Unlike most of our trips, this one had been generally planned for months, as it was to attend my cousin Rachel’s wedding!  The original plan was to fly down Monday for a Tuesday wedding, but with Monday and even Sunday flights getting tight, Saturday seemed to be our best bet.  The five of us headed to Fort Myers via Charlotte on American Airlines.  We got seats either together or very close to each other on both flights, and the girls did better than they have on any of our other trips.  It’s slowly and surely getting easier!  It was nice to sit next to the oldest on one flight, and talk to her the whole way, and to have the youngest nap with her head on my leg on the other flight.

Upon arriving, I got a minivan from Advantage Rental Car, which was unfortunately offsite from the airport, and it took over an hour from the time I left the airport to the time I got back to the curbside to pick up the girls.  Once we got car seats, girls, and bags loaded, we headed to World of Beer, where we ate quickly, as my mom was flying in a couple of hours after us via Atlanta.  Upon picking her up, we headed to the Holiday Inn Fort Myers Airport, which seemed to be very new.  I used IHG points for the one night stay.  We were ready for bed by the time we got to the room, and I fell asleep quickly.  In the morning, I got a good workout in down in the fitness center, we got everyone up and dressed, and headed down to breakfast.  I didn’t at first realize that the breakfast buffet wasn’t complimentary, but quickly resolved that with the front desk with some friendly banter and a nice smile, and quickly had vouchers for the whole gang in hand.  It pays to be friendly!  After breakfast, we had to check out the back patio and pool before packing up.  I made the trip back to the off-site rental car company, then to the terminal, where I pick up the van we’d use for the rest of the week.  After heading back to the hotel to pick up everyone and our luggage, we were off.

After a couple quick stops for crowlers from local breweries, we made our way across the causeway and onto Sanibel Island.  We had a one bedroom suite with a pullout couch for the first night, and would move rooms to a larger space for the next two nights.  We took the girls over to the pool at the condo, and the older two loved going down the small slide into my arms in the pool.  It helped to wear them out, as they went to bed fairly easily!

The next morning, the three early risers – myself, the oldest daughter, and my mom, got our swimsuits on and headed out to the beach.  We walked along the shore for a while, picking up seashells as we went.  The sunrise was one of the prettiest I’ve ever seen.  There were a couple of women who volunteered for a seashell museum on the island, walking the beach and educating people on the many types of shells and where and when best to find them.  When the bike rental counter at the resort opened at 8am, I rented a bike and rode on bike trails all the way to Captiva Island and back, about a 22 mile round trip.  The ride there was with the wind and speedy, but the return was quite the opposite, and I was pretty zonked by the time I got back!

We then got all of our belongings packed up and checked out of that room, and headed to my aunt Chris’ house to relax for the afternoon.  She had quite the spread of food to snack on while we caught up with relatives, some we’d met, and some we were meeting for the first time.  The girls spent hours in the pool.  That evening, I made quesadillas and plantains for dinner, and took the middle daughter out for a beach walk, as she was the only one who still had the energy.  After dropping her back off at the room, I headed to the lobby to check on something, where I ran into my cousin Dan (Rachel’s brother), his fiancé, and his cousin and friend.  We had good conversation there, and stopped by another local joint for a couple local brews.

The next morning, the whole gang headed out to the beach.  The youngest girls stayed and played in the sand, while the oldest, my mom and I walked around in the water looking for large shells on a sandbar a little ways out.  We had quite a bit of luck finding some large and very ornate shells.  It was all fun and games until I bent down to get a large shell out of the water, at which point a large wave swept over me, knocking my glasses off my face.  The water was murky, so there wasn’t much point trying to feel around for them for more than a few minutes.  A woman who was also searching for shells adjacent to us was sure they’d wash up, but with the wedding about 6 hours away, I wasn’t counting on it.  Laura, myself, and the two youngest girls high-tailed it back over to Fort Myers, where I ordered a new pair of glasses, which wouldn’t be ready until the next day (unless I wanted to forgo transition lenses, which I didn’t).  We made a quick stop at a Chinese restaurant for food to hold us over until the wedding (I got dim sum for myself!), and got to the condo just in time to eat and get everyone bathed and ready for the wedding.  I made a quick stop to the front desk to see if my glasses may have turned up, with no luck.

The wedding on the beach on Captiva Island was beautiful.  The weather and timing of the sunset were perfect, and it was just how I like weddings: short, to the point, but also very meaningful.  Everything came together perfectly.  I was very happy to see my cousin get married to the love of her life!  The reception was in a local restaurant on Captiva Island, in a room perfect for the group of about 40 or so of us.  There was a live band, which the girls loved dancing with relatives to, and I got a nice big bowl of local seafood to fill that craving I’d been having.  We stayed for a while, but between the girls getting sleepy, and my getting a headache from not having glasses and everything being blurry, we left a bit earlier than I would have liked.  But, we were happy to have been there.  As expected, all three girls fell asleep in the van on the way back to the condo.

 

Once we got up, we fairly quickly got packed and finished up all the leftover food in the refrigerator for lunch.  I checked us out of the condo at the front desk, and hopped in the passenger seat so Laura could drive my blind self and the rest of us back to Fort Myers to the airport to head home.  As luck would have it, the same young woman who I’d asked about my glasses the day before was working the front desk and checked me out.  And also as luck would have it, she remembered that I was the one missing glasses.  About 15 minutes into our drive toward the airport, she called and said that a guest had turned in a pair of glasses that had washed up on the shore.  She described my glasses perfectly.  So we quickly turned around, picked them up, gave her a nice tip for her good memory, called the eyeglass store to tell them to ship my new glasses, and headed back toward the airport.  Now I have a spare pair!

Dropping the car off and flying to Charlotte was uneventful, and we lucked out and just barely made it on a flight home together.  It was a fairly quick trip, but just long enough to get plenty of time to relax, let the girls enjoy the beach, which the love.  We also had a good time with my mom’s side of the family, several of which live on Sanibel now, and who we don’t often see anymore.  And of course, it’s always a privilege to witness the wedding of those you love.  All in all, another good trip!

 

This is an installment of Bryant Backyard Border Bouncing (BBBB).  For more information, please see the bottom of the About page.

 

The third installment of BBBB covered a country much closer to the United States than Korea and Brazil (the first two installments) – Jamaica!  Again, we weren’t able to spend as much time on this one as we would like, but we had a good time learning about the island nation in the Caribbean.

We didn’t dig-in to facts on Jamaica as much as we have previously, but did explore a few aspects by way of the cuisine and what Jamaica is well known for in popular culture.  We started out by visiting Jamaica Jerk on the northwest side of the city, just a mile or so away from the office that Matt used to work out of.  It was a fairly frequent lunch destination from the time it opened.

As often happens, we ordered a variety of food, which the girls mostly picked at, and Matt ended up eating the majority of.  One day they’ll get more into it, I’m sure!  Matt’s favorite is oxtail.  The meat is so flavorful, and so tender and juicy that it falls right off the bone.  And of course the country and restaurant are both known for Jerk Chicken, so we got a nice sized order of that also.  Both came with rice and beans, cabbage, and plantains (another of Matt’s favorites).  The restaurant also had several beverages from Jamaica, so we picked up a can of coconut water, and bottles of pineapple and grapefruit soda.  Dad loved the coconut water, and the girls went to town on the soda.  As always, the owners were extremely friendly and hospitable.  One of the best restaurants in town, if you ask me.  We were the only ones eating in, but there was a constant stream of to-go orders headed out the door.

That evening, we hung out around the house listening to reggae. Of course, there was plenty of Bob Marley in the mix, but we also dug a bit deeper and found some good playlists and tunes on Spotify.  We capped the night off by watching a blast from Laura and Matt’s past – Cool Runnings!  We also read a general book about the Caribbean that we picked up from the library.

Later in the week, Matt cooked up a recipe found online, Jamaican Run Down Fish Stew.  It had a good flavor, but like many meals cooked in the household, would have been a bit more true to style and flavorful had the hot peppers called for in the recipe not been omitted.  Either way, the coconut milk paired well with the flavor of the fish, with fresh tomatoes and lime juice adding good flavor.  Homemade dumplings were also cooked up to serve the stew over, which added some good substance.

All in all, a fun time, and another country we’d love to visit once the girls are older!

This is an installment of Bryant Backyard Border Bouncing (BBBB).  For more information, please see the bottom of the About page.

 

While we started out strong with Korea, the most recent Bryant Backyard Border Bouncing experiences haven’t been quite as in depth.  Either way, we spent parts of a weekend in September learning about and eating our way through Brazil.

Here are some quick facts that we shared with the girls about Brazil:

• Brazil is the largest country in South America.
• It is the 5th largest country in the world by both land area and population.
• The Amazon River flows through Brazil, and is the 2^nd longest in the world, after The Nile.
• Portuguese is the official language spoken in Brazil.

• The climate in the majority of Brazil is tropical.

• Millions of tourists visit Brazil every year.
• There are around 2500 airports in Brazil.
• Football (soccer) is the most popular sport in Brazil with the national team consistently among the best in the world, winning the World Cup a record 5 times.

We also watched YouTube videos of Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, which the girls would like to visit someday.  It was also pretty awesome to watch videos from the perspective of hang-gliders soaring down to the beach from the surrounding cliffs.  They also loved seeing videos of Carnival, and REALLY want to go to it when they’re older!

While the only brick-and-mortar Brazilian restaurants I could find in the area are high-priced and all-you-can-eat meat extravaganzas that would be lost on kids, I did find that there’s a Brazilian food truck in town, Gaucho’s Fire.  The weekend we learned about at Brazil, the food truck was serving at an event downtown, so I headed over to pick up some to-go containers of food for the family to try.  I picked up an assortment of dishes, all of which involved meat and potatoes.  I would like to have tried some of the side dishes that they normally serve, but the menu was paired down for this large event. The girls ate a few bites here and there, but overall weren’t huge fans.  That’s OK…more for me!

For our own take on Brazilian food, I found a few recipes that were a bit healthier.  As an appetizer, I made Black-Eyed Pea and Shrimp Fritters (Acaraje).  As often is the case, they looked much better on the recipe blog than they did when executed in my kitchen!  They were decent, but I wasn’t too excited about them.  For the main dish I made roasted vegetable feijoada, a thick stew-like dish normally made with several types of meat.  I thought it turned out well, but would have loved for it to have had more spice to it.  I made it a second time a few weeks later, and added a jalapeno to the homemade salsa that tops it, and I liked it much more.  For dessert, I made Crème de Papaya, which was basically a milkshake of pureed payapa and vanilla ice cream, topped with Crème de Cassis (which I’d never heard of, but easily found at a well-stocked liquor store).  It was all decent, but none overly exciting.

I have a friend who also works in the airline industry who loves Brazil and has visited Rio de Janeiro several times, so I look forward to learning more from him, and taking the girls on a trip down there when they’re older.  Until then, Felicidades!

As we did in 2015 to London, and 2016 to Austin, and as much as we love our girls, Laura and I decided that we desperately needed a quick trip sans kids.  We had multiple ideas, and multiple plans that fell through, but what ended up working was Brussels!

After determining that the only way to get to the flight we wanted to take from New York’s JFK was to fly to LaGuardia first, we dropped the girls off for a weekend with relatives, headed to the airport, and score two seats together, one row behind first class (the one with the nice leg room for a 6’1 guy), and were on our way.  The flight was uneventful, and I managed to get some decent shots of Manhattan on the way in.  The ride on the NYC Airporter had us realizing an Uber would have been about the same price and much faster, though once arriving at JFK, we quickly got through TS Pre-Check, and got to the gate right as boarding for Delta One began.  As I saw on Delta’s employee website travel tool that we’re already been assigned seats in Delta One, we headed up to the podium and managed to be some of the first people on the plane.  As always, we enjoyed our champagne and started pursuing the food and wine menu.

I really enjoyed the shrimp and sweet potato salad, and finished Laura’s for her, as she’s not a shrimp fan.  The soup and salad were both decent, though I’ve had better on Delta previously.  The chardonnay helped.  For dinner, I had and really enjoyed the Bourbon Braised Spiced Lamb (paired with the R&G Rioja), and Laura enjoyed the tasty and spicy Dry Rubbed Smoked Chicken Breast.  And of course, two pretzel rolls were consumed.  As the ice cream leaving New York is always delicious, she ordered the pumpkin and I ordered the salted caramel, with all the toppings, and we split them.  Both were delicious. And of course I couldn’t pass on my other favorite part, the cheese plate.  Within a few minutes, I laid the seat flat into bed mode and was out within a few minutes.  Four hours later when breakfast was served, we both opted for the egg dish, though we were both still fairly full from dinner.  We later regretted that decision, as we weren’t hungry for all the food we wanted to try until late in the day.

Upon arrival, customs was fairly quick, and finding the train station, purchasing tickets via the kiosk, and boarding the train were all quick and easy.  Finding our hotel for the night, the NH Collection Brussels Grand Sablon, (purchased using points from my Chase Sapphire Reserve), was fairly easy, and about a 10 minute walk from Brussels Central station.  Even though it was only mid-morning, the agent was able to check us into a room with two twin beds pushed together, which seems to be a thing in Europe.  We could have waited for a queen, but I was just ready for a shower.  The room was on the third floor, and had a nice view of a courtyard behind the hotel. The windows opened fully, letting the cool air in.

After a quick shower, we were on our way out the door to start exploring.  The hotel was about a block away from Park Square du Petit Sablon, which sat adjacent to Palais d’Egmont, which according to Google Maps, is an “Imposing, iconic neoclassical complex housing government offices and international conferences.”  After reading plaques about each, we made our way up to Royal Square, a picturesque and very European square which once housed Brussels’ main market and original royal palace.  Around the corner was the Royal Palace of Brussels, where state functions are held, though the royal family resides elsewhere.  Luckily for us, it is only open to tour during a portion of the summer when the royal family is on vacation, and we were there the last day of tours!  After a quick wait in line for a security check, we were inside.  There are signs showing pictures are forbidden, though the young, contract security workers in each room didn’t seem to enforce this.   The building was massive, and each room was very ornate and well decorated.  We were happy to have the opportunity to see it.

From there we headed across the plaza into the Parc de Bruxelles, a large municipal park.  There happened to be a comic festival going on, so we pursued some of the tents as we passed through.  We saw a pretty interesting kids play area that was set up that we thought the girls would love, and saw a small band playing outside a café in the park.  Very nice park, and would be fun place to hang out.  From there we made our way west through the city to Grand Place, a huge city square completely encircled by elegant historic buildings dated back to the 14^th Century.  It just so happened that we stumbled upon a large festival taking place as part of Brussels Beer Weekend.  We decided that we may check it out, but a nap first would be ideal.  We stopped at a shop to get a coworker chocolate per his request, and headed to Delirium Café, an internationally known beer bar.  We split a bottle of Cantillon Gueuze, from the top producer of spontaneously fermented beers in the world, brewed in Brussels.  I then had a pour of Delirium Tremens, the flagship beer of Huyghe Brewery, who makes the Delirium series.  We were surprised and amused to see what seemed to be high school kids ordering beer at the bar next to us.  After a conversation with the bartender, we learned that while the drinking age for beer is 16 in Belgium, it’s really more of a suggestion.  Even the Wikipedia article on “Minimum legal ages in Belgium” shows all ages regarding alcohol as “rarely enforced.”  My, what a change from the United States.

We were pretty tired by this point, so we headed back to the hotel for a nap.  We were there a bit longer than we’d anticipated, but still had plenty of daylight left.  We were somewhat hungry at this point, so headed back toward Grand Palace to find a snack.  There were several places with waffles, though one stood out as there was a long line that went down the block.  Usually a pretty good indication.  We ordered one with strawberries and whipped cream, and one with chocolate fudge.  We found a couple seats at the crowded tables outside, and indulged.  Definitely the best waffles we’d ever had.

There were still a couple hours left of the beer festival, so we gave it a go. Twenty Euro gave us two tokens that served as deposits for the glasses used by each brewery for each pour, along with twenty bottle caps to use as tokens for pours.  The pours were mostly three bottle caps each, with some harder to find pours being four or five bottle caps.  We split each pour, and had about 10 total total.  Highlights were Boon Oude Geuze Mariage Parfait, which we toasted with at our wedding, a few sours not found in the US, and Westvleteren 12, which for years has been the highest rated and one of the hardest to find beers in the world.  We then walked a bit over to Moeder Lambic, one of the better known beer bars in the world.  We hadn’t had much to eat since breakfast, so we split a meat and cheese plate, while we sipped on some Gueuze Tilquin, Cantillon Kreik, and a couple Italian beers that were on as part as an Italian beer takeover.

It was getting dark toward that point, so we headed back to the hotel via Grand Palace, where the brewers were tearing down from the festival, and the evening light meshed perfectly with the lights on the surrounding buildings.  We went back to the hotel for a bit, before deciding that we would be amiss to not get some frites while in Belgium.  So we headed out to a small shop near Grand Place, where we got a large cone of frites with garlic aioli and watched some street performers break-dancing on a corner.

We were pretty zonked by this point, so headed back to the hotel, where we both slept well.  The next morning, we walked back to Brussels Centraal, hopped back and forth between platforms trying to catch the first of the many delayed trains to the airport, and finally got on one.  After a quick 15 minute ride back to the airport, we got checked in, through a huge mess at security, and after an hour long queue, finally got through passport control.  We waited at the gate for the Delta flight to JFK, and after not making it on, headed over to the United flight to Washington Dulles.  Alas, our spoiled selves got seats toward the back of a mostly full 777, though we have a set of three seats with an empty seat in the middle.  I slept off and on the whole way home, regardless of not having a lie-flat seat.  Upon arrival, we got through customs, Uber-ed to Washington National Airport, and got through security just in time to get on an early flight home that we’d expected on American.  This trip goes to show that we would often not get anywhere without flight benefits on all three major carries, as they all came through for us on this trip.

All in all, a very short and quick trip, but a nice break away as a couple.  Next time we go to Belgium, we’ll get outside of Brussels and explore some of the other cities and the countryside.

This is the first installment of Bryant Backyard Border Bouncing.  See our “About” page for details.

Our first country….Korea!  We were fortunate to find multiple books on North and South Korea at the library.  Some were more for younger kids and some for older, but we got something out of each.  We learned a few simple phrases, but they weren’t easy to remember!  We talked a bit about the war between the two countries, and the differences between them now.  While going in to about as much detail as one would with small kids, we explained that some parts of the world do not have the freedoms and luxuries that we do, while those living in the bordering country actually have lifestyles much like ours.

While there are several options in the surrounding area, we chose Bando Restaurant, on the far northeast side of Indianapolis.  The goal was to try as much as possible, but at the same time, find dishes the kids would eat.  Possibly my favorite part was the assortment of appetizers set out for each restaurant patron upon arrival.  I could have just snacked on them all night.  Some were more savory, with some being quite spicy.  I particularly enjoyed the fish cakes and the various varieties of kimchi.

Here’s what we ordered:

For the girls:  Gyoza – dumplings filled with meat and veggies with dipping sauce, and Kimbap, a Korean variety of sushi

For us:  Ttok Bokki – spicy rice cake with fish cake and mixed vegetables (very spicy, which I loved), and bulgogi – broiled marinated tender beef with green pepper and onion, both dishes that Korea is known for.  Ours came with shrimp and vegetable tempura.

The girls enjoyed some things more than others.  The oldest did pretty well with all of it, and the youngest really enjoyed the Kimbap.  Unfortunately, the middle daughter slept from the time we left the house until the time we got home, over two and a half hours.

What we really loved about the experience was the service.  We had multiple people (I believe many were family) helping us throughout, and they all loved the girls, were really good with them, and were very tolerant of and helpful with their messes.

On the way home, we stopped at Saraga, an amazing large international grocery store on our side of town, to pick up a few things for Sunday’s dinner.

Sunday dinner was also delicious, if I do say so myself!  We made another dish that Korea is known for:  Bi Bim Bop.  I used marinated mushrooms, green bean kimchi, and seaweed salad from Saraga, and made my own pickled carrots, sautéed spinach with garlic, seared tofu, cucumber and sprouts doused with sesame oil and seeds, and homemade sauce, made of tamari, brown sugar, rice vinegar, honey, and gochujang, a chili pepper paste that can be found at Asian or international grocery stores, and has recently been spotted even at major grocery stores in town.

Bi Bim Bop, literally translated, means “mixed rice.”  Cooked rice is topped with all of the ingredients, a fried egg, and sauce, then mixed together before eating.  I was personally a huge fan, and will be making it again.  The girls did well eating some of the elements, but not necessarily all of it together.  We also came across a YouTube video of a kid’s book called “Bi Bim Bop!” by Linda Sue Park, which the girls have requested to watch several time since.  It really tied it all together.

While I would like to have done a bit more exploring on YouTube and reading to them about the country, it was a trial-by-fire for this first go-round, and we’ll add on more for our next country.  Coming up next:  Brazil.  Stay tuned!

As those who know me are aware, I’m much more of a cool weather, pine tree and mountain man than a hot and humid, palm tree, and beach bum.  I don’t mind a couple days on the beach, but I like to spend time exploring new places and being active.  I do this some on the Florida trips, but it’s so uncomfortably hot for me, it’s not always the most pleasant.  As Laura is aware of this, she gave me the “green light” to take a quick “vacation from my vacation” (the in-law’s annual Florida trip) and head elsewhere for a few days.

So after flying/driving to Florida on Saturday, on Sunday morning, I took an Uber from the condo to the Panama City Beach airport for a 0710 flight to Atlanta.  I’d like to have gone later in the day, but seats were pretty full after this flight.  But, it gave me some time to explore Atlanta, and time for my friend Anthony, my companion for the trip, to get from Dallas to Atlanta, where he spend the night after flying straight from Seoul, South Korea to Seattle and then Dallas to spend the night with a mutual friend.  Our original plan was to meet in Tokyo, but my flights there were filling up, and the flight he wanted to take form Seoul was full, so Plan B it was.

Upon arriving in Atlanta, I got a MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Regional Transit Authority) day pass, and hopped on a train into the city.  In the meantime, I was texting my friend Joy from grade school to see if she had insight on places with good brunch and or/beer in town.  I was able to find a place called Bread & Butterfly, a “stylish all-day café & bistro serving seasonal, French-inspired fare made with local ingredients.”  The walk from the train station through the Inman Park neighborhood was pleasant.  The neighborhood is full of huge mature trees, and the houses were beautifully historical, all with front porch swings and fans overhead.  Very charming.  I wasn’t terrible hungry, so I ordered a peach and mint salad along with delicious frites for my meal.  As they say, when in Rome!  I then made my way a few blocks away to the Krog Street Market, and urban market full of shops and restaurants of many varieties…just my kind of place.  I met with Joy there, where she had a quick bite, as she was going to a lunch party later in the day.  We then walked along some newly finished portions of the Eastside BeltLine Trail, which is a pedestrian path that will eventually circumnavigate the whole city.  If I lived here, I’d bike it often!

After this we parted ways, and I slowly meandered south through the city, stopping at some historical sites where Martin Luther King, Jr. lived as child and an adult, and is memorialized.  I then took the train from the King Memorial Transit station across town to visit with my mom’s cousin, Grant, who lives in town and works as a recruiter for the Peace Corps.  He gave me a tour of his home (which he had decorated and arranged beautifully, which he moved into just a few years ago after spending two years with the Peace Corps, and living in Fort Collins and Los Angeles previously.  After a couple hours of great conversation, he took me back to the train, which I took back to the airport, and met with my friend Anthony at The Club Atlanta, a Priority Pass lounge which I have access to through my Chase Sapphire Reserve card.  After a lot of walking in humid weather, the ability to take a shower in a private bathroom, eat light sandwiches and snacks, and enjoy a couple Sweetwater 420 pales ales was just what the doctor ordered.

After a few hours of lounging, it was time to board our flight to Buenos Aires.  We were fairly nervous throughout boarding, not because seats were tight overall, but because seats up front were tight, and that’s what we wanted!  However, we were able to score the last two seats in Delta One.  As I was pretty tired and wanted to sleep as much as possible on the overnight flight, I opted for the “Dine and Rest” option, which allows all of your meal to come at the same time, instead of by course.  Dinner included Serrano ham with grilled apricots, summer tomato caprese salad, and corn and green chili bisque for everyone, and I chose pan seared halibut with gingered cream corn, sugar snap peas and red bell pepper sauce as my entrée, along with a glass of Crios Torrontes white wine from Argentina.  As always on Delta One, the soup stole the show.  As I still was awake by the time the dessert cart rolled around, I ordered the obligatory cheese plate with a glass of port, my favorite part of any flight on Delta One.  After a couple melatonin, setting up some relaxing music on the headphones, reclining the seat to lie flat, and arranging the fluffy pillow and duvet, I was off to sleep for a solid 7 hours.  After waking, I enjoyed a frittata and turkey sausage and fresh fruit for breakfast just before landing in Buenos Aires.  As always, the Delta One service and product was fantastic.

Upon landing, we were able to clear customs quickly, and set out to get cash from an ATM at the airport.  After multiple tries with multiple cards each, we had no luck.  So, we decided to Uber to the city and go from there.  The streets and curbside outside the airport were very busy and crowded, but once we finally connected with our Uber driver, it was a pleasant half hour ride to the city.  He spoke English well, having lived in the US for years, and gave us some good tips.  He dropped us off at Casa Rosada, a large pink building which houses the presidential office.  After walking around that area for a while, we decided to venture around the city a bit and see what we could see.  We found Florida Street, a pedestrian only street lined with shops, restaurants, bars, and vendors.  After a quick, cheap Argentinian beer at a bar and finding an ATM that would take my debit card, we continued on to find lunch.  My friend Brian who attended Purdue with me and is now a pilot for a major airline recommended lunch at Parrilla Pena, a steakhouse.  Though there was a bit of a language barrier, we were able to fairly quickly  order a bottle of the server’s favorite Malbec and a bife de lomo (tenderloin) for myself and bife de chorizo (rump steak) for him, at the recommendation of our driver.  Our meal came with empanadas.  My steak was tender, rare, juicy, and very flavorful.  Possibly the best steak I’ve had.  I’ll admit I’m not much of a steak eater, so the odds were pretty good.  His was a bit fatty and chewy, but still had good flavor.  The Malbec paired well.

From there we walked a bit toward the ocean, but gave up when we realized it was a bit further than expected, and not easily accessible from the area we were in.  We then deciding to take a cab to La Boca, the area famous for Argentinean tango.  We didn’t have an exact destination in the area, so our driver dropped us off on a street corner in what seemed to be a not-so-great part of town, but we walked a few blocks and found a small neighborhood bar and had a quick beer before Uber-ing about a mile away to where it looked like there was more going on.  We were dropped off adjacent to Parque Lezama, a very green and picturesque city park.  We weren’t finding any tango or live music during that part of the day, so we opted for the obvious choice…a bottle of Argentinian wine on the patio on the sidewalk outside a nice restaurant, La Popular de San Telmo.  It was La Vuelta, ad Savignon Blanc, and paired well with the sunny, low 70s temperatures and quaint area of town.

By then, it was time to head to the airport.  We got there with plenty of time to spare, and waited over an hour after talking to an agent, who was checking with Delta’s dispatch to ensure the flight would not be weight restricted, which may decrease the odds of us getting on.  When meeting with him again, he gave us the go-ahead to clear security and customs, which went pretty quickly and painlessly.  We again got the last two seats in Delta One, which makes all the different.  I was again tired, but opted for the full meal service this time.

Dinner consisted of grilled fennel and zucchini, salad with pesto conchiglie pasta, and carrot, ginger and orange soup, along with the seared Argentinian beef ribeye, which was unfortunately a disappointment after my lunch steak.  Again after dinner, a few glasses of wine, and a sundae and cheese for dessert, I popped some melatonin and slept 7 hours yet again.  Breakfast prior to landing was quiche caprese with fruit, potatoes and a croissant.  Customs in Atlanta went quickly, as it was not crowded at all in the early morning.  The next stop was back to The Club Atlanta for a quick shower, which is so very nice after a long day of walking around Buenos Aires and a 10 hour flight.  Soon after, I was on a flight to Fort Walton Beach to meet up with the rest of the family and resume the vacation with them and Laura’s family.

Overall, as with some of trips, I wish there had been more time to plan before reaching our destination.  I often leave a place feeling like I missed things that would have been good to see if I’d researched more.  But it’s just something that goes along with flying standby and taking last minute trips.  I wish I’d taken more pictures, but overall, it was a successful quick getaway.  It’s a beautiful city, and the people were very warm and welcoming.  Plus, it’s nice to fly overnight and wake up only one time zone off from where you started.  I’m looking forward to taking the rest of the family when the girls are older.

This trip started out a bit rough, as something happened that happens all too often:  flights look fine one day, then the next, it looks impossible.  We got very close to driving down instead of flying.  In the end, I found that it would be most convenient to fly to Atlanta and rent a car for a 5 hour drive from there to Panama City Beach.  Sure beats over 12 hours in the car with three little ones, not counting stops.  We got to Atlanta just fine, took the train to the rental car location, hopped in our SUV, and were in Florida just in time for dinner and the sunset.  We joined Laura’s parents, sister and boyfriend, and brother, wife, and their daughter in the condo for a week on the beach.  The girls got to romp around on the beach for a little bit before bed.

The next morning, Sunday, I took the advantage of extra help with the girls and open flights to escape the oppressive heat and humidity of the Florida Panhandle (many love it, but it’s a bit much for me) and vacate to Buenos Aires for a short trip, but that’ll be another post.

I returned on Tuesday morning, flying into Fort Walton Beach, about an hour away, as the flights to Panama City Beach were full.  Laura and the girls came to pick me up, and we had brunch at Summer Kitchen Café, a nice little joint in the upscale beachside town of Rosemary Beach.  We then ventured on to the condo.

Most of the week consisted of taking the girls back and forth between the indoor and outdoor pools, the beach, and the condo.  All three girls loved the indoor pool, and went back and forth between jumping in to us, floating around on their own, riding on our backs, and being thrown around in the water.  When not at the beach or pool, we spent time in the condo playing games and watching movies.  A nice place called The Craft Bar stocks a nice list of taps and fills growlers of them, making the week very enjoyable for me!

One nice break was on Wednesday, when we the guys (myself, father-in-law, brother-in-law, and sister-in-law’s boyfriend) took a chartered boat into the gulf for some fishing.  The captain set everything up for us, and our only job was to reel the fish in when they were snagged.  The king mackerel were biting in force, as we caught 7 over the course of an hour and a half or so.  About that point, a large storm system started moving in, and the captain decided it was best to head back in.  As soon as he did, lightning started striking nearby, and the skies opened up.  The captain navigated the boat back at full speed, all while the four of us bounced up and down on our seats, and were soaked down to our britches.  It wasn’t amusing at the time, but looking back, it was quite an adventure.

We dropped the fish off at a seafood market that also filets and cleans fish for the general public.  After dropping that off, we were returned to the dock near our car.  As we were all soaked, we agreed to head back to the condo to change clothes and have the ladies meet us afterward at J Michael’s, a restaurant that would grill our fish for us and provide multiple side dishes for a per person fee.  And of course I had to have some Apalachicola oysters.  We put a dent in the 39 pounds of King Mackerel, but we also ate it throughout the week as a hash with eggs and peppers for breakfast, and as sandwiches.

On Friday, we got the obligatory family and group pictures on the beach.  That night, Laura’s parents and sister started the drive back, with her brother and his family leaving soon after.  Even though we only had the condo until late Saturday morning, we stayed the night and decided to stay one more night in a hotel, as the flights were much more open on Sunday than they were on Sunday.

Saturday we had a nice day together as a family, first stopping for an early lunch at Finn’s Island Style Grub, where I had delicious seared tuna tacos.  We continued on to Idyll Hounds Brewing, where World of Beer was on site filming a feature on the brewery, the brewer, and their beers.  I first checked them out last year, and still feel they make the best and most unique beer in the area by far.  There were games and a Jenga set for the girls to play with while Laura and I sipped on beer (mostly me) and talked.  We made our way back into town and checked in to our hotel, the Hampton Inn and Suites Panama City Beach.  I booked it using partial points and partial payment on my Chase Sapphire Reserve.  It was a beautiful property, was right on the beach, and had a nice pool, so the girls could get in one more afternoon of swimming.

The trip home via Atlanta was mostly uneventful, and the ability to spend an hour or so eating snacks and letting the girls move around a bit at The Club (a club lounge), also available through my Chase Sapphire Reserve card, made it a nice layover.  They were also very excited and happy to see my mom, “Nana,” who had spent the night in Atlanta on the way home from a week in the United Kingdom.  We were split up a bit on the last flight and the girls got cranky with having to rush on the plane and determine seats, but eventually calmed down.  We were home with plenty of time to relax a bit before going back to work Monday, only to have Tuesday of for Independence Day.

Overall, a successful trip with Laura’s family to the beach!

 

As a fan of the Pacific Northwest, and knowing that Seattle was the number one city from Indy that didn’t have a nonstop flight, along with knowing how much Alaska Airlines and Delta Air Lines were expanding from Seattle, I’d been waiting for an announcement of nonstop service for several years.  That announcement that Alaska would start the route came from the Indianapolis Airport Authority last fall.  From that time, the wheels in my head were spinning on how I could get on the inaugural flight.

Arriving to the gate was pretty spectacular.  There was music, a very nicely done cake, snack foods, a “blue screen” at which to get your picture taken with friends and silly hats, mustaches etc, and a lot of people.  There were several speeches from the likes of the director of the airport authority, an executive at Alaska, and even Mayor Joe Hogsett.  Just prior to boarding there was a ribbon cutting ceremony.

The flight itself was pretty uneventful.  As I hadn’t eaten in a while, and because I can’t pass up cheese and beer, I purchased a cheese tray that included three cheeses and fruit with crackers, along with a Alaska Brewing Icy Bay IPA.  Both were tasty!  I had a middle seat, and mostly watched our progress on the in-seat TV and snoozed.

We arrived around 8pm local, so about 11pm at home.  I’d been up since 6am, so I didn’t stay up long before calling it a night.  After a quick stop at the Alaska Airlines lounge for a small bowl of a soup and a local IPA, I was off to catch the shuttle for a good night’s sleep at the Quality Inn I’d found on Hotwire for a reasonable rate.

After sleeping well, I woke up at about 430am local, around 730am at home, so sleeping in for me!  I quickly got up, showered, packed, and headed to the lobby, where I caught a ride to the light rail station serving the Seattle Airport.  After purchasing a cheap ticket at the station, I boarded the train, and was in downtown Seattle in just over half an hour.  By this point it was about 6am It was a beautiful and sunny, with morning temperatures in the low 50s.

I headed straight to the Pike Place Market.  I spent a few minutes talking to the guys at Pike Place Fish Market, famous for their throwing of fish and humorous antics.  I told them I was just in town for the day and wanted some smoked salmon to snack on for breakfast.  The guy I talked to recommended getting salmon collars, describing the meat as very delicate and buttery.  I was convinced, so bought a package and was on my way.  I walked through the market, where some of the vendors were starting to set up their fruit, seafood, flowers, and gifts etc, though it was early.

I sat down at a table at Victor Steinbrueck Park, with a view of Puget Sound and Bainbridge Island to the west, downtown to the east, and the red cranes at the docks and Mount Rainer (visible on a fairly clear day) to the south.  I’ve always loved seeing all of these from this park, and this was a perfect day to see it all.  I pretty quickly and messily devoured my salmon breakfast.  It was now around 8am, and most of the vendors and shops started opening.  I stopped in Pear Delicatessen & Shoppe and picked up a couple of IPAs to enjoy with my lunch.

I then walked around downtown Seattle a couple hours before getting an Uber to take me a couple miles away to a large Asian grocery store that I’ve always wanted to check out, called Uwajimaya.  I picked up some ahi tuna poke and a few packages of various types of sashimi.  By then it was around 70 degrees outside and sunny, so I sat on a park bench outside the store and had my lunch.  I still had a couple hours until I needed to be at the airport, and didn’t have anything set in stone that I still wanted to do, so the natural solution was to find a brewery!  I took another Uber a couple miles back north and had a sampler at Old Stove Brewing, mostly of very well made Pacific Northwest IPAs.

By this time, it was time to head back to the airport.  So I walked a few blocks back to the train station, and boarded a train back to the airport.  I made a quick stop at the “The Club at SEA,” using my Priority Pass benefits, for a quick snack so that I wouldn’t have to buy food on the way home.  Though I was near the very back on a United 757 to Chicago, it was at least an aisle seat, and I slept most of the way.  After a quick 40 minutes connection at O’Hare, I was in an Economy Plus seat back to Indy, and on the ground just before 11pm, about 29 hours from the time I left.

While I’d been to Seattle before, I was happy to have had the opportunity to be on Alaska Airline’s first flight from Indianapolis.  While it costs too much for the whole family to fly standby on it round trip, it will be a nice back-up emergency option to get home on our trips to Washington.  With any luck, I’m hoping Delta may start up the same route so that we could make the journey for free!

Go home day is always bittersweet.  We were up very early and got the bags and three sleepy girls into the car and headed toward the airport.  We got checked in, through security, and got seats from the agent for our United (Express) flight to Denver.  She had two seats in row 1 and two in row 2, with a 5^th toward the back.  Luckily, the flight attendant told us to just take row two, and those who were in those seats were happy to sit in the first row.  I sat toward the back.  The flight was short and uneventful.  We were very fortunate to go to the gate next door for our flight home.  We were again able to get 4 seats together with one a bit further back, which I took (the girls gotta be by mama).  It was again uneventful, and we were on the ground and had our bags pretty quickly.  After a stop for Chinese takeout, we were home by early afternoon and ready for naps and to get ready for the week.  Another successful trip in the books!

As usual, I woke up well before everyone, and before the sun rose.  Figuring Laura would need a shower, and that we weren’t in any rush to do anything in particular that day, I decided to go on an adventure while they slept in.  I started toward Arches before I remembered, once again, that we needed gas.  Luckily, it was just a few minutes back into town to get gas, and I was still at the park entrance around dusk.  As I made my way up the entry road, I pretty quickly was able to see the sun coming up behind the distant rock formations.  I made my way to Double Arch area, where we’d been before.  The sunrise was pretty breathtaking from all angles, and I got some good pictures.  It also didn’t hurt to get some cardio in to get me started for the morning.

I made my way back to the hotel, where the girls were ready for breakfast.  We headed to the busy breakfast room, where we enjoyed an array from the buffet.  On the way back, while intending to stop at the pool to see if it was swim-worthy yet, only to find it was closed for repair.  I promised the girls we’d find a hotel with a pool in Grand Junction that night.

We leisurely packed up once more, and checked out at 11am on the dot.  We had no big agenda for the day besides to be back in Grand Junction to hit the sack before flying out in the morning.  We didn’t feel like we were able to get much out of Canyonlands, so we said goodbye to Moab one last time and headed back into the park.  We first made one last stop at the Arches entrance, as we hadn’t gotten the obligatory park entrance sign pic.   It was much cloudier this day, so the canyon wasn’t quite as spectacular, though was still quite a sight to see.

The girls napped the whole way there and through much of drive through the park, with who was awake alternating here and there.  We stopped to get some pictures at lookouts here and there, with the sleepy ones staying in the car while we walked a few feet away.  We decided to get one last hike in, so woke everyone up do a quick hike to Mesa Arch.  It was a fairly easy half mile loop with not too much of an altitude gain.  It was busy, but we got a few good pictures, and enjoyed the view at the end of the arch.

We were told by multiple people to check out Dead Horse Point State Park, which offered more nice view of the canyon.  We had sporatic sleepers again, so a couple of us got out at the end of the road for a few pictures, and we were quickly on our way.  I’d say it was just as good as if not better than some of the view from Canyonlands, so would recommend checking it out if in the area.

As I’d done almost all of the driving so far, I let Laura take us back to Grand Junction.  As we had much of the trip, we enjoyed listening to the Broadway show Hamilton on the way back.  In just under two hours, we made it to the town of Fruita, just outside of Grand Junction.  I’d found a place on Yelp called Copper Club Brewing, and while they didn’t have food, they allowed food to be brought in from nearby restaurants.  We got some pizza from Red Tomato Pizza, just around the corner, and I had a sampler of delicious beer.  It was the kind of place that allowed kids and dogs, had a view of the mountains, good beer, and plenty of hippies.  My kind of place.  We were soon on the road again for the quick trip to the hotel, the Holiday.  We got checked in, brought the bags up to repack, got our suits on, and the whole family jumped in the pool for a bit.  I checked our possible flights for the next day, and while I was hoping to leave mid-morning, saw that our best bet was the earliest flight, at 6am.  We got everything packed up for the trip and were in bed by 9.