Dallas.. Birthday Weekend

Although this doesn't qualify as ME traveling, I thought I'd post up some pictures of my birthday weekend.  Jenn came out to spend time with me.  We spent most of the time watching baseball (both our teams were in the league championship series') and football (we were playing each other in fantasy football; Jenn killed me).  We actually attended the ALCS here in Dallas (Rangers vs Jenn's Yankees).  Unfortunately, for her only, the result didn't go the Yankees way.  I also got her to take a ride on the back of my motorcycle.  I loved that; thanks babe.  Well, enough with the small talk, here are some photos.

Detroit... FBI

Detroit/Dearborn, MI was my latest out of town trip.... I know, how exciting!  I was there from October 3 to October 15 (I did fly home, highly unusual for me, during the weekend of October 9/10).  My hotel was actually in Dearborn, but my work was in Detroit.  There wasn't much to do around there.  I spent the day working, would return to the hotel to workout, go to dinner, then crash.  The funniest part of the trip was the car Avis gave me for the first week (see picture).  We were totally FBI rolling around.  I think having this car helped keep us out of trouble while rolling around town.  Here are my few observations of Detroit:

- 99 out of 100 cars are, as expected, American made vehicles.  Our hotel was across the street from Ford, but it took me a couple of days to realize that there foreign cars are a rarity around these parts.  The second week, we had a Nissan Altima and we were getting some nasty looks while driving around.  Heck, someone decided to dispose of their chewing gum on our lights.

- Police activity is HIGH.  We saw red/blue lights EVERY day (I'm pretty sure).  

- Garlic butter is in high demand.  So if you've ever been to Benihana's (I have been more than plenty), you should know that they add some garlic butter to the fried rice (and some other stuff).  Well, in Dearborn, they don't just put a table spoon or two into the rice, they put near a gallon (due to demand by the patrons).  Even that wasn't enough, the other guests would continuously ask the chef and server for more.  I asked the server after dinner if this was unusual, and she told me that this Benihana's and another a couple of town over go through the most garlic butter in the company (more than 10 times other locations).  WTF???  I also noticed that people order about 3-4 orders of the fried rice to take home.

That's all.  Sorry for the boring last couple of trips.  I have some more interesting travels coming up: South Africa later this month and into November, Los Angeles for Thanksgiving, San Diego for the 49ers/Chargers game in December, the Bay Area and Wine Country for Xmas/New Years and Thailand in January.  Stay tuned.

Vancouver.... All Business

So after just a night at home from my awesome trip to France it was off to Vancouver, BC.  Vancouver is one of my favorite location for work.  Our office is right in the heart of downtown.  We don't need a car, it's all walkable.  This trip I am on my own here.  The project I am auditing is actually located in St Johns, Newfoundland, but I am here in Vancouver auditing the related project activities run out of this office. 

Unfortunately, due to the intense work load, I don't have much to talk about on this trip.  I spend my days working some long hours, working out in my hotel room after, and then hitting dinner (usually at The Keg next door).  That's it.  Jenn didn't come up here this trip (understandably due to her hectic travel schedule), so nothing exciting happened.  Therefore, I will leave you with some photos from my last trip, when Jenn came up, in April. 

France Day 8-9: The VERY long road home

On Sunday, I had to get Jenn to the Nice airport around noon and then had to be back at my aunt’s in Auribeau around noon for a lunch.  I said goodbye to Jenn knowing that it was going to be a sad 5 weeks before we would see each other again (sniff).  At the lunch, it seemed like everyone from the wedding was at the house the next day.  The sun was beating, the food was flying off the buffet and some dared to drink more.  Wow!  However, at 2:45pm, our caravan (my car and parent’s car) had to start the journey to La Tonnellerie.  Along for the ride were my godfather, his wife and Gaude.  The road was long.. and dark eventually.  We made a couple stops for gas and food, but eventually we rolled into La Tonnellerie around 11:30pm.  The journey was finished for some people (mom, dad and Gaude).  My godfather, his wife and I still had about 1 ½ hour to Paris.  We left La Tonnellerie around 12:15am and were at my godfather’s house around 2am.  No messing around; I went right to sleep. 

The alarm went off at 6:45 am and my godfather took me to the airport shortly after.  I checked in no problem and we hung out having a coffee and letting the traffic die down for his return home.  My flight to Minneapolis took off on time, but strong headwind estimated a late arrival.  That wasn’t good for me since I only had 1 ½ hour layover in Minni (and had to go through immigration and customs).  I slept the entire 9+ hours to Minni (the trip had taken its toll on me).  We landed at 1:30pm (my next flight was at 2:15) and I raced through immigration and customs no problem.  The security line agent took me to the front of the security line and I was at my gate at 2:10.  I had made my flight, but I doubted my bag would. 

Sure enough, upon arrival at DFW, my bag never came through on the baggage claim belt.  Damn, I needed that suitcase for my trip to Vancouver the next day.  I filed my report and they put a rush on it.  It would probably be on the next flight to DFW landing around 7:30pm.  I got home without my suitcase and just relaxed for a few hours.  My bag came around 11pm and I started a load of laundry.  Tomorrow I was off to Vancouver.

France Day 7: My Cousin’s French Wedding

Saturday came with clear blue skies, and heat.  We met up with my parents at their hotel around 10am.  The women all went to Fragonard (perfume region) to max out credit cards, while the boys stayed by the pool (and in it thanks to me).  Once the women returned it was a scamper to pick up lunch (everything was closed on Saturday in the area).  We managed to find some food at the local boulangerie and we downed it asap.

By 1:30pm we were back at our hotel getting all dressed up for the wedding (Jenn looked HOT!).  We made it to Auribeau’s city hall at 3pm as requested for the civil marriage of Aurelie and David (different than the US of course).  As expected the bride was beautiful.  At 4pm we entered Auribeau’s church and experienced a nice 1 hour catholic wedding mass.  It was HOT.  Shortly after the mass, and before the reception, a few of us headed to the cemetery to say hello to my grandparents, who are buried there.

At 6pm it was cocktail time at the reception location.  It lasted some 2 hours with champagne galore and appetizers.  Around 8pm it was inside for a long dinner with speeches and music.  Seating arrangement are a little different in French weddings; Jenn and I had the honor of sitting at the wedding couple’s table (thank you Aurelie!).  Again, with the weather, it was extremely hot inside the reception hall (no AC around here).  I was sweating bullets and made frequent exits to get fresh air.  Around 11pm the dining room turned into a dance hall and everyone was dancing.  Jenn had the wonderful experience of dancing with my uncle and cousin.  My uncle even swirled her around his back. 

By 1am we were beat, and decided to head back to the hotel since tomorrow we had the long drive back to Paris.  Evidently, the party went on until 5-6am and many of my cousins and the groom jumped into the pool at the reception.

France Day 5-6: Nice, Monaco and Cannes in 2 days

Jenn and I woke up in Nice without a plan (quite unusual for us when visiting a new place) on Thursday.  By 10am we were out of the hotel and walking along the waterfront of Nice.  Jenn absolutely had to dip her feet in the water, so she did just that; a slightly larger wave than expected caught her by surprise.  After the quick dip, we headed to a recommended open-air flower/food market at the edge of Old Nice.  We found a small little creperie for a late breakfast so that Jenn could have her requested crepe (special request #1).  After enjoying that and trying to figure out what to do, we decided to walk around the tiny streets of Old Nice.  We walked at our own pace and enjoyed the window shopping and wonderful little courtyards.  I think Jenn was in heaven.  She snapped more than a few photos of the picturesque streets. 

Old Nice was all that was really recommended to us, so we decided to go to Monaco for a late lunch (we could do more Nice tomorrow morning since we were sleeping here).  While walking around Nice I had noticed that scooters were a very common mode of transportation.  We decided that we would rent one ourselves.  We found a tourist information office that showed us where we could get one and did just that.

Around 2:30pm we were on our scooter and took the beautiful coastal route to Monaco (some 20 km).  Jenn wanted to stop for some scenic pictures, but I recommended we do it on the way back; I was hungry.  We got to Monaco and parked in the harbor for a typical lunch at a small café.  We both had pizzas; which I love in Europe. 

After eating, we decided to head further down the coast to a small town, recommended by my mom, called Menton.  Unfortunately, the skies were darkening and just short of 5 km to Menton, I made the decision to head back to Nice.  Getting caught in the rain may not be fun.  Well, the rains came quick.. and hard.  The entire 30+ km back were nothing short of soaking.  We got back to our hotel around 6pm drenched.  We got out of our soaked clothes and both fell asleep.  Jenn was not feeling too good, so at the end of the day, we didn’t get to have our 1 year anniversary dinner (planned in Antibes).  We just slept the night away.

Friday morning we felt better and jumped back on the scooter to ride the coast.  We took a different coastal road and snapped pictures along the way.  With breathtaking views, it was truly a delight.  Having only rented the scooter for 24 hours, we rode back into Nice to return the bike by noon.  As we walked back to our hotel, we noticed plenty of cafés serving Moules and had to stop (Jenn’s special request #2).  Jenn enjoyed a large bowl of Moules while I downed my usual pizza; all the while people watching on a pedestrian street.  Jenn was obsessed with all the guys wearing capri shorts.  After lunch we headed back to our hotel to check out and head toward Cannes.

I decided on taking the coastal road to Cannes in order to drive through Antibes.  It was a slow drive (the drive to Monaco is better by the way), but scenic.  We finally got to Cannes around 4pm and again parked in the harbor.  Cannes had a very large exposition going on so tents were up all around the harbor.  We walked down the waterfront enjoying the water on one side and all the “chic” shops on the other.  We stopped in a small creperie for an afternoon snack.  Having had our fill of Cannes, we made our way back to Auribeau.  My parents had arrived and there was an evening planned with almost the entire family in Auribeau. 

We checked into our little hotel outside Auribeau, L’Aiglon.  Words can’t describe how small our hotel room was.  Put it this way, our 2 suitcases were difficult to put in the room.  We quickly changed and met my parents at their hotel down the street.  Once there we all headed up to Auribeau for the family meal.  We ate, drank and hung out all night laughing and looking forward to the wedding tomorrow.  It was very late, or early, by the time we got back to our hotel.