My view landing in Portland:

I couldn't have asked for a better culmination to my summer travels than the beautiful state of Oregon. For my readers: WARNING - I still think I work for the Oregon Tourism Board. Even though I actually haven't, I tout Oregon as the best place on earth. I heart Oregon the most of all. Browse my pics of Oregon, as well as a few from Jess and Dan's wedding. If there is one thing I've learned over the years - professional photographers take much better pictures than I do, so I don't even try.

My summer travels have seen me in Austin, Texas, back 'home' in Delaware (YEAH JOE BIDEN), New Jersey, Los Angeles, Portland, Oregon (twice), Taos/Angel Fire, New Mexico, Crested Butte and all over Wisconsin. Yep - it's been a busy one. I never did get around to that pop culture contest, did I? Okay - I promise it's coming in September. I'll have a lot more time this month. Who would have thunk that Dolph Lundgren would be such a popular topic...

Back to Oregon. Ah, Oregon. Do I miss thee. I would move back to Portland in a heartbeat and I don't think I speak only for myself. I'm pretty sure that most of the close friends that I met there would move back, too. You see, the thing about Portland is that no one knows just how great of a place it is. When I was moving to Colorado, I used to get so annoyed, and still get annoyed when people say 'Oh, Colorado, Beautiful!' You know, it is gorgeous and there are a lot of things that I enjoy about my life here. However, it's not even close to how much I enjoyed Portland. Not even a tiny bit. I could go on forever, but I'll spare you.

Another thing I know - I have an amazing set of friends. I'm sure all people say that, but I really do. I'm still close with the guys and gals from high school, most people I met while in college, and those I've met in Portland and Colorado. Driving through the Columbia River Gorge in the morning, only to catch sunset over the Rockies led me to realize how lucky I am. I'm lucky to have lived in and traveled to such gorgeous places, and am really lucky to have the friends I do. I wish that the contingents of people that I know on the east coast, west coast and the fly over states could all just move to one central place. That would be the life. Anywho...I should stop now before I start crying balling like I did during my speech at the wedding this weekend.

Summer of travels '08 is now over.

Oh, and to top it all off, Burnie (no, it's BURN-IE - that's some pop culture trivia for you, right there) not only pet sat for us once again, but I came home to an autographed copy of Mike Gordon's new CD that he got from the Fox show. Pretty sweet gift and he owes me nothing, nada, zero. I owe him a lot more, believe you me. See - good friends, I tell you.

Tags: travel, friends, phish

I think I love Wisconsin more than Skymall.

I really do. Every part of our trip to Wisconsin I enjoyed immensely; fishing with Doug and his father on a 15,000 acre lake in the north woods, having absolutely scrumptious meals cooked by his mother everyday, seeing good friends in Madison (my first visit to Madison) and celebrating at Mike and Becky's wedding. 

Oh, and not to mention The Terrace. I loved the University of Delaware and wouldn't trade my college days for anything. However, I have to admit, this is slightly better than the Deer Park Tavern (although the history is amazing) or The East End. Madison is a good place. Here's a pic of Doug on the Terrace overlooking Lake Mendota:

Check out some pics of the Turtle Flambeau Flowage (the lake where Doug's parent's cabin is), Madison, friends, the wedding and various other fun stuff. 

Tags: travel, friends, family

So, I'll bore you with something else. My computer is still on the lam, so I won't have any pretty updates (that means with pictures) for at least a week and a half. I have some great pics from Marc's wedding and Jess's bachelorette party to share.

In the meantime, I'm going to run a blog experiement and see if anyone catches on to it (Burnie - you can't participate). Just to give you a hint - this is the first one. I think I'll do it for the month of July - good luck all.

My travel is slowing down - at least for a few weeks. In the last two months, I've been to Austin, Texas, Southern California (LA area), Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey (all in the same trip, of course, but it sounds a lot cooler to say all three states than the mid-Atlantic) and Portland, Oregon. Next up: Wisconsin and then back to the love of my life, Portland, Oregon. It's a full summer ya'll.

For your reading enjoyment - Nate has returned to the blogging world - http://www.bumpersmash.blogspot.com/  His blog is sure to be full of some very entertaining crap. Much more entertaining than my crap. For instance, he has a conversation going about mustachioed baseball players as you're wasting time reading this. Very hip. Get over there.

Speaking of entertaining - we (at work) are doing some work with the Travel Channel and got our hands on a sneak peek video of the 2nd half of Anthony Bourdain's 4th season of No Reservations which premiered last night with an episode in Laos. It's a great video:

Tags: travel, anthony bourdain, summertime

I'm not joking.

You might think that I would spend my precious blogging time expressing my thoughts about Obama picking up 26 super delegates in the last week, global warming, the recent earthquake in China, or the cyclone that devastated Myanmar (latter day Burma). However, that is not the case. I've chosen to entertain you, my dear readers, with my intelligent musings on my findings while thumbing through the latest issue of SkyMall.

Now, I have actually consciously tried to resist my love of SkyMall, but it hasn't worked. I've tried to not pick it out of the seat-back pocket in front of me, but to no avail. People who have traveled with me know my problem and those who have flown to see me many times, know to bring me the latest issue. However, every time I board a plane, I can't help but reach for the special in-flight entertainment (would it be considered that?) of the ever so popular random product magazine that is filled with the most useless crap you can think of. I do admit, though, that while thumbing through it this evening, I found some things that I might have actually ordered - like the marshmallow shooter, the talking R2-D2 robot, or the 206 bird song identifier.

So, without further adieu, I give you my favorite products of SkyMall, Late Spring 2008 issue:

Continue Reading →

Tags: travel, skymall, awesome crap

I was quite surprised this morning when I learned that Frontier Airlines had filed for bankruptcy. For those of us that live in Colorado - this could be a big deal. I've had the pleasure of relaxing, direct, on-time flights (usually even early) for about 3 years now and wouldn't want it any other way.

Frontier announced yesterday that they had filed for Chapter 11 in order to reorganize due to their credit card company processor wanting to "hold-back" customer receipts. From what I understand, Frontier owes something like 93 Million and First Data, as well as Wells Fargo, wants to start collecting. As of yesterday, the processing company told Frontier they would be taking significantly more from their ticket sales than they previously had.

Sean Menke, the CEO said the following in a Denver Post article syndicated today: "Frontier will now have the time and legal protection necessary to obtain additional financing and enhance our liquidity," Menke said in the company's statement. "We currently have adequate cash on hand to meet our operating needs while we take steps to further strengthen our company."

Conversely, Forbes published this statement: Friday's bankruptcy filing "came as no surprise," said Calyon Securities analyst Ray Neidl, "though it happened more quickly than we expected." Neidl added that tough competition in Denver from United Airlines and Southwest Airlines will prove the demise of Frontier." The article in Forbes also states: "This is not a troubled airline," countered Michael Boyd, an independent airline industry consultant in Englewood, Colo. Boyd argued that Frontier is a victim of "gossip and innuendo in the media." He explained that credit card companies withhold certain amounts of cash to protect themselves.

However, Frontier still managed to send out a reassurance letter to their Early Returns (their incredible frequent flyer program that has gotten me a few free round trip tickets) members. I got one today at 12:45pm. Now, some may expect this, a COUPLE days, or even a week later. Nope - Frontier Airlines managed to send it out today. That's a class act in my book. Now, I have A LOT of travelling to do this summer and I plan on doing it all with Frontier. As I said, I wouldn't want it any other way. I'm not sure what I would do if Frontier Airlines ceased to exist. My travel world would be turned upside down.

Tags: frontier airlines, chapter 11, travel, forbes