Split Up

After our last big vacation in Spain in February, Vicki said to me 'I love going on these European trips, but for our next vacation I want to do nothing but lay in the sun by a beach. So we started planning our next trip - Somewhere near a beach.

We decided to go for Vicki's birthday, in June. We left on the 20th to do four days at an all-inclusive resort in Cabo San Lucas. We picked Cabo for two reasons: 1) It's a short two hour direct flight from Phoenix, and 2) US Airways had four flights a day between the two cities. When flying standby, that's something you have to look for. Lots of options. Though it also indicates that lots of people fly between the cities, which we'll get back to later...

As I said, we left on Thursday and took the first flight down. We were at the resort by just after 2pm. We were too early as it turned it, and had to wait about a half hour for the room to be ready. But with free drinks and a view like the one below we had nothing but time.

So we spent most of the next three days doing things that people do at an all-inclusive resort: Eating, drinking, and soaking up the sun. Cabo doesn't have the best beaches and the water is too rough to swim, so we spent most of our days in the resort pools. But we did spend time each day on the beach just watching the waves roll in. Staring out at the ocean watching the waves is one of my favorite things on earth to do.

We did take one small side trip, over to see the most famous landmark in Cabo, the Arch and Lover's Beach. It was a short water taxi ride over, and we spent a couple hours exploring the area. I'll post pictures a little later.

Finally Monday came, and it was time to come home. We left the resort about 9:30am, hoping to get on the 12:40 flight back to Phoenix. There ended up being only seat open on that flight, so as we have always done in 4 years of flying standby, we said we would not split up. Then the 2:10 flight rolled around. There was once again only 1 seat open, and Vicki and I made a decision we have never made before: We split up.

There were still two flights Monday, but they were tight, and we spoke to some standby passengers who had been waiting for 2 or 3 days to get home. Because of our priority level, we were first on the list to go. But if Vicki went without me, my priority level drops since she is the employee. And right now all of you are thinking 'Holy crap he got on a plane and left his wife in Mexico'.

Yes, yes I did.

I even sat first class on that plane while my wife waited in the airport in Mexico for the next flight two hours later.

In fact, I am writing this post from that first clsss seat on the plane. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do. Had we split up on the first flight,  I would be in Phoenix already and Vicki would be in this very same seat. As it stands, I'm on the plane, and we're hoping she gets on the next flight. It looked positive, but was going to be close again. I wont know if she got on it till after I land, maybe not even until she lands and calls me.

Its a funny thing this flying standby. It does afford you amazing opportunities to see the country and the world. But it also leaves you at times with some hard decisions to make. Today was the hardest. I am hoping we made the right decision, and it will all work out in the end.

Smiles With Miles

The last time I was in Sioux City was three years ago. With my parents now living part-time in AZ, and since my sister and her kids like to come visit, we simply haven't had many reasons to go back. But, three years is a long time. And we wanted to see my grandma, who is still in great shape considering she's 92 years old. 

So, the last week of May, Vicki and I took a long weekend back to my hometown. Besides my family, we wanted to see the Corporon's new baby Eliana. And since we were going back, the Kruse's decided to come down from MN (even though we found out later we weren't really the reason for them coming to Sioux City that weekend). We ended up having a great weekend with both family and friends. 

We got in late Thursday night in Omaha, and my parents picked us up. Friday morning Vicki went to get manicures and pedicures with my mom, sister, and niece, while I went golfing with my dad. My dad and I somehow managed to not just make the news, but lead-off the 6pm broadcast just by playing a round of golf. If you'd like to see the clip, you can click here (I'm in the white shirt). There clearly isn't much going on in Sioux City. Except for terrible weather, apparently.

Later Friday we had dinner with my family, and celebrated some birthday's. The three ladies in this picture all have a birthday within 22 days of each other. So, ice cream cake!

My sister Carin, her kids Emily and Cora, and of course Vicki.

Saturday we went bowling with my family and the kids, and then Saturday night Vicki and I were able to see and hang out with the Kruse's and Corporon's. Since Vicki had only been to SC a handful times, she hasn't experienced some of the finer establishments the city has to offer. So we set off to show her two of the best.

First up was Bob Roe's, which for my money is the best pizza in town. After stuffing ourselves, we embarked on the quest for a Sioux City original: Charley boys and schooners. That's right, we went to Miles Inn! In true Sioux City fashion, you can't go anywhere in that town without running into someone you know, and we ran into plenty of people I went to high school with.

We had a great night hanging out with friends and enjoying some charley boys and schooners, and now Vicki can say she's been to Miles Inn. Though we should have gotten a t-shirt. 

Vicki and Jennica

Eddie came out with us for a bit, and we ran into Trent Johnson.

The six of us.

All in all it was a good trip home, except for the part where we got stuck in Omaha for an extra day trying to fly back. Oh the joys of flying stand-by. But it was great seeing my family and some of our closest friends. 

Hello, Again.

Two years.

Well, 22 months to be exact. It's funny how life gets in the way sometimes. You get caught up in this, busy with that. Sometimes you just forget. We're on facebook, or twitter, or pinterest. Anywhere but here, really.

But I miss this place. I miss the actual writing. I miss not being confined to 140 characters, or being able to expand not just on how I'm feeling or what I'm doing, but why I am feeling and doing those things.

So I'll make an effort.

We got a new computer, one that actually works. A mac, actually. That should help. We've settled into a marriage routine, where I can carve out some time to update. That should help. We have a good base of friends and what seems like things going on all the time, giving me something to write about. That should help.

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So what have we been up to the last two years? There's so much I don't even know where to start. But I'll give a quick rundown.

Places we've been:
Italy (Rome, Florence/Tuscany, and Venice)
Portland (twice)
San Diego (a few times)
San Francisco
Philadelphia and New York City
Iowa City (of course)
Kansas City
Spain (Barcelona and Madrid)

Things we've been doing:
Renovated the kitchen, changing our island and adding granite.
Renovated the backyard almost completely.
Todd got a promotion.
Vicki's job is in the process of a merger, and who knows what will happen with it.
Had three cars totaled due to moron drivers.

What we haven't done:
Gotten pregnant. Ha! Just in case anyone was wondering.

I'm sure I'm missing things, but two years is a long time. It won't be that long until I write in here again.

Married Life!

Whew!

As most of you know, it's been kind of a whirlwind last six weeks for Vicki and I. In May we were in the Dominican for our wedding for a week from the 17th to the 25th. The weekend of June 18th we went to San Francisco to celebrate Vicki's birthday. The following weekend we were back in Iowa City for a small wedding reception with family and close friends. This past weekend, over the 4th, we took one night and went camping up north near Prescott Valley and Cottonwood.

With everything that has been going on, this blog hasn't been updated much. Expect that to change! I'll throw a couple links below to some pictures of our travels, but I'll also be putting up a blog post about each trip in the near future. In the meantime, take a look at the pictures and check back here often!

Click Here for pictures we took in the Dominican

Click Here for our Wedding Photographer's pictures

San Diego

Vicki and I decided to take a quick trip to San Diego the first weekend of December to celebrate my birthday. We left Phoenix on Saturday morning and were back Sunday afternoon. But we managed to pack quite a bit into that short time. Check out the pictures!

View from our Hotel.

Our Hotel

This is how you do breakfast. On the coast with a crab and shrimp 

stuffed omelette topped by creamy lobster sauce. And a mimosa.

Vicki in front of the Hotel Del Coronado.

The Pacific Ocean.

Waves rolling in. 

Vicki's first ever steps in the Pacific Ocean.

I've been in the Pacific Ocean before, but I still love it.

The two of us.

San Diego, December 2010.

Vicki and I at a wine bar in San Diego.

My 30th Birthday

So three decades of my life are complete. My birthday turned into a birthday week of sorts. My department at work took me out to lunch one day. The girls from work took me out for lunch another day. The girls from Kansas City sent me a cookie bouquet at work. I also had a birthday happy hour after work Friday. We decided to take a quick trip to San Antonio to celebrate as well.

Happy Hour with Cherame and Cara

In San Antonio - This is the Riverwalk area. We stayed at a Marriott on the Riverwalk.

Todd giving me a weird look at lunch.

Our food at Casa Rio on the Riverwalk. We ate outside; pretty, but HOT! We are not used to the humidity anymore, and San Antonio has a lot! We ordered steak fajitas to share. No dairy :)

A Random bench along the Riverwalk.

A bridge next to the bench, one way to get across the river.

 A view of the Riverwalk and one of the tour boats, which we went on as well.

Us on the bridge.

A duck by the river that just had babies.

 A random tree that Todd liked. He likes pictures of trees for some reason.

A Margarita we ordered at Rita's bar.

 It was prickly pear with Don Julio tequila. Yum!

Todd and I sharing the special Margarita.

 A hospital on the riverwalk that looks like a free standing wall.

A picture of the hotel we stayed at. Apparently this Marriott is also the previous home of the Fairmont Inn, which was transported down the street about the time of the World's Fair.

A mural that was given to San Antonio as a gift from Mexico.

Me at the piano bar later that night.

Todd giving me another weird look.

Us having late night "dinner" on the Riverwalk at a BBQ place. It was 11:30 at night and the area was bustling, and beautiful. It didn't turn out in picturew though.

Me at "dinner."

A view of the city from our hotel room window.

More views.

This view was straight down from our hotel room.

 And some statue art that Portugal gave San Antonio as a gift.

The Riverwalk theater.

The seats of the theater are grass.

And of course, the Alamo. Pictures are not allowed inside.

Oh yeah, and we did do a wine tasting of Texas wines at a shop we stopped at. They were excellent! And my favorite was a white combo of Chardonnay, Savignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc. I typically hate all three of these, but this blend was sweet and smooth. We were told that it was not aged in oak, which gave it the sweeter flavored as opposed to the buttery and bitter flavors of those grapes that are normally present. Too bad we were also told they only sell the wines at this shop in Texas.

Valentine's Weekend 2010

Todd once again gave me a surprise. He planned a trip to Seattle for us for Valentine's Day. To be fair, this was a little easier for him than the average guy since we get free flights and cheap hotel rooms.... :) Nonetheless, he planned and organized everything. He had talked to one of my co-workers and asked her to ask my boss if I could leave early on the day of our flight. He set up the dogs to go to the kennel for the weekend, etc. Luckily he told me two nights before leaving that we would be going somewhere so I could do laundry and pack! He had been trying to get me to do laundry all week, but I don't do laundry on weeknights. So I kept brushing him off. He finally had to let the cat out of the bag so that I could pick out my clothes and make sure what I wanted to bring was clean.

He did give me some hints about the mystery place; he told me was that the average temperature would be in the 50s, that we were flying, and that it was west of the Mississippi River. And then proceeded to torture me about not knowing where we were going for the next two days. I technically guessed the place the night before while we were packing. Only because I found out that we would be seeing one of his friends that lived in the city. For some reason, I was thinking it was his friend, Brianna in Seattle, because I knew she lived there and he had never been there.

So off we were Friday after work. The flight was wide open leaving. It was a long flight of 4 hours, and we got seats next to each other. Upon landing, Brianna and her husband, Brian, picked us up at the airport and took us back to our hotel; the Marriott on the waterfront.

We spent the weekend sight-seeing and walking the fish market and downtown Seattle. We ate so much great seafood! Below are some pictures of our trip.

Todd and I each in front of the waterfront near our hotel. This was actually a platform for a street elevator that went from one block where our hotel was, to the next block "up." The city is steep and all different levels.

The Pike and Western Wine Shop. This was just a few blocks from our hotel, on the corner by the fish market. We ended up buying a couple of bottles of Washington wine to bring back with us, from this store.

The fresh food market.

In front of the Pike Fish Market. I asked my cousin to edit this picture for us so we can blow it up a bit and frame it. In the new version, the letters are red, but the rest is black and white. Instant art!

More Cityscapes.

The Seattle Art Museum (SAM)

Me in front of what we thought was the "Original Starbucks." I really wanted to visit this place, but turns out, the "original" is on the next block up! We actually passed it a couple times and never noticed it! Oh well....

Us in front of the Fish Market.

We went to lunch at the Pike Brewery and Pub. We had beer flights to try a bunch of original Washington brews, crab chowder, and fresh clams and mussels. Above is the chowder. Below are the clams and mussels. Yum!

We took a cab over to the Seattle Space Needle to see the views from the top and learn about some history.

A view atop the Space Needle.

Another view.

Space Needle from the ground.

We went on a tour of the "underground city." Seattle was a city built on top of a city, after a fire struck and wiped out the whole downtown. This is below ground, but at one time was the level city street.

A "sky light" when the city was rebuilt after the fire. The stores were at the old level, and the streets were a level above. These skylights were used as lights.

What the "skylight" looks like today, from the street level.

The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Not very original, but I love the architecture of this building.

Us at dinner Saturday night at the "Salmon House." We went to dinner with Brianna and Brian, and enjoyed fresh salmon and oysters.

A view of the city from the waterfront piers.

More views. You can see the Space Needle in the distance below.

We are one block away from what is at the top of these stairs. Crazy!

More Fish Market

More fish market pictures. I could stay by the fish market and watch the activity all day.

It was such a great trip! We almost didn't make it home because the flights miraculously filled up on the return. Somehow we both made it on. I wasn't expecting that, and was actually planning to spend another night. What do you know? We seem to have good luck flying standby.

Thanks to Todd for surprising me!