SJU - Puerto Rico

Having to travel on Easter holiday is a hardship, it is a long flight from Denver, CO to San Juan, Puerto Rico. I decided to come to P.R. one day early for my business trip to "scope it out" for possible future vacation. Upon arrival at 5:30pm, I was amazed at the lobby lounge mambo music in celebration of not only Easter, but the passing of legend Cachao Lopez, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cachao_L%C3%B3pez I went to the beach to walk, dip my toes in the surprisingly warm ocean and watch the surfers outside the Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino.
Dining tonight included a stop at the only Puerto Rican Iron Chef, Robert Travino's Budatai - fabulous! http://tsdg.typepad.com/restaurants/2007/11/budatai---puert.html After dinner, I wandered the streets, and stopped in at La Concha Renaissance Hotel for a nightcap while listening to the ocean waves on the beach.

Monday I went for a long walk (3 hours) from the hotel toward Old San Juan.
I walked along a park area, saw some old fort structures, ran into the Puerto Rican Sports Hall of Fame by accident, and saw the best "protest beach development" signage ever :) I'll be sure to upload more photos later, but I have to go experience more P.R.

DEN - Are you an Expert or Beginner? & MedEmer on board

This feels like "what color is your parachute".........our tax dollars at work.

The green lane is for families with small children and other people who need help with the security process. The black diamond is for experienced travelers, intent upon speeding through the terminal. The TSA also had an intermediate blue lane, but non-skiers found it confusing, so the blue has been dropped.

Families in the green lane cleared security in 11 or 12 minutes. Black diamond travelers usually were through in a minute or so less. A few of the expert travelers were forced to wait up to 20 minutes while TSA agents gave their carry-on bags a more rigorous search.

So on the North Terminal there are "Green Lanes, Black Diamond Lanes, the Puffer Machine Lane, the Employee Lane and the "First Class" lane - of course I'm in the First Class lane and cannot tell a difference in any of this mess :)

Another travel first this week, on way from Denver to Portland, OR was hearing the flight attendant ask after wheels up and on ascent at about 15,000 feet, "Is there a medical doctor on board? Please ring your call button to assist two Registered Nurses. We'll come get you." The good news is, the person with the emergency seemed to be alive at least upon departure from the plane, which circled back to land in Denver, had paramedics come meet the plane and took off again a bit later for Portland, OR. Airline staff had things in control and were quite private with the matter. Bad news is - the extra take off and landing did not count for additional segment :(

St Patty's Day - Golden, CO Style!

Don and Judy Bruns (center/right) came to visit Don's brother, Keith(left), in the Denver metro area for a few days. I was fortunate enough to be able to see them a couple times during their busy stay in Colorado! Don, Judy and Keith made tracks on the snow cat tour in Winter Park, CO, visited Pike's Peak, hit the Irish Jackpot in Black Hawk, and stopped off in Golden, CO home of Coors Brewery, visited Boulder, CO and shopped til they dropped at Flatirons Mall.

I met up with Don, Judy and Keith at Bonefish Grill Friday night. Bonefish is part of parent company OSI who also owns Cheeseburger in Paradise coincidentally. (Judy is a card carrying member to be sure) http://www.osirestaurantpartners.com/insidethecompany.asp No wonder we liked it alot, great fish and great service.

On Saturday, instead of attending the St. Pat's parade in Denver where we would blend right into the festivities, we made our own parade in Golden, CO. We started the day with a tour of the Coors Brewery, complete with samplings of a wide variety of beverages at the end (and all before 12:30pm - but it certainly had to be "five o'clock somewhere".
Remember when you couldn't buy Coors "east of the Mississippi" and people packed it in trunks to bring to you? How about that Ford/Dole bumper sticker on the going to New Jersey :)

After the brewery tour, it was time to head for pizza and a look at Golden, CO. No doubt about it, if we had extra hats to sell for all the comments we received about our little parade group, we could have made a fortune as Judy pointed out! http://www.woodysgolden.com/index.html I had to leave Don, Judy and Keith so they could find their Pot O' Gold in Black Hawk!

FCA GEG SGF ORD

The blogette is back from thinking about still being on vacation. Over the past two weeks, I have been to hot spots Kalispell, MT, Spokane, WA, Springfield, MO and fabulous as always, Chicago, IL. Highlights of these business trips were the absolutely inadequate slow speed internet at each hotel along the way. Hotel management has been notified in each case with some responses of appologies offering me a "free night" upon my return - not gonna happen :)

In Whitefish, MT quite near Glacier National Park, Eric and I went to Big Mountain for late lunch on the way to the airport to get a glimpse of the mountain. Know as "Big Fog", we hit the area on a great day and Eric is quite sad to not have his skiis as you can see. The Hellroaring Saloon http://www.bigmtn.com/index.php?a=content/hellroaring has been voted one of the best apre ski bars having been established for well over 35 years (and it looks it) http://www.bigmtn.com/

One interesting thing this week was the Seizure Response Dog in Chicago airport. Quite interesting and I did stop to ask the woman about the dog and it's capabilities. Quite amazing. The website info says more than I will ever be able to describe here. Awesome program it seemshttp://www.k94life.org/html/seizure_alert.htm

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!