Artwalk & Carlos Santana sighting PVR

Puerto Vallarta has become internationally recognized for it's restaurants and art. One evening I did the artwalk which includes over 40 galleries in the Centro District. There is also a festival of music and wine this week of the Bahia of Banderes. Some interesting tidbits included a menu item of fried crunchy grasshoppers, an Appetizer Special at El Arrayan, an old home built into a restaurant. http://elarrayan.com.mx/home.php?sm=a, Following are a couple pictures of Sergio Bustamante statues and galleries, and some art from the Malecon boardwalk.

The yacht in the background is the boat that Carlos Santana was hanging out on, complete with helicopter. I saw him playing in a Cuban Bar in downtown Puerto Vallarta by chance one evening. It was written in the local paper he would do stand up with the locals and I was lucky enough to be stalking him to figure this out :) http://www.labodeguitadelmedio.com.mx/

PVR - US Tax Dollars Hard at Work

What a nice and interesting site to see an aircraft carrier with 3 planes and 2 helicopters in the bay when I woke up yesterday. I was intrigued. I discovered that our tax dollars are hard at work paying for a few rooms here in the The Westin, not in the Jr. Suites, but in the plush suites (probably why I could not upgrade further to Presidential Suites). On the 12th floor, specifially rooms 1214 through 1210, several of the military personnel running the little boat are staying a couple of nights. Yesterday I noticed a couple of guys in the gym who just didn't look like "tourists". As well, there were a couple of very good looking men at the pool later day...need I say more! Then today in the Concierge Lounge, I confirmed my sightings, put two and two together, then asked the Concierge Staff and....well, it's them! I guess we need to go somewhere to keep those ships in top working condition, so why not a little outing from California to Puerto Vallarta! Amazing.

PVR - Club Pam

I am a blogger on vacation :) I am at The Westin, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Arrived Saturday. Not too shabby for Club Pam this year. Upon arrival, I checked into my Jr. Suite, complete with jacuzzi, lounge chairs and fabulous view of Banderas Bay, second from the end on the second from top floor, which is 11th floor (definition of Junior here). I went to the pool, soaked up the sun, enjoyed a nice tropical libation and figured out what the beautiful people do when they are not in Hollywood awaiting the 80th annual Oscars :) The day included a sushi stop at the world famous Nikki Beach establishment. http://www.nikkibeach.com/pv/aboutNB.asp#PV

Sunday included a day of Humpback Whale watching on a sailboat (powered by motor luckily). In reviewing the whale photos, as predicted, it's really hard to get decent whale shots being an amateur photographer with a digital pocket camera. I was so excited to see the whales, I did an extremely poor job of capturing the little babies, and what pictures I have blend into the ocean. So the pictures you see are off a website from the company I went with. I have the video in my head.









Following the weekend, I stopped by the bakery to pick up a couple items for the hotel room. The bakery includes a number of items that use butter only, along with a nice assortment of colorful gelato. We'll tour the restaurant scene and star sightings in another blog!

SEA BIL LUN ECL

Following a short Denver weekend, I was off to the fabulous Hilton at Seattle airport on Monday afternoon. Top notch service hotel, great staff always. You know you're a regular when Clay the van driver says "Hi, great to see you again" and no one tipped him off I was going to get on the van... Love that place if you have to pick an airport hotel in Seattle. After a busy workday on Tuesday in Bellevue, WA, it was back to the airport to attempt to beat the "system".

Eric (Radical Oregon Ducks fan) and I were booked on the 9pm arrive 11:30pm, direct to Billings. So, it was certainly worth asking "how about a seat on the delayed SEA to PDX then PDX to BIL planes to arrive not at 11:30pm but at 6:30pm? Can you PLEASE just put me on the standby list on each flight and see what happens? Yes, we know, only 22 minutes to change planes in PDX, but the gate is throwing distance from plane to plane....Well, maybe we should go to Vegas :) (Actually Eric will be there next week...) With the various delays, luck was on our side!

Billings hot spot alert - new Hilton Garden Inn open 3 weeks next to a fabulous HuHot Mongolian restaurant. I mean Billings? http://www.huhot.com/billings_montana.asp
Lunch with the bank on Wednesday at Pug's was an unexpected surprise. A local favorite complete with Irish Cowboys, advertised as being 4,000 miles southwest of Dublin.http://www.pugmahons.com/home.htm

To top off the week, after a lengthy business day, it was off to the friendly skies with a perfectly positioned window seat to watch the Lunar Eclipse. Thanks to the pilots on Delta from SLC to DEN leg, I got a great view of the Lunar Eclipse tonight from the air!

Stay tuned for updates from whale watching in Mexico next week!

SBX in PDX

http://www.saucebox.com/

Enter the site, Enter the Saucebox, listen, view, absorb. The scene for great lounge music, extensive cocktail menu and perfectly selected and prepared menu items. What's more when you are with great friends Kimberly and Jeff, how can an evening at the Saucebox be anything less than perfect!

The website says it all!

Mustang Sculpture at Denver Airport Arrives

What a story on this one. I could not figure out why traffic was held up on my morning commute to Denver International Airport.

Alas, after I got home after a cancelled flight/trip to Springfield, Missouri (Ice Pellets and Freezing Rain in forecast - banker called and said we have at least an inch of ice all over now - forget it)......

Well over 10 years ago, this sculpture was commissioned by the airport to a New Mexican sculptor who has his work displayed in The Smithsonian. Horribly, the sculptor was killed by the sculpture in an industrial accident. He sustained injuries when one of three pieces from a 32-foot-high sculpture being moved from his studio came loose and pinned him against a steel support. The piece, commissioned by Denver International Airport, depicted a giant mustang horse and had been in development for nearly a decade, according to Jim Moore, former director of the Albuquerque Museum.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/15/arts/design/15jimenez.html

Finally the thing arrives today, was it worth all this? watch for updates of the finished work as I drive by to the airport tomorrow :)

JAC - The Hole

I spent a little more time than planned in Jackson, Wyoming on business than intended, thanks to Mother Nature. Snow and winds are notorious for this area, with this winter being a record of past 10, 20, 30 years and counting :) What that means is the airport and all 3 roads over 3 mountain passes were closed Thursday night, Friday midday, Friday night and I was able to get out of there and home Saturday afternoon. http://http://www.milliondollarcowboybar.com/history.htm Jackson, Wyoming has a great ski area when the winds don't shut down the lifts, and the road to the resort. In this blog are a couple local sightings for the Million Dollar Cowboy bar and the National Elk Wildlife Refuge. All the cowboys and elk looked equally cold as far as I could tell :)

The picture of the "post with sign" in what appears to be white background is THE SIGN for the Jackson, Wyoming airport in the best conditions for taking pictures on the last trip to the airport on Saturday. Summer is much more beautiful in Jackson, Wyoming, and I highly recommend a trip to the Tetons which is the gateway to Yellowstone National Park :)

http://www.fws.gov/nationalelkrefuge/

View Larger Map

SLC on Super Fat Tuesday

Not the exact spot in the nation I would have voted to be for Super Fat Tuesday. Salt Lake City just doesn't have the Mardi Gras attitude and it is certainly not the state I prefer to see a future president come from (I try not to put political views on this blog, but I slipped....). Upon arrival at the airport, I got a regular cab, and struck up a conversation with Kamirin the driver. I asked Kamirin how long he had been in Salt Lake City. He indicated he had only 1.5 years left here and had been here 3.5 years. I asked where he was going next. He advised after he was done in his graduate studies in Chemical Engineering at the U of Utah, he would be leaving and going back to Tehran, his home :) He said the climate, seasons, and view of the city are about the same from Tehran to Salt Lake City but it's quite conservative for him here in SLC. I said I agreed in that this was certainly not the city to be in for Fat Tuesday and Mardi Gras today - we laughed :)

When I asked Kamirin what his family and friends think of America and our politics since that was a focus of the day, he said they like America but do not like our Army and just want them out of their country and the Persian Gulf. He and his family in Iran would like to see Hillary Clinton win our election as they liked Bill and think that would be a good choice for us for our times. The cab ride was over and I at my hotel am watching the results and what a race it is!

Karma

Cause & Effect: Cause - I have ridden in my share of Van Taxis for cursing them a short time ago; Effect - I have been fortunate now for the past two weeks and three major storms in the Chicago area to be on the plane Denver-Chicago or Chicago-Denver, that was ontime through snow, sleet, fog, horitzontal wind and headwinds of 140mph in the air.

As Steve Nicoll dropped me off at the Hinsdale Oasis at 4:45pm on I-294 with 10% Visibility (he had to go south in traffic in Chicago), I was greeted by a Van Taxi driver who spoke little English and I little Hindi. He understood fast. Amazingly at 5:30pm I was sitting on a United 777 upgraded to 8F in Concourse C, and on my way to Denver on the only ontime flight of the evening. The picture is of the Arrivals Board when I landed in Denver, and the last 3 flights "aircraft delayed" were all from Chicago.

What goes around, comes around.

And, for my friend Carey who wondered if there was much snow in Chicago, YES. (Note the Starbucks in frame of course. 401 E. Ontario.) And the last is my attempt to prove I was really there :)

COS ORD IND - America The Beautiful

"Gee, isn't it great to travel? Do you love it? I bet you get to see exciting places all the time! What's your favorite city?" Obvious phrases heard from those who don't travel...

This week I started in Colorado Springs and Pueblo, CO. Yes I flew a short hike. The segwhore didn't decide I needed more segments, it was a matter of how much a cab was or a one way car rental to Colorado Springs - simply shocking! The Antlers Hilton is a historic hotel in Colorado Springs. Katherine Lee Bates was inspired to write America The Beautiful in this location.

Katharine Lee Bates, an English professor from the eastern U.S., visited the top of Pikes Peak. She stayed at The Antlers afterward, and wrote "America The Beautiful". "Oh purple mountains majesty above the fruited plains" refers to the Rocky Mountains of the Pikes Peak region, and at the time, irrigation was supporting orchards and agriculture in Colorado's arid plains to the easthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_the_Beautiful.

After this historic moment in my travels, I moved on to the true plains and ultimate midwest - a travelers dream (O'Hare in a snowstorm and Indy in the second snow storm, all in one week). Yes, it's great to travel! You can see all sorts of things landing at night after a lengthy delay in a snowstorm, traveling by Van Taxi 1.5 hours in a blinding snow storm :)

Continuing with my Van Biatch theme, I was fortunate enough to get 3 different Van Taxis this week (one in Colorado Springs, one in Chicago, and one in Indy). Since things run in threes, I'm sure I'm back to normal taxis next week - stay tuned :)

Hopefully the upcoming week will provide more exciting material for the blog :)