Let's Take Off In The Blue!

I live in Southern California and I grew up delighted with the offerings from the Disney company.  They had movies and of course they have that amazing jewel Disneyland.  My family would go periodically and a good time was had and then at some point I became an adult and could go to Disneyland myself.  And then if you go more than once a year, you might as well get the pass since the price of individual tickets are so high.*

Recently the Disney company has severely increased the price of the Annual Pass.  The price of the premium pass is now the same as an unlocked iPhone 5.  Of course they offer a convenient monthly payment plan, but my point is:  This is a total waste of my money.  Maybe I’m getting older and fickle.  

This morning Disney sent me an email saying “It can’t be true.” and I want to let them know that yes, it absolutely can be true.  You increased the price of a luxury good with diminishing marginal utility by 50%.  It is obvious that the company’s intent was to decrease the amount of Annual Passholders, and I am only too glad to help them with that.

*The math isn’t correct.

I started this to document my travels.  Seemed like a good idea.

Then I stopped traveling.

So … no posts.

k good night!

Looks like my epic #nycj trip for 2011 is coming to a close…

I don’t want to feel this way but I don’t really get a choice. I guess in hindsight I wasn’t aware of all of the consequences. Life still manages to surprise me. And if I had the chance to change my decision I wouldn’t want to.

Well gee, tumblr it appears that I completely slacked off which isn’t too surprising but an update:

I’m not actually traveling which should be a really good excuse for not posting any updates.  However it seems I forgot to fill in the end of my trip which is not what I should be doing right now because there is a book I need to finish.

But let’s see if I can still remember where I went in mostly the right order:

1. Seattle
2. Charlotte —> Smokey Mountains —> Dollywood
3. New York
4. Orlando
5. Baltimore
6. Boston
7. Austin
8. Portland
9. Denver
10. Las Vegas

I of course am neglecting Long Beach.  And since then I’ve gone back to New York, via SeaTac and Newark… and I drove down to San Diego, but that wasn’t a trip.  That was more like a jaunt.

I can’t keep track of where I am or when this is. Which is bad because I had a ‘oops I forgot to schedule a bed for tonight’ moment.

Orlando was fun and I’m pretty glad I went with people.

Baltimore was interesting and seeing Eric is always a good time.

Boston wasn’t god awful they just have too many tolls and other gotchas.

Austin was lovely. A shame some guy didn’t agree. Pretty much all I did today was go to a bookstore.

And now were playing ‘will I make my flight’ the answer should be explicitly yes because I still have 75 minutes and I think the bus is at the airport. Plus I had some drinks with Roby whom I haven’t seen in years. I think he claims six years. He could be right, we’re not as young as we used to be.

I’m in a cramped little cabin, watching clips from the Tonys featuring the original cast of Next to Normal. Why? Because tonight I saw Next to Normal. Somehow I was not expecting such a powerful moving performance.

Go see Kyle Dean Massey in Next to Normal. I was lucky, I was seated in row A so I got a very good view of the up front action. (Not so much the attic).  I was impressed by everybody’s performances, and it’s not often that I get to be impressed with dramatic performances in a musical.  (Hey, Vanessa Hudgens. Some people can actually act in a musical. Proof!) 

So yeah. I was back in Los Angeles and then flew back out to JFK but I had to swing through Boston first and the flight was severely delayed.  Apparently there was (or could have been) a TORNADO in Brooklyn.  And something about Air Force One but I really think the weather was a bigger delay.  I did make the flight from Boston to New York but my luggage did not.  And while I was at the gate for hours at LAX I realized that my carry on did not include an iPod compatible power adapter.  I kept a back up in my backpack, but that was the checked luggage.

So let’s see. Today I couldn’t find my luggage, I couldn’t find the TKTS booth (well I did eventually but I found Ground Zero and Wall Street first).  I was considering trying to cram in a matinee tomorrow but didn’t want to push my airport luck.  Because apparently that’s running thin.

I ran across a Five Guys so I’ve now tried their burger offerings. I don’t like their fries. I prefer my fries thin cut like In-N-Out or McDonalds.  The burger was decent, pretty damn messy tho.  It was also more expensive than it needed to be.

Ooops totally fell asleep before finishing or posting.  The good news is in brief that JetBlue eventually did find my backpack and delivered it to the hotel but they did so pretty damn late so I had to go to the performance in shorts and a t-shirt.  I kept my jacket on because I felt self-conscious but even that is like a fleece.  Ugh.  It’s not even old enough to be considered retro yet.  Just wait.  My inability to buy clothes will keep me looking hip one of these days.  Just you wait.

I flew from JFK to LAX today so I’m technically not traveling. I’ll be back out soon enough. But for now, I can enjoy real Internet. Motel Internet sucks!

I’m being terrible.  Slacking off and what what.  But this isn’t exactly the most convenient way of communicating.  I’m in New York, NY right now in a cramped Days Inn room with marginal wifi.  I’m in QUEENS.  I don’t think I’ve ever been in Queens before.  So I guess my New York exploration is … oh crap. I haven’t visited Staten Island.  I wonder if there’s anything in Staten Island to even see.

Thus far all of the accommodations have not had good desks or work surfaces. And I have stacks of postcards that need addressing and writing and &c.  I’ve been slacking off.

Back to the trip.  Sorry, no pictures, way too lazy to transfer them to the iBook right now.

Dollywood is a wonderful, superlative invoking experience that is highly recommended for families and anyone who has ever thought … I LOVE DOLLY PARTON.  If you don’t know who Dolly Parton is, I’m sorry.  Find out already.  Dollywood could and probably is the only thing I ever wanted to do or see in Tennessee.  (I don’t know if I want to go see the toilet Elvis died on).  As I had earlier posted, when we went it was very wet and I think the weather helped people keep people away from the park.  The rides may not be amazing — loved the wooden coaster — but go see the Sha-Kon-O-Hey and marvel at what a little park in TN can pull off.  Music for that show written by Dolly herself, and she performs it on the soundtrack.  That CD can be purchased for a very affordable price with proceeds going towards a Smokey Mountain charity.

The people there are real nice too.  And the eaten was pretty good.  Next time I’m there I want to go to Aunt Granny’s…I didn’t realize that Aunt Granny is the nickname given to Dolly by her nieces and nephews.  She just loves to cook (but refuses to clean) and that restaurant features her own recipes.  It’s All You Can Eat so … don’t eat beforehand.

We had rented a Ford Fusion in Charlotte, NC and drove it out to Gatlinburg, TN.  Let me say that I like that car.  A lot.  It’s more fuel efficient than my Rav4 and definitely more powerful.  I was reading up on the wikipedia and apparently it’s been named Car of the Year … have you driven a Ford lately?  I don’t know if they still use that slogan but the point is that I know some American cars are not really decent.  I think the Ford Fusion is a car that could change your ideas about that.

After Gatlinburg we drove back to Charlotte and I don’t have a lot to say about Charlotte except I’m mighty glad to be out of there.  We had a crazy early flight and we couldn’t find the rental car lot and then they weren’t open for another hour.  (There was a drop off box for the key, we left the car in the daily lot).

Soooooooo NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY

It’s raining at Dollywood. Not like an LA rain. More like a are you sure you want to be doing this rain?!?

Well technically I’m not in Seattle anymore.  Yesterday? Yes I suppose yesterday we woke up and went to the Tukwila Link Station — the only one we could find with parking — and bought our tickets and waited for the train.  We got on the train and the train didn’t move.  Apparently there was an accident and train service was interrupted.  We ended up driving into Seattle to park at the Westlake shopping center.

It was the last day in town and we had to ride the monorail.  Andy and I both like trains, and the Seattle monorail is a classic.  It runs from the mall to the Seattle Center…which I think is poorly named because it doesn’t seem to be in the middle of anything.  But what were they going to call it, “the place with the big pointy needle?”

The Space Needle is by far the most iconic landmark in the Seattle skyline.  We didn’t go up but I think you understand from this picture what it looks like.

And then there’s yet another ugly (personal opinion) Frank Gehry rubbish structure, the Experience Music Project.

I don’t know what I was expecting but I got really excited when I went inside and saw Gort.  The EMP is sharing the building with the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame.  And sadly … there is hardly any Doctor Who in there.  Longest running Sci Fi show ever, and all they have is a picture of Tom Baker and some Daleks. The gift shop however had much more.  I don’t think that’s quite appropriate but whatever.

What can I say about the Experience Music Project?  It was like Wii Music with an exhibit on Jimi Hendrix’s guitars in a pretentious building they probably wasted too much money on.  I was probably expecting something closer to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but really… there wasn’t much there.  Except for the Sky Church.

It’s pretty safe to say that the rest of my time was spent in airports and airplanes.  We flew from Seattle to New York (JFK) to Charlotte.

And then we drove from Charlotte North Carolina to Gatlinburg, TN.  We actually somehow passed through parts of South Carolina to get here… and stopped by the world’s largest fireworks store but we didn’t get anything.  Didn’t want to blow up the car.

And what a car it is. A 2010 Ford Fusion. I step on the gas and the car accelerates!  So not like my car at all.  Plus it feels weird that the elevation is lower.  My Rav4 rides very high so being down at car level is different.

Tomorrow, Dollywood?  One can only hope.  Also, tired now.

If you visit Seattle you should go to Voula’s Offshore Cafe.  It was featured on Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives.  I had a Greek Hobo which included greek sausage, onions, mushrooms, hash browns and feta cheese.  It was sooo good I decided that if I were to write a travel book on Seattle it would feature Voula’s.  Just to make sure people go there.  It’s kinda that good.

Today we went to the Seattle Underground which has a really interesting history.  Apparently the founding fathers weren’t exactly masters of planning so the original Seattle conveniently accidentally burned down and they were forced to start over again.  To escape the low tides and the high steep grade on the hills they decided to build up and regrade Seattle.  But they decided to rebuild first and then regrade…so the buildings went up with the knowledge that the second story would be the ground floor after the regrade was complete.  So underneath the modern sidewalk is the original sidewalk.  The tour is definitely amusing but I think the underground could be better ventilated.

Walked over to Pike Place but it was later and not much was going on.  It’s actually past midnight and my brain’s kinda going so … we went to a Pizza Hut where we sat down and had dinner.  Yes, it had a red roof.