My Travels

Right before the world stopped, I was in Sonoma for a work conference. I was pleasantly surprised to see a local airport in the area and was able to find a reasonable rate and flew into Charles Schulz Sonoma Airport . The only problem was that there is only one daily flight from SFO to Sonoma and it was at 10 pm. Needless to say, I checked into the DoubleTree Sonoma Wine Country Hotel very late.  I did enjoy the breakfast buffet option more than the conference food options, I would recommend folks trying that option if available. During the conference, I did see Guy Fieri from a distance one evening at the hotel bar. I wasn't sure if he was in the area for his show or just visiting the area. I was not able to fly out of Sonoma the same way as my inbound flight because the only daily flight is at 6 am which is too early for me and would require another overnight stay. On the bright side, my work didn't have to pay two taxi trips from SFO to Sonoma but one. For those interested...

Went out for a quick trip to visit friends in Virginia. With the pending COVID-19, it was the last trip before I would fly on United Airlines . Westin Tysons Corner hotel was the lodging of the choice for this trip. I think the hotel was recently renovated, the facility was nice and the shuttle service was nice to access. Outside of spending time in my friend's lovely home, went out to several restaurants with friends in the area. Dining Chopn' Room - restaurant inside the Westin. The breakfast buffet was good, it fit the bill for a meal. Urban Butcher - I have friends in Rockville, MD and this was a good midpoint recommended by my host friends. The entire table decided to order the "meat mountain." The meat mountain is a combination of meat entrees meant for two people. It was crazy amount but delicious. Ended the meal with doughnuts - tasty with the chocolate mousse. Meat Mountain at The Urban Butcher Doughnuts at The Urban Butcher Founding Farmers - Visited the T...

Went up to San Luis Obispo for a girls getaway. Checked into the Hampton Inn & Suites San Luis Obispo .  Since the intent was to relax and check out the scenery, spent day time hours exploring Pismo Beach and visiting wineries. The main reason for my destination was that the city tourism department offers a winter promotion of $100 for a two night stay at a local hotel. What better incentive to come and visit SLO? The visitor center provided a wine tasting map of the local wineries in the area. In retrospect, it was probably better if we had arranged for a wine tasting tour to avoid having to stay sober enough to drive from one winery to the other. Unfortunately, too late so we opted to visit two wineries and visit Pismo in between for lunch. For those interested in some retail therapy, there are some good local wines available at BevMo  at SLO if you can’t hit all the wineries in the area. They do carry a lot of the local stuff. Also, the Pismo Beach Premium Outlet Mall ...

Headed out in the new year to Maui on United Airlines . With the changes to the MileagePlus Program, I may be branching out to different airlines this year and start shopping around more. Without the ability to maintain my 1K status, it likely means that I'll become less loyal. I even opted for other airline branded credit cards, Delta seems to be an alternative if the fares are right. Checked into the Ritz Carlton Kapalua and Westin Nanea Ocean Villas for the week. I had received a promotional deal for five nights at the Westin and rental car from Avis to preview the new timeshare hotel within Westin Maui. There are three hotels - main hotel and two timeshare hotels. The rental agency did us a favor by combining our two reservations and we paid a small upgrade fee to keep the SUV for the remainder of the trip (the free rental is a midsize car). We had to have two separate reservations since my group was staying for six nights. Ritz Carlton Balcony Ritz Carlton Living Room Ri...

On a lark, I decided I wanted to catch the Harry Potter musical and flew on United to San Francisco for a weekend. The play itself takes most of the day as it is a two part series. I arrived early enough in the day to check into the Hilton San Francisco  hotel and grab some dim sum nearby. With Lunar New Year around the corner, Chinatown was very alive with people. Chinatown in San Francisco Not knowing what was open and available, Begoni Bistro looked good enough from the outside and ended up being good. Afterwards, I loaded up on fortune cookies at the Golden Gate Fortune Cookies . Dim Sum at Begoni Bistro Because the musical was two plays, I watched the both parts in one afternoon and evening. There was enough time between the two parts to grab some boba tea from Black Sugar . The tea was ok but pricey for the amount you get. I was also a little sad that the recent packaging requirements meant that the cups were more plastic than before, I am not sure if that really helps t...

Looking back, I've been to San Diego and vicinity quite a bit this year particularly in the past 30 days! Between conferences and work events, I've returned this time for some college football. On the way down to San Diego, I tried to make a pit stop at Betty's Pie Whole and found that they had closed for the holiday. Saddened and hungy, I went next door to Pho Ever . A rather high end looking Vietnamese restaurant (there's a bar inside), the food was good! The pho has a stronger anise flavor. It is a bit pricier than the typical run of the mill pho restaurant but I'm sure you're helping to pay for the ambiance and the rent. They also have a lunch special add-on. For $1.50, you can get a free drink and egg roll or spring roll. It's not a bad option. The spring roll is better than the egg roll. Stayed at the San Diego Marriott La Jolla . Unfortunately, the room was not available and so I opted to head out to the SDCCU Stadium. The room ended up being ready...

Headed out to Salt Lake City for some snow and fun. I recently did a status match with Delta Airlines and was pleasantly surprised to get upgraded. It will be interesting to see with the changes United is making to their mileageplus program if I'm better off switching to another carrier. It will be strange since I've primarily made Star Alliance and United my main carriers. I was able to get dinner at Hoof and Vine upon landing into Salt Lake City. I was attending a group dinner and the preset menu included an option to have elk. Not a common dish for me, I found the elk entrée excellent. I finished off the meal with the peach bread pudding. Snowbird Resort Checked into the Homewood Suites Salt Lake City Draper for the night before heading out for snowboarding. The hotel was nice, the suite was an oversized studio. Good space for all my extra large gear with me. The breakfast option was the typical Homewood Suites menu. The next day, I went to Snowbird Resort to cat...

I had a quick work event at UC San Diego and returned to the area after my Carlsbad trip. I mostly stayed on campus in between buildings and found it quite nice. The work event required me to stay two nights and I was able to see and walk around the campus more than I normally would. Overall, I found the campus impressive especially since it seems they are constantly building new buildings. UCSD view from one of the buildings to ocean For dining options, I visited a few eateries locally when not fed by my work host. Sprinkles - there is a location in La Jolla and it was convenient to swing by and grab my favorite cupcakes. Which Wich - in a plaza down the street from Sprinkles, there is a which wich location and I was able to get my favorite items to take back to the hotel. I get tired of scrambled eggs in hotel breakfast buffets so I ordered a sandwich I could eat for breakfast. Betty's Pie Whole - Always in the market for good pie, I found the strawberry rhubarb...

Despite the chilly weather, went down to Carlsbad for a quick trip. I was not able to get a big enough room at the Hilton Grand Vacations Club at Mar Brisa . The group was spread out between the Westin Carlsbad Resort and Spa and the Hilton. Westin Carlsbad King Room Hilton Grand Vacations Club MarBrisa Both hotels are essentially across from each other separated by a parking lot. The room location in the Hilton (inside the Cove neighborhood) meant it was a five minute walk to get to the Westin. When I visited the Concierge, I was given a discount card for all the restaurants in the area including those in the Westin and Sheraton. It makes me think that the three hotels are franchised by the same hotel group. I later found out that the Legoland operator does own all the hotels within the complex. Parking everywhere is about $25 a day except if you are a HGVC owner. That appears to be the only exemption from the parking fees. In my last stay at the Hilton, I was not nea...

Went out to Las Vegas for an overnight visit to SEMA . Typically in Las Vegas the first week of November, I was able to attend the event and came on the last day. Done with getting my qualifying flights on United, I opted to use points on my American Airlines account. I was also about to lose the points and the points used was very low. I haven't flow on American for awhile and was pleasantly surprised the plane was more comfortable than I recall. The LAX terminal is still pretty cramped and I still don't like how the security lines are organized. Luckily, I have Clear membership through United and was able to get through security quickly. My TSA Precheck didn't kick through because I forgot that I had modified my middle name and my AA name didn't match exactly to my Global Entry name. It did make me update my name information to all carriers so that I can get the TSA Precheck at any time. Got into Las Vegas with little issue and checked into the Sahara hotel . I ...

Knocked off another country from the bucket list. Beers and chocolate is what I think of when Belgium comes up. I was able to find a decent rate on United Airlines to Brussels. It has been some time that United launched its Polaris branding and marketing for business class seats. I've been teased with the idea of actually being in a Polaris seating configuration but have only come close to using the lounges and getting the amenity kits. On this trip, I was able to sit in the Polaris business seat when my upgrade cleared on the way to Newark International Airport . Unfortunately, I didn't have time to spend in the lounge at Newark but I've spent plenty of hours before. I was able to grab a quick shower during my layover. On a side note, all passengers must be a ticketed Polaris Business class passenger. No guests. I understand the policy but not a fan especially since my companion ended up being upgraded at the counter. The Polaris seating is narrow and I did find getti...

Lucky me has a work trip to San Francisco and the only airline that flies in early enough for me to catch the start of the meeting is Southwest Airlines . It was a quick day trip up but SFO is undergoing runway renovations. So I was 'pleasantly' surprised when my return flight was canceled the day before I was scheduled to fly and I was rebooked to return the next morning. I was fortunate to catch the notification almost immediately since I was looking through my emails and saw the flight cancellation. I was able to get a full refund on the return leg instead of a flight voucher. I did offer to stay the night if they wanted to compensate me for the hotel but the agent didn't bite. The flight cancellation was due to runway construction at SFO and airlines were only catching on that they needed to reduce their schedule. With limited time left, I was able to find comparable flights on Delta, American and United. So I opted to fly Delta because I am clear on my 1K status ...

Had so much fun the last time that I had to return in six months with some friends in tow. Flew on Southwest Airlines because it is one of the few direct flight carriers. After the short flight, I booked a last minute taxi shuttle on TripAdvisor and it worked out well enough. Airport Baja Transfers is a simple yet effective name for the service. You can probably get a shuttle for less but I liked that we went straight away to Grand Fiesta Americana Los Cabos Golf & Spa and didn't have to worry about carrying currency. My friends were able to check in earlier and the room was ready upon my arrival. For our second trip in the same year, I reserved the two bedroom which is really a studio and a one bedroom room connected by a hallway. The studios are normally two beds and you can easily fit a group of six. The one bedroom has 1.5 bathrooms. Grand Fiesta Americana Los Cabos One Bedroom Living Room Grand Fiesta Americana Los Cabos Balcony View For this trip, we opted ...

Another dog staycation and this time in the city of Ontario. I visited family and friends along the way to Ontario and was able to check into the Sheraton Ontario Airport . I didn't make too many pit stops this time around, just a quick park stop for a poop and pee for both dogs. I wanted to scope the hotel out before visiting my friend further into the IE. This was the only hotel that does not have a pet fee and allows two pets with no weight maximum. I was given a junior suite on the pet friendly floor. Originally, I had hoped my friend and her family would visit me at the hotel and they could enjoy the pool but ailments got in the way. Instead, I enjoyed a quick visit to the lounge and had some hot food before heading out. Upon my return, I settled in with the dogs and tried to get them comfortable. The room was not as large as the Four Points but it had a little extended hallway that had a sofa pull out so it was a good staging area for the pups. The bathroom was very big be...

Opted to do a staycation overnight trip with the four legged children. Drove out to Rancho Cucamonga and stayed at the Four Points Ontario-Rancho Cucamonga . After checking around the Inland Empire and Orange County hotels, I found that the Four Points had the right combination of room rate and reasonable pet fee that would allow for large dogs. Given that I have small adult weight dogs, it isn't as easy to find hotels willing to allow two large dogs. I did call the hotel after making the reservation to confirm their pet policy and what I would have to do to note that. Unlike Hilton, the Marriott portal doesn't allow you to check "additional requests" including pets. I did make it as an "other" comment. When I checked into the hotel, the desk agent did not seem to know that it was noted and I had to reconfirm. So it seems I could have walked in and they would not have been the wiser regarding the pet fee. Depending on your viewpoint, the room assigned was...

Alright, it's the last visit for the year to Hawaii and Big Island. Went with some friends on United Airlines on a BOGO certificate. Holiday weekend travel is always tough but I was able to get a United voucher due to an oversold situation. I originally put myself on the waiting list with my companion but they ended up only wanting one person. So I opted to take the later flight out and arrived six hours later than the group. I was able to hop back home for a few hours and return to the airport for a late lunch of soup and chicken tenders (food voucher was also given to me) at B Grill . This is the first time I stayed at the Bay Club at Waikoloa Beach Resort . Originally, I was confirmed at the HGVC Kohala Suites but there was an issue with the room and relocated to the Bay Club. One of the reasons I have not stayed at this location within the timeshare resorts in Waikoloa is that it is the only one that will not give you access to the Hilton Waikoloa Resort pool and lagoon acc...