Category / Travel

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30 For 30 – Go Somewhere Alone

BigBenThe fine folks at away.com have come up with a list of 30 Things Every Traveler Must Do Before They’re 30.  Of those 30, I’ve managed to accomplish 12 of them, or roughly 40% of them, some of which was even before I turned 30.  Today we look at #13 on their list, go somewhere alone.  I did not start off alone as I traveled to the UK for work in December of 2009.  After spending a week in Belfast, I was due to be on vacation for the rest of the year, so there was no need to rush home.  Instead, I said goodbye to my colleagues and spent the next 4 days alone in jolly old England.

I had made limited plans for my stay in London, two trips to the theatre to see Anna Friel in Breakfast at Tiffanys and Damian Lewis and Keira Knightley in The Misanthrope.  Besides that, I had nothing but time to explore the city.  I bought a 2-day ticket for a double decker bus tour, I went to the Tower of London, I took the tube out to Abbey Road to see the crosswalk outside the studios made famous by the Beatles, I saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, and, of course, I saw Big Ben and Parliament.  I would love to go back and see it all again, if it weren’t for the 8 hour flight and the cost of seats that aren’t sardine can-like on the plane.

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30 For 30 – Take One Ultimate Road Trip

SheaBoardThe fine folks at away.com have come up with a list of 30 Things Every Traveler Must Do Before They’re 30.  Of those 30, I’ve managed to accomplish 12 of them, or roughly 40% of them, some of which was even before I turned 30.  Today we look at #12 on their list, take one Ultimate Road Trip.  In the year 2003, the Chicago Cubs were scheduled to open their season on Monday, March 31 in Queens against the New York Mets.  What better way to celebrate than with a road trip to New York to take in the festivities?

The trip sort of started out Friday afternoon with a quick jaunt out to the Budget rental facility near O’Hare airport.  They were the one rental agency that didn’t seem to mind that we were taking the car out of state.  It for real started the next morning at 2 AM as we headed out on I-80 heading east.  Very little of interest happened throughout Indiana and Ohio.  Eventually, we stopped for lunch at an Arbys in Pennsylvania.  This particular Arbys happened to have a breakfast buffet, which was weird.  The customers of this Arbys seemed to be more at home in the hills of Appalachia then in Pennsylvania.  One in particular was wearing overalls with no shirt underneath (at least that’s how I remember it) and was waiting patiently for a new batch of bacon to be brought out to the buffet.  Once it was, this hill person got up, emptied the whole tray onto his plate, and returned to his seat to chow down.

After finishing our processed meat sandwiches, we continued on to our final destination: a Howard Johnson hotel in Newark, New Jersey.  From my recollection, the whole trip lasted a little more than 12 hours.  After a brief nap and a few episodes of the Chappelle Show, our plans for the evening required a train ride to Manhattan, which should have been a piece of cake.  There was a train at the airport and an airport shuttle should have come to the hotel every 15-20 minutes.  After waiting for an hour, the shuttle finally showed up, taking us to the Newark airport where we were finally able to take the train into New York City!

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30 For 30 – Take A Vacation That Isn’t Spring Break

The fine folks at away.com have come up with a list of 30 Things Every Traveler Must Do Before They’re 30.  Of those 30, I’ve managed to accomplish 12 of them, or roughly 40% of them, some of which was even before I turned 30.  Today we look at #4 on their list, Take a Vacation that isn’t Spring Break.  I graduated from college in the spring of 1997 and didn’t start my job until August because I was going to take a trip.  The only problem with that plan was that travelling takes money, and, since I hadn’t started my career yet, I didn’t have any.  So, rather than moving on to the working world I had prepared the past 4 years for, I went back to my old job at a bank for 2 1/2 months.  The next summer, though, was going to be my first real adult vacation: San Diego Comic-Con!

Back in 1998, the Internet was not as advanced as it was today, and instead of social media and message boards, we had email lists dedicated to topics of interest.  One of those lists, devoted to fans of the comic series Strangers in Paradise, had a number of people heading to San Diego for the big convention that summer.  If I remember correctly, there were 8 of us and we were all staying in the same room at the lovely Days Inn in downtown San Diego.  While most of the group was just coming out for the con, I headed out early, spending the entire week out on the west coast.  Along with two other guys who had traveled down from Canada, we explored all San Diego had to offer.

One of the advantages of travelling when you are 23 is that you’re able to stay in a crappy hotel room with 7 other people.  I most likely would not stay in a Days Inn by myself these days or anywhere with 7 other people, unless it was a suite of some kind.  But when you’re young, stretching the dollar is your number one priority, not necessarily personal comfort.

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30 For 30 – Party In Las Vegas

vegas

The fine folks at away.com have come up with a list of 30 Things Every Traveler Must Do Before They’re 30.  Of those 30, I’ve managed to accomplish 12 of them, or roughly 40% of them, some of which was even before I turned 30.  Today we look at #3 on their list, Party in Las Vegas.  I was a few years late to hit this milestone before I turned 30, but I did make my first, and so far only, trip out to Sin City in the fall of 2007 at the ripe old age of 33.

Compared to some, I’m sure my trip was pretty tame, but I’m willing to count it as a “party”.  I did some gambling, took in some shows, saw the funeral procession of Robert Goulet as it went down the Strip, and saw a stand up performance by Howie Mandel.  Good times were had by all, but not such good times that I’ve seen any need to rush back.

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30 For 30 – See One Of The Seven Wonders Of The World

The fine folks at away.com have come up with a list of 30 Things Every Traveler Must Do Before They’re 30.  Of those 30, I’ve managed to accomplish 12 of them, or roughly 40% of them, some of which was even before I turned 30.  We start with #2 on their list, see one of the Seven Wonders of the World.  They open it up to more than just the original seven wonders of the ancient world, which is good, because who has seen those?  So, for the sake of this post, we will concentrate on the wonders of the modern world and the not so exciting story of the first, and so far only, time that I saw the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, CA.

In the fall of 1999, I took my first trip to the Bay Area to visit my old friend Scott, who had moved there after college for an exciting opportunity with the chip-maker known as AMD.  While there, we took trips to both Candlestick Park in San Francisco and whatever name the Oakland Coliseum was using at the time.  One of those trips took us across the fabled Golden Gate Bridge.

There you go.  As I said, nothing exciting about the story.  But, a story none the less.