My Travels

Now that I'm done with school, I grabbed a week from my employer to take a small vacation/reward for myself. With only a week, Amsterdam was the location that best suited my time constraints and locale to visit. I stayed at two different hotels in Amsterdam, the Hilton Amsterdam and the Hotel Pulitzer . The reason for the two locations were time and money. I stayed at the Hilton the first two nights because I wanted to ensure I got a stay for my status but European hotels are not the cheapest lodgings. The rate did drop 25% from the first time I booked the room until two days before arrival. The hotel was very nice and I always look forward to international Hiltons, the executive lounges are usually much much more nicer than the US counterparts. I was not disappointed as I had my first 'Dutch' breakfast. The afternoon cocktails were nice as well with unlimited access to hard liquor and tasty snacks. The room was fairly spacious as well. The hotel was located a bit...

So I'm up in Lake Arrowhead for the last piece of academic work required for my graduate program. I'm staying at the UCLA Conference Center in Lake Arrowhead. Although I've lived in LA most of my life, I have never ventured to this area despite it being about 90 minutes from my home. I don't usually go to mountains unless there is snow on them! The conference center was pretty nice. I roomed with another classmate of mine and we stayed in a 'condolet.' A two story townhouse style with one bedroom/bath downstairs and the secondary bedroom/bath in a loft style. I stayed downstairs and the bedroom came with a door. Unfortunately, for my roommate, I tended to come in late at night and it is quite easy to hear if you were staying in the loft bedroom. Most of the residential meals were pretty good particularly the desserts. I would have explored the rest of the facility if it weren't for the residential. From what I could see, they had a pretty impressiv...