| What's New - June 2004 |
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| June 14, 2004 - Hey, all! Greetings from rainy Hawaii! Ok, that part kinda sucks, but at least it’s only tropical showers so it’s not very consistent. I guess this means I won’t be having any beach time. Not that I have any the way I’ve been scheduled. I’m at the Ihilani resort right now. It’s quite nice. They’ve got me in a beach front cottage. Now that’s the way to live!!!
After spending the weekend in Las Vegas with co-workers Beth & Christa – by the way, I know I’m getting old when I’m asleep by 11:00pm in Las Vegas – at THEhotel at Mandalay Bay (VERY nice, people – a must stay location…the flat screen TVs are the best!!) poolside (thanks, miles, for the great tip on which pool to go to!!!) – I hopped on a plane to Honolulu. It’s been awhile since I’ve been here, but a lot of the areas are pretty familiar. I think I’ve got to be very careful about my lifestyle – I’m really getting used to living the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Or rather Miles & Aya. J HAHAHAHA!! I would never pay for any of this on my own, but it’s really different when it’s all comped. Now I’m turning into a snob likes Miles. I’ll be here for a couple more days inspecting other sites. More updates later. June 8, 2004 - My weekend was pretty uneventful. I pretty much bummed it all day on Saturday, went out to Cornerstone Church, visited Sao & Darin, then met a bunch of folks at Pastor Roland’s. I got a phone call from Erin the following day saying that she had a message from our Senior Pastor. He’d like for me to up my 25% attendance record a bit. HMPF!! I go more than 25%!!! Sheesh!! I just keep moving around so he just doesn’t see me there. I met up with Bert, Raye, & Lisa for an early lunch at Paco’s. Good news – after 14 months of unemployment, Lisa’s got a job! YAY!! Great news & congrats! I had 2 margaritas and I was pretty done for the day. Next weekend in Vegas should be more eventful! June 1, 2004 - Hey everyone! I'm back from Europe. It rained a lot and despite the photos that Miles chose to post up, i did not drink as much as it appeared. There's also one photo of erin looking like she's having a beer early in the day. It's actually almost 9:00pm at night. The sun didn't set until 9:00pm - which was great for us because we were able to run around until pretty late. Let's see...just a brief recap of my trip... 5/19 - flew into Prague after 24 hours of travel to get there. On our way to the hotel erin & i were a bit worried that we didn't have enough warm weather clothes because it was really hot!! (We didn't have to worry). We weren't going to, but we ended up crashing for a couple of hours, then set out for dinner. This is when we discovered that the sunsets happened late in the evening. 5/20 - 5/21 - Whoo. a bit nippy out. We toured around Prague, walking the entire city. We went to see the Charles Bridge (really pretty), the castle and an abbey. After we got back to the hotel, there was a huge downpour. By the time we went out to have dinner, the raining had stopped. Once again, Erin & I found out that reservations were a necessary part of dining in Europe. Freaky and so unlike LA. 5/22 - We were on our way to Vienna with a stop over at Czesky Krumlov. Based on Rick Steve's book, he had recommended a driver, Mike (Mikhail). He was great & took us to see a castle even before our tour of the small town. The castle tour was done in Czech. Yeah. lots of information garnered out of THAT tour. Czesky Krumlov was beautiful. Quaint. We had a tour guide who was about 20 years old. He knew tons of the kids running around the city. He said with a population of 15,000, you pretty much know everyone in your age group. He waved to someone who looked about my age and his response to my comment of "wow, you really DO know everyone in this town," was really cute - "ummm..well, that's my cousin..." we arrived into Vienna and decided to play it safe & have our concierge make our dinner reservations - for the rest of the week. Stress free & really easy - just a note to all - if you go to europe, just have your concierge make your reservations for you. The food was really good at all the places she suggested - i even left her a nice little tip before I left. 5/23 - We decided to start off trying to listen in on the Vienna Boys Choir. the morning was a beautiful clear day, with only a few clouds in the sky. Suddenly, i notice a flurry of activity from the Horse & Carriage folks. I look beyond them and i literally see this HUGE, DARK weather front heading right towards us. fast. I turn to erin and say, "erin - RUN!!" a huge gust of wind empties out everything in the streets right into our eyes as we take off for cover. We just barely make it when it starts pouring. Not know where we are or what to see, we decide to run to the nearest tour & jump on a bus. Luckily when we tried to tour the Schonbrunn Castle, the rain stopped. It pretty much rained off & on for the rest of our trip. And it was freezing cold. Over the next couple of days, I couldn't really say what we did...we really didn't make use of our time well, but I know that I was pretty relaxed... 5/26 - After a quick trip to a few museums (I'm more into Titian, Veronese, & Bellini, whereas Erin's more into Monet - so this trip I was a bit more excited about the museums than erin was...) we headed off to Salzburg. We went to dinner at some monkey restaurant. They poured the BEST beer. They make sure the foam was foamy. You can tell a slow poured beer and a quick poured beer. My operations VP at Schwarzkopf had tried to explain it to me several years ago and it's just now that I actually understand what he means. Now I may turn into a beer snob!! I had two. this is the only night that I actually had more than my standard one. It didn't hurt that our waiter was a cutie and called me gorgeous. He got a big tip, needless to say. 5/27 - yes, people. i did it. I went to Salzburg so that I could do the Sound of Music Tour. Luckily, we weren't the only ones - there were many people who were even more into than i ever could hope to be. There were 2 other asian chicks on the tour with us from San Gabriel valley (we ran into them again at the airport in LA when we got home). erin & i thought that one of them looked a bit familiar. Anyhow, the tour was really fun!! The area was beautiful despite the rain. I watched the Sound of Music when I got home & remembered a lot of the sights we had visited, but this time with a lot more background information. For instance - did you know that the mountain that Maria referenced that she was on (the Untersburg) is actually about 30 minutes by car from the abbey? The fact that she heard the bells & was able to run back was really amazing. :) We went to visit the new location of the glass gazebo - they had to keep it locked since someone who was trying to jump bench to bench, Lisle style and missed one of the benches - ended up breaking her hip...oh and the woman was 80. 5/28 - 5/29 - did more touring & finally got home on 5/29. Man, flying business class is really the way to go. There's no other way to fly. I loved it!! I felt so well taken care of!! Anyhow, Vienna was really expensive. I don't know if i'd do that place again. I just checked my bank account and it looks really sad. :( No more money. On the flip side, definitely bring your ATM card to Europe - it's definitely the way to go!! I got a great exchange rate!! |