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Showing posts from July, 2011

Phoenix

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I've been hankering all year to go to Phoenix. With the unusual cold spell on the West Coast, I was just tired of the chill. So I made a weekend run to my favorite spa/resort, The Boulders . Before checking in, went on a mountain hike at Piestewa Peak . Not a Great Wall jaunt but it was a pretty good workout at 7 am in 90 degree weather. Having worked up an appetite, drove to Matt's Big Breakfast . The griddle cakes here are really really good, I didn't need any syrup. It was that good by itself. The Pork and Chick entree was very good as well. The entree was a pork chop with some eggs and potatoes. The restaurant is small and there is a line but they restaurant works hard at getting people through quickly yet graciously. Checked into The Boulders resort and promptly went to the pool to hang out for the rest of the afternoon. After a nice tanning rest, went out to Pizza A Metro for dinner. Ordered the meatballs pizza and linguine carbonara enjoying my meal immensely. The

Shanghai and Beijing

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I'm heading back to China for the second time this year. For this trip, I opted to go business on United Airlines. UA introduced a new route and offered miles bonus which was enough incentive for me to get the business class fare. Since I wasn't able to get upgraded using miles last time, I was motivated to avoid sitting in economy for twelve hours. United had been revamping the business and first class cabins touting the new seats for this route. I like the new amenities like iPod inputs, USB ports, and fancy seat controls. :) My meal was enjoyable but the braised short ribs was a bit on the dry side. Over the years, I have been able to work on my motion sickness and now able to watch movies for a little bit. So I was able to catch up on movies - Battle: Los Angeles, The Lincoln Lawyer, Win Win, Black Swan, Harry Potter:Deathly Hallows. All enjoyable except for Black Swan, good time to catchup on movies and reduce my Netflix cue! Arrived in the evening into Shanghai Pudong ai