2007 Travel Adventures

Weekends in St Louis

2007-06-29T01:10:09Z

Anheuser Busch Brewery

Weekends in St Louis remains copyright of the author ScottEspos, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Cards Opening Day Weekend

2007-04-14T00:36:07Z

St Louis is a HUGE Baseball Town, and I had the pleasure of being invited up to the Luxury Suite that PwC has for Opening Day against the Mets! Dad was in town visiting, so they invited him to come along as well. The box at the new stadium is really nice, and comes with plasma TVs inside and out, as well as 12 large, comfortable seats outside. The fridge was fully stocked with beers, soda and water, and the Food kept coming throughout the entire game. Unfortunately, the Cardinals lost, but we got to see a great game and some exciting pre-game ceremonies, such as the unveiling of the new World Champions sign in Right Field, the parading of the Clydesdales around the field, and the return of about 12 hall of fame Cardinals including Stan Musial, Bob Gibson, Bruce Sooter, and many others.

Here are some of the pictures from the game:

Throughout the Weekend, we also did some fun work for a good cause. Dad brought out Pink Bandanas from his "Relay for Life" Team, which participates in the 2-day walkathon raising money for Cancer Research. The Team had an ongoing contest to see who could take the most creative pictures with their Bandanas.

Dad and I took these pictures when we first arrived at the park:

Cards Opening Day Weekend remains copyright of the author ScottEspos, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Weekends in St Louis

2007-03-26T04:21:43Z

So I was supposed to go home the weekend of 3/16, but my flight got canceled due to snow in Hartford. It was all for the best, as I had been out way too late Thursday night, and the afternoon in bed was much needed on Friday.... Plus, flying solo in St Louis for the weekend wasn't so bad since I had the NCAA Tourney on TV, Tiger Woods on the PS2 and plenty of blogging to catch up on!

Weekend of 3/23
Steph came out this weekend, and got to enjoy the luxuries of the New Athletic Club that I recently joined out here. After a long day at the Gym/Spa getting in shape and getting massaged, she picked me up from work and we headed into downtown St Louis for some NCAA Regional tournament action! We had pretty good seats, and got to see Florida vs. Butler and Oregon vs. UNLV. The Sweet 16 games were exciting, and we knew whomever won we would be watching again on Sunday.

After a great night on Friday, we hit the St Louis Zoo on Saturday afternoon. The 80 degree weather took us by surprise, but it felt great to be out in the sun!

"Steph and the Wild Ass" (No joke - The sign for this untamed Donkey referred to it as the Wild Ass)

After a wonderful dinner in "The Hill", St Louis' Little Italy, we slept in on Sunday, did some shopping, and headed back downtown for the Elite 8 match-up between Florida and Oregon for a trip to the Final Four.

Once Florida ran away with the victory, we hung around to see to post-game celebrations, trophy presentation, and cutting down of the net.

Weekends in St Louis remains copyright of the author ScottEspos, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Past Few Weekends

2007-03-20T03:21:37Z

So I don't have any pictures to post, but I figured I'd add an update with my recent adventures.

Weekend of 2/25
After my 2 weeks in Seattle, I got to spend a weekend in St Louis finally! Steph came out to visit, but the weather was cold and rainy, so we didn't get to explore the city too much. After a weekend that was entirely too short, Steph jumped on a plane and headed back to CT Sunday afternoon. Little did we know that her connection through Newark would result in her getting stuck in a snow storm and delayed indefinitely! At 11:00 at night we all scrambled around trying to find her an alternate way to get home. We eventually found her a car service, and she got into CT in the early hours of Monday morning.

Week of 2/28
I had another workshop to run this week, but luckily it was in St Louis for a change. It was really nice to get the chance to spend a week in my apartment. After all, I'd had it for 5 weeks now and only spent a total of about 5 night there! Of course this was my first taste of living alone during the week, and I actually had to grocery shop and cook (Ugh). Who knew I depended on Steph so much to take care of me (besides her of course).

Weekend of 3/2
I was excited to get home and enjoy some time with Steph, and things were getting even better when I went standby on the early flight and got into CT Friday around 3pm. Once I got home and kicked up my feet, I talked to Steph and found out that Jeanna and Adam were at the Hospital having their new baby!! We ate some dinner and waited around for the call, and sure enough around 9:30 they told us that we had a new niece. Of course, we quickly got into the car and headed down to meet her. Meredith was just as beautiful as her big sister, and we spent a little time with her before heading home for the night.

On Saturday Steph and I split up for a while, and I got a chance to hang out with Adam and see their new house (and mis-direct the movers to all of the wrong rooms - not like they listened anyway). The house is great, and the move went smoothly, so we were feeling pretty good come afternoon. Steph spent the day shopping with Grace, and then the four of us all met up at the Hospital in the afternoon. Grace was ecstatic to see her new little sister, and Steph and I enjoyed the chance to spend some time with the growing Doherty family. It was an early night, and I unfortunately had to get up early the next day to head out.

Sunday morning, I had to pack up my stuff and head back to the airport for my long, cross-country flight. I got into Orange County airport, just south of LA, late Sunday evening, and it was back to the daily grind come Monday morning with another new workshop class in attendance.

Week of 3/5
The weather was gorgeous out in Seal Beach, even though I was spending my days in a stuffy conference room. We went out at nights, and it was great to wear short-sleeves and walk along the beach without being chilly. The workshop team and I got to enjoy some fantastic dinners, including "Sparks" grill on the ocean and the Brazilian all-you-can-eat Steakhouse (yes, I did predictable eat way too much).

The workshop went really well, and I was feeling good about the week when I headed for home on Friday afternoon. I had long anticipated my trip home, as the coach section of the flight had been sold out, and I had been forced to book first class (I know, rough life). It was the first time that I ever flew first class, and what a difference! I thought it was a joke when the stewardess brought me out warm nuts and fresh-from-the-oven chocolate chip cookies. Of course, I was even more impressed by the fact that Dennis Rodman was sitting in the seat behind me!

The trip home got even better when I ran into a co-worker at the Dallas airport during my layover. I switched seats with the guy sitting next to him, and we got a chance to catch up during the flight back (over a full dinner and dessert complete with wine and coffee!).

Weekend of 3/9
My Friday was shot when I landed at midnight and got home just after 12:30. Steph was a good sport and came to pick me up at the airport, so I got to avoid the 30 minute taxi ride. Saturday morning we slept in for the first time in a long time, and once we got up we headed into New Haven to meet Matt and Francesca at the train station. We stopped off at the Glenwood and got lobster rolls and hot dogs, picked Matt and Francesca up, and headed over to Steph's Grandparent's house for the day. The ladies went shopping, and the guys lounged around and watched sports all day (very tedious). It was nice to get to catch up with everybody, and the Italian pastry didn't hurt either!

Sunday was the first weekend-day in a long time that I didn't have to travel, so it felt nice to spend the day at home. with my flight back to St Louis scheduled for Monday morning, Steph and I got to spend the day just relaxing and catching up on things around the house.

Week of 3/12
This week represented my last workshop (Woo Hoo), so I was pretty excited to get though it and move on. The work will be very similar going forward, but it will be much more one-on-one than me in the front of a room with 20 participants asking me for guidance (Mystery solved - I wouldn't like teaching). The workshop was a success, and the participants took Tim (my co-facilitator) and me out for drinks on Thursday night. After a night of one too any drinks, I skipped the office and dragged myself directly to the airport Friday morning in anticipation of my 11:30 flight. It was a blast sitting around, watching my flight get delayed, wondering if I'd ever make it home....

Around 12:30 the flight finally got canceled, and I hopped in a cab and headed back to my apartment. Due to the weather, all of the flights heading back to the Northeast were canceled, so my chances of getting home were nil. Normally, I wouldn't have minded, but Steph's dad was in town, Matt and Francesca were planning on coming up, Jeanna and Adam were going to have everyone over to spend some time with Grace and Meredith, and there was a typical Johnson-style family gathering planned for West Haven on Friday night (who would pass up on that?).

The one good part of getting stuck in St Louis for the weekend was getting some much needed R&R. I even got out and found a Gym to join near my apartment.

Past Few Weekends remains copyright of the author ScottEspos, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Weekend in Seattle (Continued)

2007-02-22T06:19:57Z

On Saturday afternoon, I took one of the famous "Duck Tours" of the city. I got some great views both from the land and the water, and the trip was a lot of fun!

Drove right past the park:

This is the boat I wanted to buy for Steph and I. It's perfect - room for two to live, bike on the back, lounge chairs on the porch, there are even 2 lounge chairs on the top deck for soaking up the rays!

One of the many sea planes that I saw up close when we were on the lake:

How often do you see a dog in a lifejacket on the front of a boat?

Views looking back at the city:

I'm guessing this boat's pretty slow.....

Great View of the Space Needle

Sailboat out for a ride

This building's interesting look caught my eye

Sharp looking wooden boat

This is a popular kite-flying park on the Lake

View of the Mountains looking through the Tallest bridge in Seattle

The variety of the lake amazed me - there were kayaks 20 feet from yachts 20 feet from sea planes landing and taking off, all while looking at the city skyline in one direction and the mountains in the other.

These are something that I had never seen before - floating houses! These houses literally float on top of the water, and average about 2000 square feet at a cost of just over a million dollars:

I Guess if you can afford the house, you can afford an equally large boat....

Cool mural in the city (apparently just outside of Wallingford):

Weekend in Seattle (Continued) remains copyright of the author ScottEspos, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Weekend in Seattle

2007-02-22T06:24:02Z

Since I had back-to-back workshops in Seattle the weeks of 2/12 and 2/19, I spent the weekend in between out there. On Saturday morning, I was up early and decided to take some pictures of the view. I am staying at the Westin Bellevue, about 10 miles outside of Seattle. Visible from my room on the 17th floor, to the South East, is Mount Rainier. These pictures were taken at (and just after) Sunrise:

Later on Saturday, I went down into Seattle Center to see the Space Needle. I had a great day for riding up to the observation deck due to the clear skies and warm weather (Highs in the 60's). The Observation deck of the Space Needle is 620 feet up. The ride up is in a glass elevator, attached on the back to the needle, allowing for beautiful views during the 30 second ride.

Here are a few photos of the Space Needle from the ground below it. If you look closely in the first one, you'll see an orange car about 90% of the way up. That's one of the elevators.

Once I was up at the top, there's an outside observation deck that wraps full circle around for viewing in all directions. There are also many free telescopes for use, allowing for great viewing of the surrounding areas. These pictures were taken on my first trip up around 1:00 pm.

Seattle Skyline - Note the 2 Sports domes on the right (Safeco Field, home to the Seattle Mariners and QWest Field, home to the Seattle Seahawks).

Close-Up of the sports domes and Mt Rainier in the background:

Across Puget Sound, to the West, is the beautiful Olympic National Park. This park is amazingly diverse, as it has Rainforests, miles of Pacific Ocean Coastline, and the Glacial Peaks of the Olympic Mountains. I was hoping to visit the park, but called and found out they had over 100 inches of snow this year already!!

One of the more interesting things that I learned while in Seattle is that they have the highest per capita boat population in the nation. Check out this concentration of boats:

Just to give you some perspective on the height:

Looking out to the East / Northeast is the picturesque Lake Washington. Beyond the Lake, to the Northeast, is North Cascades National Park, home to Glacier Peak, a Volcano standing over 10,500 feet. North Cascades Park extends all the way up to Canada.

One of the coolest things that I saw out there were the Sea planes. Although I've never seen one in the east, they have them everywhere out here, and if you watch the lake for 5 minutes you're sure to see one landing or taking off. I managed to get a picture of one taking off from Lake Washington (Just beyond the sail boats):

On Lake Washington, not only is the boat concentration impressive, but so are the calibre of the boats:

Across the Lake due East is the city of Bellevue, where I stayed during my trip. The Westin is the tallest building in town, so it's relatively easy to spot in the photo:

Weekend in Seattle remains copyright of the author ScottEspos, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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