June 2009 Archives

Okay let me look and see where I was in the story, ah okay. Friday morning we got up early and headed down to Fisherman's Wharf for our Whale Watching tour. The tour itself was great, if a little cold. We saw 2 humpback whales, neither breached, but that is a pretty rare occurrence. We also saw two different kinds of dolphins. One group, which I believe were Pacific White Side Dolphins, actually came up to the boat and played around in the wake. We also saw lots of seals and sea lions. Though you don't need to go on a tour to see those, they are everywhere around the docks. The Sea Otters also hang out around the docks but we didn't see quite as many of those.

That afternoon we rented Bikes and biked down the coast, which was really fun. We got to see the beaches and shoreline closeup. Nikki even got some very close up pictures of some deer that were eating the roadside plants.

Oh and they did deliver my suitcase that afternoon so I had clothes again!

On Saturday we headed off to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. If it was really cool, somewhat crowded though. If you are wanting to go I suggest buying tickets from your hotel, then you can get in the group entrance and don't have to wait in line. Also arrive early, if you get there within 30 minutes of it opening you can go right from otter feeding to the two big tank feedings, which is about the coolest thing to see, since all the fish are very active during the feedings. One of the tanks even has divers that get in and feed the fish by hand.

After the Aquarium we went off and had a nice seafood lunch and walked around Cannery row. Nikki fell in love with the Rip Squeak Gallery. She bought all the books.

That night we got dressed up and went out to "Fresh Cream" the restaurant recommended by the hotel. It was very fancy and the food was great. It was possibly overpriced but was exactly what were were wanting anyway.

On Sunday, we did a Wine Tour of the Carmel Valley wineries. They pick you up in a van and take you around all the wineries and let you sample the wine. That's really the way to go, you don't have to worry about drinking too much and driving.

That evening we walked along the beach and Nikki got lots of great pictures of otters, seals and Sea Lions. She even got a picture of both a baby otter and a baby seal.

The next day we slept in and prepared to head back to Dallas. Of course, AA wasn't done with us yet, our flight from LAX to Dallas was delayed 3 hours. I can see why people are avoiding air travel these days. This time we ate at the On the Border, which is actually pretty much the same as the normal OTB.

So that was our vacation, Monterey,CA was great! The air travel sucked but everything turned out okay in the end.

So there we were, in LA, with 5 hours to kill. Since neither of us had eaten since that morning and it was now almost 3 we decided that lunch and possibly a few drinks were in order. Our choices were Chilli's or On the Border. Both seemed to have quite large lines, but we had plenty of time so we decided on Chilli's I don't really remember why at the time. After an almost 45 minute wait, we got seated. I ordered a margarita (presidente) and a turkey sandwich. Now Chilli's isn't the best place to eat normally but it's okay, however the airport Chilli's is really not good. My Turkey sandwich was so dry that it sucked all the moisture from my body, and my margarita contained no actual tequila that I could tell. At this point I pretty much didn't care. I think Nikki had boneless buffalo wings, which were "okay." Undaunted, I ordered a second margarita. This one apparently had all the the tequila from the first one, it was like a double on the rocks. After drinking it I felt much better. Also, the airport Chillis is WAY overpriced, but they kinda have you trapped don't they.

So we hung around in the airport for a few more hours and took the later flight to Monterey, which mercifully left on time. When we got to Monterey, I had no problems getting the rental car, they actually gave us a free upgrade. Nikki's bag was the very last one to come off the conveyor, my bag was nowhere to be found. This wasn't all the unexpected, our original flight out of DFW had been canceled so I hadn't had high hopes for the bags and was actually quite pleased that one had made it. We walk over to baggage service to try and get them to find my bag only to find out that they had TAGGED OUR BAGS WITH SOMEONE ELSE'S name.

Both the tags they had given me in DFW and the one on Nikki's suitcase has someone else's name on the tag. Luckily, the person who's name was on our luggae was also flying to LA so our bags had made it that far without anyone realizing the problem. Apparently, the only reason that Nikki's bag had made it to Monterrey that she has a bright red tag (shaped like a lady bug) with my business card in it strapped to her bag. When no one picked it up in LA, the baggage handlers simply looked at that tag, looked up where I was going, and stuck it on the flight to Monterey. The baggage guys in Monterey, who were very nice and helpful said my bag was definitely in LA and they would make sure it got on the first flight out to Monterey.

So there we were, in Monterrey finally, we had Nikki's luggage, the rental car, and all our camera stuff so we were in pretty good shape. We headed over to the nearest Target where I bought 2 pair of pants, 2 shirts, some socks and underwear. I was dubious of AA ability to actually get me my suite case first thing in the morning so I bought extra just in case.

Next entry we'll get to the actual vacation part...:)

Nikki and I took our mini-vacation to Monterey this past weekend. We have taken a big vacation the past three years and we decided to just do a short one this year. Quite a lot happened so this may end up being multiple blog entries.

We started out the trip last Thursday with huge storms over Dallas. The weather kept saying the storms would end any minute so we headed to the airport anyway, sure that our flight would be delayed. Little did we know...

AA delayed our flight for half a hour, then they changed its gate. Then they canceled it. No planes had left DFW for LA since the night before so I'm guessing that's why they canceled it. The plane we were supposed to take was probably at DFW with a load a passengers it was supposed to take the night before or something like that. Luckily, I had signed up for txt message updates for the flight status and knew the flight was canceled before the gate agents did. Unfortunately, this gate agent had no idea how to deal with a canceled flight.

Thanks to the txt message I was at the front of the line. The gate agent told the people in front of me that they should just "go to gate D29" that LA flight has plenty of room. She told me the same thing, but I asked to be booked on it. She proceeded to do that but then claimed she couldn't print any boarding passes and that we should go get them at D29. I was dubious of this prospect but with 30+ people behind me I figured that was our best option. When we get to D29, the flight says it is for Miami not LA. The gate right next to it does have an LA flight though so we stand in line there. Right as we reach the front of the line and I explain to the lady that I should be on the flight going out of D29 but its not there, they make an announcement that the LA flight is going out of D29 now.

So again we are told to go to D29 and get boarding passes. So we make our way over there and wait in line again. (Third Time) When I reach the front of the line this time, I am told that the LA flight at D29 has been double-booked by the computer and that there are no seats. The gate agent tells me to just "wait there" till the flight leaves and he will try and figure something out then. Meanwhile, there are at least 6 flight preparing to take off for LA, which if I wait I won't get on any of them. Nikki goes back and stands in line at the next gate over, where we had already stood in line and I go in search of ANY AA gate agent that can hopefully help us. I am halfway around the terminal when Nikki calls me, saying they are booking anyone going to LA on the flight she is in line for and to run back so we can get on it. So I RUN all the way back around the terminal and get there just in time for her to hand us the boarding passes.

Two Travel Trips here if your flight gets canceled.

1. If the gate agent says they booked you on another flight, get a boarding pass, otherwise you are not on it.

2. If your flight gets canceled, find the nearest gate that is going to the same place and stand in line, and ask (nicely) if you can get on it.

With EVERY SINGLE plane from the night before now trying to take off the runways are a little busy. We end up getting into LA 3 hours late, and of course, missing our connection to Monterey. Luckily there is another flight, in 4 hours.... Of course, we are not booked on that flight. So I wait in line again (fifth time) to see if we can get on it. The gate agent in LA tells me that there is only one seat available, but he immediately picks up the phone, calls someone, and says to me "I can work something out." His conversation went something like this.

"I've got two people who need to get to Monterey but there is only one avaialble seat. Can you help?"

Listens..

"Well with all these storms there's got to be someone flying in from the East coast who's not going to make it."

"Okay Thanks."

Hands me two boarding passes.

So he basically kicked someone off that flight, who wouldn't have made it anyway, and put us on.

Okay that's probably enough for one day. I'll pick up there tomorrow.

Let's see what's been going on latley. The gameroom is now 75% complete. The flooring was put in last Monday and Nikki and I got the Table and Chair assembled. All that's left now is too get the built in shelves done. Here's some pics of how it looks with the floor and table. We played our first game in it last Thursday, its quite a bit messier now.

Nikki and I did our first major bike ride of the year this past weekend. We rode 46 miles in the Mesquite Rodeo Bike Ride. We hadn't ridden that far this year. I'd only done a 40 mile ride last month and Nikki hadn't ridden more than 30 miles at a stretch but we did fine.

This weekend we are off on our mini-vacation to Monterrey,CA Friday we are going whale watching, then Saturday we are doing a wine county tour, and then Sunday maybe some biking on the beach. :) I'll try and put some pics of that up as well.