Best Vacation Ever - Day 3 Go West Young Man!

Once again pics at the bottom. Not a ton on this day. Without further ado... Wednesday August 14th 2013 Also if you're just jumping in to this scroll down and start with day 1 and work your way up unless you're one of those weirdos that likes reading front back to front!

I awoke and made plans to meet with Michelle Murray for lunch. I had to hustle to prep all my stuff so that as soon as I got back I could head right to the airport. I was supposed to meet with Christian later to go there and Danielle was coming from work.

Nonetheless I navigated my way down to where Michelle was and we had lunch at a solid little Italian place known for their meatballs. It was pretty good. I couldn't remember the last time I saw Michelle but it was great to catch up with her. I always enjoyed her zest for life and energy she could bring to any room in seconds. Lunch was short due to me having to get moving to get to the airport.

I boogied back to Astoria to get my bag and meet Christian. However he was running behind and that left me to navigate my own way to the airport. So I took my bag in hand, with wheels mind you, and headed for the right train. I did a great job all day knowing which train to take, which was an express, I was in a train zone not usually seen by a Vermonter with limited experience in mass transit. Soon I was boarding an air train for the airport as I texted Danielle and Christian the whole time. I felt like I was on the Amazing Race. I won.

My bag weighed in at 52 lbs but they didn't charge me extra. I think I'm finally getting the pretty person treatment because I'm no longer a big tub of goo anymore. While in line I found myself behind two ladies from Egypt. I actually made small talk with them when they weren't talking to each other and I was amazed to learn that Egyptians walk just like everyone else. What's up now Bengals?

After I got through the screening I waited for Danielle who was not too far behind me in line.  We headed for the gate and awhile later Christian joined us.

I feel this is a decent time to mention this. Danielle was mad stressing about a lot of stuff on this trip. Not sure whether it was feeling like she had to "mom" for Christian and I ( She didn't need too we were capable) or just wigging out about her wedding duties... I don't know what was up, but I was going to be glad the minute these kids said "I Do" cause I figured maybe then she'd chill out. We often made reference to a long email that was sent to everyone involved with the trip which seemed to itemize every moment of the trip. Not how I like to travel. This caused me some stress the day it came through but I was determined to play ball when I needed to, but also carve out my fun.

As we settled on the plane I was quickly introduced to the magic screen in front of me. Delta had an awesome array of games, movies, music, and more right in front of me to play with. After watching the best safety video I've ever seen (it had some comedy) we soon were in the air and heading west! I dug in to the magic screen and watched The Amazing Burt Wonderstone. It was hardly amazing. I also could track where we were with a feature that let us know how high we were, where we were, and so much more. Being a stat geek I loved it. I even filmed when we flew past the Minneapolis area putting me further west than I had ever been before.

Sidebar... I've always wanted to travel to every state in the U.S. and sadly I'm 34 and hadn't been any further than the Central time zone. A big part of this trip, for me, was to see some new territory. I was uber excited to see the Pacific ocean, have jet lag, and scope the left coast!

Eventually we landed, retrieved our bags and headed for our rental car. Danielle drove us towards Michelle and Ryan's place (the couple to wed on Saturday). Danielle's driving was... lets say erratic, and made me very nervous. But I instead tried to focus on all the new territory I was drinking in visually. I tried to take some night pics of Seattle as we drove by but they didn't really take. Soon we were north of the city at the apartment of Michelle and Ryan, which I labeled the Northwest Hideout (tribute to the Hideout in NYC).

I knew Michelle from her trips with Danielle to Vermont and a couple times when I went to NYC while she lived there. Ryan I had never met but quickly I realized this was a cool cat. They opened up their pad to us and at this point it was about midnight local time. This guy was hungry. A walk to the nearby store provided me with my first west coast surprise...

As I self-scanned some items I started to put them in a paper bag. I noticed I didn't see any plastic bags which I thought was odd for a city known for being wet. Then Danielle asked me if I scanned the bag. I was dumbfounded. Then told that I would have to pay for bags. PAY for bags! I understand the idea is to get people to bring their own, but what are we doing Seattle? And like I said before if I'm shelling out for a bag make it a quality plastic one that won't fall apart in the rain!!! Anyway I could go on but I won't.

We got back to the apartment and were awaiting the arrival of Danielle's mom and step-dad. It was now in the 1:30 range local time putting my clock at 4:30am. This guy was tired! Finally I regretfully had to excuse myself from the conversations and announce that I'd be laying on the floor and might sleep.

I awoke and was looking down the front of the UVM Zamboni. I was insane. I turned to face everyone in the living room asking what the hell? Turns out they had started watching my entire YouTube library while I passed out on the floor. Still for a second I feared I was right back at work and I still had vacation work to do!

Not long after everyone finally went to bed. I had gotten my first dose of jet lag whether I wanted it or not.

Day 4 comes your way soon! It's the most epic day where I'm led around town by Cara Greenwalt, and get to see Seattle's best tourist spots. Some you've heard of, and some you haven't. There's a lot of pics coming in Day 4 so don't be disappointed by the lack of pics today.

Shot of NYC down by where I met Michelle for lunch

Grainy pic of me and my wings I got for being a great passenger

Less grainy shot of me and the wings

Blurry shot of Safeco Field as we passed.

Best Vacation Ever - Day 2 NYC, a day of firsts!

Day 2 began as I had to make my way from Katie's place to Danielle's. A short walk but in the rain. I borrowed an umbrella which folded inside out after about a block and a half. Then I purchased a new umbrella to complete the journey. Upon my arrival at Danielle's I took stock of my surroundings and then showered and prepared to go into the city with Katie. Eventually I'd meet up with Danielle and Christian to head to the Yankees/Angels game which was the only thing I'd setup for the day.

After getting ready I waited quite awhile to hear from Katie.  She was running late which is sort of her jam.  Eventually we headed down to Times Square and moseyed our way to a place called Bareburger. Let me tell you something. Eat there. The grub was awesome. I had an Elk burger. ELK! They also had a bevy of other proteins and the menu is all natural stuff farmed... damn... I had a milkshake that almost blew my skull off. They had 3 dipping sauces for the fries and they were all unique. If you want a burger or American fare with a healthy twist, get your can to one of these throughout the city.

From there Katie had to get to work. And where does she work? She works on a play called "Once" as a costumer. She took me inside the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre for what she called the "10 cent tour." She undersold it. After meeting a couple of people I soon found myself on stage! Katie and I took a picture and I nabbed a couple more. It was cool to be on a Broadway stage. Then I followed Katie as she distributed some wardrobe to the dressing rooms of the actors. I snapped more exclusive photos including some of drawings on the door of the child actors which amused me.  Soon after Katie had to do more work and I had to head to Lincoln Center to meet the group that would become known as "Team Northeast" for the Yankees game.  This would be the final time I would see Katie on the trip but it was great to see her again and spend some time with her. Hopefully I can watch one of her shows next time I visit the city.

I then made my way over to meet Danielle and then we met with Christian and headed for the Bronx. We arrived outside Yankee Stadium and headed to a local bar to grab a drink first. I was amazed at the old site for Yankee Stadium. It was now a series of smaller fields which had softball going on. It made me remember why I had my McKees jersey on under my Yankees jersey. Tonight my team back in Vermont was playing in the Championship round without me. I was eager to hear score updates.

Upon entering the stadium I quickly assessed that this was a big improvement over the old Yankee Stadium. Not the history, but the wide concourses, more comfortable seating, and better overall sight lines. An improvement but really nothing spectacular either. The Angels had a 2-0 lead before we got seated but it didn't take long before Alfonso Soriano, on his way to a 7 RBI 2 HR night, led the Yankee attack. The final would end up being 14-7 but when we left it was 14-3 Yankees. We narrowly escaped a small rain delay in the 8th which would have soaked us. Oddly in another interesting fact C.C. Sabathia started and won the game for the Yankees. He also pitched and won the first game I saw at Miller Park in Milwaukee. And overall C.C. is 4-0 in games I attend. I did my typical purchase of a souvenir cup for my soda. Choosing to not get any other memorablia to save funds. (Another under lying theme of the trip. I had enough to get to all this stuff but spending on shirts, and other stuff was really not in the budget. If it wasn't food or attendance, or transportation I wasn't in to it.)

Upon getting back to Danielle's she introduced me to the show "Drunk History" on Comedy Central. A must watch for anyone who has ever been entertained by drunk people while you were sober. I won't describe it more than that. Just watch it. You won't be mad about it.

Soon after it was time for bed and the day came to a close.

Stay tuned for tomorrow as I meet up with another friend for lunch in the city and then win the 3-person race to the airport... oh and of course I'll finally get to Seattle via the cross-country flight!

Stepping out in a rainy Astoria

Saying hello to Cal

Cal gets comfy in my luggage

No. I do not know why someone would write this on their mirror.

They park 'em close in NYC

Brilliant marketing

About to board a train bound for Manhattan

My Elk burger at Bareburger

Sign for the play Katie works for

Katie and I on stage

Looking out on the empty seats

A shot of the stage

Inside the actors dressing room

Child actors are such divas about who can come in.

Columbus Circle

Spot where Yankee Stadium used to be.

Spot where it is now.

Repping McKee's at the stadium

Snoopy selling himself to the pinstripes

Nice tribute behind us for "the boss"

The Best Vacation I Ever Took Day 1

Decided to do this in segments. Here is Day 1. Pics at the end after you read.

Here I am beginning to type and I'm already worried I'll leave out something cool from this trip. Quite simply put it was the best vacation I've ever taken. Before we launch in to the Vacation itself lets answer the question... "Why are you going to Seattle?" Simply put it was for a wedding and to visit a friend. Then I added some time in before we left NYC and after to see the two baseball teams newer stadiums to which I hadn't been. So with those items on the agenda the trip already looked meaty and damn tasty. What I didn't realize would happen was all of my favorite stuff from the trip wasn't stuff I had planned. The random stuff became king, and of course those other items were awesome too. It was pretty much the trip that kept giving. Which was awesome because I had never been on a vacation for such a length of time since I went somewhere with my parents, and I hadn't been on a vacation period in over 2 years. Ok, ok without further ado I take you to Monday August 12th...

Day 1 

6:00 am the alarm goes off. I got barely any sleep because I was excited but did enjoy some rest after a grueling weekend of softball. I had just played 9 games of softball in 2 days on a torn hamstring (on light duty but still giving all I had). The season had taken it out of me and I was ready to relax and stop running. I pulled myself out of bed and packed the final things needed and got out the door.  I stopped at a store to grab a snack, Monster, and a few other travel size accessories for the eventual plane rides. I parked my car in front of Gutterson Fieldhouse and walked over towards Royal Tyler Theater with quite the limp. Of course a few other people showed up and quickly realized the Megabus wasn't there. Apparently it picks up in a slightly different locale. So one of the peoples fathers packs us all in to his car and we book up there as the bus is pulling away! One of the more spry guys runs the bus down and holds it for us. That dude saved the day!

I slinked into the first available seat on the lower level just happy to be there and out of breath. Already an adventure just a few minutes in to the trip!

I started to discover and learn things about the bus as I traveled. Learning and discovering things is a popular theme to this vacation which was also why I liked it alot. I like to learn new things. Later that intuitiveness leads to the formation of a great team. But I digress...

Among the first things I learned on Megabus were that there's power outlets at every seat. Then I quickly realized that the hacking woman across from me was actually noisier when she slept. This led me to deduce that I should have sat somewhere upstairs on the bus, but with my leg still hurting and no one next to me I could stretch out across the bus. I was feeling ambitious so I started to organize some of my jokes and then later switched to reading, get this, a book! I got about 9 chapters in before I started to get tired and then it was nap time. Sleeping on public transportation is another theme that we'll keep coming back to. When I awoke we were soon near Amherst, MA and our first stop to pick up more people. A ton of people got on and I feared I'd lose my leg room, but the disgusting woman across from me was actually useful in keeping folks away from me too. Another stop in Hartford a short while later left every seat packed but ones near us and off we went for NYC!

I was facing backward by the way and I relished in seeing the New England go behind me as I headed for my vacation. I also took great satisfaction in knowing I paid $21 for this trip! Twenty-One! I mean talk about a deal! As I got closer to the city my texting about where and when I should be places was frantic. Finally the bus stopped and I followed Danielle's directions to the correct subway stop where after I got off I remembered right where to go and soon I met with Danielle.

She took my bag up to her office and we went to go get her some lunch at Trader Joe's. While there I discovered something a lot of people have already known about but I think rural America needs to know about it... escalators for carts. They make 'em they're amazing. Ok moving on. After we checked out we met up briefly with Christian. He would be the other fella joining Danielle and I on our trek out west. Danielle got to bring 2 dates because we also both know Michelle, we both are awesome, and quite frankly that how Danielle wanted to roll. She liked to refer to us as her "harem" but we later became known as Team Northwest. Anyway back to the story.

Eventually Christian left and Danielle had to go back to work. Now I was to meet up with Katie for the evening plan which was a going away party for a friend of hers. I was a little nervous to see Katie as I hadn't seen her since the time she came to visit me in Vermont when we were "dating" or trying to... I don't know but I shouldn't have been worried cause it was great to see her and we quickly caught up as we took a taxi to a bar on the pier. It was called the Frying Pan. Great bar/venue on a floating dock with boats around it a caboose on it and all of it is available to be on. They serve food, live music, sweet views of the city, and good damn times. It would be my favorite spot if I was a regular there.

Now most of Katie's friends are also from her line of work, costumer for plays/shows, so I don't have a super amount of stuff in common with them, and her friend who was leaving was leaving for Yale. However this dummy made some solid conversation, picked my spots for jokes, and then struck up a conversation with a young lady who had a different job then the others. She was a figure skating teacher. Later her boyfriend who used to work at the rink she works at came over and now i had someone I could talk shop with. Cards were given, emails were exchanged, and I left feeling great because I had a lead on a job! Of course ultimately we left because the ladies decided to spark up a doobie and we got kicked out. Weed is another common theme on this trip although I did not partake.  We left and hit another bar before heading back to Katie's place. Danielle had bailed on joining us and was sleeping cause she had to work the next day. So we headed for Katie's which is is Astoria and not far from where Danielle lives. In fact Katie lives in Danielle's old room in the spot known as "The Hideout." Some Quantum Leap was watched and I slept feeling like I had already had a solid start on Day 1!

Book I read before I got sleepy

Madison Square Garden

Train traveling

Sweet Fountain near Lincoln Center

Walkway to the Frying Pan

Near the front of the Frying Pan looking back

Selfie with the ladies from the gathering after getting kicked out

NYC knows whats good for 'em

Me and a slightly more notable object

Katie and I about to board the train for Astoria

My week with Boston.

It has been a strange week. Last Monday as I sat down to do some computer work, news broke about the Boston Marathon bombing. Immediately I read so many conflicting reports in the early moments that I turned it off. We all react differently to tragedy this was tragedy mixed with misinformation. I simply wanted to know what happened for sure, and was willing to wait to get good information.

Boston and I have a checkered past. To any people who have known me throughout the years I've been known to root for every team playing Boston, mocked their terrible fans, purchased anti-Boston shirts, and called it "The butthole of America."  And that's really the tip of the iceberg.

Over the past year I've tried to change my tune. Erasing the hate was a top priority of mine. I went even so far as to rip an "I Hate Boston" shirt on my show Talking Trash while it was still on. While I still dislike a lot of Boston fans, detest the Bawston accent, think "Sweet Caroline" is an awful song, and Hate the Bruins (Go Habs Go!) there is one thing I dislike more. Terrorism.

As I got the news of what happened I was preparing for a journey to Hyannis, MA for the NEISMA convention. It was a rare trip to get out of town for work. The NEISMA convention is an Ice Rink thing. The next day with many questions still unanswered and no suspects even named. Willie Adam and I headed south for Hyannis. we drove right through Boston. All of the billboards and signs after only a day astounded me. There was no doubt that Boston was strong. I had always known that. Had they not been strong before they wouldn't have posed a worth adversary for my hatred. 

As more came out the next day Willie and I again drove, or should I say crawled, through Boston. Again I saw the signs. even trying to take a picture of one. As I came back to Vermont I felt myself feeling angry, confused... we all were and still are. As New Englanders you don't just know one person in Boston. You know at least 50. On Friday as the city was shut down. I had a hard time conveying how I felt. Usually in tough situations I use humor, but in times like these all comedians aren't even touching "too soon" jokes.

As I saw others around me, on TV, and the Internet pouring out support, well wishes, and #BostonStrong hashtags, I was feeling weird. Finally I came to some realizations.

As I rode to Marlborough, MA on Sunday I thumbed through my issue of Sports Illustrated. The cover has a gripping shot. Then as I flipped inside many more images and stories, but one grabbed my attention. A view from near the finish line shows smoke and a large scene, but in the lower corner I noticed that the cover shot was being taken. See if you can see it.

This photo sparked in me a need to blog. I need to write about a time in my life that I was never conflicted about my support of Boston. A time when someone attacked the "butthole." America's butthole. Our butthole. I thought back to what David Ortiz said in the first game back at Fenway (See picture). This is our fucking city. Not Massachusetts', not New England's, not even America's. It's a city that represents the Earth. Good, Bad, and the ugly. Where FREEDOM should be respected, and sanity should rule the day. These type of acts show the good in people, more than they show the bad. Weak-minded people made us all #BostonStrong


So last night before I went to bed I did something that I should have done earlier in the week. I changed my Facebook profile picture to the B-Strong logo. A spot that has seen that same logo with a red circle around it and a line through it in the past. Tonight I'll head from Marlborough in to Boston. In to see David Ortiz and these "B" clad gents host the Oakland A's. I hope to purchase a shirt in support of these Red Sox or the city of Boston. Tonight when Sweet Caroline plays I'll sing along. I'll root for the home team (If they don't win it's a shame). I'll never forget a week I felt connected to a city I used to hate. And tonight I look forward to burying the hatchet with a city. A city that represents Earth. On Earth Day.

I expect tonight that I'll have more stories, sights and sounds to share. It has been too long since I last blogged. I needed this. Hopefully if you read this you got something out of it too.

Disclaimer: I'm not claiming to be a Boston fan when it comes to their sports teams. I still hope the Bruins lose every game. But that's based more on their rivalry with my Canadiens. It's nice to have separation between sports and the world and this issue solidified what I've been working on for the past year or so. No matter you're thoughts on teams, accents, or area, NoOne should mess with our freedom, livelihood, or resolve! B-Strong!