Seattle: Race For Home

We arrived late last night into the city of Seattle. Getting here was a bit of an adventure. Originally we planned on booking the train, but that turned out to be rather expensive, at $360 for the both of us. Plus, the trip was going to be 22 hours long! Not something either of us really wanted to look forward to. So we tried some alternatives. Renting a car in San Francisco and dropping it back in Seattle was going to be $360 as well, plus the cost of gas on top of that. And it would mean driving for 12 hours for Claire, again, not an ideal situation. The bus was a 20 hour journey, was cheaper, but we'd be stuck in our seat for the whole time.

And then Claire, being the genius that she is, checked out the obvious alternative.

Thanks to the simply wonderful Alaska Airlines, we flew San Francisco to Seattle in under three hours, had comfy seating, loads of leg room, free beverages and snacks, excellent staff, spectacular views and an all-round pleasant and relaxing trip north.

Leaving San Francisco was tough. Leaving San Diego was tough, but we were heading to Vegas in a Corvette, so that lessened the impact some-what! Leaving Vegas wasn't too bad. It had been fun, but we had another long drive in the Corvette to look forward to, and far more importantly, we were on our way to Karen's! But leaving San Francisco... leaving Karen and her friends that we met. Leaving a great city, packed with places we had yet to see. That was tough.

But now we're with Cian in Seattle! We have time to explore yet another new city, and have PAX to look forward to! We have a good length of time left in our Epic Holiday(TM). But we are also in the closing stretch, heading for home.

And even with six weeks here, home has come too early.

Las Vegas- A Special Guest Post

Driving the Space Shuttle, by Claire Ryan
I expect the first thing I'll be asked when we get home is "What was it like to drive the Corvette?" Well, as I am ever ready to anticipate the needs of my fans, I've asked Denis to let me do a guest post all about it.

The Corvette is about 12 feet long and barely comes up to my waist. It has only two bucket seats and a small, limited space just behind that serves as the boot - this is not a vehicle for serious touring, unless you fancy doing it at 200mph and you're traveling light. It's an automatic, naturally, and has a sport mode for extra acceleration. The air conditioning and satnav are essentials in America, this being the land of blistering heat and an Escher-esque road system. Everything in this car is either adjustable or motorised, which was pretty cool; I especially liked the little switch that moved the seats forward and back. On the outside, it's yellow with a black racing stripe, has four exhausts, and looks like it's about to take off at any moment.

So - there is a single button to start the engine. Press it, and you are rewarded with a growl like a mildly annoyed Siberian tiger.

I am not kidding. Go annoy a Siberian tiger, record the sound, and compare it to a Corvette.

But what is it like to drive? The answer is simple - it's like driving a $60,000 sports car that can get from zero to sixty in the time it takes me to blow my nose. All comparisons break down. You might as well ask what it's like to drive the Space Shuttle - there's nothing like them and we don't have any in Ireland anyway. But if I must try to describe it... it's an amazingly smooth ride, more like you're flying instead of driving. In sport mode, the acceleration and response is nothing short of terrifying - I haven't tested it, but I'm sure I could make it turn on a dime. Even when you're just cruising along a street, the power of the V8 engine is scary. It feels like it's just waiting to take off like a rocket, and only your foot on the pedals are holding it back. I did not once put my foot all the way down; this car is a beast, and you do not want to just let it go.

That said, I did get up to some serious speed on the freeway - and that's when you can really appreciate the price tag of this thing. Get to sixty, seventy miles an hour and it just purrs away, but push it up over a hundred... You'll feel the big V8 suddenly shift to sixth, and be rewarded with a sudden surge of acceleration that'll carry you up to a hundred and twenty and beyond. The first time I did it was just pure gold - I remember laughing like an idiot, it was so incredible. And it roars like nothing on earth.

Having the opportunity to drive this car has been one of the best and easily the most terrifying experience of this trip. By this stage, I expect that Denis has put up that video of the first few moments of my driving the Corvette (I haven't, but it's coming- Ed.), which should give you some insight of how it feels to sit behind the wheel of such a car. The power and style of this machine is beyond anything I have ever driven; no car in Ireland will ever measure up to it, which leaves me in the unfortunate position of having to save all my pennies and possibly changing the motor laws so I can get one imported.

If you're planning to rent a vehicle in America anytime soon, go to the nearest Hertz place and just pay whatever they ask for this car. It's worth every second of pure awesomeness that you will spend behind the wheel.

San Francisco- New Post City

Well, after driving for six hours from Vegas to San Diego, then taking a combination of bus and train all the way to Oakland, we've arrived at the next leg of our journey, Oakland and San Francisco city.

We had two full days enjoying the city, as well as enjoying two days doing stuff with Karen and her friends, and I already have loads of stuff to write about. Of course, I also have more to write about from San Diego and Vegas, though most of you probably already know the big news out of Vegas. So there's so much to write, and so little time to do it.

Plus, I've been uploading photos from San Diego, which takes a lot of time. I'm still not through the SDCC sets!

More to come soon.

San Diego- Farewell

I still have lots to say about San Diego, but our time here is nearly up. I still need to blog about the zoo and SeaWorld, both of which as ace attractions, and reason enough for visiting San Diego.

But tomorrow we hire our rent-a-car and head out into the scorching desert sun, toward the jewel of the Nevada desert, Las Vegas. We'll be spending four nights sweating buckets in our hotel room by day, and then out and about on the Strip, still sweating buckets. Vegas at night is, by all accounts, no cooler than Vegas by day.

I think our hotel has free wifi as well, so we should have no problem sending mails and updating bogs. I might even get some time during the day to write the longer blogs that the zoo and SeaWorld require.

We'll see.

San Diego- Some Observations

While walking or shopping in San Diego, Claire and I noticed a few things that Americans do differently to the Irish.

• Pharmacies not only sell all the stuff our chemist sells, but also groceries and, wait for it... alcohol!! Seriously. A full section devoted to it. Weird!
• You can continue driving through a red light as long as you are turning right, and the way is clear.
• The bus and tram system is spotlessly clean! No-one litters or defaces the seats. Nice. And they are generally bang on time. Also, the tram system is called trolleys here.
  
• Starbucks coffee is yummy, but their tea is not.
• While most "Irish" pubs are hilarious, The Field on 5th Street is actually ok! It has a great "Ulster Breakfast", which consists of egg, scrambled or fried, rashers, sausage, pudding, roaster potato, Heinz beans and tomato, though I asked for no tomato. And it has ok tea as well! Not bad.
• San Diego people love their sushi. I wish Cork people did as well, but I understand the difference between fresh caught fish in beautiful Mission Bay, and fresh caught fish in Cork harbor. Euck!
• Toilet bowels are full of water and empty when you flush.
• They use a weird powder called creamer in tea and coffee instead of milk far too often!!
• They put all sorts of wierd stuff on pretzles, including mustard!!
  

Americans. An odd but nice bunch.

San Diego- Baseball

I've mentioned that we went to a baseball game twice now, but haven't actually talked about it. You might be thinking that that is because we didn't have a good time, but you would be wrong.

After arriving at USA Hostel, we discovered that the Monday night event was to go see the home baseball team, the Padres, playing in the local statium, Petco Park. So Claire and I signed up, and tagged along with 11 others from the Hostel, including some staff, to enjoy the game. The Padres were playing against the Arizona Dimondbacks, and so far, their season has been pretty poor, according to those that knew anything about the game.

We all had a blast! The group was sitting across two rows, covering six in one row, and seven directly behnd them, so we were all close together, having a god laugh. The game started slow, but we got to see a few homeruns, the bases were loaded twice and, in the end, the Padres won! This caused a lot of excitement, and really added to a great night.

But more than just the game, we had a lot of fun. I got asked to warn the guy sitting in front of me when I was about to make a smart comment, as my "Put him down like a $10 hooker" comment almost caused him to spray a mouthful of beer on the row in front of him.

And July was $1 coke and hotdogs!! So Claire and I had ourselves a feast for four bucks!

We experienced the "7th Inning Stretch", where everyone gets upand stretches and dances to "Shake It up, Baby". We threw ourselves about for the "Dance For The Cam" in an attempt to get on the JumboTron. We hurled (mock) insults at the opposing team, and cheered on a great game from the home side. In general, we had an incedible night!

Claire and I bought Padres shirts today (expensive, but worth it!), and plan on going to the game either Friday, when the old mascot, the chicken makes a long awaited return, or Saturday for free t-shirts!! Not sure which we want more. Which would you guys go to?

San Diego- The First Day

First thing we did Monday morning after SDCC was move accommodation to the USA Hostel on 5th Street. That's where we started meeting new people and got to see our first ever baseball game, which was great.

But before that, we went out shopping! This pretty much consisted of heading out to an escher-esk mall near the hostel, Horton Plaza. It's really worth seeing. Stairs and escalators criss-crossing each other, needing to go up to get down, seeing places you want to get to across the plaza, but not immediately seeing how to get to them, all sorts of crazy! But there are, like most American malls I imagine, a lot to see and do within it's boundaries, which covers the best part of two whole blocks.

In fact, it's pretty crazy. There was a Panda Express and Panda Restaurant, and two GameStops that I could see! Panda, by the way is a chain of Chinese food places, and the restaurant in Horton Plaza is really nice, with great, friendly staff.

Anyway, we spent a while shopping and eating. I picked up some nice t-shirts in Hot Topic, a store I've heard about many times, but never seen. Claire spent some time in Macy's. But generally, we just hung around and wasted time until we headed back to the hostel, where we ended up meeting three Irish guys, and joining a group for a baseball game!

*Although the image accompanying this post shows me drinking coffee, it is taken inside Horton Plaza, thus the relevance! It is also the first cup of Starbucks I ever drank. A moment worth capturing... sorta...

SDCC- The Experience

There really isn't much point in trying to describe what an amazing time we had at Comic Con International, San Diego, 2008. It's difficult to describe, and would take far too long to type. Besides, most of the stories will go up on my Flickr account as the photos go up. When it comes to the guests and people lining places like Artists Alley, lets just leave it at "Incredible, unbelievable, nice, friendly and warm" and move on. They'll get their time in the spotlight as the photos go up.

Instead, I want to talk about our fellow attendees. Over the course of the four days we met literally hundreds of people, either at the con, or on the trolly's or buses to and from the event. All of them were amazing, nice people who shared our enjoyment of the weekend and loved to exchange stories and tips with others. We had a lovely time meeting them all, and if any of them happen to ever find this blog, Claire and I want to thank them.

I especially liked meeting Daniel and his family, who we bumped into not once, but an unbelievable three times over two days! In an event with 125,000 attendees, this was astonishing. We also had a great time talking to Ryan and Taleya at the Adult Swim party. We were sharing a table, and ended up sharing some really great moments. Plus, it turns out that Ryan is a sculptor, and will be working for Hasbro in the near future! How awesome is that?!?

Beyond that, there are just far too many to name that we met on buses and trolleys, or indeed, while queuing for stuff. We spent over an hour chatting to various people while in line to meet Hideo Kojima, and while meeting him was cool, meeting those fellow con attendees was actually far cooler. We got chatting with people from all over the world, including a large group from Ireland that were working at the con as event staff. We met a great person on the way in to the con on the first morning that walked us to the door and gave us loads of tips and recommendations. She was so incredibly helpful, and we can't thank her enough for helping two very lost looking Irish holiday-ers. Or the couple from New York that we got talking to on the way back from the con on Saturday, only to realise they were getting off at the same stop, then discovering they were staying in the same hotel, and they were in 206, while we had 207!! And the nice person on the bus on Sunday morning that took us to a Borders to buy me a new sketch book. She was great fun, and Claire and her swapped email address'. Also, she recognised my Jamie Madrox Multiple Man t-shirt, so that was cool!!

And then today we arrived in USA Hostel and ended up in a room with two guys from Dublin, Gary and Niall!! We ended up going to a baseball game with a big group from the hostel and having a great night!! I only wish we could have spent more time in the hostel during the con, but we have six more days ahead of us to meet and make new friends.

Looking good so far!