#427 - (Not) Leaving on a Jet Plane

This evening, an old friend who's now a pilot flew into town for an overnight stay. He routinely flies LearJets full of famous people all around, and happened to be in town for the Super Bowl tomorrow. So after we took him out to dinner, he took our family to the airport so we could check out the jet! Wow, what a privilege it was to see the plane close up - and how excited The Little Guy was to go inside! My friend let him climb into the cockpit, turn on the lights, and even move the steering wheel a tiny bit. (While the grown-ups chatted, TLG was making flying noises and pretending to be the captain!) We stayed long enough to learn how the plane works, and hear some stories about what life is like when you're a pilot. TLG loved the special attention and seeing the gazillions of buttons and switches and lights and everything in the cockpit. Did you know it would only take 14 minutes to fly from Reno to Sacramento in a LearJet? Amazing. We had an amazing visit to the airport and this is something I doubt TLG will ever forget.

#373 - Emergency?

As you probably know, TLG had his 3rd surgery in February and it was a great success. All the work the surgeon wanted to complete was done, and he has been healing quickly and completely. But I admit it, I am a worrywart of the first degree. This weekend I noticed some things around his scars that didn't look quite right. So this morning, I called UC Davis to ask a nurse about it. The receptionist didn't even let me talk to the nurse, and told us to come right down for an afternoon appointment! Well! Let me tell you how much I flipped out. I assumed this was an emergency and had a terrible time calming down. Turns out what I saw was just scarring and was completely normal, the surgeon actually made me feel quite silly for coming in to see him, but HEY you can't be too careful with MY CHILD. Right?!? This was the first time we had to rush to UC Davis - all our other visits were carefully planned - and that drive is not fun when you're a nervous wreck.

#368 - Musings on Travel

Today I flew Continental Airlines from Reno to Phoenix to Charleston, SC to Asheville, NC. I have flown to Asheville before, many times actually, but usually Delta through Atlanta, GA. So here are some of my random thoughts about this trip: 1) Continental made me mad by no in-flight movie, AND wanting to charge for any drinks (even bottled water), though I did hear they are going to discontinue this practice. Apparently I'm not the only one who got angry about this. I paid good money for my ticket, and I can't even have a free drink? Or a movie to pass the time?!? 2) The Charleston airport really knocked my socks off - spacious, clean, lots of food choices. I would happily fly here again, if only I took a different airline. 3) Man, this is a loooong trip. Flying Reno-Atlanta-Asheville takes a little less time, but it feels like a LOT less time.

#350 - Uh-Oh

On our way to California for Thanksgiving tonight, our family was in our first car accident together. My hubby and I have both been in them before, but never together, and TLG certainly has never been in one. Before I describe any more, let me tell you that we are all OK (my back is a little sore, will probably get checked out soon). Even our Jeep is pretty OK, we'll probably need a new bumper and hitch, but compared to the other guy's car, we are doing much better. Now for my ranting and raving: the guy who hit us, a non-English speaker, had no ID of any sort and was waving around some insurance paperwork but never wrote anything down for us... no name, no insurance info, no license plate, or anything. The CHP officer told us it was a "good thing" we have uninsured motorist insurance. So what, this jerk hit us and we have to pay for it because he's an idiot? Great. That's EXACTLY what I want to do with my disposable income in the next month. Birthday and Christmas to pay for? Too bad, now you have to pay for getting your car fixed and your back looked at. *sigh* I was a tiny bit glad his car was totaled and he was probably getting arrested that night. I hope you all don't think I'm a bad person.

#302 - Stuck on a Plane

Today the FAA had some sort of software malfunction and I got stuck on a plane at O'Hare Airport. I've certainly been stuck on planes before (most notably in Logan International at Boston) but this was the first time I called someone to check the news to see if my plane would be able to take off! (In the past, it's always been a malfunctioning plane and it wouldn't do any good to check with anybody else.) As it turned out, my wonderful hubby was in the middle of lots of work and couldn't check the internet for me. The others I called either didn't answer or didn't know what was going on, either. So this time around, this plan didn't work for me. Maybe in the future I'll have a cell phone that can check the internet, but for now that's always seemed a bit excessively "wired" for me. Anyway, long story short, I was only delayed about an hour and I was able to run and catch my second plane back home with a few minutes to spare.

#300 - Touring And Planning

While I'm in Chicago, I am excited to hear about our national convention that will be held next summer at this resort. Today, a staff member took us on a tour of all the rooms where the convention will be held throughout the hotel. Of course, I've helped plan special events in resorts before, but never of this magnitude and I've never needed a formal tour of so large a property! My good friend (who was mentioned in the previous post) works at a hotel in southern California, and I wished she had been on this tour so she could have provided some insight... but she had to stay home from this trip. Instead, I observed the large tents, ballrooms, hospitality suites, meeting rooms, restaurants and the theater with our group of ladies making the plans. I think it's going to be a great convention.

#298 - Chicago, That Toddlin' Town

After the show ended, as we were waiting to pay for our parking, I stood on the corner of a downtown intersection and I watched the train go by, marveling at its speed and efficiency. I believe this is the famous L train, though I don't know what that stands for and the Chicago Transit Authority website doesn't have any info either. We don't have a passenger train or subway or anything like that in Reno, so it was amazing to watch the train go by so frequently. (Of course, Reno does have Amtrak downtown, but it's not used for getting around town, so it doesn't count.) Just another amazing thing to watch after an incredible evening in downtown Chicago.

#297 - Dancing Through Life

Today I traveled to Chicago, and this evening I saw my first musical in it's home theater (i.e., not a touring production): Wicked. Having read the book "Wicked" a few months ago, I was especially excited to see this show, which I've heard rave reviews about - but something about seeing it in Chicago made it extra-special. Here's a photo of the outside of the Ford Center for the Performing Arts Oriental Theatre. The show did not disappoint: the music was great, the story was enjoyable and had lots of in-jokes regarding Oz and the original story and movie. The actresses playing Elphaba (the wicked witch) and Glinda were fantastic singers. My favorite part of the show was watching the sets... our seats were high in the balcony, so I couldn't see the actors' expressions too well, but the sets were amazing. It makes a big difference when they are permanently built into the stage. The Oriental Theatre was pretty amazing too, ornate scrolled architecture throughout but still very classy and well-kept. This is how I looked pretty much the entire evening:

#230 - Mormon Tabernacle Choir

This morning, I attended a free performance of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Salt Lake City. Since 1929, the choir has performed each Sunday in a live performance of the radio/TV show "Music and the Spoken Word," which was today's performance. During the summer months, they hold this show in the convention center which holds 21,000 guests, so we didn't see the actual Tabernacle. But the convention center was pretty awesome as you can see in the photo. The organ has 8,000 pipes in it, and is smaller than the one at the Tabernacle! I enjoyed the musical selections and the inspiring Make-a-Wish fulfillment they had at the end of the performance as well.

#229 - Find Your Sleep Number

Last night, at my hotel in Salt Lake City, I slept on a bed where you program in a "sleep number" to determine how firm/soft you want your bed to be. At home, we have a waterbed, so on a scale of 1-100, I chose the number 30 to try as my sleep number. I'll admit it was still pretty firm, and the loud whirring noise it made as it inflated/deflated was a little intimidating. If I had more nights to try to find the right firmness (or lack thereof), this might be a nice feature... but for a beginner, I don't think I had the right one this time around.

#227 & #228 - A New Destination and Hawaiian Food

Today I travelled to Salt Lake City (I've never been here before) and ate at a new restaurant. First things first: on first impression, the city seems smaller than I thought, for a place that hosted the Winter Olympics in 2002. The part of town I am staying in has the Olympics logo on everything, but I just can't imagine this place inundated with so many international people everywhere. But the city is clean and even the mall on a Friday night didn't seem too crowded.

I walked just a few blocks from where we are staying to the Gateway Mall, where we tried a meal at a place called Rumbi Island Grill. I think this is maybe a Hawaiian-type of food? Maybe Jamaican? I don't know, I tried the orange chicken with rice platter, it was delicious and a little spicy. I felt a little guilty not having any vegetables at all, but I got over it.

#220 - Memorial Day concert

Our family attended a Memorial Day concert in Sacramento today, which featured the Sacramento Capitolaires (yay!), a 21-gun salute, and an Army dixieland jazz group. TLG got pretty distracted during the speeches but he enjoyed the presentation of the colors, the Star Spangled Banner, and the jazz group pretty well. As he continues to get older, we'll keep trying to show him different kinds of music to enjoy.

#219 - Fairytale Town

TLG and a bunch of his family went to see Fairytale Town in Sacramento today. I'd been there as a child, of course, and once in high school as a lark, but it's been a long time. I didn't remember much, except for the crooked mile (which I thought was called the yellow brick road), and Cinderella's carriage. TLG really enjoyed the crooked mile (that's us exiting the road in the photo), but really liked the slides and seeing the animals too. He also spent quite a bit of time exploring the "cheese stands alone". We had fun watching him play and discover all the new things to see! Thanks, family, for joining us for a fun day!

#218 - BIG Trains

My dad, my wonderful hubby and I took the little guy to the railroad museum in Sacramento this afternoon. TLG loves Thomas the Tank Engine and is happy whenever we get "stuck" at the train crossing near our house, so I was pretty sure he would like seeing them up close. And boy, did he ever! He could hardly get enough of going through the open cars, seeing the gears, bells and mechanics. Of course he also loved the Thomas display on the second floor. We also enjoyed seeing a jazz combo that was playing inside the museum too, it added to the overall excitement of our visit. The photo shows TLG listening to a pre-recorded museum display near one of the giant train cars.

#128 - Las Vegas Springs Preserve

Today I also visited the Las Vegas Springs Preserve. It's much like a giant nature park with a few buildings dedicated to environment-related displays. The Sustainability Exhibit was pretty cool, with samples of everyday household items that you can buy made out of recycled materials, games for kids to play that relate to renewable energy and recycling, and tips on making easy steps towards helping keep the environment safe. The also had a "design studio" with lots of samples of the household items so that folks who want to buy them can see them up close before making the financial commitment. I also ate lunch in the Wolfgang Puck-affiliated cafe on the premises, and it enjoyed a delicious Chinese chicken salad with candied cashews. Yum!

#127 - Major Gross-Out

I was in Las Vegas for work yesterday and today, meaning I had to stay overnight. I don't mind telling you that I stayed at a hotel called the Candlewood Suites and I would definitely NOT recommend anyone ever going there. This morning I was so distraught over the cleanliness of my room that I complained to the manager and got my room comp'd. It seemed dirty when I arrived last night, so I wore my socks with my p.j.'s to bed and didn't touch anything I didn't have to. But then this morning I was totally grossed out by a giant hairball in the supposedly-clean bath towel. I took a photo with my camera-phone but can't figure out how to post that for you, so suffice to say that it was traumatic and I won't ever be going back there again.

#16 - A Day Trip

Today, the little guy and I did something new together: we drove to Sacramento and back for a dr.'s appointment. My wonderful hubby has made this trip with our little guy before, but it was my first time to do the whole thing in one day with him... and it went great. I was worried about being able to reach toys, food, etc. for him while I was driving, but as many moms before me have figured out, you just do the best you can. He ended up sleeping most of the way anyways. And, for all the curious folks out there, the next surgery has been scheduled for Feb. 15 so things are progressing well. Hooray!