Cheapness In Seattle (A 2019 PNW Trip Report - 2020 update added on 6/25

[pkondz]

The country is starting to come back to life. I figured maybe it's time for the TR's to do the same.

Sounds good to me.

 

[franandaj]

The country is starting to come back to life. I figured maybe it's time for the TR's to do the same.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

The Year That Shall Not Be Named

The last time we spoke, my family had just returned from a long weekend at Universal Studios in Florida, as we treated my daughter to a long-promised trip to see the Harry Potter rides prior to her graduation from high school. We were looking forward to celebrating her graduation and then completing our family’s 50-state quest with a big trip to Alaska over the summer just before she left to go to college.

Kind of a lot’s happened since then.

We returned from Florida at the end of January, and in retrospect, it appears the COVID-19 virus may have already been present there when we traveled. Somehow we dodged that bullet. Just 6 weeks later, the world began to shut down for the pandemic and we all tried to figure out how we were going to make it through those two long weeks to flatten the infection curve.

I figured we probably had to get through 2 months, worst case. And that seemed like a really long stretch to have to get through in my mind.

So that may have been a little naïve in retrospect.

At first, the pandemic shutdown made for an interesting experiment. It was a bit surreal. I’d finish work at 5:00 p.m., turn off the computer and look around. So…I guess I’m done for the day? I didn’t get that normal transition between the office and home. My office set up a pretty good VPN, which made it fairly seamless to be able to do my work remotely. The only real issue was when Drew would finish his work and then spend the rest of the day crawling over my lap and asking me to play with him.

The rest of the family was teaching/schooling from home, which made for some heavy demand on the wifi and internet router. We eventually got to the point where we cut the cord for cable and moved to YouTube TV while increasing the internet speed in our home. Ultimately we got 10x the wifi speed and didn’t lose any of the channels we normally watch while saving about $60/month. So that was a pandemic win.

My parents gave us their old elliptical, and using that combined with finally disciplining myself to eat smaller portion sizes and fewer midnight snacks helped me to lose about 20 lbs. (9 kg). So that’s another pandemic win.

That’s about all for the win column.

I have a theory that the entire country (and by extension, the world) was suffering from depression over this past year. If you think about it, everything we love—movies, concerts, restaurants, parties, travel, family/friends outings, sports—was taken away in a matter of a week or two. That was a pretty huge adjustment. None of us had ever been through a pandemic before, so we were all making it up as we went (and it showed). For our part, we spent a lot of time burning through whatever we could on Netflix, Disney+, and other streaming services. We took many, many walks around the neighborhood. I’ve probably memorized the entire sequence of houses on each street by now. We tried to order takeout from the restaurants we hoped would be able to stay in business. We were very happy when sports began to return, even without fans in the stadium. We were less happy when we saw how all of the Philadelphia teams performed.

I don’t know if any of you are familiar with the work of Dave Barry. He’s a former humor columnist for the Miami Herald and also an author of several novels and story collections. For my money, he’s probably the funniest writer on earth, and has been the inspiration for the style I try to emulate (i.e. rip off) for my trip reports. If you want to go down an enjoyable rabbit hole, check out his writing on enduring a colonoscopy. Or this work on lighting charcoal grills.

Anyway, he doesn’t write too many columns anymore, but he always does a Year In Review column that I eagerly look forward to reading every December. Here’s his column on 2020, which for my money contains the single most accurate summary of what life was like in March and April of last year that I’ve read.

Somehow, we made it through. Staying at home, wearing masks in public, not being able to get together in groups—all of it got very, very old. I’m not going to debate whether it was all a wild government overreaction or exposed our country’s selfishness and inability to listen to reason (frankly, you can make a case for both). I just know that there were some good things to come out of the past year, and many things I never want to experience again.

Our big trip to Alaska was cancelled, which was a bummer. I held onto the reservations as long as I could, but when it was apparent that the pandemic wasn’t ending anytime soon, we eventually called it off.

Instead of a giant Alaska Trip Reporting Extravaganza, here’s a completely random hodgepodge of some events from the past year:

For one thing, I discovered that I have super strength. I managed to break an unbreakable material. If you’re familiar with Trex, the unbreakable composite decking material that is supposed to be maintenance-free and last forever…well, it doesn’t necessarily do that. I found this out when I put my foot straight through our deck.

You can see in the photo that a couple of the boards have a crack in them, probably the result of the joists underneath being ever-so-slightly higher than the others and thus not quite level. My dad and I built the deck about 15 years ago, and it’s gradually developed these cracks over that time, right up to the point where the board simply collapsed under my fat rear end. Julie was in the kitchen when it happened. She heard a loud crack, looked up, and saw me down on the deck floor, a shocked expression on my face, and my leg missing underneath and possibly shattered beyond repair. She naturally did what any wife would do in this situation, and burst out laughing in my face.

I’m fine, by the way. Thank you for asking faster than she did.

When it came time to make repairs, the store of course didn’t have the type of material I had used 15 years ago, and anything even close to the color would have a) not been a perfect match, and b) taken a month to come by special order. So we ended up just getting a couple of gray boards that were in stock and making a bit of a welcome mat out of it. It was the best we could do.

Sarah was a senior in high school and only had a couple of months left before graduation when everything shut down, so she missed out on most of the end-of-the-year celebrations. She applied to three colleges for a major in graphic design: the University of Delaware, the University of Cincinnati, and Drexel University. All 3 of them accepted her, and we used a sophisticated and highly scientific process to distinguish these schools and make a final decision:

• Do they have a good program? (so long U of Delaware)
• Did they offer any financial help? (so long Cincinnati)

She chose Drexel University, located in Philadelphia.

Not everything that changed due to COVID was bad. Sarah’s graduation ceremony was held outdoors in the school parking lot. In order to keep crowds down, the students were assigned to groups (about 30 each). We had a set time to show up, we stayed in our cars, and they called up students 5 at a time to have their names read and walk across the stage. We could move up to take photos when it was our kid’s turn. All in all, we were in and out in less than half an hour and didn’t have to listen to 400 names and 17 versions of the exact same speech. I vote for all graduation ceremonies to be conducted this way from now on.

One nice day in the fall of 2020, we took a ride up to Philly with Sarah to visit the Philadelphia Art Museum, which had recently re-opened and was allowing guests via timed ticket entrances. Drexel was fully remote for the fall quarter, so sadly her first college classes were all online. That didn’t stop Sarah from making great art, though. She painted an old wooden pallet with a tribute to her new school’s mascot:

I could never conceive of making anything like that. She’s insanely talented.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is probably most famous for being the place where Rocky Balboa ran up the steps while training for his fight with Apollo Creed in the original Rocky movie. But it houses a world-class collection of art, too. Go figure.

The museum overlooks the old Philly water works and the famous Boat House Row on the Schuylkill (pronounced “school-kill”) River.

Here are the steps Rocky scaled. Yes, I’ve run up there too. You pretty much have to the first time you visit. It’s a rule.

Here’s the view Rocky had from the top of the steps. It was also featured as the final shot in Creed (or the 7th Rocky movie), and if you haven’t seen that one, you’re missing out. I actually like it better than the original. It’s an incredibly good movie, and completely caught me by surprise.

I suppose I should actually mention the art. Most of you know that I’m an engineer, so my both my artistic ability and appreciation are somewhat limited. I’m always open to trying to learn, though, so my job on this visit was to follow Julie and Sarah around and just let them enjoy the museum. As always, there would be stuff I liked and stuff I didn’t. I felt like I was able to continue to successfully apply the Captain_Oblivious Law of Art to the works I saw.

The Law of Art: if I could do it, it’s not art.

Here is Vincent Van Gogh’s famous painting, Sunflowers. I could not create this. This is art.

On the other hand, here’s two white stripes and two black rectangles. I could do this. This is not art.

And there was also this display. I don’t know the actual title, but I’m calling it “The Edge of My Garden”.

Anyway, we had a nice time, and I especially enjoyed the exhibit of medieval weapons. I don’t know if that was art, either, but there were lots of giant swords and battle axes so I was entertained.

We took a walk around the Drexel campus, since that was as close as Sarah was going to get to college for the time being.

The Drexel Dragon, Mario the Magnificent, was safely masked up for the pandemic.

This is the building housing the art studios, where Sarah would eventually have the bulk of her classes. The students refer to it as the “Harry Potter building” due to the unique “random staircase” interior design.

Thankfully, the school opened up the campus starting in winter, so Sarah is now able to attend some classes in person. It’s not the full college experience yet, but it’s getting closer.

The Christmas season gave us a chance to get out of the house, and by December, we were looking for any excuse not to have to stare at the walls in our house anymore. The Wells Fargo Center (home of the Flyers and Sixers) put out a large outdoor light display in their parking lot for visitors to wander through.

A couple weeks later, we visited Longwood Gardens near Kennett Square, PA, for their annual Christmas lights display. Longwood is a special place for us (it’s where I proposed to Julie way back when) and they always do a great job with their setup. We happened to be treated to an amazing sunset while we were there, too.

As I mentioned, we moved Sarah into a dorm on campus in January. It’s been a little hard to meet people due to COVID restrictions, but she’s been thriving in her classes and has a couple of really good friends, including her roommate. I remember well the feeling of enjoying the independence of living on my own when I started college, and I think she’s happy to be doing her own thing, too.

We really love it when she comes home to visit, though.

In the spring, the vaccines finally became available. We were all thankful for the speed with which they were developed, and anxious to get our shots so we could start traveling safely again. Julie got hers first as a teacher, and since she didn’t grow any extra arms, we all followed suit as quickly as we could. My staff at work was actually drafted into the effort—we had volunteers helping to guide traffic at the events, and we had to make these signs in order to keep people from blowing right through the tents where they got their shots.

It feels like we’re starting to get back to normal. Let’s hope that continues.

Finally, I had one more breakthrough achievement in 2020. I smoked my own bacon for the first time.

As many of you know, I’ve been learning more and more about barbecue, and have had some success smoking my own brisket and pork. I also pulled off the Thanksgiving turkey for a few years in a row now, too. The Costco near me sells uncured pork belly, and I’ve always been curious as to whether or not I could pull off smoking my own bacon. With the onset of quarantine, I decided to give it a shot.

I read up on the process online and had to buy some curing salts so I didn’t end up poisoning me and my family to death, which is generally my first goal when making food. Luckily, it was a very easy process and in a week, I had the pork belly cured and ready for the smoker.

It only took a couple of hours, and then I put it in the fridge to cool overnight (it’s also much easier to slice when it’s cold).

In the morning, we fried it up and had a nice homemade breakfast.

The results? Well, it was kind of a mixed bag, actually. On the plus side, it tasted great. And we could slice it thicker than the standard Oscar Meyer one-ply versions, so that was an extra treat. However, we also have a local farmer’s market with an Amish butcher that we typically get our bacon from, and theirs is still better than mine. And my bacon did not freeze well at all. We put some in the freezer and then tried to eat it again in a couple of weeks, and it was awful. Completely tasteless. So, given the effort involved and the fact that the Amish do it so well, I probably won’t be trying again anytime soon. But I still felt like it was an accomplishment to pull this off.

I'll wrap this up here for now. We did manage to travel a bit in 2020 despite the quarantines and restrictions. I'll run through the highlights in the next update.

 

[Cinderella's Fella]

I'll run through the highlights in the next update.

 

[QueenJen]

Thanks for sharing - nice to read an update from you.

 

[pkondz]

The Year That Shall Not Be Named

Ohhhh... I can think of a few names.

Kind of a lot’s happened since then.

Oh? Hadn't noticed.

We returned from Florida at the end of January, and in retrospect, it appears the COVID-19 virus may have already been present there when we traveled. Somehow we dodged that bullet.

Lucky. I'm betting there were illnesses, hospitalizations and even deaths that were chalked up to "cold" or "flu".

we all tried to figure out how we were going to make it through those two long weeks to flatten the infection curve.

The only real issue was when Drew would finish his work and then spend the rest of the day crawling over my lap and asking me to play with him.

Actually... that's a perk.

We eventually got to the point where we cut the cord for cable and moved to YouTube TV while increasing the internet speed in our home. Ultimately we got 10x the wifi speed and didn’t lose any of the channels we normally watch while saving about $60/month.

Whoa! Nice job!
We've cut the cable tie as well. I don't have the channels anymore for the most part, but the few things we were watching we can get still.

My parents gave us their old elliptical, and using that combined with finally disciplining myself to eat smaller portion sizes and fewer midnight snacks helped me to lose about 20 lbs. (9 kg). So that’s another pandemic win.

<looks down at paunch>
I can tell you where that 20lbs went.

If you think about it, everything we love—movies, concerts, restaurants, parties, travel, family/friends outings, sports—was taken away in a matter of a week or two.

<sigh>

Yeah...

We were very happy when sports began to return, even without fans in the stadium. We were less happy when we saw how all of the Philadelphia teams performed.

I'm pretty happy how my team is doing right now.

I don’t know if any of you are familiar with the work of Dave Barry.

he always does a Year In Review column that I eagerly look forward to reading every December.

I'll take a look at that a bit later. But...

I had no idea he was still writing! The colonoscopy one was the last thing I remember reading of his. Really looking forward to seeing what he has to say.

For one thing, I discovered that I have super strength. I managed to break an unbreakable material. If you’re familiar with Trex, the unbreakable composite decking material that is supposed to be maintenance-free and last forever…well, it doesn’t necessarily do that. I found this out when I put my foot straight through our deck.

Now you tell me. I did my deck in Trex a couple years ago.

She heard a loud crack, looked up, and saw me down on the deck floor, a shocked expression on my face, and my leg missing underneath and possibly shattered beyond repair. She naturally did what any wife would do in this situation, and burst out laughing in my face.

I’m fine, by the way. Thank you for asking faster than she did.

Oh. Right. Glad you're okay.

When it came time to make repairs, the store of course didn’t have the type of material I had used 15 years ago, and anything even close to the color would have a) not been a perfect match, and b) taken a month to come by special order.

Glad I kept some extra boards.

All in all, we were in and out in less than half an hour and didn’t have to listen to 400 names and 17 versions of the exact same speech.

Remember you saying that. And I'd have to agree that it's a definite improvement!

That didn’t stop Sarah from making great art, though. She painted an old wooden pallet with a tribute to her new school’s mascot:

She’s insanely talented.

Yes. Yes she is.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is probably most famous for being the place where Rocky Balboa ran up the steps while training for his fight with Apollo Creed in the original Rocky movie. But it houses a world-class collection of art, too. Go figure.

Art? How odd. Really all you need are the stairs.

Here are the steps Rocky scaled. Yes, I’ve run up there too. You pretty much have to the first time you visit. It’s a rule.

I think the best I can manage now is a slow lope.

That's where the word "slope" comes from, actually. Old guys like me named it.
"Can't you run up this... incline? There has to be a better word for that."
"Sorry. Best I can do is a <gasps for breath> slow-lope-gawd-I'm-dying."

It was also featured as the final shot in Creed (or the 7th Rocky movie), and if you haven’t seen that one, you’re missing out. I actually like it better than the original. It’s an incredibly good movie, and completely caught me by surprise.

Really! I have yet to watch it. Obviously need to.

The Law of Art: if I could do it, it’s not art.

I'll mostly agree with that.
Some I can't recreate, but is ugly or boring.

On the other hand, here’s two white stripes and two black rectangles. I could do this. This is not art.

Yeah. Not art.

And there was also this display. I don’t know the actual title, but I’m calling it “The Edge of My Garden”.

Not art.

This is the building housing the art studios, where Sarah would eventually have the bulk of her classes. The students refer to it as the “Harry Potter building” due to the unique “random staircase” interior design.

Can see why they'd call it that.

Longwood is a special place for us (it’s where I proposed to Julie way back when)

Awww.

We happened to be treated to an amazing sunset while we were there, too.

Gorgeous!

Julie got hers first as a teacher

I wish the powers that be would stand up and get off their brains and figure that out. Elle has been in the classroom since September and is still waiting for her first shot.
She's had to go for at least 4 Covid tests (possibly more) because kids in her classroom keep catching it or possibly catching it.

we had to make these signs in order to keep people from blowing right through the tents where they got their shots.

I remember you saying. Unbelievable.
Except, sadly, all too believable.

Finally, I had one more breakthrough achievement in 2020. I smoked my own bacon for the first time.

Cool!

I read up on the process online and had to buy some curing salts so I didn’t end up poisoning me and my family to death, which is generally my first goal when making food.

Meh. Taste comes first. They get sick, they get sick. That's Darwin.

The results? Well, it was kind of a mixed bag, actually. On the plus side, it tasted great. And we could slice it thicker than the standard Oscar Meyer one-ply versions, so that was an extra treat. However, we also have a local farmer’s market with an Amish butcher that we typically get our bacon from, and theirs is still better than mine. And my bacon did not freeze well at all. We put some in the freezer and then tried to eat it again in a couple of weeks, and it was awful. Completely tasteless. So, given the effort involved and the fact that the Amish do it so well, I probably won’t be trying again anytime soon. But I still felt like it was an accomplishment to pull this off.

Too bad that it didn't freeze well. I've had similar things where I spend money and do something... only to decide that I can buy it somewhere else for less and it's better.

Fun update Mark. Thanks for the fun read.

 

[franandaj]

Kind of a lot’s happened since then.

Ya don't say?

Just 6 weeks later, the world began to shut down for the pandemic and we all tried to figure out how we were going to make it through those two long weeks to flatten the infection curve.

Two weeks.

So that may have been a little naïve in retrospect.

Yeah, I remember hoping DL would reopen for my birthday. Last year.

We eventually got to the point where we cut the cord for cable and moved to YouTube TV while increasing the internet speed in our home.

We have Sattelite. I can't imagine switching to YouTube TV.

My parents gave us their old elliptical, and using that combined with finally disciplining myself to eat smaller portion sizes and fewer midnight snacks helped me to lose about 20 lbs. (9 kg).

Good for you!

I have a theory that the entire country (and by extension, the world) was suffering from depression over this past year.

I know I was. I didn't even pay attention to the 7 day forecast on the news because I knew I wasn't going anywhere or doing anything in the next 7 days.

We were very happy when sports began to return, even without fans in the stadium.

Well it didn't matter that much to me. I didn't have to forward through those segments on the news when there was no sports.

I don’t know if any of you are familiar with the work of Dave Barry. He’s a former humor columnist for the Miami Herald and also an author of several novels and story collections.

I used to read his column every Sunday when I lived with my parents. I still appreciate his humor, but haven't had the time to keep up following him.

I just know that there were some good things to come out of the past year,

More al Fresco dining in Southern California is one of the good things. I hope it stays around.

When it came time to make repairs, the store of course didn’t have the type of material I had used 15 years ago, and anything even close to the color would have a) not been a perfect match, and b) taken a month to come by special order. So we ended up just getting a couple of gray boards that were in stock and making a bit of a welcome mat out of it. It was the best we could do.

That's a good solution. I did something similar with a bathroom tile job about 30 years ago.

All in all, we were in and out in less than half an hour and didn’t have to listen to 400 names and 17 versions of the exact same speech.

I like that!

I could never conceive of making anything like that. She’s insanely talented.

She is very talented!

if you haven’t seen that one, you’re missing out.

I have actually never seen a Rocky movie.

Here is Vincent Van Gogh’s famous painting, Sunflowers. I could not create this. This is art.

Yes, this is art.

On the other hand, here’s two white stripes and two black rectangles. I could do this. This is not art.

I actually thought this was some kind of window. That maybe some new construction caused it to be blocked from sunlight.

And there was also this display. I don’t know the actual title, but I’m calling it “The Edge of My Garden”.

Either that or "Who left these bricks here?"

Thankfully, the school opened up the campus starting in winter, so Sarah is now able to attend some classes in person. It’s not the full college experience yet, but it’s getting closer.

That's nice. I can't imagine what the music students are going through. Not much of human life is supposed to be experienced via Zoom.

The Christmas season gave us a chance to get out of the house, and by December, we were looking for any excuse not to have to stare at the walls in our house anymore

I don't even feel like we had a Christmas (or any holidays for that matter) last year.

A couple weeks later, we visited Longwood Gardens near Kennett Square, PA, for their annual Christmas lights display. Longwood is a special place for us (it’s where I proposed to Julie way back when)

Awwwwww

My staff at work was actually drafted into the effort—we had volunteers helping to guide traffic at the events, and we had to make these signs in order to keep people from blowing right through the tents where they got their shots.

Doh! People are really that dumb.

So, given the effort involved and the fact that the Amish do it so well, I probably won’t be trying again anytime soon. But I still felt like it was an accomplishment to pull this off.

I know how that goes, sometimes the effort outweighs the reward and just not worth it when you can buy it reasonably elsewhere. But it does feel good to know you could do it if you want to.

 

[pkondz]

Anyway, he doesn’t write too many columns anymore, but he always does a Year In Review column that I eagerly look forward to reading every December. Here’s his column on 2020, which for my money contains the single most accurate summary of what life was like in March and April of last year that I’ve read.

Read through it. Good stuff!

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Hi Randall!

Thanks for sharing - nice to read an update from you.

Thanks, Jen. Good to hear from you, too. How are you doing?

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Ohhhh... I can think of a few names.

You'd probably need a different place to share them, though.

Oh? Hadn't noticed.

Well, with the subzero temperatures, you guys are basically locked indoors 10 months out of the year anyway, right?

Lucky. I'm betting there were illnesses, hospitalizations and even deaths that were chalked up to "cold" or "flu".

I'm sure there were. We really dodged a bullet. But I'm also glad we went, and at least had that experience as part of the year.

Actually... that's a perk.

Depends on what I'm trying to get done at the moment.

Whoa! Nice job!
We've cut the cable tie as well. I don't have the channels anymore for the most part, but the few things we were watching we can get still.

The biggest thing for me was live sports. Once I found a way to get that without having to pay the cable fees, it was a no-brainer.

<looks down at paunch>
I can tell you where that 20lbs went.

I'd have you send it back, but I think the border is still closed.

<sigh>

Yeah...

But it's starting to come back!

I'm pretty happy how my team is doing right now.

They swept Edmonton, right? Not too shabby there.

I'll take a look at that a bit later. But...

I had no idea he was still writing! The colonoscopy one was the last thing I remember reading of his. Really looking forward to seeing what he has to say.

I think he's mostly retired now, or working on the occasional book, but the year-in-review columns have been a continued treat.

Now you tell me. I did my deck in Trex a couple years ago.

Well, you should get at least 13 more years out of it.

Oh. Right. Glad you're okay.

Uh huh.

Glad I kept some extra boards.

That was probably very wise.

Remember you saying that. And I'd have to agree that it's a definite improvement!

There aren't too many more torturous events to have to sit through than a graduation ceremony. You know what's worse? A pre-school graduation ceremony.

Yes. Yes she is.

Art? How odd. Really all you need are the stairs.

That's always the first thing I think of with that museum.

I think the best I can manage now is a slow lope.

That's where the word "slope" comes from, actually. Old guys like me named it.
"Can't you run up this... incline? There has to be a better word for that."
"Sorry. Best I can do is a <gasps for breath> slow-lope-gawd-I'm-dying."

That's actually plausible.

Really! I have yet to watch it. Obviously need to.

Yes! Thank me later. So good.

i remember turning to Julie in the middle and saying, "Rocky 7 has no right to be this good."

I'll mostly agree with that.
Some I can't recreate, but is ugly or boring.

I don't think it's a requirement of art that I like it. So if I can't recreate a painting or a sculpture, I'll give the artist credit for creating something unique. But I don't necessarily have to like it.

Yeah. Not art.

I shudder to think what they paid for that.

Not art.

It looks more like a mistake.

Can see why they'd call it that.

If only the stairs moved!

Awww.

Still can't believe she said yes. Sucker!

I wish the powers that be would stand up and get off their brains and figure that out. Elle has been in the classroom since September and is still waiting for her first shot.
She's had to go for at least 4 Covid tests (possibly more) because kids in her classroom keep catching it or possibly catching it.

That just sounds enormously frustrating. I feel like all of us have had different aspects of our various governments' responses to the pandemic to complain/scratch our heads about.

I remember you saying. Unbelievable.
Except, sadly, all too believable.

In this day and age...yeah....

Meh. Taste comes first. They get sick, they get sick. That's Darwin.

Hardcore. But I like it. Probably the same philosophy of whoever first tried to eat the blowfish.

Too bad that it didn't freeze well. I've had similar things where I spend money and do something... only to decide that I can buy it somewhere else for less and it's better.

Fun update Mark. Thanks for the fun read.

I was glad I tried it. It felt like an accomplishment. But yeah, I couldn't beat their version. And it wasn't cheap to get the pork belly, either.

Thanks for sticking with me and jumping back in! This really was a lot of randomness.

Read through it. Good stuff!

He is hysterical. But that description of March/April was pretty darn accurate, wouldn't you say?

 

[pkondz]

You'd probably need a different place to share them, though.

You can't have everything.

Well, with the subzero temperatures, you guys are basically locked indoors 10 months out of the year anyway, right?

Not sure why you're ducking. It's pretty accurate!
(Actually... my next update... you'll see that it's very accurate.)

I'm sure there were. We really dodged a bullet. But I'm also glad we went, and at least had that experience as part of the year.

Depends on what I'm trying to get done at the moment.

I get that.

The biggest thing for me was live sports. Once I found a way to get that without having to pay the cable fees, it was a no-brainer.

I'm not a huge sports guy. I'll watch my Jets if they're in the playoffs... maybe. I'm happy with highlights. Football I watch. Also Indycar and F1.
But... no cable. So...
I can watch an Indy race weekend for $10. (Sometimes I can get 3 races out of that, if they race 2 times on one weekend and once the next.) And for $35 I have a year subscription to F1 (albeit I have to wait 2 days before I can watch... which I'm fine with.)

I'd have you send it back, but I think the border is still closed.

They swept Edmonton, right? Not too shabby there.

I think he's mostly retired now, or working on the occasional book, but the year-in-review columns have been a continued treat.

And was a real treat to re-discover!

There aren't too many more torturous events to have to sit through than a graduation ceremony. You know what's worse? A pre-school graduation ceremony.

Been there. Done that. Not as often as you, for the preschool. But... 2 middle school, 2 high school and 1 University grad.

If only the stairs moved!

Missed opportunity!

Still can't believe she said yes. Sucker!

That just sounds enormously frustrating. I feel like all of us have had different aspects of our various governments' responses to the pandemic to complain/scratch our heads about.

Yup.

Hardcore. But I like it. Probably the same philosophy of whoever first tried to eat the blowfish.

I know that one.
Doug: "So this is what we'll do. Jim, you try the eye. Fred, you eat the meat. Bob, you eat the liver."

<shortly after>
Doug: "Jim? You okay?"
Jim: "Yup!"
Doug: "Fred? How you doing?"
Fred: "Doing good."
Doug: "Bob, how about you?"

Doug: "Bob?"

Fred: "Bob's dead, Doug."

He is hysterical. But that description of March/April was pretty darn accurate, wouldn't you say?

Scarily so. Funnily so too.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Ya don't say?

Just in case nobody noticed.

Two weeks.

Two weeks to flatten the curve! That's what we kept hearing.

Yeah, I remember hoping DL would reopen for my birthday. Last year.

Ugh. We thought it would be ridiculous if the quarantine lasted until Dave's birthday, in April.

We have Sattelite. I can't imagine switching to YouTube TV.

It was totally a cost thing for us. Verizon was getting ridiculous.

Good for you!

Thanks!

I know I was. I didn't even pay attention to the 7 day forecast on the news because I knew I wasn't going anywhere or doing anything in the next 7 days.

I started to forget what day it was after a little while.

Well it didn't matter that much to me. I didn't have to forward through those segments on the news when there was no sports.

Meanwhile, I was dying!

I used to read his column every Sunday when I lived with my parents. I still appreciate his humor, but haven't had the time to keep up following him.

He doesn't produce as much anymore, but he's a gem.

More al Fresco dining in Southern California is one of the good things. I hope it stays around.

That would work great in SoCal. It's not as practical elsewhere. Maybe for 5 months or so.

That's a good solution. I did something similar with a bathroom tile job about 30 years ago.

We do what we can with what we have.

I like that!

Me too!

She is very talented!

I have actually never seen a Rocky movie.

Yes, this is art.

See, this isn't hard.

I actually thought this was some kind of window. That maybe some new construction caused it to be blocked from sunlight.

I can see where you would think that.

Either that or "Who left these bricks here?"

I like the "do not touch" markings on the floor, since I'm sure a lot of people weren't sure it belonged there.

That's nice. I can't imagine what the music students are going through. Not much of human life is supposed to be experienced via Zoom.

Yeah, that can't be easy to make it work at all.

I don't even feel like we had a Christmas (or any holidays for that matter) last year.

Ours was pretty nice. I took some time off and we certainly didn't go anywhere!

Awwwwww

Doh! People are really that dumb.

Yes. Yes, they are.

I know how that goes, sometimes the effort outweighs the reward and just not worth it when you can buy it reasonably elsewhere. But it does feel good to know you could do it if you want to.

Exactly! I did it once, don't need to do it again.

 

[franandaj]

That would work great in SoCal. It's not as practical elsewhere. Maybe for 5 months or so.

It works year round, save the fact that we were shut down again back in December and part of January. But if people had been allowed to dine out, the weather was certainly fine for it.

Yeah, that can't be easy to make it work at all.

Tell me about it! Our Tuesday night Zoom band is a real drag. One of the reasons that Fran and I organized and Underground Guerilla Outdoor band campaign (against the wishes of the band's Board of Directors, but we're not in charge anymore! )

Exactly! I did it once, don't need to do it again.

That's how I felt with Shabu Shabu. After slicing all the meat wafer thin, making the sauces, and chopping the vegetables, I was like, "Now I still have to cook this myself?" Much happier with someone else doing the prep, then I don't mind cooking it myself.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Not sure why you're ducking. It's pretty accurate!
(Actually... my next update... you'll see that it's very accurate.)

I figured you'd correct me and show me a photo of you and your family out in the snow in shorts and t-shirts or something.

I'm not a huge sports guy. I'll watch my Jets if they're in the playoffs... maybe. I'm happy with highlights. Football I watch. Also Indycar and F1.
But... no cable. So...
I can watch an Indy race weekend for $10. (Sometimes I can get 3 races out of that, if they race 2 times on one weekend and once the next.) And for $35 I have a year subscription to F1 (albeit I have to wait 2 days before I can watch... which I'm fine with.)

I fully admit that it would be a lot easier if I wasn't into sports. That's where they get me.

And was a real treat to re-discover!

He's such a great writer.

Been there. Done that. Not as often as you, for the preschool. But... 2 middle school, 2 high school and 1 University grad.

Yeah, I've done plenty of those too. Preschool graduation is just a scam. Requirements to graduate: you must have a pulse.

I know that one.
Doug: "So this is what we'll do. Jim, you try the eye. Fred, you eat the meat. Bob, you eat the liver."

<shortly after>
Doug: "Jim? You okay?"
Jim: "Yup!"
Doug: "Fred? How you doing?"
Fred: "Doing good."
Doug: "Bob, how about you?"

Doug: "Bob?"

Fred: "Bob's dead, Doug."

That has to be how it went.

Scarily so. Funnily so too.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

It works year round, save the fact that we were shut down again back in December and part of January. But if people had been allowed to dine out, the weather was certainly fine for it.

As it turns out, it seems like outdoor dining would have been fine the whole time.

Tell me about it! Our Tuesday night Zoom band is a real drag. One of the reasons that Fran and I organized and Underground Guerilla Outdoor band campaign (against the wishes of the band's Board of Directors, but we're not in charge anymore! )

You are such rebels.

That's how I felt with Shabu Shabu. After slicing all the meat wafer thin, making the sauces, and chopping the vegetables, I was like, "Now I still have to cook this myself?" Much happier with someone else doing the prep, then I don't mind cooking it myself.

I can totally see that. I also really enjoy cooking if I don't have to clean up afterwards.

 

[pkondz]

I figured you'd correct me and show me a photo of you and your family out in the snow in shorts and t-shirts or something.

Why would I post a photo of something that everyone does?

I fully admit that it would be a lot easier if I wasn't into sports. That's where they get me.

Yep. Can definitely see that.

Yeah, I've done plenty of those too. Preschool graduation is just a scam. Requirements to graduate: you must have a pulse.

True. But the tots are happy, so... oh, go ahead.

 

[QueenJen]

Thanks, Jen. Good to hear from you, too. How are you doing?

Like others - continuing to live groundhog day, waiting for things to return to somewhat normal. Happy to come here and read some lighthearted posts.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

True. But the tots are happy, so... oh, go ahead.

But it was $35 for the stupid graduation outfit! It's a scam.

Like others - continuing to live groundhog day, waiting for things to return to somewhat normal. Happy to come here and read some lighthearted posts.

Well, I hope this helped!

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

This Trip Is Sanitized For Your Protection

We couldn’t wait to get to Alaska.

We had started keeping track of our family’s travels throughout the U.S. back in 2011. After 9 years of hard work, everything had led up to the summer of 2020. We’d reached 49 states together, and now, with Sarah about to leave home for college, everything had worked together to reach the climax and the end of our journey. It was going to be a vacation for the ages: 2 weeks, starting with a cruise from Vancouver through the Inside Passage up to Seward, followed by a road trip around the state, packing in as many sights as we possibly could. We were even going to splurge on a flight to Glacier Bay National Park, a stay in the remote lodge there and an all-day boat tour of one of the most remote national parks in the U.S. It was going to be huge, expensive, and incredibly memorable.

Man plans…God laughs.

A year later, we’re still at 49 states on the family counter (we were at 44 for Drew, but…well, read further for an update there). There was no cruise. No glorious arctic scenery. No remote boat tour. Just a whole lot of sitting around our house and watching Netflix. By the way, I think we’ve completed Netflix. Being locked in your house for a year will do that. They should give you a virtual badge or something, like “Achievement Unlocked: Netflix Library Completion” or “World’s Greatest Couch Potato”.

We held onto the idea of the Alaska trip as long as we could. We were supposed to go in July, and when our country first locked down in March, I was optimistic and thought we might still be able to travel over the summer, because surely everyone would follow the same rules and selflessly do what was best for the health and wellbeing of their fellow countrym—

HA! Sorry, I couldn’t make it through that sentence with a straight face. When it became apparent in summer that the pandemic wasn’t going away anytime soon, we sadly called the whole thing off, which meant I was going to have to keep track of various airline and cruise credits and hope we could figure out how to use them all in 2021.

In the meantime, we were stuck in the house. And like everyone else on the planet, we quickly grew tired of staring at the walls of our house, online meetings, taking walks around the neighborhood, and attempting to find quality amidst a sea of mediocrity on Netflix (we did very much enjoy The Imagineering Story and The Mandalorian on Disney+). If you need a Netflix show, we got a lot of laughs out of The Good Place.

Over the summer, my sister-in-law had a baby. He was their fourth child (I mean, can you imagine?? FOUR kids?? You have to be some kind of a masochist to do that to yourself) and they were as sick of the pandemic as we were, so they invited us to come out to Ohio for a visit to meet our new nephew. So, we started scheming. They’d been tested repeatedly for COVID as part of the hospital screening process. We could get tested before we left. At that point, some states were trending downward in numbers over the summer and were easing some travel restrictions. And traveling by ourselves in a car, we could largely keep to ourselves, sticking to the van, our hotel room, and my brother’s house and eating outdoors or getting takeout.

Plus, at that point, Drew was at 44 states and was missing several in the Rust Belt: Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia, which are…sort of close to Ohio. I mean, it’s only like a couple of inches on the map.

So we decided to make the trip, if only for our own sanity.

How bad had it gotten? My kids were pumped about the prospect of driving across Ohio. We’ve done that drive before. It’s 8.5 hours to Perrysburg, Ohio from my house. There’s nothing in Pennsylvania or Ohio on that drive. They would be staring at farm fields. And they were excited about it.

I threw together a quick itinerary for a trip over the 4th of July weekend. This would enable me to save a vacation day by traveling over a holiday, so that later in the year I could use that extra vacation day to…watch Netflix, I guess.

Once a vacation planner, always a vacation planner.

We left on a Wednesday evening, driving part of the way and spending the night in a Somerset, PA hotel room. All of the hotel rooms had stickers across the door frames showing no one had been in there since it had been cleaned, which was reassuring because we knew from reading articles posted on social media that viral particles cannot get past stickers on the doors.

All kidding aside, I was glad the hotels were making whatever efforts they could.

On Thursday morning, we left Somerset and continued northwest, making a stop in Ohio at Cuyahoga Valley National Park. This was a park we’d visited on that first road trip back in 2011. The park mostly exists to preserve the old historic Ohio & Erie canal, which was a major trade route back in the day along the Cuyahoga River (the same river that once caught fire in Cleveland).

For our purposes, we were only using it as an excuse to break up the drive. Not far off I-80 is Brandywine Falls, probably the most scenic portion of the park. There’s a parking area nearby and a short boardwalk trail down to a viewing area for the falls.

That’s worth getting out of the car for, right?

We made it to Perrysburg and had a nice visit with my brother and his family. On Friday, we drove an hour north for two reasons: 1) to pick up another state for Andrew, and 2) to visit the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Yep, just when we’ve finished sending Sarah to school, now Dave is close to graduating and we need to go through the college search all over again. Dave is interested in mechanical engineering, so we’ve been trying to research schools strong in that subject, and Michigan is one of the schools on the list.

And I apparently took no photos. I will hang my head in shame.

Michigan is a massive school, and it basically encompasses the entire city of Ann Arbor. It was hard to tell where the campus ended and the city began—they just sort of overlap. There were no official visits or tours happening, of course, so we just made it up as we went. We found the engineering buildings, took a peek through the windows, and just tried to get a feel for where everything was. It wasn’t the prettiest campus, and certainly not the stereotypical classical brick buildings you would normally imagine. I’m sure it’s an excellent school, and it certainly offers any possible activity you could think of. I’m sure the winters would be cold and it’s a fair distance from home. But Dave seemed to like it there, and his opinion is really the only one that matters, at least until the financial aid offers come in.

We ate an outdoor lunch at Zingerman’s Roadhouse, which my brother claimed was the place for Michigan football fans to hang out. I remember it being…fine. I had the smoked brisket sandwich, and it was decent, but I’ve had better.

We spent an evening eating pizza and swimming in my brother’s pool, and then headed out the following morning. We drove back to Delaware by way of Louisville, Kentucky.

The only reason we did this was to continue to cheaply add states to Drew’s list. My brother had recently accepted a job in Charleston, SC, so this was going to be the last time we had an excuse to be out this way, so we were doing our best to take advantage. On the way, we stopped in Dayton, Ohio to stretch our legs and check out the offices of the Wright Cycle Co., part of the larger Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park.

The Cycle Co. is, of course, the preserved bicycle shop that Orville and Wilbur Wright operated in Dayton back at the turn of the 19th century while they worked on their plans for their mechanized flying machine. Sadly, we were unable to get a passport stamp for our National Parks passport since everything was shut down. But once again, we could peek in the windows and take a break from driving.

We got to Louisville in time for our 2:00 p.m. tour of the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory. Again, this was a repeat of a stop we’d made in 2011, but somehow Drew had missed out on that visit. He gave some lame excuse like he was “not alive in 2011”, but I think he was probably just being lazy or not paying attention. You know what little boys are like.

The tour is a neat one, about 30-45 minutes where they take you through the process of making a baseball bat. For 2020, they were open, but admission was limited to timed tickets and everyone had to wear a mask. A couple quick photos:

Outside the building is the “world’s largest baseball bat”.

Inside, you can see the various steps of what is largely an automated process. Here are the pallets of raw wood cylinders ready to take shape via the machines in the shop.

These are the cuts of wood specially selected for major league ballplayers with contracts with Louisville Slugger. These meet the precise specifications each player asks for in his bats.

Near the end, this guy was giving a demonstration of how they used to have to carve the bats by hand. It looked painful and labor-intensive, but it was also a bit mesmerizing watching the man work.

After the tour, you’re led into a museum with quite a bit of memorabilia, including bats used by hall-of-famers, some of which you can hold for photos. Here’s one used by Babe Ruth during his famous 60-home-run 1927 campaign. It’s a little hard to see, but he would cut a notch around the center label every time he hit a home run with it.

The tour is very efficient. You can even order a personalized bat before it starts, and it will be ready for you by the end of the tour. It makes for a pretty cool souvenir. The other fun part of the museum is the batting cage, where for a couple bucks you can take 10 swings with a major league model bat. I had learned my lesson back in 2011 when I had chosen to take some swings with Jim Thome’s bat and faced the high-speed machine. Thome is a mountain of a man, and if I stood next to him I would look like Flat Stanley if Flat Stanley was allowed to have a beer gut. I never had a chance and barely fouled off maybe 3 of 10 pitches.

This time, I took Didi Gregorius’ (current Phillie) much lighter bat, asked for the slow-pitch machine, and had a much better time making solid contact. Know thy limits. Or, put another way:

We took a short drive over to the riverfront and parked near a pedestrian bridge over the Ohio River. It’s called the Big Four Bridge, and it was an old railroad line that was converted to a walkway between Kentucky and Indiana. If you’re thinking this was a really cheap and lame excuse to get Drew to set foot in Indiana so we could cross that state off the list, you would be absolutely correct.

I think Louisville is a very underrated city. We’ve enjoyed both of our visits there, and the riverfront park is a very nice place to visit. Sadly, we had discovered a restaurant there that we’d fallen in love with in 2011, and it had abruptly closed a few years later. So we had to find a new place.

We ended up staying just east of the city and ordering takeout from a local BBQ place called Mark’s Feed Store. Kentucky was a little less restrictive than some of the other states we’d visited, and mask-wearing was optional at best (at least it seemed that way to our rule-following family), so we just got takeout and took it back to the hotel rooms. Everything was tasty and probably even better if we could have eaten it fresh at the restaurant.

That happened to be the 4th of July, but as we all know, the pandemic changed our country’s celebrations in 2020. Most cities cancelled their fireworks displays, not wanting to attract huge crowds of people. This was true in Louisville as well. But that night, we had another in a long line of happy accidents on our vacations.

As you know, I do my best to plan these trips within an inch of their lives, all driven by a desire to maximize our time, create everlasting memories and not miss out on anything. Sometimes I’m successful, sometimes I’m not. But along the way there have been many moments that have been unexpectedly amazing, like the time I stumbled into a rocket launch at the Kennedy Space Center or happened to catch the Blue Angels buzzing the tower while we were up in the Space Needle. I try to take credit for these moments as sheer incredible vacation planning, but I think my family might be onto me. I guess it’s more just confirmation that you should plan the trip and go, because you just don’t know what magical treasures are out there waiting for you to discover.

This particular night, we had a room on a high floor in the hotel (I can take credit for requesting that one, I like trying to get a room with a view). We happened to be facing west toward the city. And as darkness fell that night, the sky lit up for a solid 30 minutes. Apparently everyone in Kentucky has their own private stash of fireworks and was not afraid to use them. I should not have been surprised by this. But we sat back in the room and enjoyed a 180-degree view of fireworks all over the night sky.

In the morning, we drove east into West Virginia, and just like that, Drew was now up to 48 states on his own (he needs Alaska and Hawaii to complete all 50). We made a quick stop in Lexington, to drive through the campus of the University of Kentucky, and another stop for lunch on a whim at a local chain in West Virginia called Tudor’s Biscuit World. We learned there that our whims are sometimes defective, and we promised to be more vigilant in the future when making decisions on an empty stomach.

But we survived, and we persevered, and that afternoon we made it to the newest national park, New River Gorge National Park (it was still a national river when we visited, but apparently late last year they aced the interview and were promoted to national park status). Again, the visitor center was closed, but we were able to take a short trail to an overlook where we could see the famous arch bridge over the New River.

We drove down to Blacksburg, Virginia for the evening. Blacksburg is the home of Virginia Tech University, another strong engineering school. We walked from the hotel to a restaurant called Macado’s, which has a huge menu listing just about every possible sandwich combo you could possibly think of. This place was a winner. I had a very tasty chicken parm sandwich (called the “Julius Caesar”) and would gladly eat here again.

In the morning, we did yet another DYI tour of the Virginia Tech campus. The campus basically is the reason for the town’s existence, as it’s built in a beautiful setting in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The buildings are somewhat gothic and have a strong Harry Potter vibe to them. It’s a former military academy and much more of a “stereotypical” college campus than Michigan was.

I’m a little biased because when I was looking at colleges back in the stone ages, I fell in love with Virginia Tech and really wanted to go to school there. I loved the campus, setting, people we met, and the fact that the college had its own golf course. But then they barely offered any money, and that was that. I was hoping Dave would fall for it as well, but I think he was a bit worried that it was out in the middle of nowhere. Also, the mechanical engineering building was a little run-down, not nearly as impressive as the rest of the campus. So he seemed a bit cool on it overall. Well, this is why we visit.

The drive home was made without incident. We’d been a bit nervous about traveling during a pandemic, but I felt like we’d been able to keep to ourselves for the most part, and everyone was glad we’d gone. For the moment, we were wondering if we’d get to travel again in the foreseeable future.

Thankfully, we did pull another pandemic trip off. I’ll jump into that next time.