Naples Italy is known for beautiful sights, crazy drivers, but most importantly, it’s trash problem.
Since 2007 Naples has had issues with it’s trash collection. Trash overflows the dumpsters and trash cans due to lack of landfill space, and mafia control of the waste management industry. See for yourself with this video how truly smelly it can be!
The Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas Nevada is the world’s largest arcade dedicated to pinball machines.
This video shows off some of the highlights of the pinball hall of fame. There are over 150+ pinball machines, all in great playable condition. They have some pretty unique machines there, including the Pinball Circus, only 3 of this machine were ever made.
The Pinball Hall of Fame is located at 1610 E. Tropicana, Las Vegas NV 89119, just 1.5 miles south of the MGM Grand Hotel on the strip.
This video is another oldie but goodie. Shot in 2005 — this is video from a day of really big waves at The Wedge in Newport Beach, CA.
The Wedge is at the southern most tip of the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach. It is called the wedge, because of the wedge that is made where the sand of the beach ends, and a rock jetty comes out in the ocean. The particular angle of the jetty causes the waves to double or triple in size when the wave energy reflects off of the jetty. When the waves are big, the lifeguards only allow bodysurfing during the afternoon. But after 6pm, they allow surfboards and boogie boards, and all chaos ensues. Check out the video!
The Forbidden City in Beijing China is the old imperial palace for the emperors from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty.
This video shows highlights from the Forbidden city. The Forbidden City is right next to Tian’men square. A quick tour of the Forbidden City can be done in a few hours, but you could easily spend an entire day. The palace itself has 8,707 rooms. It’s impossible to see it all, but it’s definitely a sight to be seen!
Opening up the time machine, here’s a video from a trip that I took to Taipei Taiwan back in 2007.
This video features scenes from Taipei 101 — one of the world’s tallest buildings, XiMenDing — the hangout area for teenagers in Taipei, a visit to MaoKong for some traditional Chinese tea, and a visit to a Night Market. The video concludes with a visit to LongShan Temple, and an overview of food typical to Taiwan, including Xiao Long Bao from Din Tai Fung, Shaved Ice from Ice Monster, and Banana Milk.
The Temple of Heaven complex is a popular tourist destination in Beijing China.
This video shows highlights from the Temple of Heaven and Temple of Heaven Park. Surrounding the temples is a large park that is popular for residents of Beijing, and within the center of the park are two really cool round buildings, the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, and the Imperial Vault of Heaven. Definitely worth a stop on a trip to Beijing.
The DongHuaMen Night Market in Beijing China is the place to eat all sorts of strange things.
This video of the DongHuaMen Night Market shows off the highlights of the market. Scorpion on a Stick, Starfish on a Stick, and Sheep’s penis on a stick, just to name a few of the really weird food items on sale here. The night market is located on WangFuJing, which is considered to be the main tourist street in Beijing. Every stall in the nightmarket has Chinese and English signs and menus, so it’s pretty friendly for tourists. Although I’m not really sure that *I’d* eat anything there.
This video shows highlights of the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall of China. On my visit to Beijing, I of course wanted to check out the Great Wall. After reading numerous trip reports, I decided that the section at Mutianyu although lesser visited, would be better because it is less touristy, and has some pretty cool watch towers.
From our hotel at the JW Marriott, we took a group tour that picked up at our hotel, stopped at the Ming Tombs, visited a Chinese Medicine Store, stopped at a Jade Factory, had a pretty mediocre Chinese lunch at the Jade Factory and then arrived at the Great Wall at about 2pm.
On a recent trip to Beijing China, I stayed at the JW Marriott Beijing and put a video together of the room. So if you’d like to *see* what the hotel and room look like, check it out in the video below.
The JW Marriott Beijing is located just a 3 minute walk from the DaWang Lu station on the Beijing Subway Red Line or Line 1. From there, it’s about a 10 minute ride to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. The hotel itself is built next door to the Ritz Carlton hotel, and also adjacent to China Central Mall, and ShinKong Place.
The JW Marriott Beijing is a relatively new hotel, built in 2007. It’s a 5-star hotel, and it’s definitely one of the best Marriotts that I have stayed in.
We reserved the “VIP Limousine” transportation from the airport to the hotel. The cost is 600 CNY, and is well worth it. An airport greeter met us at the jetway from the plane, holding a sign with my name on it. He then walked us through security, and baggage claim. We then proceeded to a “special” transportation lobby, that is stocked with black Audi sedans. We hopped in an Audi, and the first 5 minutes of the drive was on a nice, wide, uncrowded freeway. But oh how that so quickly turned in to the typical Beijing traffic snarl of standstill traffic. Luckily our driver decided to drive on the freeway shoulder, and got us to the hotel in about 30 minutes. I’d highly recommend reserving this method of transport to the hotel, as Beijing taxi’s really leave quite a bit to be desired. Many Beijing taxi’s don’t even have working seat-belts, and trust me, you’ll want them! 
Upon arrival at the hotel, our luggage was taken by a bellhop, and we were directed to the check-in counter. Being that this is China, not only did they request our passports, but they also scanned them in to the computer. After one of the most inefficient check-in processes of any Marriott I’ve stayed in, we were on our way to our room on the executive level, floor 20.
The room itself was very nicely appointed with traditional JW Marriott bedding. It was clean, modern, and quite spacious. Being the executive floor, there were 2 complimentary bottles of water, and 2 apples on the coffee table. Our room was a double room, it had two beds, two leather chairs, a coffee table, a desk, a flat panel television, and not one, but two closets. The room also has a mini-bar/small refrigerator and a tea making set in the cabinet under the television. Ice is available upon request from the housekeeping staff.
A very nice touch was that the room included power outlets and voltages for almost every plug imaginable. Next to the desk was a console on the wall that had sockets for 110, 220, US, European, etc.
The curtains in the room are really cool. They open from a push button console near the nightstand. One button open and closes the main black-out curtain, and another button open/closes the sheer curtain.
The bathroom was quite large, and had a seperate bathtub and shower. The shower had dual showerheads, a regular one, and a top-down rain head. There was also a television in the bathroom, viewable from the bathtub.
Our room was very quiet — I didn’t hear a single thing from outside of our room. Very peaceful, just the way I like it.
The concierge lounge is open from 6am – midnight, 7 days a week. Breakfast, dinner, and desert are served every day of the week. The food spread at the lounge is quite impressive, but Platinum members can also have breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant downstairs which is even more impressive. Definitely the best Marriott breakfast that I’ve had. It rivals a Las Vegas hotel buffet.
The Marriott shares a Spa and Fitness Center with the Ritz Carlton. While I didn’t go in to the Spa, it looked pretty nice from the outside.
I highly recommend staying at the JW Marriott Beijing if your travels take you to Beijing in the future.
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.
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