Mentoring Field Trip and More

It is the time of year that we take our field trip for my mentoring group from work. We meet like every other month and one of the last meetings of the year we do something fun out of the office. I do not know who picked it or how it got approved but I honestly am standing here applauding right now for the people who did make where we went this year happen. Last year we did a tour of the other MSA facilities at Evergreen and Rockpointe. A nice field trip no doubt but still a bit too tied to the work environment. This year we went to Wigle Whiskey in Pittsburgh and then across the street to Mullaney's Harp & Fiddle for some food. Now that is something to get excited about!

I had to find a way to get down there as I was not driving in the downtown area in my car. No way. I thought at first it was only 2 miles away for some reason but it was actually 4. That is a bit too far out for walking. I was told to email some people to try and get a seat in one of their cars but I had a better idea. I'll just ride my bike. I was in the tour the other week. I have a better idea of the streets around here now. It should be no problem. It would actually work out really well as I had to take another trip to the Apple store because when I woke up that morning it turns out my 1 month old iPhone 6 took a dive off my nightstand and was now smashed.

Luckily it was only a half hour job (but cost $116) to get the screen fixed and I was good to go. I was able to get that handled during lunch.

Now I just relax until a little after 1pm and I'll ride down to the distillery. I was able to stay on the sidewalks for the most part and it wasn't bad. I did get to see that they have a section of Penn Ave ripped the hell up down to one lane and everything was dirt. They must be fixing some serious sewer pipe issues or something. Since it was only 4 miles the trip was over soon and I didn't have to wait long for others to show up.


They gave us a free cocktail to start which was delicious. No whiskey burn at all. It was smooth and awesome. The guy led us into the back and showed us all the equipment used to make the whiskeys and even gave us history on Pittsburgh and Prohibition and stuff. It was all pretty cool. We then sat down at these tasting tables and we had 5 different kinds of whiskey to sample from. Also very awesome! Unfortunately I didn't think ahead far enough I guess. I was unable to purchase any as I had no way of taking it back with me on my bike.















I also found out about this Festival coming up that some of my favorite local companies are involved in. Hopefully I can make it to that.

Even though it was only Thursday this seemed like the unofficial start to my weekend this week. On Friday we had to quickly cram in a stop at Sam's Club in Monroeville so we had some food to cook for when my dad got here. Since the boy had friends over the weekend of his birthday, my dad rescheduled his trip to come over to this weekend. We made it home and got the groceries put away before he got here. He actually walked in right during Freedom Friday which was really just Taco Tuesday but on Friday. We didn't get too crazy that night. Ale was even working on the boy's costume. 

Saturday we started early though. My dad took the boy to get donuts and found out the Jeannette Bakery no longer exists then we burned the trash and made our plans for the day. We would show my dad the property in Claridge that we now own, visit Aunt Dee and then go out to Ligonier for food. I read an article recently that the people who now own the old Hollow restaurant (used to be Sleepy Hollow) have reopened and now call it the Steel Wheel Grille at the Hollow. I wanted to take Ale and sit out on the back where you are overseeing the creek. She would probably like that. 

So when we ready we set out. The property was first because it was the closest. We parked on the road and walked up. It looks the same as it did last time I was here, very woodsy. This time however I tried to go as far up as I could. I never went on the back acre this far and I was impressed. Sure lots of trees were falling down but I bet when I moved in and started cleaning this up things would grow again. I had a ton of firewood if I wanted it. I could landscape this to be whatever I wanted. The boy asked if he could build a fort back here. Obviously you can. Have at it boy. 

When we got ao Aunt Dee's she was already outside with Billy. She says she has glaucoma now so that sucks but besides that she seemed to be doing okay. Jed is currently living in the trailer court in Penn but apparently Zippy was still here. We stayed and chatted for about an hour then headed out.

When we got to the restaurant it was not what I expected. Apparently the huge restaurant part is not yet fixed up enough from when it burned down to be open. Instead they had a little outdoor part open on the side and that was the way it was for now. We sat outside and ordered some food. It was good. There were lots of lady bugs flying around and the boy met a friend who was working on his Minecraft costume. I asked the lady before we left what was going on and she told me they just got the permits approved and now they can go in and first thing they want to do is fix up the bathrooms (currently they have 2 port-a-potties and a sink in the parking lot, Ale was not fond of that) and then they'll go from there. I figure give them the winter to take care of whatever they have to do and maybe by the time next summer rolls around we can come back and see the whole thing. 

On the way I also made us stop at All Saints Brewing to fill up the growlers. They were out of Oktoberfest so that sucked but the 2 beers I did get were awesome anyway. 

We watched the Pens win that night against Neal and the Predators. Fleury got his 29th career shutout. My dad woke me up at 7 in the morning the next day as he was leaving. I thought he'd stick around but whatever that's usually when I try to get us out of there when we visit. He seemed very happy for us, his family, and was glad he visited. I was glad too. 

Too bad he didn't stay. Big Ben set a bunch of records and had one of the greatest days in Steelers quarterback history as he won his 100th game in 150 chances (only the 4th QB to do so) and we beat the Colts 51-34. Recap here.

All in all a great weekend. I made sure to note aloud to Ale several times how happy I was. I love my wife and family!

Trilogy - Part X of 3 - Tim's Tour

I took my biking TO THE NEXT LEVEL this weekend. I signed up to do a 3-2-1 Ride that was held in Pittsburgh on 2014/10/12.

There were 3 options:

1. Rita's Tour - Only 7 miles, not what I was looking for.
2. Metric Century - 62 miles. Maybe a bit much for me yet.
3. Tim's Tour - 25 miles. Seems just about right.

So I signed up for Tim's Tour. I almost didn't. I was nervous. I couldn't get Joel to commit to go with me. I had my co-worker Neil interested but he had plans to go camping that weekend so he couldn't go either. It wasn't like I couldn't do it myself but it'd be nice to have someone to ride with. My main concern was knowing where to go in riding the streets of Pittsburgh. I've never done it before. I don't know where anything is. I wasn't tired of my regular trails but I definitely wanted to go check out something new, the trails down Pittsburgh. This was my chance. I figured they would have to mark it well enough. When I emailed the lady she assured me that 'No one would be left behind'. That was what I needed to hear. I paid my $25 and filled out the form. I found out later that this was a fundraising thing and I had to commit to another $10 but that was okay. They even had scheduled early packet pick-up at the bike shop right by my work, the one I bought my bike at. So I was able to make it to that and acquire my free shirt, water bottle, stickers, race bib, etc. 

I woke up on Sunday and got ready to go. I was a bit nervous as I hate driving down Pittsburgh but with no home Steelers game today there were no problems. I paid for a spot in the lot rather than park on the road and the stupid toll guy tried to give the wrong change but whatever. Since I was early I got to ride around Heinz Field by myself and it was awesome!! This was fun as all hell. It was a little cold in the shadows of big buildings when the wind blew hard but I'm sure my body would heat up once I started riding in earnest and things would be okay. I was already drinking water and had to pee so there was another pre-race situation where I had to find a place to go. I saw other people searching for restrooms and eventually did find an unofficial place to relieve myself. Now it was ride around until we were ready to start. 

I lined up on the road where it looked like everyone else was lining up. Some lady started talking but I couldn't hear her so I went the whole way to the front so I could. I hoped I was in the right place. And WE WERE OFF!!

I can't describe how much fun it was. It was really fun. I tried to stay in a pack but then I saw people moving up. Eventually I figured I better make a move too or I'll get left behind. We rode on bridges and trails and roads. There were easily visible signs where changes in course were required. I slowed down a bit going up some hills but I never stopped or had to get off my bike. I skipped the halfway rest stop. There was no reason for me to stop. I was able to stay in a pack until the last straightaway and I arrived back at Heinz Field in 2 hours and 23 minutes. People were taking our picture and I felt great. I could keep going. I rode around and saw they had some stuff laid out for us but I wasn't socializing. The whole ride was perfectly documented in my RunKeeper app and that made me happy. I couldn't wait to go home and analyze it and tell Ale all about it. I was surprised that it turned out it wasn't even my longest ride at that point. It was a few tenths of a mile short. 

I loaded up the car and drove home, calling the 6 pack shop to have a sandwich ready for me when I got there to grab some beer for the Steelers game. I made it back just in time. What a wonderful experience. I would absolutely do this again. I'd do it again next week if I could. 

More pics
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2011 Father's Day

It was the weekend of Father's Day again and because I was keeping Isaac an extra day this weekend (Friday into Saturday so I could make sure he went to karate practice) I thought we'd do the Father's Day thing on Saturday since I already had him. My mom cut me out a page from the PT paper about an event going on down Pittsburgh this weekend called LegoFest and I saw a couple people facebooking about it so I decided 'Hey, Isaac loves Legos!' this is going to be our activity this year!!

We got up that morning, had some cereal and went to karate practice. After we were done we went home and had some lunch as our tickets were for the 3-8pm session that day (I printed them on my new wireless printer that ma babby bought for me). Around 2-2:30pm I decided it was time to go so I grabbed all my fully charged electronic devices (I brought my 3DS for 3D pictures, my iPhone for tweeting and facebooking pictures and my Sony camera to take high quality pictures and videos) and we hopped in the car. We had no problems with any traffic or finding the place. We parked and walked towards the David L. Lawrence Convention Center and went in. There were lots of people but we really didn't have to wait that much.

The place was ENORMOUS!! (PIC) The first thing we saw were these little boxes with scenes set up in them and that was pretty neat. Then we saw a huge map of the USA made of Legos all laid out on the floor and although its outline was complete and the east coast was built up the majority of it was blank. I wondered what this was so we investigated. Here you could take a base piece and build whatever you wanted on it, a house, a tower or a weird art thing. Pretty much anything you could imagine that fit on the piece and then when you completed it you took it over to the map and someone would take your genius over and put it in the masterpiece. Isaac built a crazy little house and I think it got placed somewhere in the Kansas/Missouri area.

Some of the other thing we saw:

• An area with life size Lego characters such as the Harry Potter gang, characters and droids from Star Wars, and a lot of different kinds of dinosaurs.
• There were several areas where there was only 1 color brick to build with. I guess Target was a sponsor because in the red brick area they were putting those white dog mascots with the target around their eye on everyone's finished piece. There was a pink section were a lot of the girls were, a dark blue section and a green section. Green is where Isaac spent a good amount of time constructing his awesome tower.
• There were a couple of huge spots where they just dumped a bout a billion Legos out on the floor and you could just wade out there and sit in the middle and build whatever you wanted.
• There was a part where grown-up nerds that probably take Legos way too seriously made some cool scenes, some guy had a car show out of cars he made from Legos, there were a bunch of cool trains and futuristic monorails that Isaac definitely took an interest in, and neat dirt bike track.
• There was an area that had lots of wheels and other parts to make a vehicle of some sort and then you took it over to these ramps where you raced your creation against other peoples.
  
• Another section had high-tech futuristic Legos that had sensors and hooked to computers that you could program to do stuff. They also offered Lego camps there but it's too far away from where we live for us to go.
• The other big thing we did which I didn't think Isaac would want to do was climb one of those big rock climbing walls. I was surprised at his enthusiasm and lack of fear for wanting to do it but I was a bit disappointed he gave up about a 3rd of the way up at the first place he kind of got stuck at. Maybe next time he'll make it to the top.
  
• We also signed up to get a free subscription to some Lego magazine so that will be cool when those start coming for him.
  

All in all it was another fun daddy/son day. We were there for a long time and he got a little cranky at the end so I decided it was time to go. It seemed like the place was already clearing out and there were a bunch of workers taking some of the things down. We walked out through this cool fountain waterfall thing they have and then I drove him back to his mom's. I was sad to see him go but happy we spent quality time together doing something memorable.

You can see the rest of the pics on my fb

Alevacation part 5

2010/07/06

I had set up today to introduce Ale to Joel. When we were all still in high school he was the one that drove us down to the big city on the weekends because he knew all the roads. I was using this as my thinking when I figured maybe he could take us somewhere that was a little hidden, a little under the radar but still cool. His idea was different. He works at the Tribune Review so he got discount tickets for the Carnegie Art and Natural History Museum so we went there. Not my original idea but still cool. We did stop at my work on the way past so Ale and Lana could meet but Lana didn't have her phone on her and we couldn't get a hold of anyone so we waited 10 minutes and just left. Her loss.

Joel's discount was buy one admission get one free but due to some snafu with the lady we ended up getting buy one get all the rest free so that was cool. We had a good time. First we saw the Natural Museum side, the old architectures, the dinosaurs and gemstones then we saw the Art Museum side. I've been here a bunch of times but not for a while so it was nice to check things out again. I think Isaac had came here recently with Penn Pals because I remember him telling me how awesome he thought the dinosaurs were.

When we were done the plan was to go to Schenley Park and play some disc golf because I borrowed some discs off my friend Billy (Carl) but the consensus was that it was far too hot to do anything outside if we could help it so Joel suggested we check out the new Rivers Casino. I had never been there before (gambling was not really my thing) so we thought why the hell not. On the way over we stopped to check out where the Pens play. She got to see and get a picture taken in front of the old Civic Arena before they tear it down so that was cool. Next time she comes here that building will probably not be here anymore. She also got to see the new arena but it was not done yet and we couldn't check it out as much. At least that one will still be here when she comes and I'm sure I'll end up taking her to a lot of games and events there.

It's funny that almost the exact same thing happened here as the last time I went to a casino. On my honeymoon in Niagara Falls Lisa and I went to a casino and for some reason she didn't bring her ID so when we tried to walk in they said she couldn't enter. We continued walking around until we came upon another entrance and no one said anything. We walked right in. So when we parked in the parking garage and took the elevator down and the guy carded us to get in and he (for whatever reason) didn't accept Ale's foreign ID as legitimate I knew exactly what to do. We took the elevator back up one floor, got out and took the stairs back to the ground floor and walked around to the main entrance. No one was standing there and we walked straight in. Yay slot machines. We texted Joel that we made it in but he said he had already lost $5 and was on his way back to the car. Lol. That didn't take long. We saw a complimentary drink machine so we got some pop and then we did a quick look around and I made sure we walked out right past the guy that wouldn't let us inside in the first place. We met up with Joel and by that time he needed to head back to start getting ready for work.

We went back to my mom's and she cooked us a nice home cooked turkey dinner with mashed potatoes and all the good stuff. I don't think she and Ale talked all that much. It's funny that people think they have to say different stuff to her or something because she's from far away. I don't get that. She's as normal and awesome as anyone from around here. Since this was the first time she was at this house I gave her a tour. I wanted her to see it because we may end up buying this place from my mom when she moves away. We thanked my mom and went back to Jim's to crash until the next day.

History Was Made

This past weekend seemed to fly by. I can't believe it's Monday morning already. Now that I think back I guess we did do a lot but it seems like I should have at least one more day to rest and recover here. That is disappointing. What isn't though is the fact that Isaac came with me to the Pens game on Friday night to kick off our weekend and the Pens made history. They got the first ever win in the new arena and we were there for it. Now Isaac can tell people when he gets older and all the kids grow up and forget there even ever was a Civic Arena that he was there for this historic victory. I'm super happy about that. (you can read more about the game here)

He was very good during the game although he did get a bit delirious towards the end. We went right to bed when we got home because I thought I had way too many things we needed to get done on Saturday. It turns out I was wrong. My mom was supposed to go with us to the toy store to see what kinds of toys Isaac wanted for Xmas and to get him something for his birthday but she was too busy. I think she's taking him Monday while I'm at the game with Joel. We also skipped grocery shopping because I couldn't figure out how to fit it in without having to leave the stuff in the car while we did other stuff.

So Saturday morning he ended up playing video games all morning for the most part. He did take a birthday call from Pappy and open Aunt Autumn's card to him. I talked to Chuck about various things including some interesting information about his house and he helped me look at my car again. There was an issue with the battery light and so far I got a new alternator and battery but it still flickers on every once in a while. Hopefully that doesn't turn out to get more serious. Once that was fixed, we took off. We needed to work on his Halloween costume so we were headed out to Greensburg to find the Halloween store. On the way however we made a bunch of stops because I discovered a new pastime that I wanted to share with Isaac, Geocaching! We ended up stopping a bunch of places that day and while we did experience some frustration finding the one we did find all we attempted. It sucks that it's almost winter or we'd be out more often looking for them. No hurries I guess. They ain't going anywhere.

We found one cache and then made it to the mall. I could have sworn there was a Halloween store here behind the mall but I was wrong. I decided to try our luck and actually go in the mall. Maybe it was in there so we went inside and did find it. Whew! Why is it half toy store though is my question. The whole front end of the store was toys, not just Halloween toys but regular toys. That was confusing. No good costumes here either for kids here unless you want to be Spiderman or a fireman. Looks of sexy adult costumes though. Isaac wants to be a zombie so we did find fake blood capsules. That was all the good this place was doing us so we left. On the way out of the parking lot we found one more cache and then another down the street further. We stopped Arby's to get some food as we headed out to Nate's to watch the Pens game. I got us there a bit early so we could walk out to the lake to find the one cache we couldn't find last time I was here. That's 4 total for the day. Good job us!! The Pens destroyed the Flyers and we had a blast hanging out with Nate and the family and then we went home.

The next morning we went over to Brandon's again to watch the Steelers game and played a little frisbee after. For dinner he had his favorite meal of tacos and afterward we all sang 'Happy Birthday' to him and ate chocolate cake. Yes, these will be the time I will love to remember when I'm older.

HAPPY 7TH BIRTHDAY ISAAC!!!! :D

Alevacation part 4

2010/07/05

We got up today, got some food and headed down to Station Square for the Ducky Tour. We checked out some of the stuff as we killed some time. We saw the foundation and some of the old steel mill stuff that was sitting around. Ale bought a sexy pair of sunglasses at a stand and soon it was time to board.

Amazingly enough I had not gone on this before but I was glad we got to now. The vehicle drove all around Pittsburgh and the tour guide told us all kinds of cool things that I didn't even realize. Ale had a blast and soon we hit the part where we drove into the water and that was neat. The driver called for some guest driver's as we swam(?) along. You even got a cool sticker that says 'I drove the Ducky Boat' but Ale was too chicken to go up there. Oh well.

When we got back we hit up the Incline and walked over to the observation decks to get some good pictures of us and the city. I have done that before several times and I was happy to share this experience with Ale. We got some great pictures and I think she liked seeing the city from this perspective.

After we went back down Mt Washington we started checking out all the shops and things that were in Station Square. Ale wanted to get lots of gifts and souvenirs that had PITTSBURGH stamped on them so that's what we did. We also went a hurricane simulating machine which was fun. It just blew air at you really hard. We stopped at Houlihan's and got some delicious chicken nachos for lunch.

It was late afternoon by this point and we promised Aunt Dee we would stop out so we headed back stopping at dairy queen to get Ale a Blizzard (another treat she never tried). We did that and when we stopped at my Aunt's she got to meet her and my cousin and we played with some sparklers and stuff. It was another adventurous day!

Alevacation part 2

2010/07/03

There was hardly any traffic. I shot thru town and made it to the airport super early. I started tweeting and texting to see where she was but she must not be here yet. I hung out by the baggage claim for what seemed like eternity until I finally saw bags coming down the chute. I tried to hide around a corner so I could sneak a picture before she saw me but she came running when she saw me. *HUGS & *KISSES

I grabbed her stuff for her and we headed back to the car. I was so happy she was here. It felt so right. We held hands the whole way back to Jim's to unload and relax. Luckily her flight wasn't too bad. We scheduled her a bit of a delay in DC so she'd have time to get thru customs (unlike my experience) but it turns out she flew thru and probably could have scheduled an earlier flight. Oh well better safe than sorry I guess.

We got back, spread out our stuff and made the place our own. We chatted about the trip and how everything was going. We didn't really need to talk too much since we all together online so much. Ale got cleaned up and ready and we went together in PA for the first time. We were going to try to stick to our itinerary as much as possible so we went straight to Primanti's to allow Ale to experience some real Pittsburgh cuisine. She ordered a real Primanti's sandwich and I took a lot of pictures of her trying to eat it. I was happy she liked it and now she was at least 10% more Pittsburgh than she was previously. :D

After we were down eating the next thing on the agenda was to stop over at Gall's for his 4th of July party and meet some of the Greensburg crew. Ale was nervous because like me she is not exactly a people person but this were my guys so I reassured her that everyone here was cool and that she should totally feel relaxed. We saw Dave and Callie, Dan and Steff, Q and Tina and bunches more. I was so happy to show Ale off to someone finally. She is so great and I love talking about her and telling people how awesome I think she is and this was the first time I got to do it when she was actually standing right next to me. I almost died. There was a little friction at one point because I forgot Ale didn't drink and wasn't really familiar with the culture we were in. She objected to me having a beer while we were there which kind of shocked me but I wasn't going to start a fight about it. I was all her's while she was here so it was no big deal. We didn't stay for too long since she had such a long day so we headed out and back to Jim's. My dad was in town for the weekend. I told him he didn't have to come the whole way up just to meet Ale. I had no place for him to stay and I really couldn't do nothing with him since I was with her but he really wanted to meet her so when we got back I called him and he stopped by. They talked briefly and we watched a little bit of TV until we were all passing out. I think day 1 was a success.

TO BE CONTINUED

Alevacation part 1

I don't want this blog to drag on and I never finish it like #revacation but I do want to blog about it so I can remember how awesome it was and hopefully reading the main details will trigger my memories of the other in-between stuff that is really hard to convey. I'm hoping to make it like the other blog just shorter and more to the point so I can get these out faster before my memory dims.

PROLOGUE

2010/07/02

Today was a busy day. I had to get out of work as soon as I could to go get ready and when the time finally came I was extremely happy to be free. More so than usual because tomorrow I will be at the airport to pick up my girlfriend who is coming all the way from Argentina to hang out and be with me.

The first thing I needed to do was finish with my packing. I had most of my clothes and everything I was going to need. I just needed to make sure I had all my electronics and plugs, presents for Ale, etc.

Once that was square I had to go to the grocery store and get us some food for the week. I went to the Giant Eagle and bought a ton of stuff: cakes and sweets and sandwiches and breakfast stuff. Now I have to get all this stuff over to Jim's which is where we would be staying. (Instead of renting an expensive hotel room for the week I had asked Jim if we could rent out one of his rooms since he traveled a lot it seemed like a much better idea, lucky for us he had no problem with the idea)

I talked to Jim earlier in the week and got a copy of his key off him in case he was traveling at the time and wouldn't be around to let us in. I pulled in and hauled some bags down to his door and when I walked in I had to make sure I was in the right place. It was clean! I have never seen Jim's house this clean and I was amazed. Not that Jim always had a dirty house you know it's just... let's call it a single man's house. I guess he was practicing for when his girlfriend moves in. Whatever the reason I appreciated it because I wanted to make sure Ale would be comfortable here.

I brought the rest of the stuff in and put it away. Then I set up everything in my room and decided it was time for a break. I called Matt and he stopped by for a bit and we had a little party and then I crashed. I think I was supposed to do some chore for my mom in the morning but I don't remember what it was. I think it ended up being done anyway so not knowing how Pittsburgh traffic was going to be, I left early to go to the airport.

Revacation Part 2

2010/03/27

Someone must have reached across me and shut my window shade because when I woke up it was closed. That was a smart thing though because when I opened it, light blazed in. It was morning and I was almost at the airport (EZE). Nothing could stop me now!!

When we de-planed we walked down these awesome glass hallways that attached the planes to the terminal. Nothing like the retractable pieces of garbage at (PIT). I followed everyone down to Customs. We had to wait in line to show our passports and pay some kind of entry tax. Apparently you don't need a visa to visit Argentina from the US but the other way around, you do. Argentina recoops this cost to their citizens with this tax. Either way I could have used the $131 for other purposes but I knew about it ahead of time so I was prepared. After that I waited in line for another guy who stamped my passport and that was it. Get my bag and head out. Happiness!!

The area sort of funneled everyone towards a frosted glass double door that was the exit. I walked thru it and directly in front of me was a giant glass wall with hundreds of people staring at me with their faces pressed against it looking for their loved ones. Hi everyone that is staring at me. I am not the person you are looking for. Now I know how the monkey's at the zoo feel like. Where was my loved one? How was I supposed to find Alejandra in this mess? I started walking and saw the end where my area merged with the area all these people were. If I didn't see her by the time I got there what was I going to do? Ah I see her arm outstretched. I iz saved!! Hugs! Wow I'm here. You're here. This is slightly weird but not. I can't believe this. How was your trip? How long were you waiting? Where are we going now? Let's go to the hostel. Okay.

Outside a taxi man told us I couldn't bring my bags on a bus and that we should go with him. Ale said he was lying and we found and boarded the #8 bus after a few minutes with no problems. She sort of sat half on me and finally got to start enjoying each others company. We took our first picture together here. There was a rear view mirror on the ceiling in front of us for some reason and we could see ourselves in it. We did it! The revacation has started!

I got to see the country side of this strange land I was in while Ale filled me in on what was going on. The bus was empty when we got on it but the closer we got to the city the more and more people that boarded. Wow here we are, check this city out. Every block was packed with stores and there were signs and huge billboards everywhere. Wow there's a gas station, a sign to drink Coke, a soccer stadium, a train station, huge apartment buildings. This looks like normal familiar stuff but for some reason slightly strange to me. For blocks and blocks and blocks it just went on. NYC probably looks something like this but I have never been there. Ale showed me her bus schedule book. As big as this city was I was impressed she had studied this manual enough to know when and where to go. The bus wouldn't go directly to where we needed to go but we could get a taxi the rest of the way. 4 pesos for the bus but it would have been 40 pesos to get a taxi this far. I love that she knows things like that. We stopped and I dragged my stuff off the bus and into a taxi. Do these intersections lack signals? I think so. I don't know how many car accidents they have around here but from what I'm seeing it should be a lot. At least half the cars on the road are taxis and it doesn't seem to be mandatory to stay in your lane either.

Here at the hostel it is kind of weird. I had my first real interaction with someone that could not understand a word I was saying and vice versa. Luckily Ale took over and handled all this but it was neat to be right there and try to figure out what they were saying. They didn't clean our room yet or something but we could dump our stuff and by the time we came back it would be ready. Sounds like a good idea to me. My arms are killing me from hauling these bags around. There's only one remote for the air conditioners so we have to get the guy to come up here to turn it off and on. :/ Okay there's a bed and a dresser. Where is our bathroom? Oh it is the room next door. So we have to leave our room to go take a shower and stuff. :/ I got some shorts on and got my feet out of my big boots. It was cold in Pittsburgh but it's not here. We will go get a bite to eat and take a quick walk around while they finish doing whatever they are going to do to our room so we dumped our stuff and walked back out onto the street.

Right down the street from the hostel was a nice looking restaurant called Imperio's so we went in there and took a seat. Now I get to see how they do things down here. First thing I noticed, they don't give you free refills on drinks and everything is either con gas or sin gas (do you want it bubbly or not). It was fancy here. They had cloth napkins and the waiters were all dressed sharply but I could not read the menu. Yeah I see it says Pizza but what kinds are these? You don't have pepperoni down here? That is the most insane things I ever heard. Hmm since I don't know what this crap is I'm going to have to bite the bullet here and just trust you Ale to get me something I'll like. She ordered me 'Matambre con papas a la espanola'. It was awesome!!! :D Imagine a kind of regular personal pizza but instead of a bread crust that everything is on it's a big piece of meat. On top of that is ham. On top of that is a ton of melted cheese with spices and a few tomato slices. The whole thing is served with what we would call here potato wedges. It was awesome. I had a couple of 7ups with it, we took some pictures, I stole one of their classy cloth napkins and we were out.

It was a nice day for a walk. I remember seeing a block on the bus map that was in the shape of a circle. Apparently that was the park Ale wanted to show me so we went off in that direction. Watch where you step. There is dog poop all over the place. There is a burned out car filled with trash. Don't they clean up that stuff around here? Is this a foreign land thing or just a big city thing? I never figured that out. I started taking lots of atmosphere photos to remember how it felt to be there and pretty soon we were at the park. Around the outside were lots of vendors selling their stuff out of tents. Ale told me that most of the stuff there were selling was pirated America stuff. I guess it is marked up so bad in regular stores that no one buys it and almost everyone there has no qualms about buying their goods this way. That's just how it is. (I discovered this later when we found an electronic store and I looked at their PS3 stuff. Both the system and the games were about 4 times as expensive as if I would of bought them in a store back home.) There was a big pond in the middle of this park and there were a million pigeons flitting about. There were fountains in the water and cool statues around. We sat down and relaxed for a bit. We talked for a while and enjoyed each others company and the environment but there were some strong desires burning in the background. I think it's time to see if they finished our room.

I won't go into what happened next in too much detail. Let's just say the bed was insanely squeaky almost to the point of embarrassingly so. Now we can clean up and go back to meet her parents at her house and have dinner.

Wow this bathroom that we had to keep our clothes on to walk to doesn't even have a shower. Oh wait there is a hose in the sink. Oh we hook it to the faucet and hang it on the wall. How novel. :\ Wait the water pressure is so much that it keeps blowing it off the spigot. This sucks.

So we went to Ale's house and met her family. Her mom and dad and sister were all awesome I just wish I could understand them better. I got to see her house and her room. For some reason I never got the impression that her room was that small. They have a huge brick oven / grill thing in the middle of their house that is cool. Her dad grilled us all kinds of meat that we had for dinner. They kept testing things out on me to see if I'd eat it. Most things were ok. I mean meat is meat. Sure it tasted a bit different but as long as you don't tell me what it is until later I'll be okay. There was one kind of purple sausage that was all mushy and I didn't like. I found out later it was mixed with cow's blood so that was totally gross. Everything else was awesome. I gave her dad the headphones I bought for him (although for some reason Ale told him that she gave me the money to buy them. I'm not sure why. I thought he'd like me for giving him that present but if he thinks she bought it I won't have that going for me).

I also got to give Ale all the stuff I had been collecting for her. The Pens calendar, tons of American chocolate candy, a book on how to speak Pittsburghese and most importantly the less than 3 necklace. She really liked it which made me happy. When I saw it I knew it was the perfect gift since in all our chats we <3 each other. She says it's the best present she ever got and that she's never taking it off. That makes me feel good. We went back to the hostel and .. and slept. What a crazy first day!

TO BE CONTINUED