Why I Oughta...

I would stay at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs 10 out of 10 times.  I posted about my stay at the Broadmoor back at the beginning of the month when I added it to the coaster collection .  As I mentioned in that post, I only stayed one night at the hotel and it was far too short of a stay.  I arrived late in the evening after dinner and headed out for an early flight in the am.  But, I woke up early and strolled some of the property to take it all in.  It is a special place .  When Spencer and Julie Penrose opened The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, the master plan was to create a place where European elegance met Western hospitality in the perfect blend of style and service excellence. More than nine decades later, their vision is intact and their dream is still alive. Since The Broadmoor opening, it has been the destination of a long list of presidents, statesmen, foreign dignitaries and celebrities. I *do* love a good, historic hotel....

This photo is hanging in the lounge at the Boardwalk Inn down on Crescent Lake.  I think this is from the club-level floor either in the club or right outside of it.  Kinda love the sea shells behind the couples in each of the matching convertibles.  I took this photo months ago, but for some reason it just popped up in my Google photos.  Thus, why it is getting posted now. It reminds me of the vintage photos that they had hung up down in Sea Island . You can see all the of the Boardwalk-related posts on the blog all the way back to our first stop there in the summer of 2012 here on the [boardwalk] tag page .

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.

I've been back at the office all this week, but for the two previous weeks, Nat and I took the kids over to visit their cousins (and my sister and brother-in-law who you know as Equation Boy/Man here on the blog).  I'll be posting some photos of the experiences we had over the next few weeks and I'll be putting up all the photos on the family blog, so if you know the url for that one, you can likely find a full recap over there soon. But, the reason for this post is to talk about my lawn.  Yeah...my lawn. I was in Europe for two weeks and I didn't once think about my lawn.  Why?  Because I had my Automower from Husqvarna at home just busily working away every night cutting the grass like a good robot should do! For full details on the #AutomowerFirst program , go over here to check out this post about getting it set up and the full details .   (Disclaimer again!  I was given this device by Husqvarna to review and if I post on social media every once...

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 t...

The unofficial/official online Coaster Collection here on the blog continues to grow.  Adding this one from Sea Island to the pile of coasters that have been documented here from our trip down there earlier this Spring. You can see the entire Coaster Collection here .  It might not seem like much, but it *is* growing, right?  This Sea Island one gets us up to ten coasters. 1.   Illini Coors light one featuring the 'new' I . 2.   Ted's Montana Grill with quote . 3.   Bell & Harbor out in the Hamptons . 4.   A different Ted's one .   5 & 6.   Two coasters from Saugatuk Brewing Company . 7 & 8.   Disney coasters from both coasts . 9.   Jungle Cruise Cantina from inside the MK . 10.  This one.

That right there in the photo is the *only* child of mine who was brave enough to go up and touch/pet this Peregrine Falcon that was on patrol at the Beach Club down at Sea Island .  The Bird - as we call her - wasn't afraid to touch this bird that is part of the falconry program at Sea Island .   Her older sister?  Not interested. As Nat will tell you, I have a fascination with all-things birds of prey.  When we're driving, I will always point them out when they're soaring above the highway or sitting on fence posts. Sea Island keeps their falconry program for two reasons.  The first is for hunting.  That part is something that I'm totally unfamiliar with, but it seems that you can 'hunt' for squirrels and such with these hawks . The other way these Peregrine Falcons are used is what you see above.   They have a guy who is in their Falconry program standing watch in the pool area of the Beach Club.  After talking to him, he said that the m...

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!

Sure... the phone and internet guide featuring Walt is cool, but you know what is REALLY cool about the Disneyland Hotel?  The headboards.  Yeah...the headboards. That photo above is what they look like when you've turned off all the lights in the room but keep the headboard light up.  When you push a button, there's a music box sound of the song 'When you wish upon a star' and the fireworks flicker a bit. Here's a video on YouTube of it happening on someone's visit . This was a total delight for not just my kids but also for Nat and I.  I can't tell you now many times I hit the button to make the song go on and have the board light up.  This is just another one of those little touches that make strong memories for me at Disney. But...it also speaks to the details they've put into the Disneyland Hotel rooms. We listen to Pete Werner and the gang on the Dis Unplugged and Pete just raved about the rooms at the Disneyland Hotel .  After that ep...

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...

 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 N...

We were up at Crane's Orchard and Crane's Pie Pantry in Fennville Michigan recently to do some Honeycrisp picking and hard cider drinking and pie buying and the other fall-season what-have-yous. On our table at the Pie Pantry were a series of laminated vintage post cards that had been filled out and mailed with canceled one cent stamps.  This image above was on the back of one of them and I thought it was spot-on for our trip(s) to Coloma in the offseason (i.e. not during the summer!) Vacation Greetings: Everything is mighty fine, Water's sweet as any wine, There is no roar and bustle, Don't have to up and hustle, It's the rural life for mine!  

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.

Adding this too-cute coaster from The Bell & Anchor in Sag Harbor to the 'virtual coaster collection' here on the blog.  Oh...you don't know about the coaster collection?   Check out the posts here .  Pretty spectacular, right? The Bell & Anchor was a neat little restaurant and bar right on the waterfront by a working pier in Sag Harbor.  I think Nat found it.  It was a great pick. We didn't have a water-view, but had a really great (big!) table and everyone - but me - enjoyed seafood and shellfish of various varieties.  We sat at the bar for a big waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive and I was stationed right next to the bar tending station with the fruit and such that was awaiting various drinks.   Mixed in amongst the cherries and lime wedges were sticks with three HUGE olives on them.  I house'd 3 stick-fulls while drinking my local beer.   (I forgot what I was drinking but looking at their site, it was the Southhampt...

On Sunday, I posted the photo of Fudgie The Whale from Carvel that I spotted when we were on Long Island.  But...he wasn't alone.  Eric "Fred" Norris' favorite - Cookie Puss - was also there in the freezer case.  I didn't forget about him!

If you are a Howard Stern fan, you can't go to a Carvel stand and not seek out a Fudgie the Whale cake, right?   On our trip last week, Nat and I took the kids to get cones and while I was there, I grabbed this photo of the cake.  Alas...I didn't get the cake, though.  For shame, right?  For shame. Fudgie the Whale has his own Wikipedia entry where celebrities of all kinds pledge their undying love for Fudgie.  From the post: According to his wife Beth Stern, radio host Howard Stern considers Fudgie the Whale his favorite Carvel product. She discussed this with Jimmy Fallon during an appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Andy Bernard, a character on the show The Office, requested a Fudgie the Whale cake for the group birthday celebration in the "Survivor Man" episode.