Why I Oughta...

Hey kids, look!  Rhein Falls! The largest 'plain' (whatever that means) waterfall in all of Europe .  And it happens to be in (or very near as far as I can tell) the very town that my sister and Equation Boy/Man are living.  My sister took us out there for a bit and we had quite the time.  We went on the little, flat bottomed boat and it got a bit hairy (at least for me) as the captain turned the boat sideways right INTO the current.  I could have sworn we were going to capsize and I held on for dear life.  I was quickly doing the mental math of which child to grab and as I looked around figuring out where the kids where, I quickly realized that all the rest of the tourists were acting naturally, smiling, taking photos of the grand falls.  And it was, sadly, just me freaking out about...apparently....nothing.

Welp, we didn't see George and Amal, but we did see these sweet boats in Varenna and had a great meal in Bellaggio.  We stayed in Menaggio in a house that was called the White Villa, yet was a super bright orange color. Seems that Lake Como is a lot like Hawaii in one regard:  it is *everything* that everyone tells you it is.  Just a very special place on earth.

Recently, I found myself in Southern California for some meetings and as one is wont to do, we ended up at a pizza place.  This place wasn't a local outlet, however.  It was one of the outposts of the Grimaldi's Coal-Fired Oven 'chain'.  I say 'chain', because I didn't know it was a chain. I've read and heard all about Grimaldi's and Patsy's (and presumed they were one and the same!) and have recently dug around to understand the current dynamics and who *exactly* is behind this current Grimaldi's.  Turns out Patsy Grimaldi founded Grimaldi's, but then sold that place to a dude back in 1998.  Patsy is still in the pizza biz, but under another name.   From GrubStreet : Christening a restaurant is never simple. But the question of what Patsy Grimaldi would call his new pizzeria was further complicated by the fact that he was legally barred from following the long-standing tradition of just naming it after himself. He couldn’t call it

I found myself in California recently and even though I've been there numerous times, I am always in awe when I look at the landscaping and see succulents just about everywhere.  These were in a corporate office park in Southern California.  Hens and Chicks or Chicks and Hens?

In another of the continuing series of #Throwback Thursday moments that are here courtesy of the migration of my old photos from Flickr to Google Photos, here is this photo of me and Joel Murray and one of his kids.  This is from 2004 or 2005, so it is 12 years ago.  (The date didn't stick with the Flickr download for some reason.) Joel Murray is a working actor .  And he's a super great dude, too.  We have a relation to him through my sister and her husband.  Won't go into the whole thing, but that's how we ended up here.  Nat and I - before we had kids - stayed in the Murray's pool house for a few nights in Los Angeles.  I have a very vivid memory of this trip with Nat.  It was pretty early in our relationship and this was just.one.of.the.many.things that cemented my feelings about her and made me fall deeper in love with her.  I still remember that trip - this being one of those stops and how it fueled our relationship by building up that shared memory bank o

What's not to love about this photo of a crew of five men and three women and their line of fish caught at Sea Island?  The car.  Awesome.   The clothes?  Awesome.  The fish on the line?  Awesome.  As you walk around the second floor of The Cloister at Sea Island, you'll come to find a bunch of these framed vintage photographs.  I'll post a few more over time.

When you check into The Cloister at Sea Island and you have kids on your reservation, you are greeted with this warm message and bath toy in your room that my kids totally fought over.  We had to tell the guy who was helping with our bags to score us another one so that the girls wouldn't go to battle mode over who, exactly, *owns* Shelly. The note reads: My friends at The Cloister hope you'll take me with you when you leave, as a happy reminder of your time at Sea Island.  Just as a mother sea turtle returns to the same area each time she nests, we hope you will return again soon!    If you'd like to read more about my bigger brothers and sisters, called loggerheads, please see the other side of this card.   With warm Sea Island wishes, Shelly the Sea Turtle I mean...come on.  Couldn't be cuter, right?  And the idea of 'returning'?  Don't mind if we do!

Doesn't matter how many MagicBands that I get.  They are all the same color:  orange.  But, on each of our last few trips, we've been using these 'covers' or stickers from MyFantasyBands.com .   I've had Woody one one.  Last time, I had Chewey on mine .  This time, I'm going with a four-piece sticker of the Monorail.  The two individual pieces on each side allow for the band color to 'show through', thus (in this case) making Monorail Orange.  Which, if you read this story, it turns out there *is* indeed a Monorail Orange down in Orlando.  I've never paid that close of attention to the color of the stripe on the side when they pull up.  But maybe on this trip, I will? I'm the kind of guy who orders the same thing at restaurants a lot.  We go to Egg Harbor for breakfast almost every week.  And guess what?  I order the same thing:  Old-Fashioned Oatmeal.  With a side of bananas. So, with as I said...I stick with the orange bands.  But with t

If you get a chance, stay at the Disneyland Hotel at the Disneyland Resort.  They really drape themselves in Walt and the place is themed to Disney itself.  Not far-away polynesia or 1920's New Jersey Shore.  But Disney.  Walt and Mickey.  Mickey and Walt. I posted a photo from the Tangaroa Terrace restaurant featuring Walt and the Tiki Room Birds before, but here above is the telephone and internet information guide that they leave on the nightstands.  When you open it all the way up, you get this cool photo of the man himself sitting as his desk with a Donald Duck standing there while he yammers away on the phone.  Pretty clever way to bring some history from the archives back to everyday use.  The touches - including the headboard (which I'll get to!) are just spectacular.  Can you get a cheaper room at one of the "Good Neighbor" hotels right across the street from Disneyland?  Sure you can.  But you can't match the magic of being in the Disneyland Hotel i

 One morning on a visit to Disneyland, we had breakfast with the kids at the Tangaroa Terrace at the Disneyland Hotel .  Besides the Mickey waffles, we were fortunate to be graced by this photo of Walt Disney himself with his animatronic talking and singing birds from the original Enchanted Tiki Room. I've already (gasp!) let my Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room-freak-flag fly by posting this print/art that we picked up on a trip to Walt Disney World last year.    I still maintain that it is my favorite experience in all of the parks.  Disneyland, and their 'inside the queue' Dole Whip line and cast members who kind of 'put on a show' at the beginning make it just about perfect. Those Disney nuts know that the Tiki Room was originally envisioned as a restaurant , so we *kind of* got the best of both worlds there at the Tangaroa Terrace.

 That right there is the Cheesecake Factory in Old Town Pasadena.   CalTech is located in Pasadena.  That makes this the place that Penny from Big Bang works, right ? At least, that's what my father-in-law says.   So, of course, I couldn't walk by it without taking a photo.  Alas...while Pasadena was pretty great, we avoided this place and instead spent our lunchtime at Slater's 50/50 and had some very excellent Vampire Dip.

When we were at Disneyland, we made a stop in for lunch at one of the restaurants in New Orleans Square.  While waiting for our table, Nat and I took turns going to the bathroom while the other watched the kids.  Nat went first and when she came back, she pointed out that the infamous Club 33 door was on the way between where we were sitting and the bathrooms.  Of course, I had to investigate. Turns out, there isn't much there.  Just this ornate doorbell/intercom with the number '33' on it.  The story of the Club is of course, interesting.  And, while everyone's imagination goes wild all around the Disney Parks, this secret place that so few get to go ilicits so much ooo-ing-and-ahh-ing from the savvy Disney park visitor.  For everyone else...they probably walk by the non-descript door and not think twice about the shrimp cocktails and manhattans that are being consumed upstairs will the great unwashed devours our Monte Cristo sandwiches at the New Orleans Cafe.  

Neat sticker on the garbage cans out in the Village of Southampton, NY.  There are flags all over town that simply have the number '375' on them. Couldn't figure out what the flags were for until I spotted this tattered sticker that shows a native and a settler on the side of the garbage can.   Turns out...that's the anniversary of the settling of the community.  That's just 30 or so years after the settlement at Jamestown.  And 100+ years before the founding of our country.  Old school, baby.

We made a stop at Redamak's in New Buffalo on the way home from the holiday weekend.   There are a few places we like to stop at on the way to Coloma including this place and Steve Dahl's recommendation of Stop 50 in Michiana Shores. I had a VERY tasty double cheeseburger.  I've tried the triple and it is just simply too much for me.  I also ordered my waffle fries 'well done' and they were pretty stinkin' good. Don't take it from me on the quality of Redamak's burgers, just look at A Hamburger Today when they say : "The cheeseburger at Redamak's is among the best on the planet."

I was on a flight home from the West Coast a few weeks back and I had seat 3A.  In the armrest was this tethered 'remote' and in front of me was this touchscreen (below).  On it, was a series of movies on demand, some tv shows and it seemed even games. I spent the time ONLY in the movies section and watched two pretty great movies:  Whiplash and St. Vincent. The plane I was on was one of the 'new' American jets and it was pretty nice.  Seats were comfortable, clean and the technology was nice.  I didn't get to look around, but I'm guessing that these screens are in *every* seat?  The movies were free, which was great, but not sure of the experience elsewhere. I usually travel on longer flights with a movie or two pinned to my tablet.  And because I don't know when/where I'll get one of these new AA jets, I'll probably keep doing that.  But...when luck shines on me and I get this setup, I'll enjoy it.  It was preeetay, preeetay, prettay n

Unlike my trip to Denver a week back , this trip I was able to spend just a/bit more time taking it all in.  Didn't hurt that we walked to a few meetings in the city.  Oh...and as I'll post soon... I house'd a gross yet awesome burger/fries combo, too.

Was in and out of Denver Colorado (Or Denver Avocado as The Babe calls it!) in the flash of an eye recently.  I took just one photo while I was there and it was this brochure sitting on the check-in desk of the hotel. Not exactly the way you want to 'see' Denver, eh?  Maybe next time we'll have more time to take in the local...ahem...culture.

Did I ever tell you guys about how we went to the Colorado-pizza-touchstone Beaujo's?  This location was in this really cute mountain town called Idaho Springs.  Did we go in?  Nope.  We went to a different location that was closer to Nat's sister's house.  I'll do a full review of the pies in a future post.

Thanks to two of my brother-in-laws, we went to this place while we were in Denver.  Those of you who are South Park fans will get a little chuckle out of this.  Those of you who don't watch the show, this will be lost on you.

I was in DC this week and on the cab ride to my hotel, we drove past the Washington Monument.    That's the only 'sight' I had time to 'see' while I was there.