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So, Where Were We?

Light House on Lake Michigan

One of my favorite buildings!

Ah, I am a much more rested and thinking human being today. After the last post I slept for 6 more hours! Guess that explains all the bad grammar and spelling mistakes from that post! Sorry about that! So, where were we in the story? Ah, yes, we had just gotten to Milwaukee (MKE) and I was about to rave of the beauty of the city. For starters, it's on Lake Michigan, the 2nd biggest of the Great Lakes. And the lake is so blue, and huge, you feel like you are at the ocean. I dare say that if you live in the Midwest and can't make to the the coast, this lake would be a perfectly viable substitute. So MKE has that going for it, it's a "beach town." Not only that but the Milwaukee River flows through the city, giving it a nice river walk, which looked like the spot to be on a summer night, not so much in the winter with the snow and ice. It was super slippery! So you have outdoor activities galore, what about in door? Well, for me and Fuse and our limited time we were only able to see a few things. On out first night, we took a little stroll and admired some of the beautiful buildings in downtown. This was also the night that we went and saw Brian Regan at the Pabst Theater. The man is funny! His facial expressions are great and he uses a lot of body movements in his act. The place was packed. The theater is beautiful, one of the oldest in the country and just lovely inside.

Art Museum Entrance

Pabst Theater

The next day we went to the super fun restaurant called The Safe House. This is a spy themed restaurant complete with a secret entrance, password and escape route! It was quite fun to explore and enjoy. We looked into going to the Miller Brewing Company, just to see how a huge beer company does things, but it was closed on Sundays. Sad.  Not sure what else to do that day, and being car less we were told to check out the art museum and some bars in the old, renovated 3rd Ward neighborhood. That sounded good to us, so we did. The art museum is right on the lake and the building is beautiful. We went in, but did go to the exhibits, jut looked at the building. It was a pretty neat site to see. Then we walked to the 3rd Ward, which is a revitalized part of town that has some shops and bars and restaurants. Being Sunday, most things were closed, so we settled for a stroll through the Milwaukee Public Market. A fun little market with local goods, food and drinks, namely, chocolates and coffee for us. With everything being closed and it snowing, we just went back to the hotel and then to the other comedian, Gabriel Iglesias. Completely different style from the night before. G.I. was on a Comedy Central tour so there were about 5 other comedians there too. Plus he went over the show time by an hour! It was great! We really enjoyed him too. If you get a chance to see either him or Brian Regan do it!

Milwaukee Public Market

So there you have it, Milwaukee, a diamond in the Midwest. If you are looking for a fun, unique, not so touristy place to go for a weekend getaway I highly recommend it. If you do, be sure to check hotwire.com for deals. We paid $50 for a place in the middle of downtown that was really nice.

Next up on the blog:
Beijing, a city lost in smog! 

Milwaukee, A Beautiful Land

Is there a better time to blog than when you are desperately trying to sleep, but due to good ol' jet lag you can't? Yeah, I didn't think so either. Jet lag will get even the best of us at some point and after 7 day in Asia, it has caught up to me. It's a funny thing really. When I woke up 6:30am, after only 6 hours of sleep, I still felt exhausted and even now I'm yawning like a new born kitten, but alas, no sleep. So, I thought I'll get a post in this morning!
I wanted to share about Milwaukee! First some background on why Milwaukee. Fuse had a birthday in December and I was thinking of what to get him. I started looking to see if any of the comedians he liked were going to be in the Seattle area anytime soon. They weren't. But I did see that two of them where going to be in Milwaukee on consecutive dates in March. Then I thought to myself, hum, Milwaukee, kinda random, could be kinda fun. Breweries, Lake Michigan, comedy, why not? So that is how 3 months after his birthday we ended up freezing in Wisconsin.
Before I rave about the wonders of this beautiful city you have to hear the crazy story of how we got there. First, we aren't morning people. We are more the 2am-10am sleepers and luckily our jobs are accommodating to that. So when I was looking to book our tickets (standby of course) the 6am departure, while the smartest idea, did not sound very appealing. (FYI, as an airlines employee we can travel on a flight provided there is an open seat. No open seat, no go.) So instead of starting off this fun weekend with a 3am wake up, I booked us on the 1pm flight to Detroit and then the last flight out to Milwaukee. For those of you not in the airline industry, this was a bad plan.  One mishap and we would be stuck in Detroit for the night. You can see where this story is headed can't you?
So on that Friday afternoon, well rested, we headed to the airport. Our first flight was marvelous. We had seats together, in the exit row, it was lovely. Then we got to Detroit and things took a downhill spiral. Snowstorm in Milwaukee earlier that day and canceled flights to the flight we wanted was overbooked by about 20 people. There was really no hope for us. But we stuck around, just in case, because with standby travel, you just never know. But that night, it wasn't meant to be and we were off to a hotel. The next day we were back at the airport. At this point we still had time to get to Milwaukee in time for the first comedian, Brian Regan, that night. But things looked bleak. "I'm a gambling woman," the gate agent told us at the first Milwaukee flight,  "and I won't gamble on getting on a flight to MKE today." Great. Not to fear, we activated plan B. Fly to Chicago and Amtrak it to MKE. Where there seat to O'Hara? Nope, Midway? Yes! Off we went. After a phone call to a good friend in Chicago for assistance we made our way to the train station and boarded the 3:15 to MKE, with arrival at 4:30.
This was my first time on a train in America. It is lovely. Quick and easy boarding, nice comfy seats, you can get up when you want, there are sleeper cars for long hauls. It was a great experience for the hour long ride. I'm kinda jonesing to get back on one.  Then we arrived in MILWAUKEE! Woot! Woot! Out hotel was only 3 blocks from the Amtrak and we were there in no time. Time to get our Milwaukee weekend going, but after 2-3 hours of sleep the night before (2am west coast bedtime, means not tired till 5am east coast time) we were kind of dragging.
And so am I at this moment and this post is getting kind of long, so I'm going to save the rest for part 2: The Actual Milwaukee Part! Check back soo....zzzzz......zzzzz.

Coming Out of Hibernation

It has been a long, rainy winter with no blog posts. It started off honestly enough, I kept going back to Narita, and who wanted to hear more about that? Then Christmas was here and then January when nothing was going on. Then I was just lazy, and now here we are in March and I am ready to bring back the blog from hibernation. And there are lots of new and exiting things going on. First, on the work front, we are switching to a new scheduling system, which means no more month long on call days! I will have a schedule and know where I'm going. This is going to be such a nice change. Besides the obvious fact that I know what trips I have, I'll be able to plan for other things to do and have a little bit more of a life outside of my job. It also means more opportunities to blog about my travels, because I'll be having some! We are also starting a direct Seattle-Paris flight at then end of March, so I hopefully will be there some this summer. Because of that I have started to learn French in hopes of becoming a translator on our flights sometime soon. I'm taking classes and using Rosetta Stone, so we will see how that comes along.

Recent travels have taken me to Beijing, where I sit typing this and trying to breathe. The air quality today is not good. --------------->


And to Milwaukee, WI last month with Fuse for a belated birthday trip. We went and saw two stand up comics, Brian Regan and Gabriel Iglesias. But were very funny. I plan to do a post on the trip this week. If you've never been to Milwaukee, or even though of going, you should check back as it is a lovely city.

Lots of posts coming up soon, I hope you check back soon!
Please feel free to leave comments below!
Happy Travels!

# 2

Yes, it has been to long since my last post. I have no good excuse. I haven't been on a single trip since the end of October, so I have had nothing but time on my hands really. Even though I spent a lot of that time visiting my family in Tennessee and moving to a new apartment. I'm somewhat cluttered so it has taken awhile to get the place in order. But I have also used that time to make my second video blog! This one is about my normal Narita layover adventure. It's kinda long, so I understand if you have to take a break. I hope to have more soon. and as always bear with me, I'm learning still!
*A fun side note. I have yet to get internet setup at my house and am using my phone as a tether. So it took literally 3 hours to up load this video.

Travel Tips

Recently I was inspired by the KLM flight attendants. When I am in Amsterdam I have to walk though the KLM flight crew area. I always see their flight attendants with one suitcase. One. And I am always dragging 4 bags total with me. So I was inspired to downsize my stuff. Did I really need all that stuff I was dragging around? NO! So recently I went though my bag and worked my way down to 3, counting my purse. So that is my rollerbag, my lunch bag and a purse. Let me share with you 3 tips as to how I got there.

#1
I can't believe I haven't been doing this before, but last week I bought 3 contact lens cases, for around $3 at Target. In them I put my face creams. Moisturizer, night cream, eye cream, ect. I have six products that take up almost no space in my bag, where before I had 6 containers! That has saved me so much space.
#2
Kinda on the same lines as #1 if you need to bring hair stuff with you. I usually just use the shampoo at the hotel, but like to bring my own conditioner with me. If you save the bottles from the hotel, instead of buying the 3 oz bottles you can save space. Most of the hotel bottles are around 1 oz so if you have four hair products, you are saving 9 oz of space in your bag.
#3
Do you really need those five shirts for a three day trip? This might be a tough one for you fashion conscious folks, but for me I've found I really only need one shirt and one pair of pants. The clothes in my suitcase are as follows:
~ Three pairs of underwear (one to wear, one the be ready to wear, one in the wash)
~ One short sleeved shirt
~ One long sleeved shirt/jacket/wrap that can be used with the short sleeved shirt
~ One tank top, sports bra and pair of shorts for the gym, which can double as pajamas as needed
~ Two or three pairs of socks (same idea as the underwear)
~ One pair of jeans
~ One "layover" dress that doubles as a beach cover up, yet is nice enough looking for a night out.
~ Extra pair of hose.
~ One swimsuit

That's it! Seriously, I'm looking in my suitcase right now. Those are all the clothes I have. The idea is to realize you can always wash stuff, or if need to, buy something on the road.
So net time you go on a trip do as someone smart once said, "Lay out the stuff you want to take and the money you are taking. Then take half the clothes and twice the money."

P.S. I'm working on another video blog from Nartia, come back soon for it!

# 1

So I'm still out here. I've been thinking of the direction I want to go with the blog and I have been thinking about trying out.....video blogs! Yes, here is my first attempt. I'm still learning how to edit the clips and take good clips. Stick with me, it's going to get better!