Christmas in New Jersey

Moorestown, NJ
December 25 - 29, 2011

As per tradition our family traveled east this week to celebrate Christmas with my mom’s family. It was fitting that on the celebrated day of Christ's birth I saw one of the most amazing sunrises I've ever seen. I wasn't able to get a great picture of it through the plane window but the photo below provides the general idea of the scene surrounding Mt. Hood.



Our travels Christmas day were quite smooth and we even got in a little early allowing us to join our cousin at her place for Christmas dinner. The highlight of dinner was the newest addition to the Thornburg family. “Santa”, as the kitten is currently known, is a super cute three month old orange tabby. On the 26th we had our traditional celebration at Granny’s house. A very nice time appeared to be had by all. On Tuesday Jason, Joyce and I made our usual trek to the Franklin Mills Outlet Mall. The mall was actually pretty calm this year. We left without witnessing a single domestic violence dispute. Wednesday mom and I went shopping with Ben and Leah at the Cherry Hill mall. Nobody bought much of anything but we had fun people watching. After finally having some Jersey pizza for dinner back at Granny’s house, a bunch of us went bowling. Jason and I both played pretty well. He rolled 186 and I had a 213. Thursday morning I was up early to catch my 6 AM flight. I came back a few days before the family, so I’d have a day at home to wrap up end of year business before taking off for the Rose Bowl.

I'm off to LA in two days!
Katy

18 Hours in LA

Today I was in LA for a quick business meeting. The meeting went well and will hopefully lead to some exciting changes in 2012. In the evening I went to the Joshua Radin and Sara Bareilles concert. Getting to the concert was a challenge because there was a murder on Sunset Blvd. which closed many blocks adjacent to the Hollywood Palladium and caused ridiculous traffic even by LA standards. I was told previously by a friend that Sara has a potty mouth in person. She most definitely swears, A LOT, but she is pretty funny and undeniably talented. All in it was a packed but good 18 hours in Tinseltown.

Next on the travel schedule is NJ for Christmas and then back to LA for the Rose Bowl!

Until then,
Katy

Matty D. and The Eagles

I was up super early this morning to catch my 5:45am flight to Portland before grabbing a connecting flight to Seattle. After riding the light rail into downtown, I was to the Sheraton by 10:30. I checked in, ditched my stuff, and walked to my appointment with Dr. D. After my appointment I went to lunch in Nordstroms and then bought a couple shirts my mom had requested I look for at Macy’s. I then took my bags back to my room and bundled up for the Eagles vs Seahawks game.

This was my first Seahawks game in Qwest aka CenturyLink Field. The Eagles looked as terrible as they have played all season. They not surprisingly lost the game 31-14. Other thoughts from the game:

• Guys who want to have their picture taken with the SeaGals are remarkably skeezy looking.

• NFL players are huge. On the whole they really are gigantic men (Chad Hall excluded).

• The pace of the game felt incredibly slow. That’s what watching Duck football all year will does to a person.

• Seattle fans are rabid. They didn’t sit down the ENTIRE game. And I was in fairly expensive seats.

• In person (as opposed to on TV) I actually found Any Reid’s black jumpsuit to appear slimming... no, seriously.

I’m up early again tomorrow to make it back to Eugene in time for the inaugural Pac-12 Championship game.

Until LA in a week,

Katy

An Unexpected Trip

Moorestown, NJ
November 24 - 30, 2011

This week I was very much looking forward to being home for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately it was not be. Pop, my mom’s dad, went home to be with Jesus on Monday November 21st. To join the family in celebrating his life we flew east on Thanksgiving day. Pop’s memorial service was held on Friday. It was a very fitting service for a life well lived over 89 years. All of the J’s went home on Saturday and mom and I stayed until Wednesday to make sure that Granny and the rest of the family were doing alright. Death is never fun for those left behind, but there is certainly great peace in being a Christian and knowing that your loved one is now with the Lord and that you will see them again someday.

I’ll be home for 18 hours and then I’m off to Seattle tomorrow.

Katy

Friends and Football

Northern California
November 9 -14, 2011

This week I was in Northern California visiting friends and watching the Ducks take on the Stanford Cardinal. I arrived in Sacramento early Wednesday morning and made my way directly to Joel, Danelle, Ilia and Baron’s house. We spent the day playing puzzles, games and chatting. On Thursday we again hung out at the house. At one point Dnelly needed to get yarn for her burgeoning crocheting hat business, so I offered to watch the kids. Baron was very sad when his mommy left, so I did what any good babysitter would do. I fed him Cheerios. After that he was happy. Joel didn’t have class Thursday night, so it was great that he, Dnelly and I had some extra time to hang out and chat like the old days. Friday I was up early to catch the end of Ilia’s gymnastics class on my way down to the bay. It’s quite entertaining to see three year-olds do “gymnastics”. By far my favorite part was the zip-line the kids get to ride into a pool of balls. I wish they had an adult size version of this.

After stopping at an outlet mall and driving through the Napa Valley I met up with a friend in Santa Rosa. I literally hadn’t seen Brooke in fifteen years. We were track buddies growing up and recently reconnected on Facebook. We had a fantastic time catching up. I sincerely hope it won’t be 15 years until I see her again.

Friday night I went to dinner at a local Chinese joint near my hotel with Mikey. Somehow during dinner he talked me into going to Game Day with him the next morning. Game Day actually turned out to be fairly fun. This was the first time the show has been to “The Farm”. Hearing the banter of the Stanford students and reading their signs took me right back to my recruiting visit on the farm and reminded me why I didn’t want to go to school there. On the whole Stanford kids make for an arrogant crowd.





After Game Day, Mikey and I went to breakfast at Ihop. I then returned to my hotel for a pre-game nap. Jeremy, Andrea and Mikey picked me up for what possibly turned into the most fun football game I’ve ever attended. We met up with Joel and Danelle at the game. This was my first time attending a game in the renovated Stanford stadium. It truly is a beautiful place.



After the Ducks dominated the 5th ranked Cardinal all of us went to downtown Palo Alto to grab some food. We ate at a pretty good burger joint called "The Workshop". The food took a while to be served because there was some sort of snag in the kitchen. Even with the less than ideal service, I think it may have been the best pulled pork sandwich I’ve ever had. The company was a lot of fun too, as was celebrating the victory.

Sunday I was up at a decent hour in order to make it back to Sacramento for an early Thanksgiving with the Zehnder clan. The Zehnder grandparents now have an immediate family of 59! In order to get most to attend, the family generally has Tday about two weeks early. It was my good fortune to get to participate this year to meet more of the family. I’d heard stories about many of them, so it was fun to finally give those names faces.

Monday morning I got up and played with Danelle, Conner and Baron for a bit before packing up. We then went to pick up Ilia from school so I could say goodbye to her before heading to the airport.

All in it was another great visit in Nothern Cali filled with fun, friends and football!

Until the next adventure,
Katy

Hospitals Are Sad, Scary, Fun & Entertaining All At The Same Time

Moorestown, NJ
November 4 - 7, 2011

This weekend Mom and I were in New Jersey to help Granny get ready for Christmas, at least that is what we thought we were doing. We arrived into PHL late on Friday night. We talked to Granny until roughly 3 A.M. The plan when I went to bed was to get up at 11ish and do some shopping before going to the rehab facility to visit Pop. At 9:30 A.M. Mom came into my room to tell me that she and Granny were going to the ER because Pop had been transferred there.

After getting showered and prepared to go out I called Mom. She said I should go start shopping with Becky and Ben because she wouldn’t know anything about Pop for a few hours. We ate lunch at Panera and then hit up the Cherry Hill mall. I don’t think we managed to acquire a single Christmas present but we did have fun wandering and people watching. Mom eventually called and said they were taking Pop for some tests and that she and Granny wanted to go to dinner with the family. After Beck and I made a quick stop at the Christmas Tree Store to buy some stocking stuffers we met the family at Ruby Tuesday for dinner. After dinner all five Thornburgs, Mom and I went to Target to get some more stocking stuffers. For the night cap we watched Alabama vs LSU and then the Ducks vs Huskies while wrapping presents.

Sunday morning Mom, Granny and I went to visit Pop in the hospital. He hadn’t been assigned a room or roommate when Mom and Granny left yesterday. So we were curious to see what we would find. Boy was it entertaining. Pop’s roommate’s name was Roberto. Roberto was hospitalized with a serious fever and infection caused by intravenous drug use. Roberto was friendly enough but man was he all over the place. Upon our arrival he was sleeping sideways hanging off his bed with his pants on the floor. Shortly thereafter he was peeing with the door to the bathroom open. Next he spent 15 minutes trying to log-in to the password protected nurses station. He joined our family’s conversation a few times by both standing and listening in and then telling his own heavily accented and difficult to understand stories. The highlight came close to the end of our visit. I was sitting in a chair next to Pop’s bed with my back to the curtain separating Pop’s half of the room from Roberto’s. All of the sudden I saw Judy and my Mom’s eyes get big. Just then I felt Roberto’s hand pop under the curtain and hit my chair. Before any of us could blink his head was under the curtain six inches from my @$$. Mom started crying she was laughing so hard. Judy looked like she was sincerely concerned and it appeared Granny didn’t know what to think. Eventually the nurses convinced Roberto that sleeping in his bed the proper way would be a good idea. When Pop fell asleep Mom and I left the hospital to go do a little more Christmas shopping.

Monday morning Mom, Granny and I went to brunch with Beck and the kids before seeing Pop in the hospital. Roberto seemed to be on his best behavior, which made Mom, Granny and the nurses happy. Granny wasn’t feeling fantastic, so mom decided to extend her stay to Friday. I’m currently on my way back to Eugene, so I can quickly turn around again and head for Sacramento to see Joel, DNelly and the kiddos before the Stanford game this weekend.

Until the day after tomorrow,
Katy

Orlando: Part Two

I arrived back at MCO at 5:20 PM. While I was in South Carolina my mom left Orlando for New Jersey to see her Dad and help her Mom and sisters. Pop developed pneumonia and was hospitalized. I waited at the airport until Dad’s meetings were over and he was available to get me. We then went to dinner before crashing hard back at the hotel. Monday morning I got up early to take Dad to the convention center. I then returned to the condo, slept some more and did a little bit of work. At 5 PM I picked Dad up from his meetings and brought him back to the condo to change and prepare for our evening at Universal’s Island of Adventure. One of the coolest things about when the AAO goes to Orlando is that it typically rents out one of the parks for the conference attendees and their guests.

The most interest from attendees, not surprisingly was Harry Potter’s section of the park. Dad and I decided to head their first. We got on the dragon ride with literally no waiting. We then looked at the castle ride, saw it had a half-hour wait and decided to return later when hopefully the lines had dissipated a bit. We then met up with Dad’s new doctor, Jason, and his wife Tina. We proceeded back to the front of the park and went all the rides that didn’t involve getting wet. At 10 PM we returned to Harry Potter’s Castle and were told that we would not be allowed to ride it because the line was so long that the park would be closed before our turn. We were told, however, that we could take a “Castle Tour” and just walk through and see the incredible sites. We decided that was better than nothing, so we went for it. The Castle was truly amazing. As we approached the end of the “tour” an opportunity presented itself to get in the ride queue. Dad and I jumped on it. The ride was pretty amazing. It was a mix of projected images, moving roller coaster and incredible set pieces. I’m definitely glad we didn’t miss out on it. After completing the castle ride at 10:45 PM, we snuck in a ride on the kiddy roller coaster through the pumpkin patch in HP’s World and then got on the dragon ride one last time. While we didn’t get in quite as many rides as I was hoping, we did ride everything on my to-do list. All in, it was a great night at the park and I look forward to doing it again when the AAO returns to Orlando!

Tuesday morning I attended the conference with Dad. I’ve been tasked with helping him choose an EMR. I spent the morning speaking with vendors and sampling demos on the trade show floor. I can now fully understand why this government mandated transition has many doctors overwhelmed. Picturing my dad trying to wade through all the technospeak is frightening.

In the afternoon I finally made it to an Orlando outlet mall. I’m certain Orlando has more outlet malls per capita than anywhere else in the world. I didn’t purchase much but had fun looking nonetheless. In the early evening I picked Dad up from the conference, took him to change out of his suit and tie and then we went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. We had a nice time discussing all I had learned about EMRs and office management. To walk off some of our dinner, post meal we went to another outlet mall. I thought we would just window shop and enjoy the warm evening air since it was past nine but it turned out the mall was open to 11 PM. This resulted in the purchase of a couple Christmas presents and a much needed new beige jacket for Dad.

It’s now Wednesday evening and by my estimation we’re somewhere over Idaho. We’ve taken the same circuitous route through IAD and PDX. One development that happened today is I found out this year’s Christmas ornaments have been released from customs and I can pick them up in Portland anytime. So while I was quite excited to sleep in my own bed and see my Chippy, I am going to delay that. My friend Mandy is a hero and agreed to pick me up at PDX, let me crash at her house and then deliver me to a U-Haul rental facility in the morning to pick up a truck that I can use to drive the ornaments down I-5 in the morning.

I am off to see Granny and Pop in week.

Until that adventure,
Katy

A Weekend In South Carolina

This morning Dad was nice enough to get up and take me to airport. His meetings started at 8 am, so he was a champ to run through his day on so little sleep for me. I flew from MCO to ORD to ATL. Those of you who know airport codes know this was quite inefficient, in the sense that I flew virtually directly over Atlanta to go to Chicago to then fly back to Atlanta. The reason for this routing was actually not a miles run but rather the result of last minute planning and the use of miles to get the ticket.

For now we’ll leave the details on this trip sparse. The super short version is that I met a friend who grew up in Walhalla, SC. We attended the North Carolina vs Clemson football game. It was awesome. The tradition of the Running of the Hill was really, really fun to see in person. It was a perfect fall day for football and Clemson kept its undefeated season alive.



After tailgating, football and more tailgating we went to the Walhalla Oktoberfest which was an experience unto itself. The people watching there was some of the best I’ve seen anywhere in the world. For those of you from Eugene, picture a small Southern town’s version of the Lane County Fair and your image will be close. For the rest of you there is a picture below.



Sunday afternoon I flew back to Orlando on a direct flight from ATL...

Orlando: Part One

This week Dad’s annual AAO meeting is taking place in Orlando. On occasion I like to tag along for his meetings, especially when they are taking place near the happiest place on Earth.

In typical Dad style we did not fly a very direct route to MCO but rather a route that maximized miles. We went from Eugene to Portland to Washington Dulles to Orlando. Needless to say this took the better part of day Wednesday. Thursday Dad wanted to rest up before the start of his meetings. And as we all know, I never mind sleeping in. When I woke up around noon I was told my tech support skills were needed. Unfortunately the Grand Lakes Marriott Viista does not allow anyone to print anything on a USB anywhere its grounds, and its grounds are HUGE. I eventually was able to secure what I needed with Jason’s help through a few emails and six dollars of computer usage fees.

After finishing the necessary paperwork for Dad and Mom, Dad wanted to go to the conference center to register and pick up his supplies. By the time we finished this task it was after 5 PM. Our next stop was FINALLY the happiest place on Earth aka Disney World and more specifically Mickey’s Not So Spooky Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom.

Mickey’s party is an evening at the Magic Kingdom requiring a special admission ticket that gives extended hours and the ability to trick-or-treat around the park. Party goers are also are encouraged to dress in costume. It was amazing how many people did. One of my favorite ladies dressed as Miss Piggy in scrubs. The best part was that she was pushing Kermit in a wheelchair. The funny part is that there was no one in the Kermit costume. He was just a VERY large doll. We decided this was a brilliant way for this woman to cut all the lines. There was also a family dressed as The Incredibles. The picture of them below is blurry but you get the idea of who cool this family seemed to be. Finally the last picture below shows our haul of candy for the evening.







Mom, Dad and I didn’t end up getting home from Mickey’s party until 1:30 AM. This was less than ideal since I had to leave for the airport at 5:30 AM to catch a flight and I hadn’t yet packed a bag. Regardless the evening was boat loads of fun and well worth the fatigue that was likely to bite.

The Shore with J2

LBI, NJ
September 15-25, 2011

This week I went to the Shore with J2. It was a bit of an anticlimactic Shore trip being that it’s the first time in five years that R2 hasn’t joined us. I guess we’ll give them a pass since they are six weeks into being R3 instead of R2. The weather has been on the crappy side of normal which made it difficult to find beach time. I only made it in the waves once. I had a great ride, an okay ride and then a ride that wrenched my shoulder. The highlight of the trip was Enyo’s visit on the last weekend. We all had a great time catching up and watching the Ducks beat up on the Cats while eating Joeys. That night we also saw a gorgeous sunset and our first rainbow over the Atlantic in 30 years.





Until Orlando in October.

Katy

Ducks in Dallas

Dallas, TX
September 2-6, 2011

This weekend the family (including Jason!) went to Dallas for the Oregon vs LSU football game at Jerry’s World. We arrived in Dallas late Friday night. Saturday morning our friend Scott picked Jason, Joyce and me up and gave us a tour of Dallas highlights. He took us by Mark Cuban, Ross Perot, Jerry Jones and Dirk Nowitzki’s houses. My favorite part of the tour was probably all of the “There are armed guards on the premises at all times” signs located every fifteen feet on Cuban’s property.

For lunch Scott took us down to the Mi Cocina Tex-Mex restaurant at Highland Park Village. At lunch we asked about the Dallas area and what people liked to do there. Scott’s answer was simple. “We eat and we shop.” Not surprisingly the food was delicious. Even though we all left stuffed, we walked across the street for some of the best gelato I’ve ever eaten. We then set off on the drive to Arlington and Cowboys Stadium.

As regular blog readers know, I’ve been to Jerry’s World before. It’s just as impressive the second time around. We arrived plenty early and used the time to explore fully both the outside and the inside of the stadium. We had some friends from Louisiana that we wanted to visit. They were nice enough to invite us up to their suite for a drink. Our seats were located near the 20 in the club section. Our view can be seen in the photo below. The Ducks did not play well and lost 40-27. The defeat was disappointing but I think all still managed to have a good time.



Sunday was Mom and Dad’s 35th wedding anniversary. We had a nice brunch at a place called Bread Winners with the Potts crew. As is always the case with Mikey and Jeremy, we laughed a lot. The highlight of breakfast was Mikey describing the silent killer aka the Toyota Prius.

After brunch Jason, Joyce and I rested at the hotel while Mom and Dad visited the Dallas Art Museum. For dinner we went to a place called La Duni Latin Cafe that specializes in Argentinean and Brazilian food. I would highly recommend this place to any future Dallas visitors.



Monday we went shopping at the outlet mall. Dad always has fun outlet shopping and I think he won the title for biggest spender. For dinner we met back up with Scott for some Sonny’s BBQ. The food was good and the company was even better. We topped off dinner with one more round of gelato, said our goodbyes to Scott, and then went back to the hotel to pack up for the journey home.

Up next on the travel schedule is the Shore in two weeks.

Until then,
Katy

The Great State of Ohio

Ohio Road Trip
August 9-16, 2011

This week I visited the state of Ohio for the first time. The purpose of the trip was to do research for Polansky Report and to drop off a bunch of t-shirts that are being converted into t-shirt quilts.

I started my journey in Columbus. After misconnecting in DC I had to wait five hours for the next flight. This caused me to miss my appointment with the quilters, so I rescheduled for the following day. Upon arrival in Columbus I went to my hotel, took a quick nap and then attended the Columbus Clippers Game.

The Clippers have a great park. I’m clearly not the only one that thinks so being that it was voted Best Park of the Year in 2009 by baseballparks.com. I also had one the best sandwiches of my life at Huntington Park. It was a turkey panini on a pretzel roll. Words can’t begin to describe how delicious it tasted.


Huntington Park in Columbus Ohio.

Thursday morning I was up early to make my rescheduled quilt meeting. It took a couple hours and went very well. I then drove to the outskirts of Cleveland to attend a Lake County Captains game. The Captains are the single A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians. Shin-Soo Choo the left fielder for the Indians was rehabbing with Lake County which made for an entertaining evening. I sat in front of an obsessed group of girls whose constant banter made for a fun evening.

I spent Thursday night in a hotel a half hour outside of Cleveland. In the morning I drove downtown checked into the Hilton Garden Inn next to Progressive Field and set off to explore the city by foot.

There was a ton of construction in the city along with a huge Hollywood movie set. This made my walk down to the Cleveland Browns Stadium take a lot longer than I originally planned. By the time I got to the riverfront it was pushing 12:30 p.m.. I did a quick stroll around the football stadium, popped in the proshop, took a few pictures and then made my way down the street to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.


The Avengers movie set in downtown Cleveland.


The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was a lot of fun. I enjoyed the myriad interactive listening stations around the museum. I was also surprised by the small stature of nearly all of the musicians. I bet on average the male performers with clothes in the Hall averaged 5’ 7”. For an additional $3 I decided to buy a ticket to the U2 3-D concert experience. I would highly recommend this for any U2 fans visiting the Hall.After making a quick stop back at the hotel I was off to Progressive Field for the Indians Twins game.

Progressive Field is a very nice ballpark. I chose to get a ticket in the all-you-can-eat club section for this game off Stub Hub. I’m pretty sure I drank my ticket price worth of diet soda out of the self-serve soda fountain. At the end of the night there was an Elvis themed fire work spectacular. It was a quite a good show as can witnessed below.



Saturday morning I was up early yet again to drive to Canton to visit the NFL Hall of Fame. I particularly enjoyed the exhibits describing the history of the NFL. The uniforms and protective equipment from a 100 years ago looked more like something from Silence of the Lambs than a football game. Overall Canton is worth a stop for any NFL fan.


A football helmet from the turn of the century.

After the Hall I had a long drive back to Columbus that was greatly shortened due to a most entertaining phone call with B. I spent my second night in Columbus at a Crew soccer game. This was the third MLS game I had attended. It was fun but the environments in Seattle and Portland are certainly better.

I arrived in Cleveland around 11 a.m. on Sunday morning. Before attending the Reds game, I checked out the Reds Hall of Fame. It was a fantastic museum. There was a great mix of historical items and interactive exhibits. They happened to be giving away Johnny Bench bobble-head dolls to attendees, which I found quite cool.

Another highlight of the game was getting to see Chad Ochocinco break dance outside one of the entrances.



The game itself wasn’t all that exciting. The Padres put a pretty good shellacking on the Reds. I sat by a very nice couple who were in from Texas for the weekend. They reminded me that the ATP tennis tour was in town. Since the Reds game was a day game, I decided it was worth pursuing tennis in the evening, even though it was opening night of the tournament and the big names were unlikely to be playing.

The Western and Southern Open was a blast. The only singles match taking place on the first night was James Blake vs Marco Baghdatis on center court. The most entertaining happening, however, was on second court where Rafael Nadal was practicing. While watching I learned that Rafa seems to pick his wedgie after every point. As an underwear endorser for Armani, I think he needs to ask for a more tennis friendly product.


Rafael Nadal practicing at the Western and Southern Open.

On my final full day in Ohio I stumbled upon a true gem. I was in Dayton and looking for something to do prior to attending the Dayton Dragons minor league baseball game in the evening. Based on Trip Advisor recommendations I decided to go to the Air Force Museum. This place was AWESOME. It was six ginormous hangers full of things planes. I highly recommend a visit to Ohio simply to visit this fantastic place.

The Dayton Dragons game was fun but not as fun as I was expecting being that the team had recently broken the professional sports team record for consecutive sellouts.

Overall the trip to Ohio was a rousing success. I think my quilts are going to be awesome and anyone who knows me knows seven sporting events in six days is my idea of fun.

Until the Ducks vs LSU in Dallas,
Katy

Baba and He He Celebrate 50 Years!

Carmel
June 24 -26

This weekend we were in Carmel, CA to celebrate Aunt Baba and Uncle He He’s 50th wedding anniversary. Friday night there was a large surprise dinner for them in the wine room in Pacific’s Edge Restaurant at The Hyatt Carmel Highlands. The party included my two cousins (Gretchen and Sarah), their families, my immediate family, He He’s brother, and six of Gretchen’s friends.

We had a “tasting” menu where each small course was paired with a complementary wine. Below is the menu for the evening.

The view from Pacific's Edge Restaurant.

Saturday I went for a hike with my dad, brother and boy cousins in Point Lobos State Park. I’d never been there and it was really quite beautiful. The highlight for me was playing with squirrels. I fed them, which my father continually pointed out was “against the rules” and one was friendly enough that he even let me pet him! Below is a picture of me feeding the little guy I pet some of my granola bar.

A vista in Point Lobos State Park.

For dinner on Saturday night the Hyatt let us take over one its restaurant’s outdoor patios. This restaurant only serves breakfast and lunch, so the hotel basically gave us the keys and free run of the place. I guess when a group rents out a quarter of a very expensive hotel, the hotel tries to please said group. We had 16 pizzas delivered to the patio. At the end of the evening we made smores in the fire pit by the pool. All in it was a fantastic night.

A seagull's eye view from the pizza patio.

Sunday morning most of the party was taking off because they had to drive back down to Southern California. Our flight didn’t leave until 8:50 pm out of Monterey, so after a leisurely breakfast with Baba and He He we decided to go to the aquarium. I was actually surprised how much I enjoyed it. While I’m not a huge fan of jelly fish, especially while swimming in Australia or at the Jersey Shore, I think they comprised my favorite exhibit. They are pretty cool beings when locked behind glass.

All in the weekend was a great success. I think Baba and He He thoroughly enjoyed their surprise. We had a lot of great meals, including Dad being “Elf" 
at breakfast (see below), family time and beautiful scenery. I don’t have another plane ticket until the LSU game in September. I can’t imagine I’ll make it two months without going somewhere. Regardless I’ll write upon the next adventure.

Until then,
Katy

In case you are wondering, Dad did eat that.

Golf The Way It Was Meant To Be Played

Bandon, OR
May 27 - 29, 2011

This weekend I am off to Bandon, OR with my Dad to meet a bunch of his friends to play golf at Bandon Dunes. I’m pretty excited about it. The courses at Bandon are always ranked in the top 50 courses in the US. It’s pathetic that the resort has been open over ten years and I haven’t played it.

Friday morning dad and I were up early for the two and half hour drive to the coast. I was pretty tired. The evening before we went to the South Eugene High School Hall-of-Dinner. I found out at the dinner that Bailey was flying into Eugene that night and since I was going to miss most of her visit while I was at the coast, I decided it would be fun to go to the airport with Tim to pick Mark and B up. This led to a 1AMish bedtime leading into a 6AM wake-up call. For those of you that know me well, I’m not my best on five hours sleep. Thankfully on the ride down Dad was nice enough to drive so that I was able to grab another hour or so of sleep.

Upon arriving at the resort we were met in the lobby by Bill and Gaynell. Bill and my dad were in residency together at the Wills Eye Institute in Philadelphia. I’ve met them numerous times and love them both. After checking in and heading over to our room I met Bill and Gaynell’s friend’s Sunny, Betsy, John Wayne (yes that’s his real name) and Martha, who were all making their first trip to Oregon. Not surprisingly, knowing Bill and Gaynell, these guys all made for great company as well. Shortly after unloading the car I was off to the practice range to hit a few balls with the golfers before setting off to play Pacific Dunes.

I missed Thursday’s round on Bandon Dunes because of the HOF dinner. Evidently I missed a beautiful course and a whole lot of rain. The gang said it rained for 85% of the round. Conversely on Pacific it only rained about 15% of the time. We got poured on during our first three holes and then it cleared up nicely. Below is a picture from when the weather was starting to improve.



After the round and a drink on the 19th hole we went back to the room to freshen up and prepare for dinner. One of the many nice things about the Bandon resort is that there are many restaurant options within the resort. All one has to do is call a shuttle, which always seemed to show up in five minutes or less, and grab a ride to the establishment of choice. On this night we went to McKee’s Pub. The food and service were both pretty good and the stories among the group were hilarious. We had a nice round table where everyone could share in one large conversation. Shortly after returning to the room I was out for the count.

Saturday morning we met the gang for breakfast in The Lodge. This was another good meal filled with a ridiculous amount of laughter. I’m always nervous, as my loyal readers know, when Dad talks me into trips exclusively involving people twice my age. In this case the nerves were totally unfounded because this group was awesome. For breakfast I had the ginormous golfer’s buffett and everyone took advantage. By the end I was feeling a little guilty about the amount of “to-go” items we accumulated but the waitress claimed she was totally fine with it.

Next it was off to Bandon Trails. Many claim Bandon Trails is the hardest of the four courses. I’m not sure if I agree with that. It is definitely different in that its holes are primarily in the woods as opposed to on the ocean. Like yesterday, I played this round with Sunny and Bill. Bandon’s motto is, “This is golf as it was meant to be played.” That means there are no golf carts and no groups larger than a foursome. To that end Gaynell and John Wayne played as a twosome in front of us. Sunny lit up the front side shooting three over through nine. Unfortunately he couldn’t keep it up on the back. Regardless he had a few incredible shots including a birdie putt on the par 3 fifth that would have made a pro proud.

After finishing 18 Dad, Betsy and Martha joined us for drinks on the 19th hole around the super cool outdoor fireplace. We then proceeded to return to our rooms to clean up for dinner back on the Pacific Course at the Pacific Grill.

Next to us at dinner we had a large and somewhat boisterous party of guys. We learned during one of the speeches from the table that the group was at Bandon celebrating the 40th birthday and retirement of MLBer Mark Loretta. His name seemed vaguely familiar to me but a quick search of the google machine confirmed he was in fact a 16 year vet who made two all-star teams and had a career batting average of .295. Once again we all hit the hay shortly after dinner.

Our tee time Sunday morning was at 8AM. I was up a little after 6AM so I had time to grab a little breakfast at The Lodge before the round. At breakfast I think I was one of two women out of about 40 patrons. I enjoyed my food and my view. I think I should hang out at fancy golf clubs more often.

Our final day we played the newest course at the resort, Old Macdonald. According to Bandon’s website this course “pays homage to golf course architect C.B. Macdonald by asking one simple question: What would Macdonald have created had the Oregon Coast been his canvas? Inspired by Macdonald's iconic work, course architects Tom Doak and Jim Urbina have crafted a course that seeks the answer upon vast greens, among myriad angles of play, and from the depths of fierce bunkers. By celebrating these classic concepts of design, we honor the traditions of this game we love.”

I’m not sure which course I liked the best. I do know, however, that I played my best golf on Old Macdonald. I played 14 holes in ten over. The other four holes weren’t pretty but for how little golf I’ve played in recent months, I’ll take it.

After finishing up our round we grabbed a bite to eat at the golf course and then proceeded to embark upon the longest drive from Bandon to Eugene in the history of the world.

Dad originally told Mom that we wouldn’t be back in Eugene with the company until 5PM. Unfortunately for him, we were ready to leave the resort by 12:45PM to begin what should be a 2 hour and 30 minute drive. In order to kill time Dad drove the speed limit the entire way, which meant cruising at 50 or 55 for most of the drive. We stopped for gas at a 76 station, drinks and the bathroom at McDonalds, at a scenic stop to look for elk, and at Arlene’s Cafe and General Store for who the heck knows what. All in Dad accomplished his goal of us not getting home until five. That means it took us 4 hours and 15 minutes to make a 2 and half hour drive. Needless to say I was happy to be home when we FINALLY made it.

All in the Bandon trip was fantastic. I would highly recommend a visit to any of my golf readers out there. In fact, if any of you read this and want to go, tell me when and I’ll go again with you.

Until the next adventure,
Katy

Gaga Turned Country

Boston, MA
May 18 - 21, 2011

This week I went to visit my good buddy Ilsa in Boston. Ilsa is finally moving back to Oregon after living in Massachusetts for the last ten years. I figured it was only appropriate to make one last trek east before Ilsa’s return.

I arrived late Wednesday night or technically Thursday morning. By the time we made it to Ilsa’s apartment and chatted for a bit it was past 2AM. Ilsa took Thursday off from work, so we could hang out. After catching up on our sleep and a little morning work we spent the afternoon at the Museum of Science watching the Imax film Tornado Alley. This movie was insane. A good part of it was about Sean Casey, a guy who spent 8 years building a car he could drive into the center of a tornado. Not surprisingly the climax was his successful footage from the actual INSIDE of a tornado. Below is a picture of the car used to go inside the storm:



On our walk back to Ilsa’s car we got drenched. I knew it was supposed to rain in the afternoon but somehow I let Ilsa talk me out of bringing my rain jacket. Getting drenched serves me right for listening to a teacher!

Thursday night there were sporting events going on all over Boston, so I thought it would be fun to go to a local bar and see the masses cheer for their teams. I let Ilsa pick the bar since she is the one with the local knowledge. She decided we should go to a place called Champions. This bar is located inside the Marriott at Copley Place. It did not disappoint. The food was actually pretty good for a bar, the fans were rowdy cheering for the Bruins and the Red Sox and the people watching was amazing. I’m fairly certain the first half of our evening we had a couple ladies and their Johns sitting next to us. I wish I had a picture of the women’s outfits but unfortunately I don’t.

Ilsa had to work Friday so I spent Friday morning doing some work myself before taking the T down to meet her at school. Riding public transportation always reminds me why I am happy I don’t live in a big city. The T on Friday afternoon is crowded and involves a lot of waiting. Anyone who knows me knows I’m not a huge fan of either of those things.

At 5:30PM or so Ilsa wrapped up her last task at school and we set out on our drive to the Comcast Center in Mansfield, Ma to see Matt Nathanson, Little Big Town and Sugar Land. The draw to this show for me was primarily Matt Nathanson, the opener’s opener. His sound isn’t country at all but Little Big Town and Sugar Land are both country bands. I’m not a huge fan of country but I thoroughly enjoyed these bands. The highlight of the night may have been during Little Big Town’s set. Evidently Little Big Town often covers a song during its set. Once during a “meet and greet” a fan asked Little Big Town if it could cover Lady Gaga. Below is the band's answer:



It was late by the time Ilsa and I got back to Boston but not too late for dessert. We decided to head to Davis Square for some JP Lick’s Ice Cream. We enjoyed eating outside on this balmy May night before going back to the apartment and crashing.

Saturday morning Ilsa and I took a walk around her neighborhood. Our walk led to one of her favorite breakfast spots. We had to wait an hour but then enjoyed a nice, long leisurely breakfast in the sun. I’m now at the airport waiting for my return flight home. I’m excited that this is likely the last time I will have to fly to see Ilsa!

Until the next adventure,
Katy

Moorestown for Mother's Day

Moorsetown, NJ and Philadelphia, PA
May 6 - 10, 2011

This weekend mom and I were in NJ to celebrate Mother’s Day with Granny and to plant her garden. I don’t particularly care for gardening but my mom and grandma both like it, so I took one for the team. I’m certain over the course of the weekend we planted close to 500 flowers. The highlight of the trip was probably going to the Phillies game. On Sunday night after having dinner with the family, Judy, Ben, Leah and I went to the see the Phillies take on the Braves. We had a very nice time even though the Phills lost after stranding a ridiculous number of runners throughout the game. I still have no idea what time it is. I’ll be home for a week and then I’m off to Boston to visit IB.

Until then,
Katy

Heading Home

May 4, 2011
Beijing, China

I’m on the plane heading home somewhere over the Pacific. I met my driver in the lobby of the hotel at 9AM. We were at the airport by 9:45. Check in was pretty seamless. Terminal three at the Beijing airport is ginormous, so it took a while to get through all the customs, security checks, etc. When I finally made it to the general area of my gate, I stopped in a shop to pick up one last thing that was requested of me from home. On the way from the store to the business lounge I ran into my friend Andrew from the Wall. He said he was out to find some breakfast. I told him I was heading up to the lounge and I didn’t know if I could get a guest in but we could try. The lady said it was fine for me to have a guest until she realized Andrew was flying on British Airways which is not a Star Alliance partner. Andrew, however, managed to charm the lady into a “one time exception.” We sat and ate and talked for 45 minutes or so. Again I thoroughly enjoyed his company. Maybe I’ll have to plan my next trip to London. Well, actually my next trip is to Philly on Friday. I plan to go home and sleep for 36 hours before leaving again.

Until Friday,
Katy

The Great Wall and Great Friends

May 3, 2011
Beijing, China

There are multiple sections of the Wall that tourists can visit while in Beijing. I can’t remember the name of the place dad and I visited last time but this time I went to Mutianyu. I think the surrounded mountains felt a little more lush this time. That may be because it’s spring or it in fact may be an area with more vegetation. The drive out took an hour and forty-five minutes. As we approached the base of the mountains I saw what I thought was a hoop that may have a view of the Wall. I couldn’t get Vivian’s attention fast enough to make the driver stop. But she assured me that we would go out the same way and that I could look at the hoop when we left.

This portion of the Wall has two cable cars to the top. It was clear Vivian wasn’t huge on hiking or frankly moving that quickly, so she suggested we take the cable car to the top. I didn’t really mind since I had hiked to the top with Dad previously. Once on the Wall Vivian told me she wanted to stay in the landing area while I wandered around. This wasn’t that big of a deal but again it was a very different experience than my previous trip with Dad and David, where David took every step with us and added informational details with each one. The biggest issue with not having Vivian on the wall me with was my inability to have my picture taken. I’m not huge on having my picture taken but there are a few exception where fun situations present themselves. I had one of those moments on the Wall.

As many of my regular readers know, I like to climb statues, walls, towers, etc . One of the “Towers” on this section of the Wall had a perfect place to climb for a photo. My only problem was a didn’t have a person to take it. I scoped the scene for a while. Eventually a white looking guy walked past me and I decided to ask him if he spoke English. He stopped, turned around, looked and said in a quintessential British accent. “Why yes. Quite well actually.” I asked him if he would wait to take a photo for me while I climbed up the tower. He laughed and said sure. I scurried off, climbed the tower, and he took a great shot.



I ended up talking to Andrew for a good 20 minutes. He was hilarious and quite handsome. He had perfect British lines like, “Once you get up here it all looks the bloody same doesn’t it.” And “I’ve been hiking for a long time. I thought I wanted to go to the top but, hell, it just keeps going.”

I didn’t spot any more hoops walking around the Wall or the grounds at the base. Therefore I asked Vivian to have the driver take me back to the hoop I saw on the way in. I got a shot. It’s not nearly as good as what I was hoping for or what I’m sure exists out there. I asked Vivian if there was any chance of going to another part of the Wall but she wasn’t having any of it. Unfortunately this probably means I will have to go back to the Beijing, yet again, in the near future ;~)

On our drive back to Beijing we hit some standstill traffic. Literally drivers were standing outside their car doors looking around. I was fearful this meant we were going to be sitting there for a very long time. Thankfully it only took ten minutes or so for traffic to start moving again. Within two hours we were back at the Raffles Hotel.



I had this feeling in my gut that there may be another hoop in the Forbidden City, so I decided to go and pursue that before heading back to the Silk Market to pick up a few more things. The Forbidden City was a five minute walk from my hotel. I made my way down the street and into the free part of the City. I revisited the court I’d found previously and then continued further inside the compound. Low and behold I found another set of hoops and courts. I really wish I had pursued more hoops in the Forbidden City yesterday when the sky was bluer. I still got some decent shots but maybe more importantly I learned a hard lesson, being that you can’t rely on guides, particularly foreign female guides, to have any idea where basketball hoops are located. You really have to search out each site yourself.

After wrapping up my hoop hunting at the Forbidden City I hopped on the subway and rode down to the Silk Market. Joyce had requested a couple more items that I wanted to try and get before meeting Lei, a friend from my MBA program, for dinner. I had some success at the market but not as much as I would have hoped, mostly because I was out of time.

Lei picked me up in a cab outside the market and we set off to have Hot Pot at a restaurant called The South Gate. The food was quite good and the company was even better. I hadn’t seen Lei in nearly six years. It was fun to catch up on old stories, friends and to get many of my questions about Chinese culture answered.

I didn’t make it back to my hotel until 11PM. It’s now almost Midnight and I’m not very packed. To that end, I have to wrap this up.

I’m off to the airport early tomorrow.

Until then,
Katy

Hoops from the Forbidden City to the Olympic Venues

May 2, 2011
Beijing, China

I was up early today. Too early. My body doesn’t like 7:59 AM wake up calls (I know, queue the little violins). Today is the last day of the May Day weekend holiday for the Chinese people, so Vivian anticipated we would find heavy crowds at the sites. Our first stop was Tienamen Square and the Forbidden City.

Dad and I were in China together in 2002, so I have already seen most of the major historical tourist attractions. My hope for our Forbidden City visit was simply to get a hoop picture. I had read that a few courts were installed by the entrance gates for recreation for the guards, so I was hopeful to have success. It turns out the hoops were quite easy to find. The challenge was going to be getting a good angle to take a picture. There were two courts directly inside the main gate and both were manned by security guards. I asked Vivian if she would ask one of the guys to let me go behind the gate to take a picture. She said he would not. I didn’t press the issue, yet. I went to the other court to check the shots there. I could take a decent picture, but not one as nice as I wanted. So I asked Vivian again if she would please ask the guard if I could take a picture. She did it this time and he appeared to say yes with no problem, just that I should be fast. The Chinese are so pushy in so many ways I don’t really understand why I have trouble getting guides to ask for things. It’s like they live in fear of something...

I asked Vivian if there were any other courts inside the next game and she assured me there were not. Since I had accomplished my goal of taking a good hoop picture I decided we didn’t need to take the time to go through the Forbidden City. It is a huge place and very fun to see, however, it all sort of looks the same. I had done it once and wanted to move on to seeing something new.

Next we set off to see some of the Olympic venues. In particular I wanted to see the Bird’s Nest (the home of the opening and closing ceremonies and track and field) and the Water Cube. I knew that people could tour the Bird’s Nest but I did not know the Water Cube was open.

The Water Cube is a really cool looking building. The exterior is all it appeared to be on TV and more. I can see why Michael Phelps enjoyed it so much. Speaking of Michael Phelps, one of my favorite parts about the Cube is the museum dedicated to the building on the top floor. The Chinese managed to build a museum to describe the building where the greatest Olympic feat in history took place, without ever mentioning the feat or the athlete. I seriously looked all around the display and could not find a single mention of Michael Phelps’ accomplishment of eight gold medals. There was a medal chart where one could count all of his medals. There was also one nondescript photo where I don’t even think his name was mentioned. This could and would only happen in China.

Inside the Cube there is now a legitimately large water park open to the Chinese public. It also appears like the warm up pool can be used for lap swims. No one was using the actual Olympic pool or diving platforms when we toured the facility.



Directly across the plaza from the Cube is the Bird’s Nest. The Bird’s Nest is also an incredible facility. I would have loved to tour the building with Joe or Han-Mei, so I could try to wrap my mind around how a building of that magnitude and random detail is constructed. I was surprised, however, that while the roof is as ornate as one would imagine, the rest of the facility felt a little like a 1980’s NFL arena to me. Maybe that’s because of I’ve spent too much time in Phil Knight funded UO buildings of late. I also felt like parts of the building were rather worn for it only being three years old. I think there may have been a bit of shotty construction because of the time crunch to have it completed.

From the upper levels of the Bird’s Nest I spotted a basketball hoop on what was most certainly the warm up track from the Games. It appeared to be heavily fenced but I was hopeful to find a way in.

I made a serious lap around the warm up track looking for an entry point. There were workman on the track, so I figured there had to be an entry point. It turns out the entry point was an underground tunnel from the bowels of the Nest. That basically ruled out a sanctioned entry. Now my choices to gain entry were to climb over or under the fence. I seriously considered going under the fence. I spent like five minutes trying to decide if I’d fit. I’m also fairly certain I could have successfully climbed over the fence. Eventually, however, I remembered I was in China and better judgment won out. I settled for reaching my arm through the fence to the best of my ability and snapping a picture that way. It’s not PERFECT but it will do. And I still have my freedom.



For lunch Vivian took me to a popular local Beijing noodle place. The service left a bit to be desired but that very well may be because it was extremely busy. The food was decent and being amongst exclusively locals made for a fun lunch experience.

After lunch I went to the Silk Market, which is one of Beijing’s largest black market/bargaining/shopping areas. When dad and I were in Beijing in 2002 the Silk Market was an outdoor street that sort of wrapped around with all kinds of stalls. Now it is a six story building packed to the brim. I could spend hours in the place, and, actually, I did. I didn’t necessarily buy that much stuff. I mostly just enjoy the sights, sounds and bargaining.

Since I knew I would be in the market for a long time I decided to send Vivian and my driver home early. I didn’t really see the point in having them sit around for hours while I just wandered. The only issue with that was it required my finding a way home when I left the market. I had planned to take a cab home but on my way to the cab line I was approached by a rickshaw driver. I decided that would be a really fun way to get home. I negotiated a fare of 30 Yuan, which was about two dollars more than it would cost me to take a cab. I thought that was worth it for the experience.

On the ride my thoughts kept shifting from this is the best idea I’ve ever had, to what the hell was I thinking. The thoughts tended to coincide with seeing or smelling something uniquely Chinese to thinking I was going to die in a back alley or car versus rickshaw accident. I hadn’t really had dinner, so when we got to the mall by my hotel I decided to have him drop me there. When he stopped I handed him the agreed to 30 Yuan and he goes, “No. No. 3-0-0 Yuan.” I laughed and said “Uhm, NO. 3-0 was the deal.” He makes a face like he is pain and again says “NO. NO. 3-0-0.” I said again, “Here is 3-0. Take it or leave it.” He said, “Okay” and took it with a bit of a grin. It’s amazing how in China at every turn someone tries to get a little extra ,or in this case, 10 times out of you.

I’m now back at the hotel and totally ready to crash. I just got done gchatting with Joyce and she told me the news that we killed Osama! It's crazy to me that in 2011 I didn't know this until more than 16 hours after it happened.

Vivian and I are going to the Great Wall tomorrow, so I again will have to be up early.

Until tomorrow,
Katy

Bribery is Effective

May 1, 2011
Shanghai/Beijing, China

Today was my last day in Shanghai. Eric and I met for breakfast at nine. Instead of eating in the ginormous lobby buffet, we ate in the executive lounge. Eric spends more than 50 nights a year in Starwood Hotels and that results in some very nice perks, including free breakfast. The spread had all I could have ever wanted. My treat choice for this meal was a coconut danish. It was, as Joyce would say, “yummy”. While we were eating Eric’s colleague Carry came into the lounge. We ended up talking with him for quite a while. By the time we left breakfast it was already 10:30. In order to catch my flight to Beijing I needed to head for the airport at 1:30. By the time I had packed up my stuff it was 11:30, so I had two remaining hours for fun. I still believed that there had to be a hoop with some part of a view of the skyline of Pudong. Basketball is just too popular in China for it not to exist. I scoped out Google Maps a bit more and realized there was one possible court I had missed. I decided to spend my last two hours in Shanghai trying to find it.

I took the subway to the Pudong side and began walking. The hoop I thought I had found on the map was located right near where Eric and I walked yesterday. Since we hadn’t seen it, I figured it must be located behind some serious walls. I found what I thought must be the place. It appeared to be a school of some sort, which then made sense that it would have a basketball court. The only problem was there appeared to be pretty serious fences all around the compound. There were two gates each manned by a guard. I walked a lap and then another trying to see one, if I could confirm there was a court and two, if there was a way in. I eventually found one angle where I saw through the building’s windows and around some bushes a kid dribbling a ball. I was now certain there was in fact a court in the compound. I was also highly confident that there would be a decent view of at least part of Shanghai’s skyline. Now my big problem was figuring out how to get in. The problem with hoop hunting in non-English speaking countries is I can’t ask people for help or explain my intentions. I wasn’t keen on the idea of trying to break in, because well, this is China after all. I was hopefully, however, if I could figure out a way to tell the guard at one of the gates what I wanted, he might let me in.

In general one’s best shot at finding an English speaker in a foreign language country is to ask a kid. Conveniently when I was contemplating my situation on the street a girl who was roughly 15 walked by. I sort or yelled at her and she ignored me. I tried again and got her attention. I asked her if she spoke English. She said, “a little” and pinched her fingers close together. I tried explaining to her that I wanted to take a photo and I needed her to ask the guard if he would let me in to do it. She looked confused but seemed willing to help. I explained it again with a little more success and convinced her to ask the guard. She went up to the booth, yelled something at the guy inside. He said something back and she said sorry but he says no. I then said ask him if he will open the gate if I give him ten dollars. She yelled something else to him. I’ve never seen a gate open that fast in my life. The guy come running out of his booth with his hand out. It was hilarious. I then felt compelled to give the girl a ten as well. She seemed pleased, as did the guard and as was I. I marked down as a mental note, when all else fails in China, bribery works. I manage to get some pretty good shots from inside the school. I still didn’t get a shot with the Pearl Tower but I did get a very nice angle on the “Bottle Opener” building.

The time was now a little after twelve and I need to make my way back to the hotel and get on my way to the airport. Riding back up in the elevator for the last time I was reminded of something I failed to mention. The first time I got in the elevator at Le Royal Méridien Shanghai I thought I heard monkey being murdered playing through the speaker system. On about the fourth ride I saw a sign that said this:

“French Musician and Composer Henri Scars has developed a 24-hour soundscape exclusively for Le Royal Méridien Hotels and Resorts. by blending rich natural sounds with music elements from all over the world and playing them at the entrances and in the elevators, unexpected moments are experienced around the hotel.”

Needless to say I found the sound of dying monkeys upon entering the elevator unexpected. So I guess his mission was accomplished.

My trip to the airport and even all the way to Beijing was uneventful. The Air China lounge was decent. It had free Coke Light, which was enough to make me happy. Upon arrival in Beijing I saw out my window a new Airbus 380 parked next to a Boeing 747. The A380 is absolutely ginormous. The 747 is huge and the 380 just absolutely dwarfed it. I don’t have a large burning desire to visit the Middle East but I might have to just to get to fly on one of Emirates new planes.



I was met at the baggage area by my guide Vivian. She seems very nice but her English is not as good as I might have hoped. Hopefully it won’t be much of a problem over the next two days. Our drive to the Raffles Hotel in downtown Beijing seemed way faster than the 40 minutes Vivian predicted. I didn’t look at my watch so I’m not sure if it was fast or just felt fast.

I made the bellman at the hotel very uncomfortable by professing my ability to carry my own things. I think it literally made him squirm a bit. I hope I didn’t cost him his job. Inside the hotel I was helped by a super nice guy named Nolan. I drank tee while he checked me in. He then showed me to my room and answered a bunch of questions I had for him. Raffles hotels are generally very nice, old school, colonial type places. I don’t think they get many single 20 something females as guests and I think in this case to Nolan, I was a welcomed change.

One of my questions for Nolan was where should I get dinner. He recommended heading over to the Oriental Mall’s food corridor two blocks away. He said they had a little bit of everything and he was right. I settled on a Chinese place. The menu had some scary things on it. I was a little adventurous and a little cautious. In the end the food wasn’t great nor was it terrible. I think part of my appetite may have been quenched by seeing some of the scary pictures of other dishes offered on the menu.

After dinner I walked through the mall and ended up in the Nike store. I think Bailey and I both missed our calling. I think we should have been tag-team designers for Nike’s Asia Pacific Division. I swear they just sit around in Portland and come up with the most random stuff possible. Some of the English phrases and graphics just kill me. The craziest part is that the stuff sells and it sells quite well.

On my walk home I took a jaunt through a traditional Beijing street market. It doesn’t matter how many times I see scorpions and other critters on sticks. It still freaks me out. One thing I didn’t remember was that this time many of the bugs on the sticks were still alive and franticly waiving their arms. I didn’t like that.

It’s now 11ish and I am totally wiped out. I have to be up at eight tomorrow, so I’m calling it a night.

Until tomorrow,
Katy

Shanghai with Eric

April 30, 2011
Shanghai, China

As noted in last night’s blog I was up early (at least early to me!) to meet Eric for breakfast at 9AM. We ate in the lobby restaurant at Le Royal Méridien Shanghai. It was a large breakfast spread. Most things you could imagine wanting to eat for breakfast were there, as well as many things you would never want to eat for breakfast or at any time for that matter. The highlight was my raspberry yogurt. It was very clearly labeled with a picture of a raspberry and the word in English. When I opened it, I noticed it had an orange hue as opposed to pink. When I tasted it I realized that evidently in China raspberries are peaches.

After breakfast we set out on our day’s adventures. Our first stop was the fashion market. Eric had a list of things that his family wanted. I didn’t have anything specific on my list, I mostly just enjoy seeing the products, people and bargaining for the sake of bargaining. To get to the market we took the subway. I hadn’t ridden the subway in Shanghai yet. It was everything I could have hoped for and more. The shear mass of people and pushing and shoving that occurs is exactly what you would expect in a place where people have no concept of personal space. Eric told me to take note of how the people board the subway cars. It’s hilarious. They don’t allow one another to get off before boarding. Instead they stand directly in front of the doors and just push their way in. I’m not sure why it hasn’t seemed to occur to anyone that if they waited for people to get out of the car, they could then just fill the vacated space.

Eric visits Shanghai with some regularity so he has vendors with whom he most prefers to shop. He had warned me going into the market that he can be a bit of Jekyll and Hyde when it comes to negotiating. I was looking forward to seeing this because Eric in my experience can only be described as super nice, mild mannered guy. Stop one was Sammy the bag lady. Eric wanted to check colors of new arrivals. I peeked around the store, which is more like a six foot by six foot cube. Across from Sammy was Xiang the watch guy. Interestingly enough when I looked around Xiang’s cube, I didn’t see any watches. He was featuring sun glasses. Next on the list we went to the board shorts guy. Eric and his family live in San Diego, so he buys board shorts for his boys with regularity. I was entertained by the fact that the shorts (Billabong, Quicksilver and Hurley among others) come with wax scrappers. This is very practical for all the surfers in Shanghai. While wondering I found an item that interested me. I won’t mention what in case the person who will be receiving the gift reads this. I will say, however, that Eric was a force when it came to negotiating for it. Jekyll and Hyde definitely showed up.

Once we completed Eric’s to-do’s at the market we decided to stroll down to and around Pudong, both to see the sites and hoop hunt. We found one fun court with cool Chinese characters in the background but only a little of Shanghai’s iconic skyline. This was a taste but my thirst for a Shanghai hoop was still not quenched.

For lunch we ate at an awesome hole in the wall dumpling place. We didn’t have napkins, utensils (other than chopsticks), or a plate bigger than a silver dollar but that didn’t matter. I made a mess of myself and didn’t really care. It was that good.

The stop on the shopping portion of our tour was a DVD shop. I had not been in a counterfeit DVD shop in all my previous trip to Asia. It was pretty much just like the movies. You enter a main door where things appear more legal. A guy scopes you out a bit. Eric knew where he was going, so we first when through one “secret” door, then another, then up some stairs and we finally arrived in the “new releases” section. I thoroughly enjoyed this stop.

On our walk back to the hotel (we were probably a good 30 minutes or so out at this point) and later on in the evening, we saw all kinds of fantastic things that are probably better represented in pictures than words. Below is a sampling. Be sure to read the captions.


Talent: Very close to our hotel there appeared to be a “Talent” show or search. It was laughable terrible. I wish I had taken a video. This guy danced around with morocos tied with ribbons and occasional threw in a karate move. Eric just kept saying, “It has to get better... it has to get better!” I wanted to know the location of the gong.


I wonder if Obama would like or dislike being included in this crowd?


Canadian Gigalo - I wonder if he has any idea what this shirt means.


Eric had a fantastic line in regards to this. Only in China do you see men and boys peeing in the streets (you really do) and dogs in diapers.


I’ve seen next to no college gear for sale in the first few days in China. This picture would be the one exception. It crack me up that I can 7000 miles from home and the Civil War is still at play.

I concluded today by heading back to our first stop, the fashion market. After spending a day seeing what was out there I felt like I now had a better idea of some things I wanted to buy or at least negotiate on. I ended up acquiring more than I had planned but had I had a lot of fun in the process and I think I got some pretty darn good deals.

Shopping can be exhausting (no really!). It’s time for bed.

Until tomorrow,
Katy

Inside the Pearl Tower

April 29, 2011
Shanghai, China

I should have brought my Nike+ chip because I’d love to know how many miles I walked today. I’m guessing the over/under is 10.

I made it out of my room this morning shortly before 11AM. I didn’t have much of a plan in mind other than that I wanted to explore the city by foot and look for hoops. I also knew that I wanted to venture across the river towards the Oriental Pearl TV Tower.

Eric told me the best way to cross the river, or at least the most efficient way, is to take “the tourist tunnel”. It was hilarious. It cost roughly eight dollars for a roundtrip ticket on what Frohmer’s describes like this: “For a look at Shanghai kitsch at its worst, you can take a trip across—actually, under—the Huangpu in plastic, capsular cars. The accompanying light show is part Disney, part psychedelia, complete with flashing strobes, blowing tinsel, and swirling hallucinogenic images projected on the concrete walls. The five-minute ride will make your head spin; you'll wonder if the Chinese central government isn't giving Shanghai just a little too much money.”

Upon arrival on the other side of the Huangpu I instantly spotted some tennis courts I had seen on Google Maps. Often times tennis courts have a hoop hidden at one end and I was hopefully in this case that would be true. Unfortunately it was not. Had there been, it would have been a great shot with the Oriental Pearl Tower.

After failing to find a hoop on the tennis courts I decided it might be beneficial to go up in the tower to look for a hoop from above. I had read on Trip Advisor that lines are often insane to go up, so I decided to purchase lunch which includes a stop on the viewing levels. This worked out very nicely. I didn’t wait more than two minutes for the elevator.

The revolving restaurant which is located some 269+ meters above the ground was a nice little respite from the hustle and bustle of the streets of Shanghai. The food was only okay but the expedited access to the elevators and the view made the exorbitant price ($45) worth it (it cost $20 to go to the viewing levels). Something I’m still bitter about, however, is having paid an additional $13 for 750ml of water! I swear the guy told me it was 18 RMB ($3) but he ended up charging me 80 RMB!

I spent my entire rotating meal and an additional hour on the viewing floors of the tower looking for a basketball hoop. I spotted several more tennis courts but not a single basketball court. One neat part of the Pearl Tower is the viewing level with a plexiglass floor. I walked an entire lap around the building looking down some 250M. Below is a photo of the view I had while doing this.



Since I didn’t spot any hoops from the tower I decided to spend the rest of the afternoon walking around Pudong to see if I’d just stumble across a hoop. I walked for over two hours and didn’t see a single court. In a country as basketball crazy as China I can’t believe that it doesn’t have more outdoor courts. I have to believe that more will be built in the future. I guess that just means I’ll have to come back to Shanghai soon.

Even though I didn’t spot any hoops I did see all kinds of fun things on my walk. The architecture in Pudong is phenomenal. There are skyscrapers galore. The designs are quite varied, with the only common denominator being that most buildings appear to be seventy stories or higher.

One funny sight on my walk was the “Shanghai Hooters”. I fully realize writing this next bit that I’m a terrible person. I couldn’t help but wonder when I saw this, “Where do they find the waitresses to work there?” In general Chinese woman are a very flat chested bunch.

After riding back though the magical tunnel I had another funny inappropriate encounter, this time with the Shanghai Financial District Bull. Like the Wall Street Bull, this a large copper statue located in the financial part of town. Unlike the Wall Street Bull there is a cop constantly manning the statue to make sure no unsatisfactory behavior takes place. Touching the side of the bull, leaning against it, and almost sitting on its legs all seem like perfectly fine actions. Grabbing the bull’s balls, however, is greatly frowned upon. I saw a kid, probably in his late teens, go to the back of the bull and cup its balls with his hands. The previously stoic guard started blowing a whistle like crazy and running toward the kid. It was really quite entertaining. I hate to say it but I fear my dear Robin would not be welcome here.

I walked an additional couple hours around Puxi. I finally found a couple basketball courts. The courts had decently fun Chinese scenes around them but no iconic buildings. By the time I made it back to the hotel I was beat. I put my feet up and watched a bit of the Royal Wedding before heading back out for a little more evening exploring.

Around 11PM I met up with my cousin Eric who had arrived for the weekend from Wushi where he is currently during the week. We checked out the impressive views from the bar on the 66th story of the hotel and then decided that we both were too tired to get a drink. We made plans to meet up at 9AM for breakfast before exploring the city.

It is a shade passed midnight now and being that I have to be ready to go at 9AM I’m hitting the hay.

Until tomorrow,
Katy