Cartwright Family Holiday #1 2016 is a Success!

I wrote a blog in January about my new idea for a holiday. Well I've worked on it since then and implemented my idea. I am happy to report it was a great success!!

It began with great enthusiasm that quickly turned to frustration. When I announced the idea to everyone it was a hit! Everyone liked it and wanted to get involved. When I said we need to plan something and get together etc that's when no one seemed to care.

Plan A was to go VA Beach. La was on board she was ready to rent a house for us all but unfortunately no body wanted to put up the money for it. That idea quickly fell through. I learned to not count on my sister or father in these situations. They were a great disappointment to me. (perhaps now they will bounce back since they see I'm serious and this is a successful thing)

Ale's parents were also fans of the idea and they actually scheduled their vacation to come up and see Pax around the holiday so they would be here for it. Plan B was to go to Miami since their flight was going through there. I did my research and it was doable but it would cost a lot. We decided we wanted to move out of Chuck's and build our dream house a little more than this vacation so we couldn't spend that kind of money at that time. Plan B was scratched.

Plan C was find somewhere closer that doesn't cost a lot and isn't far. We researched places like Ocean City, etc and ended up settling on Erie, PA. It met the requirements. There was a beach. It was close. There were breweries. There were bike trails. At the beginning of March we booked our room and Ale's parents booked right next to us. We were set!

I grew excited as the time approached.

On June 4th while Ale and I were in the living room all of a sudden someone poked their head in the room. Ale's family was here!

Ale and I continued to work the next week while her parent's watched, played with, spent time with Pax. They loved him. They missed him so much and he loved seeing his Abus in real life!

After we all got to see the Pittsburgh Penguins hold aloft the Lord Stanley's Cup for the 4th time in history after defeating the Sharks in Game 6 on 2016/06/12, it was time to party! First thing is first though, time to shave off this damn itchy playoff beard!

 

I still had to login to work and accomplish some things before we went on Monday but in between I was able to help get everyone packed and the car loaded. (The car's gas mileage really goes down with 2 bikes strapped to the back) Ale's parents left earlier than us because they wanted to stop at the Grove City Outlets but we met up with them around 7 pm for a fancy dinner right by our hotel. We got rooms next to each other which was nice. The whole hotel was pretty cool. I'd come back here again. No real complaints. The boy loved the pool. I know at least one day he hung with some girls staying here for several hours.


I rode my bike at Presque Isle State Park. The boy and I rented a jet ski and rode around on Lake Erie for an hour. I was able to hit 2 breweries and a bunch of other nice restaurants. We spent one day at the local water park which was fun. We got some souvenirs. I saw some turtles. We swam, we relaxed. We enjoyed our holiday vacation to the max I think and everyone was happy.

Although on Friday we headed back home we were not done yet. Saturday was the big cookout. We had to hit some stores to get a few things. I secured a sweet cornhole set for party entertainment. All our family came but I was stupid with the invitations and a lot of other people had other plans so not everyone I wanted to be there made it. I still barbecued for 13 people though so it was still nice.

Again I think the first annual Cartwright Family Holiday went well. We planned sufficiently and everything turned out great. I can't wait for next year in Asheville!

Fly Day?

I decided this day that since Americans as a whole are overworked and do not get enough paid time off and most of the holidays we do get off are some sort of religious or governmental in nature that we should define our own family holiday with our own rules and customs for us to celebrate independently of whatever else everyone is doing. Cartwright Day if you will. Are you with me so far? Good.

I said it should probably be in summer because although adults can take a vacation day, children can generally not miss school. It should also be in a month that typically does not already give us another major holiday. I boiled it down and came up with June 15th which like a birthday can be celebrated on that day specifically and/or can be deferred until the weekend.


I don't have everything figured out yet but I think it's a good start. So far there is no mention of trees, cake, candy, flags, turkeys, cards or poles. The boy wants to call it FLY DAY for some reason but let's see what else we can come up with. I have a few suggestions below. I got a good response from the rest of the family and I think it has been suggested that we go to the beach for the inaugural holiday. La will rent us a vacation house for 4 days, June 10th - June 14th. Let's make this work!

Potential Names
Fly Day
Cartwright Day
Festival of Beerjuvenation


Core Values
Relax
No work
No major chores
Everything gets postponed today and that's okay because it's your time to relax
Massage / Spa
Beer
Beach

40TH ANNIVERSARY BIRTHDAY SPECTACULAR!!!

I turned 40 this past weekend so I planned a nice weekend out for the occasion.

Day 1 Friday July 31st

• We first waited out for the Dark Pit amiibo
• Went to the David L Lawrence Convention Center for ReplayFX
• Went to Pappy's

Day 2 Saturday August 1st

• Left to go to the beach
• Arrived at the beach after much driving and traffic
• Swam and beached for a few hours
• Came back via the shuttle to get our Neptune photo
• Had pizza

Day 3 Sunday August 2nd

• Went to Sandbridge
• Saw the USS Wisconsin
• Drove back to Pappy's
• Grilled out
• Had cake

Day 4 Monday August 3rd

• Played frisbee
• Drove home
• Stopped to hang out with the boy and eat food

Yay! Fun! I'm 40! :O

Done with Kennywood

I love roller coasters. I don't like waiting in line after line only to have the ride break and be shut down before I get my turn. That's the only way I can describe my most recent (and probably last) visit to Kennywood Park. I haven't gone for a long time anyway. I know I've taken the boy before but he was just an inch too short to ride anything good. He wanted to stand at the end of the Pittsburgh Plunge and get splashed all day that time anyway. We decided to go this time because Ale's parents we visiting and it seemed like a fun activity to do with them.

First thing I noticed that I didn't like was that they changed the parking lot structure. Used to just be able park anywhere, not anymore. It's pay. The free spots are way way in the back and seemingly insufficient in volume. Now I walk so I would prefer to park in the back but when I see the pay lot is completely empty and idiots are parking on the hillside in the free lot then I think we have a problem.

Second thing I noticed was the entrance fee is back to one price only. You have to pay $41 to get in. That seems like a lot for a regular person. That seems like a whole lot for people that don't intend to ride anything. What happened to General Admission? Ale's mom and sister aren't going to ride anything. Why do they have to pay full price when they are just going to sit on a bench all day? Luckily Ale researched and found so coupons so we didn't get totally ripped off buying admission tickets.

So we are through security now (because that's totally necessary). You walk through that tunnel that takes you under the road and BAM! You're in! At least that is still fun. The boy couldn't reach the ceiling. I remember knowing I was growing the time when I was able to touch it. So they took the Turnpike ride out and put in the Sky Rocket. I say let's jump right in and get in line. So me, her dad and the boy get in line. We wait 35 min. We're at the part that goes up the stairs to the area where you board the cars. We hear an announcement. The ride is shut down for maintenance. Wow that sucks. Should we wait it out or come back later? We were close enough we could see that some guys came over and are working on the brakes on one of the cars. We waited 10 more minutes and then left the line. This wasn't going to be running again soon.

The boy wants to ride the Phantom so we head that way. On the way we did stop and get on the bumper cars so at least we got that first ride under our belts.

When we left that, across the way was the Cosmic Chaos which I have ridden and enjoyed before. The line didn't seem long so we queued up. After about 10 minutes we can tell we will be in the next batch of people to get on. The ride stops and the people get off clearing the way for us. Excitement! Wait what are they pointing at? Where are those employees going? I hear another announcement. Someone yakked on the ride and they are closing for maintenance. Wonderful! We are out of here.

The boy had enough at this point. He starts dragging me towards the Phantom. I see a sign: "Only one car running today. Sorry for the inconvenience". Oh really? I pretty much have no choice. We get in line. About 55 minutes later we are in the boarding area. At this point I can tell 2, 4, 6 people in front of us so that's 3 cars worth until our turn. I also notice in the one working car they have that 2 of the double seats on the cars are blocked off. Their one car isn't even capable of a full load. The boy is really excited. At least this ride is working huh Dad? Don't jinx us boy, I said. Finally we are next. The car pulls in and the people get off. Announcement. Temporarily closed for Maintenance. FFUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCK! I could see disappointment clouding up on the boys face. Someone asked what was wrong and the guy replied something back that didn't seem to serious. In fact, as we all stood there for what seemed like an eternity but was probably just 5-10 minutes, no one looked at anything that I could tell but then all of sudden we hear the 'please board carefully' message. Yay! We can ride now! The boy was fairly terrified but he did it. We even got this cool picture Ale paid $15 for. :|

After that success we walked around a little and saw the other parts of the park. I told them where everything used to be around the park. We rode the train ride. I noticed they have huge dryers outside the water rides now to bilk stupid people of money. We went into the arcade where I explained I spend plenty of time in my younger years. They had almost all of the exact same games, Rampage, Double Dragon, etc. That was kind of depressing. While that was a Golden Age of Arcades some good games have come out then you should probably have here. Did they do nothing but rearrange them every year since then? We wanted to get some food or something but I said I had to at least ride that new Black Widow ride before we left so I went over to get in line solo. You stand almost under it to wait in line and it seems pretty impressive for that vantage point. I was excited. Too bad that 2 rides into my wait they shut it down. That's it, I'm out. Everyone got out of line and I went to find my family by the Merry Go Round. I'm pissed. I want to go. If they new the rides weren't ready yet or whatever they could at least warn you and charge you half price or something. So we left and I had to apologize to her family. This isn't what I expected. This isn't a good impression to show a bunch of people who have never been here before.

It's because of this total bullshit that I will not come back to Kennywood.

Highlights 2013

Well I wanted to make a Top 5 list of the best things that occured in my life this past year but as I was looking for notable events that happened I found way more than 5 things I wanted to remember. Without further ado here is a list of things that happened this year that are memorable to me and a brief explanation of each. This is somewhat in chronological order.

Ear Of Luigi - According to Nintendo after pushing Mario down our throats for 20 some years it is finally time for Luigi to shine.

Data Analyst 2 - At work I have finally been recognized for my hard work and effort and after they retooled the job titles I have been promoted. Long overdue but at least I finally got a noteworthy bump in salary to help pay for the things that have gone up in price in the last few years when they skimped on giving us more money.

Attended 100th Pens Game - I've been to a lot of Penguins games and luckily I have a lot of friends that are fans that went with me. I don't know how much longer I'll have the tickets but I am super satisfied with what I have achieved so far. (add my record here)

May Trip To Argentina - Well I have been out of the country before. This was actually my 3rd trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina in my life but this time we were able to take Isaac. He is now an international traveller. I think this was super good for him to see another culture. Hopefully it sticks with him.

1 Year Anniversary - On 2013-06-08 I have been married to my wonderful wife for a whole year now! How is that not awesome?!

Took Isaac To See Weird Al - This wasn't the first concert the boy was ever at. We took him to see Phish before but we haven't been able to get him to a Weird Al show until now. Unfortunately due to the venue we were not able to meet up with him after the show but it was still a great experience.

Bushy Run Battlefield 250th Anniversary - Despite living only a mile or 2 away and it being around my birthday ever year, I have never been to the Battle Of Bushy Run Battle Reenactment before. We finally made it this year and it was the 250th anniversary to boot so it was a good one. I got some cool swag.

Ale Got Her Driver's License - She failed the test 5 times. I was admittedly not very happy. I couldn't understand how someone as smart as Ale could not grasp the concept of driving. She's still not a pro at it but finally at least she passed her test and is a licensed driver.

Green Baycation - I had on my 'bucket list', if you will, to attend an NFL football game at the holy mecca of football stadiums, Lambeau Field in Green Bay Wisconsin, for several years now. The problem is due to the way they make the schedule the Steelers only play Green Bay once every five years and of course last time they met they played here in Pittsburgh but finally this year it was our turn. I have been pushing this to all my friends for years and it seemed like I had a following but when it came time to put up or shut up, no one came forward. I was disappointed but not deterred. I had to shanghai Ale and take her instead. Luckily the whole trip worked out better than I imagined. We saw Chicago and the game went down exactly as I pictured it, snowy and wow what a game to boot! (link doc and pic album)

PS4 - Sony released a new system. Pretty impressive. I hope they follow it up with some good games. There wasn't really anything good that I craved at launch so I am still awaiting justification. Hopefully Infamous Second Son, Watchdogs and Destiny are kick ass.

Xmas Vacation - I took the rest of the year off after December 20th. Not only for the Green Baycation but to spend time with the boy and play with him and play video games of course. I had a lot of stress this year so it was nice to be off and not have to do anything for a while. Hopefully I can make this an annual thing.

Babbies - To say this was the year a lot of my friends had a baby is an understatement.

• ADELYN MAE WEYANDT  - MAY
• CARTER RYAN MEALS - AUG
• DANIEL MOOK FREY - SEPT 
• ZACK WEIN - OCT
• GALL - NOV 

Health - Also did a lot of things to stay healthy.

• I walked 4 million steps (4,322,302 to be exact)
• Did 10k push ups (10,220 to be exact)
• Read 50 books (52 to be exact)

IN CONCLUSION 
Well if you look at it like that it seems I had a fairly awesome year. Hopefully in my mind I can change my perception to think of this year in these terms and that should help me stay happy and positive. Next year as Ale and I have already discussed won't be filled with as many trips and events as we have been doing because we need to start saving money but I think it will still have some noteworthy happenings going on. Here is a small preview:

Big Stuff Planned for 2014

• Paying Off Student Loan
• Buying Property For Dreamhouse
• Groundhogs Day
• Cartwright Babby :D

Quick Update

Sorry it's been so long since my last update. I have been doing so much (that I probably should have been writing about).

I finally got my new job in December. I moved from my old Miller project group to my new Stores group. I"m finally getting to learn new things and be useful. I love this job. I'm writing SQL and learning Appworx chains and all kinds of things. There's so much to know that somedays I feel like, 'Oh yeah I"m getting it' and then the next day I'm like, 'OMG I'll never ever understand all of this'. It's all okay though. I'm just going to do the best I can and I know good things will happen.

I finally got a new car to replace my beat down Buick. I bought a 2001 PT Cruiser from a junkyard that was totaled. Someone Chuck knows does body work so he fixed it up. It took 2 months but I finally have a sweet car that hopefully won't give me problems for a long time.

And lastly, I am finally back out on my own (w Isaac). It took about a month of constant hard work but we fixed and cleaned up Chuck's old farmhouse and I moved in there. It's pretty nice and big and we like it. It's just nice to be out by myself again. I'm scared about paying all the bills with Lisa still hounding me for money but I can't stop living my life just because she's a freak.

The best part is the #mayvacation is like less than 70 hours from now. I finally get to see and be with Alejandra again. She's so awesome. So many people were asking me, 'What's going on' and we finally get to sit togehter and figure out when she can move up here and stuff.

My life is rocketing off towards good things and I love it.

Alevacation part 6

2010/07/07

Today we got up and out a little later so we decided to skip breakfast and go straight to lunch. We went to the TGIFridays in Greensburg and ate. It was very delicious. Today we were going to stay local since we had a very important event to attend this evening so we could relax a bit and just see the stuff around my town.

After we had lunch I figured we needed dessert and to fit in the theme of our day I took her to try the best ice cream there is: Baskin Robbin's Rocky Road. So we went to the mall had some and walked around there for a little while so she could see the subtle differences and similarities between her malls and ours. Not so many I think.

I decided then to slow down on the vacation stuff and do some real world, every day life kind of things. If she comes up here and lives she will have to see what kinds of things need done and how I currently go about doing them. I thought to take her on a grocery shopping trip with me so we went to Wal-Mart. It was cool to do a stupid little thing like that. I needed to get this done anyway. I showed her my pattern of going through the store, what things I bought and how I decided to pick them out and all that good jazz. It was all nice mundane stuff that I hope will be more special for us both together.

After we went back and put everything away it was getting to be late afternoon so we went back out to Greensburg for one more task: Hit up the Best Buy because Ale wanted to get some tech! So we did and she grabbed up some stuff she wanted. I am pretty sure she loved this place and I found that extremely awesome. I bought Picross 3D for my DS. I figured since we both liked puzzles it would be a cool new experience for us to share.

Our last destination before the big event was to go see Dan at Unique Ink. I still liked showing her the tattoo shop even though she would probably never get any ink. Dan didn't have a ticket so when it was time to go he only walked us as far as his car. We said goodbye and went further up the road to where a crowd was already gathering. Something big was going on. Something amazing. Something that would rock this small town for the next few hours. There was a man I needed to introduce Ale to. A great man. A man of greatness. A great man who had some great greatness and this greatness made other great people come to see him. This man was the reason Ale was here. He was why we even knew each other. She did not come to his fan forums to find love but it found her anyway and it was all thanks to MR WEIRD AL YANKOVIC!!!!!

Yes I said WEIRD AL YANKOVIC was in town at the Palace Theater for one night only. This was the reason we picked this particular week for this trip. Ale wanted to see a Weird Al show and damn it here we were.

We walked around out front to see if we would run into anybody that we knew. Matt was here and he came up to say Hi. As we went in and found our seats we also saw Jeremy and Denise and her pack was sitting right in front of us. If you never saw a Weird Al concert than I'm not going to spoil anything for you here. GO SEE HIM YOURSELF!!! He is amazing and it will totally be worth your time and money. TRUST ME!!

The Set List
Polkaface, Frank's 2000" TV, Good Old Days, Smells Like Nirvana (he tossed his gargling water right on us which I felt was an honor), Skipper Dan, You're Pitiful, Dare To Be Stupid, CNR, Let Me Be Your Hog, Canadian Idiot, Wanna B Ur Lovr, (ALE GOT THE FULL WBUL TREATMENT!!!) Medley: [Money For Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies, Whatever You Like, I'm In Luv Wit Da Skipper, Confessions Part III, eBay, Bedrock Anthem, Another One Rides The Bus, Ode To A Superhero, Trapped In The Drive-Thru, Gump, Eat It], Craigslist, Amish Paradise, White & Nerdy, Fat, We All Have Cell Phones, The Saga Begins, Yoda

Al knew she was there. He had to. He many a few references that we knew he was talking about her (Now all the Venezuelans!!). That made it so extra special that we both almost burst with weirdy happiness. We knew he'd be waiting out after the show to meet the fans so we lined up with everyone else and I got to meet another internet Al buddy, Heather, real quick and Jeremy got in line with us. We didn't have to wait long and it was our turn. I thanked him for coming out to our little town and he signed my VIP badge while Ale took pictures and then she got to meet the man himself. As she talked to him he signed her Al's Brain keychain she got at AlFest 2009 then she received a big Al hug. To remember her she gave him an Argentinian flag and some candy and soon we were left standing by ourselves somewhere in awe as the grins slowly faded from our faces. That would not be a night we would forget anytime soon.

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.

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 3

2010/07/04

We woke up today and I got to show Ale some of my domestic skills. I used some of the food I bought to make a kick ass breakfast for us. Eggs and bacon and toast and all the good stuff. I think she liked it. When we finished up and got ready it was time to head out to do our activities for the day.

The first stop was Laurel Caverns. It was a bit of a drive to get there but it was awesome because we just got to sit besides each other for real and enjoy us just being there for once instead of just over the video screen. It's cool that we can talk over the computer and chat and all that but to finally be in each others presence was a totally different kind of awesome.

I may have been here before but I don't remember it and it was around this time that Isaac was going to go here on a field trip with Penn Pals so that's how I got the idea. With both of us going we could talk about what we've seen separately and that would be cool. Plus it's a cool activity to do anyway. The view from the top of that mountain is insane. You can see forever and it's just very peaceful and awesome up there.

When we walked inside the building they have at the opening of the cave we saw all kinds of cool brochures of the other stuff that was around here so we grabbed a few as souvenirs. There were also all kinds of cool pictures of bats and maps of the caves from different viewpoints all over the wall and we stopped to check that stuff out too. We had a few minutes to kill before the next tour so we played with some of the crap in the gift shop and soon they paged us to begin our descent.

You'd have to experience this yourself to see what it's like. I wish they'd give you a map and a flashlight and let you go at it yourself but I can see they don't want morons getting themselves lost and killed and stuff. I guess if we'd really want to do it we could join their group and get in that way somehow but not right now.

The tour lasted about an hour and we got to see some cool stuff. There was one point where they locked us in a room and shut out the lights. You totally could not even see your hand in front of your face! They played a song with some colored laser lights that lit up to the beat and that was neat too.

There wasn't much left to do when we walked out of the cave so we just hopped in the car and headed out to our next destination.

Westmoreland Arts & Heritage Festival @ Twin Lakes
This was pretty fun. Although I hear horror stories about how packed this place is being as it was the last day, it wasn't that bad at all for us. I was cautious though and parked maybe a little too far away. We had to walk a distance to get there but that was okay. We played on the fun activity thingies they have on the path as we went and just talked and enjoyed each others company. We took the wrong path and had to walk the whole way around both lakes to get there but again, what was the hurry?

When we got there Ale got to have funnel cake for the first time ever and she loved that. I also bought her a tie-dye shirt so she can be a hippie with me now. We looked at some of the crafts and other stuff that was there and that was about it. We hit the end and walked back through a second time and then decided we were tired and it was time to head back to the car. We went back to Jim's and that was about it for that day. We ate some of the food I bought and went to sleep.

2010 Labor Day Weekend

We've been having a lot of fun lately so I wanted to give a quick update on some of the stuff that has been going on.

Friday was the start of Labor Day weekend so I had the car packed and ready to go so when I left work I went straight to get Isaac and hit the road. My dad was moving this weekend so we had to check out and enjoy his resort one last time before we weren't allowed in here anymore. It's also hopefully the last time we have to take those twisty wine country roads that slow you down. I found a new route that is all highway that I can't wait to try out. On the way down we stopped at our usual Burger King that we always go to. It's our tradition. We got there late but still a good drive time and hung out for a little bit. The house was a wreck. Everyone was packing and moving stuff. This is where it was first hinted to me that I have been shanghaied. I thought we were coming for some pool and playgrounds but apparently I was one of the main work horses they were waiting for. That was okay I guess. I come down here and have fun all the time so the least I could do to help my family was help them move. Olivia's boyfriend Kyle was also here to help.

We woke up early on Saturday and went at it. We were hauling stuff out for the Uhaul at 8 in the morning. We completed our first load by 11:30 and thought we were having a good time. Until it was 8pm and we could barely life our arms anymore. We did 3 loads and although we did get most of the big things that needed moved, there was still stuff at the old house. We were all exhausted and La ordered way too much pizza. It was cool that we got to spent one night at the old house and one night at the new house, the first night anyone stayed there.

Speaking of the new house, it was great! It had very similar qualities to the old place but it was way bigger. It had a real finished basement instead of just dirt. The only drawback really was that it was not on the resort. I wonder what sorts of things will we do now when we come here to vacation?

At least on Sunday morning since most of the moving was done we got to take a break. After an awesome breakfast at my favorite place in the world IHOP (only 5 minutes from his house!!), we went up the road to a playground. It was pretty nice and there were some other kids there. Dad and I played some frisbee and he later told me how much he enjoyed that. I guess that's one activity we can do. I wanted to try and hit another park but dad had to go to work later so we decided it was time for pool. The resort put in a new pool area and we hadn't hit it yet so that was our destination. It was very nice two new huge pools and two hot tubs too. Dad didn't stick around but Isaac and I had a blast. We were very sad to drive out of there knowing that we were probably never going to be back.

We went home and packed up all our stuff (in the craziness of moving we did forgot some shoes) and gave everyone a hug good-bye. They were very grateful for our help and we happy to be there for them. We drove home and brought our stuff in. We still had a whole day of vacation to go!

I woke up early on Monday and changed my oil. I was hoping to do that down in VA but that didn't work out. Mimi took us to get Isaac some school clothes at Kohl's and we both got new shoes so we were very happy about that. After that we hit the last 2 close playgrounds I had on our list and then I took Isaac to see the Scott Pilgrim movie (best movie ever) and he really enjoyed that. We went home and got some much needed down time after getting our clothes and lunches and backpacks ready for the next day. An awesome ending to a great weekend.

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 8 THE END

2010/04/02

For the 2nd day this week I woke up in the morning on a bus pulling into a bus station. We grabbed all stuff and hauled it out of there and found a taxi to get back to Ale's house. When we got there we just dumped it off and crawled in her bed to finish sleeping.

When we woke up we didn't do much. Today was a resting day. We basically sat on her bed all day (like how she is every time I call her on skype :P) and played with our computers. We copied each others pics from the #revacation. I gave her a bunch of media that I had on my hard drive that I put on there specifically to give her. She downloaded Windows 7 for me and installed it on my laptop along with a bunch of other stuff which was awesome. It was a nice day to just be together in a more normal setting than with the excitement of vacation all around us. Later I actually wish we had spent more time doing stuff like this. I love how tech savvy Ale is. <3

As the evening approached we both could fell our hearts growing heavy. It was time to pack up her dad's car so they could ride me to the airport to go home. The was the most glorious week I had ever experienced in my life so far and although it seemed to stretch out for longer than it actually was it had to end sometime and this was now. I knew this moment would eventually come and I dreaded it. I was getting sad because I had to leave.

It was a crappy long ride to the airport and when we got their her parents stayed with the car and Ale walked me in as far as she was allowed to go. I checked my bag and we walked to where I had to walk thru the security gate and sat down. What was I supposed to say? I don't think I needed to say much we were both just crying. We hugged and kissed and stuff until I got up to go to my plane. I think I cried thru about 3 security gates before I was able to stop. It sucked. I don't know why I had to go thru so much security either. It was pretty stupid but I eventually made it to my gate and boarded. It was time to leave this country and go home. I knew I'd be back someday. This was after all the trip of a lifetime.

EPILOGUE

2010/04/03

When I woke up and got off the plane in Washington DC I had a little less than 2 hours to get to the next plane back to Pittsburgh. I knew we had to go thru customs but little did I know I still had a bit of adventure yet to go. I scheduled everything this way because I felt I'd have enough time to get back to make it to Isaac's first ever baseball practice. Something I did not want to miss. When I got off the plane and shuffled down with everyone else to customs I started thinking that not only might I not make it but I might be stuck here for a long time. The line wrapped between those velvet rope things throughout the entire room. Sure they had a lot of booths at the end to check the people out but like only 3 of them were staffed at this time. I got on chat on my phone with Ale and told her what was going on. She didn't want me to worry so she kept reassuring me that I would make it. She didn't see this line though. It moved agonizingly slow. You could hear everyone bitching to each other and to loved ones on their phones that they were stuck in this line and were going to miss their flights. It took about an hour and half for me to make it to my turn but it seemed like forever. I was thinking at this point I wouldn't make it. The guy looked at my stuff and let me go thru. I started running.

In the next room was all our bags. I saw mine immediately and grabbed it. Ok, I have a few minutes. Maybe I would make it after all I thought. The next room was another security station. Take off all your clothes, etc. Good god man. Where do you think I got a gun from between here and where I got off the plane? For real. Again the lines moved so slow. Well there goes my hope of making it. I finally got thru this and started running again.

I came out in the airport proper and although I knew what gate I needed to make it to I had no idea where that was. I asked some guy and he said go back the way I came. That confused me. I went back down the stairs to the security station. This wasn't right and I was wasting valuable time. I went back up the stairs and looked the other way. There was a sign for gate A. I ran. Oh boy did I run. I had less than 10 mins. There was no way I thought. You always see in movies people running thru the airport like that but never have I experienced in in real life until now. That was me. My gate was of course at the furthest point away from where I currently was. At least now I had running buddies coming along with me. Other people were killing themselves as well to get to their respective gates. We all got a small break to sit down and rest when we got to the shuttle that went between gates. My legs were killing me. When the shuttle stopped we all took off again but I could barely run anymore. My luggage was too heavy and my calves were on fire. at least now I was at the right gate and I had an early number like 3 or something. As long as they went in numerical order I was almost there. I couldn't be that lucky. It, of course, was in reverse numerical order. My gate was way at the other end. I kept running the best I could. I kept telling myself that I could rest when I got to the plane.

I finally made it and I burst thru the gate throwing my boarding pass at the lady. Oh man, the plane wasn't here. This just opened up into a whole other corridor I had to run down and without fail my gate was the very very last. I could see the words Pittsburgh on it as I tried to catch my breath. I was sweating and dying here but I MADE IT!! I don't know how but I did with 1 minute to spare. Luckily I was in seat 1A so I could finally sit down. Just a quick 45 min jaunt home now.

There was still some more pain hauling my stuff to where I parked (if you remember my first #revacation blog it was pretty far back) but the worst was over. Oh no someone in DC broke my luggage. I only had one wheel now. :| That's going to make it harder.

I packed up my car and blasted straight to the municipal field. What a good daddy I am. Flying home from another country overnight on a 12 hour flight to go straight to my sons baseball practice is a story I enjoy telling. I texted Ale I had made it and sat down to see my son learn the wonders of team sports. Could there be anything better? A leg massage would be nice. :P

THE END

Revacation part 7

2010/04/01

We had to check out of the hotel today but apparently your still allowed to check your bags and hang out there for free so rather than haul our stuff around all day that's what we did. We grabbed what we would need and checked the rest. We then started our day by grabbing a quick breakfast at the hotel and then walked down to the beach for the 3rd time. The first time it was cool and no one was there. Yesterday it was warmer and some people were there. Today it was beautiful out and blazing hot and it was packed!! We grabbed a spot to lay our towels down and jumped into the water. This is where we got some of my favorite pics. I also did some picross puzzles as we tanned. After a few hours it was time to eat so we decided to grab some lunch at that castle restaurant at the end of the beach. I think we had to pay more to sit on the outside deck but we went for it because it was nicer then sitting in the cramped inside. It was a bit windy but we still enjoyed ourselves. The food we got here was probably, I don't want to say bad but, the non-best we've had the whole week. The chicken thing I got was good but it was small and the pumpkin mashed potatoes were good but meh.

After we ate we walked down to where all these street vendors were selling their junk. Everyone other booth was sunglasses and stupid stuff made out of wood. I made fun of it and Ale thought I was hilarious. She is so sweet and awesome. It was a good walk down there and on the way back we walked down towards the water. Here there was no beach just rocks but it was fun to climb over them and jump over the cracks.

When we got back to the beach part there was some kind of memorial sidewalk area where all kinds of famous Argentinian people cast their hands in the cement. Ale acted like I heard of some of them but I have not. Excuse my ignorance dear. :(

Even though we had checked out of the hotel, our coupons for a free spa treatment were still valid so decided to cash those in. This was an awesome, relaxing time. It broke down into 3 separate stops: the sauna, the Finnish bath, and then the jacuzzi (15 min at each stop). First we went into the steam room with the heated rocks. It was damn hot. I kept pouring water on the rocks too for some reason which just made it worse. We almost couldn't take it but the lady came and pulled us out right before we gave up. That was a hardy sweating for sure. The lady showed us where the showers were between each stop. I guess you were supposed to rinse of all the sweat and cool down a bit before the next thing. So we did that, dried off and walked back out.
We went in the next thing which I had never heard of before, the Finnish bath. It was like being in a bathroom. The sauna was wood and this was bathroom tiles. More steam came from everywhere and it was almost so hot you couldn't sit down. The steam even smelled like a clean bathroom somehow. Once again though it was extremely hot in here and I think Ale did wig out and left the room before our time was up.
We took a quick rinse off shower again and hit the last thing, the jacuzzi. This was the best. Although this one wasn't as hot (as I expect a jacuzzi to be) it was very calm and relaxing. The bubbles and jets were very soothing and we just sat there and vegged out for a while. Actually a long while I think the lady forgot about us or soemthing because it seemed she left us in way more than 15 minutes.

We got cleaned up once last time and got dressed. It was time to check out the casino.

Neither of us really see the point in gambling so we didn't have that great of a time here. We walked around saw the tables and slots. I remember having trouble breathing because there were so many smokers around. I think we played the slots for about a dollars worth and then I dragged her over to the bar so I could get a drink. She ordered some fries so she wouldn't be drinking on an empty stomach and we both got some fancy drink. It was nice. When we were done that was all we needed to see. We left. I remember being amazed at the bill. It was so cheap. Back home just one of these fancy drinks would cost more than our whole bill!

We walked thru the town and stopped in some of the shops. There was an arcade here so we went there too. I had a strange sense of deja vu at one point like I had been here or dreamed about this place a long time ago. That was weird. They had one of those cool things where you put on 3D glasses and go into the small room and sit on one of those chairs that jerk around and watched a short roller coaster movie that they advertised was in 4D. I like those kinds of things and I think Ale liked it too.

When we left there we walked back to the mall to eat some dinner. We went to a normal burger type place and then got some ice cream after. We were getting tired after such an exciting week so we went back tot he hotel and chilled in the lobby till we took a cab back to the bus station.

The bus still wasn't too packed and we claimed our same, top of the bus in the back seats that we did before. No snack this time though. When we woke up next time it would be my last day here. :(

TO BE CONTINUED

Revacation part 6

2010/03/31

We woke up and went down to the hotel dining room to get us some free breakfast buffet. Being free meant of course that there was nothing really good there. It was just a bunch of little desserts and things and some cereal. We still filled up as much as possible to get us moving. We want to try and hit the beach again.

We stopped on the way at the Human Body exhibit. It happened to be right here in Argentina while I was here. I missed it when it was in Pittsburgh. I don't think I actually tried that hard but now that it was here we could see it together. How cool is that? Well, while it was neat it wasn't like the greatest thing we've ever done in our lives. We saw a lot of dead people and their guts. If you like that kind of stuff then for sure go see it. I would think it would be a must for school children to attend like for health class or something. In fact there was a tour of them in there at the same time as us. They were not dead. You could hear the teachers pointing and talking to individual things telling the kids more information. If I had it to do over, not sure I'd be in the mood to do it again. We blew thru it in less than an hour and got out of there.

Oh it was definitely nicer today outside. A lot warmer, not super hot mind you but at least you could hang out and get in the water without freezing (The water here must come up from even further south because it is freezing year round). There were more people here today. We walked to this shop and bought one of those beach mat thingies to sit on. I took a lot of awesome pics of the environment up and down the beach trying to capture the atmosphere. There was a guy in the water trying to wind surf but he kept falling down so that was funny.

We went back out on the street for a walk to start sight seeing. I found a nice store right away that had souvenir shirts for small boys. I finally found what I was looking for to get Isaac! A Mar De Plata t-shirt. (PIC) We kept on walking down the beach seeing what there was to see and I got even more awesome pics. Some of the best were at this high point where you could almost see forever down the beach in either direction. We sat on this wall and took pics of both of us from all sorts of angles. It was awesome. These are some of my favorite pics that we got. (PIC)

We walked back to our home base area at this point and got some lunch. I was knocking out all the awesome Argentinian dishes that I wanted to try and I finally got to have some milenesa at Montecatini (she got the chicken I got the beef, both with eggs). After we ate we stopped in Italia and got some Cannoli which was this amazing ice cream thing. It was a churro covered with ice cream that was filled with peanuts and all with a chocolate shell around it. It was so good and super hearty but I could barely finish it I was so stuffed from everything.

There were more touristy things to do further down the beach at the port. So I let Ale drag me along to a bus stop to take about a half hour ride down the coast. I saw houses with actual yards and stuff which was cool. This is stuff I was used to rather than straight 100% city all the time. We got there and we right next to this circular plaza. Nothing really interesting here so we walked a bit down the road to the actual port. Here it turned into a pedestrian area with a bunch of souvenir shops and you could see about a million boats on the water. Where the concrete ended by the water there was another level underneath for the boat people to get to their boats I guess. That is where the sea lions were. There must have been at least 20 lying there sleeping. I wondered being so close if they would ever attack someone if they got in range but there were boat people walking back and forth and neither of them seemed to pay each other any mind. The fun thing to do while looking at them is to say 'Hey' to someone and point and go 'That one looks like you'. That was good fun to do that.

We left there and I found the perfect little trinket for my mom (even though I already bought her some stuff) and we found a dock that gave a tour via boat. We looked at the time and we were here right at the time we needed to be. We bought some tickets and hopped on. While is was a nice tour, it was the slowest damn boat I had ever been on in my life. We only went out and made a huge circle around the bay but damn. We sat on the top at first but it got chilly so we went down inside. There was a spot on the shore where more sea lions were. There must have been 200 of more at this spot. I wondered how they climbed up the rocks to get where they were.

When we got back we grabbed the bus back to the beach and went back to Manolo's to have submarino. I guess to tide them over until dinner since everyone eats so late, the popular thing to do is get warm milk and a chocolate bar for a snack. You stir the chocolate in the milk until it melts and then you drink it. I was happy to be doing these cultural things. We went back to our room after that and I think we were so tired we didn't even go back out for dinner that night.

TO BE CONTINUED

Revacation part 5

2010/03/30

We started out this day in a taxi on our way to the bus station. Due to the city tour I took I was able to recognize a lot of things on our journey. We did have to wait for a while when we got there and our bus wasn't on the screen at first but it did show up and we checked our luggage. Apparently there was an issue with the type of bus we were boarding. We were supposed to have seats that reclined the whole way but this bus had seats that reclined only part way. It was confusing but they gave Ale a bunch of money back because of this so that was cool. Also more seats would fit on this bus due to that so instead of being packed it was quite sparse. It was a double decker bus so we got on the top and went the whole way to the back. They gave us a snack bag and a water too. The seats seemed fine to me. I still don't understand what the issue was but whatever. It was a 5 hour ride to the beach and it took me a while to fall asleep but eventually I did.

We woke up pulling into the station in Mar Del Plata. We claimed our bags and grabbed a taxi to the hotel. It sure was weird and deserted at 6 in the morning. We stayed at the San Remo Grand Hotel and it was pretty nice (PIC). I thought it was real cool that they let us check in that early and go up to our room. I liked that our windows opened because I like that crazy feeling of 'OMG I could totally fall out of this window and die' and I thought hotels didn't even have those anymore (maybe just in the US). We ended up going right back to sleep until a tolerable hour came along.

We woke up and wanted to go get breakfast and go to the beach. I didn't exactly dress up because I thought we planned to go out, get breakfast then come back and get ready for the beach. This didn't matter at first because we went right down the street to the bakery place and got some medialunes for breakfast. I wondered why she ordered so many like 10 or something but once I started eating them I wondered why she didn't get more. lol

It was windy and pretty cold and I had shorts and sandals on. I was not comfortable and wanted to go back to change but Ale said let's just check out the beach real quick. It wasn't far so I said fine. We just had to cross the street and walk behind the casino. I guess due to the weather everyone stayed away because there was no one there. I wanted to snap a few pics real quick but some guy with a professional looking camera tried to get us to let him take some pics. (Did I mention we became masters of snapping our own pics? Someone is smart because now cameras come with a little screen on the front) We were both like No no but he said he'd use our camera so Ale relented. Of course after a few pics he said that we should let him take a few with his fancy camera now. Very slick dude. :| As I said earlier I was not really ready for this. I looked crappy and had my not-nice glasses on but we let him take the pics anyway and then had to follow him back to his shop to get them printed out. I tried to tell Ale we didn't need this but she didn't believe me until he told her how much it was. 100 pesos! I guess they turned out nice though. We got like 10 of them so we split them between us. (PIC)

We went back to the beach and I started complained how cold I was so we left the beach and we went back to the room so I could get more comfortable. We decided to check out the pool at this point. I didn't realize this place even had a pool. I didn't see one. I found out why. It was on the 10th floor! I don't know enough about architecture to know how that much water could be contained that high up but whatever. It wasn't huge but it was a nice pool and I found a nice hot jet of water blasting at the one end so I hung out there. No one else was here so it was nice to relax by ourselves for a bit.

After that we took a little nap and then got dressed at went to Manolo's for dinner and I got more pizza. I got confused by their mirrors. Looking into the back of the place I thought it was huge but there were just so many mirrors it looked like the place was double the size. The whole one wall was a wall of mirrors. There were stairs going up to the bathroom and I was wondering as I walked back which side was the Men's room. As I got closer and realized there was only one because the other was in the mirror I lol-ed at my silliness. Since there were mirrors up where we were sitting as well we took another picture of us in it. At this point we knew taking pictures of ourselves in every mirror of every restaurant we went in was going to be 'the thing' we were going to do.

When we left we went to the pedestrian part of this town and noticed a movie theater. That was one of our plans from our original itinerary - see a movie - so we bought tickets to see Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland in 3D. They gave us a discount coupon for a place called Carltio's that sold gourmet pancakes so we checked out a few things around there and decided to go cash that sucker in. On the way we checked out a bunch of the shops and booths they had set up around here. There was a place where they spelled out the date every day in rocks so we took a picture of that. There was a bum sleeping right next us that we didn't even notice at first. We also stopped at this mall so I could get some wifi to check my iPhone (had to shut the 3G off so I wouldn't get insane international roaming charges).

We got to the pancake place and checked out the menu. This was going to be awesome! Where we sat there wasn't a mirror nearby but we saw there was one there. After we ordered while we waited for our food to be cooked we ran over and got our restaurant mirror pic. All the dishes here were named after famous people from Argentina. I forget who ours was but it was covered in chocolate and stuffed with nuts. Amazing!! (PIC)

By this time we had to walk back to go see the the movie. On the way back we saw a bunch of dogs attack another one. (Did I mention there were stray dogs running all over the place?) I never heard the sound this dog made and I was surprised when we saw what was going on. I don't know if the dog that was being attacked was someone's or not but some guy seriously bolted after the attacking dogs swinging his shirt at them as a weapon. I didn't think that was a good idea but they did run away so lucky for him.

We got to the theater and took our seats. The movie was in English and had Spanish subtitles. We both enjoyed it. You can't really screw up Alice in Wonderland and Tim Burton is a pretty creative guy. I thought it was funny that the theater was extremely militant about the 3D glasses being stolen. They all had security tags in them with scanners through the doors that would beep if you tried to sneak them out. I guess they cost enough they they REALLY didn't want people to steal them. It was late by this time so we went back to the hotel and went to sleep.

TO BE CONTINUED

Revacation part 4

2010/03/29

We woke up Monday morning and it was time to check out the hostel. I ran around and took some more pictures so I would remember this place. You could get up onto various places on the roof from where we were so I went exploring. There really wasn't too much going on up there but boys always like climbing on stuff. We so got ready, packed our stuff up and checked out. It was about 15 blocks or so to Ale's house and she suggested we take a taxi but I thought we could handle it plus it would be good exercise to walk. My arms were aching a bit carrying all my luggage with me but it wasn't that bad when we arrived.

Her mother made us lunch of the meat that was leftover from the night before and then we geared up and grabbed a bus to downtown. Today was the day we were going to take the city bus tour. We got close and got off the bus (the transportation one). We were in a huge pedestrian area and it was packed. It must be lunchtime around here. I think this area around Florida St was called El Centro. I wanted to get my souvenir buying out of the way so I steered us over to some shops. I found some good stuff here. I got my mom a nice shirt and some other crap that said Buenos Aires on it that I thought she would like. My sister wanted a postcards so I got her one and also a shot glass. I didn't find the perfect thing for Isaac yet but at least with them out of the way I only have to worry about him now.

At the end of one of the streets we came out in this triangle area and it was there that the tour bus and its ticket booth was. Ale went in to get the tickets but came out to sadly tell me that they were sold out for the day. That was not good that would mess up our whole day. I wonder what we should do now? 'Good day' I heard. Who? It was some little British woman and her husband. She must have heard us talking and wanted to help. They had already gone on the tour so they wouldn't need their tickets anymore so she straight up gave them to us. The tickets were not like get a ticket, take one ride on the bus and you're done. No these tickets were good for 24 or 48 hours from when you bought them so you could use them over and over until they expired. This made sense to me later since there were lots of stops on this tour, you could get off anywhere and go exploring. When you were done you found the stop and could get back on without having to buy another ticket. Well all right then we were good to go. We got in the queue and waited for them to let us on.

The tour bus was pretty kick ass. There was an upstairs that was open but Ale thought it was too sunny and she didn't want my hairless scalp being torched. I wasn't worried about it but I just trusted her judgment. I like that I can do that with her. So we just sat in the main part which was right in front of a monitor. There were headphones available too. You put them on and the narrator would describe what you were viewing as you passed it. What I thought was crazy was how many languages they had available. When you put your headphones on you had to jack in to the audio. On the ceiling were the ports and you just found what language you know and plug in there but I swear the ports section was 2 ft long. There must have been 15 different languages there. Normal ones like English, Spanish, French but there was also Portuguese and Hebrew and ones I was like whoa, that's crazy.

The tour itself was epic. It lasted hours and we went all over the city, back and forth. I took about a million pictures of statues. Why? I don't know. I think that's the kind of thing you're supposed to take pictures of when you go on vacation. There was one part of the tour we had to variate from the path due to those protesters. The police had some roads blocked off so we had to skip one part and go a different way but that really didn't affect my enjoyment of any of it. It was very fun and I saw a lot of great stuff that made me extremely happy we did this. Plus we were together. That was the best.

Hours later when the tour was done and we got off the bus we jumped right on Subway A to go see the Congress. (That was the part of the tour that was cut out). Plus it's right next to where Ale works. 5 blocks or something. That became a running joke with us. Everywhere we were she tried to describe something that was near us and it was always like 5 blocks that way is this and 5 blocks that way is that. No matter where we were. It started to become really funny and I started doing it too. :D

We stopped at a cool Burger King to grab a quick bite because I was getting hungry. It was the only time I think I ate 'normal' food while I was there. It was cool because it was like a 3 story Burger King. Quite impressive.

We kept on walking until we hit the center of the town where the obelisk was. This was one of Ale's favorite places to be. A huge Washington monument thing rose from this Central park area and it was awesome. There was a sitting area below it for people to stop and relax and take in all the sights. I really liked it there too and that would be one of the main places I would have to go see again if/when I go back.

Later that night we went back to Ale's to have Passover dinner. (That is some kind of Jewish thing, I think it is when Jesus saved the Easter Bunny) I was nervous of being in the middle of this huge party meeting all of her family that want to know who this strange Americano is and why can't he talk to us and a million questions but it wasn't like that. Her cousin Diego spoke a little English so we had a few words and I did meet everyone but luckily for me his kids were the center of attention. Once everyone saw me that only wanted to play with the babbies. That was cool. I didn't mind at all. I was happy to meet everyone and let them know that I was hoping to be part of their family someday. It did make me sad that I didn't learn more Spanish so I could speak with them better but I'm still trying (slowly). I have no doubt I'll get there eventually. So we ate and partied and had a great time well into the night. We had to be at the bus station though by midnight so we could get to Mar del Plata so we called a taxi, grabbed our things and left before it was totally over. As fun as everything was up until now I had even more crazy stuff to look forward to.

TO BE CONTINUED

Revacation part 3

2010/03/28

We woke up on Sunday and I was hungry. I wanted to go somewhere and get some food. Ale thought it might be a good idea to eat of the free cereal and crap that the hostel had. I was not having any of that. So we got up, got ready and got started on another wonderful day with each other.

I think we just left the hostel and walked to find somewhere to eat. We went to a different part of the city that I didn't see yesterday. There were all kinds of new sights to see. We found an electronics store and we went in because I wanted to see how it compared to what I know. Ale was right when she told me it was more expensive then in the US. They had God Of War 3 for PS3 but they wanted like 400 pesos for it. That would be $100 to me and that's insane! I balk at paying $50-$60 for a new game let alone more than that. No wonder they were all pirates down here. I wouldn't put up with that crap either.

It was quite difficult to find a breakfast place down here for some reason. I guess they really don't eat a normal breakfast like us. Well actually there aren't really that many breakfast places where I live either. We do have Denny's and that but it's in the south where all the Ihops and Waffle Houses are. We did eventually find a place that seemed pretty nice called Quincy's and they had wifi which was good. (I had to put my phone in airplane mode so I wouldn't rack up any international roaming charges so wifi spots were the only places I could check my email and catch up on my 'online' life) The place was empty. I guess they were gearing up for the lunch rush but we went in and took a seat and soon a guy came and took our order. I needed to get an omelet. That's the kind of food Marc eats for breakfast. Ale was not pleased with the prices at this place but I told her we were on revacation and not to sweat it. However much it cost, it was very good. When we walked out of there I felt very satisfied.

We started walking again when we left and I got to see a lot more of the city. I would have never ever guessed that there was a Chinatown in Buenos Aires. We had a very specific destination in mind but that is really not something I'm going to go into here. Let's just say the next few hours were very awesome.

Now it was time for some of the famous Buenos Aires ice cream that Ale always was telling me about so we found a place called Volta which was one of the most popular places to get it. For an ice cream place it was super fancy. The store was neat and all the employees wore the same fancy brown uniform which made them look like chefs almost. One of the gimmicks here was for all the million flavors they had, there were no markings or signs on the containers. I guess the major part of training here was to learn where everything was. We each got a small container and you could pick 3 flavors to put in it. Whatever you told them they knew exactly where it was which was kind of cool. I forget what flavors I picked but they were all super delicious.

We went back to the hostel after eating our ice cream because we had to get cleaned up for our special night out. If all would have went as planned I should have been here on Valentine's Day and we would of had a nice dinner and everything so since this was revacation we were going to have a revalentine's day dinner. There is a touristy place out by this waterfront area that is full of restaurants called Puerto Madero. So we got showered and all dressed up and went down there to check it out. It was very nice especially at night. We explored and got our picture taken on the 'Puente de la Mujer'. The restaurants went up and down the sides of this body of water and we stopped and examined all their menus to see where we wanted to go. We eventually picked the place called Spettus because I wanted steak. That is what I always expect to eat for dinner on this particular holiday and I figured I'd better get that out there now. It was pretty awesome. They gave you this disc that was green on one side and red on the other. As long as you kept the green side up these guys kept coming to your table with these huge hunks of meat on skewers and would shave you off a piece. Each one had something different and although we kind of just did this the night before at her parent's house it was still super awesome and delicious. Again I didn't know what half the stuff was. Ale told me but it didn't really matter. Some of it tasted 'off' but for the most part I probably could have lived there the rest of my life here eating their food and gotten real fat before I died.

We were both stuffed when we left that place so we walked out of that area to the main road and got a taxi back to our room. Every day just kept getting better!

TO BE CONTINUED

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