crushed out on…

.

Terrible picture of him – but off his website (what, me, a stalker?) is a better one…

Ended up having breakfast at the same table as him the morning of my departure…he’s moving to London – should you need a talented Piano Guy, you can find him here: http://www.pianovocalist.com/

Which brings us to the end of the cruise – where I had hoped to do the Long Beach On Your Own with Transfer To The Airport, but that was cancelled and I rebooked on the shuttle straight to the airport, missing my chance to see the Queen Mary at the pier in Long Beach. Another time.

Customs was ramped up and we were all off the boat in record time – I’ve been to that terminal before, never two hours early. Got to the airport with so much time that they couldn’t take my bag as checked luggage (and I had to check it since it had booze in it). As an Alaska MVP Gold they put me on standby for an earlier flight (within the 4 hour checked baggage window) so I could check my bag and head to the lounge…had a couple of drinks, some food, went down to the flight…missed it by three people (apparently all the flights to Seattle were booked solid because of a UCLA-UW game), when back to the lounge, had another couple of drinks and some lunch (love free food), and waited for the next flight at 3:20… mind you, I got to the airport at 10:30.

Here is what I was looking at:

One away from a seat, and then it was three away, and then two away…and finally I had a middle seat in the row before the exit (no recline), but I was home for dinner rather than a midnight nightcap.

I look much happier on my couch:

That’s it for this trip, sorry for the delay in posting. Too much work to deal with. Damn jobs.

[227.0] Damn cruise weight.

 

In the morning we were in Ensenada. Last year I was in Ensenada, but I didn’t do any of the tours…I just wandering around town to a church I saw in the distance. Those Posts Here.

This year I signed up for the Two Winery Tour with Free Bottle of Wine. First stop with L.A. Cetto winery…

The joys of having T-Mobile service is that I have data and text coverage in 200 countries, not high-speed, but3G – enough to book a ticket to Kansas City in mid-January for $156.20 on Alaska Airlines Wednesday Flash Sale that runs from 11am-1pm…announcements on Twitter to remind you. And in Mexico’s wine country they have 4G…and in Amador County outside Sacramento where I was last month, there was just no cell coverage at all during Wednesday’s Flash Sale. But I digress….

So, apparently the region outside Ensenada produces 90% of the wine produced in Mexico, and Cetto’s wasn’t too bad, unlike the next winery (La Casa de Dona Lupe), an organic producer…

The wines were watery…and the food…well, I’ve never liked whole wheat as a pizza crust. But they did have a like folkloric show:

Back to the boat for me, though others got off for the “shopping opportunity”. Funny thing is that they didn’t even question my free bottle of wine I brought on – was sure that they were going to hold it until the end of the cruise.

Because today is all about wine, I had to get back to the ship for their “Grapevine Wine Tasting” which is $9.50 per person or it’s a freebie for Elite Card Holders (but not their guests). They were serving the following:

• Schramsberg Mirabelle Brut Rosé – $48 in their dining rooms
• Chardonnay Fetzer – $28 in their dining rooms
• Garanacha Artadi Artazuri – $34 in their dining rooms
• Cabernet Sauvignon Simi Reserve – $29.40 in their dining rooms (this would seem to be the deal on the menu)
• Prosecco Villa Sandi – $34 in their dining rooms

One might suspect that they were charging people $9.50 to get them to order more wine with dinner. Looks like the mark-up is double retail, and they would be getting it at duty-free prices, so that would be buy for $10, sell for $30 – that’s a nice mark-up. Wish we could do that at the shop.

On my last boat I looked at the line of people wanting to get in and turned around… no line this time, but man these people were bored:

At least I got a souvenir glass out of it – and apparently they are prized as no one left me a second one…

Here is my sail away picture of Ensenada:

Full moon over pollution….and the Carnival Cruise Lines (parent of Princess) in town as well…

The LGBT gathering dwindled further… four tonight. But the Ohio Delta Flight Attendant was there (one of the one’s I’d met on another cruise) and we checked out the third bed in my cabin – one that comes down from the ceiling – I got my room steward (the first woman I’ve had on cruises) to drop the bed:

So, if you are ever tempted to put a third person in your cabin…this is what it will look like. And yes, there is a ladder.

For dinner I chose “potluck” seating on a whim and had nice company – nice enough to share the bottle of L.A. Cetto Red Blend (which isn’t on their website) that was my freebie from the winery (Cabernet/Merlot mix).

Tomorrow is a “sea-day”, an excuse for the ship to fleece people at the casino…

[? ? ?]

Next stop, San Diego where I have a two-hour Harbor Cruise booked for the morning, most of the afternoon free, and drinks with Lunetta just before the boat sails.

I liked the Harbor Cruise (Hornblower Tours) and got a great “selfie” on the way to the tour (which was walking distance from the ship)…

The two-hour cruise cover both the North and the South bay – and man there is TONS of military stuff going on in the harbors, and random seals as well. Here is a small sample of my tour:

Had drinks with Lunetta at Anthony’s Seafood Grotto – definitely a throw-back to the 60’s – but it was half a block from the boat and four blocks from his office. I was so happy to see Lunetta that I totally forgot to take pictures, though I do have to include this one picture…apparently they are swapping mattresses out on the ship…

Hopefully they are recycling them!

Before you knew it I was back on the boat for drinks with the LGBT crowd (now down to half of the original members) and dinner. My parting shot from San Diego – not a bad selfie:

{?? ?]

As fall hits I felt it was time for a little escape to Mexico on a 4-day Pacific Coastal cruise. Here is the itinerary:

• Monday, wake up in Seattle really early and fly to Los Angeles and get the Princess Transfer to the boat
• Tuesday, wake up in San Diego, Mexico
• Wednesday, wake up in Ensenada, Mexico
• Thursday, wake up in at sea
• Friday, wake up in Los Angeles, get the Princess Transfer and fly home

But it was an early morning, up a 4AM (after going bed at midnight):

Sleepy Uncle Markie. No upgrade to first on the way to LA, but the transfer was smooth, and before you knew it, the ship was in sight. Princess Time!

And there was another boat in – one from Norwegian Cruise Lines – in the background of my balcony shot:

Lots of food shots from lunch and dinner with I won’t bore you with – if you want to see examples, check out my FaceBook page.

Did the LGBT meet-and-greet with one of the cruise staff. 24 people showed up, equally split between Lesbians and Gay Guys. We’ll see how the rest of the cruise goes – did run into a couple of people I’d seen on other cruises.

After getting the mini-bar stocked to my configuration….

Not shown is the 10 Diet Cokes in the mini-fridge. Normal stocking is:

• 2 vodka
• 2 brandy
• 2 gin
• 2 scotch
• 2 beers
• 2 Perrier
• 2 cokes
• 2 bottles of water
• 2 Sprite
• 1 Ginger Ale
• 1 Tonic Water

Oh, the perks of Princess Captain’s Circle Elite, that and the laundry, which I sent the first load of, and, of course, the free dial-up internet time.

And here is this trip’s room…

Home sweet home for the next four days. I spend a lot of time in the cabin. It’s quiet, I can read on the deck, I avoid all the folks with their buckets of beers at 9AM.

After dinner I actually took in one of the shows (a rarity for me)… Aerialists from Eastern Europe…

Tomorrow – San Diego.

[? ? ?]

This was a stay at home week for me, between last week’s trip to Santa Fe and next week’s cruise to Mexico. Did I lay around and eat all the Halloween candy? Nope, it was project week.

Project Number One: Vermouth Rack For The Shop

Madrona Wine Merchants is less than 500-square-feet, yet we have over 650 different brands that we stock, and we’d like to stock more, so we need to get creative with our shelving. In this case I had to build a shelf unit to go over a small rack of white wines that has a water pipe running through it.

The finished project, with a little bourbon and ginger spilled on it:

And installed in the shop:

Project Number Two: Behind The Counter Storage Rack

If you ever have looked behind the counter at Madrona Wine Merchants, it’s a jumble of stuff randomly packed in. My quest is that before the Holiday Rush that we get a little more organized so we can find things quickly. Hence, this odd organizer that I built to extend the cash wrap to the post where the vermouth is now hanging. The drawers are made from wood salvaged from the tops of wooden wine boxes that we occasionally get in:

And installed at the shop:

Project Number Three: Install Back Board For 1A2 Analog Phone System & KSU (Key Service Unit)

I’m upgrading my “Mad Men” style analog phone system so that all four phones will have lights and the ability to mechanically put calls on hold. This, of course, means actually putting in more infrastructure than just the KSU that I currently have which is only wired up for one phone – this one:

And here is what the infrastructure looks like:

And I still have to pull all the wires under the house before the “punch-down” can begin.

And then there is the social side of a week home…

Sunday night dinner with Bliss, Monday night dinner with Wonderful, Josh, and Jill:

Tuesday night dinner with former neighbor Emily, current neighbor Paula (who was air rescued out of the woods a couple of weeks ago after getting lost hiking with her two dogs), and Jonathan after installing the new 42″ flat screen that I picked up for $299 ($333 with tax and shipping) that fits in the same footprint as my 32″, but is half the weight.

We (Jonathan and I) also relocated the swing arm mount so that not only can I watch from the couch, but it swings so I can watch from the bedroom, and as of the relocation, I can now watch from the kitchen as well:

Thursday and Friday morning filled with helping Jonathan move from his storage locker into an apartment. Upside is that it’s right next to the Two Bells Tavern, known for its burgers (which I order two for take-out):

With a Manhattan while I waited (and their house bourbon is Evan Williams Black!)

It was amazing to me that someone who was homeless two months ago could have so much stuff in storage. Thursday afternoon he filled the 14-foot UHaul to the top, and Friday’s load was another quarter of the same UHaul – all headed into a studio apartment:

Now imagine that space filled to the top – and here is what the apartment looks like now:

Kitchen above, living room below…

And doesn’t even show the three closets and the mechanics rolling tool chest in the hallway. Whew!

It being Halloween that means its shop duty time. It takes three of us to handle the crowds. Here are the stats from 5-7PM…

• Out of our 130 wine and champagne glasses – we had 10 clean ones at the end of the day
• Over 200 pieces of candy handed out
• Four bottles of tasting wine emptied

Maybe it was my outfit…

Busy week – looking forward to relaxing next week.

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My little “Board Room Ritual”—a Red Baron (also known as a Poinsettia) to start the travel day. That would be sparkling wine and cranberry juice. Kill the liver, cure the kidneys.

My good travel luck is holding – got assigned Seat 1C without even having to log in a move it. Maybe the computer finally knows what seat I like. Uneventful flight. So uneventful that I forgot to take a picture of my lunch which was a warm chicken thigh sandwich that was actually pretty good.

Albuquerque has one of those consolidated rental car centers that I despise and it didn’t help that the customers in front of me were playing twenty questions with the lone rental car agent. Even if I had status with Alamo it wouldn’t have been any quicker with just one agent.

Luckily right next to Alamo was their sister company, National, and that agent did my paperwork and I was out the door in a 4-door Nissan Sentra lickity split.

Here is my little “Leaving Albuquerque” video:

Got to Santa Fe, swung by the office at El Castillo to pick up a parking pass – something I’ll have to do daily as parking is at a premium with the construction of their new Alzheimer unit.

Here are a couple of shots of the building that my mother is in:

Before long, the in-laws start showing up, all in separate cars. Brother-in-law Kennan, sis-in-law Jen, niece Karen. Off to dinner we go, to Rio Chama and boy was the food good.

Starters of oysters – lots of them. Half a dozen for me, a dozen for Mom, and another half dozen split by the Pruett/Girdners (the in-laws).

Then for my main, there wasn’t much of a decision since rarely to you see Elk Tenderloin on the menu – with a little broccolini, on a bed of pancetta roasted new potatoes and quash.

Yum, yum, yum.

Mom was in bed by 8, me by 2…which meant not rolling out of bed in the morning until 10am.

Fed myself some leftovers and headed out on the errand run – working through the “honeydo” list.

• Staples for pens, paper, and ink for Mom
• Albertsons for soda and bourbon for both of us

As I was loading the trunk this guy came up to me and asked if he could talk to me about shopping bags. Turns out Santa Fe banned plastic bags in an effort to get people to bring their own. But since they didn’t put a fee on paper bags, needless to say it isn’t reducing waste and it’s costing the grocery stores more. He even took pictures.

Some of the results of my shopping – like mother, like son:

Cocktails at 4 with two other residents of El Castillo whose daughter also went to Evergreen. Martinis for Mom and I, white wine for The McCarthys. Mom loves good gin – and her favorite was the Tanqueray Malacca Gin which hadn’t been produced in a decade before last year when they came out with a limited release in liter bottles. That’s all gone, but she snagged a bottle of Tanqueray’s latest limited release of their Old Tom Gin. Damn tasty, hence the plug here:

Of course it isn’t cheap, but might have to pick up one on my next trip.

Dinner was take-out from Whole Hog BBQ. The food is good, but I’m always surprised that there aren’t many people in their – guessing they do a huge lunch business through:

Thursday was the big day for us, especially when one more item got added to the list. I got an email in the morning from Kristina Hagman asking if I was in Santa Fe, as was she. Turns out she found out about me being in town because I made the front page of the Santa Fe New Mexican – above the fold!

That would be me on the right. Guess there goes my 15 minutes of fame…

Here are the links to the newspaper article and the link to my picture: ARTICLE
PICTURE

So Kristina popped over for a bit, and posed for a “groupie”.

Then Mom and I went out to lunch at SantacaFé. I had the Rueben (with enough left over for dinner) and Mom had the onion rings to start and the Lobster Roll for her main, but didn’t eat much of it after filling up on the onion rings which really were good:

We ate outside which was a little chilly when the breeze kicked up but still nicer than being cooped up inside on a sunny fall day.

Next up was the bank to add me to the checking accounts. It was the final item financially that needed taking care of so that there won’t be anything going through probate. I’m on one, by brother is on another, and my sister-in-law is on the third with all of us being on the brokerage account. No houses, no cars, just some possessions and we aren’t the haggling kind of family.

When 4PM rolled around it was time to head next door to a building-wide cocktail party. Man those old people know how to drink! Lots of wine, and more importantly for me, Jameson’s Irish Whiskey. They next door neighbors last name is Jameson so it was quite appropriate. Helped myself twice before we headed back to Mom’s apartment.

And I wasn’t kidding about enough food leftover to make a nice dinner:

That is the Dill laced hot potato salad that came with the sandwich.

My last day in Santa Fe (Friday) had me up and out so I could have brunch with my buddy Aaron from Las Cruces that had driven 4+ hours to Santa Fe to see me. Luckily his sister lives in Santa Fe and he’s going to stay a couple of nights.

Bunch was at the Swiss Bakery. Yes, those would be mimosas. With Eggs Benedict on the way:

I passed on the potatoes.

Walking back to the car I spotted these two train cars…

A little digging around and I came up with pictures from the interiors…

Seems these are now part of the Santa Fe Southern Railway which runs tourist trains between Santa Fe and Lamy. The last time I was on them they only had an enclosed car and an open car. Funny that the train ran right by my parent’s old house.

And digging further, I seemed to remember something about an outfit that wanted to run a high-speed privately financed train between LA and Las Vegas. Turns out that X-Train are those folks. What two of their cars are doing in Santa Fe is a mystery to me…one worth digging into.

So… X Train Rail Holdings Corporation (Ticker Symbol: XTRN) is an odd little beast of a company offering upscale rail holidays, rail car financing and leaseback, and apparently a roll out plan to have 20+ cars by the end of 2015 judging from this slide I found on their site:

The whole PowerPoint Presentation is here: http://www.vegasxtrain.com/uploads/2/5/7/8/25787513/x_rail_asset_fund.ppt

The slide mentions Mid America Railcar which lists both of the cars that I saw in Santa Fe as being in their fleet…stranger and stranger (the Keystone Grill and the Mohave).

Enough digging and you find that they now own Santa Fe Southern Railroad, but oddly they have suspended service. It will be interesting to see if they do the Holiday Trains as they usually do.

And here is their description of what they do:

About X Train Holdings
The company Las Vegas Railway Express, Inc. DBA X Train Holdings Corp., has developed a robust infrastructure of call center, travel agency, logistics planning management, food & beverage and unique passenger rail cars of the purpose of acquiring or affiliating privately owned passenger rail companies under the X Train Holdings umbrella. Independently owned and operated passenger rail companies can enlist the services of X Train to grow market share, improve operating margins by consolidating costs, and providing access to capital for asset purchase, repair and improvement. X Train is a publicly traded company under the OTCQB: XTRN symbol. It is a fully reporting company and its auditors are BDO and its securities lawyers are Sichenzia Ross of New York. By consolidating either acquired companies and/or affiliated companies, X Train Holdings can create economies of scale for its array of member companies. This is much more difficult for small privately held companies where the principals frequently must guarantee personally capital purchases or loans. X Train Holdings relieves that burden and provides a path to liquidity should owners wish to sell.

And the link to Yahoo Finance with all their press releases, news, etc.: http://finance.yahoo.com/q?uhb=uh3_finance_vert&fr=&type=2button&s=XTRN

But I digress – I really did go down the internet rabbit hole…now where was I…

Time to get back to Albuquerque and catch my plane to Seattle-Taco – or at least that’s what they sign says:

Would a Seattle Taco feature Seahawk meat?

No lounge at Sunport (the name of the airport), but a nice observation area to watch all the New Mexican Air National Guard jets, helicopters and transport planes take off and land.

It’s upstairs and underutilized – guess most people don’t know it is there – and soon enough I’m settled back into Seat 1C.

I’m so happy that my Friday night plans fell through (dinner with Josh and moving a painting). Nice to just chill at home.

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Yes, I know, Sacramento – lots of snippy comments on “The Pit Called Sacramento.” “Why?” they asked. $96 round-trip and I got upgraded to first class in each direction. The cheap fare was the result of a two-hour “flash sale” announced by Alaska on its Twitter Feed. A week or so later it was $128 round-trip to Denver (snagged to see Dan and Lisa), this week it was Omaha and Salt Lake City – I passed on those two.

And then there is Jameson – my “faux nephew”. He has moved from the public sector end of the environmental business to the private side, moving from Lake Tahoe to Folsom (it’s more than just a prison). As for the “faux” part, he’s me dead brother’s widow’s new husband’s nephew – but with his parents often celebrating Christmas Eve at my parents’ house when they lived out in El Dorado, it’s really more like a three family circus.

I booked a nice midday flight, but still means setting the alarm, just not for 5AM. That’s means I’m not as cranky in the Board Room:

And who could be cranky when you are flying on the Disney Cars Alaska plane:

Though I was a little confused by the need for this sign on the jet way…

One I boarded, the most amazing thing happened. Instead of water, they asked if I’d like anything to drink – so of course, Jack and Diet. On the ground! A first on Alaska. Maybe is was because the back half of the plane was only half full (First, of course, was packed). The view from seat 1D:

And there was even a light lunch on the hour and a half flight – a curry chicken salad that was quite tasty:

Picked up my bag and headed to the rental car place where they tried twice to sell me an upgrade. Tip: if they are trying that hard, they don’t have the compact car you rented. I ended up in a mid-size Mazda 3 that they were trying to get an extra $20 a day for…almost new, less than 2,000 miles on it.

Got to the hotel and checked in – Hawthorne Suites by Wyndham – I get 20% off lowest rack rate as a result of my WorldMark ownership (they are managed by Wyndham). Nice room:

Had a little nap, did a liquor and mixer run before Jameson got off work. We hung out for an hour of so catching up before it was off for a sushi dinner at Mukuni in Citrus Heights.

We opted for the Sho Chiku Bai Nigori (unfiltered Saké) and the Two For $45 tasting menu…one from Column A, one from Column B, two from Column C and one from Column D (the dessert column). Not a bad deal, we were both full at the end which is not cheap to so at a sushi restaurant:

And the “shooter” that I thought about, but didn’t get:

And the “cheesecake” dessert which was really quite good – and I’m not a dessert person:

A few more drinks at the hotel and Jameson was off to the house where he rents a room – a situation that he is trying to change. He has an eye on his own apartment, the first living by himself in his life – at 31. Wow.

As for me, it was TV and bed for tomorrow it’s off to Amador County, home of one of California’s premier Zinfandel growing regions.

A hot breakfast comes with the room – lots of starch (make-it-yourself waffles, cereals, toast, rolls, etc.) and a steam table with a protein, potatoes, some egg dish (changes daily). First stop is Renwood. We carry three of their wines…

Very quiet it being a Wednesday, but it is crush season, so there are a few people. Basically I had the tasting room to myself – with Stephen as a guide:

The benefit of owning a wine shop (and bringing your business cards with you) is complimentary tastings and the 20-30% off trade discount. I try not to abuse the privilege and generally buy a bottle – in this case for Jameson’s new girlfriend whose birthday is tonight. She got a bottle of the 2011 Barbera. I didn’t realize how much Barbera they were growing in Amador County. One slight emergency during my visit – Alaska announced a Flash Sale and I had no cell service in the country. Luckily Renwood has public Wi-Fi so I quickly logged in on my phone – only to find that this week’s specials were Omaha and Salt Lake City. I’ll pass.

I’m afraid the hot buffet breakfast didn’t last, so it was off to Villa Toscana who has a nice little restaurant at their winery.

That was my view while eating my pastrami and swiss grilled sandwich:

I’ve had their wines before and I think they are one of the “direct to customer” wineries that make all their money on selling their wine at retail and renting out the grounds for weddings. Which also means no trade discount since they don’t wholesale.

Sated, it was off to Villa Noceto – another of the wineries that I used to visit for the years that the Labor Day Manscouts Gathering was held just outside Plymouth on Bell Road at Rancho Cicada. We used to carry their Sangiovesse, which I bought a split of for my mother (headed there next week).

Didn’t get a picture there, or Terre Rouge/Easton where I sampled some more free wines, and bought a split of their Zin port (only a 20% discount), then it was onto Sobon Winery, which I’d been to before, and we carried their Zinfandel a while back. By this time I’m sort of done with wine tasting – didn’t even sample their ReServe line…until I noticed that they had a Tannat. Tannat is a fairly obscure grape (unless you are in Uruguay). Their Tannat is an 93% Tannat, 7% Zinfandel. Here is their tasting room:

No time for a nap when I got back to the hotel – time enough to have a drink and check email before Jameson showed up have cocktails before the new girlfriend’s dinner party at Hamptons in downtown Folsom. We even had enough time for a little walk around. Cute, old city center.

So apparently there used to be a rail yard in the middle of town.

Now there is a Museum in a rail car, and the old roundhouse, minus house:

And then it was off to dinner at Hamptons – dinner for 8, plus one who showed up, late.

With a flaming table:

Arrived during daylight, but at the end, we were in the dark, lighted by the flaming table:

Once everyone was gone I got a little better picture of the flaming table:

Not bad for being the oldest person there and I passed on going “caving” drunk after dinner – back to the hotel room for me as I’ve got a flight tomorrow.

Couple of more drinks after Jameson dropped me off in his “adult” car – Mink (Audi’s name for dark gray) A-6. Considering I last saw him driving a beat up Nissan pickup truck (which he still owns), definitely a step up.

Up and out in the morning to the airport (apparently my second home, any airport). If I can only get there…. I’ve never seen 40 people in line for a rental car shuttle back to the airport:

No lounge but a great airport, good food options, and charging stations everywhere, light, airy…

But soon enough I’m back in seat 1C…but no cocktail until we are at 10,000 feet:

Boeing Sky Interior, but new in the transition phase, no outlets. No worries, I’m offline.

Best $96 dollar flight I’ve ever taken.

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In the fall, Mondays mean Trade Tastings… and one that I never want to miss is the one by one of our smaller distributors — name withheld to not out them for putting on a great spread.

Ten tables with half a dozen bottle of wine which is much more “doable” than having a 100+ bottles open. I actually got to swallow a bit. Especially since I’m snacking on fresh shucked oysters (from Taylor Shellfish) and BBQ’d sausages (from Rain Shadow Meats):

I decided to forgo the other tasting of the afternoon – probably twice as many tables, and catered local BBQ – instead I went home to cut parts for the new Vermouth Rack for the shop – here is the finished product, though honestly, I only got the pieces cut but not assembled as company was coming for dinner. Here is the “ready-to-install” rack.

Ignore the drink that I spilled on it getting it out of the garage. Yes, there is a water or gas pipe that will be going through the shelf.

Speaking of dinner guests… a passel of 20+-year-olds….and dinner prep started at 4PM because of the menu I foolishly chose:

• Fresh Baked Bread
• Garden Salad
• Osso Buco (braised veal shanks)

Braise the veal shanks…

Remove them to a plate…

Sautee the onions and celery and garlic….

Deglaze the pan with red wine, add the chopped tomatoes, the herb sachet (bamboo towelette wrapped), and cups and cups of chicken stock (homemade)

Simmer for 2.5 hours…while the bread bakes and you set the table:

And they showed up with “flower” – but it’s a lilly and looks great:

Much good conversation over dinner, and much fun play in the “wardrobe closet” after….

Seems everyone loves fur.

This is not going to help getting up in the morning for my flight to Sacramento.

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For those long time readers you might remember my New Year’s Resolutions…if you’ve forgotten, it’s here: https://blog.unclemarkie.com/2014/01/01/new-years-resolutions/

So, how am I coming on these goals?

• Achieve Million Miler Status on United Airlines, which will give me United Premier Gold status for life for me and a significant other (accepting applications).
  
• Achieve Elite Status On Princess Cruises, which will give me these lifetime benefits when cruising with Princess:
  
• Achieve Alaska MVP Gold status by match (applied for at 12:15am) and keep it for next year by flying 40,000 flight miles. Benefits?
  
• Reduce blog posts to only the interesting stuff, rather than the day-to-day stuff that I’ve been doing for the last five years – unless there is an outcry from the readers. That said, don’t expect a post until Sunday when I’m packing for my Bay Area trip and having Salamander Hellbender to dinner.
  
• Get some more “billable hours” to quit sucking down my 401K. Have a lead on another “registered agent” gig.
  
• Not piss off my business partner
  

For the benefits associated with each of the top three, go to the original post.

United Million Mile status (Gold For Life!):

Princess Elite (Black Card) status:

And Alaska MVP Gold status:

That covers all the status goals… and I still have a few more flights for the year:

• Next week Sacramento r/t that I picked up for $96.20 to see Jameson
• End of the month an Albuquerque r/t that I picked up when Alaska announced their new flights. $218.00 with double miles (three times for me being MVP Gold) to visit Mom
• First week of November a 4-night cruise so flying to LA for $198.20
• And I want to take one more train trip this year so that will be a one-way flight someplace.

As for the last three New Year’s Goals?

• Kept blog posting to travel or event related stuff rather than day-to-day
• Have picked up a few more billable hours… gained one and lost one this week but the one I gained pays more
• Business Partner is still alive so that means we haven’t killed each other, and it’s worked its way into a comfortable situation.

Well, there’s my year-to-date report.

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