The Boys of Summer- Seattle Mariners

I love baseball, let me say that again I love baseball. In general I’m not the kind of nut that must watch every game or know every stat, but I do like to sit and watch the game whenever I get a change. Now to be fair I always want to watch MY 2010 and 2012 World Series Champion San Francisco Giants. They are they team I root for and I’ve been a fan since Will Clark hit a line drive up the middle in the NLCS against the Chicago Cubs back in 1989. I don’t know what it was but that play and that game did it for me, fan for life. That being said when I have the opportunity to visit another city that has an MLB team, I try and catch a game if I can. I haven’t been to as many stadiums as I’d like to, but I’m doing my best, I know I’m lucky to have visited as many as I have. So far this year I did my fourth straight Spring Training trip, I’m going to Colorado and Cincinnati at the end of June to root on my Giants on the road with my buddy “T”, we’ve also done road trips to Miami and St. Louis (any suggestions for next year).

So when I found out I was going to Seattle, I looked to see if the Mariners were in town. I’ve been to Seattle several times before but it had been about five years, and as bad luck would have it the times I actually had a night free, they were out of town. But this trip the stars aligned and I was able to visit Safeco Field, and boy was I impressed. I know we’re spoiled in San Francisco, but we went through almost 50 years of sub-par stadium fun at Candlestick. Don’t get me wrong, going to games there on a Monday night with 5000 of your closest friends in cold cold weather, and betting your buddies on how long you could keep your shirt off was a blast, and AT&T is great too, but I’ve got to say Safeco was nice. Really great sight lines, good food and the ability to get super close to the bullpens. You could almost touch the players as they warmed up. I’ll really let the pictures speak for themselves, but if you ever make it to the Pacific Northwest, make sure to stop by Safeco, if for nothing else then to get a beer across the street at Pyramid.

One of my favorite micro brews, give em a try.

The first Mariners hall of famer. Much respect Dave,

I swear I tried to smile

The bullpen

Hey they even have Giants love here too.

Parks I’ve visited:
Candlestick-SF Giants
AT&T-SF Giants
Oakland Coliseum- Oakland A’s
Dodger Stadium-
The BIG A-Angels Stadium
Coors Field-Rockies
Jack Murphy-Padres
Joe Robby-Florida Marlins
Miami Marlins Stadium
Old and New Yankee Stadium
Ballpark at Arlington-Rangers

Roasted Marshmallows and Redwood Tree’s

Like millions of other Americans over the Memorial Day weekend the family and I went camping. Most years we usually go out twice, but in the past two years with a little kid running around the house we were just not that adventurous. With S turning two very soon, we thought it was about time to rip off the band aide and go camping. We had picked the Richardson Grove State Park on a recommendation of some friends and we were not disappointed. It’s about 200 miles north of San Francisco just past the Mendocino county border in Humboldt County right off US 101. Even though this is a major freeway in many parts of CA, where the campground is, it’s a narrow one lane freeway (in each direction). There is just something to be said about disconnecting from the everyday hustle and bustle from TV’s, internet and all things electronic. You are reminded about how beautiful this country is, and about all the bounty it has to offer. And most importantly spending time with family without the daily distractions of life. We had a really great time and I would definitely recommend this campground again. The sites were very very large, they were not on top of each other and the grounds were spotless. Thanks California for doing something right in these tight budget times. Below you’ll see a few of my favorite parts of hanging out in the redwoods.

Hanging out in Park City

This week I was in Salt Lake City, Utah for work. I’ve spent many weeks over the years here, and have always enjoyed my time there. People are friendly, the city is beautiful and the snowy mountains are just amazing. Since I’d been here so many times, I decided to spend a few days in Park City and make the commute to SLC. I thought the town was pretty cool and very quite, apparently I’m here between seasons so the town shuts down for a month or so. With the ski season running November to April and the summer outdoor activities starting in June, I hit the time of year where the town is on the slow side. Although a lot of shops close early you still get the gist of what the town must be like in winter or during the Sundance Film Festival. Mental note come back here during the winter just to hang out, even though I don’t ski.

Downtown Park City (Main St.)

So the two nights I stayed in Park City, I stayed at the Hilton Grand Vacations Club at Sunrise Lodge. This is a new build property that opened in October of 2012. It was in a new resort area that included a Hyatt hotel, several condo communities and a few resort style amenities. It reminded me of Squaw Valley in Lake Tahoe, Ca. The only complaint was that since it was so new and off peak many of the stores and restaurants were empty or just not open. But if you’re a skier, this hotel was 150 feet from the ski lift.

This hotel is also a timeshare, don’t ask me how that works, and also offered all type of rooms from studios to two bedroom condos. All I can tell you, is the hotel itself was great. It had a lodge type feel with high ceilings, lots of timber, wood and stone. You got the feeling that in winter tons of people would be milling around drinking hot coffee of chocolate and just chilling out. The hotel was clean, well maintained and in it’s short time of operation appeared to be cared for greatly.

I had queen studio room with a fireplace, it was not big but was very comfortable. I felt like I was at home and that made me happy. My only complaint the hotel didn’t have a restaurant and the convenience store on premises of the resort, not the hotel had limited hours. So if you need something be sure to stop in town before making your way here. Again, being here during ski season or mid summer may find better hours.

Living room with couch, ottomans and fireplace

Hallway

Fireplace and TV in living room

TV and dresser in bedroom area

Kitchenette with two burner stove, fridge, microwave and dishes for four

Bathroom

Queen bed

Hotel surroundings

Hotel lobby, grand fireplace, seating area, exterior and entrance

All in all a nice property, I can’t wait to make my way back here with the family.

A BIG thank you to United Airlines

So I have to give United Airlines some props. I know that on occasion I bash these guys for dreadful service or just a bad experience, but yesterday they done good.

I’m OCD about looking at my account and looking to use my miles for some elaborate trip to somewhere, but it had been about a week since I had looked at my account. So when I got a call yesterday from someone at United Airlines security saying they had seen a discrepancy with my account I was leery. The number on my cell was Chicago, their corporate HQ, but I didn’t know the person. So when I went on the website and tried to log into my account, the number didn’t work. At this point it was way past 6 PM CST, I tried the number and got a voicemail for said person at UA, but I still was leery. At this point I hung up called UA at the number I know and asked for help. The great agent on the phone told me after verifying who I was that they had an issue with my account and it was temporarily suspended, but she didn’t know why. She said the notes on my account said that I needed to call the number I was given via voicemail, to get this resolved. If nothing else, I knew that the person who called was legit. I was now a bit worried, but at least they were trying to help me.

Fast forward to today, I called the number back and on two rings got the person on the phone. Wow, when was the last time you got a human on the phone that called you and when you called back they actually answered. Kind of amazing. She proceeded to thank me for my loyalty as 100k flier and also 1 million mile flier. I’m not sure the last time one of the UA agents had said that. She then told me they saw very odd activity and had intercepted someone using my miles to buy stuff to the tune of 200k air miles. She didn’t elaborate how they caught this person (I use that term lightly), nor did she tell me why they thought it was fraudulent activity, but nonetheless they caught it and wanted to make it right. After about a 10 minute call, she was able to reverse the miles and get me access to my account. All I had to do was change my security code, and a few more pieces of information. The weird part was the jerk who used my miles changed my profile email address to a different one, so when I went in to make changes I saw it. Now in my haste I didn’t write it down, but in the process I realized that my personal info was on my account so I can buy stuff. I don’t really know what to do about that, but at least I was able to change what needed to be changed and hopefully move on from this lovely experience.

All I can say is that this whole experience was very very creepy, but UA did their part and fixed it. I have no idea how they got my pin number and account number, but it just means I need to be more careful. Oh well at least United was super proactive and took care of me, thanks for doing that. It’s stuff like this that makes me want to continue to be a loyal UA flier.

The journey home is finally over

In last nights episode of where is rahul I talked about my fabulous flight from Sydney to Tokyo via Bangkok Well after a short two-hour layover in Japan, I was off to the US on American Airlines. This flight was booked in coach but with upgrade coupons I was able to secure a business class ticket, and was looking forward to the journey. Well for some unknown reason, maybe a full plane, or my status with AA or just because they like me, I got a really great upgrade. When I got to the gate and started to board the agent said I had a new seat assignment, I was about to ask why but saw the ticket and it said first class on it. I know better than to ask questions, so I hightailed it out of there before anyone came to their senses. Let’s talk about being lucky, this was the best of luck.

I would be carried home on AA’s 777-200 fitted with three classes of service from Narita to Los Angeles, and I was now in hog heaven. I’m sure the regulars up front knew I was a noob, since I took so many darn pictures, unlike that old adage in sports “act like you’ve been there before” I did not.

Pillows, Duvet and Blank sitting atop my foot rest.

My seat

The amenity kit and pajamas

The footrest, with extra seat belt in case I wanted to share a meal with my travelling partner. Maybe next time.

Large amenity kit, in Eames fabric again. It is now my iPad case

All aboard the crazy pajama train. I can be vain sometimes, but since others in the cabin had the same ones, I didn’t feel so weird.

Warm nuts and an adult beve

Table set up and canape

Tuna Tartar it was delicious

Consume with vegetables

Spring salad

Hibachi chicken with pork fried rice, again another winner

As if that was NOT enough. Vanilla ice cream with green tea sauce

Overall a very very pleasant flight on AA up front. The cab was 100% full which means 16 passengers four across in four rows, but with 4-5 crew members serving us it was not to bad. In fact I would say one of the better crews I’ve had work a flight. The food too was very good and the seat was very comfortable in lay flat mode or any other mode. I would say the seat was semi-private too, not a totally private experience, but if you wanted to not have to talk to your neighbor or crawl over someone to get to the loo, these seats did the trick.My only complaint and to be honest I’m embarrassed to even mention it was the video on demand. It was a clunky jumpy private TV screen. You had about 20 movies to choose from and a lot of other things to watch, but it was like watching your grandmas TV with a video tape that had been used 20 times to many. I know first world problem here, but if I had to nitpick I will. With all the travel I’ve done over the past 6 months, I’ve had plenty of opportunity to try out airplane tv and most other carriers have this beat even in coach ala Virgin America and Jet Blue.

Regardless I can’t wait for my next AA long haul flight hopefully the same stoke of good luck happens and I get the front of the bus again.

Sometimes the journey home is half the fun

Well for my devoted blog readers you might be wondering how the heck I made it back from Australia and New Zealand back in March. Did I swim, walk, take the slow boat from China? No I flew. I know you’ve all been waiting patiently for my trip report (or at lest I hope my one devoted reader is). Well I had a pretty decent trip home, I did in fact take the long road home, but when is that unusual for me, right. My itinerary was as follows Sydney to Bangkok on Thai Airways (my first time) then All Nippon Airways from Bangkok to Tokyo Narita connecting to American Airlines to Los Angeles. As many will say the distance between to points is a straight line, but in my case that’s just not so true.

I left Sydney late in the afternoon, on one of the two 747′s that fly from and to Sydney and Bangkok on Thai every day. On this sector and the one to Japan I had used miles to score a first class seat, I was truly giddy as a school girl because I had never flown Thai let alone in first and was looking forward to the hopefully amazing experience. In a nutshell, I was not disappointed in a cabin of ten maximum passengers and four crew members you knew you were in for a treat. Even though the cabin was full, it never felt crowded and I always felt attended to when I needed anything. In fact upon arrival on the plane, I was greeted by name, taken to my seat and then all four attendants came by to introduce themselves. Even at disembarkation, they all went by each passenger, and said thank you and bowed. As I’ve found so frequently thought out Southeast Asia so many people are so friendly even on an airplane.

Below you’ll find pictures of my seat, the awesome pajamas and the even cooler Tumi amenity kit. As well as my food. Overall the seat, food and entertainment were great. I had enough time to rest, watch a few movies and just enjoy the beautiful journey home. In my almost 40 years on this planet I’ve been lucky enough to fly in first class a few times (thanks to airmiles). Although Thai didn’t unseat Singapore Airlines as my number one, they were a close second, and if I have the opportunity to fly them again, I will jump at the chance.

If all of the food and the amazing seat and legroom we just not enough, upon landing in Thailand I had the opportunity to partake in a quick Thai Massage. Thai offers this very pretty cool free perk for all Business and First class guests regardless of whether you arrive or depart in one of these two classes. The only difference is a 1/2 hour vs. 1 hour. In my case I did get the hour option, but due to a short connection and a long wait I only was able to get a 20 or so minute neck and shoulder massage. I know why am I complaining, a FREE massage in Thailand how cool is that? Needless to say this was a very very good massage. Many thanks Thai Airways, I hope to have the opportunity to try this again.

On my way out of Thailand I got to fly ANA one of two National carriers out of Japan. I had flown them before also in business like this flight but that was back in 2007. Although a very nice flight, after the heals of my Thai experience, it was just ho hum. I know that’s not a fair assessment, since if I had this seat and this crew on any US carrier I would be in hog heaven. The part that was so amazing about this flight was the meal I had, it was the perfect Japanese style sushi box, expertly prepared and incredibly tasty. I can’t believe how good the food was for 35,000 feet in the air.

Stay tuned for the next installment on how I got home.

Planes, (Not) Trains and Automobiles

What started out as a simple flight from San Francisco to Wyoming via Denver, ended up being three flights one aborted landing, on plane swap, a second mechanical while in the air and a 6 hour road trip with three strangers. Wow what a day yesterday. I had a trip scheduled that was 7 hours long and 2 flights, but as the travel gods giveth they taketh away too, and the trip took 17 hours instead. I was scheduled to fly from San Francisco to Jackson Hole Wyoming. SFO was a zoo Monday morning, the sequester was part of the issue, being a Monday was the other. My 5:35 AM flight was on time, but was oversold as were all flights to Denver till the late afternoon. United was looking for volunteers to travel later in the day if my travel plans were flexible. In my case they really weren’t but I was willing to change flights if I could get closer to my final destination Worland Wyoming. Central Wyoming is a little tough to fly into, even though there are several small airports there are only a few airlines that come here, so you’re not only limited on options but you can also pay an arm and a leg too. In this case Worland has an airport, but tickets were just over the moon expensive so I had booked to Jackson, 4 hours away because it was 40% cheaper, and I had a budget to keep.

So with that being said I jumped at the opportunity to change flights if I could get flown directly into Worland, which is serviced only by Great Lakes Airways two times a day, and is a partner airline of United, who was my carrier today. I knew that United may help me get there if I would give up my seat on this first flight. The agent found me an option that would get me to Worland at 8:30 PM, but it meant not leaving SFO till 1:30 PM, remember I was there for a 5:35 AM flight. They told me to hang out during bearding and would let me know if I was needed, secretly I was hoping I they would. Well I asked about 10 minutes later and they said they were good, I got on the plane sat in my seat and waited to take off. Sure enough a few minutes before departure they come on and ask me if I’ll still give up my seat, and I said yes.

At this point the agent starts to work their magic, and the whole time two other customers are yelling at the other agent because they MUST be on this flight, and don’t understand how their seat could be given to someone else. On and on they go, and my agent and I just smile at each other. If you only take one piece of advice form me never ever show up late for a flight, always check in online and be at the gate no later than 30 minutes before departure. Period. If you aren’t there you may lose your seat or just miss your flight, and some lucky SOB (read me) gets your seat. When I show up early walk up ask for standby and take your seat. It’s never malicious, but I can tell you countless times, I show up for an earlier flight ask for standby and viola I have a seat and get home hours early. While you beg and beg to get on a flight home.

So as the agent processes my new flight, she says I’ll standby you for the 7 AM, and I gladly accept. I’m now booked on a 1:30 PM to Denver and a 6:30 PM connection to Worland via Cheyenne. Whoo Hooo. I head over to the new gate an wait my turn hoping I get set up. Sure enough this flight is oversold and they need volunteers. SO it doesn’t look good, but I’m #1 on the standby list. I cross my fingers. 11 minutes before departure they have 3 seats that are still no shows and I’m still #1. They tell me to come up and line up, at 10 minutes they give me a seat number and I board. I go to my seat and it’s occupied. Crap. I go back up front and they say take any open seat, what is this Southwest I walk all the way to the back and there are none. I go back and say now what. They then move a non-rev to the jump seat and now all is set. We get to Denver on time, but…On landing about 2000 feet off the ground the plane starts to rev engines and ascent. Wait aren’t we landing. Apparently no, we circle around, and the pilot says a plane took too long to leave the runway so we had to abort landing. Just great. Ten minutes later we land and off I wait for 6 hours. At that point I go to the board to stare at other flights and what do I see the earlier Worland flight is delayed, and I may have a chance. I change terminals and hoof it to the gate, I have 20 minutes to the newly delayed departure. They tell me sure we can set you up. I’m stocked back on track. Well the 10:30 departure creeps from 11:40..12:00…12:15…12:25…12:50…1:15 plane swap due to mechanical 1:30…2 finally boarding. By now it’s snowing bad, and I just hope we get to leave. We get on do two deicing procedures, and off we go. At 3 we land in Cheyenne drop off 10 of 16 passengers deice and take off again for 1 more hour, at this time it’s 3:30. Half an hour later, the pilot comes on and says were going back, we have a mechanical issue that must be fixed in Cheyenne and can’t be fixed in Worland, no mechanics. CRAP, now what. I’m worried I may never make it to Worland, I have to work tomorrow. They have all six of us to deplane and hit the portable also known as the gate, what a Podunk airport for the capitol. 20 minutes later they give us two options, they’ll pay for a hotel and we wait till 11 AM Tuesday to continue to Worland 300 miles or 6 hours driving away, or fly back to Denver (which oh by the way was underground stop due to snow) and hope to get to Worland on the last flight or Tuesday afternoon. Three strangers and I are like can we drive, they say sure but it’s on you cost wise.

We all decide we’ll drive, two of the others were married and had travelled for 24 plus hours and just wanted to get home from vacation, the other was also from Worland and was going home to perform a few medical procedures the next day, so he had to be there. All three I had talked to during the several hour delay in Denver but they were all strangers. Sure this was not the smartest thing to do but I HAD to get here, and the other two options we’re not going to work in any way shape or form. So off we went, we got a car, our bags and off we drove. What can be a 4-5 hour drive took six because of bad weather ½ the time, that slowed us down on two lane slightly windy roads. It ended up being a fun drive, I got to see some really beautiful landscapes and parts of the US I had never seen before. Plus I got really great narrative of the scenery from locals who knew the area, it was a great tour of the South Eastern and Central parts of Wyoming. I called my wife to let her know my crazy plan, needless to say she thought I was straight up crazy. But sort of understood, what I had to do. She was worried but I texted and called her a few times to let her know I was alive.

Finally at 10:30 PM after one gas fill up, and dinner at South of the Border in Casper I got to my hotel unwound and went to sleep. What was one heck of a travel day was finally over. Sure this is not how I expected to get here, nor had I expected to meet 3 new friends, but hey it was fun and showed me again how amazing people can be in an odd situation. I made it via plane, not train and automobile. Take that John Candy.

So if you’re taking score at home. I was going to fly SFO to Jackson arriving at 11:30 AM, got rerouted to Worland via Riverton arriving at 8:30 PM, showed up in Denver and was put on the earlier Worland via Cheyenne at scheduled for arrival at 11:30, but due to the initial delay was 1:00 PM. I finally flew to Cheyenne and got off at 4:30 PM and arrived in Worland at 10:30 PM. BTW the original Worland flight landed at 11:45 PM so I was the winner right.