Last Day in Orlando

As I was wandering toward the shuttle to the convention center around 8:30 AM, my phone rang and it was a friend of mine who offered to turn on all of my equipment at the exhibit so I could sleep in. Well the call would have been better if it was about 30 minutes earlier, but since I was already dressed I decided to stop in for breakfast. Right on the corner of Austrian Drive and International is a place called Freindlys which serves breakfast. I have been meaning to try it all week but I can never get out in time to sit down and eat in the morning. It turned out to be a great find for breakfast. I had a Ham and Cheese Omelet, and Coffee and was out of there in 40 minutes for under $10.

I spent the rest of the day doing email and finishing up some other projects. In a week I have to go to Washington DC to work in my East Coast Warehouse to do some end of year maintenance and repair of my equipment.

At 3:00 PM we began tear down and my AV cases arrived around 5:00 so I was packed and done by around 7:00PM.

Traffic on International Drive was packed and it was quicker to walk then wait for the trolley regardless of my knee. So I hobbled down to Cattleman's Steak House and had a small Fillet and a glass of Merlot and now I have to pack for tomorrow's journey back to Los Angeles.

Orlando Dining

Last night after the show ended I headed back north on International Drive to my hotel to change and find a place for dinner. Walking back to the Courtyard Marriott from the trolley stop, I saw Tony Roma's. I hadn't been to a Tony Roma's in a couple of years so I decided to check it out for dinner. All of the restaurants are pretty packed along International Drive during a convention but I found a seat at the bar where I could order dinner.

I like eating at the bar because I usually travel alone and it feels a little awkward to sit in a restaurant at a table by yourself when there are groups of people all around you. So I sat at the bar and had the Original Ribs with coleslaw and green beans. with a Fosters. Very good food, and now I remember why I liked Tony Roma's in the past. I was sitting next to a guy who grew up in the same part of Los Angeles that I did. Small world...

Today was the long day at the show, 9:30 - 6:00PM. Once the exhibit was up and running I took the Trolley up to the Premium Outlet Mall to look around during lunch time. I found a cool knife sharpener in one of the kitchen stores that I will try when I get home. I noticed on Thanksgiving that my knives are getting dull.

Tonight was our team dinner so we all went over to a small development called Celebration. This is a very well kept little town where all of the houses look perfect and they are all decorated for the holidays right now. It's kind of Stepford Wife Like. The restaurant is called Cafe D'Antonio. Excellent Italian food! I had the Lobster Ravioli and a glass of Chianti. I will be back here for sure next time I am in Orlando.

Tomorrow is tear down starting at 3:00PM, I can't wait...

Orlando Monday

Well, the show didn't open until 2:00PM today so I decided to head over to the Peabody at 11:00 AM to see the famous ducks walking the red carpet into their fountain in the lobby. I found a seat near the fountain that gave me the perfect vantage point to get a nice picture of the ducks walking up the red carpeted stairs. Just as the ducks make their appearance, a large sized woman squats right in front of me to get her perfect picture. So my picture had to wait for her to move and then, of course, the ducks were almost all the way into the fountain. Oh well, no big deal, I'll be here all week. I'll probably not make it over again though, I have a short attention span.

On my way back I saw a sculpture of a mountain lion facing toward the Peabody. It made me think it was headed over to eat the ducks...

So I headed into the exhibit hall around 1:30 to fire up the Barco Projector and the various computers. Only four hours today, 2:00 - 6:00 PM. It seemed like a really long four hours. I wandered around the show floor for a while to kill time and there were a lot of really cool exhibits. One in particular was DigiLife. They have a little tapeless digital movie camera that doubles as a 12 megapixel still camera sold through a distributor called Supacam. I thought the guy said it was $349 on a show special, but I went to their website and it was $318. I need to research it a little more. It has a 3x optical zoom which is nice, but I may wait a while regardless.

The show finally ended at 6:00 PM and I walked back to my hotel to change. On my way I took a picture of these Pointsettas in a garden near the Peabody. Later I went with some friends to the Red Rock Canyon Grill at the Pointe. They have an awesome calamari appetizer and I had their signature wood fired chicken. I think this is the best meal I have had this week so far. I highly recommend this place. Another thing that caught my attention were their pepper mills. This is a 12 inch wooden, hand painted pepper mill. We had a red one on our table and the table behind me had a white one. I'm not sure if they are all different but they are very nice. I tried to read the signature of the artist and I think it said Williams, but I can't seem to find it on the web. I'd like to have one at home.

Back in my hotel now enjoying a couple of Yuenglings and relaxing. The show doesn't open until noon tomorrow so I can stay up for a while and catch up on some work...

Orlando, Florida

Sunday morning started early for me at about 7:30 AM. Even though the room block is at the Peabody, I stayed up the street at the Courtyard Marriott because I am a loyal Marriott customer and I try and stay at their properties if at all possible. As I've said before, it's all about the perks. They have an excellent frequent stayer program. So I grabbed a large 100% Pure Kona coffee at the Bad Ass Coffee Co. and headed out.

Because the Courtyard is abut a mile up International Drive from the Convention Center, I take the I Ride Trolley for a buck over to the Convention Center. Normally I would walk it but I hurt my knee at a show in Washington DC last month and it is still bothering me. But I do walk up to the Trolley stop and try not to step on these little lizards that are everywhere. I don't know if it is just this time of year in Orlando or what, but they are everywhere.

We finished up our exhibit around 2:00 PM today so I decided to walk a couple of blocks back toward my hotel so I could get a picture of the upside down WonderWorks building, decorated for the holidays at that. I've seen it before from a cab but never had the opportunity to take a picture, and today is really beautiful weather. I'm sure I looked like a tourist but that's never stopped me in the past.

Now I'm back in my hotel, on the free Marriott Internet access, icing my knee and having some Chinese food. Tomorrow, the exhibit opens at 2:00 PM until 6:00 PM so it will be a pretty easy day...

PMD to SFO to MCO

Late Thanksgiving night my mobile phone rang with a call from United Airlines confirming my First Class upgrade from SFO (San Francisco) to MCO (Orlando). This was a nice break after giving up my four day holiday weekend to business travel.

The United flight UA6456 from Palmdale to San Francisco left right on time at 11:45 AM and put me there in time to catch my flight UA292 to Orlando at 1:40 PM. It was a little bumpy leaving the Bay area on the Boeing 757, but once we leveled out at our cruising altitude it was fine. A beautiful view of the California coast as well. I watched a couple of Seinfeld episodes on my iPod and then the movie, Fun With Dick and Jane, which passed the time for a while. One of the Seinfeld episodes was the one where they all go to The Hamptons for a beach vacation. The Ugly Baby, Shrinkage, The Lobsters, The Bubble Boy. I love how Seinfeld can have multiple story lines happening in the same episode that are all funny. I can watch them over and over.

The food was pretty good in First Class even though they ran out of the Pasta dish I wanted and I had to settle for the Short Ribs. It actually turned out to be very good.

After a couple of Jack and Cokes, I dozed off for a while, then woke up and watched the on board entertainment. They had an episode of The Office and Ugly Betty which I hadn't seen so that was pretty funny.

Anyway, I arrived in Orlando at around 9:30 PM. The airport was pretty quiet and baggage claim didn't take more than about 20 minutes. I made my way down to the Emerald Aisle for National Car Rental, picked up my Impala and headed for my hotel.

The room block for this show is at the Peabody Orlando. This is a very nice hotel and is right across the street from the Orange County Convention Center. Situated right on International Drive, there is plenty of restaurants and shopping within walking distance or by the one dollar shuttle service called the I-Ride Trolley.

One interesting fact about the Peabody is the March of the Peabody Ducks. This is a tradition that started at the Memphis Peabody in the 1930s. At 11:00 AM and 5:00 PM every day, the ducks march across a red carpet to the tune of a John Phillip Souza March. I'm not sure where the duck idea came from, but it is surely something different to see in a hotel lobby.

I'm going to bed now...

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving dinner turned out perfectly. There were 9 of us total so the 13 pound turkey, I bought at Trader Joe's, was plenty and we even had some leftovers. The recipes I used from The Pioneer Woman Cooks! Blog were very successful. I used her stuffing and gravy recipes as well as the mashed potatoes which were my favorite. Cream cheese is really the secret ingredient.

I did my Grandmothers cranberry recipe, my mother- in-law brought the sweet potatoes, and my brother and his wife brought the green beans and 2 pies, Apple and Pumpkin. It was quite a feast.

After dinner, we played a couple of games of Chinese Chess and then a few rounds of Gang of Four. My brother brought me a brand new Chinese Chess board after I had admired the one he brought back from Vietnam earlier in the year. This is a really fun game after you learn the symbols.

Unfortunately, I had to cut the night short and pack because I have to fly to Orlando in the morning for another exhibit job.

Pre Thanksgiving Cooking

I took the day off today so I could get a jump on some of the things I could do in advance.
I cut up the bread cubes for the stuffing first because those have to air dry for 24 hours stuffing. I'm trying the stuffing recipe on the Pioneer Woman Cooks! blog because it sounded really good.
I am also going to do the Mashed Potatoes ahead of time, also from the same blog.

The Cranberry Sauce I will use a recipe from my grandmother. It's very simple and everyone loves it.

4 Heaping Cups of Cranberries
2 Cups Sugar and 1 Cup Water. Mix and boil.
Add the berries and return to a boil.
Reduce heat and bubble for 10 minutes.
Cool to room temp.

I remember my grandmother standing over the sink hand selecting each berry from the bowl and discarding any berry that had the slightest flaw. I wasn't quite that careful but I did do a once over when the berries were in the colander and tossed out a few yellow ones. It will make the wooden spoon turn pink for a while, so beware.

Brining My Thanksgiving Turkey

I am cooking Thanksgiving dinner this year for 9 people. I was reading in a magazine my Mother in Law gave me, called Saveur, about brining the Turkey before roasting it. It all sounded pretty straight forward but I was still hesitating because I thought it would be a little risky to try something out for the first time on Thanksgiving.

I started doing a little more research on the internet on the subject and came across 2 blogs that were extremely helpful. Home Sweet Home Inspiration was the first one, although I had to turn down the volume on my speakers, which had a link to another great blog outlining the complete process for brining a turkey. This one is called The Pioneer Woman Cooks. Complete with pictures and all. Very helpful. I think I can actually find everything I need on this site for my dinner.

New Software for my iPod and Computer

I just ordered the Cucusoft Ultimate DVD software so I can convert my DVDs and any other video source to my iPod. The software was only $60 and I haven't had time to try it yet but will tonight.

Now I plan to start encoding my DVD collection so I will have a library of movies to choose from before my next flight. I own a bunch of the Seinfeld Season DVDs and I think they would be good to have on the airplane to pass the time.

Another useful software tool I have recently added to my collection is Seagate Technology's DiscWizard. I was having a problem with one of my dual head video cards. I could get it to play video out of the second port on one computer but on another identical system, it wouldn't work at all. When the video was supposed to play, it was just black. So I used Disc Wizard to clone the good machine onto the bad machine and it all works beautifully now.

This will be a handy tool to have when I am on the road. I have about 30 Shuttle Computers with the same configuration. If one of them acts up, I can just replace it with the clone of the good computer very quickly.

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NRT to LAX... Jetlag setting in

We had a very strong tailwind coming across the Pacific on Sunday evening. It actually cut an hour off of our flight. We made it from Narita to Los Angeles in 8.5 hours. Not bad but we had to deal with some pretty radical turbulence until we made it to our cruising altitude of 37,000 feet.

I was on the upper deck this time on the United Airlines 747. I like it much better up there because it is quieter and you seem to get better service. After a couple of cocktails, I dozed off thanks to my Bose QuietComfort 2 Headphones. I bought them in October of 2006 and I really love them. I like the fact that I can listen to my iPod at a reasonable volume and not have to turn it all the way up to hear it over the jet engines. Then I can disconnect the cord and walk around in noise cancelling comfort.

I woke up about 90 minutes before landing, in time to fill out my customs card and have a light breakfast. I love how I leave Tokyo at 5:50pm Sunday evening and arrive in LA at 11:00am Sunday morning. I just gained back the day I lost on the flight over last weekend. I had a nice clear view of the Golden Gate Bridge and downtown San Francisco as we bagan to fly down the coast of California to LA.

I forced myself to stay awake Sunday until around 10:00pm thinking I would try and trick my body back into the Pacific time zone. It may have helped a little but here it is Tuesday and I still am getting very drowsy around 2:00pm. I should be fine by Wednesday or Thursday.

Tokyo - Winding Down...

It's Sunday morning and I fly back to California tonight around 5. It rained all day yesterday and it is still raining today but the weather hasn't slowed down my sightseeing.

The one beautiful sunny day I had was Wednesday. I went up to the 23rd floor of the Bayside Hotel Azur in Takeshiba and found a restaurant up there with a beautiful view of the bay. The hostess was kind enough to let me come in and take this picture.

Later that day I wandered down towards the World Trade Center and had lunch at Cocos Curry House. This is a local chain and very good if you like Asian curry.

If you keep heading past the World Trade Center away from Tokyo Bay, you will run right into the Zojo-ji Temple. This is a nice break from the busy city streets. The grounds, like the rest of the city, are well manicured and very beautiful.

Friday morning I woke up at 5am so I could experience the fish auctions at the Tsukiji Fish Market. If you are in Tokyo, I think it is very worthwhile to see this. My friend Lisa just returned from Tokyo and said this was very cool. I have never seen so many fish in my life. To see the auctions, you have to go back to the very back of the facility. As the fish are auctioned off, they are then loaded onto carts and taken away. You can then walk through the the fish market where vendors are displaying their seafood selections. Fish, Octopus, Lobster, Shrimp, Eel, Scallops, Clams, you name it, it's there on display.

After wandering through the market for about an hour or so, I made my way back to the entrance where there are shops and restaurants. I chose a restaurant that had a few people waiting in line because I figured it must be good if there is a line. Some of the places were empty and some had lines. Once I was finally seated inside this tiny restaurant bar, I had a wonderful Japanese breakfast including Salmon and Tuna Sashimi in a bowl on a bed of seaweed and rice. Also a bowl of Miso Soup and a cup of Green Tea. All for about $10 US. The owner spoke no English at all but handed me a laser pointer so I could point to the picture of the selection on the wall.

On my way out, I bought a large bag of Wasabi Powder to take home. It is hard to find real Wasabi at home so this bag should last me a while. Now off to work to finish up my exhibit, which is the reason I am here in the first place.

Tokyo Continued...

Now that my event has started, I will have a lot less free time to explore. I hope to have one more sight seeing day before I head back to California.

I did manage to walk around Ginza a little bit tonight through one of the busiest intersections in the world. The neon lights and LED displays light up the whole area. This is the intersection where you will find the Sony Showroom I visited last night. I was too late tonight and it was closed.

On my way back to the Imperial Hotel, I passed a florist that had these multi colored roses. I have no idea how they did this to a real rose. I understand how you can put a rose into colored water and make it turn that color, but these actually have multi colored petals. If anyone can translate the sign in this picture, please let me know.

One last shot as I was almost back was a line of taxis lined up down a very narrow street that ran along the tracks near the Imperial Hotel.

Tokyo - Day 1

It was a beautiful sunny first day in Tokyo and I can see the beginning of the fall colors in the trees around the Imperial Palace grounds. I had my breakfast on the 17th floor of the Imperial Hotel at the Imperial Viking Sal restaurant where they have a great buffet and view of the city.

After breakfast I made my way on the train over to the exhibit hall at the New Pier Takeshiba to set up my computers. It was a pretty easy day with only a couple of minor technical issues. This is a nice complex over by Tokyo Harbor near the Intercontinental Hotel

Around 4:30pm I wandered through the Ginza District over to the Sony Showroom. This is a must see if you are into electronics. All of the latest Sony electronics are on display for you to touch and try. I had the opportunity to see the new Sony XEL-1 OLED TV. This is awesome at only 3mm thick! It sits on a pedestal with a flexible arm because the display is so thin, the connectors and power have to be in the base. I will definitely be back here before my trip is over.

After Sony, I headed over to Bic Camera which is 8 floors of every electronic item you can think of. The nice thing about Bic is that all of the samples are powered on so you can try them out. For instance, this was the first time I could actually touch and feel the interface of the iTouch iPod. It is very nice and now, of course, I want one. I was also shopping for a Nintendo Wii but I understand now that the Japanese version will only play Japanese games.

The jet lag is really catching up to me now and I need to get some sushi before I turn in for the night. One of my favorite places for sushi, near the Imperial, is Sushizanmai. This is a 24 hour sushi restaurant that is about a block from my hotel right under the tracks. There is usually a line out front of people waiting to get in, but tonight I was seated immediately. I had one of their set meals tonight because I am too tired to think, but it was a nice selection of different tuna sushi.

Now I need to sleep...

SFO to NRT

After sitting in the lounge at San Francisco Airport (SFO) for about 4 hours, I was ready to board my flight to Tokyo Narita Airport (NRT).

The United Airlines Flight 837 left right on time from SFO and within minutes we were out over the Pacific Ocean chasing the sun to Japan.

The flight took about 11 hours today on a Boeing 747. The food, wine and service was excellent in Business Class. My video screen was a little loose and tended to droop a little to the right but it wasn't really a big deal. I still managed to watch 2 movies: "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" and "The Invisible".

I arrived in Tokyo around 3:30PM and breezed through Passport Control and Customs. Apparently this is all going to change on November 20 when Japan will start requiring fingerprints and photos of everyone coming into the country. They already had the fingerprint machines installed at the Passport Control desk but they weren't using them yet.

Once I located the ATM to get some cash, I headed for the Narita Express train which is about an hour ride to Tokyo Station for about $25 US. I believe this is the best way to get into the city. There is also an Orange Bus that you can take but you then run the risk of traffic and it can take up to 2 hours to go the same distance.

Tokyo Station was bustling with people, just like I remembered from 3 years ago. I made my way to the street level and caught a taxi to the Imperial Hotel. Now I am going to get some sleep...

PMD to SFO

In June of 2007, United Airlines started service from Palmdale (PMD) to San Francisco (SFO). I have lived in the High Desert of California for about 15 years and this is the first time I have been able to catch a flight from my home town. Skywest Airlines operates the CRJ200 Jets for United and I hope the service continues. I heard it was an 18 month trial.

I have used this new service about 7 round trips now and have had only one canceled flight coming back home. Not bad considering that there is only one airline servicing Palmdale. United put me up in a San Francisco Red Roof Inn which happened to be right next door to a driving range. I caught the first flight the next morning and all was well. I'll keep this in mind if I am stuck in San Fran again.

In the past I would have to drive at least 50 miles to reach the nearest airport which would be Burbank (BUR) or Los Angeles International (LAX). The best part is when I come home on a Friday afternoon and am only about 10 miles from home as opposed to fighting 2.5 hours of traffic from LAX.

Palmdale Airport also offers free parking for up to 30 days. So even if the price of the ticket is a little more, it is worth it to me. A week of airport parking at LAX cost me about $100 not to mention the gas and stress of traffic.

Today is the first leg of my flight to Tokyo and now I have a few hours to relax and catch up on some work in United's Red Carpet Lounge at SFO.