Travel Break

Hi everyone. Looks like we are going to be on a bit of a travel break these days as we ride out this shaky economic phase we are in. The company is cutting back on all unnecessary travel so that means more home time for our little training team. Woo hoo! Well, I say woo hoo but I do sort of miss the travel at times. I think it's just taken me about a month to finally get back into the routine of enjoying home and the work homebase...I'm just so used to speeding around getting ready to go somewhere or recovering and catching up from being on the road. It's a funny feeling to have the plug pulled on all that travel all of a sudden.

I may not post much for a while but if we take any trips or have any adventures even close to homebase, I'll let you know. :)

The Summit Diner (NJ)

This is a great place to grab a bite if you are in Summit. I really enjoyed breakfast there. Two of us ate a filling breakfast with juice and coffee for under $20. Not bad in an affluent town. Below is a shot of inside.

This diner is located across from the train station so you could grab a quick bite and then hop the train for a 30 minute ride into New York City. Too bad we didn't have time to go into the city but we had a really nice time driving and walking around Summit. It's a really lovely community.

The Grand Summit Hotel (Summit, NJ)

The Grand Summit was on the pricey side in my opinion but since I had never been to Jersey, I didn't know that I wanted to try and drive from a far distance to get to the work site we were visiting this week. This hotel was only five minutes from our site AND it was nestled among beautiful neighborhoods and a thriving main street, Springfield Avenue.

The hotel is very nice and you can find plenty of information on the hotel website. It has plenty of modern amenities and tons of character. It's very close to local shops and restaurants as well as a huge mall that's very upscale. I loved it in Summit. I will post more photos this week of it.

Delta Media Options

Did you know that on some of the bigger Delta planes offer television, HBO shows, music channels and over 25 CDs in a variety of genres? Well, I found this out during the Atlanta to Newark (NJ) leg of our trip because we stayed in the air for about 6 hours since no flights could land in Newark (reason still unknown to us). Airlines are SO terrible about informing passengers. Have you noticed that? They never tell you anything. And if they do, it's really vague. Ugh. Frustrating.

So, we watched CNN, HGTV, Food Network, the Spurs/Lakers WNBA Western Conference Finals (go Starz!). And the music was great. I listened to my favorite Diana Krall songs and that made the hours onboard bearable. That and talking to Ronnie. It makes such a big difference when you are sit next to someone with whom you get along so that the talks make the flights just zip by in a flash.

Claremont, CA - Doubletree Hotel Revisted

Here's the view from Building 4 at the Doubletree. We went back there since it was nice the first time we were there. With all the traveling I have done this past year, I am finally gold level with the Hilton Honors programs. If you haven't picked a customer loyalty program, this is a really decent one to start with if you like Hampton, Hilton, Doubletree, Embassy Suites, etc. I have had enough points to get an airline ticket in addition to getting to gold level (next would be diamond level).

My upgrade got me a BIG room with a king bed, two cookies, two waters, seven vouchers for free breakfast buffet at their Orchard restaurant. The buffet was only okay and so we decided that it was very nice to have the vouchers or else we'd pass on the $15 buffet and go to McD instead. :o)

Believe it or not, I never remembered to take a picture of it. LOL. What's wrong with me?!

Travel Fatigue

Taken with the A737 Samsung phone by Sonia.

Here we are in our 4th week and obviously sort of tired from the travel and some late nights but it's been a great trip. I was told that typically, if you fly late in the day, there are fewer people on the flights and you can have your pick of seats for stretching out. Well, here's our Project Manager enjoying the empty plane. But when I finally decided to take the 8pm Southwest flight from SA to Phoenix, it was pretty much full. Even the stretch from Phoenix to Ontario, CA was full. Let's hope my flight home tomorrow night is as empty as the one above.

Update: On my return flight, Ontario (CA) to Phoenix was almost full but the Phoenix to SA flight was nice and empty. Plenty of space for stretching out.

Sacramento Fields

For some reason, I was under the impression that Sacramento would be a much larger city. Instead, we were greated by great, big fields that went on and on forever. I loved the different colors and patterns; I could almost feel the texture from the air.

Sacramento Airport

Here's an interesting piece of art for all those bags that never get picked up at the airport. I love old luggage because they look so unique.

I was just telling Mark that one of the greatest things about traveling so much this past year is that I feel like I can pretty much get around any airport and city now. I don't know that I would have said that eight months ago but I can now. I have started a log of all the trips I take in order to see how many hotels, airports and cars I use in one year. Plus the cost. Should be interesting.

Hilton Grand Vacation, Las Vegas, NV

There are three Hiltons in Vegas and the one we stayed at did not have a casino, which was a plus for me. I'm not a gambler and I don't care for all the hustle and bustle (and smoke) of a hotel casino. Plus this Hilton was only $89 per night; not bad for a wonderful hotel in Vegas. They have very nice amenities that typical good hotels have plus a spa.





The staff at the hotel was very nice. My first room appeared not completely cleaned...receipts and a couple of beverages about the room from the last occupant. After I called down, they moved me to a lovely, lovely suite across the hall at no extra charge. I loved it! It was bigger than a couple of my old apartments from when I lived in San Antonio. I felt quite spoiled. And the view wasn't bad either.

Doubletree Hotel, Claremont, CA

Back to the Doubletree. They offer room service which is something that I love to see. There's just something very fun about room service to me and once in a while, I let myself enjoy it. I couldn't resist the French Toast though it was not as scrumptious as I would have liked. Just so you know. The coffee was very good though not enough. The young man who delivered it told me a secret (according to him). You can request a small pot of coffee and the cost doesn't increase much or you can go to the restaurant and get FREE coffee. And it's Starbucks coffee. Good to know for when I go back next month. I just need to bring a coffee mug. Coffee out of paper doesn't taste as good to me and out of styrofoam is even worse. Of course, if I'm desperate, I won't complain!

You'll see a lot of things in Austin

This is from our "travels" to and through Austin, Texas, some time ago. I just think it's worth sharing; I had not seen it in a while on my Flickr. LOL. If you haven't been to Austin lately, it's full of interesting characters. I haven't seen a pet rider before when I snapped this shot. I think he should have a helmet for his pet.

Doubletree Hotel, Claremont, CA

Did you know that you get a warm chocolate chip cookie upon check-in at the Doubletree!?!?! And it was good, too. If you recall a year or two ago, on one of my blogs, I wrote that Midwest Airlines served fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies upon take-off. Well...Doubletree's cookie is even better than that. I'm just saying...these efforts are redefining "warm welcome" for me when I travel. I feel quite pampered. Speaking of pampered, there is also a day spa at this hotel. Haven't been in there but it's nice to know it's there should my day be so trying that I need some attention. They're open until 8pm. Nice.

Did you notice Wolfgang Puck is in hotel rooms now? Gourmet. And you get two bottles of water. That's nice, because I don't drink from the faucet in hotels. Most places, it smells slightly funny.

And below, I love it when they give us Neutrogena. It's the kind of soap that doesn't leave a residue. It's always a funny feeling when you stay somewhere with hard water and low quality soap...no matter how long you rinse, that feeling never leaves.

Hoover Dam

Another shot from the air. I love seeing things from the plane; it's the only time you can really get a real sense of how much space we have. I didn't get to see the dam on any past trips but it's still neat to see it from the air. The water is so beautiful. I saw it again today when I flew over Vegas and actually saw the winding river from the dam...gorgeous, the way it winds through the mountains. Maybe one day I'll make it down there.

Reno, NV

This very unusual building is the museum of art in Reno. I didn't have time to visit but wish I did. I love art museums.

Pho in Reno, NV

I had Vietnamese chicken noodle soup tonight and tried it at Pho Restaurant in Reno. I liked this photo a lot more than the soup itself. ;) The chicken was not as tender as I was hoping so I left most of it. The broth was pretty decent. There's another Pho house near the strip somewhere on 2nd Street and Virginia but it's hard to find parking there so I'll try them if I come back to Nevada again.

Passive Security System

Do you think "passive security system" refers to the door locks?

Interesting road signage

Here's a sign I have not seen before on the road. This was taken during our roaming between Reno and Fallon, Nevada. We headed to Pyramid Lake and loved it. It is so open and different out there in the desert. We didn't see any bulls, or even cows. But we did see some horses. And a great big lake.

Now here's a sign from the Reno area that I found simply hysterical! Someone with a sense of humor MUST have known that a bus stop right in front of the Beware of Bears sign would be hilarious. I wonder if anyone ever uses it. Those houses up there looked pretty expensive. Maybe the housekeepers use the bus. I'm really curious. No one used it when we passed by twice.



Reno is about one hour from Fallon and we stayed there our last evening in Nevada since we were flying out of there back to Texas. We got up and drove 50 miles south to catch a glimpse of the northern tip of Lake Tahoe. It was fabulous. People were outside -- hiking, biking, walking, climbing. We loved it up there. We drove up and down and round and round and had a blast. Our stopping point was King's Beach. What a neat area. It sort of reminded me of an older area of Austin. But with really, really tall pines surrounding every building. I loved the fresh air there. We even touched into California! I had forgotten we'd do that until we saw the welcome sign.

Coming from Texas, home of all sorts of wonderful tacos...I just didn't know what to make of this sign:

Can someone explain this to me?

I might just be missing something but how is a dressed up cow mannequin suppose to entice me to buy things here? If anything, I find it a bit creepy. But that's must my opinion. This is a shop at the Dallas airport.

Is the window mine? Or hers?

When you have a window such as this, to whom does it belong? It's up far enough to just possibly be hers but I don't want to be rude and just do what I will with it. So I didn't touch it; nor did she for most of the trip. Then she finally closed it and we both slept a bit.

I miss sitting in the exit rows. And after all that practicing with Sonia for evacuating fellow passengers and for operating the exits. Sigh, we should run a drill. I told Jess if we keep doing site visits together, I will have to ask her to start practicing evacuation drills with me. :)

No news is good news.

It's not that we have forgotten to post. It's just that I am going on two full weeks at home! Woo hoo! Check back next week for something as Jessica and I head to Nevada and Iowa. There's bound to be a funny story there somewhere.

Magnolia, Arkansas

I don't have any funny stories to share from this 3-day trip to Magnolia since I didn't get to explore as much as planned due to a migraine. BUT, I can tell you I was pleasantly surprised by my trip.

Once you pass Dallas and get on IH-30 East, it really gets pretty! I wasn't expecting that at all! Rolling hills, lots of land, pretty homes/ranches, beehives tucked here and there and a pretty drive all around.

And what I did see of Magnolia was very clean and quaint. Their town square had tons of cute and cool shops. And this movie theatre looked awesome and actually showed flicks! Current ones! And as I snapped shots, several people strolled by to catch one. I really wish our Palace Theatre in Seguin would do the same. Everyone at the mill was really nice and I was impressed by the way things looked. Next time I go, I will have to take more pics.

Cruising through Mississippi

Here's what I am thinking right now about Mississippi:

1. m-i-crooked letter, crooked letter-i-crooked letter, crooked letter-i-hump back, hump back-i.
Who learned this when they were young? Does anyone out there other than me remember this? Or was it just a North Carolina thing??

2. Big-*&# grasshoppers reside there.
Here's what I mean, see below photo. I'm not sure you can sense his size here but he was like the size of my thumb. It's ok to snap a shot of him but I would not want him on me. And when I was pointing my digicam at him...he kept slinking around that plant leaf! As if he didn't realize he's so wide I could still see him. He was creepy the longer I gazed at him. Look at that face. Looks like an alien droid staring at me. And that body? Looks like armor to me. Like from Predator, whichever movie you liked best. There were lots of these guys around.

3. Traveling thru this state requires planning, careful planning.
We were driving back from FL and though we had our picnic basket, we craved fried chicken (when do I not crave this?) so we decided to stop at a KFC at exit 69 on IH-10 (note: do not EVER stop here again). Thus began one of our funniest dinner escapades. We got the food and it was not a great dining place so we took it to go. We figured a rest area would be good, so we stopped at the first one and it looked pretty nice. Good tables, clean, not crowded. We set out some things and see this cute little guy below. Oh, I sure did think he was adorable. UNTIL he kept coming over to our table. Sniffing out what we had. Mark tried to scare him off but he kept coming back. And then we noticed he looked kind of funny. See how his legs are? I don't recall other raccoons here in TX or even back in NC had long skinny legs like that. So we eye him closely and notice he's walk/running sort of crooked. Isn't that rabbied animals do? Act disoriented a little? By now, we just wanted to eat and this critter was aggressively pursuing us. So we laugh and take our food to the next table, after I yelled and chased him up a tree. That lasted about 20 seconds b/c he then hopped on the table we just left and then came over again to us so we chased him farther away, laughing the whole time b/c it was so ridiculous that we couldn't eat our dinner. So we got in the car and left the crazed raccoon, eyed the next rest area and kept driving and finally got into Louisianna but saw not one open rest area so we finally found a beautiful spot in a bank parking lot and sat in the comfortable, safe, air-conditioned luxury of our car and finally ate dinner. Somehow, the chicken managed to still taste ok after all that.

I guess there are some lessons here when you have to go through Mississippi:

1. Plan meals carefully if you have to eat on the road and do not stop for chicken at exit 69. :)
2. Perhaps stick with original meal plans.
3. Do not let cute animals distract you while they make plans to take food from you.
4. There are no great places to stop along IH-10 in MS. If there are, someone let us know since we'll likely drive that route again.

And then you lift the laptop like so....

But we wish we were! I wonder if the company will buy a location in Africa one day. You never know. I read CMC is now over 14,000 employees strong and we're in 11 countries. Pretty cool. I love working here.

Sometimes it's like dejavu, I tell you. How many times did you see us ER girls at SAPL pulling and pushing the mobile labs all over town? And here we are at CMC, setting things up to do the same.

The Skies of Rosenberg

Welcome to our new blog and the first post! Sonia and I were in the office this past week, chatting about travels since we were both preparing to leave again and we exchanged funny stories and laughed so hard that I thought we should document all our fun, crazy adventures so we don't forget some of these things. Sonia promised she'd help me with this blog and since we're beginning to do more trips solo, I'm sure she'll have her fair share of stories to tell. Like today in SC. I hope to see THAT story here soon.

As you can see, it was quite cloudy in Rosenberg (TX). The wind was very brisk and actually moved me a bit a number of times. It's unusual all this gusting wind but at least it breaks up the hot, humid air. I always feel like jumping into a nice, refreshing pool lately. Too bad we don't have one!

This is one of the perks of travel -- visits to the Starbucks. We don't have one in Seguin and the only "coffee shop" in town typically closes early so you can't go and just hang out with a cup of joe in town. Unless you do it in your own home I guess. Sonia, we should probably sign up for their perks program!!! (Speaking of perks programs, that'd make a great post. I now have like 8 different programs in which I'm registered in order to get rewards. It's crazy.)