301: We've moved

We're going to keep our updates from here on out on nickandjerry.com

This blog will stay up mostly for posterity's sake. And the following is more for google's benefit than anything else:

Nick and Jerry's homepage

Thanks!

USA! USA!

So Nick and I are sitting in Terminal 2 in LAX waiting to board our flight to Vancouver. We've never been to Terminal 2 before, and it's really small--about 6-8 gates total. Nick called it the terminal for unimportant international flights, since Air Canada flies out of here.

I re-dyed my hair red last night so that it looks more vibrant...and then it occurred to me that people might think that I'm rooting for Canada since my hair is only red (or China, I suppose). Had I thought about it earlier, I might have tried doing a Red/Blue combo for my hair. I mean, it's not like that would make me look like a crazed USA fan in comparison to the shirtless USA fans in Whistler--and no, we're not doing that.

Last night, we watched the second day of Men's luge, which was sort of sad because of the tragic death of the Georgian luge competitor just before the Olympics started. Knowing how fast they go down the track made me appreciate the sport more, and cringe more whenever a competitor fell off. One luger actually fell off his sled and managed to get back on it...it was amazing! The Americans didn't do very well, although I think one of the new guys, Chris Mazdzer, is sort of cute :) Nick thinks I have a strange taste in men (what does that say about him then?).

Once we've found where we're staying in Vancouver, and are more settled in, we'll post some more info and pictures of what it's like being at the Olympics. But for now, you can listen to this, 'cuz it'll be playing in my head the entire time we're there...

Fourth of July Weekend

So I know that I'm a week late in posting about our fourth of July weekend...we spent our free time at home playing mah jongg with my parents (with my dad being the only winner out of the four of us).

On the 3rd, we met our friends at Woodland Park Zoo. Nick's never been there, and I seriously think the last time I visited was when Merak, Erin, Emily, Janet Miller, Katherine Nordell and I (actually, I'm not sure if that's right) had to do some tourism video for Australia as part of our 8th grade social studies class. Back then, we hit all of the animals that originated from Australia and made a short video of that animal with Emily providing narration. Unfortunately, what we didn't realize was that there was a lag between the time the 'record' button was pressed and the beginning of the actual recording. This resulted in nearly all of our video clips being very, very short, with almost no narration because Emily spoke before the camera started recording. The one moment that I remember quite vividly was the clip of the emu, which was really a split second of the emu, with Emily saying "mu." It was sad, but very amusing...I think we actually got an A for the video in the end.

Anyway, back to this year's visit...we started off seeing some of the farm animals. We got there before they opened, so we couldn't actually pet any of the animals, but we were able to see them. One of the chickens was very talkative and was striking up a conversation with anyone that walked passed (admittedly, it was a very one-sided conversation). The bunnies were cute too, but we found the choice of this rabbit's friend as being a bit strange:

We then went and saw cows, flamingos, and the new penguin exhibit. There were peacocks roaming the grounds, and Nick was able to catch this picture of one 'flying' down:


Later on, I got to feed some birds, which was really fun for me. The seeds were affixed to a popsicle stick, and if you just held it out, a bird (or two) would come down and start eating the seeds. I loved watching the birds up close. They were totally fixated on eating the seeds, and once the seeds were gone, they left (no love...). Seriously, I could have fed them for an hour. Merak, Nick, and Emily had to drag me out of the room 'cuz I was about to buy another feeding stick.

We then headed home for the day. Later that night Nick and I went to the Dahlia Lounge for dinner, mainly because I love their freshly made doughnuts. Their food is good too, but really, I go for the doughnuts. The come freshly fried and in a paper bag filled with sugar and cinnamon. The server shakes the bag, cuts it open, and then places it down on a plate with a side of homemade jam (it was apricot that night) and vanilla mascarpone. After I devoured them, I was contemplating ordering another one, but Nick convinced me that I would totally regret it afterward.

For the 4th, we drove up north with my parents to my aunt and uncle's home in Burlington. It's roughly a one hour drive up I-5, with great views of various mountain ranges that surround Western Washington. Our day's activity was going out on their 20' boat to catch some crabs. It was just the guys on the boat 'cuz that's all the boat could really fit, my mom and aunt stayed home to prep the kitchen for crab cooking.

We untied the boat from the dock and made the long, slow drive out of the 'no wake' zone. I think it was 20 minutes of us going like 3 miles an hour...but if we went the other way to get out of the marina, it would have been 30 minutes. After we cleared the protected marina, we quickly zoomed to the crab trap location, loaded three crab pots with bait (apparently, crabs like turkey legs and chicken), and dropped them in the water. We had to wait an hour, so my uncle took us through Deception Pass to a location with seaweed, which we were going to harvest (yes, my family harvests seaweed from the sea...). Did you know that even though seaweed is very plentiful in the waters, you're only allowed to take home 10 lbs. per trip?

After that excursion, we returned to pick up the crab pots only to find that all of the ones that we caught we too small (in WA, I think the minimum size is 6 1/4 inches). We released them back into the water, loaded the traps and dropped them in again and waited. Our second attempt was more successful in that we caught three large Red Rock crabs, but that was it...and Red Rocks aren't very tasty, so we weren't going to eat them later that night. My parents took them home to make soup.

So in the end, our crab excursion was a failure. For dinner, we ate Dungeness crabs that my aunt and uncle caught earlier in the week (Nick had pot roast since he's allergic to shellfish). And then we went back home and played mah jongg.

If you want to see pictures, you can find them here. I hope all of you had a great fourth of July as well.

Memorial Day Weekend in Vegas

Before I start on our recent trip to Vegas, I wanted to let you know that our photos from our trip to Puerto Vallarta can be found here.

So since there was the long weekend, I decided that it would be a good time to go to Vegas again. This time, we stayed at the Bellagio in a penthouse suite. We knew that there was a special lounge for checking in, but we couldn't find it at all. Nick asked one of the people at the counter (she was just standing there but wasn't available for check-in) and she showed us the very discreet, unmarked door to this area. We were checked in immediately and so we headed off to our room. The suite was huge, with a really large living area (which, in retrospect, is not something that we really need in a hotel room--it's not like we're entertaining anyone when we're there), and two bathrooms off the main bedroom, both with TV's in them. Nick took a video of the room, which we'll share with you once he's uploaded it.

Our trip was actually very busy, which Nick liked 'cuz that meant less time for me to lose money gambling. After we dropped our luggage in our room, we headed off to find a snack and then to our spa appointment. Nick had the watsu again and I went with the raindrop therapy, which involved drops of oil being dropped on my back, followed by a massage. It was interesting, but I'm not sure I'd do it again. I liked the sensation of the oil being dropped on my back, but that was only like 20 minutes of the entire session...I wished it was longer. Afterwards, we had dinner at Michael Mina, which was wonderful (but we were very, very full), and then we walked to the Venetian to see the Blue Man Group. I had never been any of their shows, but had seen them on TV, so I was expecting 90 minutes of them hitting pipes which they would move in order to change the tone. But they incorporated a comedy routine, which fit very well with their concept, and overall, it was very enjoyable.

The next morning, we woke up rather early for us on a weekend to get ready to be taken on a helicopter ride of the Grand Canyon (photos can be found here). Neither of us have ever been in a helicopter, and I was incredibly scared I would get sick due to turbulence. But there was no reason for me to worry at all...yes it was bumpy, but it wasn't a left/right bumpy, which gets me very sick. And even though it was turbulent, I wasn't scared at all like I get in airplanes sometimes...I actually felt safe in the air. The views from the copter were amazing and flying through the canyon to see the layers of rock was incredible. We landed and had lunch before flying back and taking one pass over the Vegas strip. It was a wonderful experience and now I won't hesitate to fly in a helicopter again.

After some shopping (did you really think I would go to Vegas and not buy some Vosges?), we headed for the Wynn to see Le Reve. According to Nick, it was theater in the round 'cuz the water stage was in the center, and the seaters were essentially rings radiating out from the stage. The show was amazing, with wonderful artistry and an impressive stage that went from a pool and transformed into a multi-tiered fountain. There weren't very many acrobatic sets though--the show seemed to focus more on the story of a woman trying to find her love (I think), so there were many dance segments.

When the show finished, we went to the MGM Grand for our dinner reservation at Joel Robuchon. Our thinking was, it's a three star Michelin restaurant that has availability for us, so why not? We had the crazy 14-course degustation menu and were not disappointed (although, I'm not sure if it was really worth the $385/person cost). There was an amazing bread presentation with something like 15 different types to choose from. The dishes were fantastic and their sizes were appropriate given how many courses there were. We had frog legs for the first time there, and really, it tasted like chicken. Really good, tender chicken though (also, I kept thinking that I'm eating Kermit, which sort of made it harder to eat it). One of the last courses was a dish of spring root vegetables, but what made it special was the very miniature size of the vegetables. The carrots were, I swear, less than an inch tall, and there were onions that were the size of a pea. It was all very, very cute, and very delicious. After the dessert courses, we were presented with the ice cream selection and then an insane confection tray with 45 different items to choose from, all made in-house. If my stomach wasn't on the verge of exploding, I would have tried one of each, but instead, I had the apricot gelee, coconut marshmallow, and fleur de sel caramel, all of which were fantastic. If they were available in a box to take home, I would have sooo purchased one.

The next day wasn't too exciting. We had a couples massage at the spa. The massage was nice, but it was disappointing that the Bellagio spa didn't have more options for couples, or a longer massage option (the one that they had was 50 minutes long). I looked at the Wynn's spa menu, and they offered various other treatments which could be added a la carte to any couples massage. We had lunch at Noodles, which was the Chinese restaurant in the Bellagio. It was overpriced for what it was, but the food was good. I spent the last 45 minutes before leaving for the airport on Roulette, where I had awful luck and lost all my money. But at least I was able to last 45 minutes. One man came up to the table with $500, asked for $25 coins. He put $200 down on the first spin of the wheel and lost (in fact, everyone lost), and then put the rest on the next spin and lost again! And then he left as if nothing really happened...it was quite amazing to watch really.

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention was that a few of the casinos had the new Star Trek slot machines (unfortunately, the Bellagio was not one of them). The seats had speakers in them, so if you won, your seat would vibrate, which made for a very strange sensation. One thing with this game that was different from the ones that I've played so far, and admittedly I haven't played that many, was that you could create an account with the game so that if you left and came back, you could sign in. The reason being was that there were certain bonus games (you started out with two games) that you could unlock by winning medals, and the only way that medals seemed to be awarded were through bonus games. You needed 40 medals to gain a rank, and I think unlock more games. To give you an idea of how hard it was for me to get medals, I was lucky enough to win the bonus round twice, and only got 5 medals. I would have needed to play for a lot longer if I wanted to gain another rank. It was still a very entertaining game, but since there were only 4 machines in any given casino, it was hard to find one that was open. Maybe next time when we visit, there'll be more open seats.

So that was our Vegas Memorial Day Weekend...I hope all of you had a great long weekend as well. The next trip that we have planned is in the middle of June to Boston for Nick's cousin's wedding.

dolphins, statues, and good food

Howdy again!

After a nice rest, we woke up early this morning to get some breakfast and then head over to a water park with dolphins. As it turns out, starting in May the water park doesn't open until 11, so at first we had a few minutes to kill.


But once we got into the tank with the dolphins, it was all worthwhile!


We have photos and videos to prove how much fun we had, but those are for later. Anyway, after that we headed back to the hotel to change and rinse off the salt water a bit, then headed into the town for lunch.

Puerto Vallarta is a cute town, with lots of little shops and cobblestone streets. One of its best features is a boardwalk that runs the length of downtown, called the Malecon.


The first thing most people notice about the boardwalk is the series of statues down the northern section. A couple of these were truly breathtaking, and some could better be described as unique. I took a lot of photos, so we'll post them to picasa when we have a better connection.



One of the other things we noticed down there were intricate, beautiful sand sculptures. The artists were there, touching them up, as well as asking for tips, actually. I tossed in a fiver. Five pesos, that is. Okay, I'm cheap, but these artists appreciate every penny.


This photo does not do justice to the level of detail involved in these sculptures. Le sigh.

In some ways, this town reminds me too much of the US. It's got Home Depot, Costco, Walmart, the usual car brands, and all the chain restaurants you expect (Starbucks, Chili's, Baskin Robbins). We've been having authentic mexican food, risking our digestive tracks by eating salsa and blended margaritas (yes, Jerry had one too, though he didn't quite finish it). Trust me, the local food is worth the risk of food poisoning.

Speaking of chains...


After all was said and done, Jerry had a spa appointment involving a chocolate wrap, and I did some reading by the beach. We had a fantastic dinner by the marina at a restaurant called Tikul. It was delicious, and the kind of service that always serves from the right and clears from the left. The asparagus soup with garlic flan [sic] was delicious.

Bienvenidos a Puerto Vallarta!

Well, it took longer than we hoped for, but we're here! We were harrassed a bit on our way out of the airport by different groups trying to sell stuff. Canopy tours, fishing trips, that kind of thing. I may have agreed to listen to a 90-minute schpeel from another hotel in exchange for a 4 night stay voucher (must be used in the next year and a half) and two free massages at their spa. I think I'll bring a stopwatch with me to enforce that 90 minute time limit. Their rep was just so convincing!

Anyway, once we got to the Westin, the first thing we noticed was the view.


Nothing to complain about there. They have three pools dotted with palm trees inside. Apparently the location was a palm tree farm before they built the hotel, so they preserved 600 of the trees. Even the ones where they wanted to build pools. The trees are numbered. The numbers are painted on the side. Number 192 is pretty nice.


By the way, the local style is heavy on bright colors, such as pink. And Jerry is very excited to be here. Though we're a bit tired and frustrated at the trip. Oh, the beach is just gorgeous.


We wandered out of the hotel and found the marina nearby. It's funny, we went from one marina to another for vacation. But it's more tropical here after all. Kind of makes me wish we had a yacht to sail down here in.


The marina has a ring of shops, realtors, massage places, realtors, restaurants, and realtors. By the way, want a condo for $100k? Anyway, we found a non-sketchy ATM, which charged a 7 peso fee. Thing is, all the exchange places were offering much worse rates than the banks do, and 7 pesos is about 60 cents. So, um, that's about the best ATM fee I've ever seen. :-) It feels weird seeing such big numbers for prices, since everything looks like it costs 10 times as much, and they use the dollar sign here to mean peso. Of course, it's actually a bit cheaper than things would be in the states, since it's about 13.25 pesos to the dollar.

Some places even have a good sense of humor about this whole flu thing.
By the way, no flu for us yet! We'll keep y'all posted.

While we ate dinner outside by the beach, there was a wedding going on. It was pretty. Especially with this sunset as a backdrop:


Later, the happy couple fired off some fireworks, which we intended to watch from our balcony jacuzzi, but we had gotten dried off and ready for bed by the time they actually fired them. Still, we had a nice view from our top floor bedroom.

...and so our trip to Puerto Vallarta begins!

So we're here in LAX waiting for our flight, but I wanted to write a short post about our adventures in LAX. First, we woke up at 7:10 this morning, which is really early for us on a weekend, and then got ready to leave for LAX (but not before I sold all my turnips in Animal Crossing...I don't want them to spoil while we're gone). We walked into the international terminal, and noticed that there was a huge sign that said "Mexicana" with an arrow pointing away from any of the ticket counters. It made us wonder if LAX was separating them from all other airlines due to the swine flu. The Mexicana ticket counter is actually two floors down where arrivals are. It looked like a permanent location for them because all their signage was up and they had the plasma TV's with flight statuses installed. It's a strange place to have a ticketing counter in an aiport...

Anyway, when we arrived at the Mexicana ticket counter, we noticed that our flight was cancelled, making us very concerned that we wouldn't be able to go at all. i started thinking about what we would do if we couldn't go and how we really should have checked our flight status before leaving for the airport. Fortunately, Mexicana had transferred our reservation over to Alaska Airlines, and their departure time was only an hour later than our original flight, so it really wasn't that bad of a situation, just a little bit of inconvenience.

While we were eating breakfast, we were wondering what the time difference is between Los Angeles and Puerto Vallarta and we discovered that it was two hours. However, Nick found out that the area of Puerto Vallarta is actually located across two Mexican states, Jalisco and Nayarit, each located in different time zones (Puerto Vallarta itself is in Jaliso, but borders Nayarit). Jalisco, which is where our hotel and the airport are located, is in Central time, but Nayarit is in Mountain time. Tomorrow, we are going to the Sea Life Water Park located in Nayarit, but they have informed us that they follow Puerto Vallarta time. It seems like this could be very confusing for people not used to so easily crossing time zones, but I guess the locals get used to it.

That's all for now, we'll give you an update tonight when we arrive at the hotel.

Take Your Kids to Work Day

So today was "Take Your Child To Work Day," and one of the activities was a performance by the Peanut Butter and Jam Band. They performed last year with Rob K. as the singer, but since he moved to New Jersey, he couldn't sing with the band this year. So the band asked me and Jane to sing instead, and we agreed (seriously, why do I agree to these things?). The first practice session was yesterday night with me, iRob and Brady. iRob had some beers already, which made the practice rather unproductive. Seriously, I think we spent like 30 minutes getting through Twinkle Twinkle Little Star because Brady and I would start playing and then Rob would too, but then start wailing away on random chords. In fact, we had practiced that so much, that when we went on to Mary Had a Little Lamb, we were playing it to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Since we were having such a hard time getting through the rest of the song list, we were joking that we should just play everything to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Right before today's performance, the band got together to practice. Francis, one of the field techs showed up too and his piano playing skills were much better than Brady's that he decided to let Francis play instead. We quickly went through our song list, and then the children arrived and it was showtime!

Some of the children came up to the front to sing with us, and we would hand them the mic occasionally for them to sing. For "Where Is Thumbkin?" we showed them the hand gestures that went along with the song, and they followed along with us. We did Old McDonald and had them give us animals to use. Although I was really nervous at the start, once we got through the first couple of songs, I realized that children don't care whether you're hitting the right notes...they just want to be entertained. So I started to relax a bit more and had a lot of fun performing in front of them. I think everyone else in the band had a lot of fun, but we learned that for next time, we are soooo practicing earlier than the night before.