Wow, been a while since I've written. Totally my bad. I've been everywhere and nowhere it seems. So let's go back...
To Dallas...
This was a quick trip. Got there Sunday night. Taught Monday and Tuesday and got an early flight back to NJ on that Tuesday. Didn't see much of the city, but I barely had time to. I did manage to eat fried pickles with Cynthia and her husband, so that was cool.
To Newark and New York City....
November 1st, that was a crazy day. Started the morning driving to Newark, NJ and parking at the Hilton. (21 bucks for the day) Took the Path to NYC then hightailed it up to midtown where I taught a class all day. From there, back downtown to meet Marlene. Dinner in the city. Then the Path back to Newark to the new Prudential Arena where we saw Mr. Bon Jovi in one of apparently 4000 shows he was doing at the new center (it was actually 10 shows, but seemed like 4000). The show opener was Gretchen Wilson, and then the concert, which was pretty cool. The new Newark arena isn't bad also, plenty of cops around and plenty of parking. In fact, it was the quickest I ever got out of a concert in terms of traffic too, go figure.
To Phoenix...
3 days later, on Nov 4th, I was back on a plane to Phoenix. Stayed at the Hyatt downtown. Nice place too. Had dinner a block from the hotel the first night. The second night I had dinner at the revolving restaurant at the top of the hotel, pretty darned cool. The third night, I had dinner at the Omaha Steak restaurant on the other side of town, picked up some hiking equipment, and went to the apple store.
There, I had my iPod Touch replaced. For some odd reason, the letters "S" and "E" would not work on the keyboard. Go figure. Luckily, they replaced it on the spot, which is why it's sometimes cool to buy stuff online. The receipt is always up there. Also, I picked up a 4GB nano because it's nice and small, and better for the travelin' part. As it turned out, Marlene now has possession of the touch. The Nano is good. Good for hiking too, because...
On the last day, I had some free time before I flew out that afternoon at 5PM. So, for fun, I got up at sunrise and hiked Piestewa Peak Summit Trail. The official description:
Trail #300 - Summit Trail
Length: 1.2 miles
Elevation: 2,608 ft. - 1,400 ft. (hikers gain more than 1,200 feet in elevation on this trail)
Hiking trail only
Difficulty: Moderate to difficult
So it was a cool way to start the day. Used the new nano on the hike too, (which I had loaded up the night before with 100 songs). It is a steep trail, but I found it a little easier than Camelback, which I had hiked last year. This might be because I'm in a little bit of better shape than last year though. Spent a while at the peak where I just sat on a rock listening to music and relaxing with the view. The night before, I bought was waistpack made for hiking that was great for the hike, it held everything I needed. Also picked up weightlifting gloves as I tend to cut myself on rocks and wanted the extra coverage.
Next, went back to the hotel, showered, checked out, and made my way over to Chase Field (home of the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team) for a tour. Not a bad way to spend an hour and a half. I had lunch at a TGI Fridays that was actually IN the park too. In fact, my table overlooked left field. Really cool. Food was eh, location was A+.
The rest of the day was spent at...Target. Go figure, but I needed a case for the new nano. From there, back to the airport, and eventually back home. I think that flight was one of the few on time. Oh yeah, it was. The bitchy part was Newark airport itself. In fact I had landed early, then slow baggage return and a semi functioning monorail (they were not running regularly) had me spending another 1.5 hours at the airport. So yes, Newark Airport officially sucks.
A few happy days were spent at home, but I was busy cleaning for most of it. Started the process of moving the home office from the living room (a sort of dumb place for it to be) up to the study (a better place for it to be)
To Detroit/Grand Rapids...
That next Tuesday, I was back to Newark. Lots of cars there, so I had to park in lot P1 instead of the normal P3 lot (ugh). The flight was quick (1 hour) and I was in Detroit. Hopped a cab to the city. Stayed at the Courtyard Marriott literally across the street from GM's world headquarters. So, I wandered over there, and found, uh, Canada. Literally, it was across the river. I hadn't seen Canada since my early 20's so this was cool. Also checked out some of GM's HQ and had a sushi dinner in the lobby there, where a Marriott hotel (another one, not the one I was staying at) is. Did you know that Detroit has a monorail? Well, they call it a peoplemover, but it's the same idea. I took it around, stopped at a casino too. Uhh, it was interesting. (More on this later)
Taught the next day 3 blocks from the hotel, and got a lift to the airport. They seem to like monorails in Detroit. There was one actually IN the airport that went from one end of the terminal (it was really big) to the other. Hopped a very quick (25 minutes! The flight went like this. "We have reached cruising altitude/We are beginning our initial descent into Grand Rapids, oh heck, don't bother getting out of your seats") flight to Grand Rapids. Landed and got a nice lift (a town car for only 37 bucks!) to the Amway Grand Plaza hotel. Nice hotel. I had dinner there and almost made it an early night, but I wound up finally finishing book 7 of Harry Potter.
Taught the next day and met Nicole, her husband, and the very new to this world Sara for dinner. They took me around Grand Rapids (nice town) and even past the World Headquarters for the Amway Corporation and back to their very nice house for dinner. I can die now. All I have set to accomplish has been achieved. Dinner was great, and a very nice change from restaurants.
While back at the hotel (also owned by the Amway dudes), I realized that I was across the river from the Gerald Ford Library (but didn't have time to go there) and that the airport in Grand Rapids is the Gerald Ford Airport. Who knew?
Flew back home (finally on the 16th of November) and continued cleaning.
I few days later, I learned that Detroit was the most dangerous city in America. This would explain why I felt odd when I was walking around Detroit by myself and the town was desolate. Hmmm, let this be a lesson kids, don't do things that I do!
Now that was a busy 4 weeks. I'm glad I'm home...
