travel

Here's another excuse to go back to NYC....the newly reclaimed High Line Park. (via Arah)
[info] [(super-slow loading) pics] [map].

Just stumbled upon our 2007 list...so thought I better follow up.

Cities We Visited in 2008:

Minneapolis, MN
St. Paul, MN
Rochester, MN
New York, NY
Seattle, WA
Yakima, WA
George, WA
Kent, WA
Roslyn, WA
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Chippewa Falls, WI
Hartington, NE
San Miguel, Cozumel, Quintana Roo, Mexico
Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico
Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico


Thought it was going to be longer than that...... huh....

We got up to go do some walking about town. We grabbed some pain au chocolat, lemon-poppyseed bread and a black & white cookie at EuroPan. meh. The Power-Up Smoothie was pretty good though.

We walked the entirity of 42nd Street from Broadway to the United Nations building....

I had been planning a surprise trip for Her since she had mentioned that NYC hotels were deeply discounted due to the tourism crisis during the Bush-caused (I had to say it ) recession. That, combined with Rhett Miller being in town and it being Valentine's Day seemed like enough reasons to go for it.

After waaaayyy too many days of cold and snow in MN we decided 'screw it, we are going to the Caribbean'.

Little did we know that meant in just 4 days.

Just thought we would run through the food products we had in Washington State (vs. what we can find in the Midwest) ...not sure if they are "local" to WA....but ...they are new to us.

Must Have
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+ Tim's Jalepeño Chips


Very Good
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+ Tim's Wasabi Chips
+ Cinnamon Works (in Pike Place) sticky bun
+ Cinnamon Works (in Pike Place) giant Snickerdoodle

Good
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+ Summit Peppered Beef Jerky
+ Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water


Take It Or Leave It
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? __gotta find this__ Trail Mix (desperately needs salt)

Per usual on our recent trips we parked at her work parking ramp and then grabbed the light rail from the Metrodome stop to the Hubert H. Humphrey Terminal for our Sun Country flight. Sadly, also as usual, it was way too early in the morning for humans to be up :-), 5:07AM....the light rail was over half full with mostly airport employees (who says public transportation doesn't work? >cough< Pawlenty >/cough<)....and the rail service was flawless. The only thing out of the ordinary was that on this trip bro-in-law #2 was going along. His friend from the engineering college at the U now works out in Seattle so he was popping out there to visit him in combination with all the things we would be doing together.

When we were in Paris in 2001 we couldn't get our hotel TV to turn on. We went downstairs to the front desk thinking that the batteries to the remote were dead - and they gave us a new pair. However when we got back upstairs the TV still wouldn't come on. Turns out European TVs just run differently than US ones...at least in the hotels.

When we were just in Spain we ignored all American logic and just immediately tried our French technique and voila - instant (crappy ) European TV programming!

So I would like to save you the embarrassment of having to go to the front desk and argue with a Frenchman about remote batteries now.

1. On the TV is a power button. This button does not work like the one you are (probably) used to in the US. When this button is "off" the TV is not in a standby mode waiting for a remote signal - it is off-off -- detached from actual power. So first you need to see if there is a light on the front of the TV - if so, the power button is "on" and the TV is waiting for a remote signal. If a little light is not on the front - toggle the power button.
2. The remote has a power button on it that is labeled as you are used to in the US. Push it - nothing. Push it again - nothing. Turns out European power buttons are only for "off". You only need to push that when you are done watching TV. So how do you turn on the TV? Push a channel # button - any # button. I have gotten into the habit of pushing the [8] button. The TV springs to life and the TV comes on to channel 8 - whatever that might be. If you push [2] you get whatever channel 2 is...so if you knew your channels this can be used as a time saver to not have to power up the TV and turn the channel.
3. Now channel surf as usual.

PS: Except there is nothing "normal" on to watch. Hopefully you will get lucky and have English "World" CNN. Otherwise you are going to be watching all kinds of insane sports that we never see in the US - soccer, rally racing, winter biatholon, snooker, cricket, The Asian Games, European professional basketball, and a pathetic (mostly German from what we saw) game called handball which was essentially soccer for unskilled dummies.

Spain has the best orange juice in the world.

Well, I am not saying you can't get fantastic OJ pretty much anywhere someone puts some effort into it.

...but no area of the world has as much consistency in OJ as Spain does - 1/2 the time you order it is going to be absolutely 2-seconds-ago fresh-squeezed, and is going to blow your mind. Mostly thanks IMHO to this super sweet automated juice maker a good percentage of shops have - called a ZUMEX. You drop whole oranges in the top and it cuts them in half and squeezes each half. I would estimate it can probably squeeze about 5 oranges a minute.

If you see a ZUMEX wherever you are at = Order OJ now!

PS: Got $4,000 laying around? Get one for yourself - available in the US now!

Just tossing out a warning...in our humble experience...

We were trying to fly to Europe on Continental - and we (evidently, now) foolishly transferred in Newark (Liberty Airport). That place is crap - horribly organized...grossly overpopulated.

1. Our plane didn't even come to the MSP gate until 1 hour after departure time because they had received a call from Newark not to arrive until called - and there wasn't even any weather out there - just overcrowding on the tarmac.
2. So our plane finally pulled in - and we loaded - only to get another call from Newark to wait some more...so they just drove the plane - with us in it - over to a parking space and we sat there on the MSP tarmac for another 50 minutes.
3. Next, in Newark, we sat on the taxiway for over an hour to get to Europe - half for congestion and half for an errant warning light on the plane "dashboard".
4. Weeks later, on the way back to the US we wasted 20 minutes circling NJ before we got permission to land.
5. Their security checkpoints are overcrowded dilapidated jokes. (Yes, all post-9/11 checkpoints suck - but not an NJ level of suck)
6. We sat in the Newark taxiway for about 1/2 hour waiting for the OK to takeoff for MSP.
7. Once we were safe in MSP and leaving the airport we heard an announcement, "Last call for passengers to board the delayed Continental flight ### to Newark now."

PS: Some of this could be just in the Continental Terminal of Newark so your mileage may vary...but I doubt it.

PPS: Plus Newark gave us Norwalk flu virus on the way to Europe - or at least that is what we are blaming it on

PPPS: From NJ to MSP we had to sit by a constantly coughing Typhoid Mary and her 2 typhoiditos...NJ's fault? Sure, why not.

I think I got addicted to Spanish breakfast while I was over there.

Really it is nothing special - really just a twist on what practically all hotels in the US tout as 'continental breakfast'; you know coffee/tea, orange juice, danish and toast. In Spain in addition to that - universally you will also receive jámon serrano - it is probably most expensive thing on the plate...but we never got that much into it, certainly it is tasty, but it is so sinewy you can never eat the whole slice - we'll skip that in our re-creation. So whip out the above products first...then...

tostada con queso and jámon de york

To recreate: 1) Toast your white bread 2) immediately toss your cheese slice (probably emmentaler - but easier to find in the US, provolone or mozzarella might service just as well) and pressed ham slice. 3) Eat right away.

tostada con marmalada

Another piece of toast and put your favorite jam on it. If you want to be as authentic as possible it seemed most places served Hero jams (strawberry, peach, apple and orange marmalade were the "standard" offerings) - which is from Switzerland...why that? I don't know.

chocolata

The Spanish version is much thicker than hot chocolate you have ever had...haven't tried this recipe but it will probably be close enough.

You're in Spain!!!