blog.circusgeek

a personal blog with nerdy bits thrown in

Category: Travel

  • In Bruges

    After a LONG day of travel, we’ve made it to our hotel in Bruges, Belgium.

    The flight leaving PDX was delayed on the tarmac due to some break heating issue, so we sat on the plan for about an additional hour before leaving on our 9 hour 30 minute flight. Once in Amsterdam, we caught a train to the main train station in Amsterdam where we figured out what tickets to buy and what platform to go to for Bruges. The train ride was about 4 hours to Bruges, stopping to transfer at the amazing station at Antwerp (it was a 4 or 5 story train station, with different platforms on different levels, all of which could be seen from an open center.

    After we arrived in Bruges, we caught a bus into the center of town (the Markt) and it is incredible. The square is just lovely. We walked through the medieval streets and made it to our hotel with ease. We’re now going to muster whatever energy we have left and go out for dinner and some beers. Very tired, didn’t sleep much on the plane and dozed off here and there on the train but haven’t gotten much solid sleep. It will probably be an early night. 🙂

    Photos are in the gallery.

  • Up, up and away

    At the airport. Boarding is about to begin. Thank you M for the ride to the airport, it saved us the mess of mass transit during the May heat wave. Flight leaves at 4pm… then it’s 10 hours to Amsterdam, and then another 5 or 6 hours of train rides until we reach Bruges. More to come, hopefully late tomorrow.

  • Shows, movies, The Goose, and more travels

    Since the last recap, Kelly and I got caught up on Lost and Battlestar Galactica (both of which were really good episodes, after waiting through some ‘filler’ episodes recently), and we went to see two movies, Iron Man and In Bruges.

    Iron Man was really fantastic. I’d heard good things, but wasn’t expecting it to be quite as good as it was. Not only was it a fantastic comic book film, but it also was a good movie all around. A great mixture of humor, action, romantic scenes, and all around good acting and a fun story. Gorn says “yessss”.

    Later that same day (last Sunday) Kelly and I went to Kennedy School to see In Bruges with M & B (who will be watching over our furry black evil, otherwise known as Arthur Guinness, while we’re gone). The movie was great fun. Not only was the setting something which Kelly and I were keenly observing, but the story was fun and the acting was great. Even Colin Farrell, whom I don’t generally like, was likable and hilarious. I couldn’t help but thinking through the entire film “in 7 days from we’ll be there”

    Tonight brother T and I went to The Goose (Goose Hollow Inn) for some beers and dinner after work. There really isn’t much better than their reuben sandwich. Yum!

    Kelly’s in Chicago at the moment. She had to get up around 4am this morning to fly out with a coworker for a work event, and returns tomorrow afternoon. Then, we pack and get ready, and fly out on Saturday about mid-day. Really looking forward to the trip.

  • An update-y thingy

    Since my last post of randomness, a few things have happened… most importantly, Kelly had her graduation for her MBA last weekend. The ceremony wasn’t too long, a little over an hour, however due to the order of events, and our shared last name, Kelly was nearly the last person to get presented with her degree. My mom came into town and sat in the bleachers at Concordia University with me, so it wasn’t just me hooting and hollering when her name was announced, though I’m sure she didn’t hear it. 🙂

    Afterwards we briefly went to the ‘cake and coffee’ event before returning home. We had some friends and family over to celebrate, a bit of a last minute BBQ thing. Had really good time. And congrats (again) Kelly!

    Today we went out to my folks place to celebrate an early Mother’s Day with a late lunch of sandwiches and salads. It was really nice, and there were three generations of mothers there; my grandma, my mom, and my sis-in-law (with my nephew ‘Bart‘, who’s growing insanely fast). My brothers and I spent some time wandering around the wooded three acres where we spent nearly all of our youth running around. We visited the former location of our old tree house (a three-story behemoth that we spent several summers stealing dad’s lumber to construct, which was sadly destroyed during intense wind storms last year) making our way through the now-overgrown paths, and realizing how different the property is now, partly due to some light cedar logging my dad did a few years ago, and partly due to the aforementioned wind storms. It was a nice day too, the weather which threatened rain remained fairly warm and rain-free.

    Aside from that, it’s been a few weeks of intense work, and the usual going out to pubs with Snooks and my brother T for after-work beers.

    Oh, and about one week from now we’ll probably be somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean on our way to Europe. Looking forward to the trip, but the amount of work I have to try and complete between now and then is daunting. Must keep focused on all the beer that awaits me in Belgium. Mmmmm… beer.

  • Hot Chip, and general update

    Hot Chip at Crystal Ballroom, April 2008, 1Wednesday night Kelly and I went to see the great electro-pop band Hot Chip at the Crystal Ballroom. After work we went to Ringlers Pub for some dinner and drinks before the show, where I had a fantastic brew (which I guess is only being poured at Ringlers), called Liquid Friend. It was a lighter ale, with a very balanced flavor (with a very slight citrus/sweet hint) and was delicious. The server said it was his favorite McMenamins beer, and I think I agree with him. It’s at least up there with their ESB served on nitro.

    Anyway, the show started at 9pm, we got in at about 8:30pm, went to the balcony and were able to get a couple seats while we waited for the opening band, Free Blood, who were a kind of quirky. It was a male & female duo who danced around singing to pre-recorded, bass-heavy dance music. At one point I thought I ‘got it’, it’s like some white raver-kid version of old-school rap. Kind of. But in the end, I was like, meh. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t great. The songs on their MySpace page sound better than they did live.

    Hot Chip at Crystal Ballroom, April 2008, 2Hot Chip however, were fantastic. The whole ballroom became a crowded dance club for an hour and a half. The vibe of the entire venue was good, and even the servers working the bars seemed less hipster-surly than normal. The band played pretty much everything Kelly and I were hoping they’d play from their last two albums. The encore held a couple fun surprises too. First was the hybrid of their track No Fit State and the classic New Order track Temptation, which was a fun surprise (you can watch a version of it here from last year). The second surprise was the band’s choice to finish the show by combining their song In the Privacy of Our Love with Nothing Compares 2 U (the Prince song that Sinead O’Connor made famous). It was really good, and a great way to end the show.

    Now on to the really quick update of the past couple weeks: gone out to the pubs once or twice, had friends over for dinner last weekend (Kelly made pulled pork, and hot damn it was good), been workin my ass off, and I finally booked the last of the hotels for our upcoming trip. I think that’s about it. I think.

    Update: Oh, I forgot something. The weather here has been schizophrenic. It went from warm and sunny, to cold and nasty (it even snowed briefly a few days ago), and now back to being a bit more consistent with this time of year. Sheesh!

  • Liver reprieve, and Kelly’s Travel Hell

    After getting a new Keg on Saturday I decided to give my liver a bit of a reprieve. It needed it, even though the liver is evil. However, tonight I’m left on my own (Kelly left for a work trip to Texas for the next 5 nights) and the keg of Terminal Gravity ESG beckoned. I could no longer resist it’s call.

    I’ve been getting texts from Kelly throughout the day, and sadly, she’s been caught up in the American Airlines flight cancellations that have been plaguing airports the past several days. She and a coworker made it to Seattle, planning on catching a connecting flight to Austin, which ended up canceled. As a result, they had to re-route to Salt Lake City, then catch a flight to Houston, where they’ll have to drive the nearly 3 hours to Austin. Last thing I heard is that they weren’t scheduled to arrive in Houston until 11:30pm Houston time. Egads, what a mess!

    Oh, and we learned yesterday that Kelly’s sister and her family are moving to Salisbury, England for the next two years. Kelly’s brother-in-law is in the military, and is getting stationed there (one of four possible locations, most a great deal less interesting) and they are all very excited about it. And so are we, I think we already know where our next trip will be (after the one we’ll be taking next month). It’s probably going to be a very interesting struggle, moving a family of four (including two boys) to another country. However, I’m a bit jealous of the eldest son, he’ll probably turn 18 over there. PUBS!

    UPDATE: Kelly and her coworker have landed in Houston. Now they just face a long-ass drive to Austin.

  • Goose, work, beer & travel plans

    OK, it’s been a bit since my last post, here’s what I’ve been up to:

    • Kelly and I have been to the Goose Hollow Inn a couple weekends in a row, first just Kelly and I, a second time with our friends T & Aymie and Miranda. Good lord I love their reuben sandwich. Mmmmmm….
    • Had an afternoon outing with some co-workers last Friday. The development team at SuperSweetCo were given a few hours reprieve to celebrate the the next big release of SuperSweetCo’s flagship app, and were taken to Grand Central Bowl. And despite my embarrassing high score of 86, I had a good time. Oh, Grand Central is definitely the fanciest bowling alley you’ll ever go to.
    • Still digging on the kegerator, my brother dropped by over the weekend, we hung out in my garage (aka: ‘Ryan N Kelly’s Pub’), had pizza delivered, and generally had fun chatting and sipping beers.
    • Kelly and I have been planning another trip to Europe (Belgium and Netherlands, taking advantage of the direct flights from Portland to Amsterdam)… looking forward to another vacation.

    I’ll close with a video I found yesterday, by Trey Parker & Matt Stone (of South Park fame) featuring an audio clip by Alan Watts.

    You can watch more of these here.

  • Vista House & Edgefield

    After getting back from the mountain yesterday safe and sound, getting home by 7, and being really tired and going to bed around 9:30pm (my sick still having some sway over me), Kelly and I woke up just before 8am this morning. We both sat around a bit, I cleaned my office a bit, played some Call of Duty 4, and then around 1pm Kelly and I decided to go do something.

    Vista HouseWe left the house and drove to the Vista House at Crown Point, a spot I’ve been wanting to visit for several years now. The drive was pretty quick (I think it only took us about 45 minutes) and it was a gorgeous day (yes, there is a pun in there). Arriving to Crown Point is great, you turn this corner on the old highway and suddenly there is this great old building overlooking the gorge. Looking north from Vista HouseThe view is really quite stunning, especially on a clear day like today, looking down onto the Columbia river and over to Washington state. Vista House itself is also worth seeing. Built in 1918 as a rest stop along the old highway, it both manages to blend in with it’s surrounding environment and serve as a platform to take in the surrounding beauty. It was VERY windy and cold up there however, so Kelly and I didn’t spend a lot of time gazing at the scenery. We did enjoy wandering around the gallery area underneath though, where there were several old photos of the building from days past.

    After leaving Crown Point, Kelly and I drove along the old Historic Columbia River Highway to Troutdale (rather than going back to I-84) and went to McMenamins Edgefield for some drinks. Had a really nice time walking around the property, sipping on beers (at one point I encouraged Kelly go get a nice wine at the wine cellar bar). We wandered around / sat around for a couple hours before heading back homeward. We’re now sitting in another McMenamins establishment (Kennedy School) as I write this post. Had a great day, and am feeling a lot better, however I’m pretty sure beer has a lot to do with that.

  • Home, Simpsons, Moon

    Since yesterday’s post, I attended most of the rest of the conference, sadly missing the last speaker in order to catch the flight home. The flight took a bit longer than was scheduled, arriving a bit after 8:30pm (instead of 8:10), though thanks to a co-worker (and his wife, actually) I got a ride home rather than having to take mass transit. I was able to spend the evening catching up on Kelly’s last couple days, as well as sharing my experiences of my trip.

    Today was, thankfully, pretty mellow. Kelly had class, so I was able to sleep in a little bit (with the cat at my side). I woke up around 10:30am, made coffee and had some cereal, and finished the rest of my unpacking, doing laundry, and generally getting things back in order.

    After Kelly’s day of class, I met her at Kennedy School around 5:30pm. We sat in one of the bars, had a couple drinks, and then went down the hall to the theater to watch The Simpsons Movie, which was fun and worth seeing (a few scenes had me nearly wetting myself with laughter). After that, we went to the local grocery store before heading home.

    As I set in to play some Call of Duty 2 online I got a call from my brother T who wanted to come into town to the Moon & Sixpence for a few pints, so I ended up there hanging out with him for the remainder of the evening. Good night out, though I hope tomorrow Kelly and I can relax around the house a bit. Of course, if it doesn’t rain too badly, I might just get in some yardwork. The curse of homeownership. 🙂

  • San Francisco report

    I arrived in San Francisco on Wednesday just fine (though late) and thanks to a coworker’s brother who lives in the area made it to the hotel. The hotel itself is very nice, though I’ve got some gripes (no free WiFi in a four-star hotel? bah!). We then went to a creperie restaurant called Ti Couz for dinner (I had a savory crepe with sausage, cheese, and tomatoes, yum!). That night my coworkers were babies and went to bed around 10pm, but I was eager to walk around a little bit so I went up to this pub called Johnny Foley’s for a couple beers before going back to the hotel to sleep.

    Yesterday I had to get up pretty early, as registration started at 7am. Got up, got registered and got breakfast nice and early. Then we filtered into the event hall and got sat down up close for the first half of the day. The first half of the day was great, with great speakers and interesting topics. After a lunch break, the last half the day was a bit less interesting to me, but ended good.

    After the conference was the hosted after party at a wine bar up the street. Had a fun time meeting people, including a customer of the product I work on for SuperSweetCo. After spending a couple hours there, I left to visit another pub I wanted to stop by (Elephant & Castle) and had a couple pints and a meal before walking back to my hotel.

    On the way home however I decided to stop into a spot across the street from the hotel, House of Shields, which was a great old spot, and there were several other people who were attending the conference there that I got to meet and hang out with. After being there a little later than I’d hoped I went to the hotel and to bed.

    Today my phone decided to thwart my plans. I woke up at 9am (the same time the first speaker goes on). I woke up at 9am because my phone (which I use for my alarm clock) decided to power itself off overnight. Urgh. So I missed breakfast, and was starving by lunch. The day has been a mixed bag of good presentations and some that are less interesting, but overall it’s a good conference.

    I’m set to fly out at 6:45pm, getting home around 8:15 or so. Hopefully it’s not late departing like the flight here was. This means I have to leave shortly so I can use mass-transit for an hour to get to the airport.