Sabbatical Success

So I'm about to head back to the San Diego airport and mark the end of an incredible month. It's been filled with some amazing adventures and experiences and I hope I did an ok job of bringing you with me. Along the way I've been trying to give views exactly as I saw them, but of course I saved some photos of the friends and family that enjoyed the trip with me.

So enjoy this video, shout out to Animoto.com, and thanks to everyone who followed along, hope you enjoyed. Until next time...

Born to Sail - San Diego

My last full day in San Diego had to be one of the best days of the trip. Slept in until lunch and then headed to the marina to go out sailing with my mom. I'm so excited the schedulling worked out because I'd been looking forward to going out on the water. We sailed around the harbor and out into the ocean for nearly 5 hours! We also got some kayaking in which was pretty amazing.

Enjoy this pics, and know I enjoyed this day!

PETCO Park - Home of the Padres

Downtown San Diego seems to be doing a lot of things right, and PETCO Park is a great example. We went to the Padres-Diamondbacks game last night and the feel of the park was amazing. Easily the best stadium I've seen a game at, and no doubt the cleanest one.

We had great seats and a great dinner during the Padres not so great game. But the fans stuck around and supported their team all the way to the bottom of the 9th, 2-out, homerun the Padres knocked out of the park for a respectable 5-1 loss. Check out some pictures around and outside the stadium.

San Diego Tour

Yesterday we hopped on the San Diego Old Town Trolley early in the morning and spent the whole day exploring the city. It was another long one, but we spent some time in Coronado and a large chuck of the afternoon in Old Town seeing some really great stuff. I got a little caught up and didn't take a ton of pictures, but I really enjoyed the day.

As appears the tradition, we were shuttled to the historical Hotel Del Coronado first and the tour gave some amazing facts along the way. The size of the hotel alone is worth seeing, at over 130 years old it's bigger than most new properties anyone would ever build. Really cool.

A Long Day in San Diego

So we definitely hit the ground running today when we arrived in San Diego. After a quick drop-off at the hotel, we had lunch and headed straight to the San Diego Zoo. It was a dream of mine to go to this zoo since I was a little kid watching shows about it, and while I probably would've appreciated it even more at age 7, it was still awesome. Hands down the largest zoo I've been to and I didn't even bother taking too many pictures. Just wanted to enjoy the day and finally being here.

After the zoo completely dominated us for over 4 hours I came straight back to the hotel and went to bed before heading to dinner. We went to a Thai restaurant, Rama, that was recommended by the concierge and I thought it was a good pick, right up my alley. Check out a few pictures from the day and expect many more tomorrow.

The US Grant - San Diego

Sorry for the downtime everyone, but the last few days in Bali and coming home have been unbelievably relaxed and I appreciated the rest. But alas, the last leg of the sabbatical month is underway and I arrived in San Diego with my mom this morning. To my surprise the US Grant had our rooms ready to go even though we arrived around 11. This was awesome and I appreciate the accommodation.

The hotel is pretty great. I thought the hotel was a part of the historical collection, but it's officially a part of Starwood's Luxury Collection so it has all the trimmings of a St. Regis. Very classic style, but what's stood out is the amazing art collection in the rooms and throughout the building. Of course I got a few shots for the blog, do enjoy, this is a sleeper hit for me!

Monkey Forest - Bali

Things I learned about Bali:

1) If you tell someone you're from America they will reply with "Ah, Barack Obama!". They love our president (more than we do) and will remind you that he learned everything he needed to know while in Indonesia.

2) If you American, you from New York City. At first it bothered me that the only city Indonesians know offhand is NYC, but then I realized an average American would be lucky to know a single Indonesian city outside of Jakarta.

3) There's some definite American envy going on here. Multiple people made comments about how big and strong America was compared to Indonesia. One guy even complimented how things are made smaller here because they're not big, strong Americans like me. Maybe he just wanted a tip, but it's a little uncomfortable.

4) Traffic is far worse here than anywhere in the US. One of the first questions I got was whether the traffic in Bali reminded me of home; it's not even close. This place is a driving nightmare 24 hours a day, even more reason to stay at your hotel.

5) The same $3 meal in a village will cost you $20 at your hotel. That $18 drink at your hotel costs about $6 at the bar across the street. I must say the W made it very hard to want to leave the compound, but the upcharge is outrageous. We didn't have a single dinner under a million rupiah. Yikes!

6) Monkeys are cute (if not vicious). Sorry to digress, but we had the chance to visit one of the popular monkey forests while in Ubud. And despite seeing one of these on "When Vacations Attack" I still went along and snapped a few shots for you all. Enjoy.

Hanging Around Bali

So this amazing leg of the trip is coming to a close and I have spent an outrageous amount of time sleeping and relaxing in Bali. The sound of the waves (which are more like trucks crashing) 24 hours a day has a soothing effect that puts me at peace.

But alas I did manage to get out one day and visit the village/city of Ubud which features many of the things you come to expect in Bali and the tourist destination everyone is filtered to. It's pretty nice that you get a driver/guide for however many hours you need and they take you around for less than $20/hr. We were out for about 7 hours, 4 of those being in the horrendous Bali traffic, but we enjoyed the experience nonetheless.

Here's a few things from our outings...

One of the first things you notice about Bali is the extraordinary amount of temples everywhere you look. From small temples for a person or two, to massive ones for large ceremonies, you can't go very far without seeing a stone temple. We were able to stop by one on the way to Ubud and check our the amazing artistry that goes into these sites on a large scale.

Starfish Bloo - Bali Dinner

The W just doesn't want to let us leave the resort compound so we stuck around for dinner last night. I heard a lot about their in-house restaurant before I got here so I was more than happy to check it out. Sadly, I was sooo hungry that I didn't even think to take pictures of all the food before we started eating. But you'll get the gist and also see what 1.8 million rupiah buys you!

W Retreat & Spa Bali - Seminyak

My apologies for the major delay in posts. Bali has taken all drive away from me and I've been sleeping more than I've been awake since I've gotten here. But when you see this W Retreat, you won't be so upset with me. My goal today is to actually leave the hotel and get back on these mean streets of Bali, but that has yet to be confirmed.

I have some shots around the property and then you can check out the room below that. Enjoy!