We’ve just concluded our Spring Break 2012 trip which took us to various parts of New Mexico.  We had a great time and the summary is listed below.

DAY 1

We landed in Albuquerque mid-day on Monday and headed straight to Sadie’s Restaurant which was featured in the Man vs. Food television show.   We didn’t know what the big deal was until we ordered some “lunch” sized plates and had a mountain of food delivered at our table.

No one that ordered any food could actually finish a plate and when we got the tab it wasn’t too bad but unfortunately we couldn’t take the food with us since we had no storage so about half of it went to waste….

After lunch we headed to a nearby winery called Casa Rodena which was established way back in 1995.  We tried a few wines here and ended up buying one for the trip back home – a very smooth port wine which we’ll enjoy with the family later.

From the winery we headed over to Skip Maisel’s place in downtown Albuquerque.    This is an absolute must go place if you want to do shopping.  We visited many, many sites and by far the best deals on jewelry, nick-knacks, clothing, blankets and such can be found here.  These guys are WHOLESALERS so you won’t be paying retail.  If you go up to Santa Fe (which we did), you’ll find prices 30% to 50% higher for the EXACT same items!    We purchased a whole lot of stuff here and don’t regret it one bit!

From Skip Maisel’s it was a short drive to our next stop over to old towne Albuquerque where we found some more shopping items and some very historic buildings in the area.

After our tour of old towne we decided to drive up to our hotel for check in.  The hotel is located about 20 miles north of Albuquerque in a secluded area.    We opted to stay at the Hyatt Tamaya Resort which turned out to be a hidden gem in the southwest!    The hotel features three nice pools, heated spa, on-site stables, golf and fine dining so we had a great time relaxing after our day trips.

DAY 2

We started our second day in New Mexico early because we had a surprise for the kids which included a hot air balloon ride that started at 7:00 a.m.  We drove to the location where the balloon lifts off from and the kids got to help with the setup.   We chose to go with World Balloon for our ride as they were highly recommended on TripAdvisor.

It literally goes without saying but the balloon ride was pretty impressive.  We glided over the rio grande inches from the water, we then glided over cotton wood forest trees occasionally scraping the basket below.  We then climbed up to 1000 feet which seemed much higher as the moon became bigger and bigger (note: Albuquerque 5000 ft above sea level).

The hot air balloon ride really is a once-in-a-lifetime experience but I highly recommend it.  We’ve now scratched this off of our bucket list!

After our hot air balloon ride we ate a quick breakfast at a nearby diner where we didn’t get 10% off as the World Balloon flight operator suggested 😉

From breakfast we headed over to see the native American petroglyph parks.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have any water with us and since it’s the desert and safety comes first, we only took a brief tour of the main park before we headed off to the other (water available) parks. We did manage to catch a few photos.

Upon finishing our petroglyph excursion, we headed back to the hotel to do some horseback riding.   The clan saddled up and went for a 90 minute ride-about in the New Mexico desert along the Rio Grande!

Needless to say, it was beautiful country, the weather was sunny but cool and the views were majestic.   The kids handled the horses well and aside from a sore ass we fared very well on the horses.    The four horses we had were Dude (dad), Buckey (bart), Chief (mom), and Stuball (lisa)

After a long day of hot air balloon, petroglyphs and horses, we headed back to the hotel suite for pizza and pool.   The heated jacuzzi was exquisite.

DAY 3

We opted to eat at the hotel for breakfast (since it was included with the stay) because we slept in after having awoken early the previous few days for activities but we ate quite a mouthful after a heavy week of fun.

After breakfast, our mission was to take the kids snowboarding at Sandia Peak.   We managed to make it before the ski resort shutdown for the season.   Friday would have been the last day so we got lucky snow had fallen the weekend before we arrived.

After the ski affair, we headed back to the hotel to rest for a bit.    In the evening we headed out to KIMO Theatre to see a rendition of a play called “La Llorona” which means the “wailing woman” and had a good time in the strange type of performance which involved a great deal of audience interaction.

We ended the night with a drive back from downtown Albuquerque to our hotel a little disappointed yet intrigued by what we had just seen….

DAY 4

The fourth day of our trip started with a drive to the train station so we could take a train to Santa Fe.   The train ride was fun and the views were spectacular.  Unbeknownst to me, we weren’t supposed to be taking photos of the native American lands we were crossing but I didn’t see what the big deal was since it was mostly desert terrain and nothing you can’t get from google earth anyway.

Upon arriving at Santa Fe, our first stop was the state capital.   We seem to always land in the capital city so we opted to take a quick look at the site.   As usual, the building was nice and posh, my..my what we can buy with taxpayer money!

After seeing the newest and likely most expensive building in the city, we headed to the oldest (and likely poorest) building in the city (and oldest church in America) the San Miguel church.

As churches go, there wasn’t anything different other than the really old construction with large wooden beams across the top of the ceiling to hold up the old style adobe roof.  Next door was one of the oldest houses in North America, an adobe mud home built in the mid 1600’s.

From there we went over to see the Miracle Staircase built by a carpenter for the nuns of the church.   The staircase is called a “miracle” because no nails or glue was used in the construction of the spiral staircase.    The picture shown however has a banister which was added later for safety (and it does include nails).

From the miraculous staircase, we walked over to the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis (hey, it’s an old Spanish town, whad’ya expect?).

After the church, we passed through the town square plaza which had many shops and street vendors selling a variety of items.  We confirmed that the prices here were 30% to 50% higher than Skip Maisels so if you want to do a lot of shopping and save money, go to Skip’s!  From the plaza we headed to the Georgia O’Keefe museum.  Did you know Georgia O’Keefe was from New Mexico?

After being erotically tantalized by O’keefe’s flowery imagery we headed back to the train station and took the train back to Bernalillo where we picked up our car and headed to Albuquerque for our last stay.

We had an uneventful dinner at Applebee’s then checked in to our hotel near the airport.   We were all very tired and had a very early flight the next day so we didn’t do much but repack our purchases and items for the journey home.

The lasting image I will have of our trip was seeing the sun set through the metallic statue at the car rental drop off location.    We had a great time.

Categories: New Mexico
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We chose the Hotel Kabuki because of the proximity to many of the areas we wanted to visit and because this hotel received high ratings on TripAdvisor but I must say I was a bit disappointed.   After a few things went wrong, I started keeping a list of issues on my iPad because I want to avoid this hotel in the future and wanted to remember why we didn’t want to stay here in the future.

First, we paid extra to get the club king which included a jacuzzi and unfortunately the jacuzzi would only work for 5 minutes at a time after which the jets would stop functioning.   As already mentioned, the hotel service at Izakaya Lounge was pretty bad and that added to the negatives for Kabuki.

The bed and room temperature were too uncomfortable and there seemed to be no way to adjust the temperature settings.

The internet, while free, didn’t work too well and I suspect there were too many users sharing the same connection.

The room had a bit of dated decor and carpet and is clearly in need of some investment and refresh.

I ended up getting a japanese massage down next to the hotel and was a bit disappointed as well.

Unfortunately, there are too many better choices to stay in San Francisco so if you don’t mind the items above it may be to your liking but otherwise you may be best staying elsewhere.

Categories: San Francisco
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After Christmas this year, we went for a quick visit to San Francisco to get away for a few days.    Our day started on Tuesday night when we got to our hotel, the Kabuki, in Japantown.   We chose this hotel to try something different and to be closer to some of the activities we planned on doing the following few days.   A review of the hotel will be posted in a separate post.

Since we were staying in Japantown, our first stop was to a non-traditional Japanese restaurant, Bennihana’s.   As you might expect, the food there was the same as to any other Bennihana’s in almost just about every city.  We had a drink at the bar then headed to our table where we met a couple that was staying at the same hotel and planning on going to Alcatraz the next day.

The next day we awaited our tour bus from Extranomical Tours to take us to Meir Woods and Sonoma for some wine tasting tours.   The bus ended up being 30 minutes late and had we known that we would have slept in a little bit.   I was surprised that the tour bus was quite full and there weren’t too many empty seats.   Next time, we might take a private limo tour for a bit more flexibility in the tour.

Our first stop was the Meir woods where we got to explore the amazing redwood forest.  Those trees were gigantic and the ambient temperature was quite cool as the trees provide ample shade and are nestled in a valley.  We spent about an hour at the woods and purchased a few souvenirs to take back home.

Our second stop was the Jacuzzi wine vineyards where we sampled some decent wines but not enough to buy any.  Actually, we didn’t buy any wine because we didn’t want to check luggage and the TSA no longer allows liquids on board a plane.  The facilities were quite nice but it was clearly far too touristy as the whole environment seemed to be geared toward selling items but we had a good time nonetheless.

After visiting Jacuzzi, we headed over to Sonoma to have lunch and tour the town.

We did a some shopping there and tasted some more wines.  Unfortunately not too many were to my liking.

After spending a few hours in Sonoma we headed back toward San Francisco and stopped at Cline winery where we did find two good wines, “House Reds” was one of my favorite wines and will be ordering online from them sometime soon.

After the Cline visit, we headed back to San Francisco and made a stop at the Golden Gate Bridge to take some photos but unfortunately the fogged rolled in and obscured any view of the bridge except for the pointy tips of the bridge.

We got dropped off back at our hotel and had dinner at the hotel’s restaurant Izakaya Lounge where the food was mediocre and the service was equally the same.   There was only one waiter for a full restaurant and the bartender was new and didn’t know much.   We did get comped a free glass of wines after all the screw ups with our order but we were quite tired to complain too much however we won’t be eating there again.

On Thursday we decided to explore San Francisco so we walked a few blocks to Van Ness Ave & California where we boarded the San Francisco cable car.  We took that all the way down to the financial district and visited the area but ultimately took a ferry to Sausalito where we did quite a bit of shopping for clothing and other items.

After spending the better part of the morning and afternoon at Sausalito, we took a different ferry back and ended up at Pier 39.  The area was full of very specific shops such as a market for KeyChains, Socks, and Lefty’s!  We did get to see the famous seals that lazily lay on the pier all day long as well.

After Pier 39, we took a cab over to Chinatown where we walked through the area looking for some good bargains or interesting items but didn’t find too much that we could easily carry back home with us that day.    We ended up back on California Street where we once again too the cable car back toward our hotel and walked the rest of the way.

For dinner on Thursday night, we took a walk over to Woodhouse Fish Co. which is a quaint little restaurant with great food and great service!

On Friday, we headed back home seated in first class…this last one bit is for the kids 😉

Categories: San Francisco
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During our stay in Washington D.C. we stayed at the Embassy Suites on 10th street.

Embassy Suites Washington D.C. – Convention Center 900 10th Street Northwest, Washington D.C., DC 20001 (202) 739-2099

We chose this hotel because it was one of the few “kid friendly” hotels in Washington D.C. which offered a separate bedroom and a living with a sofa bed.   The room also had a fridge and microwave.    In addition, this hotel had a fitness center, a pool and a jacuzzi.

The hotel is also located about five blocks from the White House and a few blocks from shopping, restaurants and in close proximity to many of the main Washington monuments.   In theory, everything was within a 20 minute walk but we often took taxis or drove because of the sun and heat.

The hotel rate was $294.76 per night and a room tax of $42.74 per night.  We also had to valet our car which was an additional $35/day charge.  Oh and there is a parking tax on top of that of $4.20.   The grand total for each night stay was $376.70 per night!  Our final bill here was $1700 which included a couple of $100 dinners.

Categories: Hotels, Washington District of Columbia
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Our time in New York was considerable fun and during our entire stay, we stayed at the DoubleTree Hilton Times Square and the hotel was great.   It is located right on time square close to shopping, restaurants, the gray line buses and broadway shows.

Doubletree Guest Suites Times Square 1568 Broadway (at 47th Street), New York, NY 10036 (212) 719-1600

The hotel does have a few quirks:

First, you take two elevators to get up to your room.  The main entry way has a guard and you need to show your hotel room key to get up the first elevator which takes you up to the lobby.    From the lobby, you take a second bank of elevators that take you up to your room.   We were on the 27th floor and Marge complained of headaches while we stayed there until another guest mentioned opening the windows to let fresh air in which seemed to do the trick.    There *may* be some type of mold in the recirculated air so my advice is to OPEN THE WINDOW when you get there periodically to clean the air out.

The biggest con of course is the cost of the hotel.   The room rate was $421.52 per night.   Add State Sales tax of $37.41 and a city sales tax of $24.76 per night in additional to an occupancy tax of $4.00 and Javits Center tax of $1.50 and you’re looking at a real night rate of $489.19 PER NIGHT!

Of course, it all depends on how you look at it because if you stay at a hotel further away from Times Square and you’re taking taxis back and forth then the rate quickly becomes comparable to other potential expenses.

I’d also add that this hotel included a separate living room and bedroom and had a sofa bed so having two rooms was a benefit as well.   The room also had a fridge to keep drinks cool.   Our final bill here was close to $2500 for a five night stay.

Categories: Hotels, New York
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We checked out of the hotel this morning and headed to Baltimore.   I’ll write a review of the hotels from our trip once we return home but this one has a lion that bites!

We wanted to be near our airport (BWI) and we had a few hours to kill so we hung out at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.  Similar to Navy Pier in Chicago although not anywhere near as entertaining.   The harbor does have restaurants, shopping and a few water rides; the kids couldn’t pass up the water dragons.

And check out the guns on this battleship.

Boom! Boom!  Fire Power!

For lunch we went over to Nick’s Seafood located in the Cross Street Market where the kids downed some Snow King crab and Marge and I had some King crab and fried soft crab!

We’re at the airport on our way home…. All photos will be added to the photo gallery this weekend when we get faster internet!

Categories: Washington District of Columbia
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Happy Birthday Marge!   Today is Marge’s birthday so we had a great dinner tonight (more on that later).   We started the day with a visit to Arlington Cemetery.

We came to visit one of Marge’s high school classmates that was killed in Somalia in 1993.

Bart said a nice prayer since he is currently Chaplin for his troop and we paid our respects to the dead before we left.  Our next stop was Mount Vernon, the original estate of George Washington.

The estate was amazing and I never knew George Washington had such opulence.   This guy had a lot to lose so no wonder he gave it his all to be free!

The views from Mount Vernon are spectacular no matter where you look.   The Potomac is fairly serene as the backdrop to this wondrous estate.

After spending the better part of the day on Mount Vernon, we drove back to D.C. to celebrate Marge’s birthday at Fogo De Ciao.   We invited my cousin to the party and we all had a great time and a marvelous Malbec from Argentina.

We fly out late tomorrow and we’ll probably spend the day in Baltimore checking out the city after we leave our hotel but we’ll see how the day turns out.

Categories: Washington District of Columbia
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We had a full day of adventures today…we started out by taking a taxi over to the Washington monument (hint:  driving your rental car is twice as expensive because of parking so take a taxi!).

After checking out the scenic views from the Washington Monument, we headed over to the Jefferson Memorial which was a nice walk despite the heat.

From the Jefferson Memorial, we walked over to the Roosevelt Memorial and captured some nice pictures as we walked along the basin.

After visiting and resting at the Roosevelt Memorial, we headed over to the Korea War Memorial where we found two uncanny ghosts of my grandfather and cousin on the wall.

After stopping at the Korean War Memorial, we climbed up to the Lincoln Memorial.

We picked up a few souvenirs at the Lincoln Memorial and walked through the Vietnam Memorial.

We read a few of the thousands of names on the wall and carried on our journey to explore Washington D.C.   We stopped at the park for some rest and snacks and gave the leftovers to the ducks (shhh…don’t tell anyone).

After our rest and play with the ducks, we went over to see the World War II Memorial.   I have to admit, most of these memorials are new or expanded than the last time I visited Washington D.C. about 20 years ago.   A lot has changed as well, security is tight everywhere and it’s a hassle to go through metal detectors and have your bags x-ray’d at every single site!

From the World War II Memorial, we headed over to the White House to visit Barack Obama.

Unfortunately, our idiot representative failed to get us the appropriate passes in time for our visit.  I’ll be voting against the moron at the next election so no Barack 🙁 but we got to see the grounds of the White House from a distance.

We headed over to lunch at a nearby Potbelly a few blocks away from the White House then headed over to the hotel for some rest since it was only five blocks away.

After an hour rest at the Hotel, we headed over to the National Gallery Art Museum to capture some more images for my iPad and check out the art work.  We bought some jewelry and other items at the gallery.

After the art gallery we headed back to the hotel where the kids went into the pool to relax and rejuvenate while I ordered pizza for the crew.   It was a long day and we have another full day tomorrow in D.C.  so more will follow….

Categories: Washington District of Columbia
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Well today is actually our second day in Washington D.C. but our first day was the trip from New York to D.C.   We didn’t do much other than drive into the city, check into the hotel, and do some laundry at a nearby laundry mat.   Our choice was to pack for 10 days of travel or 5 days of travel with a wash day so we chose the wash day.

Actually, we spent our “first” day with the kids at the pool followed by dinner at the hotel restaurant and a nice bottle of Tierra Secreta Malbec from Argentina!

Our “second” first day was spent traveling to the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum to check out the planes.   Bart chose to fly the 360 degree flight simulator while I got on board the more subtle F-18 simulator with no 360 spinning!   Meanwhile the girls checked out the museum…

We also opted to see an IMAX show called Hubble 3D and the show was pretty spectacular!

After the Smithsonian, we headed down to Capital Hill to check out the Senate in action.   Unfortunately, all we really got to see from the Senate gallery was Senator Dick Durbin sing praises about Leon Panetta about becoming the next Secretary of Defense.  Seriously, Durbin was slobering all over Panetta, these guys need to get a room…

Unfortunately, no photography, note taking or anything else is pretty much allowed in the Senate gallery so I have no photos other than the video that will eventually show up on CSPAN at some point for this day.   Nevertheless, we were able to take photos outside the building!

While inside the capital building we were required to watch a video about the legislative process while informative a bit oppressive.    The last time I visited Capital Hill in the 90’s I was allowed to roam freely by just walking in and out but now there are at least three security check points and going anywhere is a hassle….so much for open government!

The capital hill dome (above).  The capital hill figure “Freedom” pictured below.  This guy sits on top of the dome too!

After Capital Hill, we did a quick look at the Supreme Court and opted not to go inside and deal with the security hassle!

Tomorrow, we’ll head over to the Washington Monument,  Lincoln Memorial, and White House and perhaps the Jefferson Memorial if time allows!

Categories: Washington District of Columbia
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Essentially our last day in New York as we head over to Washington D.C. tomorrow morning.   Given my back problems we started the day with me going over to a massage spa to relieve the pressure on my back muscles.   The massage worked pretty well as I am mobile again and not walking crooked.

Meanwhile, the kids took a walk about around time square to take it all in before we leave.

Of course, the kids did horse around while waiting for the broadway show, The Lion King today….

After all the horse play, we headed to the Minksoff theatre to watch The Lion King.    Because of my back injury, I didn’t know if I would be going but because I felt better I went to the standby booth to try to get a ticket for the sold out show.   Fortunately I found a seat but it wasn’t in the box seats with the rest of the family so I really lucked out!

I thought the show would be for the little kiddies but it ended up being a pretty good show and one of the few shows on Broadway that is appropriate for young kids, most are adult oriented and not family friendly which is why I think it sells out fairly frequently.

We’ve had a great time in New York taking in a couple of Broadway shows, shopping, fun and relaxation but the kids thought the city was a bit too busy and you can see what they mean with the photo below.

We’ll need to come back some day to catch up on some more Broadway Shows.  I wanted to see the Book of Mormon but that was sold out for the entire time we were here as well.

We will be back!

Categories: New York
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