(One long) Day 1 and 2

(2003/12/24-25 - Thursday)

We arrived at LAX shortly after 1pm for our 5:45pm flight to LHR. *sigh* Well, we certainly weren't going to be late. We waited with Dan outside the secure area for about 2.5 hours... We chatted and played card games. In the interest of efficiency I made some last minute phone calls to friends to wish them a happy new year.

I was struck by a service man (army insignias, service style haircut, etc.) sitting at the next table over. I watched him for an hour. He sat with no luggage -- just a luggage carrier and his coffee. Waiting for someone? I wondered if this was army training... sitting quietly and patiently. I found it impressive. I would have been constantly fidgeting, reading, phoning, etc. in some invariably lost cause to make efficient use of time. I hope the men and women in service at this particular time have as good of a holiday as possible -- that goes for their families too.

The flight was long and uneventful. It was interesting to watch a small group of multi-ethnic children band together and run up and down the aisles all night... Probably really annoying to many, but these kids were stuck on a really long flight. Also amusing: listening to the flight attendants -- every other word was either "lovely" or "cheers".

J and M met us at the airport and we picked up our rental from Hertz -- a twitchy little 4 door Ford Focus with an atrocious 5 speed gearbox.

Following J back out the M4 to Swindon was fairly simple with only a couple of roundabouts. The car guy in me picked out the interesting models not available in the US. Of note, an Audi S3, a Lotus Elise, and an Audi A4 Avant TDI (lucky bastard).

We enjoyed a delicious xmas meal prepared by E. We tried to stay up as late as possible to get our time change/jet lag regulated ASAP. The 'Christmas cracker' jokes were awful (apparently they are supposed to be?), but we dutifully read each one aloud. The picture is of young C with her own cracker.

Photo Albums:
http://mehling.org/gallery/v/Travel/UK_2003-04/UK_Day01/, http://mehling.org/gallery/v/Travel/UK_2003-04/UK_Day02/

Posted by ben at 11:00 PM
Comments (0)

Bloody ATM machine

(2003/12/26 - Friday)

Slept late today -- trying to recover from the massive time change. Spent some time chatting with R, J's Mum, today. She talked a bit about growing up during WWII and the Blitzkrieg. For the first time I came to realize that this event probably single handedly shaped her life and attitude -- similar to how the great depression shaped much of my grandma's ways. I'd guess our generation has yet to experience anything so life altering.

Because most stores and tourist-y things are closed on Boxing Day, we went over to an indoor outlet center built in a 1920's railroad works. Of note: the guy at the Gap who told Hol no native Brits wear jeans was a freak. I'd guess 50 percent of the people were in jeans -- really, besides the store names, the chorus of "cheers" coming from the shoppers, and the indoor smoking (although, not much), this could have just as easily been a mall in the states.

This was also my first chance to pull some cash out of the ATM. There were 3 machines available, and each one had slightly different bank branding. I selected the first one and checked the "network" markings. Yep, the thing had a couple of the same logos as my card. Put my debit card in and punched in my pin. Hrrrrm, when I went to withdraw however, the machine said I had 0 balance. Hrrrmm. I knew that wasn't right and without thinking I quickly stuck my MasterCard in the machine to see if I could use that -- as soon as I hit the "enter your pin" screen, I thought 'duh'. I don't have a pin for this card. No problem, cancel and try the next machine. Hrrrm. The screen seems frozen. Oh, fantastic. I'm standing in the rain in Swindon, my credit card is in the machine, and the thing is freaking hung. OK, now what? J ventures into the rain to investigate what happened to me, and the machine finally unwedges itself and cheerily alerts us that my card has been retained. Excellent. At least the next machine over was able to figure out I did have money in my accounts. One card down, two to go.

Also, roundabouts apparently have rules. Momentarily lost sight of the B's on the way back to the house... When I finally caught up with them, I attempted to stay right on their tail. After the 3rd roundabout it struck me that there was probably some sort rules to these things. Later J laughed that he'd "forgotten to mention them, but he'd meant to". Fantastic -- no doubt there was a mob of angry Brits cursing the "bloody tourist" in Old Town Swindon tonight. Sorry. Although, after hearing the rules, I'd still argue for the "every man for himself" method I'd been employing.

Photo Album: http://mehling.org/gallery/v/Travel/UK_2003-04/UK_Day03/

Posted by ben at 10:00 PM
Comments (0)

Warick and Stratford-upon-Avon

(2003/12/27 - Saturday)

Drove out to Warick to visit the famous old castle. J dropped us off and then went on to take his mum home.

The castle has quite a history (as does most everything here) to it. M had recently done a report on the surrounding village and was able to tell us a little about it after being urged on by her mum.

We were there for maybe half a day... This is basically a history lesson set inside a castle, complete with castle rooms, towers, walls, dungeons, and torture chambers. There were a few things that I wanted to see but didn't get a chance. I'd guess we needed maybe 2 more hours. Overall, I’d rate this attraction pretty good. There are also a number of historic buildings in the town.

J met us back at the car park and we drove out to Stratford to check-in to our hotel. We put the kids (w/ Tedd and Morgan in charge) into one room, ordered room service, a movie, and escaped to our dinner reservation. Adult night out started with a nice meal at The Lamb (on Sheep St. no less). One quiet meal and two bottles of wine later we wandered over to the Swan theatre to see if we could pull return (rush is what we called 'em in the states) tickets for All's Well that Ends Well. Only 3 available... Bad luck. (update: very bad luck indeed. I tried a couple of times to find return tickets for us during the next week and was unable to get any.)

What to do now? Pub. We hit the Flower and Sons pub (Flower is the local brew co, although this particular pub was a 'free house'. Also, Flower's son was responsible for the funding of the original Swan theatre, although he largely donated the money quietly out of the public's eye. He was later publicly recognized for his donation of 22,700 pounds -- quite a sum for 1879. ) on Henley Street. Yum. We spent about an hour there, people watching and trying to figure out which bloke each girl wanted to take home. A couple of Guinness’s later, it was time to move on. It's been about 10 years since California outlawed smoking indoors or at bars, but I've gotten spoiled by it and an hour was as much as I could take.

Right, a walk down to Riverside St. put us right in front of a swankier bar. Time for second dessert and drinks.

Photo Album: http://mehling.org/gallery/v/Travel/UK_2003-04/UK_Day04/

Posted by ben at 10:00 PM
Comments (0)

Shakespeare's Stratford

(2003/12/28 - Sunday)

The hotel that we stayed at provided a full English breakfast. None of us had a full English hangover, so I'm not sure if we deserved it. I ate enough for several hangovers anyway. Eggs, potatos, fried tomatos, mushrooms, toast, sausage, beans, juice, tea, and coffee. I also had cereal and croissants. Pure heaven.

After breakfast, we walked across the Avon to the Royal Shakespeare Company's theatre complex to get a tour. We were able to go into both theatres (the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, with a ~1500 seat house and the Swan, much smaller house built inside the walls of the original theater as a more traditional Shakespearean theatre) and see both the house and backstage areas. Additionally we were able to visit the gallery area where they have on display a number of historic costumes and playbills/posters from older productions.

Being the consummate tourists we had to visit Shakespeare's birthplace, the home where he was born and raised. The tour included a fairly interesting review of him and his family's history in Stratford-upon-Avon. The docents in the home were very kind to point out the relevant details and what life would have been like during his time here. I found it interesting that some of the first visitors to sign the guestbook (when they started having a guestbook) were John and Abigail Adams and Thomas Jefferson as they toured the English country side in the late 18th century (both Adams and Jefferson were assigned to France as ambassadors during that time).

We also stopped by the city's Holy Trinity to visit Shakespeare's grave, placed prominently (along with his wife and other family members) under the steps leading to the front of the church. The churches here are incredible, even "small" ones such as this. J just smiled at my awe. Growing up here he's encountered so many of them that, it's impossible not to take them for granted.

We stopped to get some dinner before heading home. Where? Yep, a pub. This is sweet!

Because the motorway home was all blocked up we took a side road back home. I'm sure during the day it was a pretty scenic drive -- but at night it was fairly technical. I was surprised how narrow these roads can be and was happy to only have to follow someone. Navigating on top of everything else would have been overload. It's funny how much muscle memory plays into shifting a manual. My right hand kept trying to shift.

One additional annoyance with right hand drive manuals is the indicator stalk remains on the left hand side of the steering column. Shifting and signaling in a RHD car is a two part process -- much smoother in a LHD where you can use your left hand to steer and nudge the turn indicator and right hand to shift. Tons more roundabouts to play on. Not only have I noticed many (presumably) native drivers employing the same 'every man for himself' strategy I use, they also seem to have no knowledge that the lines painted on the pavement are meant to indicate lanes in which to keep your car. We just joined in the fun.

We had to run out for milk once we were home. J took me to the magic roundabout. Picture five smallish roundabouts laid out as a star, but connected together by a large roundabout. As I'm finding everywhere, the Brits provide you with highly detailed signage, about 20 meters before you get to the road being described. Additionally, the detail is so fine that you need about 30 seconds to understand the intended meaning, rendering the signs almost completely useless. As I drove through the magic roundabout as a passenger, I realized I would just point the car toward the outlet I wanted and dodge cars on the fly. Far easier.

Photo Album: http://mehling.org/gallery/v/Travel/UK_2003-04/UK_Day05/

Posted by ben at 10:00 PM
Comments (0)

Oxford

(2003/12/29 - Monday)

We made a quick day trip up to Oxford without the B's today. This was my first time driving without J around to follow. To top it off, I had to drive straight through the magic roundabout. Hol took some photos of the signs to give some more insight into the insanity that is the "magic roundabout". Apparently Swindon was the site of some testing on traffic patterns and roundabouts. They found that the magic roundabout was so efficient they used it in ZERO other cities, but kindly left it for Swindon. Jamie claims it is quite efficient, however when we went through it this afternoon it was a freaking parking lot, er, excuse me, car park.

We walked around Oxford for a couple of hours. I thoroughly enjoyed the architecture and didn't mind that it was a bit rainy. Walking through the neighborhoods looking at the various old homes really reminded me how much history this place had and how much history my home lacks. It is hard to imagine the homes and buildings in Orange County being around in a few hundred years, and with their purposeful non styled architecture, I hope they aren't.

We had a nice meal at Brown's restaurant on Woodstock Road. Tedd had steak, which he'll eat any chance he's allowed to order it. We've quickly learned that there is no such thing as "Sprite" or "7Up" here, however ordering "lemonade" will get you something very similar, to Tedd's great relief.

We stopped by the Eagle and Child pub for its significant literary historical relevance. We discussed The Inklings and also the recent Salon.com article, the real fellowship of the ring, regarding Tolkien and Dyson arguing all night with C. S. Lewis about religion and possibly paving the way for the two more noted authors to write their "classics". These are some of Tedd's most favorite books so hopefully the relevance wasn't lost on him.

Not really surprising, but we got lost on the way home -- once in Swindon proper, thankfully. One wrong exit from a roundabout was all it took. The kind attendant at the petrol station set us straight. From there we got lost looking for a street name (on the map) that's called something completely different in reality. Finally got home with only a single near-death roundabout experience -- lucky for us the power and handling of the Ford Focus got us out of the situation right-quick. *smirk*

J and I walked down to a pub for Monday Night Football (Southhampton v. Arsenal: 0-1). Guinness and Strongbow consumed. Good.

Photo Album: http://mehling.org/gallery/v/Travel/UK_2003-04/UK_Day06/

Posted by ben at 10:00 PM
Comments (0)

London, Day 1

(2003/12/30 - Tuesday)

S, who was J's best man, had generously agreed to loan us his 3 bedroom flat in Chiswick, London so we could stay in the city for a few days. His flat was really nice and located a 15 minute walk from the Turnham Green tube station.

After arriving in Chiswick and finding parking for both cars (there were 8 of us with both families combined.), we hurried off to the tube to make our first event, a "frog tour". The frog tour started just across from the All Bar 1 building, next to the London Eye. The tour itself is very similar to the double-decker bus tours everyone says you gotta do, except that it's in an amphibious vehicle which eventually drives down a sandy beach and enters the Thames River at Vauxhall. It then powers up and down the river for an additional view of the city from the Thames itself. Very cool stuff. Highlights (really saw too much too fast to even take in...): Parliament Square, 10 Downing Street, MI6 (and MI5), Westminster Abbey, St. Stephen's Tower (Big Ben), various parks, and more. The tour guide proclaimed that a large flood in London was inevitable, and felt that authorities weren't taking the warning signs seriously. Something I'd never really heard of before.

We all stopped to have lunch near the London Eye and Saatchi gallery at County Hall. We then took a walk across the Westminster Bridge (I took 5 pictures to build this panorama from Westminster Bridge. It turned out so-so. In general our 3 year old digital camera has performed well, but it definitely shows its age when compared against newer equipment. In particular the low light shots are horribly blurry.).

We then walked across parliament square, through Saint James's Park and up The Mall to Buckingham Palace. There was a throng of people gathered on the steps of the Queen Victoria monument all facing the palace. We were sort of baffled and J went to ask a Met officer what was up. At that point the palace lit up with white "snow flakes" falling down the front and then transitioned to a huge Union Jack design across its face. Apparently we lucked out, it was part of the "Brightening up London" event. The kids were pretty wiped out by this point so we all started carrying the little ones and heading for the nearest tube station.

We took S (and A) to the ASK restaurant around the corner from his flat to thank him for his hospitality.

Photo Album: http://mehling.org/gallery/v/Travel/UK_2003-04/UK_Day07/

Posted by ben at 10:00 PM
Comments (0)

London, Day 2

(2003/12/31 - Wednesday)

We headed straight to the London Eye this morning to take a ride up and over the city. The view from the top is pretty incredible and we were lucky enough to get great weather and visibility (for this time of year). J stayed on the ground to watch little A while the rest of us went up. I took a bunch of pictures but they really don't do justice to sheer size and color of the London skyline. (The London Eye site has a photo album, as does Nick Wood. For pictures of the Eye installation, checkout Nick's stuff.)

We then darted across the Hungerford Bridge to the catch the train at the Embankment tube station. We got off at Tower Hill and walked to the Tower of London. A very tourist-y attraction, but well worth the tour given by the beefeaters (Yeoman Warders) about every hour (according to our Yeoman, they are called beefeaters because they were originally furnished with meat as part of the pay for protecting the King and Queen, while the rest of the general population almost never ate meat.).

The tour is about one and a half hours. The Yeoman talks about the various historical aspects of the castle, following a theme -- in this case we walk the path a headless body would travel from the chopping block on Tower Hill to the Chapel in the castle. Along the way the Yeoman talk about the various people that were held, tortured, murdered, and/or beheaded here. He definitely talks about the gory details where ever possible. Standing between the outer wall and the bell tower was extremely cold -- the coldest I've been in England.

Besides the tour there are various museum type exhibits and other gory attractions. The crown jewels are also on display. The queue was massive -- all suggestions were to show up at opening time (pre purchase your tickets) and go directly to the jewels, then do the other stuff.

The B's decided to split early because the kids were really cold. It was really cold.

We forged on, across the Tower Bridge, which pictures don't do justice. We walked down the Thames opposite the Tower of London. This took as past several interesting sites; the London City Hall, the HMS Belfast, and the Golden Hinde replica.

After walking through a number of side streets and alleys, we found our way to the rebuilt Globe Theatre. The Globe, while not on the exact original site, is based on the archeological dig of the original site just a few hundred meters away. The design and construction is based on the findings, down to the inch and the materials used (including getting special permission for the thatched roof -- thatched roofs were outlawed in London after the great fire of 1666 which left the city w/ 100,000 homeless). We spent some time in the exhibit space and then joined a walking tour of the stage and house. Unfortunately there was no productions going on this time of year, since it would be pretty cold to sit (or stand if you're a groundling) in an open air, "in the round" theatre. Although, I think, Tedd enjoyed the tour of the Royal Shakespeare Company complex in Stratford more, he liked this text so much so, that we bought him a poster version to take home:

From the globe we walked to the Tate Modern, just next door. The Tate Modern is in the refurbished Bankside Power Station (originally designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, of note also the original designer of the famous British red telephone box.) and houses a large collection of modern and contemporary art.

Because it was nearly 5 and we hadn't eaten since breakfast, we went to the top floor cafe for a bite. With the modern London skyline behind us and a view straight on of St. Paul's across the Thames this was a memorable and delicious snack (Hol: grilled mozzarella w/ rocket on spelt ciabatta, Tedd: cured ham and cheese, Ben: egg w/ watercress on whole grain bread and a cappuccino). I'd recommend it as a beautiful location to take a break -- the view is pretty incredible.

Unfortunately we didn't really have enough time to see everything we wanted to... That seems to be a theme here -- the Brits want to leave you wishing for more -- London has certainly done that.

We walked across the Millennium Bridge towards Saint Paul's Cathedral and caught the train at Blackfriars tube station home.

At the end of day 2 in London we'd seen exactly 0 homeless. I suspect this has more to do with the locations we were (mainly tourist areas) and time of year (very cold) than the city's lack of them. The one place I'd expected to encounter them was the tube, however S's flat was in a nice area (911 TTs, Boxsters, BMW E46 M3's, etc. parked all over the neighborhood) ... Today though a slightly dirty and disheveled man sat next to us on the train. He definitely had been drinking and was a bit out of sorts. He was talking and singing to anyone that would acknowledge him, but of course most wouldn't. He talked and sang about god and various aspects of Christ - definitely a born again. He asked us our stop, and to be safe I gave him a false one. His talk then turned to his family (probably because we were clearly together as one)... He mentioned a dead wife and a dead son. He'd lost them both around Christmas time. Tears welled in his eyes... his voice got very small. He again talked about god, how he'd found god and that god was good. He then apologized, produced a glass flask from his pocket, and took a swig. As he stood to get off the train we asked him to stay safe and have a happy new year.

You could feel the relief in the train car as the man exited, but you couldn't help but feel for him -- getting 'pissed' (drunk) and riding the tube New Years Eve because he had no where else to go, no family to go home to. I suppose the cynics will think he used this story as a ploy, but for what? He never asked or indicated that he would take money from anyone, he simply stood and said goodbye at his stop.

New Year's was spent relaxing with the B's at S's flat. A little beer and wine plus conversation were all that we needed to usher in the new year.

Photo Album: http://mehling.org/gallery/v/Travel/UK_2003-04/UK_Day08/

Posted by ben at 10:00 PM
Comments (0)

London, Day 3

(2004/01/01 - Thursday)

The B's were pretty tired today. Hol suggested they try the New Years Day Parade and then hit either the Natural History or Science Museums.

We took the tube to Piccadilly Circus, and caught the Soho walking tour of "Courtesans, Criminals, and Conmen". This was a pretty cool walk through Soho. The guide discussed some the various 'dens of iniquity' here over the past 2 centuries, the gangsters, and other local happenings as we walked the streets. We didn't get our schedule right so that we could do the famous -- Jack the Ripper" walk. Next time. *grin*

With the walk over we grabbed a bite in Soho, and then caught the tube at Leicester Square back to Westminster. A short walk up King Charles St. and we entered a small door facing Saint James's Park. This is the Cabinet War Rooms museum. A time capsule of the nerve center Winston Churchill used during World War II. The rooms were top secret during the war, and for years after remained as they were the day the war ended, sealed and unused. The rooms act as both a museum of the war time efforts that took place here and as a Winston Churchill museum (the Imperial War Museum group plans to add to the War Rooms a Churchill dedicated section).

This museum will work for mature teenagers, but kids will be bored silly. One really fun aspect was the few period actors working as docents in the rooms. The young lady, acting as one of the 'typist girls', was very good. Part of their role was to walk from room to room, in character, making conversation with the tourists. This was all improv, and while she obviously had a number of stock bits, I was quite impressed with her back story. At one point, a tourist made a comment about how nice her dress was (a period costume obviously). She had an entire story about it being second hand passed on from her older sister who couldn't fit into it any longer because she'd had two kids. At another point she chatted about the current popular music and movies of that period. Very fun.

On the way back to Chiswick, we stopped off at the Victor and Albert Museum to see the Zoomorphic architectural exhibit going on through the 4th. My favorite display was the original model of Saint Mary's Axe which now graces the London sky line and we'd seen earlier, both from the London Eye and across the Thames from Tower of London.

We headed home to Swindon and J put the hammer down on the M4. We were home in a little more than an hour. A nice E39 Alpina B10 passed us on the way.

Chinese take away and plenty of beers for a late dinner. We sat up late discussing life, parenting, travel, and plans. It was certainly nice to sit with our friends and just talk. The kids were in bed and they could both relax, together... Something that seems to come infrequently in a house with 3 kids (2 under 3 years old).

Photo Album: http://mehling.org/gallery/v/Travel/UK_2003-04/UK_Day09/

Posted by ben at 10:00 PM
Comments (0)

Down Day

(2004/01/02 - Friday)

Down time day. Everyone needed it after 3 solid days in London.

Did some shopping for gifts in Swindon. Noticed a nice E36 Alpina B3.2 parked in town. J stayed home with the kids. We got lots of tourist-y gifts. The B's want tomorrow off, so I think we will head to Stonehenge for the day. Only 4 days left! Feels like I'd need about 3-6 months to be satisfied, that and a much larger bank account (or credit line).

We took E and J out to dinner to thank them for their hospitality. We started at a pub for a couple drinks, then headed over to the Curry Garden. A long three course meal followed... popadoms, samosa, and chicken tikka. The lime hot pickle with onion salad were nice and spicy. Entrees were lamb tikka rogen josh, chicken bhuna, chicken madras, and spicy bombay potatoes. Pilau rice and garlic nan. Dessert was pinapple fritters (hot), a honey pot, a hazelnut crunch, and a chocolate dish. Dinner was delicious. I'm hungry just thinking about it. Conversation turned to parenting. J & E appear to have the same grumbles with M that we had just a few years ago...

After dinner we walked over to another pub, the beehive, for a night cap. J did a wonderful rendition of a sperm using a crutch whilst telling his 'wanker' joke.

Posted by ben at 10:00 PM
Comments (0)

Stonehenge

(2004/01/03 - Saturday)

Unfortunately we were unable to secure tickets to Alls Well That Ends Well at the Swan in Stratford-upon-Avon. I'll probably kick myself for this particularly poorly planned aspect of the trip. I really wanted to see the show, but couldn't make it work. I guess we'll have to come back. *grin* Once we were pretty certain no rush tickets would become available, we drove out to Stonehenge.

The drive south from Swindon gave us more chances to take in the English countryside. Although most of the leaves were off the trees, everything was green.

Stonehenge, I suppose, is a bunch of big rocks sitting in the chilly south of England. What amazed me the most was the sheer amount of man power required to move the rocks (some are from Wales, over 100 miles away!), the precision required to shape the stones to fit together properly, and the knowledge of astronomy to properly place the stones, all of it occurring over 5000 years ago. Pretty neat stuff. This was an easy day trip from Swindon and we were home in time for the FA cup match that evening...

Watched an FA cup match w/ J (Southampton v. New Castle: 0-3). Also watched some timely UK history programs about some of the kings we'd learned about just a few days earlier in London.

Photo Album: http://mehling.org/gallery/v/Travel/UK_2003-04/UK_Day11/

Posted by ben at 10:00 PM
Comments (0)

Bath

(2004/01/04 - Sunday)

We drove out to Bath today. The motorway takes you along a ridgeline overlooking the city in the valley below. From the road you could see a quite packed little city, full of classic architecture. The surrounding hills were quite green. There was quite a bit of traffic as we entered the town and finally J navigated us to a parking lot just below the Royal Crescent. We broke out the new stroller and "buggy board" (I'd never seen these before in the states, but it worked great for pushing the baby and 3 year old around quickly -- everyone seemed to have them here) for the walk down to the main attraction, the Roman Baths.

The Roman Baths are an archeological find excavated from under the surface of the modern day Bath. According to the museum, the original site is 6 meters below the current streets and was found during some sewer work. They've excavated a great deal of the original site, finding many bits of Roman history in the process. For a site built nearly 2000 years ago, it was amazing to the see the simple filtration and drainage system originally implemented by the Romans, still in working order. There was even an original lead pipe that originally fed a fountain in the floor of the main bath. The Romans and people that made pilgrimages here up to 400 AD believed that not only sitting in the naturally hot pools, but drinking it would cure various health problems. Visitors can still purchase a cup of (treated) bath water for 50p. (ugh!)

After visiting the Baths, we stopped in front of the Bath Abbey for a few quick pictures before lunch. We walked past the Abbey, down to the Avon. We ate at Caffe Uno on the river front just next to the Pultney Bridge. C was very tired and having a bad day. Poor E nearly lost it with her. She was definitely acting like a brat and testing her parents. I think she's probably a little shocked by the move to England and change in surroundings. Her parents seem to be attempting to put her back into a consistent routine to get her back on track. I definitely feel for their situation with her, she’s currently a handful. When E asked for any advice, I just tried to emphasis that they should feel free to discipline her however/whenever they need to and not feel like they can't do that because we are around. I don't mind waiting or stopping to get C under control.

After our late afternoon meal, we walked up the hill to The Circus and Royal Crescent (also, a postcard we picked up). These are two amazing streets in Bath. Unfortunately, it was a bit too dark for my camera by the time we got there -- I bought a few postcards instead. I looked at housing in Bath, in case anyone wanted to move there. A 2 bedroom/2 bath flat on The Circus is going to cost you £355,000. Cheaper than London! (S's 3 bedroom/2 bath flat in Chiswick London was in the £750,000 range.) I'll leave the conversion to USD as an exercise for the reader. (Ouch!)

Photo Album: http://mehling.org/gallery/v/Travel/UK_2003-04/UK_Day12/

Posted by ben at 10:00 PM
Comments (0)

Final Day

(2004/01/05 - Monday)

We spent our last day preparing for the trip home. It has been quite a trip. One that all of us have enjoyed. Based on our travels this year we are already discussing a trip back in the summer of 2005. It would be nice to see England when the weather is a bit nicer. We are also discussing trips to France and Spain.

We wrote postcards, did some last minute gift shopping during the day. None of us really want to go home just yet, but it will be nice to get back. I'm sure the B's will miss us, but they no doubt want their house back too! We'll miss them while they are here in the UK for the next couple of years.

One last curry take away for dinner, plus a stop at the pub with J. J suggested we go down to town to order the take away. When I suggested we call ahead, order and then just go down and pick it up, he looked incredulous. "If we do that, we won't be able to stop at a pub I know while the food is getting prepared?" Right. I like the way this guy thinks. I miss him already.

Posted by ben at 10:00 PM
Comments (0)

Return to Reality

Well, we've pretty much recovered from the massive time shift. Starting to look around at the rubble that is our lives at the moment. You know all the junk you collect while traveling? Receipts. Dirty laundry. Gifts. Luggage. House needs cleaning. Bills need to be paid. The list goes on and on.

On our return home, we found out about some, um, stuff that happened while we were away. Our pet sitter (one of Tedd's friends from the neighborhood), early in the visit got locked out of the house.

She panicked and asked our neighbors for help. In the process of pulling a ladder down in the garage they *nailed* my car on the trunk lid w/ the metal ladder. About an 18" gash down to the bare metal.

*Sigh* I was too angry to speak, and I've only looked in the dark. For all I know they nailed my car elsewhere or even better Hol's new car. Once they got the ladder down, they climbed to the second story to see if they could get in a window. Of course all the windows were firmly locked, but they tried anyway -- now we have a nice 4" gash in our guest room screen.

*Sigh* Excellent. Keep in mind our windows and screens are nearly 2 months old! We needed new ones anyway, I guess. Finally the pet sitter figured out she could read our number in the UK through the kitchen window. She called us. We told her where the spare key was in the garage (probably should have mentioned it before, lesson learned -- the hard way). The key is in one of those "tricky" fake soda pop cans. The neighbor couldn't figure out how to pop the top off, so he just ripped it in half.

*Sigh* How could I even be upset at this point?

Of course they were only trying to help, right? What can I say? Nothing, I'll just keep my mouth shut (except here).

Update: OK, now a different neighbor has reported to Holly that the ladder fell when the neighbor tripped, and tripped so bad that he bled and ended up visiting the hospital. Gah.

Posted by ben at 10:00 PM
Comments (1)

Seattle

Up at a ridiculously early hour to catch a 7am flight to Seattle. I can't stand these "ultra convenient" e-ticket kiosk things. They never work right and require assistance from an airline staffer. And of course, there are less staffers available since they've installed this "ultra convenient" e-ticket kiosks! Apparently the airlines equate "ultra convenient" with "nearly missing your flight". Where's my coffee?

Spent the day in Seattle w/ Dan and Hol. Ate some lunch at Pike Brewery and Pub (yummy Pike Street XXXXX Stout) and then walked around Pike Market and the surrounding area. It was encouraging to see the Seattle stereotype holds true. A coffee shop or two on every corner, plus espresso at every gas station/convenience store.

Drove up to the Space Needle (arguably this nation's finest needle! ). Tried to convince Hol and Dan that we didn't need to go to the top -- it's just a big building (not even the tallest one in Seattle) and there'd be tickets to purchase and a line to wait in, etc. As you well know, I'm a party poop. They both said we *had* to do it. The tour guide in the elevator summed up my feelings nicely, sarcastically noting that the space needle is now *the* 7th tallest building in Seattle, giving the little "rock on" gesture. Exactly!

OK, ok... the wait was worthwhile. Because the Needle is set apart from downtown and the surrounding bays, neighborhoods, etc., the view is pretty damn sweet. We took tons of pictures of the view. For whatever reason, thanks to the staff docents at the Needle, we also learned that the plural of octopus is not octopi, but octopuses (he'd received a personal memo from the president of the Seattle aquarium for using octopi). Weird, eh? Education *plus* a great view (http://www.spaceneedle.com/webcam/), what was I complaining about?

We then headed for the ferry landing in Seattle to head across Puget Sound towards Port Townsend. Unfortunately it was 4:30pm on a Friday and every other commuter was attempting the same maneuver. We headed north to catch Edmonds/Kingston ferry. Waited in line through the 5:10 and 5:50 departures and finally got onto the 6:30 boat. Excellent, another chance to have some coffee! During this whole affair, we were trying to figure out how people who actually have to be somewhere handle commuting on the ferries. Washington has kindly provided Ferry Cams so you can see what the wait time and traffic is like around your area.

Had a very nice late supper at the Fountain Cafe (scroll down). One of the waitresses was also dairy and glutton sensitive so Hol was able to get something that was perfect for her. The place is slightly larger than Side Street in Newport, but just as cozy and friendly. Food was delicious. Bonus points for Thievery Corporation playing in the background.

Finally made it back to Dan and Elise's place around 10:30. We were greeted by both Nit Noi (Dan's cat) and Guinness (Elise's Lab/Newfoundland mutt). Finally got to bed around 12:30am. ZZZZzzzzz.

Pictures from today.

Posted by ben at 11:59 PM

Port Townsend Crab Fishermen

Got a chance to sleep in this morning... won't be living on coffee today (Hey, I just said I wouldn't be "living on it", pass the mug please).

Breakfast at the Otter Crossing. Delicious fried egg sandwich with biscuits and gravy. The cafe is right on the Point Hudson marina. All kinds of boats pulling in and out. Gorgeous hand-built wooden kayaks as well.

Then it was over to Swain's general store for some walking and shopping.

Dan and his buddies have some sort of rotating schedule for fetching their crab traps. It was his day to collect, so over to the Boat Haven marina to take the boat out and pick up the crab pots. Some problem w/ the engine (didn't seem to be battery related, perhaps the solenoid?), so his buddy Lane drove down and we took his boat out.

Pulled out the four pots and 10+ male crabs. Dropped off the pots on the dock near their neighborhood and picked up Lane's wife Patti. Took the boat back to the marina and hauled the catch back to the house... There is, officially, no need for me to consider a career as a crab fisherman. Pretty disgusting stuff... and given the chance they'd attempt to kill you w/ their pinchers (not that I blame them). Hol, Guinness and I watched from a distance as Dan and Lane cleaned up the catch. Ugh. ;-P

Off to dinner at the "Old Alcohol Plant", now called the Inn at Port Hadlock. The inn is a refurbished alcohol plant that's changed hands a few times, and been upgraded over time. Good dinner and view of the water. Looked like locals could dock their boats in front and come up to the restaurant for dinner.

Pictures from today.

Posted by ben at 11:59 PM

Last day in Port Townsend

Hol's 'adopted' grandma Bobbie and her daughter Kathy drove over from Yakima for a visit. Very nice to see them as it's been a good 4 years or so since our last visit.

Brunch at the Manresa Castle. A home built for a local business man and his family in the late 1800's and now serves as a hotel and restaurant.

Everyone headed back to the beach for a walk and a visit -- including Dan and Elise's dog, Guinness. Another gorgeous and warm day. Very lucky indeed.

Dinner at Sirens, a local joint w/ trivia contests and decent food. Same owner as the Fountain Cafe.

Heading home tomorrow morning. It's been a nice visit. Dan and Elise have relocated to a beautiful area. Rural and quiet, nice people and decidedly a "blue state" kinda town.

Thanks for having us up north Elise, Dan, Nit Noi and Guinness!

Pictures from today.

Posted by ben at 11:59 PM

Day 1: I18n partition destruction

On Wednesday morning I stayed home to finish up some last minute paperwork and clean up my inbox before leaving for the airport. Steve and I were supposed to talk sometime around 10am to figure out transportation to the airport. I should have known the morning was going too smoothly. No word from the office, no word from Texas, no word from Steve.

The first words out of his mouth when I picked up the phone were, "Ben, it's gone non-linear." Crap. Apparently Steve discovered a subtle, yet deadly Windows UI bug and deleted his "e:" drive. Oh crap. I should have known on Tuesday something was wrong when nothing was going wrong. Alcides had sent an updated .po file containing the latest text strings for Kickstand translated into Portuguese. Todd was able to import them fine. Steve's laptop with his VMWare Linux image had loaded up fine and was all set with two shortcuts to Kickstand; one in English and one in Portuguese.

I should have known. You see, at Medsphere, no matter how much we try, things never seem to go right when they need to. We all should have seen that something was clearly not right because everything was right. Passports had arrived. Visas had been granted. Tickets were purchased and in hand. Demo laptop was up and running. And, no fires in Midland. In hindsight, it was perfectly clear that we all should have known we were living in a dream world.

So, Windows users pay attention. Steve has cleverly identified a fatal UI bug in the Windows XP disk management control panel. Say you have three partitions on your hard drive. Now, click the second one. Note it is now highlighted. Now, right click on the third one and select "delete" from the context menu. Now, which drive is highlighted? That's right, the second one -- not the one that you right clicked on. Sweet! Even better, the warning prompt that appears has conveniently used the 'Yes' answer as the default! Because questions like "Are you sure want to destroy every bit of data on this partition?" should always default to a resounding 'Yes' for efficiency!

So now, rather than lounging at home, waiting for Steve to grab me at 10:30 to head up to LAX, I'm driving into the office to pick-up Steve. He's spent all morning trying to fix his partition table and wants to give Christian and Jordan a chance to fix it. After fiddling around a bit, they run the Windows restore disk, whacking both the Grub partition and his Windows install. Non-linear indeed. Now we're almost 30 minutes late and not only don't have the demo partition/VMWare image, but Steve no longer has a functioning Windows install.

The next hour and half is like a stop action film with all the actors moving through the scenes as normal, except Steve, whose every action follows one theme: fix the laptop! Steve in the car running fdisk and partition magic. Steve in the LAX parking lot shuttle trying to fix the Grub boot loader. Steve at the check out counter running a search-and-repair utility. Steve in the security line watching the progress bar. Steve at the terminal trying to fix what damage the repair utility caused. Steve boarding the plane trying to boot from CD. You get the picture. In truth, the one deviation from the theme was when the nice ticket agent noticed that Steve's passport expired in twenty days. Thankfully, we were told (after she consulted several co-workers) Brazil does not care when your passport expires, so long as it hasn't expired. Obrigado, Brazilian customs law! (Travelers note: Apparently the US does care. Your passport must be at least six months from expiration or we send foreigners packing -- hopefully after a relaxing 12 hour flight! ).

Photo album from today: http://mehling.org/gallery/v/Travel/SaoPaulo_2005/SP_Day1/

Posted by ben at 10:00 PM

Day 2: Hospital Santa Paula

A short and uneventful twelve hour flight later we arrived in Sao Paulo at around 7:30am local time (Marv had never traveled with Steve before and I cleverly allowed him to sit next to Steve -- Marv proved a worthy opponent though and called 'not it' on the flight home). On the taxi in from the runway, the starboard side passengers get a great view of rows upon rows of deserted airplanes. I mean places with engines and wings missing. Marv and I just looked at each other (Steve was trying to fix his laptop and didn't notice anything unusual).

Customs was remarkably fast and easy. We were told to expect the same treatment for Americans as the US offers to Brazilian citizens (photo taken, and double finger printed). They must have changed that policy. Nothing odd, although the customs agent grumpily pointed out that while Marv and I had business Visas, Steve was traveling as a tourist. Steve shrugged and continued to fiddle with his partition tables and MBR.

Sid was standing outside the gate and had gotten us a taxi for the ride back to the hotel. The ride into Sao Paulo was a good 30 minutes. The weather was tropical and the seasons are pretty much exactly opposite of ours -- it was Spring-ish. The drive proved a nice, easy introduction into the Sao Paulo driving style. Sid acted as tour guide.

Besides the shear size of the city, I had to shake my head at opposing economic classes. On the way in from the airport we passed (at least) three prisons. Square, mold-stained cement structures with razor wire topped walls and guard towers. Situated around these prisons were favelas (ghettos or shanty towns). Cardboard, plywood and corrugated metal roofs (if they were lucky). Stray dogs and all. Immediately above this scene were modern billboards advertising luxury goods. Visible from the yard of the prison was a sign pitching Paris Hilton's perfume. I wish I'd gotten my camera out fast enough as the view was absolutely surreal.

After a quick nap at the hotel (Sid also was kind enough to dial out with his credit card so I could speak with Holly and let her know I arrived okay.), we grabbed some lunch at the hotel and took a couple of taxis over to the hospital to meet the administrators and give a short presentation. The ride over proved to be our first true introduction to Sao Paulo drivers. Picture complete chaos and total aggression without a hint of hostility. No yelling, cursing and barely a horn was sounded. Drivers cutting each other off, making lanes against the curb to gain a single position advantage, making right hand turns from the second or third lane over or making left hand turns from the middle lanes (and cutting people off in the process). Lanes, if you could see them, were mere suggestions with most cars lining up as if it were a free-for-all race course. In the midst of all this, "motoboys" (motorcycle messengers -- more on these later) are darting in and out of lanes and speeding between lanes at close to double the actual speed of traffic. At one point I spotted a Porsche Cayenne Turbo (sure these things are all over 'the OC', but what do they cost? $120k US? How much would one of these cost in Brazil?!). Our driver was determined to get us to the hospital as quickly as possible and darted between lanes to get in front of the Porsche. I just closed my eyes, the space between the two cars had to have been under an inch. Our driver must have known that the Porsche driver would yield given the price difference in vehicles. He was right.

The presentation was so-so. Due to the disk drive issues that Steve was having we did not have a reasonable demo to show. Steve did his usual extraordinary "winging it" presentation, in Spanish no less, throwing Portuguese in here and there. We promised to show the Portuguese version of the application the following day once Steve had some time to download updates from our servers in the US.

After the presentation we met Carla, the on duty Pharmacist and briefly reviewed the Pharmacy processes. While "backward" in some ways, Brazil was also forward looking in other ways. After some discussion we concluded that Marv would require more one-on-one time the following day.

We headed back to the hotel to freshen up. I quickly learned that my room did not have Internet access. Sid said he'd talk to the desk about getting a room that could. After briefly stopping in our rooms, we met in a conference room to discuss the data analysis that Alejandro had performed on the SAGHOSP billing product. After an hour or so, we were completely burnt and ready for dinner.

Everyone (except Fretas) walked over to an Italian place for dinner. The restaurant had one menu that had been translated into English. Marv and I shared. Eneas ordered us Maracujo's to drink. Basically raw passion fruit juice, which the drinker sweetens to taste. Very good. Brazil (South America?) also has their own version of the "energy drink": Guarana. Steve's favorite, of course. I ordered a pasta dish with red sauce, basil and spicy sausages. The pasta was extremely thick (1/4") and filling. Steve requested his favorite Brazilian dessert (from previous visit) and Sid ordered everyone the same: Papaya Cremes. It is exactly what it sounds like -- a creamy papaya pudding (with a liquor topping if desired -- I think it was cherry flavored). Dinner and dessert were delicious.

On the walk back to the hotel we stopped at a grocery. The space in Brazil is quite cramped w/ almost no parking lots, but the little store provided about 6 spots just in front so shoppers could load up their cars more conveniently. I bought a bottle of water (actually the cashier was annoyed w/ my 50 reais note -- didn't want to make change, so Alcides bailed me out). Steve found what he was looking for -- a 48oz Guarana to keep him at full speed.

Photo album from today: http://mehling.org/gallery/v/Travel/SaoPaulo_2005/SP_Day2/
Posted by ben at 10:00 PM

Day 3: Interfacing and BBQ

The hotel provided breakfast to guests. Brazilians have slightly different eating habits. Breakfast included some of the normal staples you'd find in the US, including fruit, eggs and cold cereal. There were a lot bread products (a kind of doughnut, pastries, cakes, rolls, flan), cold cuts and cheeses. The coffee at the hotel was stronger than you'd find in the US and served with warm milk instead of creme. I also found that the coffee served elsewhere was usually served even stronger and in espresso sized cups. More on that later.

After breakfast we broke into two groups. Marv was heading over to the hospital to spend more time w/ the pharmacy staff and complete his EA. Steve and I were to head over VIKAM to work with Jimmy. We needed to understand how we were going to interface OpenVista with SAGHOSP. Sid and Eneas were already there meeting with the executive team. We joined that meeting for only a few minutes. We had met Jimmy the day before so there was a familiar face in this meeting. Jimmy is incredibly friendly and the previous day had somehow associated me (my name plus US connection?) with "Obi Wan Kenobi" and Star Wars. When we were introduced to the executive team at VIKAM, I got similar greetings from them -- Jimmy mentioned "this is Ben Kenobi" and I got a lot of smiles and nods. Very amusing -- this continued the entire stay (and since I'm writing this travel log after the fact, even three weeks later, when VIKAM visited our offices in Aliso Viejo, Both Jimmy and Ronaldo were calling me "Obi Wan" and laughing.

After the meeting we spent the rest of the day working Jimmy and his staff. We talked through some of the interfacing specifications and he provided a good deal of detail on what SAGHOSP was capable of doing (HL7-wise). He also showed us the system that his team used to develop software. It was a system written by a Uruguayan company call GenXsys. Basically, an IDE used in developing data definitions (databases), forms (front-end) and business logic (rules engine). The application could then compile this into several languages (we saw Visual Fox Pro, Java and ASP.net). Pretty interesting stuff. A little too much 'magic' in the IDE for my taste, but the usefulness in their environment was readily apparent. The VIKAM staff was very friendly and eager and show off their stuff. Their work day, offices and staff looked like any medium sized business would in the US.

Oh yeah, the coffee! They offered me some coffee from their supply. No coffee maker or pot to be seen. Instead they had a thermos looking dispenser (you know, push the top and it comes out of a little spout) and tiny espresso sized disposable cups. Out came a strong, thick coffee. No creme, just sugar. It was delicious, but short lived (single gulp!) compared to the 20+ ounce cups we get in the US. Jimmy jokingly explained that Brazilians have a word for US coffee: tea.

At the end of the (work) day, Jimmy drove us back to the hospital to discuss findings with Roberto and show the translated application. Unfortunately, the work during the day had been so engaging that we did not complete the repair of the demo system. Steve was importing data and configuring OpenVista in the car ride over. Jimmy was telling us about the band he is a drummer in -- sounds like they do cover songs from 80/90's bands (Guns n' Roses, Metallica, Journey, Def Leopard, etc.). Of course, we also talked about football (soccer). Sid and Steve were always quick to point out the football connection. Jimmy and I talked shop quite a bit. I promised to bring him out to a game and not to forget his boots (he taught me what they are called in Portuguese: Chuteira) when he visited us.

At this point we were pretty hammered. Very little sleep the day before and it was taking its toll. As Steve was loading data, I could see him falling asleep in between prompts. I kept tapping him when each prompt completed. We made it to the hospital just before the meeting. We made a quick stop in the hallway to configure the network connection and test the client against the newly configured, local server. Walla! We had something to show! Our new cross platform, .net client running inside a VMWare Linux image connecting to the Windows host O/S running OpenVista -- in Portuguese, no less!

Roberto seemed satisfied with the progress and made it clear he was willing to make Hospital Santa Paula our pilot site. He even stated that he could see the hospital running Linux on the desktop for clinical workstations. He also seemed willing to discuss the possibility of running both the OpenVista laboratory and radiology modules, rather than attempting to interface with external systems. During all this, a hospital staff person brought in beverages for everyone: coconut water. Tasted like water that had just a bit of coconut milk mixed in. Interesting and tasty.

Another rally race across Sao Paulo to the hotel for a few hours of rest before dinner. Not only could Jimmy drive in the insanely aggressive traffic, he could hold down both a conversation in the car and talk on his mobile phone too!

We walk a few blocks up the street to a place called Barbacoa. There are restaurants like this in the US. I could not get a straight answer on the background here. I think it was Brazilian style barbeque with Argentinean meat beef.

In terms of pure decadence, those massive buffets in Las Vegas have got nothing on these joints. They start you out with these rich appetizers (cheese puffs, rolls and what appeared to be deep fried beef raviolis with seasoned meat inside). As soon as you finished half the plate of these, the waiters (the guest to waiter ratio must have approached 1:1) would drop a fresh plate off. The salad bar was massive and included many types of salads and toppings, including some items I was starting to recognize: hard boiled quail eggs, various pickled veggies and some types of slaw. There was a cheese bar as well! Alejandro warned me that all this was simply a way for the restaurant to stuff their guests before the main event. Next the waiters brought out little disks, one side red the other green. I was instructed that if the green side was up the waiters would bring meat -- red side up and they'd let me eat. Almost without warning waiters appeared on all side carrying big skewers full of various types of meat, knives and a wooden tray to catch the juices. There was beef (including the famous Brazilian cut of beef -- looks like a "C"), fillet, pork, lamb, buffalo, sausages and chicken -- all kinds of different styles. At the same time, they were bringing around various rice dishes with smoked meat, potatoes and other side dishes. I should have taken Alejandro seriously when he said 'main event'. It was an onslaught for a solid 25 minutes. More Papaya Cremes for dessert.

Thoroughly stuffed we stumbled back to the hotel.

Photo album from today: http://mehling.org/gallery/v/Travel/SaoPaulo_2005/SP_Day3/
Posted by ben at 10:00 PM

Day 4: Networking and futebol

On Saturday morning, we had an appointment at a large data center to discuss hosting options with a local partner company that may be able to take on the server support role locally. We met at the data center which was essentially unnamed so that companies like our partner could wholesale out the services. The facility was quite impressive and certainly held its own with any that I've toured in the US. The security was about normal, although they did take my camera. Most amusing was the little shoe covers we had to wear (like surgeons). After Daniel Amoto talked about his company's services and the services offered by the hosting company, we were able to tour the cages ourselves. All the normal things you'd expect, dual redundant power feeds to HVAC and servers (MGE brand PDUs, from Irvine!). Inert gas lines and plenty of below and above floor sensors for fires. Locked storage closets for spare parts. A few things I hadn't expected too: rather than a huge warehouse of cages and racks, the entire facility was compartmentalized with fire walls separating each area. Also, they had redundant stairwells! Their 'command and control' room could switch operations to another building somewhere in Sao Paulo. They had 14 people there on Saturday, including two firemen!

After the tour, we thanked Daniel and headed to a local mall. Even by US standards I would consider this a high-end shopping center. All the stores were upscale and there was a Lamborghini parked in one area. For the most part I don't think you would notice much of a difference, besides the armed guards at each entrance the only other thing that was odd was the number of lingerie shops -- I'd guess every third store was selling high-end "delicates". We also spied a pair of $2400 men's shoes. If you wore them everyday for 6.5 years, they would have only cost you a dollar a day to own (assuming you performed your own maintenance)! Most importantly Steve found an ice cream place (gelato!) and I found a national team jersey for Tedd.

After shopping we headed over to a Feijoada place to meet with Roberto one last time. In the taxi ride over, Sid was translating for us as we talked to the taxi driver. The driver explained that the three most important things to Brazilian men were: Women, Football and Samba. I asked him to prioritize that list and he replied: Football, Women and Samba! My kind of country! (Just kidding, Hol! )

The Feijoada restaurant was fairly upscale as well and was situated under a HUGE fig tree (at least the general consensus was that it was a fig tree). They had actually built the roof and supports around the tree. Pretty impressive stuff.

I was told that Feijoada was a traditional Brazilian stew using primarily black beans and leftovers. Besides the now ever present salad bar spread, the Feijoada buffet included a number of rice dishes, some corn flour and spices (to be spread on the stew), a huge pot of bean stew and various pots of meat (including, but not limited to: pig feet, pig ears and pig tail). Thankfully every label included an English translation so I could stick to the 'beef' end of the table. Another delicious, but massive meal. For dessert, wait for it... Papaya Creme! Well, that's not entirely true. Marv and I also hit the dessert bar for cheese cakes, pies, and something labeled "Death by Chocolate". We thanked Robert for his time and hospitality and headed back to the hotel.

Alcides and his son agreed to take us over to the Morumbi stadium to watch the Saturday afternoon football match (Sao Paulo FC vs. Figueirense). The stadium was massive and in the past had hosted audiences of over 100,000 fans. It had since been retrofitted for safety and could hold around 80,000 fans. Today's game was against a lower league club and was sparsely attended (maybe 4000 or 5000 fans). The game was decent and SPFC won pretty easily (4-2), fielding mostly reserve players. The die hard fans were on hand and their team could do no wrong -- even in clear cases their team was at fault, they tossed insults at the refs and opposing players alike. Steve found the seating comfortable enough to take a quick nap. Alcides said he and his family really only attended the smaller matches because it was just too much when the stadium was packed.

After the game, Alcides was kind enough to drive us through the downtown and financial districts. I snapped as many photos as I could before it was time to head back to the hotel, checkout and head for the airport.

Upon arriving at the airport to check in for our incredibly lame flight home (Sao Paulo -> New York -> LAX), the extremely nice ticket agent suggested that we might want to take a direct flight to LAX. Really!? She found a flight leaving less than an hour after our scheduled flight that was direct. Everyone was in good spirits now!

Next, Sid worked his magic with the nice lady working the counter of his 'Red Carpet' club. Us peasants (Steve, Marv and myself) could join him in the inner circle! Free food and drinks, plus cushy chairs! Extra bonus: no stranger, drooling and falling asleep on your shoulder! We relaxed for a couple hours before heading down to the terminal to board.

Photo album from today: http://mehling.org/gallery/v/Travel/2005_SaoPaulo/SP_Day4/

Posted by ben at 10:00 PM

Four short days in Moab

After David's move out to Aliso for work at Medsphere, he needed to head back to Salt Lake to collect his car and the last of his belongings. Rather than drive back through 3 states alone, he invited me along -- enticing me with a few days in Moab over St. Patrick's Day weekend. He had gotten us invited to stay with a college buddy at his place in Moab. It was a beautiful location and his friends were welcoming and anxious to show off their town and the surrounding landscape (I can see why). Moab is a pretty cool town and his friends went out of their way to show me a good time.

David was signed up for a half marathon on St. Patty's Day morning and kept trying to convince me to run it -- while I was perfectly willing to drink the traditional pint of Guinness for breakfast, I wasn't interested in running on the street in a pack of other runners. After his friends helped start the race, they were kind enough to show me a nice 4-5 mile trail run (pictured here) in the canyons -- this was a great run (with a view!) and much preferred to the terrain that David was on...

We left early Sunday morning and angled our trip back through as many National and State parks as we could -- clearly there's much more to see in Utah. Hol and I will definitely have to travel back this way... I must have taken over 300 pictures today alone.

Posted by ben at 11:00 PM

Julian, Ca.

Because Hol and I made the awesome decision to get married on a holiday weekend, our honeymoon was spent planning our time around traffic patterns and crowds. So it follows that our anniversaries are the same deal. (I suggest you don't do this to yourself.)

So it follows that this year we waited until well past when we should have to book a get away. Lucky for us we could go the following weekend.

We decided to try Julian, Ca. We were looking for something quiet. The Eagle's Nest BnB we stayed at was wonderful, the owners were exceptionally dedicated and friendly (and great cooks).

Since we were really only staying for one full day (w/ half days on either side), we spent Saturday exploring the local hiking trails at Cuyamaca State Park. We had just enough time to do the Azalea Glen Loop before heading to our next appointment. The whole area was recently (well, couple years ago) swept by fires, so most of the ground vegetation had returned, but most the trees were standing firewood. There was a ton of other trails in this park and several other parks in the same area.

After our hike we headed off to our afternoon appointment at the California Wolf Center. This is a small facility tucked away in the hills just south of Julian. They provide education, research and rehab for various wolf related projects. After a short lecture they walked out to see the Denali pack in their enclosure (they have other wolves on the grounds, however they are meant to be returned to the wild and thus have limited human contact). The Denali pack is used for research into wolf behavior. They were beautiful animals and thanks to the cloud cover came out on a couple different occasions to greet us. They are big animals -- large males can reach four feet at the shoulder! I would definitely recommend this tour (make reservations in advance) if you're in the area during cooler months.

Although Mr. Tedd would have been fine on his own, our personal and quite exclusive Aupair was on hand to spoil him, then have a quick bite with us before heading back up to Calabasas. Thanks Mom.

Posted by ben at 10:00 PM

15th WorldVistA Conference

Returned last night from the 15th WorldVistA conference, held in Seattle this year. About 50+ interested parties came to three days of workshops, presentations and panel discussions. I haven't attended since 2002 when Medsphere hosted. It was nice to see a number of old comrades and also meet some new folks. I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to present the OpenVista Appliance with a couple of experts on the subject. This also gave me a chance to briefly show off CIS. While at the conference we also took the opportunity to update our GTK installers, CIS and Appliance releases.

Many thanks to the hard working volunteers at WorldVistA for their hours and hours of dedication and hard work.

Since summer has already begun for Hol, she traveled with me and got to spend some time in downtown Seattle. Her dad even came over for the day. We stayed off of Queen Anne St., at the very funky MarQueen hotel (built in 1918 to house the blacksmiths for the engineering school!) -- if you're in this area the restaurant (Peso's Kitchen and Lounge) just across the street had good atmosphere and food (and art)! This is only my second time to Seattle, but it's a very cool town -- extremely mellow and architecturally interesting.

Posted by ben at 12:00 PM

PCPA: Importance of Being Earnest

Hol and I took the afternoon (and night) to drive up to Solvang to see one of my most favorite plays, The Importance of Being Earnest (by Oscar Wilde). PCPA, my alma mater (you can see the Solvang Theaterfest in the very center of this map -- the other main theaters are further north in Santa Maria. The red-ish semi-circle is the outdoor seating.), did a run this year and we made it up on closing night. As expected, nothing really exceptional on the technical/effects front (the play only calls for a few settings and relies on quick, sarcastic dialog more than anything else). It was a solid show and everyone did well. In particular, Eleise Moore who played Cecily Cardew, did a wonderful job. There's something very fun about seeing a show outdoors -- everyone brings blankets and drinks hot cocoa, coffee or wine.

I think the only thing we'd do differently next time would be to stop for dinner in SB. There is a limited selection of restaurants in Solvang.

Posted by ben at 11:59 PM