Trip Itinerary

As with any trip you take, the first thing we decided on was when to go. When Farrah went on her semester abroad she did most of free traveling in May. From what she recalled May was a good month to travel, just avoiding people getting off of school and the family summer vacation rush. We chose the first half of May to travel. A basic sketch of our plans are:

• Four day in Bath, UK
• Six days in London day
• A day trip to Paris
• Three 1/4 days in London before heading home

If you want to see how our trip is playing out in a day-to-day view, check out our Yahoo! Travel page to see the sites we are planning to visit. This page will change of course.

Transportation and Lodging

We started with the first major expense: airline tickets. In an effort to obtain the best price, we first tried a service at Farrah’s work - a concierge service. The service is mean to conduct all the footwork for you. You simply need to supply the service with what you want and they will try to find the best prices for you. I always thought they would get decent discounts, but when we compared what the service had to offer versus an Internet service like Kayak, the difference was minimal. I was even able to direct the concierge service to a better discount using Kayak!

We chose our dates and airline (Virgin Atlantic) and booked the flight via Virgin’s site. We also booked our bus tickets from Heathrow to Bath and back to London. We’ll be staying in Bath for our first four days, then the rest of the time in London, with a long day trip to Paris.

We used several resources in planning our trip. Of course we used the Internet, but also sought advice from friends and co workers, and of course good ol’ books. Plenty of research can now be done on the Internet, foregoing the purchasing of books. But it is nice to have and carry a tangible reference guide on the trip.

After looking through several books, we found what we believe are three good choices:

• Rick Steve's London 2007
• Pauline Frommer's London
• Time Out London

The three books bring different views on what is must see in London. The Rick Steve’s book takes a historical approach, offering tips on what historical sites can’t be missed and what you can live without visiting. Pauline Frommer’s book brings a woman’s perceptive to traveling in London (e.g. places to shop), but also offers frugal places to stay and eat. Time Out London stays with the hip and cool places to stay and see, just like the newsstand magazine.

The Internet has changed much since 1997 when Farrah was planning her semester abroad. At one point back then, she was wondering what to pack and wear in Europe. I said to her, Let me post the question in a newsgroup. I found the old Usenet posting I submitted doing a search on Google. Nowadays you don’t need to use newsgroups, but message boards are the thing. I’m sure there were some travel sites on the Internet back then, but nothing really known. Nothing like the ones we used on this trip. The most useful sites have been:

• Tripadvisor
• Frommer's Travel Guides
  

I am on Tripadvisor daily and find it the most helpful site of the two. We looked at lodging reviews there making our selections based on reviews and community photos.

Passport Update

I managed to get a hold of the passport office. They confirmed they received the paperwork, but they confirmed they won’t do any expediting until there are only 14 days before the trip! So you know what I’m going to do on that 14th day - I’ll be on the phone dialing.

This morning we had breakfast with Yen and James at Hobee’s. They shared with us great news- they are engaged!!!

Congratulations to you both!

For those of you who do not know already, Farrah and I are in the midst of planning a trip to the UK and France. We’ll be going for a total of two weeks in May, hoping to beat the summer vacation rush. Our plans include visiting Bath and London, with a quick day trip to Paris!

It’s All Part of the Process (passports)

We started the passport process in mid-February, renewing our passports at the post office. Currently there is a 10 week waiting period in receiving the passport back. There has been a large rush in obtaining passports due to the new requirements when traveling to Mexico and Canada.

This is causing slight grief and anxiety on our part as the 10 weeks they are estimating to process passports falls only one week prior to our departure date in May! The US Passport web site allows you to check the status of your passport application - but this is not really helping. It shows Farrah’s passport has been accepted, but my passport application has yet to enter the system. Yikes!

From what I’ve read about this subject on the TripAdvisor message boards, passports have been arriving for people, but some have had to call to have their passports expedited (aka “Give us more money to grease the wheels!”). I’m not supposed to call until 14 days before the trip to have the passport expedited. I wonder if they FedEx it when it’s so close?

Oh well, can’t go on the trip without a passport, right?

Farrah took me to watch 300 today at the Sony Metreon’s IMAX theater.  But first she took me to breakfast at Sears Fine Foods in Union Square.  Breakfast was great, and you can read my review on Sears Fine Foods on my Yelp profile.

When we bought the tickets, I asked the ticket agent how was the movie.  His response was “Awesome!"  When I asked how it was in IMAX, his response was once again “Awesome!"  As we walked away from the ticket counter toward the escalator, the ticket agent muttered a line from the movie (that I happened to have said to Farrah on our walk from our fulfilling breakfast):

Spartans! Enjoy your breakfast, for tonight we dine in Hell!

This was our first experience watching a movie in IMAX.  Before the movie begins, there is a small presentation on what IMAX is: blah blah screen size, x amount of cool speakers, etc.  It’s an entertaining presentation that shows off the features of an IMAX theater.

Ok, now to the movie.

It’s a simple story of a small immovable army versus a large unstoppable army.  It’s a bloody and gory movie, but beautifully filmed  containing loudly spoken dialogue  spoken - we’re in battle after all - much like that of the comic book.  There are speeches here and there but they don’t drag on or bring the fill down.  Every character has their role that predictably plays itself out to the end.

What I liked about the movie: The look and sound of the film, especially in IMAX, is difficult to ignore.  It played a major part in making the film enjoyable.  The gore was just enough on the comic book side to not be grossly unappealing.  The actors were given enough dialogue to chew the scenery when given the chance.

What I didn’t like: Um, no real movie trailers before the film started.  Oh, there was a trailer for Spiderman 3, but it was an older trailer.  Guess they don’t make trailers specifically for IMAX.

300 in IMAX: **** (out of 5) ; *** 1/2 (regular theater)>

One of the best things about Wordpress is the ability to change the look of your site pretty quickly.

So how do you like this current theme now? It’s called Digital Photography Blogs - Shiny Theme (more info). Though I modified it, and it looks good, it is a bit difficult to maintain, and I think, read. Here is their warning on their site:

We promise that you don't want to use this theme. It was designed for our first blog network, Digital Photography Blogs, and works great for that one purpose. Other people have tried to use it and have suffered greatly. That said, we still get lots of requests for it, so use the theme if you dare!

Encouraging, huh? Anyway, this theme is the first of four. Each Sunday (if I remember) I will update the theme on ./Janella.com. At the end of the four weeks, please vote with your comments on that blog entry. Your choice will be used on Janella.com - at least for a while :)

Note: I did not create any of the themes to be used. I just modified them slightly, as is allowed, to fit with how I feel it should look for the website.

OK, last I heard, Facebook was the new MySpace. At least that was what I heard.

I then go surfing the other night looking for Wordpress themes for this blog and I stumble upon Virb. I thought, cool looking site and all, but wasn’t sure what it was (plus, I was just looking for Wordpress themes).

I then listen MacBreak Weekly, a podcast I listen to often, and find out it’s the Virb that is the new MySpace. When is Vox getting into this mix? Yeah, I suppose they’re not after the MySpace crowd, but Vox is pretty cool.

So, of course I sign up.

Not much there yet, but it’s pretty cool and customizable as heck. Very clean Web 2.0 look. There’s a strong slant on music, photos and videos there. The basic design is clean, but like I mentioned, you can customize the style through WYSIWYG interface or through stylesheets and more. Pretty straightforward stuff.

Give it a twirl.

I’m working on the website a little, so if you happen to be on it and the page changes suddenly, do not be alarmed.

I’m posting again directly to Janella.com using the famous Wordpress. Yes, I have left my irregular blogging on my Vox account. Actually, I will continue to do irregular blogging on Vox, but my regular musings will occur here.

Don’t get me wrong, I like Vox a lot. I like it better than MySpace, Friendster, Multiply, Facebook, and LiveJournal. Why?

• Nice templates
• Friendly community
• Easy to use blog posting screen.
• Great privacy controls. You can let everyone, friends, family or neighbors view what you post.
• The ability to upload photos, videos, and sound files.
• The ability to access your accounts like Flickr, Photobucket and such to post.
• Meeting new people.

What ended up NOT working for me was:

• Lack of personal customization. Recently added was an ability to add a banner images which is cool, though. I would like to have had the ability to add links to my other 'Me Sites'.
• Inability to for non-registered users to comment on your blog entries.

While the pros seem to outweigh the cons, the cons felt pretty big as time passed. If I never had a web hosting account or used Wordpress or MovableType, I guess I wouldn’t know what running my own blog/site would feel like. But that last pro, Meeting new people. is a big reason why I keep my Flickr account and will keep my Vox account.

There are so many interesting people out there, posting funny personal musings, intriguing thoughts. and stunning photographs that it’s hard to pry yourself away from a community you’ve joined. So I will be a visitor there from time to time. But for now, and the foreseeable future, I’m right here and will write here.

I’m home.

Tru dat!

This last weekend farrah and I flew down to San Diego to help Heidi and Yen move to their new apartment.  Unfortunately, I was just getting over a cold so I was a bit grumpy at times.

The flight going to San Diego had a slight delay.  The flight there was uneventful, though on landing the air pressure really got to my ears.  It was as if someone was pinching my ear drums.  I could not hear for sometime afterwards.  I guess I wasn’t over my cold after all.

James flew in from Oakland as well, so we all met at the airport.  We grabbed a bit to eat that night at a place called Yard House.  I guess their main claim to serving the world’s largest selection of draft beer.  I tried something called a Delirum Tremens - a bitter Belgium beer.  I didn’t really enjoy it much and downed it quickly ordering a Black & Tan to fill the void.  farrah had the SLO Blueberry Ale and the Lost Coast Apricot Wheat beer.   Even Yen had a SLO Blueberry Ale.

On Saturday, we got up a bit late, but was able to move everything in the afternoon.  The slow part was the loading of the U-Haul that Yen had rented.  Unload went by really quickly.  It probably when by quick because we were all thinking of dinner at Rei do Gado.   Farrah ate there with Yen and Heidi the last time we were in San Diego, and I really wanted to go there.  Even though we had an 8 o’clock reservation we still had to wait.  But I think the wait was worth it.  Honestly, I wish I ate more meat!

On Sunday we took a brief trip across the border into Tijuana, Mexico.  It was my first time there.  We ate at a little taco stand Heidi had eaten at before.  There was also several other places where various snacks were consumed.  We didn’t really buy anything there as the weather was turning cloudy, so we headed back across the border to shop at the Las Americas.  I think we stayed a bit to long there because we needed to rush back for James to catch his flight.  Thanks to Heidi’s mad driving James made his flight with about 15 minutes to spare.

Our plane back home was late in departing and I was feeling run down.   When I got home that night I knew I was sick once again.  I think I caught Heidi’s cold!  Now I’ve been sick most of February.  Hopefully, I will get better in March.

This past three-day weekend could have been more than what it was. Unfortunately, I caught the cold that has been hounding farrah for the past week. Thursday night found me with a scratchy throat. By Friday afternoon I was feeling rundown.

Friday night I resolved to spend most of Saturday in bed, hoping to salvage Sunday and Monday for some fun. But Farrah reminded me that the post office was open for passport renewal on this special Saturday, so morning rest had to wait. We got up early, but not early enough to beat the approximately 100 people in front of us in line. It took us ninety minutes to process through the line, then less then 10 minutes to actually process our paperwork. After eating brunch - since it was about 10:30 am, we headed home and me into bed.

Sunday morning I was still dopey, and Monday didn’t seem much better. But yet, I crawled slowly out of bed each day just to get out and about around the house. The only thing we really accomplished together this weekend, besides the passport renewal, was several levels of Zelda on the Wii.

Perhaps the weekend wasn’t lost after all.

I know I haven’t been blogging much lately.  There are several reasons for this, but the task taking up most of my free time has been trying to defeat General RAAM.  He’s the ugly MOFO you see below:

If I haven’t mentioned already, farrah’s Christmas present to me was an XBOX 360.  From previous posts you probably know I gave her a Wii for her birthday.  So now we have games system to the hilt - only lacking a Playstation 3 - which I see plunking down any change for anytime soon.

farrah knows I was debating the merits of an XBOX 360 versus a Playstation 3.  But when I started gushing about how “Gears of War” looked pretty cool on the XBOX 360, she pulled the trigger on it as my present. (Wow, what a wife!)

GOW has been a pretty fun game. A bloody, violent and profanity laced adventure which is all you can ask for in a shoot ’em up type game.  But killing General RAAM, the last boss in the game, doesn’t take the normal blunt force trauma method.  It required numerous precise shots to his noggin while his shield of flying friends are not surrounding him.  Oh, he’s also armed with a gatlin gun that can cut you in half, so it even makes it more difficult.

It took me the good part of a week to finally kill him.  And now that game part is over and I have more free time to blog…and to play “The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess” on the Wii.