Posts tagged Grand Canyon

Good morning 2012. Here’s my AWESOME life so far. #NewYearsDay

0
1 year ago
by Tom in

While watching the ball drop in Times Square last night, I got to thinking about the time Shannon and I went to see that happen in person years ago.  This got me thinking about the remarkable life I’ve somehow lead over the past [insert obscure number to make my age seem insignificant] years.

So this morning I present: “the story so far.”

Shannon & I watched the ball drop in Time Square in New York City back in 2005.

Other notable things we’ve done in New York:

  • Went to the top of the World Trade Center.  (That’s where the photo above was taken.)
  • Saw the Rockettes perform at Radio City Music Hall on Christmas Day.
  • Got engaged on the top of the Empire State Building.
  • Saw a couple of Broadway shows.
  • Visited Central Park, the zoo, and a few museums.

We’ve driven cross country from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.
850A0050
We do a lot of driving:

  • We’ve driven as far north as New York (from Florida.)
  • We’ve driven as far south as Key West (to the Southernmost Point.)

We once rode the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror by ourselves.
Tower of Terror
Theme parks we’ve found our way to:

  • Magic Kingdom
  • EPCOT
  • Animal Kingdom
  • The Hollywood (aka Disney/MGM) Studios
  • Disneyland
  • California Adventure
  • Universal Studios Florida
  • Universal Studios Hollywood
  • Islands of Adventure
  • Busch Gardens Tampa

We’ve been to the Alamo in Texas.
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We’ve had beignets and coffee in the French Quarter in New Orleans
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I’ve been to the Daytona 500 with my pal Joey Snackpants.
Daytona 500 - Feb 17 2008

We’ve been twenty feet under the ocean in the Bahamas.
2011 Trip to The Bahamas

We saw the damn Hoover Dam in Arizona and Nevada.
The Hoover Dam

We’ve dropped in on Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (and confirmed that it is almost just like most parts of Orlando, Florida.)
Myrtle Beach, SC

We’ve gone white water rafting on the Arkansas River in Colorado.
White Water Rafting - Arkansas River
Other amazing things we’ve done in Colorado:

  • Went white water rafting again the next year… in class five rapids.
  • Drove to the top of Mount Evans (the highest paved road in the U.S.)
  • Went tubing in Clear Creek near Golden, CO.
We went to Fantasy Fest in Key West, Florida

PA250041

We ate crab cakes on the harbor in Baltimore, Maryland.
Baltimore, Maryland

We’ve been surrounded by alligators on an airboat in the Everglades.
Billie Swamp Safari Florida

We’ve been to the top of the Washington Monument in D.C.
Washington, DC

Other Washington D.C. adventures include:

  • Did a tour of the White House during Christmas.
  • Walked ALL of the Smithsonian Museums.
  • Visited all the major monuments including the Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt.

We have been to the top of the sombrero at South of The Border (South Carolina.)
South of the Border, SC

We’ve visited the Chichén Itzá pyramid and ruins in Mexico.
Chichén Itzá Mexico

More Mexico zaniness that ensued:

  • We went diving at Cenote Ik Kil Mexico (a giant sinkhole in the ground.) 
  • We ate tacos and drank beer and tequila.
  • I went to a 24 hour Walmart with some friends.  (Trust me; this counts as an adventure in Mexico.)

We’ve been to the Grand Canyon.
The Grand Canyon in Arizona

We’ve been to Las Vegas a number of times.
Larry Flint's Hustler Club
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but I can tell you this much:

  • We once saw the Spice Girls perform at Mandalay Bay.
  • We saw Holly Madison’s real fake boobies in Peepshow at Planet Hollywood.
  • We saw the Beatles Cirque de Soleil show “Love.”
We’ve watched the Cubs play at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois.

2011-08-09 19.05.38b
More important Chicago adventures included:

  • Going to the top of the Willis (Sears) Tower.
  • Eating pizza (at Gino’s East.)
  • Visiting that Art Institute and other local museums.

We’ve been to Indianapolis, Indiana a couple of times.
2011-08-07 16.31.44

I’ve visited Los Angeles, California a couple of times now.
Anyone else remember Dragnet?
Some highlights:

  • Joey Snackpants and I crashed the Occupy Los Angeles protest and grabbed food in Chinatown.
  • Shannon and I drove down the Pacific Coast Highway and saw the sights.
Other places of note that we’ve been to…
  • Phoenix, Arizona.  It was really boring both times I’ve been.  Sorry.
  • San Diego, California.  We didn’t have much time there, but it seemed nice enough!
  • Biloxi, Mississippi.  Shannon won money in the casinos there.  She still hasn’t let me forget that.
  • Miami, Florida.  More times than we can count.  Food, fun, concerts and more.
  • St. Louis, Missouri.  I went there one business trip and saw the Cardinals play in series game while there.

My Boring Ass Life Last Year: 2010 In Review

0
2 years ago
by Tom in

I read a lot of books, went a lot of places, and did a lot of things.  Life, in my humble opinion, is meant to be lived like a video game.  Each level should be more exciting than the last – so I’m looking forward to what crazy shit I pull off in 2011.  InvaderCON is already going to be amazing.  The Florida Anime Experience is already on deck to be epic (keep watching; we’re still making stuff “official”).  Shannon and I are already discussing where to go for our annual anniversary trip in November.

My geek life will hopefully cart me off to some pretty amazing locales for some blog-worthy experiences.

This will be my ninth year writing about my life online for the world to read about me.  If you’re still with me, thanks for taking the time to read about my boring ass life.  I write to stay sane and to maek sure my grammmar skills stai intact. Hopefully the writing is entertaining enough to keep all five (ten?) of you still reading.

Have a wonderful and eventful 2011!

The Vegas Vacation Part XI: El Tovar and The Grand Canyon

1
2 years ago
by Tom in

In case you missed it, read this post about my epic adventure walking in (and out) of the Grand Canyon.

My legs still hurt when I look at the post.

The Grand Canyon defies words.  As glorious as it looks in photographs, textbooks and PC desktop wallpapers around the world, nothing can effectively convey how spectacular that place is unless you see it in person.

It honestly and truly took my breath away the first time I looked into it.

The Grand Canyon in Arizona

I’ve seen a lot of amazing things in my life: pyramids, monuments, skyscrapers, mountains, oceans, and dozens of majestic sites in between.  None of them compare to the size and scope of the Grand Canyon.  Being so close to it, you get overwhelmed with the feeling of how small you (as a human) really are compared to the entire planet.  Epic.  Majestic.  Grand. The place is everything everyone who went before you told you about and much much more.

When we made the decision to go, I knew that this would probably be a once in a lifetime trip – so I opted to make sure I did it right. The closest you can stay to the southern rim of the canyon is a place called the El Tovar.  The El Tovar opened its doors in 1905 (over 100 years ago!) and has housed the likes of Albert Einstein and Teddy Roosevelt.  How close is it?  About twenty feet away.  Check it out:

The Grand Canyon in Arizona

(Click here to see the larger version. That’s Shannon on the far right.)

Not one for just idly watching from the sidelines, I decided that we should trek down into the canyon to see it up close.  We walked out of our hotel room at 6:30 AM to watch the sunrise over the canyon and, with latte in hand, we started the walk down the trail.  It was 18°F and it had snowed the night before so OF COURSE I was wearing shorts.  Along our way to the entrance of the trail, we ran into this:

The Grand Canyon in Arizona

Up until that moment, all of the elk we ran into were docile and just ignored the passing humans.  This one, though, was not in the mood to put up with anything from anyone and would make noise and charge at you if you walked by on the trail.  SO, I took that picture and we snuck around by entering and exiting the resort behind us.  The photo doesn’t do justice to the fact that those things are HUGE.

So we walked six miles into the Grand Canyon by way of the Bright Angel Trial.  I continued to get cell phone signal all the way in and, as a result,  I managed to score a check in on Foursquare at the end of the trail at Plateau Point. (Kudos to Sprint and my Samsung Galaxy S Epic 4G phone for pulling it off!)

Here we are looking around at the bottom:

It could babble on here for hours about it being a whole different world, connecting with nature, the peacefulness of you feel… or I could just tell you to do it yourself.  No amount of grammatic gymnastics on my part will ever do the experience justice.  This photo, though, is one of my favorite ones from the trip that kind of captures the “feel” of being there.

The Grand Canyon in Arizona

(Click here for the big version)

After the moment of Zen in the canyon, we started the hike back.  Then I saw this:

(No, I didn’t see a red arrow; I added that to the photo.)  I saw how far we had to walk back.  The arrow is pointing to the small speck that was our resort – a six mile walk away.  Refer to the post I mentioned at the beginning of this one for details after that.

THE EL TOVAR

The El Tovar is expensive and it sells out fairly quickly; if you ever plan on staying, make reservations months in advance.  The money you pay for staying, though, isn’t for amenities or comfort.  The rooms are small and, while they have been kept up well, they show their age.  Every penny paid is the price for ambiance and location.

The place is as much an old museum as it is a hotel.  We loved it.  The lobby, aside from the addition of modern furniture, is almost identical to they way it was in 1905.  After a cold evening in the canyon, nothing tops sipping hot chocolate next to the fireplace.  It was all so, well, grand.

My only complaint was the food.  The restaurant in the El Tovar is the top notch/reservations only class of eatery.  This is great except when you’re lying half dead in your hotel room jonesing for room service.  Room service to me means a burger of chicken fingers (neither of which are available there) – not roast duck.  If you have kids, the El Tovar is DEFINITELY not the resort to stay at.

The mornings are just as amazing.  This was the view outside our window:

The Grand Canyon in Arizona

You just don’t get much more “back to nature” than that.

I have dozens of other Grand Canyon and El Tovar photos posted here.

Thus endeth the Vegas Vacation posts!

Thanksgiving, Hiking Recovery, and the recent Blank Blogness

1
2 years ago
by Tom in

Good morning!

As I write this, I have just finished catching up on reading all the articles that accumulated on my Google Reader.  I didn’t have much idle time while in Las Vegas for reading, so it got pretty backed up.  Fun fact: Google Reader stops counting at one thousand and tells you that you have (1000+) articles in your queue at that point.  Thus, I have no idea how much I really read just now.  It was a lot, though.  Trust me.

The point of that little nugget of news was to serve as a lead in with my excuse for not having written about my Vegas vacation adventures yet.  Once I got back in town from my trip I was physically a mess.  That walk into the Grand Canyon had some residual pain that lasted for DAYS. Couple that with a lot going on at the office (day job) and a mountain of housework that needed to be done (including laundry and unpacking) and you begin to see that the real world got in the way of my Interwebz interaction.

DAMN YOUS REAL WORLD!!!

Here we are, though, back in the saddle.  Me writing my nonsense and whimsy while three of four of you read it.

(According to Google Analytics there are hundreds of you… but I prefer to think that there are less than ten readers out there.  It makes for less pressure with my gramar and tipos.)

So let’s get back on track, shall we?

First off: HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Yes, I know it was last Thursday.  I got all the texts and emails and Facebook messages and I didn’t get to respond to a single one.  My Thanksgiving day was spent on the road for about five hours.  I hopped in the Mustang and headed south on Turkey Day for this epic meal:

If you’re thinking “that looks like a meal from a retirement home” then you are correct.  If you’re thinking “that looks like a good home cooked meal” then you have some pretty distorted culinary standards.

Two years ago, my grandfather passed away shortly after Thanksgiving.  My grandmother now lives by herself in the retirement home they moved to together in South Florida.  This year I opted to drive down and spend the afternoon with her.  I was joined by my aunt and uncle (who live local to the area) and I even picked up my mom (who also lives south of me) and brought her along.  I can’t even begin to describe how excited my loving old Polish grandmother was to see me.  Seriously.  She was ecstatic and it made me feel that we were both getting a great Thanksgiving as a result… regardless of the food.

Sometimes all it takes to make family happy is driving the hundreds of miles to just “be there.”  Someday some of my other relatives may figure that out. :)

Yesterday was the single greatest test of my endurance in my entire life (serious)

5
2 years ago
by Tom in

I can remember being really exhausted at various times in my life. The moment that always sticks most firmly in my memory was the first time I was told to run laps in full pads during football practice in high school right after I started playing on the team. All exercise related activity up until that point had been fun: going to the beach, playing soccer on a public league, skateboarding, etc. Running on a high school football team was (in the mind of fourteen year old me) serious business.

After doing my laps, my body was mentally and physically done. Standing up hurt. Breathing hurt. Trying to move hurt.

Since then, I’ve had similar moments working out at the gym, exercising with a personal trainer, and other physical related activities. High school football was the first, though, so it’s the one I remember the most distinctly.

THAT was nothing compared to what I endured yesterday.

I have a mental defect install by my parents at a young age that makes be believe that I can do ANYTHING if I put my mind to it. I still believe that, but yesterday was the first time that my body had to remind me that there’s only so much I can force it to do via the aforementioned brain induced anomaly.

I walked twelve miles to take this photo:

That’s Shannon and I in the Grand Canyon. Note: IN the Grand Canyon. That river behind us? That’s the bottom of the Grand Canyon. The area we’re standing on (called Plateau Point) is six miles down from the southern rim. It’s nice and warm down there and the view is amazing. (Expect dozens of photos in a later post.)

The walk back is six miles worth of uphill terrain (think “very rocky staircase”) where you eventually return to an environment of snow and eighteen degree weather.  During the last two miles of the hike back up the canyon my body finally gave up. The overwhelming exhaustion had my physically drained to a point where I could only walk for five minutes and then have to rest for five minutes. It was excruciating.  With less than half a mile left to go, my wife (who runs 5ks and half-marathons for fun) went ahead to the top of the rim and bought me some coffee. The caffiene and sugar helped.

Upon making it back to the resort, I couldn’t stand. I started shaking from exhaustion and the cold. I could type on a barrage of adjectives and metaphors for the pain I felt last night and none of them – NONE of them – could do justice to how I felt. My mind was yelling at my body to move: stand, walk, shift around. It wouldn’t respond. I have never felt that helpless in my entire life. Seriously.

I didn’t leave the bed. Shannon, being an angel, went and got food for us and brought it to the room. After downing pizza with a lot of salt on it, I passed out. I woke up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat and feeling fatigued beyond belief.

This morning, as I type this, I can walk again… but I am thankful that my day will be spent sitting in a car for four hours and then sitting on a plane for four hours.

File this under “one of those stories Tom will tell over and over until the day he dies.” My trip to the Grand Canyon will live on as one of the most distinct moments in my life… and it was EPIC. :)

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