Aug 16
My wife seemed to give me odd looks when I was packing for my currently lengthy trip and told her to make sure i remember to bring a “large binder clip”.
It’s excessively useful to have in this age of cell phones and laptops and cameras. Well, this and a small power strip to plug it all in on. What good is it? Why it makes an excellent cable coral on the hotel desk.
Jul 30
Ok, technically by “week” I mean five days and by “five days” I mean “four and a half days” since half of Monday was Driving. I have quite a bit more time ahead of me here but I’ve learned quite a bit about this city in my week long stay.
Firstly, probably what stands out the most, the road system here is completely nuts. This city is known for it’s beer, and it’s clear that the traffic planner enjoyed this aspect of his town. The drivers don’t help things much though I can’t blame them with the way the roads are set up. Firstly, many many roads, almost every road in fact, is designed to be wide enough for 2 lanes of traffic going each way. Most places simply use the “outside lane” for parking, There is free street parking pretty much everywhere so you’d be nuts to ever pay for parking (I actually DID pay like 50 cents for a half hour of parking so I guess I’m nuts).
The problem is, when there are no parked cars, and no stripes do divide lanes, it’s unclear where in the road you should position yourself and if it’s ok to pass people or not. This leads to many “pass at the light” maneuvers. I can’t even remember how many times this has happened to me. Essentially, you stop at the light, then some jerk will pull up in the “right hand lane” and, when the light changes, they blast past you and back into the actual lane. Many times, just past the light will be a line of parked cars suggesting that CLEARLY the outside lane is not really a lane.
In a matter likely not unrelated, I’ve noticed a ton of cars with front driver fender damage. I’m pretty sure the city gets kickbacks from insurance companies. This leads to my second driving point. I went cruising one night searching out the Toys R Us and Wal-Mart. I encountered several places where one lane was blocked for a short period for absolutely no reason. There were no construction workers, which was understandable given that it was after five. There also however was not sign of there EVER being construction. These are solely there to get people to swerve at the last second into the other traffic (causing a wreck).
So, traffic bitching out of the way, this city is also full of fantastic architecture. I’ve taken two “photo walks” after work, one around the Miller Brewery and the other down by the water front. Both resulted in around 30 photos I felt like posting on line but the actual generation was around 100 shots each trip. There is lots to see if you like interesting buildings. I hope to wander around downtown itself at some point and i plan to make a trip to the Zoo this weekend.
Speaking of Downtown, I made a trip to an interesting Used Book store called Downtown Books. What a wonderful place this turned out to be. Part of this is probably because the only used book store in my area is like one store who way overprices their books but I was thoroughly impressed by this store. It’s totally random and winding inside with quirky homemade labels everywhere and a crap load of interesting books. I even ran into a couple of cats wandering through the place. I intend to make a second trip later during my stay for sure. I may have to try to snap a few photos on my phone (they confiscate bags at the door so no dSLR).
Back on the subject of wandering a bit. It’s a bit unnerving to know that there are many places in town that I’ve been advice that i ‘don’t want to go to”. I’ve heard from two independence sources that I don’t want to go anywhere near 35th Street. Unfortunately, the office where I’m training is on 35th street and is at the end of something referred to as “Crack Alley”. Also irritating is that my curious nature keeps compelling me to “go check it out, it can’t be that bad”. I manage to keep this in check by remembering what I was told by a city worker I had a chat with while shooting the Miller Brewery. He said “Don’t go up there…. they’ll stab you if they see you with that camera”.
Overall though I’ve had a pretty good experience. It’s certainly a busy and interesting city so far, I just need to remember to avoid the bad spots.
Sep 4
I get this call from Ramada in today, on my cell phone no less. I am a bit distracted by being at work and the noise int he background so I had to have him repeat himself a few times.
It seems he’s calling because my wife and I stayed at a Ramada a few months ago and he wants to offer me discounted rates. This guy is REALLY pushy trying to get me to pick a vacation destination and offers some suggestions. i tell him repeatedly I don’t go on too many vacations nor do I plan things twelve months in advance. Finally he gets the point and hangs up after saying “Alright then, have fun paying full price”.
Have fun paying full price? that is your feel good closer? Hell at this point I wouldn’t stay at a Ramada if it were the only hotel available jerk.
One, I’m at work. I don’t have time to discuss lengthy vacation options with you.
Two, as stated before, we don’t go on too many far away vacations. I’m lucky if I get my wife to commit to going out to a movie or dinner much less a vacation.
Three, you mentioned saving “Six Hundred bucks” which says I have to stay in your hotel for a long period before I get any discount. I’m not up to a week long stay. See the above.
Four, money is a little tight now what with property taxes due and the potential for me losing my job in a month. I’m flat out not int he mood to discuss where I might be going next summer on vacation.
Truth is, there’s actually a reasonably good chance my wife and I would make another trip to Chicago next summer and likely stay in the same hotel. it had free parking, reasonable pricing, and a decent location. Your phone call has only dropped my desire to come back and do business.
Aug 13
I suppose it’s polite to tell people you’re taking vacation before the trip instead of after.
Sorry.
Anyway, my parents brought my grandparents, my aunt and uncle and cousin, my brother and my family on a trip to Branson Missouri. I’ve been there several times before. My family hadn’t though. Also this is the first time I’ve gone “independent” of my parents. yeah, they were there, but we did a lot of our own thing.
Saturday was the first day of the trip, a day consisting mostly of driving. One of the more interesting parts of the trip was the fact that unlike my home state of Flatinois, Missouri is very hilly. Hence the term “Hillbilly Territory”, though Branson seems to be trying to shrug off that stereotype.
After a long drive we arrived at our destination of Stillwater Springs resort. My parents rented a great big condo and we got our own room in it. Much time was spent at the very nice pool across the street thanks to the blistering 110 degree weather.
Sunday was spent out in this weather all day. The wife and I packed the kids up and headed out into the city pretty early. We only got as far as the $5 store before giving up due to traffic and cruising off towards Tablerock Dam. The store had a bit of excitement. I found a set of knockoff Transformers including a knockoff robot masters Optimus Prime. Also while checking out some guy comes in wondering who owned a brown jeep.
Turns out this jeep had rolled down the hill out back and nearly off a cliff. That would have been fun. I snapped this photo of the incident. Can’t see much though. He had it free by the time I brought the kids around to see two minutes later.
After a bit more driving we ended up decided to go to Moonshine Beach near the new addition of Tablerock Dam. The kids wanted to do the beach more than anything an it was heap so I wasn’t complaining. This was where I got the chance to try out something a bit different photography wise. I had a disposable Underwater camera at my disposal. Unfortunately I haven’t scanned any of the photos yet. They’ll show up on my Flickr stream eventually.
After the beach was the boat. My parents have this thing where they have to rent a pontoon boat while on vacation in Branson. It’s quite a bit of fun. We all went swimming off the side of the boat int he middle of the lake too. The best part though, for the first hour my brother paced us in a rented Jet Ski. I took turn driving it. Quite a bit easier than it seems like it should be though I kept getting worried I’d loose my brother or myself.
After the boat we made the kids rest for the rest of the day. Too much time out in the sun.
Monday we had the Dixie Stampede planned for the evening. Most of the day was spent at the pool at the resort otherwise. The Dixie Stampede is similar to the more common Midievile Times. You get served dinner while watching an area style horse show. This one was western themed with some civil war themes underlying. We were on the North Side. The dinner was huge and rush unfortunately. You get an entire Cornish Hen, plus a piece of pork plus baked potato corn soup and an apple turnover. They serve and clean this up in what feels like a matter of thirty minutes though it may have been closer to an hour.
The best part though, just before dinner is served, our waiter comes up to my wife and I and asks if we’d like to be in the show and do a little race. We agree to participate and he takes off to do more serving. Shortly after they do the Pig races, my wife decides she can’t wait any longer and heads of to the bathroom. Unfortunately, while she’s gone, the guys running the show come looking for the couple they had picked out previously to come down to the show.
Not finding us with my wife missing, they take my brother instead. My brother, and my cousin. They protested that they were not a couple and that they were “not from the south” but the show guys apparently didn’t care. The show must go on. So they went down as a couple and did a stick horse race together. My brother was apparently talking to one of the female riders out on the floor and the announcer poked jokes about him getting her phone number.
Tuesday brought the last of our planned trips. Originally we had planned to go to Celebration City with the kids but after some cost analysis we decided instead just to go shopping and hang out at the pool. However we did have a family trip to Ride the Ducks.
Ride the Ducks is an attraction where you ride in a beefed up military vehicle around the area on a tour. The catch is that it’s an amphibious military vehicle, capable of both earthbound and sear travel. Basically, they take you out on the lake.
I’ve done this a couple of time in the past. The route was a bit different this time however so it make things a bit more interesting. It’s a good relatively inexpensive way to see much of the area so if you’re planning a trip you might consider doing this on the first day. They also have a new facility down by the new Branson Landing shopping area.
The Branson Landing is where we went next. We had dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack then went shopping int he strip mall. The kids all wanted to go to Build a Bear. We took them but had to come back the next day to actually buy anything. My wife had 90 dollars in coupons she’d forgotten to bring. A month or so ago she’d taken her Girl Scout troop to the Build a Bear and spent a ton of money so they sent her a bunch of coupons. Great bonus really. The kids in all got about 150 dollars worth of stuff for 75 bucks.
The part I wanted to see at the Branson Landing was the fire and water show. Unfortunately, I didn’t catch the fire part except for at a distance while eating at Joe’s Crab Shack. I get the impression from the informational sign that the fire only comes at the Star Spangled Banner show at 12PM, 3PM, and 7 PM. There are still periodic shows of just water synced pretty well to music played out over the central promenade.
Wednesday brough the previously mentioned Build a Bear trip and a long drive home.
T he entire gallery of photos for this trip can be found here: Link.
Jun 5
Though our 1 year anniversary was months ago, the wife and I finally got to take our “Official Anniversary Trip” last weekend. After an evening and morning of painting the family room, we finally departed on our journey sometimes around 2PM Saturday afternoon. Drive time was about 4 hours but we had plans to stop along the way.
Specifically we stopped in Bloomington at one of the offices for Tina’s place of employment. She did an hour or sos worth of work. The purpose of this stop is of course to turn half our drive into a “business trip” so she can expense it out. Clever isn’t she. It’s not like she didn’t do other work while we were on the trip.
Anyway while she was doing her work, I scouted the local Wal-Mart since it was also “official Transformers Movie Toys Release day”. I picked up almost every figure from the line I’m interested in. Jazz, Real Gear Spyshot, Barricade vs Bumblebee Two Pack. As a bonus I also snagged Cybertron Tyranosaur Megatron, and a couple of other Cybertron deluxes for my son on clearance. I suppose it makes me seem like an asshole spending ~40 bucks on new product for myself while pushing $10 of clearance stuff off on him. Sue me. Reviews pending…
Back on the road and two hours later we reached Chicago. Technically it’s the “Chicago Land Area” as a friend of mine from college reminded me repeatedly when we had done a previous trip to the area. For my purposes Glendale Heights, Arlington Heights, Cicero, Berwyn, all fo that junk… it’s Chicago.
Our Hotel was in Glendale Heights, chosen because it had a pool and free parking. After unloading the car and checking in it was off to dinner. We decided on a Steak and Seafood place down the street. Turns out it’s a very expensive Steak and Seafood place at $20 a plate. Rather than be rude and leave we opted to split a dinner of ribs and chicken. She liked it but I thought it was pretty meh.
For our evening entertainment we drove East. East on North Street, the road our hotel was on. It was my intention to hit the water. to “Drive until I fall in the lake”. And boy did we drive. It took nearly an hour to actually reach downtown Chicago and along the way we passed through several “Spanish neighborhoods” padded by some “black neighborhoods” and a few “Asian neighborhoods”. We even passed some sort of altercation involving the cops that forced us to detour around a block through a very small alley.
Suddenly we reached the “Everyone between the ages of 20 and 30 is on the street going somewhere neighborhood that is downtown. IT’s 1PM and there are cars and people by the hundreds everywhere you look. The organized chaos of it all was quite impressive. Unfortunately North street ended short of the water and we were forced to turn. I couldn’t tell you our route but we traveled south for a good while before veering east again. Eventually we found ourselves at the water in front of Buckingham Fountain. near Navy Pier, Soldier Field and other sites. Sadly it was dark so attempts at photography failed miserably.
After traveling along the water front we did a U-turn at one of the exits hoping to find a place to park to walk around the park at night and gets so decent real photos using a tripod but alas the fountain was gone when we got back in the area. Also Navy Pier was in the process of closing down. We decided it was a long drive back and started our search for North Street (or an Interstate headed that way). After some confusion we managed to find our path home and returned to the hotel for some rest.
The next day would be a trip to Brookfield Zoo.
