London

So I just returned from my first trip ever to Europe and spent a week in London.  I have to say overall it was great.  Although my primary purpose for this trip was work related, I couldn't pass up the chance to stay a few extra days and see the city.  Here is what I did on my trip!

• Saturday, November 5 - was a long day of traveling.  Flew from Kansas City to Chicago and then Chicago to London.  Overall the entire flying time was about 9 hours there.  By the time I got to my hotel that evening it was after midnight but I was still on Kansas City time which was 7 pm.  I did go to sleep as the travel took it's toll on me.
• Sunday, November 6 - got up early and did one of those double-decker bus tours around the city.  It was only 25 pounds (about $40).  With this it took you completely around the city with a live tour guide and got to get on and off as much as you wanted.  Since it's in the off season, your ticket counted for 2 days instead of only 1.  It also allowed you to go on a boat tour and walking tours that they offered.  I mainly stayed on the bus to get acquainted with the city but got off to see Buckingham Palace and the London Eye.
• Monday - Wednesday (November 7-9) - WORK.  We had our joint European Conference with two other associations and it went very well.  Didn't see much of the city during this point and I was also fighting off some jet lag and allergies. 
• Thursday - November 10 - Finally got to see a few things that I had been waiting for.  Went to the following:
• Tower Bridge (commonly confused for London Bridge)
• Tower of London (original castle of King Edward I, built around early 600's, this is where King Henry the VIII beheaded Ann Boleyn, and saw some of the crown jewels on display)
• St. Paul's Cathedral (beautiful church.  I always remember it from the movie "Mary Poppins' when she sings the song "Toppens a Bag")
• Westminster Abby (I got to see where many Kings and Queens were buried.  This is were royal weddings and coronations are held.)
• Buckingham Palace (again to try and see the changing of the guard.  That didn't happen but did get to walk through the garden and see the Royal Guard marching through.)
• Spent the evening in Piccadilly Circus.  (Equivalent to Times Square in New York.)
• Friday - November 11 - Did the double-decker bus again.  This time I was the only passenger on for a while and got a private tour of the city.  Spent time in Trafalgar Square for some people watching and went to the National Gallery.  Did a Harry Potter walking tour and got to see where they filmed on location for the 5, 6, and 7th movies.  I saw America Ferra (from the TV show Ugly Betty) perform the role of Roxie in the musical Chicago.
• Saturday - November 12 - spent the morning resting and packing to go home the following day.  Wondered around the city taking everything in and spent some time in Kensington Gardens.  While there I saw the palace and the Lady Diana Memorial fountain.  That evening I went and saw Les Miserables.  It was AMAZING!!  One of the top three musicals I've ever seen.  I would highly recommend it.
• Sunday - November 13 - came home!

This post and the few pictures below don't do the trip justice but it was a great time.  I'm ready to go back for another trip!

For all of the "FRIENDS" fans out there, I had to stand in my map to get my barrings!

Me in front of the famed red telephone booths.  These were everywhere.

Big Ben and Parliament

Me in front of Buckingham Palace

Kensington Gardens

The London Eye

Sign in Piccadilly Circus.  These were used for directions to attractions.  The actual street signs were on the sides of buildings.  That took a while to get used to.

St. Paul's Cathedral

Tower Bridge

Tower of London Castle

Trafalgar Square

The count down to the London 2012 Olympics!

Westminster Abby

MS 150 Bike Ride

First I realize that it's been a while since I've posted on here.  I'm hoping to make up with that soon and this being the start of that.  While I have lots of things to catch up on during my short hiatus, I wanted to share one of my most recent adventures that I'm the most proud of.  This past Saturday I participated in the MS 150 Bike Ride from Kansas City to Lawrence.  The idea is that the traditional plan is you ride 71 miles from Kansas City to Lawrence on the first day, spend the night, and then return the 71 miles the second day.  Now granted I didn't do both days nor even 71 miles on one day but I did complete the 38 mile short ride on day one.  For me this was a huge accomplishment as my longest bike ride to date was 8 miles and that was only a few days prior to the ride.  The following is a little about my adventure on this ride.

Earlier this year I was visiting with a good friend (Kerri Cole) here in Kansas City and she told me about how she was tasked with organizing a bike team for the MS ride.  I really liked the idea of the ride and had been wanting to get back to riding my bike again as one of my ways of becoming more active.  I mentioned this ride to a co-worker who is a very active bike rider and he formed a team for us.

Fast-forward a few months and we had a total of 6 co-workers on the team along with 3 additional members for a total of 9.  While I was in the midst's of my busy travel season in the summer, they were all doing group rides, training rides, etc.  I on the other hand was sitting on planes traveling across the country and not training.  By early August I finally ordered me a road bike instead of using my mountain bike as I knew that would make a huge difference for me.  That got delayed and ended up with some other obstacles that wouldn't allow me to train.  By the weekend prior to the ride I was completely stressed out and overwhelmed with everything that I had basically given up on the ride before I had ever started.  I was planning on going into the office that week and telling them that I wasn't going to participate after all.  The only issue was that I had this nagging feeling in me that I was letting them down, my friend Kerri down who was going to ride with me, and even more myself.  So I resounded myself to the fact that I still needed to do this ride and just do my best. 

The day of the race I was up at 4:30 am getting ready and heading down to Garmen Headquarters that was the start of the ride.  It was a very cool and cloudy morning.  All I could think was I hope that this ride isn't cold the entire time and that the rain doesn't happen.  As the rest of my team was doing the 71 mile ride they took off at 7 and I took off with Kerri at 8 for the short ride.

The first ten miles went by very quickly.  We warmed up very quickly and began to enjoy our ride.  Kerri and I chatted the entire time about anything and everything.  We realized that there were some parts of Kansas that were very nice.  (You won't here me say that much.)  These 10 miles took us about an hour to complete.  After a short break at the stop, which by the way was amazing, we got back on the ride. 

We go about ten more miles to De Soto, Kansas where they have lunch waiting for us.  Now it's only 10 am at this point but being up at 4:30 we were ready to eat.  We ate quickly as the longer we were off the bike the colder we got again.  We were very proud of ourselves that we had done 20 miles as it was the longest ride each of us had ever done and we were still able to keep going.

Now the next 10 miles were a little harder.  We ran into a few hills that were a bit of a pain but we made it through them and ended strong there.  At this point we were both getting a little tired but knew that we actually could finish and our competitiveness kicked in and we knew we wanted to finish this ride if at all possible. 

The final 8 miles became very interesting.  The route was perfect in that it was mostly flat the entire way and a great view.  What was not good was the rain that hit.  It wasn't misting or even light rain.  This was heavy rain and there was no place to seek shelter.  We pulled over a couple of times so I could shake the water out of my eyes and helmet but kept on going.  At this point I was determined to finish come hell or high water.  (Honestly I thought this was god's way of telling this MIZZOU fan that I didn't need to be heading in Lawrence. :) )  Riding into Lawrence and seeing that finish line was the best feeling I've had in a long time. 

I couldn't believe that with the little training and riding I had previously, that I was able to complete a 38 mile bike ride in 4 hours.  Talking with some of my co-workers they expected me to stop half way through and were very impressed that I could finish.  Some of them didn't complete the 71 miles for whatever reason.  For me I was proud that I was able to accomplish something I never thought I could do but wanted to do.  Now my plan is to do some training and plan to ride the full 150 miles over the two days next year.  I must also point out that the rain was so bad on Sunday that the second day ride was cancelled.  So there you have it.  My adventure on my bike and my new found love of that hobby.  Today was my first day back on the bike, had to give the butt a rest, and was happy to be back on.  Let's see where this takes me. 

Here are a few pictures from the ride:

Kansas City Roller Derby

After seeing the movie Whip It multiple times, I thought it would be cool to actually see this in person.  Last year I discovered that Kansas City had a team but the season had ended.  I put it on my list of things I wanted to do this year and on July 9 I finally did.  While it wasn't exactly like the movie, nothing really is, it was really cool.  I suggest that if you've ever thought about going you should at least one time.  Here is the link to the Kansas City Roller Warriors.  Also watch the movie as well.  You'll enjoy them both!

The rest of my vacation!

In addition to going to Paula Dean's restaurant there was other things that I did on vacation.  Some of them where:

• Visit with friends and going out in Atlanta.
• Touring through Savannah, GA.
• Getting real Georgia Peaches.
• Visiting with the Federmans in Tennessee.
• Visiting with the family on the 4th at moms.

Below are some pictures from this trip.

The Mercer House in Savannah, GA.  The main setting from the book "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil".

Forsyth Fountain.

The Atlantic Ocean on Ty bee Island.

My nephew.

The family (that could be there) on the 4th.

My trip to Norfolk, VA

So this is a trip with 2 totally different parts to it.  Let's start off with the good part.  I was in Norfolk, VA for the Mid-Atlantic Region Leadership Conference.  It was another great trip with volunteers that I enjoy working with.  The first night we went to former Detroit Lion Roger Brown's restaurant.  The food was great and of course my table ended up being the "rowdy" table.  We were having a blast talking and laughing.  One of the great things is that Roger Brown himself came out a few times to check on us, make sure that we were enjoying our time and food, and eve signed autographs.  I have to say that's how you take care of your customers.  After that a few of us went up the street to a German Beer Garden and visited for a while.  Our walk back to the hotel was interesting as it was about 1/4 of a mile away and was a complete down pour.  Not to mention none of us had umbrellas.  I'm just thankful that no one had a camera at that point!

The next day we wrapped up our program.  In the evening a few of us went across the river to enjoy the festivities of Harbor Fest.  We had dinner at a great little Irish pub called O'Malley's.  After that we went through and saw some of the sites.  From there we went back to our hotel to watch the evening fireworks.  Based on our luck the rain came in about 5 minutes before they were to start and they ended up cancelling them.  All in all the actual time in Norfolk was great.

Now for the other part of the trip.  As a disclaimer, I'm probably going to do a bit of complaining here.  If you aren't interested in this part then feel free to skip over it and look at a few of the pictures from the trip.  Here we go.  In a nut shell I was not meant to do any type of traveling for this trip.  Of course Kansas City doesn't have flights that directly fly anywhere unless that airport is a hub.  I'm used to this and have accepted that fact.  With this trip I had to fly through Chicago to get to Norfolk.  My outbound flight was scheduled to take off at 6:45 am.  We boarded and then proceeded to spend an hour on sitting on the plan due to weather delays in Chicago.  We were then cleared to take off and proceeded out to the runway.  Once we got there we quickly got back off and drove to the other side of the airport.  We were told that we were delayed again due to another round of weather in Chicago.  From there we sat for an hour and a half.  We were finally told that they were rescheduling departures to Chicago but we would be another 2 hours so they were going to let us de-board.  We finally ended up leaving Kansas City at 10:30 am.  Due to all of these issues we were stranded in Chicago for 7 hours.  We finally ended up in Norfolk at 11 pm when we were originally scheduled to arrive at 1 pm.  This turned out to be an 19 hour travel day.

So I didn't think it could get worse than that but the return trip proved me wrong.  Due to policy that there has to be 12 hours of rest for a flight crew before their next flight (something I'm perfectly okay with by the way) our 7 am flight was delayed till 9:30 causing us to miss our connection in Chicago.  We were booked on another flight to Chicago but what they didn't tell us was that our connecting flight was re booked for the following day.  While I love Chicago I was ready to go home and spending an evening there was not in my plans.  So from there I was re booked on a flight to DC and then Kansas City.  This took lots of discussion with United Airlines Customer Service (which is completely horrible).  When checking in to my flight that was now on US Air I ended up with them not being able to check me in.  I went back and forth between the two check in counters, which were at opposite ends of the airport, to get this straightened out.  It appears that one airline was using my middle initial and the other wasn't and caused the issue. I ended up missing that flight and short of having a complete melt down I was re booked on a flight to Newark, 3 hour layover, and then to Kansas City.  That flight I made and spent time walking all over Newark as I couldn't stand to sit down.  Got on that plane and had a weather delay again and they kept us there for 2 hours.  We finally took off and 30 minutes into the 3 hour flight the air conditioning quit working.  That day turned into a 15 hour travel day.  I was SO happy to be home.

To sum it up the travel was complete hell.  I've had delayes before and dealt with issues but nothing like this.  There were so many bad customer service issues with United that I did send a complaint which I don't normally do.  They did responde after 10 days appologizing for everything I went through and giving me 3000 miles.  Anyway that is past me and hopefully I never have those troubles again.

Here are a few pictures from that trip.

My view of Chicago from the airport.

View of Norfolk from my hotel room.

The rowdy table!



the irish pub.

My trip to Paula Dean's Resturant "Lady and Sons"

I know it's been a few weeks since I last posted. I tried to put one other post up a couple of weeks ago but ended up doing something else and then lost that post. So I left it alone. Other than that I've only had one other work trip that I combined with a vacation road trip. There are lots of things to cover in that trip that I'm going to split it up into multiple posts. The first one is going to focus on my visit to Paula Dean's restaurant "Lady and Sons" in Savannah, GA.

Now it occurs to me that you either love or hate Paula Dean. I haven't found many people that are just okay with her. Now this love/hate relationship could come from her voice and the way she talks. I'm sorry to all of you southern folks out there that think she butchers the accent but there is a lot to her accent that is similar to yours. You may not hear it but we do. Or it could be from how she cooks. She is a good southern woman and uses items like butter, milk, cream, fried everything, etc. While we are now living in a more health concerned world and cooking with these items is considered taboo, I have to state that my family was raised on this cooking and my great grandmother lived to be 104 and my grandpa is 87. Now it can't be all bad if people are living this long. I'm just saying.

Either way I love Paula Dean on both accounts. This is why I really wanted to eat at her restaurant and experience her food first hand. Now I didn't get to see Paula but I did find out that she was having dinner down the street. Unfortunately I found that last part out the next day. No matter, I was still watching for her, just in case. Okay enough with my rambling on, here is the meal that my friends and I had through photos.

The sign above the door to her shop & where you check in to put your name on the list for a table!

A view of the outside of the restaurant.

Fried Green Tomatoes.

 

Garlic/cheese biscuit on top and pan fried corn bread on bottom.

collard greens

 

Chicken pot pie.  I was picked at for this but after trying it, it was hands down the right choice.

Surf & Turf - Had 4 strip with a 6oz stake.  There was homemade hollandaise sauce with a side of asparagus and garlic mashed potatoes.

Chocolate moose pie

Key lime pie

Now that I've got you all watering at the mouth, go and get something that you might enjoy.  And if you ever get to Savannah, I recommend giving it a try. 

My trip to Portland, OR

So I'm now into the full swing of my summer travel for work.  While I've always loved traveling, this allows me to see much more of the country than I probably would see on my own.  With this trip I finally made it to Portland, OR.  I've been to Seattle and Northern California but not to Oregon and it was on my list.  So here is a little bit about my trip.

I arrived on Thursday afternoon June 2nd after a quick layover in Denver.  It was a little bit of a shock to the system stepping outside to 55 degree weather.  Especially since I had left 90 degree weather.  But I did remember to bring a light jacket to wear.  Something I've learned with lots of travel.  I actually just relaxed in my hotel room and caught up on a few emails and projects that I needed to do.  I know what your thinking, never been to this city and you're sitting in your hotel room.  This is typical for me as I get to see more of the city the rest of the trip.

On Friday we spent the day inside listening to presentations and talking about how to make things better for the rest of the volunteer leaders in that region.  That evening we got on the MAX (Portland's light rail system) and went to another part of town to have dinner at Rock Bottom Brewery.  The food was fantastic.  I ended up having a Kobe beef cheese burger with a side of their homemade Mac & Cheese.  All I have to say is it was AWESOME!!  I also got to spend dinner with some great new friends which made it all the better.  That evening a few of us walked back to the hotel from the restaurant since it was a nice evening.  I like any evening that allows me to be outside with no humidity.  I believe it was about a 2 to 3 mile walk back but worth every step.

On Saturday we wrapped up that morning's agenda and then spent the afternoon getting ready for the Starlight parade.  The local chapter had signed up to participate in the parade and everyone dressed up as pirates.  The theme was to promote protecting your records.  As we were setting up and preparing for the parade we also got to walk around.  We saw lots of great floats and costumes.  We were also put in the middle of the band staging area.  That brought back a flood of great memories from college.  The parade was a blast and everyone had a good time.  We got back to the hotel at midnight and crashed.  Unfortunately I had a 8 am flight that required me to be up by 5:30.  But it was all worth it.

I really enjoyed my trip to Portland and I want to go back.  Next time I'll plan to rent a car and go out to the coast.  I hear their beaches are beautiful.  I also want to do some hiking in the mountains and check out Multnomah Falls.  So until next time Portland! 

Below are some photos of my trip:



The view of Portland from across the river.



The view of Portland from my hotel.

Mount St. Helens

 

This pig balloons were cool.



Me in my pirate costume!





Great Drumline behind us in the parade.

MS Bike Ride

So one of the goals I made for myself this year is to be more active.  I'm currently doing yoga 2 to 3 days a week.  I've also wanted to ride my bike more.  This year my company is having a team to participate in the Kansas City MS Bike ride this September.  While I know I'm not going to be able to do the whole 150 miles in two days, I am striving to make the 71 mile one day ride.  It's a goal that I believe I can achieve.  Plus it motivates me to actually ride more. 

Now I typically don't do this but we are encouraged to raise money for this event.  While the goal is only $200, anything raised will be great.  If you would like to donate please click here.

I appreciate the support (emotional and/or monetary).  Let's see where this adventure takes me. 

My first day

So here I am about ready to embark on this land of blogging.  I know I'm late to the game but finally have found that this is something that I want to do.  I'm not sure if it's being in my 30's now or what but I want to be able to document and share many of the adventures that I have.  Some will be exciting and others not so much but thus is life.  So let's get the journey started and see where it takes me.