The Big Apple

For spring break 2008, I took a trip to New York City to meet up with Joe (Dallas) and hang with our two good friends JL & Rich. This was an opportunity for me to try out United Airline's p.s. Service (Premium Service). United runs a specially configured Boeing 757 that flies between LAX, SFO and JFK that has only First, Business and Economy Plus seats. Each class of service includes certain amenities not offered on regular flights. I was lucky enough to land a seat in 1st and was spoiled rotten. The seats are angled lie-flat and were so comfortable that I slept for most of the 5.5 hour flight. When I wasn't sleeping, I played with the hand-held DVD player which had 10 movies, a dozen tv shows, a handful of games and about 200 songs. The food and drink were top notch and the double meal service was fine dining at 34,000 feet. It truly is the only way to fly between the coasts.

New York is an amazing city. The amount of art, culture and food can't be beat anywhere else in the world. Joe, Rich and I went to the MoMA and saw an amazing exhibit titled "Design and the Elastic Mind." I really enjoyed the exhibit and it defies description. I'm usually not a fan of modern art (a bunch of crap glued together is not art), but I was blown away by the combination of technology and design. I spent about an hour and a half exploring this exhibit alone. If you are in NYC, definitely check this exhibit out.

There is never a shortage of bars or restaurants in this city. We had drinks under artwork by Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Richard Prince, Damien Hirst, and Julian Schnabeat the Gramercy Park Hotel bar and enjoyed fantastic food at the restaurant Wakiya. Other highlights included cupcakes from The Sugar Sweet Sunshine Bakery in the Lower East Side (my favorite cupcakes in the world) and my favorite izakaya restaurant, Kenka, where you end the meal with cotton-candy that you make yourself.

It was great seeing my friends and experiencing NYC, but I was exhausted and ready to return home at the end of my 6 days in The Big Apple. New York is such a dynamic place that never has a dull moment and I'm sure I'll be back to NYC sometime soon.


30 Rock.


United p.s. Service was amazing.


Joe and I LOVE meat.

John and I love cupcakes almost as we love argyle.

Easter at Dolores Park

San Francisco is my kind of town! Only in San Francisco would you celebrate Easter by boozing with 1,000 of your closest friends while watching the Hunky Jesus Contest in a public park. This past Sunday, Gavin and I spent the afternoon with, what felt like, 1/2 of the city at Dolores Park (quite possibly the best urban park in the history of the world) for an afternoon of socializing and merriment.

I really appreciate the hands-off approach of law enforcement in this city. Nobody gets hassled for drinking in the park (or smoking a wee bit), but in return everyone pitches in and the space is shared by the community. Park goers pick up after themselves and nobody really misbehaves, which is amazing considering the amount of alcohol and controlled substances that were consumed. I was impressed that there were no altercations and everyone was on their best behavior. I guess in a city like this, people just want to have fun. Man ... I love SF.


Cheers girls.


Easter is the best!


There were a ton of people at the park!

Easter Dinner

One of my favorite things to do is entertain. Gav and I selected our apartment with the full intention of having people over as often as we can. I think that he and I make a pretty good pair when it comes to hosting a little soiree and we put our skills to the test this past weekend. We threw a little dinner and egg-coloring party for Easter.

Our dinner menu was pretty much 100% from Costco and it consisted of a lamb roast with mint sauce, a ham, roasted fingerling potatoes and veggies and a delicious spinach salad with pesto dressing (thank you Ina Garten).

After dinner, we dyed about 4 dozen eggs and I don't think I've had this much fun coloring eggs since I was 8 years old. Check out the link at the bottom of the post to see more pics of the eggs. My personal favorites were the Southwest Airlines Boeing 737, Papa Smurf, The Globe, Yoshi's egg, the penis egg and the strawberry.


Gavin and the heart-shaped potato.


He really knows how to handle a big piece of meat.


Good friends, food and wine. Perfection.

The finished Easter Basket!

Easter Party 2008

Flashback: Tokyo, September 2007

After spending a wonderful summer in Seattle, Gavin and I hit the road again and started the Asia leg of our world tour. In September we flew from Seattle to Tokyo with our friend John to experience Japan.

We spent one week in Japan and visited the cities of Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Hiroshima. With our Japan Rail Pass and a lot of determination, we saw as much of Japan as humanly possible in 7 short days. John, Gavin and I put together and ambitious itinerary that had us zooming at bullet-fast speeds across The Land of the Rising Sun.

Our adventure started out in business class on an United Boeing 777, where we drank copious amounts of sake and were treated like rock-stars. Upon arrival in Tokyo-Narita we were overwhelmed by that feeling you get only when you travel to a new country. On the plane, I tried my hardest to brush up on my Japanese, because I knew that my two companions would depend on me to make things happen on their first trip to the Orient. It had been over 15 years since I last visited Japan as a teen-ager and I wanted to show the boys a great time.

We easily found our way from the airport to our hotel overlooking Shinjuku Station, the busiest commuter rail station in Tokyo. High up on the 27th floor, we were treated to an amazing view of the Tokyo skyline. I've been to some big cities in my life, but Tokyo has got to rank up on top of the list in size. What a metropolis!

The three of us were excited to see what Japan had to offer in terms of food and drink, and we were not disappointed! We were on a mission to try experience as much of Japanese cuisine as possible. This included shabu shabu, izakaya, sushi, ramen, sukiyaki and yakitori.

In the 3 days that we spent in Tokyo, we went to the Fall Sumo Tournament, toured the Fuji Television Building, saw the world's biggest wholesale fishmarket at Tsukiji, checked out the funky district of Harajuku, went to the Tokyo-Edo Museum and met up with our friend Mark for a wild night on the town.

Check out my Tokyo Album at the bottom of the page.



Gav and John upon arrival at Tokyo-Narita.


Shinjuku by night.


Sumo!


The world's freshest sushi at the Tsukiji Fish Market.

More Pics from Tokyo!

The Big Move!

After experiencing 13 countries on four continents and being home-less for close to two years, Gavin and I were excited (and ready) to finally make the move to our new home: San Francisco. We spent the first part of our trip interviewing cities, trying to figure out where we wanted to move to. San Diego, Los Angeles, Seattle, Denver, Chicago, New York and Washington DC were all on the list, but one-by-one we worked our way and chose San Francisco as our final destination.

We bid farewell to our friends and family in Hawaii and boarded the United Airlines Boeing 767 at the Kona International Airport (I love the Kona Airport because they don't use jet-ways and actually pull the stairs right up to the jumbo-jets. What says Aloha more than getting off of your 10 hour flight from snowy Chicago and greeted by the sun and warmth of paradise?) and flew 5 hours to San Francisco.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by cold winter weather and the rain. This was the reality of returning to the real world, because for close to two years, we had followed the summer from the northern hemisphere to the south and then back up again. Thankfully, San Francisco's winter isn't nearly as harsh as most other parts of the country.

Without jobs or a home, my brother kindly took us in until we were able to find a home to call our own. It took us about 2 weeks before we stumbled upon the apartment of our dreams. Located not far from my brother and our other friends in the city, Gavin and I signed a lease and moved our few posessions into our new home.

With much pleasure and a lot of excitment, I am ready to begin the next chapter in my life. Wish me luck!


Aloha Hawaii! Until we meet again.


The naked bedroom. I love the hard-wood floors and bay window!


The bathroom with claw-footed tub.


The rug (bought over the internets) in the living room.