Chris' Travel Videos » Ramblings – Not Videos

Art-o-mat

chris — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 18:00:46 +0000

Spotted at the Cosmopolitan hotel in Las Vegas. They’ve converted old cigarette vending machines in to “fine art” vending machines. $5 for whatever art is in there. Cool concept, but I wonder how many customers they really get?

Cool Vending Machines in Japan Video

In-N-Out Burger Christmas Cards

chris — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 01:23:46 +0000

In-Out-Burger every year gives out Christmas cards to their frequent customers. Today I walked in to In-N-Out, and one of the employees walks up to me and says “Hey — I see you come in here all the time. Happy Holidays” and hands me the 2010 In-N-Out Christmas Card. This picture is of the 2010 In-N-Out Christmas card, on my Christmas tree. You’ll also notice my In-N-Out Christmas ornaments, the double-double, the medium drink, and french fries.

Can you tell that I’m an In-N-Out addict? I’ve managed to collect Christmas Cards from In-N-Out from as far back as 2002. Check the pictures of my In-N-Out Burger Christmas Cards.

[Watch Slideshow]

2002 Card

2002 Inside

2003 Card

2003 Inside

2004 card

2004 inside

2005 card

2005 inside

2006 card

2006 inside

2007 card

2007 inside

2008 card

2008 inside

2009 card

2009 inside

2010 card with ornaments

Pictures from Toulon France

chris — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 22:20:39 +0000

I spent a day exploring the town of Toulon in Southern France. Here are some pictures from the cable car, and a view from the mountain atop Toulon.

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Representing In-N-Out at White Castle

chris — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 00:51:11 +0000

Today is the 2nd day of my drive back to San Diego from Washington DC. Passing through Indiana, I saw a sign off the freeway advertising a White Castle Burger at the next exit. I’ve always wanted to try White Castle, but I’ve never been in a region of the country that has them before. Well, I have to say that overall I was truly unimpressed by this burger. It seemed only fittting that i had one of my In-N-Out shirts on while taking this picture to represent what a good burger should be.

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Washington DC Cherry Blossoms 2010

chris — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 22:42:30 +0000

The annual Cherry Blossom Festival begins in Washington DC this weekend, and the blossoms are starting to bloom. Below are some pictures I took walking around the tidal basin by the Jefferson Memorial today.

[Watch Slideshow]

Snowy Monuments

chris — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:15:12 +0000

So I was walking along the National Mall today — and came across two very cool snow sculptures. A snow Capital building — and a snow Washington Monument. Check it out, with the real Capital and monument in the background of the respective pictures.

Washington DC Snowpocalypse Pictures

Washington DC Snowpocalypse Pictures

chris — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 05:00:44 +0000

Feb 6, 2010 — a historic day. The day of the Washington DC Snowpocalypse. Over 2 feet of snow. The 4th largest snowfall in a single day in Washington DC History. No video — as it’s really hard to shoot good video in a blizzard, but check out some of these pictures.

Cavalia — Horse Show — Mini Review

chris — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:51:59 +0000

Yesterday I went to see Cavalia — which is essentially Cirque Du Soleil with horses.

I saw the Cavalia tent go up about a month ago — it’s right across the freeway from the Pentagon. You can see some of the horses just below the tent.

I thought it would be intriguing to see the show, but of course I was cheap . But then to my surprise, in the elevator in my apartment was a sign that said “Come see Cavalia for 50% off this Friday and Saturday for residents.” Sweet!

I went to see the Saturday night show. I bought one of the “blue” area tickets — normal price $100 — 50% off $50.

The first thing upon entering the tent is that it’s huge. Really impressive to see such a tent on the inside.

The show started with some trivia — How many horses are in the Cavalia stables? 64. How many are mares? 0. All Cavalia horses are male.

The show alternates between acrobatics with horses, and acrobatics without horses. The parts with the horses were pretty cool.

But why does every Cirque Du Soleil type show have to have girls twirling in the air? How does this add to a horse show?

So was it worth the $50? Sure. How many times am I going to be able to see an acrobatic horse show after all? Would it have been worth $100? Not really.

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66 Bobs Noodle Review

chris — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 23:11:29 +0000

I was up in Rockville, MD today (10 miles north of DC) and had heard that Rockville is the “New Chinatown” for the Washington DC area. So of course I had to stop and get some tastey chinese food. One of the places that garners the best reviews in the area is 66 Bobs Noodle — a Taiwanese noodle restaurant.

I have two benchmarks for a good chinese restaurant

1 – crowdedness — if all the tables are taken, and people are waiting to be seated, it must be good.

2 – ratio of asians to non-asians – if the restaurant is filled with chinese people, again it must be good.

Realizing that by eating at a “good chinese restaurant” I influence the ratio of asians to non-asians, it sometimes makes me wonder if when other people walk in, and see me eating in the restaurant, they think to themselves — “Oh no — a white person, this place can’t possibly be good!”

Another random observation that I made about this restaurant, is that it is Taiwenese owned. How can I tell? Well, after eating in a number of Taiwaenese establishments, it’s pretty easy to tell… How? Just look around the restaurant for one person standing around, dressed fairly casually (jeans/sweat peants), and bossing around all of the waiters that are dressed nicely in dress shirts and ties. 66 Bob’s Noodle was no exception, as the owner was standing in back, wearing a polo shirt and jeans and “observing” his restaurant from afar.

So enough with the obversations — and on to the food. Since the name of the place has “noodle” in it, I figured I needed to get noodles. I ordered the Noodle Soup with Chicken, Pork, and Vegetables. I asked the waiter whether they could add wontons to my soup. It was at this point that the waiter looked very concerned — said “just a moment” — and walked over to the casually dressed guy in the corner (the owner!). When the waiter came back he said “Okay… wonton $2?”. I should sure — and 3-4 minutes later I had a bowl of piping hot soup on my table. That’s what I call service.

The broth was quite good and rich… and the noodles had a good texture. Total bill only $9. Cheap Cheap Cheap.

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Loews Uptown 1 Review

chris — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 15:58:16 +0000

Today I went to see the newest Quentin Tarantino movie, Inglourious Basterds. Being new to the DC area, I had to do some investigation on what are the good/sucky theaters around… Because we all know that not all movie theaters are created equally. I ended up going to Loews Uptown 1 — the largest single screen movie theater in DC.

Definitely some history here — this is the only theater I’ve been in that has a balcony (which is where I am sitting and writng this blog entry). Sitting here brings me back to a time when theaters only had one ticket booth and the restrooms weren’t restrooms, but “lounges” with sofas.

The theater seats around 1,000 folks… and the screen is HUGE — so big that it curves in order to fit in the building. Definitely a cool place to see a movie.

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