The Fremont Troll is a large 15 tall sculpture of a troll that lives under a bridge in Seattle Washington.
The Troll is located under the Aurora bridge that carries state route 99, in the neighborhood of Fremont. The Troll was originally built in the 1990′s to clean up an area that had become a haven for drug dealers. Now it’s a haven for tourists!
This is definitely one of those “wild and wacky” things to do in Seattle. But if you’re like me, and you like the quirky attractions, go check out the Fremont Troll.
The main beach in Corona Del Mar is a 1/2 mile sandy beach in Newport Beach, CA.
This video is an overview for visitors to the Main Beach in Corona Del Mar. Corona Del Mar is popular with ocean swimmers, sun bathers, and body boarders. It is a great beach in Newport Beach that is often less crowded than the Balboa Peninsula.
Posted 3 weeks, 3 days ago at 9:31 pm. Add a comment
On my last trip to Ireland I stayed at the Lawcus Farm Guest House — an old Irish farm that has been converted in to a bed and breakfast.
The Lawcus Farm Guest House is located in Kilkenny County Ireland, about a 2 hour drive south of the Dublin Airport. It is definitely located in a rural part of Ireland, so driving is the only way to get here.
The Lawcus Farm has a few farm animals on the property including pigs, sheep, chickens, cows, and horses. Although the farm aspect is more of a hobby of the owners rather than a real “working” farm, it is still a nice addition to the bed and breakfast.
The guest house itself is a renovated stone building with a new all-glass kitchen. In addition to the kitchen, there is also a living/sitting room that is part of the common areas of the guest house. I booked a double room, which was one of 2 rooms that are upstairs.
The room itself was small, but functional. There was a double bed, a small television, and a fireplace. There was also a really small bathroom that had an even smaller shower. It’s not the Marriott that’s for sure — but it’s also a farm, so I’ll cut them a little slack here. The bed wasn’t really very comfortable, but after a 12 hour flight to get here, I was pretty tired, so that didn’t matter. The room was very quiet — I didn’t hear any other neighbors or noises during the night. The room had 2 windows, one on each side that could be opened to get a cross breeze.
The breakfast was served in the kitchen that was a custom addition to the farm house. The kitchen is all glass, with glass walls, and a glass ceiling. There are about 5-6 tables in the kitchen. The breakfast served is a full Irish breakfast with toast, eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, mushrooms, tomatos, and blood pudding. A pretty filling way to start the day. Cereal and fresh fruit were also available for those folks “on a diet.”
The guest house doesn’t take credit cards, so payment can only be made in cash. Our room was 100 Euro. Pretty reasonable considering it included breakfast as well. Although next time I think I’d pay 50 euro more for one of the bigger rooms.
Overall I’d highly recommend staying here. The rural farm aspect of this place was truly one of the highlights of our trip to Ireland. The owners are also super friendly, and chatting with them over breakfast made our trip to Ireland seem even friendlier.
On a recent trip to Ireland, I stayed at the Shelbourne Dublin Renaissance Hotel.
Below is the written review of the hotel which goes in to much more detail – however a picture is worth 1000 words, and a video is worth 1000 pictures – so watch the video .
The Shelbourne is a historic hotel built in 1824 located in the city center of Dublin Ireland, across of the St. Stephens Green Park. Getting to the hotel from Dublin airport is very convenient using the Air Coach bus. It leaves from Dublin airport, and stops just about one block from the hotel. The bus trip takes about 30-40 minutes and the stop for the Shelbourne is about the 4th stop.
Gold and platinum members get a free full Irish Breakfast in the Saddle Room only on weekdays. The full Irish breakfast consists of eggs, pancakes, waffles, mushrooms, bacon, sausage, and black/white (blood) pudding. It was a very good breakfast, but I’d only recommend the breakfast from the saddle room if you’re getting it for free, because the regular price is over 30 Euro per person. The concierge lounge is currently under construction and is scheduled to open in 2012. In the interim, gold and platinum guests receive 2 free drink vouchers from the hotel bar. The drink vouchers can be redeemed for any “regular” alcoholic drinks. Since it is Ireland after all, Jameson Whiskey and Guinness are the logical choices in the bar.
The Shelbourne is well known for the afternoon tea at “Lord Mayors Lounge.” In addition to tea, Lord Mayors lounge also serves breakfast and snacks. I had the oatmeal on one of the weekend mornings that I couldn’t get a free breakfast. The oatmeal was served with lavender honey, and was truly one of the best bowls of oatmeal I’ve ever heard. I would highly recommend the oatmeal! The scones and jam are also pretty tasty if you’re in to that kind of thing. The oatmeal is also available on the buffet in the saddle room.
The hotel gym is a bit of an oddity, because the gym consists of three converted hotel rooms. They’ve converted one hotel room in to a weight room with weight lifting equipment. Another room has been converted in to a Cardiovascular room with tread mills, and the final gym room has bicycles and an elliptical machine.
In the hotel rooms, the bed had very nice comfortable sheets. Also in the room was a flat panel television, a desk, and good size closets. The bathroom in my room was recently remodeled and had a combined bathtub and shower. I asked for a quiet room, so I had a view of the courtyard. Indeed my room was also very quiet. The air conditioning and heating also both worked well in the room.
As a platinum member I got a choice of welcome gift. For my beverage I chose the chilled Erdinger, a beer. For my snack, I chose the “Selection of Irish Fruits.” The room also comes with a four bottles of complimentary Irish water. Two of the bottles are still water, and two of the bottles are sparkling water. Each day the bottled water was replenished by the housekeeping staff which is nice for those of us that are thirsty.
Ice machines are not available in the hotel, but ice is available by calling the housekeeping staff. I was actually quite amazed at how quick the staff would bring the ice up to my room. Usually the ice would arrive with one or two minutes.
Overall the Shelbourne is a very lovely, historic hotel in the heart of Dublin.
Posted 1 month, 1 week ago at 12:41 am. Add a comment
On a recent trip to Paris I did a video trip report of my stay at the Paris Renaissance Arc De Triomphe Hotel on youtube here:
Below is the written trip report which goes in to even greater detail.
The hotel is located convienently just about 3 blocks from the Arc De Triomphe and the Champs Elysee. A taxi to the hotel from CDG airport is about 45 Euro (not during rush hour). Or a cheap and also convienent alternative is to take the Air France bus, direct from the Airport to the Arc De Triomphe for about 13 euro, and then walk three blocks. Note, when you take the Air France bus, take the bus from the airport that stops at the “Etoille.” Charles De Gualle Etoille is the name of the metro stop at the Arc De Triomphe, so those names are often used interchangeably for the location. Also the metro here is very convienent, because metro Line 1 stops at the Etoille, which can be used to get the Louvre, and many of the other touristy sites in Paris. And for those of you that can’t live without McDonalds and/or Starbucks, both are within 2 blocks of the hotel as well.
The hotel itself is has a modern architecture and style with a bit of French / Asian fusion flair. It’s 8 stories tall, and the street side has a set of curvy/wavy windows that glow at night. The lobby is surrounded in dark wood tones, with red and yellow lighting that are meant to simulate candles. The lobby itself is small as most Paris hotels are, but is typically very well staffed. There were often not one, but two doormen that would open the doors to the hotel upon my arrival.
Off of the lobby is the hotel’s restaurant, Makkasar. A French/asian fusion restaurant. As the hotel doesn’t have a concierge lounge, Gold and Platinum members get a free breakfast in the restaurant on weekdays. The breakfast is a full American breakfast that was really quite good. The breakfast included eggs, pancakes, sausages, oatmeal, mushrooms, potatoes, fruits, yogurts, cereal, and typical French pastries.
I had e-mailed the hotel a couple days before arrival asking for an early check-in at 9am. When I arrived at 9am, it wasn’t quite ready, but was ready within 15 minutes of my arrival. It’s really nice to be able to check in early after a long flight from the US – so this really earned the hotel extra points in my opinion. Most hotels in Paris are pretty strict on the “no check-ins before 3pm” rule. As a platinum member, I was offered my choice of welcome gift. I picked 2 glasses of iced tea, and chocolates. The iced tea was a very interesting cinnamon flavored tea. But I think it’s a different type of iced tea each day.
Heading up to my room, I went in to one of the two hotel elevators. Each elevator glows in a different color…… one glows with blue neon, and the other glows with red neon. The blue elevator is a bit more soothing than the red one.
The room itself was relatively spacious, and continued with the dark wood tones from the lobby with bright pink accents on the bed. The room had the standard amenities, king bed, desk, desk chair, side chair. The room has a mini-bar that is only half-full, which leaves room for any beverages that you might want to keep cold. Two interesting items for sale on top of the mini-bar were an umbrella, and a power plug adapter.
My sleep quality in the room was great. The room itself was very quiet. The bed was comfy. The air conditioning was cold when I wanted it to be, and warm when I wanted it to be warm. Unlike many Paris hotels, the air conditioning and/or heat works all year round here. Many older hotels in Paris will only offer heat *or* air conditioning depending upon the time of the year, which is always sucky on those hot days in the middle of winter when the air conditioning doesn’t work.
The bathroom was nice and new, although a little dark as far as the lighting was concerned. The tub/shower had the typical French half/glass curtain. I always find these weird, because water seems to get everywhere when you don’t have a full curtain in the shower…. But maybe I’m just a messy shower taker. One of the coolest things in the room was actually in the bathroom… in the corner there was a piece of art with half of the Eiffel tower on it, then a mirror that reflected it, and made a whole Eiffel tower. See the video to understand what I mean.
My room faced the interior courtyard of the hotel, so it also had a small balcony with a table and single chair. I always like being able to get fresh air in to a room, so the balcony was nice.
The hotel really went overboard with the turn-down service each evening. My first evening, the turndown service included the regular chocolate you might expect, but also a bottle of wine, some olives, chips, and a small metal notepad. Each night the chocolates and office supply item were different, and there was also a printed weather forecast for the next day. My 2nd evening, there was the chocolate again, and also another notepad, but this time with post-it notes inside. And on my final evening, again the chocolate, and a paper holder to be used on a desk. I’ve never been in a hotel with office supplies as part of the turndown service… but I was always excited to come back to the room to see what was going to show up that evening. Much better than the just the standard mint on the pillow.
Each floor of the hotel has its own small ice machine, that in addition to dispensing ice, also dispenses filtered water.
My only real complaint staying here is that the internet was extremely slow. I don’t know if they were having issues, but it took like 15 minutes to download a 5 megabyte file. For a high-end hotel, this is really something they should fix.
Overall a very nice hotel, in a convenient location in central Paris. I’ve also stayed at the Marriott Rive Gauche, and the Renaissance Trocadero, and this one is my favorite of the three.
The Galeries Lafayette and Printemps department stores in Paris France setup spectacular displays and decorations in their windows for the Christmas holiday season.
This year in 2011, the displays were both animated with marionette puppets and music to go with the display. Galeries Lafayette’s theme this year was Un Noël à Paris, Noel Rock’n Mode, with displays based on a rock-n-roll band going on tour. Printemps windows were much more artistic, with an asian themed wiindow, a photo-shoot themed window, and an airport themed window. These windows are definitely a must-see if you’re in Paris for the holiday season, starting about mid-November.
Posted 2 months, 1 week ago at 1:46 am. Add a comment
Like an adult version of a fun-house mirror, the Cloud Gate sculpture is one of Chicago’s coolest tourist attractions.
The sculpture was completed in 2006 with a total construction cost of $23 Million. Affectionally known by Chicago locals as “the bean”, the artist thinks that name is “stupid”, and called it Cloud Gate because it acts as a type of gate that helps bridge the space between the sky and the viewer.
It’s composed of 168 stainless steel plates welded together that are highlight polished and have no visible seams.
Some people say it was inspired by liquid mercury, I think it really was inspired my fun house mirrors .
Posted 2 months, 3 weeks ago at 3:38 pm. Add a comment
This unique and quirky California State Park is located at the southern coastal edge of San Diego, where the beach meets the border fence with Mexico. In this video, I hike from the entry gate at Monument Road, to the beach, and then along the beach to the border fence and border monument.
The Border Field State Park is a part of San Diego that very people see. It’s a most bizarre area that is characterized by farms, horse ranches, and the border patrol. On the United States side of the border, there’s really not much. However, Mexico is built right up to the border fence. The beach on the United States side is empty, and there are often signs that warn of contaminated water. On the Mexico side, the beach is always filled with people, having fun, laughing, swimming, etc. In addition to hiking to the monument, this park is also popular with bird watchers and horse riders because it is a part of the Tijuana River Estuarine Research Reserve.
Visiting the park can be a somewhat unwelcoming, but rewarding experience. Don’t let the lack of a grand entry/welcome deter you. I think most people get to the locked entry gate and just turn away. Armed with the information here, and in this video you’ll be able to make it to the monument and see a side of San Diego that most people never get to see.
The entry gate is located at the end of Monument Rd. In theory, the gate is supposed to be open from 9am-6pm on weekends. However, the road in the park is often flooded, and the gate is rarely open. While the state is seeking $4 million to fix the road, access is only via foot, bike, or horseback. You’ll end up parking at the entrance gate, next to the one sign that says “Border Field State Park.” When you arrive at the locked gate at the end of the road, you’ll be tempted to go on a path to the left, because it looks like a hiking path, and has a little wooden sign box that most hiking trails begin with. Resist your urge to go on that path on the left, because that’s actual a border patrol trail. Instead, continue on foot on the road you were driving on before hitting the locked gate. Continue on foot down the road for about 1/2 mile. You’ll be heading west towards the ocean, and will reach a point where the paved road makes a 90 degree turn to the south. Instead of following the road, continue west on the dirt path for another 3/4 of mile until you reach the beach. From the beach, look to your left, and you’ll see the border fence about 1 mile down.
Once you reach the border fence, head on up to the hill side on your left. There is *ALWAYS* a Border Patrol truck stationed on this hill for obvious reasons. This hill is known as Monument Mesa, because it’s where the 258th border monument is located. People used to be able to walk up directly to the monument, which straddles the border. Unfortunately a few years ago, the border patrol erected another fence about 20 feet back from the original border fence. Access to the monument itself is now only between the hours of 10am and 2pm on Saturday and Sunday. Bummer. To find the monument, Look for the gate, and sign that says “Maximum Occupancy 25.” The monument will be directly behind that gate.
Getting to Border Field State Park:
The easiest way to get there from Interstate-5 is to Exit Dairy Mart Road (exit #2)
Head Southwest on Dairy Mart Road. Dairy Mart Road will curve right onto Monument Road. Turn right (West) on Monument Road until you reach the park entrance.
Posted 3 months, 1 week ago at 10:12 pm. Add a comment
Disneyland is awesome during the holidays, and Halloween is a great one!
Every year Disneyland decorates the entire park with pumpkins, ghouls, and ghosts. Visit Space Mountain, aka Ghost Galaxy, the Haunted Mansion Holiday, and take a ride down Main Street with all of it’s holiday decorations. Around the statue of Walt Disney, there are 7 pumpkins, each with a different Disney character carved in to it.
Posted 3 months, 3 weeks ago at 10:32 pm. Add a comment
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