Visit the kelpforest....

1. Where have you been that you loved and would like to visit again?
This is one of those questions like "What's your favorite color?" that I don't have a single answer to. 

In 1988, I spent a year in Brisbane, QLD Australia, as an exchange student.  I have always wanted to go back to Australia and visit more parts of it I didn't get to see.

I love the Pacific Northwest.  I went to college in Arcata, CA and I had a relative who lived in Seattle for awhile.  I actually like rainy weather.

Warm, tropical places are nice too, but I don't deal with heat too well, and bugs love me.  I did like Puerto Vallarta for the short time we had a timeshare there.

When I lived in New Hampshire, I had neither the schedule or extra money to see much of the Northeast US.  I particularly regret not seeing more of Maine,  and unfortunately, missed most of the leaves changing the autumn I was there.  Since I live in a place where there's not a lot of change between seasons, I'd like to see that more.

2. Where have you been that you HATED and would never go back, no matter what?
If I never had to see the inside of a big hotel chain meeting room again, it would be too soon.  Unfortunately, that's part of my job, so I can't get out of it for now.

3. Where do you want to go that you have never been?
Scotland and other Celtic places.  Europe, Africa, Antarctica.  Except for Australia and a brief period living in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, I really haven't traveled much.  We still haven't visited my husband's relatives in Michigan since we've been married, because plane tickets for a family of five are prohibitive.

4. Where do you NEVER want to visit?

Saudi Arabia. Juarez, Mexico.  Anyplace the temperature is regularly over 90° F. 

BONUS:  For those who travel for business, any good road warrior stories?  Packing tips?  Good hotel chains?

I do occasionally have to travel for business, but I can't say I have any particular tips.  I always forget something, but I'm not usually gone more than a few days, so it can usually be lived without.  Remember to leave your pocketknife at home.  I have one my husband gave me as an anniversary present that I've had to call him to come back to the airport to get, because I forgot to take it out of my pocket.  Other things in your pockets you don't realize have metal in them; I once got nearly strip searched and almost missed my plane because of a tea bag packet from the hotel, which had a metal lining.

Seems like I'm always assigned travel at the end of the month when I'm short of funds, so I always try to bring some kind of food with me I can prepare with what's in a hotel room.  Instant oatmeal, noodles, cans of sardines, apples and oranges, nuts and dried fruit.  A few times I've had to beg off going out for dinner with the team I'm on and make a meal out of this kind of stuff.  If I'm lucky there'll be a grocery store within walking distance.  I always hope the contracted hotel has fridges or microwaves in the rooms but sometimes it's only a coffeemaker.

I do geocaching and waymarking so before a trip, I try to look up caches and waymarks within walking distance of the hotel and enter them in my GPSr - sometimes they lead me to neat little things I might not have seen, and it gets me out of the hotel for awhile.

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I'm not sure it was "celebrated" - I was in Sacramento for a PFMC meeting, it was the day before payday so I was broke, had to decline when invited out to both meals, and went back to my hotel room to have canned kippers, instant noodles and an orange for lunch and dinner. Well, it was a Doubletree, so the hotel gave me a cookie when I checked in, as well. Whoopee-snort.

But I did go out and find a geocache that evening so I got a little "souvenir" for Leap Day on my geocaching profile. And I dropped off a travelbug I picked up in La Jolla, so it can travel farther. Unfortunately, I realized after I dropped it off, it came from Central/Northern CA to begin with (Sonora, which isn't too far from Sacto). I headed across the street to find another one, but it seemed to have been muggled, and the mall security truck came by and flashed their lights at me, so I got spooked and came back to my room. Probably just as well.

Dammit, it bugs the hell out of me that expensive hotels charge $10/day for internet access (which the Council no longer covers your expenses for) unless you go to the lobby, while cheap places like Motel 6 and the Quality Inn where I stayed when I was up there earlier in February, give it to you free.

So glad runsamuck has that job now. Apparently they're very impressed with him as he does good customer service (used to win Secret Shopper awards when he was a meat-cutter), and have offered him another day a week if he wants it, but the other night guy is senior and he doesn't want to step on any toes when he hasn't even been there two weeks . They did say they're going to have them alternate every other week though.

But the Kia needed a brake job which ran almost $600, so that's where his first couple paychecks are going. And Angus and Avalon both had colds, which he caught, so now he's sick - and it always takes him longer to get over. *Sigh*

On the fun side, I found out there's a geocache at his store. ;p

Good grief, June is almost over. How did it fly by so fast?

The second week of June I had to go to a PFMC meeting in Spokane, WA. If you're wondering why a body having to do with mostly ocean-going fishing meets occasionally on the eastern side of Washington (and sometimes in Idaho), the answer is "salmon." Which I have nothing to do with, but salmon drags everything after it. My flight had a transfer in Seattle and I had a 2½ hour layover between planes. tikistitch was kind enough to come down and meet me at the airport and chat between planes; we got some dinner and I hope I didn't babble at her too much - I really didn't expect that glass of wine to be so big, especially at an airport, and it turns out I'm really a lightweight lately. I brought her a little Stitch something from Downtown Disney she'd mentioned she couldn't find, just in gratitude for all the fun I've had reading her Mythklok stories. Really great to meet you, Pam, and thanks for putting up with me!

( Boring fisheries shtufs... )

( Geocaching, whee... )

The kids demanded Slurpees, so off we went to find a 7-11. While there, I remembered there was a geocache in this parking lot. Even though we didn't have the GPS with us, I thought I might know where it was, and indeed, we found it. Sackboy signed the log too. I would have taken his pic with the cache but there was too much birdshit everwhere.

At the 7-11
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
23 June 2010

( +2 )

This place is less than mile from my home, and I actually worked for about three years at the fast-food place visible in the background more than two decades ago. But in all the time I've lived in the neighborhood, I've never ventured inside, despite my father making use of the services there for my grandmother. Specifically, for my grandmother's beloved Boo-Boo.

Sea Breeze Pet Cemetery
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
14 August 2009

( +4 )

Gareth, Angus and I did this today. Twas fun!

Block Walk Flash Freeze!
The Block, Orange, CA
Canon EOS 1000D
27 June 2009

The guy above is arriving before it started and brought some props to use during the freeze (since it took place in an outdoor mall). I don't have any pics of during as I was one of the ones who froze, but a few people who didn't freeze posted some in the gallery on the page linked to above (unfortunately, since the event is over, it was archived and you have to be a logged in Geocaching member (free)to see it. However, most of the photos were used in the little video below.

Avalon and runsamuck were also going to participate but he had to go over to his dad's to do some work at the last minute, and she was invited to go the beach with her friend two doors down as we were walking out the door to head over there.

It was based on this, although not nearly as many geocachers showed:



The Organizers finally edited together a video (the audio is the mp3 we listened to while doing it):



(Gareth is the little boy tying his shoelace; Angus and I aren't really in it much, but I was drinking coffee and checking my phone, while Angus sat down and drew a comic).

I wasn't near enough to hear any comments, but there were a few people freaking out from what I understand.

Somewhere in this jungle is another geocache (sorry you're seeing so many of these as a subject lately - I kind of got on a kick after Spokane...)

Zoom!!!
Seal Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
23 June 2009

And yet, only a few feet away ( is this... )

Among the mustard... tried again for the one we missed yesterday and this time we found it! We were looking for this one, and the first hint was "where the fence makes no sense." Hmmm.

Bosco's Bluff part 2
Bolsa Chica
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000d
21 June 2009

( ? )

Tried for another geocache at the bluffs on the south end of Bolsa Chica Ecological preserve - however, it was a little too close to dark. We got to the coordinates but were supposed to spy the cache area a hundred fet away. We decided to finish another day, but we did see some wildlife while there.

Bosco's Bluff
Bolsa Chica
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 100D
20 June 2009

( Wildlife... )