My Dad was quite successful in his latest endeavor -- gone fishin'. Here's the results:

This was significantly larger than the 2" minnow we caught at Cranberry Lake while camping decades ago! :)

So enjoying a weekend away at the beach. Even if it is a little cool, it hasn't rained much although the wind has been fierce. I got a great little condo unit right on the beach in Moclips, which is around 20 miles north of Ocean Shores. Other than an excursion to Ocean Shores itself, I've seen maybe 10 people. The beach is wide-open. Me likey!

Also got to take a ride in the parent's motorhome, as they came along as well -- stayed in Pacific Beach down the road. Was fun, until my Dad won at mini-golf. My mother and I are still debating his alleged 10-point win

Here's the photo album

I finally had some time to clean my photo pile and get some of that organized. I downloaded Picasa from Google -- and I'll be if that ain't the best little utility ever for organizing and creating photo albums (once you find the time).

The scary part, though, was Picasa found everything -- and I mean everything. So some editing had to take place! :)

I organized a bunch of stuff including the full set of photos for my recent Paris trip. Here they are:

Full Paris Compilation:

• Paris Day 1
• Paris Day 2
• Paris Day 3
• Paris Day 4
• Paris Day 5
• Paris Day 6
• Paris Day 7
• Paris Day 8

Misc albums that amused me:

• Cats and Cookies
• Pace Visit 2007
• Flight Simulator
• More Cute Cats

OK, everyone knows I love travel -- but I must admit sometimes I get the better of myself. Let's see, depart Paris at 9 AM Paris time (get up at 6 AM), fly to JFK for 8 hours. 5 hour layover (turned into 6). Fly 5 hours home to Seattle. Arrive at 10 PM Seattle time. 30 minute delay waiting on plane for jetbridge to be fixed. Same day. Hmm -- what is that...a 36-hour day? I dunno. Too tired for math. Anyways, I'm home and being mauled by my cats for attention. Still, Paris was fantastic.

So we were going to cook today. Unfortunately the chef mis-scheduled others during the day and couldn't acommodate us -- a truly bummer deal. So we ended up doing some "left-overs" of our own and hit some places we missed or wanted more of.

THEN we set off for our last night at new hotel near the airport, since we have an early morning flight. Below is the video that pretty much sums up my thoughts on the hotel. It was better than I had dreamed of -- I'm such an airplane nerd. (Warning: I'm slightly a potty-mouth)

Watch video

Plus here's the photos:

Facebook album of Day 7 -- last day!

Wandering around Paris I went down this ally to a little park as I was waiting for Claire to finish on her own taking some last pictures of the Musee D'Orsay and what do I find out: France discriminates on gymnastic apparatus. Damn. My routine was all ready to go, too.

Here's the parks where the sign was -- cute little thing, but what an interesting welcome. It's obvious they mean not for you to slide on the railing there or jump it, but still – what an odd choice of communication, albeit effective. I love this sort of stuff. You can't make it up folks!

Today we hit the Hotel de ville and Musee D'Orsay, which was fabulous. Lots of impressionist-era paintings and interesting sculptures. Claire was in Monet heaven. Below is the link to photos plus a couple quick vids – a random Paris shot and a tour of D'Orsay Monet (mostly for Claire :) )

Facebook album of Day 6

Vid: A survey of a typical Paris neighborhood

Vid: A tour of Monet

I had the best ham omlette, of all things, for dinner tonight. The ham was real and tasty, cheese perfect and the eggs -- remarkably done, yet tender and fluffy. Amazing something so seemingly simple could be so vastly better than you've ever had before.

Today we went to the Centre Pompidou and saw the Musée National d'art Moderne. We also went to Galleries Lafayette -- a department store with the most amazing architecture. And HUGE! A cross between Macy's/Bloomingdales/Saks we think.

Anyways, below are more photos and videos!

Click here for facebook album of photos days 4-5

A rabid sparrow attacks!
Watch video

Paris Panorama from Centre Pompidou
Watch video

Eiffel Tower at night (+ bonus Claire talk about a "snake" in a building sculpture)
Watch video

OK, so my friends have cajoled and sucked me into using facebook. I must admit their photo page creator is pretty slick, so I used that to upload my photos so far:

My Facebook Photo Album

We had perhaps the last good day of weather in our schedule today, according to the forecasts. So we made the best of it! Click on them for bigger versions.

I have travel stories already. I made it my goal of staying awake the first day until a reasonable hour. Yay -- I did it. 10PM and it's bedtime on this Friday night! I am dog tired!

Speaking of dogs, I had always read and heard that Paris has dog crap laying all over the streets as people didn't pick up after their dogs. It must be one of those fallacies to keep people away -- kinda like Seattle and rain, because I have yet to come across any of this detrius on the streets. As a matter of fact most are pretty clean actually. Hmmpf. Must hunt for this elusive French dogshit. Will take photos. This is my new mission.

And speaking of the French -- I have yet to be truly offended by anyone's rude behavior yet either. I actually got a lot of smiles and good natured-ness even using my extremely limited French phrases. Although you do get a lot of "matter-of-factness" as I call it. Call it a smooth indifference. They absolutely give you what you want, but just no smile. I say -- so what?! That's not rude. That just...is. Which apparently is very French. Definitely not American style. But that's why you travel, isn't it -- to get out of your comfort zones, explore and witness that there are other ways of doing things just as good as your own.

OK, I'm nearly hitting the keyboard with my head nodding off to sleep. Pictures to come tomorrow and so does Claire!

J'attends avec intérêt mes vacances à Paris en 2 semaines ! (je ne sais pas le Français ceci bien. ayant l'amusement avec la traduction)

Or at least that's what this cool new website, flightmemory.com, says.

This is a website where you enter all the details of your travels and it then spits-out maps and statistics for you. I totally got into this just being lazy today. Spent hours putting in my flights and travels, all from memory.

Then you start to remember trips you forgot! Like I vividly remember flying on Delta Airlines through Cincinnati once, and Northwest via Detroit -- but I can't remember what for!

*Highly* entertaining for an aviation/travel nerd such as myself.

View my Flight memory maps and stats here!

Highlights (And I'm far from complete!):

In Miles 167,658
In Kilometer 269,821
Earth Circumnavigation 6.73 x
Distance to the Moon 0.702 x
Distance to the Sun 0.0018 x
Total Airports 53
Total Airlines 16
Total Aircraft type 28
Total Routes 106
Total Countries 8

I'm off as a traveller again!

Super excited -- I just planned two cool trips. A short trip in December to the Bay Area to see some friends I haven't seen in ages and then a fantastic trip to Paris in March -- my favorite travel month.

I planned the trip to Paris first and then thought -- crap, that's 6 months away! I need a vacation to ease all that waiting...so I planned another.

Hopefully my friend Claire, who's going back to school on the East coast, will be able to join me as it's her spring break.

Pssst...I'm flying first class to Paris...yes, hate me...Bahahahaha!

Natalie and I have made it back from our road trip -- we covered a lot of territory. Sedona, Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater, Petrified Forest National Park.

I get back home tomorrow.

Check out the photo gallery

Vid: I find rain in Arizona

Vid: Natalie needs a new car

Vid: "Sleep in a Wigwam on route 66" said the sign! So we did!!

Just reserved tix to reunite with my best co-conspirator, Natalie, in Phoenix. So start saving for my bail money fund now ! We're planning on taking a road trip through Arizona – Sedona, Meteor crater, Grand Canyon, etc. We're so weird – take a road trip in July in Arizona. Who does that? Oh well, I'm sure there will be plenty of fun for us to be had, pointing at other crazy people and laughing out loud.

Work is going well. We are super busy. In one calculation, with all the project work we have for us to do, plus daily helpdesk stuff, we're being 166% utilized. Ouch! But managers have realized this and rose to the challenge and authorized another fulltime body for us in the helpdesk area, so things shouldn't be so manic hopefully soon!

In a trial run I've decided to add some music clips of what I was listening to on my recent trip. It was kinda fun and I hope you enjoy my weird tastes.

Click here to listen to what's in my head

So I'm home, and I'm slowly going through photos and writing a trip report. Most of the photos for Toronto are from the CN tower as it was a gorgeous day and any other photos look like any other city. I guess that is the noted curse of Toronto if the city has one -- it can stand-in for any big city. And it often does in film. But what "general" city-ness it may have it makes-up for in general appeal. Toronto is a really nice city!

Anyways, more writings later, but Here's the gallery

Or, puffs actually. This was funny -- While visiting the CN Tower in Toronto they have those new security devices that are supposed to detect explosives. It puffs air from your feet to your head and then, I guess, is supposed to sniff for the chemical traces of a bomb.

It was pretty funny -- most people were amused more than anything, I think the group think while standing in line was "yeah, right, this really works..." :)

And the air that blew out at you stank -- as you'll see by the reactions in this video of the sniffer in action!

What will they think of next...

Walked all around again, concentrating on the South side this time. Cute, cute buildings and neighborhoods steeped in history. I'm sure someone will call me on this and say they have been all reconstructed, or somethig like that. So what. The character remains.

Seee the pics here!

I did arrive in Toronto this evening. Already have lots to say, but I am tired! Off to bed and then a jump-start for the morning!

OK, I admit. It's cold. Rarely do you hear me say that, so soak it in, people! :)

First day in Boston -- walked all around Boston Commons, then through some of downtown, Fanueuil Hall, the North End and back. I was basically a popsicle after this. So I'm back at the hotel with warm cocoa and taking hot shower. Ahh.

Here's the photos so far!

Then it started to get windy and whoa! So I recorded a "Note to self" about traveling in Winter. Maybe sweating and perspiration in a hot climate is not so bad every once and a while.

Watch my confession (Warning: I'm a potty-mouth)

Greetings fellow life travellers -- I have arrived in Boston. Flights were pretty good -- Chicago to Boston was delayed, so I got in late. So I will hit the streets running tomorrow.

Obviously I had to venture out to get dinner once I checked in. I just settled on the local Rock Bottom. I know -- unimaginative -- but close to my hotel. My hotel is in the Theatre district of Boston -- Anyways so I'm walking back from dinner (only about 3 blocks) and get asked for money. OK big deal. But this guy decides to tag along for the walk. He keeps yammering on and on. This guy was just wacked out -- you know the ones -- how you know they're probably harmless and just on something... So I found this rather amusing. There were lots of other people around, 2 more blocks to the hotel -- big deal. However, then he asks "So are you gay or straight?" I say "Sorry, not looking" -- then he's like "not that I care. I go both ways. Mr Big takes it up the @$$ and Mr Tiny loves the ladies" "Oh" I said, "OK, thanks!" Then he asks "So, you want an airplane ticket to the moon?!" I Asked "What airline?" He said "Crack pot airlines" and then laughed so hard I thought he was gonna just die right on the street there. I said "Nope, sorry" and he was actually surprisingly cordial and said "no problem" and by that time I was at my hotel.

So if you are looking for a crack-smoking bi-curious homeless Bostontonian I may have your man...

You just can't make this shit up sometimes... :)

My March/spring trip is upon me! Since it's an odd year I usually stick to North America. So this year I've decided on Boston and Toronto for a 10-day for-sure winner! Yay for me!! :)

So I'm a complete aviation geek, so I used some of my miles to upgrade to first class round trip -- yes! I'm not expecting much on a domestic trans-con, but it will still be a helluva lot nicer than normal. From Boston I'm winging my way to Toronto for a few days, and might even meet up with my geek friends from airliners.net there. That leaves me 5-6 days in BOS, so I'm actually thinking of going to the Cape for a few days -- perhaps Ptown. Who knows. Would be nice to rest in a B&B with a fireplace and read for a couple days while I let the still wintertime weather play it's course.

Anyways, I'm surely excited!! If anyone has any tips, let me know! :)

OK, finally got all the Munich photos and stories all done

Click here to read and view them!

As you'll see, the Berlin stories and photos are in an entry below, and so are all the videos.

Geez, this was as much work as planning the trip almost!

Here is all the best videos I took (from my new camera of all things!!) Lots more photos to come from Munich, Berlin photos are below, but the videos are the funnest...and here's all of them. Requires Windows Media Player, which most PCs already have, and a high-speed connection

Ride the bus along the Kurfurstendamm in Berlin. Public transport is so awesome, except in Seattle. Berlin buses were the nicest I've been on.

Watch German TV. This was a "springer-esque" show -- gotta love the announcer guy and the look on the woman's face at the end!

Watch the Glockenspiel in Munich. I love the crowd's "ohh, ahh" at the start

More Glockenspiel

Drink with people at the Hofbrauhaus. This was between lunch and dinner, so not much of a crowd, but still really fun!

Hofbrauhaus cheers! Short, but fun as everyone clicks their steins!

Riding the train at 200 KPH. The trains were on-time and comfortable.

My connecting train arriving in Fulda. Or so I thought. This was the wrong train -- I got on it by accident. Luckily it was going to Munich as well!

Passing by Wurtzburg on the train. This town looked charming from inside, this video doesn't do it justice -- lots of church spires on the other side of the train (so I couldn't really shoot those)

A snowy arrival of....something! Obviously some sort of publicity stunt, this was in Munich as I was walking along. Apparently there was some sort of German soccer star there as well -- I had no idea. It was funny to watch, though.

What is it? More of this important jewelry unveiling in Munich, complete with TV coverage and motorcycles.

Riding the Munich Subway. The cleanest and nicest system I've ever been on (but the Berlin busses were nicer...)

OK, I'm getting some pictures and experiences up here, including some videos!!

First is my report on Berlin, which is still a bit incomplete, but getting there!

I hope to have my Munich stuff up later today or tomorrow!

It is so good to be home

I am back from my vacation to Germany. I had an incredible time and both Berlin and Munich gave me some great stories to tell. One thing is for certain, and the reason I travel: you can always find friends wherever you go -- just be yourself, share a beer, and viola!

However, it is so good to be home. Really, it is.

I took a lot of pictures and notes, so in-between loads of laundry this week I'll be uploading and sharing the stories. Stay tuned!

Hello from the "Secret capital of Germany"! I'm in Bavaria after a long train ride from Berlin. It was good that the train ride was long, because I had a lot of recovering to do from a last-night party in Berlin -- more later.

Berlin was BIG and spread-out. Thank GOD Munich is compact -- and pedestrian friendly!! My feet thank you, Munich! This is my first real day here, and then I've got tomorrow and then I come home. Which actually is not that bad. Munich is so compact I'm covering a lot of ground and still having time to enjoy things.

BTW, hello, SNOW!!!!! Munich got dumped on the day before I got here, and there is about a foot of snow on the ground. It's still snowing now. I love this -- it's perfect for me and the setting of Bavarian Germany.

Just got back from lunch at the Hoffbrauhaus! I drank 2 liters of really good beer, and am now walking off the buzz. Perhaps now I see why Munich is walkable -- ahhhh, this all makes sense now. Nice planning Deutchland!

My last night I'm in a really nice hotel by the airport, so I will be uploading my photos then.

Another interesting note: you#ll see that I make fun of the Torino olympic opening ceremony and it#s music -- so 80#s. Well, it must be a Europe thing, because it is ALL OVER THE PLACE here -- everwhere I go it#s on the loudspeakers -- I'm jazzing-out to 'Celebrate a good time' right now in the Internet cafe! How funny!!

Tschüss!!

Greetings froma snowy Berlin!! Its about 32 degrees with light snow flurries. Still getting used to the fact that I am actually here. Flights were long, but the UPGRADE was nice!!! Biz class from Chicago to Brussels -- yeah baby!!! Nearly did not make my flight to Berlin -- Brussels airport is huge!

So I have walked the Kurfurstendamm already today -- to keep the blood flowing. Went all the way to the famous KaDeWe department store. It is Berlin´s answer to Harrods. I think it´s better, actually...more to come on my KaDeWe adventures.

Tonight I´ll have some dinner in the neighboorhood of my hotel, which is very nice. The to BED!! THen up normal tomorrow for a morning bus tour and then I´´m off to the checkpoint charlie museum, the jewish museum, and a bunch of other stuff. Pictures to come--I am taking them! Right now I´m at an "easy internet cafe" that also has, of all things, a ´Dunkin Donuts right here.

In less than a week I shall be back in Europe!! I'm so looking forward to this trip. This weekend I'm going to pack and wednesday I'm off!

So more virtual aviation geek stuff: Not only am I a virtual pilot for a virtual airline, I'm now a virtual air traffic controller! :) I passed my initial test and I'm now certified for "Tower" for all airports in the Seattle Center area.

http://www.seaartcc.net/ is my home "center." Next I go for approach control and start vectoring aircrafts all around the sky. HAHAHAHAHA, ahhhhh, the control... ;)

I traveled down to SF to meet my friend Natalie for New Year's. No bail was needed so we can consider this a successful trip! We also met-up with some friends I know from an aviation discussion board I frequent on the Internet (http://www.airliners.net/). Was fun to see those folks as well.

And the best of all, I got a new camera!! Wooo-whooo! It even has a movie function, soooooo..... without further delay, here is the first test (Windows Media player required)

Click to see THE FARTING TEDDY BEAR

Just planned my March 2006 vacation. Germany, here I come! Will be visiting Berlin and Munich.

Below is my routing -- of course, it's only one that I could love:

» SEVEN airports of which 4 are new to me (SEA, ORD, BRU, THF, MUC, LGW, DFW) » SIX airplanes, two new to me (MD-82, 767-300, BA-146-200, 737-400, 777-200, 757-200) » THREE airlines 1 of which is new (AA, SN, BA) » Plus one ICE train!

From the Great Circle Mapper:

In New York, New York for the first time!! Not transferring planes. Not attending an all-day meeting. Actually visiting and spending some time. Here's the pics, in random order, of my hotel room, Uptown, Brooklyn Bridge, Pride 2005, Times Square, etc... I have no idea why the time is so off! Here are the pictures