Weekend in LA, or was it Vegas?

Our good luck charm in
 front of the Luxor.

It's been a busy past couple of days, but I'm back to write about our adventures. So on Friday we headed to Laguna Beach. We had a chance to stop and check to see if Tom's Quake sculpture was still around. Unfortunately, the sculpture was too big to make the move when the company moved to a new office building, so we were not able to see it. We found out that they had a contest and some lucky winner is now in the possession of the sculpture. Once we got to Laguna Beach we enjoyed a long walk on the beach and went and saw Michael Jackson's "This Is It". The movie was very good and I can only imagine how awesome of a concert it would have been.

Saturday morning we got on the road and headed to Fort Irwin, which definitely is in the middle of nowhere. Leaving Fort Irwin the GPS told us it would only take an additional 2 hours 15 minutes to get to Las Vegas, so we decided to go for it! We had a great night in Vegas . . . enjoyed a great steak dinner, a great show - Criss Angel with Cirque du Soleil, and a great night of gambling. We played Blackjack for two hours on the old strip. We walked away even, which is walking away a winner in my book. Not a bad night for winging it.

Today we made the five or so hour trip back to Los Angeles and tomorrow we head home.

Road To Memory Lane

Hey Everyone!!

Tom is finally done with the business portion of his trip and now we move on to the vacation! Yesterday, while he was in his meetings I took the audio tour of the Queen Mary. The tour was pretty interesting and I got a lot of exercise walking all over the ship. In the afternoon I explored the Aquarium of the Pacific. It wasn't a bad day of touring by myself. In the evening we had dinner with our friend Pete, who was also out here on business. Isn't it funny that we live 40 minutes apart in Wisconsin, but had to come all the way to California to get together? It was great to catch up!!!

Today we will begin the trip down Tom's memory lane, as we head back to the company in which he sold one of his art projects from college. He built a giant sculpture from the video game Quake. After a few phone calls, he was told the sculpture is still there, so we're going to go check it out. After that, we head down the Pacific Coast Highway to visit the beaches. I've secured a room in Laguna Beach, so at least we know one more place we'll be sleeping. The rest of the trip is still up for grabs. Tomorrow will be Day 2 of Memory Lane as we had to Fort Irwin.

My journey back to Ft Irwin

Hi everyone, believe it or not I am blogging to you right now at 35,000 feet using AirTran’s wi-fi.  Normally its $10 for access but since this is our first time using it, it’s FREE!  Just like a drug dealer, they’re giving me my first hit for free so next time I will be willing to pay anything ………..and I mean anything, for the convenience.  Hopefully  the price of wi-fi will stay low so I don’t have to resort to crime to feed my wi-fi addiction.  Anyways, I know it’s been a while since we’ve posted anything but this week me and the wife will be heading out to California for a mini vacation.  Really it’s more like a get-away since we’re doing it around a work related meeting I have tomorrow and we’re only staying for the weekend.  We don’t have any specific plans while visiting so if anyone has any suggestions please let us know.  The only definite plan we have this weekend will be driving 4 hours into the desert to visit a place that brings back a lot of memories, Ft. Irwin.


Located in the Mojave Desert, Ft. Irwin was what I called home for 3 years from 1991 to 1994 during my time in the Army.  For those of you who’ve had an opportunity to visit me while I was stationed there you know how isolated and difficult of a tour it can be.  The days are long and hot, sand gets into everything (I swear I still have sand in my ass crack from that place), and the nearest town, Barstow, is roughly 45 minutes away.  I’ll never forget the day my drill sergeant told me I was assigned to Ft. Irwin in California and how excited and happy I was.  Its funny looking back at it because I didn’t know anything about Ft. Irwin and all I could picture was me hanging out at the beach trying to get a tan.  Maybe that shit eating grin he had should have been a warning.


While I was stationed at Ft Irwin our primary mission was to play the role of OPFOR (Opposing Forces).  I know war games sounds cool at first but believe me after the first month the shit gets old really quick.  We were only guaranteed 4 days off a month and there was only 2 times a year you could take leave.  Otherwise your ass was stuck at base mopping and waxing floors.


So you might be wondering why anyone would drive 8 hours round trip to visit this hell hole.  Well, as much as I would like to forget my time there, it has had a significant impact in my life.  It can be a very lonely place but it’s the people you meet and the friendships you build that make the place tolerable.   I’ll never forget the many nights with my fellow comrades getting absolutely shit faced and usually breaking something.  Being stationed at Ft. Irwin is like being in a special club that only your fellow club members understand and appreciate.So why the hell would I want to go back to Ft. Irwin?  Maybe it’s relive some fond memories, maybe it’s for closure, or maybe I have a screw lose.  I guess I will figure that out when I get there. As much as I hated that shit hole I will never forget it and in a weird way I kinda miss the desert.

An Evening With The Cheese

Sorry to disappoint our blog readers, but I'm back behind the helm. Tom did such a good job filling in for me with a very entertaining post. Now it's back to boring old me.

So a few things have happened since the last posting. First we have flown back from Maui to Oahu. Last night, Friday the 13th we were entertained by our favorite lounge singer, Richard Cheese, at the Pipeline Cafe in Honolulu, HI. The venue was different than what we are used to, as the two previous times we have seem him in Chicago at the House of Blues. The Pipeline Cafe had poor audio quality, so we had a hard time hearing Richard but could hear the drunks behind us no problem. It was a still an entertaining show and we were happy to introduce a couple of our guard family members to the Cheese. Todd and Kris - you don't have to worry - the Chicago shows were definitely better than this one. On the upside however, Cortney had a camera with her and we were finally able to get our picture taken with Richard and his piano player, Bobby Ricotta (the House of Blues won't allow cameras).

So there we were at the end of the night thinking we have had a pretty good vacation, and were packed and ready to come home. Than this morning, as we are about to begin the process to get the military flight back home,I got a call from the pilot who said he was too sick to fly home today. So surprise, we are in Honolulu for an extra day! I know . . . there are worse places to be stuck. Today we laid low and spent some extra time soaking in the rays at the beach on Hickam Air Force Base and checking out the submarine, the U.S.S. Bowfin at Pearl Harbor. Tomorrow we get back into travel mode, with the hope that our pilot is well enough to fly us safely home.

Just Loungin Around

Hey everyone, the wife is not feeling too good so I've been delegated with updating the blog tonight :) There is really not much to report today but I will try uphold my wife's high blogging standards and keep it engaging and riveting. Anyways, here's a brief over view............. I'm sure by the end of this though I will leave you feeling cheated and disappointed.

1. Woke up
2. Itched ass
3. Went back to sleep
4. Woke up again and dropped the kids off at the pool
   
5. Ate a burger for lunch
6. Played around on my new Macbook Pro
7. Fell asleep on my keyboard
8. Went to the beach to darken up this pasty white ass....... no luck there
   
9. Beat up a young child...............just seeing if your paying attention :)
10. Went snorkeling with the wife
    
11. Ate another burger for dinner (Had a Hawaiian coke that tasted craptacular)
    
12. Purchased a Mac geek read from the book store
13. Fired up laptop to blog
14. Typing right this sec

Seriously though, other than doing some snorkeling with the wife it was a very slow day. I've been enjoying the whole snorkeling thing so much that I think I'm going to purchase a snorkeling kit with the prescription goggles. I guess I've been surrounded by fish the entire time but could never see them.

Tomorrow we will be flying back to Honolulu to see Richard Cheese at the Pipeline. Should be a fun time like every other time we've seen him. I just wish my bro and his wife "You better have not bought tickets Todd!" who are both big fans of the dick, could join us for the evening. It won't be the same with out you guys :(

Well, I'm off to hit the sack. I hope this post has lived up to the quality updates my wife puts out :)

- S.O.B

A Whale of a Time

Yet another unbelievable exciting day!!! Today's adventure took us on a boat tour around the Island of Lanai. We saw numerous whales and dolphins. Tom took some excellent photos with his new camera (well about 500 so we'll see if we can narrow those down to about 100). We stopped to snorkel at three different stops. Each stop was good, with the last stop being the best. It was some of the best snorkeling I have done in a long time, and it's the first time Tom used some goggles with a prescription to them. He had no idea that there were so many fish. Now he feels cheated from all the other times he went snorkeling and couldn't see. Thanks to Laurie and Pete for letting us use their snorkeling equipment. Came in handy today, and we are planning on using it tomorrow as well (although we may have to find some prescription goggles for Tom). The tour guides were awesome and let us stay and snorkel as long as we wanted and stopped numerous times to watch the whales. They were an excellent choice.

The Long Winding Road

Today we got in the car and saw the Island of Maui. The Road to Hana is 35 miles of very curvy and narrow road. It is also a very scenic ride. Once we made it to Hana we decided to keep going and check out the other side of Haleakala Volcano. We hiked up 2 miles to see a beautiful waterfall and hiked 2 more miles back to the car. Since we had already gone this far we decided not to backtrack on the road to Hana, but keep going around the island. We are glad we did as it was also very scenic. After spending most of the day in the car, we are looking forward to our snorkeling adventure tomorrow. I hope you were all able to enjoy your own warm weather I heard Wisconsin had!

Standing on Top of the World

We had an awesome day today. Bright and early this morning we got picked up at 3:15 to make about an hour and a half trip up 10,000 feet to Haleakala Crater. Here we had a spectacular view of the full moon and an even more amazing view of the sunrise. I'm not normally up before the sun, so this was particularly inspiring. After taking over a hundred photos (yes, I promise that we will go through and delete some), we got on our bikes and headed down the volcano. Ok, I can't lie. I was nervous. The guide said we were going about 20mph, but on a bike I felt like I was doing 65mph. Let's just say the brakes on my bike got a pretty good work out. The excursion was totally worth every penny and we took some amazing photos. The weather was perfect today and we were able to enjoy some beach time as well. We didn't get a phone call about going fishing tomorrow, so it looks like we will be driving the road to Hana.

Hawaii Day 2

Today's adventures began before the sun came up. We had to get our butts to the airport to catch a 6:18 flight to Maui. The flight itself was only about 20 minutes long, and by 7:00a.m. we were heading to the rental car place. I was a little nervous about my car reservation. Although we had a confirmation number it seemed that all rental cars on Maui were booked for the week so I wasn't sure how legit my reservation was. I did not have to worry . . . we not only had a car, we had one that wasn't a clown car. This week we are driving a Toyota Corolla. We got in the car and headed to our hotel, the Sheraton Maui. By 8:00a.m. we were checking in. For those of you that know me, I'm still normally waking up around this time so I'm not used to getting so much accomplished before 8:00a.m. Our room wasn't ready, but we were able to store our luggage and enjoy the beach, pool, and lounge chairs. Mostly we just chilled and try to catch a nap. We also booked our excursions for the week. Tomorrow we will have another early morning as we will catch a shuttle at 3:15a.m. to go to the top of a mountain to watch the sun rise, and then ride bicycles down the mountain. It looks like Tuesday we will probably drive to Hana. On Wednesday we will take a snorkeling, whale watching, dolphin watching trip around Lanai, and on Thursday we are hoping to go deep sea fishing. We just need another couple who wants to share a boat to reserve and we will be good to go. If not, we won't be doing it. So everything has fallen into place and our week looks set. Hope you all enjoyed the warm weather I heard you had at home!!!

We're in Hawaii

We were able to get on the flight to Hawaii!! After a long 9 hour flight and one good book later we finally made it.  Thanks Jen for giving me "No Time For Goodbyes".  It made the flight go by a little quicker.  I read the whole thing on the way here.  Good thing you gave me a couple of other books as well.  Now I'm just waiting for Tom to get out of the shower so we can go grab dinner.  We're off to Maui bright and early tomorrow morning at 6:18.

Sean is 5!

We had a very good weekend in Iowa celebrating Sean's 5th birthday. After celebrating his birthday on Saturday with his friends, the weather was perfect for sledding. Since my sister lives on a hill this works out quite nice. Saturday evening we had fun playing carnival games at the local high school fundraiser.

Sunday we made it home in time for the Superbowl. Although the game was on, I really wasn't paying much attention as I have finally joined the world of Facebook. Maybe I'll do a better job of keeping that updated! :)

Not A Lot Going On . . . Yet

Well, as you can probably tell from the lack of blog postings, not a lot of exciting things have been happening in 2009. You probably also assumed that without a blog posting on January 1st, that we probably didn't win at Bingo. Your assumptions would be correct. Although we had a good time (most of us anyway. I don't think Bingo was really up Tom's alley), we didn't win anything at the casino on New Year's Eve.

So far in January we've tried to stay warm, and that's about it. Next weekend however, is my nephew Sean's 5th birthday and we look forward to going to Iowa to celebrate it with him. The following weekend, we have our fingers crossed to be one of the lucky few to board a free Uncle Sam flight to Hawaii for a week's vacation. Seats are limited and we won't know for sure if there is room for us until about the day before. If we don't make the flight, I will be searching the internet for a last minute vacation anywhere warm with a beach. We are definitely ready to take a break from this Wisconsin winter.

That's about it for now. I hope to be blogging very soon from the beaches of Hawaii!!!