Chengdu Two Years Later

I'm a lot braver than I was in 2015. I tackled Chengdu on my own this time due to its expanded Metro service.

China & Hong Kong: Travel Agencies

I was suppose to go to China in 2014. I had the plane ticket and even the hotel room booked. You had to or else you could not get a China visa.

With booked plane and hotel for China, I decided to use a friend who was a travel agent to do the rest, namely book some tours.

Seems to be Pouring

Not the wet kind but things that you just want to stay away or not happen at all. I was going away for a week the next day and one thing after the other just keep happening.

First... My sister brings in the mail and there's a notice that I have to pick up a certified letter.

The Getty Villa

In my many visits to the LA area, I wanted to do something different than just hanging at Disneyland. Sacrilege. Not. I will always squeeze in a day there. A little hunting and I came up with the Getty Museum. I asked my friends, the Williams, if they wanted to join me and which one would they prefer. The Getty Villa it is.

The Getty Villa required time entry tickets. It's free, but if you plan to use your car, you have to pay for parking -- $10.00 a car. Dave figured out why timed tickets were needed. It was to control the car situation. I'm sure the neighborhood did not want cars backing up down the Pacific Coast Highway.

We missed all the free tours as we were too busy going hither and thither. Carolann got the self-guided audio tour and totally learned lots. Dave used the opportunity to use his camera -- not one of those point and shot things that Carolann or I use. I read the plaques and took pictures with my camera phone. I especially like the special exhibit they had of the Getty Commodore busts. Sorry, no pics as it was a special exhibit and camera was a no-no.

Go here to visit The Getty virtually and here for my pics.

Taliesin West

I got the opportunity to stay in Phoenix for the weekend. What to do? What to do?

While having breakfast at I-Hop, I perused a visitors guide that I got from my hotel. It had a great article about Frank Lloyd Wright, the architect. It pointed out the many buildings that were located in the Phoenix area, especially his winter school.

That's what I decided to do. Visit Taliesin West.

I went on the $32 tour which lasted about 2 hours. The guide showed us Mr. Wright's office, living room where the students gathered (no pictures permitted), his bedroom (no pictures permitted), large theatre and small theatre and the grounds.

The guide, Jason Silverman, was great. He was a great storyteller. Jason took the tour when he was little. I guess it touched his muse that he decided to attend the school and decided later to show his love by became a tour guide.

Here are pictures I took: 2009 Taliesin West. The last picture in the slideshow is not part of Taliesin West. It happens to be another structure that Mr. Wright designed and sits in a shopping strip.

Now I have a yearning to visit Taliesin in Illinois, Falling Water in Pennsylvania and the Guggenheim in New York. Hopefully, I can do the Guggenheim, which is just across the river from me, before it's special tribute to Frank Lloyd Wright is over.

Have you visited something that called your muse?

Yes, It Was Team Building

Wednesday was Veterans Day -- remembering those who have passed, who have served and who serve now to ensure we are safe and free. Some companies observe by closing and some companies do not. It's business as usual. As it was still a work day for my team and our client had the day off, we did something totally different. It was the last week for one of our valued team members. So it was decided that it would be a team building day. That's what I'm calling it and sticking to it.

We gathered in the hotel lobby at 10:30am and away we went -- heading east into the Tonto National Forest. Hour and half later we reached our destination.

1st stop... Tortilla Flat for lunch. It's been a long time since the team enjoyed a meal together. A very interesting establishment. The walls were covered in dollar bills. I understand they no longer accept them for wall decor. Plus, the bar stools were saddles.

2nd stop... Dolly Steamboat for 1 1/2 excursion in Canyon Lake to see nature and possibly wildlife. We joked about being stranded on one of the islands. The second song that was played after safety spiel was Gilligan's Island song. I'm sure the youngsters on the boat did not get the funny. We did see a big horn ram up high on a ridge, a heron and lots flora and interesting rock formations. It was a nice relaxing ride.

Final stop... Gold Fields Ghost Town. I walked around to check the town out. I noticed that many of the members were disappearing. I saw one member enter a building and he never came back out. I finally headed into the saloon. Yep, the rest of the team were in the saloon wetting their whistles.

I and two other members headed back to the hotel. While the rest headed to a local team member's home to check out a horse or two.

It was a great relaxing day away from the grind. Check out the pictures I took.

Mairzy Doats

Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey
A kiddley divey too, wouldn't you?
Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey
A kiddley divey too, wouldn't you?

No, I did not lose my mind. It's just memories surfacing again.

I came all the way to LA to hear news about New York Central Park Zoo. They have new lambs. The lambs made me remember the song above.

I was on vacation on my first visit to Walt Disney World, mid to late 80's. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Maingate outside of WDW. They had entertainment each night in the hotel. Without fail, the entertainer would sing the above song. I think it was either his opening or ending.

That was a fun vacation.

If you don't get the lyrics, here's another part of the song...

If the words sound queer and funny to your ear, a little bit jumbled and jivey,

Sing "Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy."

And if I remember right, the entertainer had a lamb puppet ... or am I mixing it with the Shari Lewis and Lamp Chop.

Weekend in Phoenix

Some people think my job is great because I get to travel to cities. Yes, the perks are good because I can build up for free hotel and free air travel, but I don't get to really see the city I go to. I don't get to play tourist unless I book time to do it. I get up early and work late to get my hours in for the week and then fly home.

I've been working in Phoenix for over a year. The most I've seen is what is between the hotel and my client's office. Last week, I needed to put in five days of work at the client site versus my usual four days. I still crammed a lot in the four days and felt okay leaving early on Friday. The hotel shuttle driver happen to mention there was a chinese cultural center north of the airport. So, off I went to go visit it.

The COFCO Chinese Cultural Center is not very big. I would say it was about two blocks by two blocks. They had a great garden in the front. In the back, there were some shops, restaurants and a big asian market. I think it was run by the same folks that do Ranch 99 that is found in Monterey Park, LA area. What I found neat about the market... They did something different in the seafood area than I'm use to. Yes, you pick sea food, they weigh it and they will clean it for you. Unlike other places that may steam it for you, this place did flash frying, It was neat. Click the Moon Gate image for more pictures I took.

On Saturday, I took a drive up to Sedona to see the red rocks up close and personal. I think I found all the ones that people generally take pictures of. Sedona has changed a lot since I last visited about 17 years ago. You can actually see the sprawl. One of the main roads in, Highway 179, was under major construction. They are working to expand it into a four lane highway I think. Instead of traffic lights, they have instituted traffic circles, aka roundabouts. Cars go round and round in a circle because they don't know when to exit. While the cars on the outside don't know how to get into the circle. I think we, New Jersey, have gotten rid of all of them except for one. Click the Rear View Mirror for other pictures I took.

Sunday was somewhat a day of rest. Nothing exciting. I did take a nap in the late afternoon :D

At Last, Disneyland

I finally had to do it. I missed Disneyland so much. In the prior years, I would visit the place at least 5 times a year.

It was destiny. The moons were aligned. I could not fly on client's dime so Continental had a great deal. My work schedule even accomodated my visit.

I flew out early Saturday morning, Sept 15, got upgraded to First Class, enjoyed a great breakfast and landed in Los Angeles 10am. I got my rental car and headed straight to Disneyland. I met my friend and her 4 year old grandson. We rode Space Mountain, Matterhorn Bobsleds, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, Alice in Wonderland, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Peter Plan's Flight, and Pirates of the Caribbean. After returning the kid to his Daddy, we hit Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, had dinner at Cafe Orleans and ended our day with "Remember... Dreams Come True" Fireworks.

On Sunday, after a bit of shopping, I headed back to the park. I did a bit more shopping I picked up all the pins I've missed for the last several months. My poor credit card I tried to catch the Disney's Aladdin (a musical show) at Disney's California Adventure (DCA) park, but they only had seats in the balcony. I didn't want to sit there because you miss some stuff. Instead, I checked out Disney's candy corn decor (see pictures) -- very cute. I headed back to Disneyland and caught Billy Hill and the Hillbillies. I had dinner at the French Market (yummy fried chicken). I then got my spot for Fantasmic. It was very handy to have my PDA and MP3 so I able to entertain myself for 2 hours before the show started. It's a ritual at the park to stake out your place. There are no more good spots an hour before the show.

Monday arrives and it's my last day here. I got up at 6am so I could be in the same time zone as my colleagues on the East Coast. I finished up work at 4pm. Guess what? I headed back to the park. LOL No worries. I'm an annual passholder and can go in and out as many times as I want. I caught High School Musical 2: School's Out at DCA and found additional candy corns that I missed. At DLR, I caught Billy Hill and the Hillbillies again. I ended my trip with Parade of Dreams. Then off to the airport to catch my redeye flight to home.

Now I got to plan my next trip. Definitely have to head back there in December for their Christmas decor.

Las Vegas Weekend - The Start

We went to Las Vegas because my sis wanted to see this place. I saw Las Vegas over 10 years ago. I decided on the trip because I needed one more round trip to maintain my airline frequent flyer status. It happened to work out because Delta lowered their fares and all airlines followed suit. YIPPEEE!!! Plus we heard alot about the Cirque du Soleil shows that reside in Las Vegas.

My sis and I hopped onto a plane early Friday morning -- destination Las Vegas, Nevada. When we got downstairs at McCarran International Airport to catch the tram between the D Gates and the Terminal 1, we were greeted by these guys

Of course, when we saw the Scorpion, we both thought it was some turds until we got closer. The other one is the Horny Toad. I somehow lost the picture I took of the Mojave Rattlesnake. Darn camera was acting up. These sculptures are the creation of David Phelps. They are made of cast concrete and were installed in D Gates in 1999. Mr. Phelps had five on display. Alas, we never found the Blacktailed Jackrabbit.

We took an airport shuttle to our hotel for the weekend -- Stratosphere. The Stratosphere is located on the north end of the strip. The Stratosphere is known for it's Tower which has a revolving restaurant and three thrill rides. If we had stay longer, we may have tried some of the restaurants here, but it was just a place for us to rest our heads after a long day. The only thing I used at the hotel was Starbucks. Though I did not get the chance to try the Starbucks located in the highest point, in the Tower.

Until the landscape changes again, you can say the Las Vegas Strip starts at Mandalay Bay (south) and ends at the Stratosphere (north). And, it will change as I saw at least three more construction projects going on. The Strip is 4 miles.

After checking into our room -- yes, the hotel had a room ready for us at 11am -- my sis caught up on some shut eyes and I skimmed all the materials about the Strip. As our first show was at the other end of the strip, I thought it would be a great idea to start our tour at the southern part of the strip -- Manadalay Bay. I chose the Trolley as our form of transportation -- $6.50 and you can hop on and off as often as you like for the day. In concept, the Trolley sounded like a great way to see Las Vegas. The problem was that the traffic on Las Vegas Boulevard is horrendus. By the time we got off at New York-New York, it was an hour later. It would most likely have taken another half hour to get to Mandalay Bay.

Since we were at New York-New York, we decided to have a late lunch. We roamed around the Village Eateries (food court) to see what tempted us. We finally decided on Jody Maroni's -- hotdogs. We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge to get to the footbridge between New York-New York and MGM Grand.

M&M World is located close to the MGM Grand. Do you know it is four floors? Yes, it does. One wonders what can take up four floors. First, the allocated floor space is not really that big. We went through all four floors. We even sat and watched "I Lost My M", a free short 3-D movie after going through a small display on the making of M&M's.

As our show was at the MGM Grand and we still had time to kill, time to roam through MGM Grand. We spent some time watching the two lioness in the Lion Habitat.

One of them as actually sitting on top of the human tunnel that runs through the habitat. There were some people who were actually interested in watching the underside of a lioness who was chewing on rawhide. We tried to follow the signs to the shops in the hotel. This was a first lesson on signage. It will not give you the direct route to your desired destination. It will weave you through the casino so you can feel the vibes -- "Come play me. You know you want to." As for the shops, nothing that really interests us except for the Starbucks -- two Caramel Macchiatos. There are actaully three of them on the ground floor.

It's time for the show. The MGM Grand is home to Cirque du Soleil's KA. This production is totally different from the ususal Cirque du Soleil shows. It actually tells a story that you can understand. The stage happens to be a "gantry", a 25x50 rectangle suspended on a boom. The boom allows the stage to be raised, lowered, tilted and rotated. Rarely is the show done on 180 degree stage. The show is outstanding and I highly recommend you catch this show when you're in Las Vegas. You can go here to see tidbits about the show -- KA videos. Cirque du Soleil's website also provides information about the show. I went through the site last night

After the show, we checked out some of the other hotels/casinos. The Excalibur, Luxor and Mandalay Bay are connected by a free monorail. We headed to the Excalibur to catch the monorail to Mandalay Bay. We walked through there to the Shark Reef. By the time we got there, we were no longer interested. So we walked back. We thought we were heading back to the monorail to catch it for the Luxor, but wound up walking there. Luxor is a very interesting hotel as it is a pyramid. From the Luxor, we happen across moving walking ways to get us back to the Excalibur. There was nothing special in these hotels. I think it has to do with it being a long day. We headed back across to New York-New York as we knew where the Trolley stop was. It took the Trolley an hour and 40 minutes to get us back to our hotel and it did not even make all it's stops. Did we have dinner? No, we were just too tired to eat. Bed looked very inviting. The feet agreed.

Stay tune for the end of the weekend.