Big Kid Fall Break

My aunt Nancy brought my 2 cousins to Chicago for their fall break this year. We had a FULL day at the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, Lego store and ESPN Zone. Holy...
 
 
 

LOLLA '09

Erin and Jocelyn came to Chicago this year for Lollapalooza during the second week of August. It was hot, humid and generally awesome. My favorite acts: Santigold, TV on the Radio, Ben Harper, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
The

Devil's Lake - Group picture

Because this state park was carved by glaciers, it has some gnarly rock formations. This one is called "Balanced Rock." We are with friends Tyler & Melanie. The full trail map -- http://www.devilslakewisconsin.com/wp-content/images/Devilslake.pdf

Devil's Lake State Park (Wisconsin)

We went hiking and camping at Devil's Lake State Park in Baraboo, WI in early August. It's a beautiful area for camping, canoeing, kayaking, swimming, biking, you name it. I'd love to go back again next year for an entire weekend. http://www.devilslakewisconsin.com/

W

Oh man, I need to ketchup.

I have lots of trips and pictures to post...I traveled 10 weeks straight this summer! Maybe that's why I didn't have time to update...

Anna Maria Island

Tyson & I went to Anna Maria, FL for Kyle & Mer's wedding this past weekend. We spent our time at the beach, at our resort's pool, went boating and ate great seafood. The rest of the pictures are here.
Our resort had ~10 bungalows, but we were the only group staying at the Siam Garden. Management wasn't on site, so we had the entire place to ourselves. Typical day: lunch, beach, back to pool, get ready, go out, back to pool...

Huntington Beach & Del Mar

I recently spent time in southern California for work. I was mostly in San Diego county, but was able to go to Huntington Beach as well. The last picture is the sun setting over the ocean in Del Mar. I was at Il Fornaio enjoying a crisp glass of Pinot Grigio.

Shirt idea: "I ate my way through NYC"

I need to do some major Yelping...but here are some food highlights from my last trip.

kimchi in Little Korea @ Arang
http://www.yelp.com/biz/arang-new-york

bagel & fresh lox / b&w cookie @ Russ & Daughters in the lower east side
http://www.yelp.com/biz/russ-and-daughters-new-york

killer passion fruit bubble tea in chinatown
http://www.yelp.com/biz/ten-ren-tea-time-new-york-new-york-2

timtams imported straight from singapore (haven't had since our trip to Australia)
http://www.yelp.com/biz/holyland-market-new-york

best espresso in NYC. brought back a pound of coffee ($15/lb. fair trade)
http://www.yelp.com/biz/ninth-street-espresso-new-york

new scarf, feather + bubbles
http://www.yelp.com/biz/village-scandal-new-york

THE BEST OF THE BEST. arepas and yoyos. tastebud insanity.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/caracas-arepa-bar-new-york-3

Why I love my sister (...and NYC)

My sister is the best. This is what she has planned for the weekend.

Friday (all of these times are -ish)

--5p: A+T arrive LGA

--6-630p: A+T arrive my apartment (tell *yellow taxi: "I'm going to 7th Street in Manhattan, East Village, btwn Avenue C and D." Then ask him to take the BQE (unless there's construction) and call me when you get across the Williamsburg Bridge. I will meet you outside. My cell is 917-822-1600. 

--630p: Drop luggage inside; look at my apartment; take care of anything you need to do post-travel, change clothes?

--7p: Take 6 train to City Hall, walk to Ground Zero, Wall St, Federal Reserve (other?)

--9p: Take 2,3 from Wall St to Clark St -- land: Brooklyn Heights; eat dinner -- Famous Brooklyn Grimaldi's pizza? / ice cream at Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory (if open?)

--10p: Walk into Manhattan across Brooklyn Bridge; take 6 train City-Hall to Bleecker

--11p: Arrive Le Poisson Rouge club/concert venue for Glitch mob

Questions: Do we want to buy $15 tickets online? Or pay $20 at door? How does pizza restaurant sound for dinner? We can have snack before 10p if that is late for eating. What time do you want to plan to leave the venue? We'll taxi home to my apartment ~10min. 

Saturday

--Take 6 train to Upper East Side- 86th St, walk north to 89th to 5th Ave

--Walk south down 5th to see Guggenheim (btwn 88-89th); Do we want to go into lobby? Do we want to pay admission/see the collection?

--Continue walking south to MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art; btwn 82-82); They have donation-admission. We should plan to go in. It's huge; how long do we want to stay/what collections do we want to see? Look at options on their web site. Ashley suggests visiting roofdeck; this is a good idea. We should also see the Egyptian pyramid. 

--Eat lunch in MET-Egypt 

--Exit MET, walk around Central Park 

now what... ? we could:

--go to Midtown (with possibilities MOMA, Rockerfeller Center/ my office building/ ice skating, shopping on 5th Ave at big name brand stores like H&M, Zara, Express, &tc or shopping/ ogling at famous department stores Takashimaya/ Saks/ Berdorff's/ Bloomingdales, &tc)

--go home to change/rest/chill in East Village (depending on time) + more funky shopping/coffee down here

--go to Chinatown for trinkets/ Chinatown pastries + meat on stick 

--7:30p: Go to Murray Hill for cocktails at my old roommate's place (Murray Hill is on east side, off 6 train around 33rd St I think); leave before dinner starts

--Have dinner (maybe with cda?) --Where? Ashley suggested sushi.  

--Go to Times Square for drinks (maybe at sky-rise super-tall penthouse kinda place? or is there a late-night show we want to see?)

Sunday

--This seems like the best day to stay close to home and have brunch, & partake in fun, cool shopping in the East Village/ Nolita and/or Chinatown as desired (I should look at a list of stores before we leave my place so we don't end up misdirected). Ashley-- if we happen to be near MitchellGold & Williams (furniture store) I would love to get your input on this couch I've been looking at. :) 

Travel Tips

Some nice little tidbits I have learned in the last year:

Southwest

If your scheduled flight is more than 15 minutes delayed they can switch you to another SW flight, free of charge. Ask them at the counter - their system shows delays that the monitors won't yet.

American Airlines

They have reduced mileage awards they don't promote very heavily. You are supposed to have this particular credit card, but they have never checked when I used it. You just need to know the booking code that's on the website when you call in.

Booking on the phone

If you have to book over the phone, most airlines will charge you a reservation fee. Have them transfer you to tech support and act computer illiterate - they won't charge a reservation fee. I have done this with United before.

With American, try and get the operator to waive the fee. If they don't, file a complaint. I received a $40 voucher for complaining about being charged a $20 reservation fee per ticket.

Use Expedia. etc to find flights, not to book them

Don't ever book flights using these travel services! They jack up the costs, add fees and the airlines can't help you directly if something goes wrong or you want to transfer. Just use it as a service to find cheaper airfare and book directly with the airlines themselves. Besides, they won't show you Southwest's flights anyways.

Provo, Utah

St Pats Day | 2009

Navy pier without tourists is weird.

We went to Coffee Fest on Navy Pier a couple weekends ago. My uncle Dan is the Editor of Specialty Coffee Retailer Magazine so he snuck as in as "exhibitors." We sampled an insane amount of good coffee, tea, juice and other snacks. My head was spinning from all the caffiene and sugar so we went outside. And I made Tyson take a picture. The last picture is of my uncle and I at his booth.

Heart-shaped pizza & a fancy cake

We went to STL for the weekend of Feb 13-15. We spent our time at the Tin Can, watching the KU-KSU game and making/eating lots of pizza. Amanda is decorating the store-bought cake with everyone's initials on Valentine's Day.

Big Sky Country

 I was in Billings, MT and Casper, WY last week for business. Here are some pictures from my drive between the two. Beautiful, never-ending skies and open road...
 
 
 

Ski Fever - Cascade Mountain in WI

We went skiing again, this time Wisconsin. I made it down my first blue without falling. Awesome. More pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/ashley.bolton/February#

What would you like to drink? A Diet Obama would be great!

I'm obviously not the first person to point this out, but the new Pepsi logo looks very similar to the Obama campaign logo. I recently went to the Pepsi site it is rather intense. Turn your volume all the way up and visit.

Flori-DOH

I'll be on the beach in exactly four months from today. Exciting and scary. Mostly scary at this point.

We'll be here. And we have rented a condo here. We just need to book flights, meh.

Breck

We had a fan-tas-tic time skiing. This picture is of Coz, Tyson, me, Jennifer, Rory & Randi at the top of a green run. I want to go back next year. The rest of the pictures of the group are at http://picasaweb.google.com/ashley.bolton/Breckenridge#