AudreyPodrey.com

I didn’t make time to blog while we were on vacation.  The un-free internet access didn’t help either.  So here are just some random observations from the trip.

• San Diego was beautiful.  The second day we were there, it rained, and that was the first rain they had seen for 164 days.  The day we went to the zoo, we wore short sleeves and were completely comfortable (until the sun went down).  I was very disappointed to come home and find there was a possible forecast for snow.
• San Diego is expensive.  I knew that going in, but wow.
• Bridge is hard.  I’m a good player, but i just spent a week getting my brains bashed in by people who are better.  I make way too many careless errors.
• Despite the fact that i’m still licking my wounds, i loved the competition at the high levels we played in.  This is the way to get better.  I wish we could attend all the national tournaments.  Alas, after going to two (of three) this year, we might be forced to take a year off.
• We learned this week that we really need to improve our slam bidding.
• The mixed pairs event is pretty funny.  To enter, you need one man and one woman.  I have never seen such a squabbly, bitchy, unhappy bunch.  I think this is what happens when you force men and women to play together.
• Years ago, there used to be a Men’s Life Master (LM) pairs event alongside a Women’s LM pairs event.  The men’s event was the prestigious event that got all the attention, and the women complained.  They wanted to compete in the “real” event, too.  So they got rid of the Men’s event.  Now, the prestigious LM event is open to all.  However, there is still a Women’s event, and it still counts as a national win.  As a woman, i think this is kind of bogus.  If Jeff Meckstroth (arguably the best player in the world) can’t enter your event, can you really claim a national title?  Is this golf, where we tee off from the Women’s tee?  I don’t think anyone will say that outright, but i get the sense that there is an understanding that women need separate events.  And i don’t like it.
• Petco Park was neat.  Our tour guide was an old codger who grew up loving baseball and knew a lot of lore.  These guys make the best guides.  At Wrigley Field, our guide was a girl younger than me.  A tomboy for sure, but she couldn’t make the place come alive.  We’ll take the old guys from now on, please.
• The zoo is everything it’s cracked up to be.  Humongous.  We spent 3+ hours walking around, and my guess is we saw 60% of it, max.
• Our hotel was in walking distance of a lot of great restaurants.  It was a fabulous venue for a big tournament.  The hotel staff did a marvelous job accommodating the bridge crowd.  Bridge players are awful guests, in general, leaving trash everywhere and they can be rude to staff.  I’ve seen hotels get overwhelmed in dealing with bridge players’ needs, and there are more than a few hotels that won’t invite bridge tournaments back.  However, this hotel, the Manchester Grand Hyatt, just absorbed the bridge players like it was nothing.  It was great.

We already have plans to go back in 6 years when San Diego hosts the nationals again.

This is my 4th year with the Shulls at their beach vacation week.  I daresay, this is the only week each year where i really get a true vacation.  Most of my vacation days go for bridge tournaments.  Which i don’t regret in the least, but bridge is not exactly a vacation, since it involves somewhat insane amounts of focus.  This beach week is about relaxation, and that’s what i enjoy about it.

The drive on Sunday was beautiful, and we drove with the top down and Nugent basking in the back seat.  We arrived around 4 pm and then went to the grocery store.  Dinner was served shortly thereafter, and a relaxing evening commenced.

If we had known that that was the last we would see of the sun for 5 days, i think we might have gone to the beach instead of the grocery store.  But we didn’t, and most of the week was rainy and cloudy and extremely windy.  This was fine, in general, as the family tends to spend 85% of their time lounging around the beach house anyway.

But Friday, our last day, dawned bright and sunny.  And we finally got a day to enjoy in the ocean.  And, it was warm enough for me to consent to being buried in the sand.

Being buried in the sand was one of my lifelong goals.  Why?  I dunno.  It’s trivial, but not something i’ve ever done.  I enjoy new experiences.  I have some vague memories of watching others being buried, and how much laughter ensued.  I just want to be able to say i’ve done it.

Here are a few things i learned and want to pass on about being buried in the sand:

1. You will get sand in your mouth.  Not because people are trying to bury your face, but just because you are talking and laughing.  Which you will do.  Because being buried in the sand is somewhat absurd.
2. You will get sand in your ears.
3. You will get sand in places you don’t really want to get sand.  Man or woman.  One piece or two piece.
4. You will feel like a mummy in a sarcophagus.
5. When you break free, you will feel like Frankenstein rising from the dead.
6. Rinsing the sand off in the ocean when you’re done will not do a good job of removing the sand from all those places you didn’t really want to get sand.
7. You should wait to get buried until you’re about ready to leave the beach, because once all that sand is in the places you don’t want it to be, you won’t want to stay any longer.
8. You might take two showers, because one was not enough to really get all the sand off.
9. You will find sand in your ears the next day, even if you took two showers the day of the burial.

Regardless, it’s an experience i wanted to have, and i’m glad i did it.  Thanks to Lance and Kevin for helping burying me, and to ShullDad for taking the pictures.

It’s not uncommon to hear friends and colleagues talk about the great vacation they went on, but they were so exhausted when they got back that they needed a vacation from their vacation.

I’m in the same boat after the bridge tournament.  So today, i took a mini vacation.  Today all i did was:

• Sleep til noon - hey, give me a break, i was driving most of the night!
• Finish reading the last quarter of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, which is overdue at the library.
• Blog
• Write up some bridge hands from the tournament
• Drink coffee
• Catch up on RSS feeds
• Chat online
• Call my mom
• Pet the dog, who i think was happy that we returned to him, but i really can’t tell

I most certainly did not:

• Unpack
• Do laundry
• Return the overdue library book
• Play bridge online
• Cook
• Login to work email - that can just wait until tomorrow
• Clean, even though i have a busy week ahead and Lance’s parents coming to visit this weekend (and i know that doesn’t matter to anyone but me, but it matters, to me, and i still didn’t do it today)

It was my mini-recovering-from-vacation vacation, and i needed it!

Chicago Cubs vs Milwaukee Brewers

Saturday morning we got up at our leisure and headed to breakfast.  We just walked around until we found a likely place.  It was kind of fast-food breakfast.  I was happy to see they had pancakes, but nothing can really compare with pancakes from the South.  Not bad, but nothing special.  Then we headed to the subway to ride north to Wrigley Field.  The game today started at 12:05.

Once again, Wrigley was a very busy place.  This time, we had assigned seats just behind and to the left of home plate, pretty high up.  The seats were covered, which was a good thing since it drizzled a bit during the game.  Lance wore a Cubs Tshirt and i wore a Brewers Tshirt.  Geovany Soto and Prince Fielder are on our respective fantasy baseball teams.  We got a kick out of being the couple with split loyalties.  Quite a few people made remarks to us about it.

It was not a good game for the Cubs.  The Brewers scored a bunch of runs quickly, and the final score was 11-2.  Poor Cubbies.  They sang no fight song at the end of that game.

After the game, we were getting hungry, and Lance had a mind to go back to Gino’s Pizza to try something other than pizza.  He got mostaciolli and i got lasagna.  Both were excellent.  We definitely recommend Gino’s.  We must not be the only ones - it’s a very popular place!  Both times we ate there were “off” times - 11 am and 3:30 pm.  That’s probably the best way to avoid the long line out the door and around the corner that we saw around regular mealtimes.

Saturday Evening

After dinner and after another short nap for Lance, we got on the train to head towards south Chicago.  Adam and Nora had told us how segregated the city was, with certain groups living in certain areas.  This was evident as we glided past many subway stops, and each one resulted in particular groups exiting the train.  Finally it was our turn.

Our directions next instructed us to take the #15 bus to their street.  I was anxious throughout the ride; i didn’t know when our stop was the Next Stop.  And at one point i was sure that this was the rogue #15 bus that didn’t actually go to my brother’s place.  But eventually we found it and successfully found them.  In total, the trip took over an hour.

At Adam & Nora’s, we got the Grand Tour and petted (terrorized) the kitties and just generally talked.  Later, we went on a walk over to Lake Michigan.  In total, i think the route must have been four miles or more.  (As i’ve mentioned, no one can say we didn’t get our exercise!)  This was the night of the 4th, and there were lots of people out and about, shooting off fireworks.  It gave us ample time to talk as we walked, while admiring the amateur fireworks.  It was good to catch up with them and their lives in Chicago.

Going Home

Getting back to the hotel once again took over an hour, where we soon went to bed.  The wake-up call would come early as the shuttle was picking us up at 5:15.  We had had a very full weekend - it was nice to get home.

Morning

It was 8 when we first woke up.  It was another hour before we actually got up.  It felt like a lazy morning and that we had slept in.  I guess that’s what the time change will do.

We went in search of breakfast and stopped at the first place we found - some place with Bakery in the name.  We both ordered something that resembled an omelette, yet was scrambled instead, that came with toast and hashbrowns.  It was good.  We lingered over our breakfast awhile, talking.

When we left, i had an urge to walk.  At left, you’ll see one of the many architecturally interesting buildings we passed - this one caught my eye because it is so completely phallic.  Navy Pier was not too far, and i wanted to walk to the end of it.  And so we did, feeling the wind off Lake Michigan in our faces.  The weather has been wonderful the whole time we’ve been here.

No one can say we didn’t get our exercise this weekend.  Walking is a lot of work.  As we were walking back to the hotel, Lance asked me if we could please take the subway to the aquarium later, instead of walking.  We were both getting tired of walking.

We headed back to the hotel for a couple of quiet hours relaxing before our afternoon and evening events with Adam and Nora.

Shedd Aquarium

We took the subway down to the closest stop to the Aquarium.  It still took 25 minutes of walking before we got to the front of the place.  We walked up the hill and saw a huge line snaking out the front door, several hundred people long, at least.  Well, there was nothing to be done but get in line.  Adam & Nora found us soon after.  They are members, but they waited in line with us and we chatted while the line slowly moved forward.  It was at least another half hour before we got our tickets.

I think we got inside sometime after 3.  The place was a madhouse.  There were so many people you could barely move.  You certainly couldn’t properly see all the exhibits because you couldn’t get close enough.

We went first to the oceanarium to see the whales and otters and penguins.  I was surprised by how little information was available to read about those creatures.  Then we found the coral reef exhibit, which had an entire area all to itself.  That was very cool, and did have a lot of information on the walls and counters, and i learned a lot.  Then it was back upstairs to see the octopus and the huge crabs and sea horses and sea dragons (that’s a sea dragon, at left) and general ocean creatures.  By then, we were famished and starting to go a little crazy from sensory overload.  It was just way too crowded.  To really appreciate that aquarium, we may need to go back at 9 am on a Tuesday or something.  I did not particularly enjoy the experience with so many people.

Blue Man Group

It was 4:30 when we left, and we decided to head to the area where the theater was.  Adam & Nora knew there were a lot of restaurants near there.  We got there after 5, and found a cute little Thai place.  It was delicious.  Then we wandered over to the theater to pick up our tickets.  It was still early, so we had to kill some time.  Adam wanted some new sandals, so we went shoe shopping.  I got some, too.  It’s hard for me not to buy shoes in a shoe store.

The show was excellent.  It has been 7 years since i saw them the first time, so i didn’t remember all the jokes.  And while i’m pretty sure it was almost entirely the same, it was still fabulous.  It makes me happy on the inside.  And especially at the end - during the grand finale i experienced pure childlike joy and laughter that so rarely comes upon us as adults.

Getting There

Our flight was uneventful.  We left Raleigh at 6:30 am eastern time and arrived in Chicago at 7:30 am central time.  We packed light, so we didn’t have to check anything.  We’d been told that the subway ride from the airport to downtown would probably exceed one hour, so we opted for a shuttle trip.  The service we found would also be able to pick us up Sunday morning, so it seemed a good option, as well as reasonably priced.

Our plan was to leave our bags with the concierge at our hotel, and then do a bit of sightseeing before we returned in the afternoon, when we could check in.  At the desk, though, they offered to check us in early.  It was just after 8 am.

Our hotel was the Affinia Chicago.  We were extremely pleased at being able to check in so early.  The room was amazing.  At first i thought we had been upgraded.  The room had steps(!), as well as three separate “areas”, one for sleeping, one with a desk and one sitting room area, with a coffee table and everything.  However, i think this might just be one of their normal rooms.  It didn’t have any of the amenities i would have expected of an upgraded room.  It was very nice, though.  The bed felt like clouds and the chairs were comfortable.

The concierge was also very helpful.  She told us where we could buy a 3-day pass for the buses and trains.  That was our next stop, and then we headed north to Wrigley Field.

Wrigley Field Ballpark Tour

All ballparks have some history.  Even if one is new, the team has history and there are tributes to all sorts of players and traditions and stories.  I imagine most if not all parks have a tour available, and i think visiting all the ballparks has become one of my goals.  Wrigley Field has tours starting every half hour throughout the day.

We got there at 9:15 and dawdled for 15 minutes while waiting for the next tour to start.  Our group only had 8 or 10 people in it.  Our guide was a pudgy girl in a too-tight shirt who was younger than me.  I have no doubt she is a big baseball fan, but she wasn’t very good as a guide.  She spouted the facts well enough, and we learned a lot of interesting things, but she didn’t make the place come alive.  We kept running into the group in front of us - they had started 30 minutes before us, but we were on top of them the whole time.  Their guide was an old codger who had probably witnessed a lot of the history and had good stories to share.  We overheard him sharing a story about Harry Carey.  Our guide only mentioned him in passing.

The park was still very interesting, though.  I was particularly fascinated by the “Wrigleyville” bleachers.  The park is so small (some 40,000 seats) that the nearby buildings can see a lot of what is happening in the park.  To capitalize on that, the owners have built bleachers on top of their buildings, and sell seats to all the games.  Food is often included, so those seats cost more than many of the seats that are in the park.

Gino’s East Pizzeria

After the tour, we headed back towards downtown.  Right next to our hotel was Gino’s Pizzeria.  Lance was in the mood for Chicago food, so that’s where we went.

It was a neat-looking place.  The walls were completely covered with graffiti-type writing.  We were led upstairs.  As we looked over the menu, we decided to order a deep dish pizza.  It would take 45 minutes, we were warned, so Lance got some minestrone (which he loved) while i started with a salad (i was not impressed).

When it arrived, the pizza was amazing.  I don’t think i ever knew that Chicago was famous for putting their sauce on top of the pizza.  That Chicago was famous for pizza, i knew.  And now i understand why.  It was fabulous.  We  ordered a large with the intent to take the uneaten portion back to the hotel and eat it for dinner or snacks.

It was only 11 when we arrived at the pizza place, but we were famished all the same.  After all it was noon “our time” and we had had a full morning.  Breakfast had been at 4:45 am - seven hours earlier.  The food coma set in as we were paying for the meal, and around 12:30 we came back to the hotel for a nap.  That made us doubly glad we had been able to check-in early.

Downtown

At 3:30, we arose and headed further downtown to meet Adam and Nora.  The concierge had told us we could walk it, though it would be a healthy walk.  We joined the throngs on the sidewalks that are normal on Chicago weekdays.

We were meeting Adam and Nora at the The Taste of Chicago festival taking place in Grant Park.  We were planning to just hang out for a couple of hours with them before we went back to the Cubs game that night.  On the way, we saw the attraction Adam calls the Big Bean, more commonly known as the Cloud Gate, although i think Big Bean is certainly apt.  Then we found the festival.

How to describe it.  The Taste of Chicago was roughly equivalent to the State Fair, but with more people, less space, more stink, and no animals or livestock or rides.  We could hardly walk.  We both went into sensory overload.  We escaped into a grassy area where couples littered the lawn, and we became one of them as we waited for Adam and Nora to call us and tell us where they were.

After a while, we wandered (outside the fesival boundaries - there was no way we were going back in there) down to Buckingham fountain and watched a few street performers.  Adam called and had gotten tied up at work, so they would probably not make it before we had to leave.  Oh well - we’ll see them tomorrow.  We decided to go ahead up to Wrigley Field.

Chicago Cubs vs Milwaukee Brewers

Wrigleyville was a completely different place than it had been that morning.  This morning, it had been quiet.  Now, people were everywhere, vendors hawking their wares streetside, men selling peanuts or T-shirts or tickets.  We went into the stadium and found seats in the right field bleachers.

It was a great game.  This was only my second major league baseball game, and i cannot complain about the games i have seen.  My first game was the Nationals vs the Marlins, where Ryan Zimmerman hit a walk-off home run - very exciting.  My first Cubs game was even more fun.  Here are the highlights:

• Prince Fielder, the star of my fantasy baseball team, hit a home run
• There were six home runs in the game
• All the players who hit home runs are owned by either me or lance in various fantasy baseball leagues.
• The first time the Brewers hit a home run, we saw the Cubs fans try to shame him into throwing the ball back onto the field, but that guy fan wanted to keep his baseball.
• The second time the Brewers hit a home run, the Cubs fan threw it back.
• A drunk girl two rows in front of us was ejected from the game, i guess it was for being too drunk.  She left to a chorus of “Sha na na na, Sha na na na, Hey hey hey, Goodbye” from the fans around her.
• A foursome five rows in front of us as ejected from the game for lighting a joint in the 8th inning.  Right next to the security guy.  Smart.
• After the game, the fans all sang a bizarre fight-song-like thing.  I didn’t know professional sports had songs.

After the game, all the fans were in a good mood.  And they were everywhere.  Wrigley Field may be the 2nd smallest baseball park, but forty thousand people in a few acres of space is still a lot.  We emerged on the wrong side of the building from where we wanted to be, so we had to walk around the stadium.  Excuse me, we inched around the stadium.  The sidewalks were packed and we could barely move.  It was worse than the Taste of Chicago!  Bodies pressed close, and i had a sudden fear that there would be a riot.  Maybe it is an irrational fear, but all i could think was “UNC fans riot after they win games and will turn over cars.”  And there was No Way Out.  The walls of the stadium hemmed us in on one side, while a line of buses blocked the other.  They were parked too close together to escape between them.

When we finally emerged, it was only to find a line to the subway that was hundreds of people long.  But we followed a few who knew the back way into the building, and hustled our way in.  When the next train arrived, we were lucky that the entrance stopped right in front of us and we were able to get seats so we didn’t have to stand all the way home.

When we finally got back to the hotel, we ate some of our leftover pizza and went to bed.  It had been a full day.

I just talked to my brother in Chicago to hash out an outline of our schedule and give a rough estimate of when we’ll get to spend time with them.  I haven’t seen them in a year, but when we hung up, i got to say “See you tomorrow!”  That felt really good.

Our flight leaves bright and early tomorrow at 6:30 am.  We’ll be in Chicago at 7:30 central time, with a full day ahead of us.  We’ll tour Wrigley field, see the Big Bean (i have no idea what this is, and i’ve been forbidden to look it up online), meet up with Adam and Nora to go to the Taste of Chicago Festival, and finally, head to a Cubs game.

The anticipation is one of my favorite parts of a trip, and i’m just a big ball of anticipation right now.  Chicago, here we come!

We took the morning off from playing cards and decided to do something around Cincinnati.  Our choices were the Cincinnati Zoo or the Creation Science Museum.

I had no idea the Creation Science Museum was here!  It is something i have heard about - a “museum” where they put things on display that show the “facts” of creationism.  Such as people and dinosaurs living together!  No, i’m not kidding.

I would have loved to see it, but it was twice as far away, so we went to the zoo instead.  It was neat - i always learn something.  And the animals were cute.

One thing that amuses me about people at the zoo.  If they can’t immediately see the animal, they often assume “oh he’s not in there.”  People, the animals are shy!  And often camouflaged!  The Dead Leaf Mantid certainly was in there - in fact, there were many!  All the things that looked like dead leaves were the mantids!

After that, it was back to the bridge tournament, where we proceeded to get our asses stomped all day long.  But hey, i got to see a rhino today!

Our flight to Columbus Thursday night was easy.  Security wasn’t an issue, and there were no problems with the plane.  Boy, it’s nice having a direct flight.

Lance’s brother, Kevin, picked us up immediately, and we went back to his place for a relaxing evening of goofing off on the computer and watching 30 Rock.  Kev was gracious enough to let us sleep on his new memory foam bed.  I might have to get me one of those!  It was like sleeping in clouds.  He was a great host.

Got up early and headed to Cincinnati to the tournament site.  I have to say, it’s kind of a sad little tournament.  The Raleigh sectional tournament might be bigger than this regional tournament.  (Tournament sizes are thus: club, sectional, regional, national.)

We entered as a team-of-four into the morning knockout event, and lost twice.  I blame one of those losses squarely on myself.  But in our afternoon knockout we advanced.  Yay!  At least we’ve won something.

Ohio has one of the confirmed cases of the swine flu.  It’s not time to panic yet, but i can’t help but wrinkle my nose in distaste at the person coughing behind me.  I’m sitting on a plane in a contained space, sharing air with a person who might kill me.  (I know that’s an overreaction, but i can’t help thinking it.)

The airline is thoroughly annoying me.  The restriction on sizes of liquid containers caused some last minute panic as i realized that our deodorants and my facial cleanser exceeded the limitations.  We managed to find the travel sizes in a quick run to the grocery store before heading to the airport, as well as a cheap small plastic container for me to squeeze a bit of my cleanser into.

Security actually wasn’t bad this trip.  I REALLY hate the security at the airport.  They are incompetent and incapable of reason.  They don’t make me safer.  They make me wait in lines.  They speak to me in condescending tones.  They make me feel like a criminal when they take me aside and search through my bags.

The swine flu and the upcoming pandemic remind me of a book i read years ago called The Doomsday Book.  It’s set in the not-too-distant future, and the scientists have figured out time travel.  They are studying the time period that led up to the Black Death.  They send one of their scientists back in time at the same time a global and deadly pandemic is erupting in the modern world of 2048.  The contrasts were interesting.  If i remember correctly, one of the main points was that while technology might have changed since the 1300s, human nature hasn’t.  Maybe i’ll read that book again, just to get myself good and thoroughly freaked out about the swine flu.