Bicycling Aland

Aland is not really an easy place to get to, despite the 3 ferry lines which pull into port. We decided the cheapest way to go was by Viking line, which is kind of like the Silja line, but cheaper. It's a bit like comparing royal caribbean with carnival. Anyway, the catch was that the ferry arrives in Mariehamn at 4:30 am and on the return trip, leaves at 11:45 at night. Everything in Mariehamn, as we discovered, opens around 10 am and closes around 6pm. Anyway.

Boarding at the Helsinki pier was a breeze. Easy to pick up our ticket, which is also our door card, really no visible security check. The cruise over was fun. We grabbed a beer and from our high vantage point on the deck (remember most of Helsinki is only around six stories tall) enjoyeda nice view of the city and harbour as we cruised out in the late afternoon. Of course as the night ot later, the hordes of drunk Scandinavians and Russians shouted and sang in the halls well into the AM. Interestingly, I read that it is the ability of the ferry lines to sell duty free goods (read: super cheap booze) which allow the lines to operate profitably. We were woken up by the staff at 4 am and made our way to the exit door. There were about five other people getting off the boat at this early hour, so they decided it was too much trouble to extend the boat dock bridge so they took us down to the car deck and we threaded our way along the parked cars and cargo trucks in the lower deck. They dropped open the back of the boat, the massive driving hatch and we walked down and jumped out to the concrete pier.

It was pretty cool, like jumping out of the military boat or something. It was early morning light, and everything was still and blue. The other passengers dispersed, most of them had rides. I think they get many tourists disembarking this late at night/early in the morning. We walked along the empty streets for awhile. It's a small town, quiet, mostly residential. The town of Mariehamm is stretched the full width of the narrow peninsula, which is about a twenty minute walk from shore to shore. We walked towards the center of town, carrying our luggage with us. The main drag had a large median/park lined with huge shade trees and we walked along, getting odd stares from the very few cars out at that time of the morning. One of them pulled over and the guy inside asked us where we were going. I told him we were heading up to a hotel up the road. I didn't really know if they would be open or have anyone at the desk this early, so we were just killing time. He offered to give us a ride and took us up to the Hotel Arkipelag, the swanky hotel of the island.

By this point, I began to figure out that Aland was more popular with older, wealthier Scandinavians as the principal activities were sailing, yachting, and fishing. As such, the typical tourist flew into town from the airport and stayed at hotel Arkipelag. Our kind driver chatted with us a bit and suggested we wait in the "beautiful lobby" of Hotel Arkipelag, have some free coffee, and rest until the town began to wake up. He dropped us off and waited while we went to the front door of the hotel. Locked. The driver parked his car in the middle of the road and walked over to the front door. He rang the buzzer impatiently and waited for the sleepy looking night clerk to open the door. He explained in rapid Swedish our general situation (or so I assume, it could have been "let these suckers stay here, maybe they'll decide to get a room"), and then said to us in English that it was ok, we could go in. We thanked him again, this really odd guy, and he drove off. We parked ourselves on one of the couches and broke out our reading material.

The front of the lobby was all glass, and the hotel was on the coast, so we could see across to the pier. There were a small group of mostly drunk revelers milling around and giving their farewells to one another. Remember that in Europe partying until 4 am is typical, and that less than five hours ago it was friday night, so it should not be surprising. After the group dispersed, however, there was a figure who remained.

This young gentleman was fashionably dressed, and was so drunk he was basically heel-toeing it along the street in front of the hotel. Apparently he didn't have anywhere else to go either, or was too drunk to get there. It was like watching one Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks. He would take a hesitant step forward or two, and then one back, visibly trying to keep his balance. At one point, he openly relieved himself in middle of the street. (That was one of the really surprising things, when Finns get drunk, they tend to pee anywhere and everywhere).

Anyway, we had some vending machine coffee, and finally around 7 am we wandered out. We spent about two hours wandering around. The hotel we were supposed to stay at looked frankly abandoned. No one answered doors, and the lobby looked like it was being renovated. I called them with my cell phone a few times before I finally got connected. It's a bit complicated- there are several hotels on the island owned by the same group, and apparently the hotel I booked gets combined with the other hotel for certain months of the year. The website, however, did not mention this fact, nor did the hotel booking staff I spoke to on the phone. The hotel I thought we were staying at would not open for another month. Thank God I had my phone.

We spent about an hour in front of a famous church in the middle of the town, sitting on a park bench, napping and watching the birds fight in the bird bath. Finally, we found the hotel, about a five minute walk from where we got off the boat in the first place about five hours prior. Tired and hungry, we ate a huge breakfast at the hotel restaurant.

They were open all night. They felt bad, so they gave us an upgraded room with a view of the harbor. It was a nice seaside hotel. Thick red drapes to keep out the sunlight, Scandinavian design. Lots of motorcycles and middle age Europeans. That's the other thing people do here, they bring their motorcycles and tool around the scenic roads around the archipelago.

We walked to the bike rental shop, stopping for a quick visit by the tourist information center. We wanted to do some bicycling, which was highly recommended in the guide book, and they suggested some places nearby we could bicycle. Easy trips, in other words. We went on to the bike rental place, Ro-No, and picked up two bikes for about 15 bucks a day each. We talked to the rental guy, a young guy who probably did this as a summer job. We asked him about biking up to the ruins of Kastelholm castle, and he said it was very possible to make it there and back in a single day. That sounded pretty cool, so we set out, Saori leading.

Biking in Aland is incredibly easy, there are well-marked biking trails, its relatively flat riding, and incredibly beautiful. We happened to be there at just the right time as all the wildflowers were in bloom, and they were blooming everywhere. We alternated riding through forests of pine and birch, and meadows of grasses of wildflowers. The weather was beautiful and sunny. We stopped at an old church and took some photos before passing on. Saori's bike tire was flat, so we stopped at sporting goods shop and the shopkeeper generously let me use their bathroom and then helped Saori fill up her tires with air from her car's compressor pump. She recommended we fill up at the gas station at the tiny village up ahead which had some gas stations and a large general store like a kmart. We biked on. We stopped for snacks and water at the store, which was kind of fun to poke through. One of the only stores in that part of the archipelago, it was basically a wal-mart. What they sold told of a hard lifestyle, especially in the wintertime. After about four hours of riding and breaks we finally crested the hill and saw the ruined castle.

The historic ruins were pictureesque against the stream and water around it, and there was a small group of people lunching in the green park in front of it. We spent about an hour exploring the ruins and resting. It was not that exciting, and the renovation work made the experience much more Disneyland. It was beautiful and pastoral, however, and the journey made the trip well worth it.

It was just amazing and wonderful bicycling, the island flying by around you, the wind in your hair, sun on your back, and surrounded by picture perfect pastoral nordic landscape. Playing tag with Saori on our bikes, and signaling to each other with our cheerful bike bells. Bicycling in Aland was the standout highlight of my time in Finland. On the way back, we stopped at a cafe on top of rock knob overlooking one of the narrow straits and inlets between the islands. Absolutely amazing view, great little cafe, we got a piece of cake and split it, sitting outside in the sun, high above the archipelago which spread out far below us. We got back to Mariehamm too late to return the bikes. So we pedaled our way to the hotel and locked our bikes up there.

The bike locks are very interesting. They are small locks that basically prevent the rear wheel from turning by putting a piece of metal between the spokes. And that's it. There's really nothing but propriety from preventing people from picking up the bike and stealing it. But it's convention, just like people used to leave their cars and houses unlocked. Anyway, we were both absolutely beat from our marathon ride. We were on bike for probably six hours, and I was chafing like a motherf***er. My knees were in bad shape too, so we opted to walk to dinner. By then, most of the restaurants had either closed or were closing, (by the way, Aland's hours pretty much are 9am to 6pm, good luck finding anything open at any other time) but we were able to get a takeout pizza and calzone which ended up being pretty good. (and pretty expensive; other than the bikes, everything was spendy). After dinner we went back to the hotel and passed out from exhaustion.

Nordic Ninjas and Finnish Meatballs

This morning, we hauled a giant box of Saori's clothes to the post office and mailed it to the US. It was the hottest day of the season so far, and the tourists and natives were out in force for the warm sunshine. We stopped at the Russian Orthodox church for a quick peek, surrounded by throngs of buzzing tourists who were happily snapping away ignoring the "no photography" icons everywhere. The chruch interior was not that impressive, I have to say, not nearly as impressive as the creative and beatuiful brickwork which made up the exterior. There was something about the simple material of the humble red brick, which cut, mitered, and moulded in various forms and laid in various bonds that created an awesome, elegant classical Russian church. The red brick really set off the green patina of the copper roof and the bright brassy gold of the onion domes and crosses.

After hiking back to Saori's apartment, we ate breakfast, cleaned up, packed up, and moved our convoy of luggage across town to a classmate of Saori's. Because Saori is staying later than the contract with her landlady, we found it cheaper to temporarily live in one of her classmate's studio's who will be staying for much longer. It's a different part of the city, so it feels more like a hotel than the very lived in feel of Saori's apartment.

This afternoon, we stopped for a light lunch of goat cheese and fig salad at Nolla, a really cool restraunt and bar close to kamppi. Finnish designer chairs and light fixtures, good food, and apparently it becomes a DJ'd dance club thursday through saturday nights.

After Nolla, we walked towards the church in the rock, one of the main tourist destinations in Helsinki. Since Saori has been here, it has been closed for remodeling, cleaning, whatever, but as we approached, the tourist busses lined up in front gave us a good idea that this was no longer the case. The church itself is a broad round space, enircled by the rough granite walls which rise all the way up to the ceiling. It was originally a granite stone mound, which had the church literally blasted into it. The entire space is capped with a shallow dome created from dozens of concrete spokes radiating away from the center of the dome. Glass between the copper roof and the rock walls allows light to to fall all around the perimeter.

Our next stop was a quick spin through the Finnish national musuem, which related a chronicle of the Finns living quietly and peacefully in ancient forests and tranquil lakes and rivers until western civilization in the form of the Sweedes, the Holy Church, and the Russians pretty much put made it a ragdoll in a three-way tug of war for most of recorded history. Unfortunately, we ran out of time before we got to more contemporary history, where silent, fast, white coated Finnish ski patrols took out Russian troops like a nordic ninjas.

It was a bit early for dinner when they kicked us out of the museum, so we stopped for a drink at a cafe in Chiasma, the iconic Holl project. My throat's been bothering me since I've been having some drainage issues and I got some tea to help soothe my throat. Afterwards, we walked over to Kuukuu for the Nice Helsinki Dinner. KuuKuu was the restaurant that Saori's architecture studio went to after final reviews, and apparently many of the big names in Finnish design also walked through the door while they were there. I ordered the Finnish meatballs and a glass of pinot noir, and Saori got the pan-seared liver. The meatballs were delicious. Best meatballs I've ever had. Served with gravy, lingonberries, and mashed potatoes, it compares to Ikea's dish like Ikea's furnature compares to the original scandinavian furnature designers'. Amazing. We finished the meal with the traditional Finnish desert of chocolate lava cake. Also, rather delicious.

get low

The length of the day here in Helsinki takes some getting used to. It only really feels like its starting to get dark around 11 at night, and the only time it's really dark is around midnight. By three AM, the sky is already getting light again. So in a way, its very nice- the extended dusk and sunset means that it stretches out time that can be spent outdoors. Saori and I took a walk a few nights ago after 10, and it was still very light out, just wandering around the peninsula that she lives on. It's past 10:30 here, and there's still direct light on most of the building across the plaza.

On the flip side, I'm very sensitive to light when I'm sleeping, so Saori lent me her sleeping mask and I pretty much have to use it if I want to sleep.

Saori's roommates have both left, so Saori and I have the place to ourselves. Well, and the ancient, half-blind cat.

There is something very understated about Helsinki, which I understand is a characteristic of Finnish culture and national character. It wasn't until yesterday afternoon, when we went to the cafe on top of the 12 story tall Toroni tower that I realized how low-rise the city of Helsinki really is. When you think about it, 12 stories in a capital city is nothing. My apartment in Buenos Aires was taller than this tower. However, the convention of the city keeps almost every building at or below six stories. There is something really nice about this as you get a lot of light and sky- it makes for a much more open feeling street level. At the same time, there is also a pretty high density since the buildings take up everything they can up to that six story height limit.  It contributes to this feeling of quaintness to Helsinki, like a pre-elevator city.

From my limited stays in Oslo and Stockholm over five years ago, Helsinki strikes me as the most laid back and least cosmopolitan of those scandinavian cities. Its character is hard to define-  There's the beaux arts and neoclassical architecture in the faded pastel hues of Tsarist Russia as well as a tendency towards the rustic and rough hewn granite. But the atmosphere is more bucolic and nearly provincial- its much cleaner, much more friendly, and much less tense than St.Petersburg. The lowness of the city and the way the people here interact with the city and the outdoors kind of reminds me of downtown Salt Lake City, although at much higher density. Pretty much the entire city is between four and six stories.

 Lots of public space. Plazas abound for a city that is covered with snow and ice most of the year. On a sunny day like today, Finlanders flocked to the sidewalk cafes and lounged at the outdoor tables in a Parisian style. Actually, they're pretty much everywhere outside- in the parks, on benches, on monuments, on the steps of the churches... When I last passed through Scandinavia, hurting from the high VAT, especially as a backpacker, I saw people everywhere lounging out of doors on those summery days. I immediatly jumped to the conclusion that the Scamdinavians, as I called them back then, were living the good life in welfare states, lounging off the of tax dollars of visitors. Actually, they are hard workers who genuinely care for workmanship, and who can blame them for wanting to enjoy the limited sunshine and summer that they get?

NOLA

It's wednesday night in NOLA (New Orleans LA), and I'm sipping a hurricane from a plastic cup. New Orleans is one of the places in the country where you can walk around with booze as long as its not in a glass container, and bars stay open pretty much as long as they want to. This particular hurricane came from Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop, one of the oldest buildings in the French Quarter, although I have difficulty believing that the bar was founded by the pirate Jean Lafitte. However, I have come to appreciate the role myth plays in architecture. After all, it is entirely possible that he did found it. Anyway, at this bar, we got into a discussion with two gentlemen who told us that this was in fact the case, and furthermore, that this was the best place to get a Hurricane in the Vieux Carre, and specifically, that one should always drink it through the straw with the least mixing possible. Of course, one of them was a tour guide, and the other was a horse and buggy driver. 

The vieux carre is terrible driving. Every other street is one way, and often streets are blocked off. Which is why, one night coming back from a day of touring, I found myself going the wrong way down a narrow one way street. And of course, with our professor's warning about getting arrested in New Orleans (not advised. They put everyone they arrest in one large room together) we of course are doing this creative driving right in front of a cop. Amazingly, he doesn't follow us or pull us over. We probably just looked like the stupid lost tourists we were. 

The night we got into town, we walked to Cafe duMonde a few blocks away. We split a bunch of beignies and just about died. To call them doughnuts would be profane. Sweet, chewy, flakey, fluffy, warm, and coated with powered sugar, so we all end up with these crazy white powder grins like we're coke fiends. 

We wandered around cemetery one, just north of the vieux carre, and all the elevated mausoleums. What does the XXX signify on the walls of the voodoo priestesses? 

Monday night red beans and rice for dinner one night, take out from the counter at the back of a vieux carre 24 hour corner convenience store. Cheapest meal I've had here, including breakfasts.

Jumbalaya Supreme at Coops, including crawfish, smoked ham, shimp, and sausage. Served with a cold local beer. Wow. Spicy. Delicious. 

We did do one night on Bourbon street. Fascinating street, I don't need to do it again anytime soon. A bit of Vegas on a small scale. I was reminded of the hedonistic town for the boys in the Disney movie Pinnochio. We went to a bar called "The Beach" where there was a rodeo whale ride behind the stage, a fat, annoying dude with a mic wandering around trying to boost booze sales, and $5 bottles of bud light. Bit of dancing. Didn't stay too long.

The hotel is cute, two floors, two courtyards. There's four of us to a room, sharing two queen sized canopy beds. Hotel Provincial. Great location, valet parking, a few blocks from Jackson square. 

Tonight I walked to canal street in the rain, and kept walking looking for a bus shelter from which I could catch the St.Charles st streetcar line. Until I realized that they were marked by small narrow signs on a few poles. The street cars are great. Old clanking bits of metal and wood. Reminds me of the street cars of Lapa in Rio. Wood seats, light bulbs. But so slow. I could probably walk faster than these cars. Oh well, just part of the way of life of the big easy. A massive woman in silver paint, a professional human statue, advised me where to get off to meet Ayumi and Tim, Saori's sister and brother-in-law, for dinner. They took me to eat some good Lebanese food, and then were kind enough to drive me back to my hotel. 

First day, we stopped by a po'boy restaurant. Good stuff. Expensive. Tell me, why does a Poor Boy cost $9? Is it because that's what you are after you buy them. The fried shrimp were dancing out of that po'boy though.

Lectures and discussions by a parade of notable luminaries where the fields of architecture, urbanism, politics, sociology, economics, geological/hydrological history, landscape, and drainage intersect. Where it is crucial to distinguish the difference between hydrology and hydrography. More than a few have offered to buy our acrylic model of the topography of the city of New Orleans. We'd be idiots to sell it.

Pumps. Lots of pumps. Tours of the pumps that keep the city of New Orleans from drowning in rainwater, groundwater, and storm surges. Pumps that are mysterious and silent, pumps that can cripple the city if they fail. 

At New Orleans University, we were threatened with arrest if we didn't climb down from the floodwall by the old lighthouse.  

Highlights from the UK pt. I

I'm finally back stateside, in Ponca city, Oklahoma, after nearly two weeks in the UK. So far I've been through no less than eight airports, and I can tell you that I am so incredibly happy to be driving the eight hour trip to St.Louis tomorrow morning.

Broadly, I spent a few days in the villages around London, a few days in London, a few more days of villages and towns, a few days in Edinburgh, and a few more days in London. My favorite moments from the trip:

• Wandering the cobblestone streets and alleys of Oxford, which were dark, misty, and severe with the gothic architecture of the ancient campus spires looming overhead.
• Christ Church College in Oxford, which was an amazing campus which was the inspiration for Hogwarts with a dining hall lined with with the glowering portraits of the famous graduates including Kings and Queens of England. We were one of the last people admitted to see it, and we got trapped in a loop for awhile looking for the exit. Wandering around the giant courtyards, cathedrals, halls, and arcades in the dark punctuated by sparse lanterns was really wonderful.
• Buttermarket square in Canterbury is where three narrow streets lined with old shops and pubs come together at the gate to Canterbury cathedral. It felt right out of the middle ages.
• Canterbury Cathedral was is a phenomenal piece of architecture, a unique cathedral split into three levels, with the nave two flights of stone stairs up to the apse. Not one, but two crossings, and cavernous crypts. An extremely contentious site in the history of Christianity in England.
• The Tower of London: taking the tour, wandering the grounds, walking the battlements, the Crown Jewels.
• Starting the new years eve early with several pints with Tay and Brit at the Albion Pub in downtown London, not far from St.Pauls Cathedral.
• New Years Eve in Central London.
• Brit got us a hotel about two minutes from the embankment on the Thames, right across from the London Eye, which is where they shot off the fireworks. Walking back to the hotel after drinks at the pub, there were already huge patrols getting set up to handle the crowds, errecting barricades at various street junctures. The deal was that there were several areas along the Thames that were designated firework viewing areas, and later that night, at a selected time or when a viewing area reached a certain population, the barricades would go up and no one else would be allowed inside. Our hotel gave us a pass that allowed us passage through the barricade like a VIP.
• We got to our hotel fine, where there was already a huge line for the Sherlock Holmes pub next door. We hung out in our hotel room for awhile and then Tay and I set out for food around 9pm. By then, all road traffic had been blocked off, and the streets were absolutely filled with people. It was scary and exhilerating. We fought our way along the streets, looking for food with no luck.
•  First, as the heart of London is mostly government and ministry buildings (think parlement and big ben) there were limited options to begin with. The line at McDonalds stretched out the door, across the sidewalk, and across the street. Tay and I walked for awhile before calling it quits and hitting a pub for a pint so Tay could use the bathroom. By the time we got back, the viewing areas were totally full, so we had to use our pass and explain to several police that we had our hotel in there before we were allowed in.
• We picked up Brit and headed out to the Embankment at 11:40PM. The policy of crowd control was effective. It was just the right amount of people, so we could see and weren't squeezed to death. There was a DJ working the crowds and broadcasting music, and we had a great view of the London Eye and the south bank. At one minute till, a massive countdown clock was projected on a tower next to the eye and started ticking down.
• At 12:00, the biggest, best fireworks I've ever seen commenced. It was fifteen minutes of finale, huge. Disneyland times ten. They shot off fireworks from the eye and from nearby. It was fantastic. You couldn't help but be blown away. Afterwards, they played Auld Land Syne (which is Scottish, incidently) and everyone sang. Finally, we got the supreme value from the hotel by simply walking five minutes to get to our beds, where the rest of London faced a long difficult trek through congested tube and buses.
• Ghost town walk through London. I got up with Tay and Brit and after they took off, I wandered the empty streets of London at 9 am. There was not a soul in Picadilly Circus. The streets were as desolate and errily silent as 28 days later as London slept off its revelry from the night before.
• Westminister Abbey is pretty amazing mostly for its history and the dead entombed there. It is the amazon.com of notable British dead. Handel, Issac Newton, Charles Darwin. Ancient Kings and Queens including the tomb of Edward the Confessor, Elizabeth, and Mary, Queen of the Scots. More impressive than the slick St.Pauls.
• Visiting the Tate Modern which struck me more powerful as architectural space rather than art gallery.

More to come....

Tom and Becky my Mark Twain

Yesterday we had a sleepy morning since we were recovering from the long day before. We each got about 9 hours of sleep and then went to lunch at Osage Cafe at the Bowood farms close to our project site in CWE. It was a spectacularly beautiful day, cool, breezy, and sunny, and we sat by a window in front  of a planter in the giant greenhouse/warehouse while we ate. Saori ordered a delicious tomato risotto with shrimp and andouille sausage, and Yoshiko-san and I both got the 'Brie L.T." which was essentially an open sandwich with smoked canadian bacon, melted brie, and covered with arugula. Pretty good potato salad too, with a mix of red potatoes and dijon mustard.

Afterwards, we picked up Zhuli, a friend of ours from studio and drove out to Hannibal, about a 2 hour journey by car. Hannibal, birthplace of Mark Twain, is a small town with a few walkable streets in the old main street, and nearly every store and restaurant makes a reference to the author. There's a massive "Hotel Mark Twain," several musuems, dozens of stores selling books, rotating figures, and everywhere are placards and posters for Tom and Becky competitions, Mark Twain Live, Tom Sawyer steamboat adventures, and lantern tours of Mark Twain cave. We did actually want to take a lantern tour, but unfortunately we came too late in the season: the bats were already beginning their hibernation for the winter. We were able to do the regular tour of the Mark Twain cave, however.

I was kind of expecting a cave cave, like the amazing caves they have in Arizona and New Mexico, with phenomenal caverns, stalactites and stalagmites everywhere. This was a pretty staid cave. Only a few stalactites, basically a crisscrossing network of slots through the limestone. It was more of a historic cave rather than a geologic cave. Supposedly, the adventures of Tom Sawyer was semi-autobiographical and that the cave described towards the climax of the book was this actual cave, and references landmarks within the cave. Apparently, parents in the town let their kids play in the caves all the time- when the kids would go in, they would write thier name on a slate at a certain point of the cave, and when they left, they would erase it to let the rest of the people know that they got out safely. It would have been a lot of fun to run around with my friends in the darkness of the cave with nothing but a candle.

Anyway, after the cave, we drove the 2 hours back to St.Louis in the drizzling rain and enjoyed dinner at LuLu's Chinese food, which was actually pretty good.

St.Louis Day Iteneraries: 1

Start your day off early with breakfast and coffee at the Saint Louis Bread Company, which is reasonably priced with good baked good and most importantly, free wifi. Apparently, elsewhere it is known as Panera bread company, but since it got its start in this city, it kept the name.

Next stop, see the City Museum. It's around $12-15 for adults, and don't forget to factor in the $5 parking nearby, but this odd place kept us entertained for four hours, and we didn't even see the whole thing or the renowned Aquarium with the stingray petting tanks. The museum is primarily an art project composed of an urban junk yard of salvaged buildings, tanks, and bits of metal, wood, and concrete. It's interwoven as a giant vertical playground into an old shoe factory which also holds a mini-circus, curio museum, and exhibition of old architectural decoration. It was overrun with children so be forewarned, although it was expansive enough to find quiet moments and spaces. Also highlighted was the Used clothing store up on the third floor, which has great prices on retro clothing, including a $5 scarf box. We spent nearly twenty minutes in that store alone. The museum is best experienced with the eye of a young explorer as the numerous slides, ladders, creep and crawl spaces, hidden corridors, and burrowing holes tunnel through the entire complex inside and out. It left me exhausted and bruised at the end of it.

But it's now lunchtime, so head on over to Pappy's Smokehouse for a wait and some BBQ. I've only been there for lunch, but every time I've been (during the weekday) the wait is at least half an hour to 45 minutes of standing in a single line that threads through the restaurant, around the corridor, and out the door. The long line is due to the single cashier and high demand. By forcing people to put thier orders in one party at a time, the food is ready two minutes after you order it, and there's enough seating available to sit down and eat, so the whole thing works. And, its so far the best BBQ in town. The best hot links I've ever had, but not the best BBQ, which still belongs to Head Country BBQ although you'll have to go to Ponca City, Oklahoma to get it.

If you're not too sleepy after the BBQ, drive back downtown for a wander through Laclede's Landing, which is a small, cobblestone, historic district famous for Laclede landing there at some point. I'm not sure who he was or when he landed, but I was assured it was quite historic. There are a few good places to sit outside and drink, and it looked like there was also a Wax Museum nearby although we didn't check it out. It's also a good place to see the Mississippi River up close and personal, and then wander the hell away from the brown muddy flow of water and hideous Floating Casinos. From Laclede's Landing, you are only a short walk away from the Arc d'Triumph St.Louis Arch, which is kind of cool to see from the ground, and the heat and humidity and the long lines waiting to go inside make you realize that you'd rather be drinking back in Laclede's Landing.

In the heat of the day, the last place you want to go is Forest Park, but you're trying to fit in all the things I've done in St.Louis into one day, so you go there anyway. It's a very large park with a lot of walking involved, although the beautiful, classical monumental buildings set into the rolling manicured landscape will remind some of Versailles, if they have a very vague memory of Versailles. You will also not want to miss the Saint Louis Zoo, which is one of the best ranked zoos in the US according to the latest US Zoos & World Report, although we did miss it since we were pretty lost after walking around in the heat.

And if you're lost and dazed from the heat, wander over to Kayak Coffee, a colorado skiing themed coffeeshop on the corner of the park, where you can get pretty good iced coffee and more free wifi to figure out where you made that wrong turn.

Once you give up for the day as night begins to fall, you should head over to the Loop, a section of Delmar road filled with unique shops, bars, and restaurants. The loop is so called, because due to a freak accident at the SLU relativistic cyclotron in the 1970's, the end of the street actually joins back to itself through a standing wave in the temporal plane of existance. There's another Saint Louis Bread Co. as well as my favorite, Blueberry Hill, a bar/restaurant/Chuck Berry Museum/livehouse/dartroom. Real good burgers. Seat yourself and the food is pretty cheap as far as that goes.

Hermann

Yesterday morning I was browsing online, looking for cool river towns near St.Louis. Saori came into the study (wow! we have multiple rooms now!) and suggested we go do something fun, in light of the fact that we've been getting a lot of stuff done over the last week and that our lives are about to end for several years.

A few days ago, our former professor of architectural history, Dr. Thomas Morton, was passing through town on his way back to Phoenix, and he generously made time to stop and see us so we took him out to dinner at Blueberry Hill. It was a great visit, great dinner, and he mentioned that one of the things we should do is check out the German towns.

Hermann, on the Missouri river, was described as a slice of the Rhine, complete with wineries, so we headed out there. It's a little over an hour drive out, maybe an hour and a half. The drive out of St.Louis is pretty banal with the freeway hugging light industry and malls and patriotic RV dealerships, but once we got out in the country of rolling hills and farms it became very pretty. Hermann is just south of the Missouri river, which we crossed when we came into town. We stopped into the visitor center to see what was worth seeing. While I perused the fliers for the Katy trail, Saori got into a conversation with the information lady, a very friendly elderly woman who lived nearby.

She gave us a photocopied map of the town and proceeded to highlight 80% of it while describing the various attractions including:

• The nearby winery
• The farther winery
• The local brewery which only uses imported German wheat
• The local parade route
• Her house, which has a really big porch that we would be welcome to sit on in case of a passing parade.
• The old German school
• The fireman's museum
• The Antique store
• The field that the town is slowly acquiring piece by peice to turn into a state fair of some kind but its not ready yet
• two stables that may not be open because they might be closed for preparing for the fair
• Some other, distant, wineries
• Two houses open to tours, and one that is probably not open, given that they don't have central air and its a really hot day outside, and since they don't do tours in the wintertime on account of the lack of heating. 
• Where we could find ATMs at banks, because she doesn't trust those ATMs in gas stations, but that just her opinion.

On the subject of the nearby Stone Hill Winery, we were informed that all of the children of the winery owners were all going to some kind of winery school in Napa Valley, except for the youngest daughter who became a lawyer and married another lawyer and they live in New York City if you can believe that.

And speaking of children, we also got the rundown on her granddaughter, Lindsey, who is working on a nursing degree and played volleyball for Mizzou, and who worked at Hooters to make ends meet but got to travel all over the place on the Hooters bus and is also an occasional Budweiser girl, and one of those girls whose job it is to walk with celebrities down the red carpet, but who is now being trained by the coach of former US Olympic womens sand volleyball team. We were informed that she was a real go-getter, and also that she isn't even afraid of the devil himself. We also got a recommendation for a good local wine that the winery makes.

After we disentangled ourselves, and armed with our yellow map, we wandered around the town which is small, peaceful, historic, and pretty. We stopped in a junk antique store, and hit the brewery for a tasting, which was kind of fun. Saori and I hit a sampler tray with the six beers the brewery makes. They have a nice one called Skyscraper, a very light pilsner, and Saori really liked their Hefe.

Moderately mellowed out we wandered around some more in the heat, until we decided to trek up to the Stone Hill Winery. We got a few blocks in the sweltering humid heat before deciding to drive up. It was a good call. Its a long way and up a series of hills.

The winery was fun. They had a pleasant smelling and air conditioned store/warehouse, we paid $2.50 each for a wine tour of the cellars, and we got to taste their wines at the end of the tour. We ended up picking up a bottle each- Saori picked up the Stone Hill Vignoles, which is a very sweet dry white in a blue glass bottle, and I picked up my favorite, a less sweet but crisp and dry Steinberg White. The view from the winery was fantastic, looking down into the river valley dotted with German style houses and vineyards.

All in all, worth the trip. I think we'll be back down there for Octoberfest, which occurs every weekend in October (and is probably going to be packed with tourists). 

Later, reading some of the pamphlets I picked up, I read about the town's history. Apparently, it was planned and settled by a society of German immigrants in the 1830s who were dismayed by the slow disintegration of their culture in the U.S. They envisioned a new city where they could bring up their children and keep their heritage alive, and anticipated it would become one of the major cities of the U.S. The scouting committee picked the site because it reminded the leader of his homeland on the Rhine. The original settlers quickly became disillusioned and disgruntled with the realities of harsh winters and hard living in the wilderness, and eventually severed their ties to the original committee. As an urban study, it was a dream never realized.

Albuquerque

We've made our first stop on our 1400 mile journey to St. Louis- Albuquerque.

Yesterday was a very long day. A very very long day. I'll write about it later and spare you the details here, but suffice it to say we got to mom's house around 8pm filthy, exhausted, stressed out, and still in possession of the apartment on Monte Vista. We just got so behind there was no way we could do a final walkthrough, so that got added to today's plate of events.

 I had a hard time sleeping last night, after going to bed around midnight. Then, I got up at 6 AM and drove back from Awhatukee for the final cleaning and walkthrough at 7 AM. The apartment rep was nice, slightly early, and said we were good to go. Next stop was Tempe, where I picked up my old roommate Sal, who is also an architecture graduate student at ASU. We drove back to Ahwatukee, and mom made us all breakfast before we took off. Also, before we took off was the challenge of tranquilizing the cat. Our vet gave us some pills and told us to give her a quarter pill, up to twice a day, each one effective for 12 hours.

Once I got it down her, it was like we'd hit her with an elephant dart. Her eyes got really confused and sleepy, she staggered around, and rested frequently. I'd prepared a little "cat zone" in the back of the Prius with her big pillow, fresh water and food, and even her kitty litter box, but we were not even out of Phoenix before she somehow managed to jump out of the completely covered area and start making her way towards the front of the car, stumbling and sliding over the other baggage I'd stored in the backseat. She really wanted to sit in my lap, but Grandma Perkins grabbed her and held her in her lap for awhile. Finally Suki wandered into the backseat and attempted to climb into her kitty carrier, so we stopped for gas in Payson, I put her in the kitty carrier in the back seat with the door open and she quietly rested in there for the remainder of the trip. So much for the kitty class seating.

It was a beautiful drive out of Phoenix, up into Payson, but soon after we left the town, with Grandma behind the wheel, it started absolutely pouring like it does in AZ and visibility plummeted. We kept driving on slowly, keeping an eye out for cars ahead of us, and keeping a sharp eye out for our turn. When Saori and Sal came to the turn, the visibility was so poor they completely missed the sign and didn't realize after they had far passed it, so they had to detour by way of Show Low, which put them about an hour behind us.

We grabbed a bite at A&W in Holbrook, where we jointed I-40, and kept driving all the way to Albuquerque. Hit more downpours along the way, almost always the most severe weather while grandma was driving. Checked into our motel, and now I'm just waiting for Saori and Sal to arrive.

Tomorrow night: Oklahoma city.

Ten apartments

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in St.Louis and I ended up seeing ten apartments/houses/condos. These were all over the place, ranging from $950 a month down to the low $500s. Some were less than a mile from campus while others were more than five miles away. 

There was one apartment in a very sketchy neighborhood that had apparently been caught on fire by one of the former tenants, and which was a total disaster inside. This was actually the one that Saori and I had both liked based on what we saw on the internet (obviously the before photos) and the location on the map (without understanding what the neighborhoods were like).

There was a fantastic apartment, not too from campus but unfortunately located in a sketchier neighborhood, that looked essentially unchanged from the 1940s, complete with arts&crafts leaded glass doors in the bedrooms, decorative iron radiators in all the rooms, enameled iron sinks, and even the built in ice box. Not an old refrigerator, an actual piece of integral cabinetry that you would stick a big block of ice in to keep your food cold. Amazing place, cheap, I was almost sold on the charm, but the reality of having no central ac or heating tempered my excitement. If we wanted ac, we would have to put down a deposit for a window unit for each of the rooms.

I learned a lot about apartment hunting. Having never really apartment hunted outside of Phoenix, it was a new challenge. Here are some things I learned about looking for places in St.Louis

• Location, Location, Location. Old realtor's adage holds true. The city of St.Louis is ranked in the top five most dangerous and most segregated cities in the US. Some of the places I looked at were clearly in a bad area, some looked not so bad, but when I looked at crime maps of the area, were actually several times as dangerous as our current neighborhood in central Phoenix. 
• St.Louis is an old city. Most of the apartments I was looking in would count as historic buildings in Phoenix. Some were over a hundred years old. Things to check for: sufficient water pressure, updated piping, updated wiring, double pane windows.
• Parking is an issue. Some places only had street side parking. When school starts, its going to be a hairy mess. We get back home at odd hours in architecture and I don't really want to be hiking a million miles late at night, regardless of where we're living.
• We went in dead set to get a place with a washer and dryer. The reality is that unless you get a townhome with a private washer dryer in the basement, most places don't have them, since the buildings were built before the time of the washer dryer, and there's no utilities running to them.
• Rooms are a lot smaller. My current bedroom size is about 14 by 16 feet. Most places I saw had bedrooms much smaller than that, probably because people lived in smaller rooms back when things were built. There was also a great lack of storage. A few token closets in these places were maybe a foot or two deep, and there were not many of them. Much less storage space than here, unless we get a place with a basement.

Right now we're kind of playing the location game. Proximity to campus vs neighborhood safety. There's one place that we can see the crime stats that look pretty grim. Not bad at all for the city overall, but worse than the crime in our neighborhood, or even really central Phoenix. It's right by the light rail, 1.4 miles to campus, and to get to school, we would bicycle past all the old mansions lined up in front of the huge forest park. It comes with a washer and dryer in unit, wood floors, granite countertops, a nice sun room/bedroom, and an actual parking lot in the back. During the day I visited, I would not peg it as a bad neighborhood. Crime maps of St.Louis aren't reassuring. 

I did a contrasting study, I looked at the police beat where we are currently living in central Phoenix, and looked at all the crimes in January and February. There were 105 crimes, including property crimes. I did a similar study in the neighborhood we were looking to rent, in approximately the same area, and the number of crimes for the same time period was closer to 350. So, you could say that the neighborhood is three times as dangerous. Most of the crime is vehicle related- auto theft or theft from vehicles, although there is the periodic assault, robbery, and burglary. It's questionable. We're currently living in a higher crime area of Phoenix, and we take precautions here, and I think its reasonable that we could stay safe in St.Louis with further precautions, not traveling alone, not bicycling or walking home after certain hours, things like that.

The other place we're looking at the owner originaly rejected Suki, but has since negotiated a $300 pet deposit, and a slightly increased rent. It's really pretty, I really liked it and the neighborhood, the one on Tulane Ave I mentioned in my first blog from St.Louis, but the problem is 2.6 miles from campus, which pretty much means we either have to drive daily to bike since its about a mile from any public transportation. However, this old, private residential neighborhood is very safe, and I'd feel more comfortable walking around at night here.

Its a tough call. I'm leaning more towards the safer property, but I'm checking out one more place thats closer to campus than either one, in a safe neighborhood, but has no washer or dryer. We shall see.

But can't wait too long. I need to reserve the moving van before the end of the week, I'm sweating already since its not done. There's a bajillion things to coordinate, shuffle, plan, toss, and switch before we move, which would theoretically take place in about three weeks. Once I get the housing thing settled, I'll feel like I;ve got a better grasp of the situation. (although we still need to actually apply for the lease, be checked out by the landlords, and get accepted and sign the lease).

Midwestern Adventures

I've gotten to the age where I'm going to work on a travel day. I went into work this morning after packing everything last night, and Saori picked me up and drove me to the airport at 10 for my noon flight to STL. I think I must have been either one of the last people to check in, because I got an oddly good seat. I was in the last zone to board, the flight was "full" yet the row I was sitting in was empty. Maybe they filled up the plane of the regular priced seats, then all they had left were the 'upgraded' seats with a little extra legroom, and then since they overbooked, they automatically located me to this nice row. The seat they gave me was actually in the middle, but with noone left or right, I slid over to the window seat to listen to Wait Wait don't Tell me on the 2.5 hour flight over.

I was actually pretty nervous once I got off the plane. I've never rented a car before, and my printout reservation mentioned the facility potentially being off-site, so clutched my duffel and wandered around following various signs. Signs pointing to the car rental desks, signs for Budget, sign on the empty Budget desk directing me to the platform to catch the Aivs/Budget bus, signs on the busses...

It's hot and humid in STL. Reminds me of Oklahoma. Beautiful cloudy skies though, with storm clouds roiling in the skies punctuated by bright, midwestern sunshine.

Two things I forgot to bring with me. A city street map, and directions to the hotel from the car rental place. Did I say hotel? I meant "motel." I don't want there to be any confusion with a place with class. I asked the bus driver if he knew how to get to the Ramada north of the airport, and he gave me verbal directions, involving multiple twists and turns. Amazingly, I was able to get there, but first I had to get my car.

The rental was actually pretty easy despite how nervous I was. The people in STL are very friendly, at least the ones I've encountered so far. I'd pre-paid and arranged the car and the hotel as part of a package, together around $70 a day. What that got me, walking down to the very last lane of the Budget lot, was not much. I was looking at the space numbers, but this tiny little compact, looking somehow narrower than the standard car, caught my eye between two standard compact cars. This was it. A Hyundai Accent, from the car maker with a reputation for tin-foil cars. I jumped in, adjusted the mirrors and the seat, and drove off.

It took awhile to find the hotel, I actually passed it twice trying to get to it. In LA the freeway entrances and exits are hidden, in STL they are clearly marked but for some reason, damned near impossible to get to the right one. This Ramada looked like the sketchiest hotel I've been to outside of China and Eastern Europe. At the end of a short road, overlooking the airport runway, the broken asphalt and concrete parking lot was relatively empty. On my way in, I passed the hotel restaurant, offering American and Italian food, was shuttered with a sunbleached printout in the door: restaurant closed until further notice.

After waiting about 20 minutes while the desk clerk helped other people and answered phone calls, it transpired that I was not at the right Ramada. I was registered at the one three miles away. The clerk asked if I wanted to just call them to transfer me to this one. I asked the clerk how to get to the right Ramada and left, humming "On the Road Again" as I walked back out the tiny Hyundai.

I did make it to the right hotel, right next door to the sports bar and the freeway, and got my netbook set up so I could locate a bookstore and buy a freaking street atlas so I would have some clue about where the hell I was. There's a fire sprinkler head coming out of the wall near the ceiling, and next to it is a sticker of a "do not hang clotheshangers from this." The Ramada I'm staying at is actually very close to a huge Boeing complex, and the road nearby is called McDonnell.

With the help of Google, I found a convenient typical shopping center, you know, the one with the GameStop, the Barnes&Noble, the Home Depot, the Cold Stone Creamery, and the Target? Picked up a street atlas there, and grabbed a bite at the Sonic. Flipped through the street atlas and worked on my next move. It was getting a little late, so I decided to just take a quick spin through the area we'd been searching for apartments to get a feel for the neighborhood.

There's a bit of a Chinatown, or Chinastrip along Olive road, close to the 270. The area of University City is quite beautiful. Very lush and green in the middle of summer, and it kind of reminds me of the old Ponca city, with mossy stone walls, small, old hilltop cemeteries, old houses and quiet residential streets. Delmar is a bit like Mill avenue, or really, any big boutique/bar/restaurant strip close to a major university. Mill avenue in Tempe, for example.

Wandered my way back to the hotel by backroads. Armed with a detailed street atlas, its fun to get lost and drive on whim and intuition. I've got a busy day tomorrow, so now I'm back at the hotel, planning out my day and mapping when and where I need to be.

Tay-Tay

Every week or so, Saori, me, Tay, and Brit meet at mom's house for dinner and to play games or cards. Sometimes, Saori or Brit can't make it, but its a pretty regular thing.

Last night, we had a fourth of July dinner. I brought my white sangria, and made a salad, Tay made the fried chicken and mashed potatoes, Brit made the broccoli, and mom made some cloverleaf rolls and some chocolate melting cake. It was all pretty good and we stuffed ourselves. So it was kind of a comedown, when mom reminded us that this was our last time together for awhile. It hadn't really occurred to me, or Tay either, for that matter. 

Part of my brain knew that Tay was going to London and Egypt for a month, and another part of my brain knew that I was leaving Phoenix before the end of the month, but sometimes my inter-cranial meetings get cancelled. 

It really just snuck up on me. I suggested to Tay that we meet him at the airport in the morning for a pre-flight coffee. Saori was working Sunday night, and I knew she'd really want to see Tay again, I wasn't going into work today since its a company paid time off, and besides, you have to show up at the airport two hours before your flight anyway.

So that's what we did. Tay met us at the airport. With a huge goodbye gift. I felt kind of low, having nothing to give but a hug and a java chip frappuchino with whipped cream. Anyway, we plonked down in front of one of the airport Starbucks and chatted for awhile, until it was time for Tay to get going to his gate. I don't know when I'll get to see him again. Maybe in a few months. 

My brother is really a great guy, and I've been really lucky to have had the time with him here that I did. There's a view out there that luck is nothing but when opportunity meets preparedness, but there's no accounting for my family and friends. I've just been plain lucky to know and spend time with such wonderful people. Call it gifted, blessed, providence, whatever you want, I'm just unaccountably lucky.

Tay's off to Philadelphia first, then London, and the wide world beyond after. 

May the winds favor his plane, may the kindness of strangers safeguard his path, may his luggage meet him at his final destination. May his travels be easy, free from sickness or jet lag, and may he find the joy and beauty of the world. Traveler, I wish you well.

It's been a long week, and its only Wednesday night

Saturday night I was on a boat of the coast of Mexico, partying wildly with family and contraband liquor. Monday morning I was back in the office. Sunday was a long day.

Yesterday, I found out my office is changing its health benefits again, which is never a good thing. It's almost to the point where I may just try to find my own insurance. I have no faith whatsoever in insurance companies. I fully expect them to try to get the most money they can out of me while providing the minimum amount of care they are legally obligated to provide, and to fight me every step of the way. Our new fringe benefits company actually brought in reps for each of the health companies they were selling us, so we were subjected to the dog and pony show. My mistrust level went through the roof.

Then I went to the dentist for a tooth cleaning, although I didn't tell him my coverage was expiring in two days.  It was uncomfortable, the dentist asked me to not brush my teeth so hard, to take out my aggression elsewhere. But on the shiny side, at least I don't have any soft spots or cavities.

At work, I was assigned to a Revit committee, where I was bemused to finally get upgraded to "Revit Guru" status, joining the ranks of the other three or four Elite Reviteers. No badge though. Just a long meeting to try to figure out how to standardize and implement better Revit practices within the firm.

Today, I also wore a tie as I had to present some glass samples to the head of our biggest client. That was a little nerve wracking as I usually don't have a lot of face time presenting to clients. In fact, I almost never present material. I really really need to work on my speaking and presentation skills. My intent is to join the local AIA in Missouri and see if there's any groups that would help that, or all else, toastmasters.

Tomorrow is one of my coworker's birthdays, so he, Saori and I went out to celebrate during lunch. We went to Gallo Blanco, a Mexican cafe in uptown Phoenix in the swanky Clarendon boutique hotel. The food was really good. I got a pork torta (sandwich). Highly recommended for lunch. Not sure if they have dinner. Afterwards, coffee ice cream before heading back to the office. My coworker is turning 30, a milestone that doesn't stand too far off from where I'm at, and when I asked him about it, he said that he was happy with what he had done with his 20's.

Tomorrow is July 1st. It is a deadline to log in hours over six months old in the IDP (intern development program) for NCARB (National Council of Architectural Registration Boards). This means that if I want to get credit for work I did before January 2010, I have to get it in. I was pretty close, but I still scrambled a bit last night to log my hours. The website is still really buggy since its under the internet pressure of all the other people scrambling to get hours logged in, so they extended the deadline by a day.

Another thing related to that is that I realized my NCARB registration will expire at the end of August, and that because its less than 60 days away, I can't renew online. I was worried initially that I might lose my hours, but I think the worst thing that could happen if I can't renew is that I will have to pay an additional $40 a year after I re-establish my registration. It adds up, especially if I keep my registration current through taking the ARE (architectural registration exams). I've sent out some emails and I'll make some calls to nail that sucker down though.

Next Thursday, I'll be flying out again to St. Louis to look for apartments/houses. The only thing I've done is bought a plane ticket and arranged to meet a friend to see his apartment. I still need to line up places to visit, maybe locate an agent, figure out whether I'll need to rent a car or if I can take local transportation, and reserve a (cheap) hotel room. Or, I need to make close friends in St.Louis in very short order.

Can I please go back to this?

Highlights Dos

This week, I could really use some of these cruise highlights again. Bueno, here we go:

• Watching the US-Ghana game of the World Cup on the giant LED screen. It was originally only going to be screened in the sports bar but enough people complained to get it bumped up the big screen in front of the lido deck pool. (On a side note, why do all cruise ships have a Lido deck? I've been to the Lido in Venice, and its not that great.) It was a shame US lost but it was fun to stake out deck chairs, eat greasy pizza, and cheer and moan with the other 300 or so passengers who also showed up to watch the game.
• The final show at the main stage (called the "Spectacular Spectacular" since just calling it the "Spectacular"  just doesn't convey how spectacularly spectacular the stage is). This show featured ten other passengers who had auditioned two nights before in the karaoke lounge for various famous singer positions. With a pool of 3000 passengers pared down to the percentage who auditioned, there were some interesting results. James Brown, for example, was played by an Asian man. My 16 year old (famale, in case you were wondering) cousin played Britney Spears. It was the best show I saw on the trip. The passengers were far better performers than the employed singers and dancers. The James Brown routine was fantastic, and Britney Spears was not bad either, although I'm not sure my grandmother approved of the schoolgirl outfit they gave her. 
• We sucked it up and payed the $70 to go on an excursion. Cabo's known for diving and snorkeling so we jumped on a sail and snorkel package, which took us and a dozen other people out on a big catamaran where we drank and lay out on the 40 minute trip out to the Santa Maria cove. The snorkeling wasn't bad. Lots of fish. I saw trumpetfish, rays, and various other unidentified fish. After about an hour of snorkeling, they took us back and opened up the bar, so we drank tecates and rode the wildly pitching boat, generally enjoying the hell out of the sun and spray and the sea. We even saw a whale shark on the ride back. That was pretty cool.
• Final night of drinking where everyone in the family got their smuggled bottles of booze back from the cabin steward and lay them all out on one of the beds, like we were badass contraband rum runners. There was a fair amount of drinking afterwards, which was also fun. 

Highlights Uno

I did actually have a really great time on this vacation. Here are the highlights:

• Getting good mojitos at the bar and taking them back to our cabin, which had a balcony. The balcony was the best thing about the ship. Narrow, sure, but large enough for two chairs and a small table, and that was fantastic, for watching the docking and the waves, listening to the surf and wind, and enjoying the cool ocean breezes.
• Room parties with family. We had a series of rooms side by side, so even with some opened bottles of wine and energetic conversation, we didn't disturb anyone. 
• Lunch at La Bodeguita del Medio restaurant in Puerto Vallerta. We had done some silver shopping (since our group was mostly ladies) and we were hot and thirsty and tired. We passed a restaurant with a good live band in playing in front of an open window, two guitarists and a drummer playing Cuban music. However, we were looking for someplace to get out of the heat and the 'authenticity' of the place suggested that they didn't have AC. I was going to give it a pass but the waitress invited me to check out the upper floor. Upstairs, the patio was open on two sides, with a great view of the beach and the air moving nicely though, so I called everyone up. Mom had cautioned everyone about drinking water and ice in Mexico, so of course the first thing we all did was to immediately order a round of mojitos. Then we ordered some food. Best damn Cuban food I've ever had. Roast pork leg, fried plantains, moros y christos (black beans and rice), fried beef, it was incredible. The band came upstairs and started playing wonderful Cuban music for us, and the waiter danced with grandma and aunt Brenda, and I even took Saori out for a quick salsa spin.
• I gambled for the first time on this ship. I took out $20 in chips from the blackjack tables and proceeded to lose it over the space of about twenty minutes with Saori and Tay. It was surprisingly fun. I was actually up $15 at one point. I can understand the attraction and thrill that gambling has, although given the speed at which my money slipped away, I don't think I will seek that thrill often.
• In Mazatlan, I really enjoyed walking around the renovated old town, with the pastel stucco walls and shady, leafy cobblestone streets. 
• Also a lot of fun in Mazatlan was running around in the little souped up golf cart taxis. Lots of fun. Zipping across the town in basically a golf cart at speeds around 40 miles an hour. The first ride, there were five of us, so we had to load up around the corner, out of the view of the nearby police, and Saori had to sit on my lap. That was one packed golf-cart.
• Drinking Mexican beers at a cheap beachside resort bar in the "Zona Dorado" (Gold Zone, so called because the tourists flock there) of Mazatlan, eating tortilla chips wth fresh salsa, guacamole, and shrimp cerviche. Tay was kind of stuck there while David, Saori and I talked about architecture, art, and drawing, but at least he had a long island to keep him entertained. 

Carnival Splendor: The Fun Ship

Sunday, we caught a Carnival cruise line out of long beach on board the Carnival Splendor. If you love the Olive Garden, you would probably like this cruise. There was tons of food, a party atmosphere, and the waiters danced almost every night. They were almost, but not quite, as good as the stage performers. The ship decoration was very different and exotic. I've never seen such a wide range of materials, colors, and finishes. It was even more wild than Las Vegas!

They really cared about you on the ship. Although there were only a few water fountains for the 3,000 passengers on board, you could pick up your room phone and have room service. In less than an hour, they would bring you a cup or water or a hamburger, completely for FREE. They even showed the USA world cup game against Ghana on the big screen above the pool. That was the most important one, so it didn't matter that they didn't show any of the other matches or post scores.

The theme of the ship was "the Fun Ship" and they made several fun announcements every day to tell you where you could find fun bingo games, the fun dining options, or what the latest fun revue show was. All the other passengers were enjoying their fun too. On the one sunny day we had at sea, it was almost impossible to find an open deck chair, and buffet lines were like huge conga lines. All the announcements were made by the Cruise director, a wacky guy whose nickname was "Goose." He was really full of fun!

A Brief Nautical Interlude

Tomorrow, we will be driving to LA to catch a cruise ship for my grandmother's 80th birthday. I've heard that internet connectivity expenses are astronomical on the boat, so to my regular readers, I do apologize for the brief interruption in this regularly scheduled content.

On a side note, it occurs to me that we will be traveling via a highly conspicuous tourist vessel, to a country in the midst of a massive drug war, in the immediate aftermath of raised US/Mexico border tensions vis-a-vis the shooting of the teenager and the Arizona Immigration Law. All I can say is thank God US and Mexico aren't in the same World Cup group.

Play by Play

It's been another busy week, where I have been having difficulty to find the half an hour it takes to sit and write a blog posting. However, the World Cup has been fun to watch- I race home for lunch and Saori has the Univision channel up and we catch the end of the first half and the beginning of the second half of whatever the third game of the day is.

Sunday was a hard day of work for Saori. One of her long term patients was a 30 year old quadriplegic, E, who had been crippled after an accident in his early 20s. Apparently a very outgoing guy who still enjoyed the Scottsdale nightlife and socializing with friends and family. After hearing so much about me from Saori, he wanted to meet up for drinks at Trader Vic's. We were going to get together last thursday, but the other caretaker had something come up and called it off. However, he neglected to tell E, who had taken the several hours it takes to get ready to go out on the town, and so he called up his parents instead and they went out together. It would be the last time they saw him. The next day, he collapsed, and by the following morning he had left this world.
It's another quiet reminder that life is a ephemeral gift, and every loved one, and every moment is dear.

Monday, reminded of the value of friends and family,  after work we joined mom, Tay and Grandma at "Cheuvront", a "wine bar," to celebrate Tay's friend's birthday, where we had somewhat-off "blackberry mojitos" and really good "flights" of wine and cheese "pairings" until we were so "sophisticated" that we were having difficulty "operating" doors.

Tuesday was relatively free of engagements so Saori and I took the time to hit up the grocery store to stock up on stuff for the cruise and to get a roll of quarters for laundry. The cruise ship will only allow you to bring on a bottle of wine per person, plus a small amount of soft drinks, so we picked up some tonic water and cokes. If I can find a fresh lemon or lime, a tonic water does not cry out so strongly for some gin. We did a few loads of clothes at the apartment complex when we got back home, and filled out our cruise "FunPass" which included fun questions like "who do we notify if you get hacked to bits by machete welding drug gangs?" and "what is your credit card number so we can charge you $34.18 for each can of soda you drink on board?"

Wednesday, yesterday, we went to my friends' apartment for a small going away party. One of them, Mai, is a Japanese girl who is going back to Japan after not being able to find work in her field of industrial design out here in Arizona or California. What strikes me as more sad is the fact that she really did love being in Arizona. With my recent blog posting on souvenir in mind, I asked her what she was taking with her, and she pulled out a small bronze Arcosanti bell.

Poster Boy

My coworker that I've been helping with the park and ride was also pulled to help one of the company principals give a presentation at ASU. I idly wondered what it was all about, and my coworker disappeared for the morning while I finished up some minor stuff for the park and ride and headed out to the client meeting.

Just before I arrived, I got a funky text from a friend of mine who is in the ASU architecture masters program, to the effect that today he learned that I'm the poster boy for the company. Apparently, due to the fantastic architecture market, it should be little surprise that there are few internships available in the valley, if any. So, ASU's architecture program offers a 2 week professional practice substitute, where industry professionals come in and speak. One of our principals was there today, along with Eddie Jones of Jones Studio, and it is my hunch that his calender is wide open, too.

How bad is the market for architects? A former coworker got hired by a small boutique firm that slowly laid everybody off except for him and the principal. And then they cut their hours back, and finally, he had to be laid off and the firm closed. Two architects who owned and leased a strip mall finally tossed in the towel and opened a coffee shop in uptown Phoenix called "Urban Beans." The vast majority of the students I graduated with either left town, changed fields, or are unemployed. The good news is that things are finally starting to look a little better.

Personally, I've been astronomically lucky. I've swum in the center of concentric rings of luck. I was lucky to get an internship at this firm, I was lucky that when I was ready to find work, they were hiring. I was lucky that the firm has been working in the valley for 60 years and so had a pool of relationships wide and deep enough to sustain their business. I've been lucky to work on a lengthy profitable project, while many people in my office who did not have the luck to be attached to a major project were gradually let go as their smaller projects finished and were not replaced. I've been lucky to have worked with excellent coworkers and supervisors who look out for me and who say nice things about me.

By choosing to go to college now, and leave this position, I don't feel like I'm abusing my luck, since my position will probably be filled people already at the firm who really need the billable time. Luck isn't totally random either- there's a saying:

Luck is when preparedness meets opportunity.

 It suggests you can effect your own luck. It also suggests that there are two types of unlucky people- people who are either unprepared for opportunity, and those who are prepared, but for whom the opportunity doesn't come.

When I was traveling around Europe with my friend Chase, we seemed to be surrounded by an aura of incredibly fantastic luck. Despite frequently showing up at the wrong train stations, we made every single train we intended to catch, sometimes with minutes to spare. The one day we bought a subway ticket was the day that the subway police checked it. We thought we'd missed a night train out of Berlin, but we hung around the train station thinking about what to do for the night, when the train conductor came running after us. On an unscheduled detour to Budapest where we had done no research on where to go or stay, Chase happened to run into the English-speaking city director of tourism. I was almost to the point where I started looking around for Chase's "guardian angel." I think now that really, Chase was just very, very open to opportunity, and flexible enough in the backpacker mindset that we were prepared for almost anything.

I think that's really one thing I love about travel- its not so much a trip outside of your home as it is a trip outside your mind. Some people don't really travel this way- the ones that go to Hawaii every summer, mentally, they never leave home, the old mental roadblocks are always there, and the wiring is fused tight. Travel shakes that up for me. It rewires my brain, makes me a different person that I enjoy being. At risk, in danger of opportunities, open minded so that everything is new and nothing is strange.

Back to the Tucson

Friday afternoon after lunch with Saorichan, I drove down to Tucson to see Kevin off. Kevin was recently accepted to a graduate program in Microbiology at UC Davis, and he was leaving Saturday, so I after I arrived, I spent the afternoon helping load up a U haul with his dad. Cassie was also moving out, into an apartment closer to the campus with two other roommates. And a dog, seven puppies, and her cat. One of her roommates is a foster parent for the puppies for a rescue mission, so the puppies will all hopefully get adopted away before too long. The smell was really intense.
Friday night, Kevin's dad treated us to a pretty good Italian restaurant, Elle Wine Country. The first time I heard it, I was really doubtful about the place because I heard it as "El Wine Country" which would be like "Pho Pizza" or "Taco Yurt." Actually, it was very good food, decent calimari and a very good gnocci with smoked salmon and roma tomatoes. For dessert, we went to a gelato place where I had a small but rich cup of straberry champaigne gelato.

In the morning, we all went to a local coffee place for a lengthy coffee break before I headed back to phoenix. Gas prices were down, and so I filled up my Prius with $3.85 gas. The drive down and back, I ended up averaging 49 miles to the gallon, typically cruising along at 75 mph. I'm not sure I totally trust the Prius mpg meter as it doesn't seem to add up. It gives me my average as 48 miles to the gallon, and I have an 11 gallon tank. At that rate, I should be getting 528 miles per tank. What I actually get is closer to 400 miles, but for 11 gallons of gas, I'm not complaining. The digital tank meter also seems to be off. It shows 11 bars as a full tank, which one would think equals 1 gal per bar. However, the first bar didn't drop until I'd traveled about 120 miles, and I know I wasn't getting 120 miles to the gallon. Who knows.

Lots of travel in my future. Wednesday, Saori and I are flying out to Oklahoma to visit my grandparents for the 4th of the July, and then at the end of July me, mom, tay, and Soari and all going to Peru for a week and a half. Last week, mom called me up and asked me if I wanted to go to Maccu Picchu in 4 weeks. I had to clear it with my boss at work, but its one of those things you just have to do. As mom likes to put it, if you wait to travel until its convienent or cheap, you'll never travel.