Viewing posts tagged roadtrip
Posted by:
o'wolf
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LJ Posts
11 years, 6 months ago
Monday, 2012-10-01: Picking up the RV
We rented a 31 ft motorhome suitable for 8 passengers from El Monte. I wouldn't recommend to occupy it with 7 adults like we do, unless everyone involved can cope with the limited space and privacy. So far (after one day, I have to admit) it works out very smoothly and with way less hassle than with coordinating two RVs.
Posted by:
o'wolf
in
LJ Posts
11 years, 6 months ago
Having skipped Further Confusion this year allows us to visit a different furry convention in the US. We are: Kayjay, Lynard and me spending a couple of days in Seattle, joined by Furvan, Tioh, Mendra and Zefiro at Rainfurrest.
Saturday, 2012-09-22: Missing Connection
I took the first tram of the day to get from my flat to the station hopped on ICE 822 to Frankfurt Airport. Lynard arrived shortly after me, followed by Kayjay. We got aboard LH402 to Newark and took off in time. The Boeing 747 was quite new, but the seat distance in cattle class got even smaller. I was able to live with the fact that my in-seat entertainment system offered only one Bollywood movie, as I refuse to watch movies on the tiny screen anyway. Everyone else hat a large collection of movies to choose from. The flight itself was calm, we landed almost on time in Newark, but it took the usual 15 minutes to get to the gate. Immigration was crowded, partly due to some technical problems with the fingerprint database. Even though we were offered to jump the line due to our short layover time, I arrived at the baggage claim three minutes after boarding of our connection started. Kayjay arrived shortly after me, but Lynard had to wait what seemed to be an eternity in Second Inspection. Not much of a problem as we missed our connection anyway. We got rebooked to the first flight to Seattle for the next day and checked in at the Best Western Newark West. At least the bar had Yuengling Lager, which made the evening acceptable.
Sunday, 2012-09-23: Seattle, At Last
After getting up at an ungodly hour we went to the airport, checked in and got aboard a United flight to Seattle. A six hour flight that required extra payment for the entertainment system (WTF?), and the cabin crew going through only twice with beverages... At least it was a mostly calm flight. We arrived in Seattle on time, got our luggage and picked up the rental car. Since we were way too early to check in we started with some shopping. Best Buy have reduced both their selection and stock even more, Fry's has a lot of empty shelves and none of what I wanted to purchase. We eventually made it to the hotel, after swearing at the GPS and the large amount of construction work in Seattle.
Posted by:
o'wolf
in
LJ Posts
14 years, 2 months ago
Zefiro and Mendra went back to the Excalibur hotel on their own and came back with a lot of dragon plushies and figurines. The rest of us had lunch at the Golden Gate hotel on Fremont Street. The huge display of the Fremont Experience was not running, but it's an impressive construction even then. We saw the Martin Luther King Day parade, which was also very entertaining.
Posted by:
o'wolf
in
LJ Posts
14 years, 6 months ago
Of course, we'll again be at
Posted by:
o'wolf
in
LJ Posts
15 years, 2 months ago
This is the last day of our vacation. After breakfast at Denny's, fortunately at one of their better subsidiaries, we drove to the Charles Schulz Museum. A very intriguing place with lots of Schulz' original Peanuts strips, information about his life and work, and the historical context the comic strips appeared in. We even saw the To the Moon: Snoopy Soars with NASA special exhibition which officially opens tomorrow. Unlike museums about other artists, this one is as modest and factual as Schulz himself was.
Posted by:
o'wolf
in
LJ Posts
15 years, 2 months ago
After Furvan brought a parcel with the Nerf guns to the post office this morning, we drove to downtown Sacramento. A sandwich, coffee and donut later we went to the California State Capitol building and park. The park with its memorials and trees is a very interesting and relaxing place, a calm island in the middle of a busy city.
Posted by:
o'wolf
in
LJ Posts
15 years, 2 months ago
We got up almost early, had breakfast and drove to Yosemite National Park. The weather was great again, far less snow and ice on the roads to the park than last year, and only some sorry rests of snow in the park itself. First stop was the Yosemite Valley Panorama Point. Perhaps a bit early, as the Bridal Veil Fall was in the shadow.
Posted by:
o'wolf
in
LJ Posts
15 years, 2 months ago
We checked out late in the morning and headed for Yosemite. Since driving from San Jose to Yosemite Nat'l Park takes too long to actually do something reasonable in the park, we took some time to visit the Knights Ferry Bridge. It is one of the few remaining covered wooden bridges in the US and really worth the stop.
