My Travels

Traveled out to the Valley of the Sun aka Phoenix for a college football game. Decided to make it a road trip and headed out late Friday evening. Since I was coming in late, I opted to stay somewhere relatively cheap without any resort amenities. Checked into the Homewood Suites by Hilton Phoenix-Biltmore hotel. The hotel was a little dated but the room was roomy for the group. The breakfast buffet was passable, I opted to have waffles since the buffet had a self serve waffle maker. I'm never a fan of scrambled eggs buffet style, just always too runny or dry... Hopped to the Sheraton Desert Oasis Villas hotel the next day. I wanted to hit the pool killing some time before the game in the evening. I didn't realize that this hotel was a timeshare resort. I would call this hotel a medium tier timeshare hotel and the clients tend to be retirees. At least as evidenced by the people in the pool. You can tell that the hotel caters to this group as the bathroom in the room was built ...

I decided to stay in town near work for work. Checked into the Doubletree by Hilton Santa Ana-Orange County Airport for the evening. Being near the airport, the hotel doesn't offer free parking but the front desk person was nice enough to give me a parking pass gratis. The hotel seems to share with an apartment/retail complex. There are parking but for residents and shoppers. It seems like the weekends are pretty dead for them so parking isn't that big of an issue. The room was pleasant and roomy for my purposes. The breakfast buffet in the restaurant was pretty basic although the servers does not seem to know english much. For dinner, went down the street to Rubino's Pizza . Ironically, a restaurant called Little Onion was next door. The only reason it caught my eye was that I saw a Living Social deal for it and had thought to myself, what's the likelihood of me being in this area to eat? One never knows! The pizza was adequate for me, the crust was think but the edges...

It seems this year I have the potential of hitting 1K status with United Airlines . I've been marginally close once before but didn't care enough to actual reach it. With more international flights in my near future, the benefits of 1K status is more appealing. Top it off with a Chicago promotion of double EQM miles and cheap airfare, the trifecta of a mileage run was born. Some friends were up for meeting in the middle of the night and met them at Miller's Pub . By the time I arrived, the kitchen was closed and I shared food with them. I will have to try their famous Canadian baby back ribs another time. Nothing major, half tuna salad sandwich and fries. Enough food for me to shake off my hunger and have a few drinks. Afterwards, I checked into the Hilton Rosemont. I originally thought to rent a car and tool around but found a really good rate which prompted me to stay indoors in the wee hours of the morning and catch a power nap. I will say though that navigating O...

Took a semi-road trip to Vegas. I'm reminded how and why I dislike car trips. In the idea of avoiding typical rush hour traffic, I was rewarded with even more traffic and accidents. :( Checked into the Las Vegas Hilton for a night. Tagged along with a group but opted out of sharing rooms. I'm bouncing around this weekend to work on my loyalty account. While watching the local news, I found out that the hotel was having financial issues. Hope they work it out and get more business. It has always been a reasonable priced hotel for my trips here. On this night, I was given the parlor room. Whenever someone says to me parlor room, I remember the first time I was introduced to that definition and it has always left a bad memory. I'm glad that the Las Vegas Hilton doesn't have the same definition. The next morning I grabbed an omelette from the buffet. I generally find the desserts average here but enjoyed the coconut cream pie to my surprise. Checked into th...

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 ...

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...

It was inevitable that I would make a trip to the Bay in June. Why? Because of deals... :) I was upgraded to First Class on this trip to SF which helped me survive the weather delay conundrums at the airport. With the recent merger of United Airlines and Continental Airlines, SFO has a dedicated terminal and the next to the International terminal. I checked into the Doubletree San Francisco Airport since I was arriving so late into the area, there was no point in traveling in the middle of the night into the city. This particular Doubletree was my first hotel and started me on as a HHonors member. The cookie was the hook. :) Seriously, I think Doubletree could make money as a bakery with this cookie. Spacious accommodations, the room was perfect for what I needed. Checked into the Grand Hyatt San Francisco the next morning. So here was the cause of the trip, I received a free night coupon from Hyatt to stay in their San Francisco locations but I had only until the end of June. So ...

For the holiday weekend, I'm heading to the capital. I have some flight vouchers and they needed to be used. After bouncing around ideas, found a decent rate to BWI even though it is a holiday weekend and all the unrest in oil-producing countries causing oil to skyrocket in price. I was going to start my trip well when I was notified of being upgraded to first class. Unfortunately, United Airlines swapped planes which caused a seat shuffle and a loss of capacity when I arrived at the airport. I volunteered (for flight vouchers) to fly to an alternate airport since I already lost my first class seat in the plane swap. At the rate I'm going, I will be flying on subsidy due to airline snafus for awhile. I wonder if there is a record for this. :) Checked into the Doubletree Crystal City for the night near Reagan National airport . The hotel offers shuttle service to either DCA airport or the Pentagon metro station . It isn't advertised on the website but it does exist.  The...

Went up to SF for the weekend to visit some friends. I opted to fly out of John Wayne airport since I'm heading to work after I land. The great thing about John Wayne is the ease of getting through the airport, the food outlets are always fast, and the customer service is always pleasant. I was able to get a complimentary upgrade as I was walking into the plane on United Airlines. I am always reminded as the plane takes off the crazy rules in Orange County requiring pilots to gun the planes off the runway. Checked into the Hilton Financial District. Between the two city Hiltons, I think this property edges out the other because of the proximity to Chinatown and the rooms are bigger. Grabbed dinner at My Tofu Place in Inner Richmond. Ordered several dishes to eat family style - bibimbap, tofu soup, daeji bulgogi and korean pancake. Overall, a satisfying meal! After some digesting time, went to Joe's ice cream after talking about visiting BiRite creamery in Mission. I had the ra...

Went out to Vegas on a personal errand and took Lux Bus America for the trip. Normally, driving is the cheapest option but the bus is great is you are travelling alone. Pickups are throughout the major areas of Southern California. Caught the bus at the Anaheim location, the parking facilities does charge $5 per day. Almost like airport parking! The bus was your typical tour bus with TVs interspersed throughout and individual sound ports trays and power ports. Beverage, snacks, and restroom facilities too. In some ways, it felt like an airplane but on wheels. The company must attract a lot of tourists as most of the passengers were from Europe, India or Australia. The bus was packed in both directions even though it was a weekday. Maybe I was catching the spring break crowd. From My Travels The trip does make one pit stop at the Barstow station. I've occassionally stopped in the area because of Popeye's . I've never walked into the station but it is an interesting place to...

With the heavy rains, ran up to Mammoth Mountain resort to catch some spring snowboarding before the end of the season. It also helped that I had to use a discounted ticket. Took off for Bishop after work because I definitely wouldn't have made it all the way to Mammoth and I didn't want to drive in icy roads on the mountains at 2 am. Stayed at the Super 8 Bishop which is my typical spot to stay while in Bishop. The rooms are clean, serviceable, roomy and comes with a mini-fridge. Drove the final 30 miles to Mammoth the next morning. Before leaving Bishop, grabbed some coffee from Starbucks and doughnuts from the shop next at 905 N Main St, Bishop, CA. The donut shop sells jalapeno ham and cheese croissants and were tasty. Not a combination I normally see in this kind of shop. The actual doughnuts, I could have saved my $2 and not bought any. Romped around the mountain for most of the day, conditions were excellent even though winds were strong and the top half of the mounta...

Travelling to Shanghai and checking out the expat lifestyle. United Airlines is advertising direct flights from LAX to Shanghai but I will have to wait until May. On this trip, I had hoped to upgrade to Business using miles but it wasn’t meant to be. :( At least there was free food and booze to make the time fly faster in Economy. It also helped that I didn't sleep the night before which made me super tired on the plane. Pudong Airport is the airport for Shanghai. From my understanding, it is a relatively new airport due to the growing economies in Shanghai. Went through customs fairly easily and the process was efficient. Free wireless in the airport which is great as long as you want to read email only. With the "great firewall", many popular Western websites can be blocked here. Since I was visiting a corporate expat, a driver picked us up and drove out to the Luwan district staying at Legend Apartments, a popular apartment tower with expats and affluent Shangainese. ...

So, it seems Hyatt has somehow targeted me for promotions. I received an offer to stay in Seattle, a two night stay for the price of one, in one of their two new properties. It was a great offer and I scheduled a vacation to snowboard and visit family. After landing into Sea-Tac Airport on United Airlines . I found one thing interesting at Sea-Tac,thus airport is very family oriented. Usually, in women's restrooms you'll find vending dispensers for feminine products or over the counter medicine. In this airport, you won't find either but you will find diapers! :) I was able to priceline a rental car from National and picked out a Hyundai Santa Fe. National allows you to pick a car in a category rather than assigning you one and I can see why people like it. A very smooth ride, I'm impressed with the improvements Hyundai has in its car line up. Not too gas guzzly for a SUV (achieved an average of 22 mph over 700 miles), I found the car very comfortable with enough a...

I'm here for school and opted to stay near campus for the weekend residential. I haven't used points in awhile and used it for this stay. I normally wouldn't but there seems to be a convention and all hotel rates are really expensive in the area. Typically around $100 on the weekends, it was double for this particular weekend. Staying in the Hilton Checkers and it is a roomier stay this time around. I was given a corner room on one of the top floors, the views ain't bad. I really need to start remembering to bring VGA cables with me since hotels are beginning to let you tap into the flat panel TVs. The multi-media port on the credenza would have been nice to watch some DVD movies. I was also surprised to see a welcome snack of petit fours as well as turn down service. I know it sounds strange but I do enjoy having turn down service and have missed it when the hotels starting pulling back these kinds of services. Grabbed dinner with some classmates at Roy's . Star...