June 26, 2013
The Exhibitor list for this year’s Comic-Con has been posted. Time to start plotting who to visit, which booths to patronize.
Does this ever get old? Normally the answer would be *insane cackle* “Of course not.” And in a lot of ways, nope. It really doesn’t. Mecca, after all.
But even I have to admit, after the Badging Debacle of 2011 (wherein my intrepid beloved never-to-be-sufficiently-thanked husband sat up ALL NIGHT among hordes of other similarly intrepid fans to buy our tickets for 2012’s SDCC solely because he knew that the prospect of not going to SDCC the next year would cause me *hic hic hic* “But .. but .. ok .. but but” *hic hic* speech-impaired grief), and after the Sit at the Computer Ready for Anything and losing out on Preview Night 4-day passes Debacle of 2012, a little of my pure, shining, glorious joy in going to Mecca has been tarnished.
I hate crowds, I’m not a huge fan of people in general and you know how I feel about paying ridiculous prices. And yet I’ll plow headfirst into every one of those conditions for Comic-Con, because there’d always been something utterly uplifting about going to SD just for fun. The one time in my year when work wasn’t allowed, when it was completely about fun and nothing else. When it was ok to spend money on myself if I wanted to, and not spend 3 days looking for a bargain first, and then talking myself out of it.
Life isn’t nearly so bleak these days 🙂 but there’s something about keeping the traditions originally built into the Annual Pilgrimage that’s homey and comforting. I started out watching every penny, parking out back of beyond, staying with friends because they’re awesome, and buying gifts for people six months early because you can find unique gifts there. Most of it sort of stuck.
It’s the one time in the year we spend quality time with certain friends; it’s awesome if we can find good presents, or at least ideas, well ahead of Christmas; walking the Con floor from end to end is like navigating an obstacle course collecting bonus gifts on the way. It’s really too bad we can’t hit a box for bonus coins or lives but this is good enough.
In recent years, the Con has grown exponentially, promotional events and booths spilling over the edges of the Convention Center itself into neighboring hotels, into the Gaslamp District and clear through to PetCo Park. It’s a sight to see, I tell you.
The main casualty of this growth is their ability to properly sell tickets. It’s become a situation where attendees can’t buy tickets in a sane manner on site for the next year, the vendor managing sales cannot serve up tickets online only without servers collapsing under the weight of anxious buyers and no one knows how many of what kind of tickets will be sold at any given time. It’s a bit of a mess.
There’s no longer a guarantee that this year won’t be the last year that we can get tickets and that’s terribly dispiriting. It seems easier to get a ticket if you went the previous year because you get two shots at the ticket purchasing gauntlet so once you drop out of attending, you almost can’t plan to go back. (Pessimist.)
On the other hand, if this is the last year, we’re going to make the most of it. (And look, I typed that whole statement without having to hold my breath or tearing up. I’m finally making my peace with it. Probably.)
Which means: we’re staying at a hotel in the Gaslamp District at conference rates (only hotel we could get at the time), sharing out the cost by rooming with friends, and planning to make the most of what little time we have left. I have a lot more flexibility with regard to work than I ever have before, so there’s that.
:: Have you got any travel/fun-only traditions? Any that you’re going to have to (or have had to) let go of?
June 10, 2013
From top left, going clockwise…
Our three across the top are Happy Hour appetizers from a little place called Cactus, in Kailua. The waitstaff looked to be shorthanded: they were a bit harried and slow, though very nice. We never make it to Happy Hour anywhere on the mainland but took advantage of our slightly more relaxed schedule on “vacation”. They had both indoor and outdoor seating, and moderately good food. Our friend didn’t like half the dishes we order (by consensus, mind you!) but since I’ll eat just about anything once, it was good enough for me.
Happy Hour beer was a Negro Modelo for $3 (staff took the initiative to substitute it for the foamy and warm Dos Equis) and frozen margaritas were $4.
Meal for three: 7 appetizers and 3 drinks for a total of $32, tax and tip included.
Cactus (tripadvisor reviews)
767 Kailua Road Suite 106, Kailua, Oahu, HI
Lower right corner: sauteed mushrooms.
Honestly, I’m selfish. I don’t even want to tell you about this place because the wait is long enough now if you don’t get there early enough. But it’s pretty amazing. We did a family style dinner, ordering WAY too much food for two people: sauteed mushrooms, pan fried pork chops, fried rice. I don’t even like mushrooms and I would eat these every day and twice on Sunday.
This was much pricier than our usual meals up to that point, having eaten rather frugally, generally speaking.
Meal for two: 2 beverages, 3 entree sized dishes for $59.50, including tax and tip
Side Street Inn on Da Strip Kapahulu Ave (tripadvisor reviews)
614 Kapahulu Ave, #100, Honolulu, Oahu, HI
Middle bottom: plate lunches
We were searching for a musubi specialty place and ended up here. Ironically? Stupidly? The place we couldn’t find was actually called Iyasame Musubi. And Sugoi didn’t have any musubi at all. What the hell.
Anyway, we got great lunch plates anyway: an amazing garlic chicken and chicken katsu curry. Mmm.
Neither of us was a fan of the mac salad though, it was absolutely glued together with mayo. I’m a fan of mayo but not in that quantity.
Meal for two: 1 beverage, 2 mini lunch plates (1 scoop of rice, 1 scoop of mac salad, entree) for $15.50
Sugoi
1286 Kalani St. #B-106, Honolulu, HI
Bottom left corner: Taiwanese style shave ice
This is why I hate paying cash (aside from not getting points): I can’t remember where we went for shave ice and I have no credit card statement to refer back to. It was pretty good though. It was walking distance from the Hawaii Convention Center though.
We picked the mango combination flavor and shared between three people.
Middle left: Hot pot!
We were told that we couldn’t leave Honolulu without trying this hot pot restaurant. You get to pick your broth which is prepped and brought to the table, order meats from the servers, and fetch everything else (vegetables, seafood, seaweed, etc.) from the two fridge units. They also had a sauce station with about a dozen sauce options for you to mix and match. All my mixes were terrible. Turns out you really can go wrong when experimenting. But it was good.
Oh, and the funny thing? They get so much business that they actually put you on a dining clock. You’re allotted 90 minutes to eat and git! We didn’t keep very good track of our time so we overran by about ten minutes. The one server was pretty grumpy about it.
Meal for three: water all around, about 12 plates of meats, vegetables, noodles, mushrooms, seafood balls, tofu for ~$50.
Sweet Home Cafe
2334 S King St, Honolulu, HI 96826
Other great foods:
Leonard’s Malasadas: A dollar for either a sugar or a cinnamon sugar pastry. Absolutely AMAZING. We’ve decided a hot, fresh malasada is basically the best dessert in the world. [feast your eyes]
Rainbow Drive-in: A bit of a classic recommendation for plate lunches.
Honolulu Cookie Company: they have yummy shortbread cookies and bins of samples in their stores. Mmmmm….
Garlic shrimp trucks: You can find these on North Shore, there’s one in Waikiki and a great one on the way down to Lanikai from PCC.
PCC: If you’ve never done a luau, the Polynesian Cultural Center’s supposed to have a good one. I didn’t feel the need to go to another luau this time because I really just want the food and not the show, but they also have (rather expensive but good) Dole whips here.
Over to you: have you got any favorite Hawaii foods? Did I miss any crucial Must Eats in this list? Or favorite travel foods you’d go the distance to eat?
June 5, 2013
One of the perks of my current job… wait, no, the perk of my job is that as long as my responsibilities are covered, I can take time off whenever I’d like and as much as I’d like. The reason this perk is offered is because we’re “such a cool company” but in reality, in such a small company, coverage is harder to manage than you’d think.
Since much of my work is currently a combination of deadline work and “staying on top of things,” well, that’s as variable as it sounds. But I swore not to let an unlimited vacation policy go to waste, especially since there isn’t anything to accrue, and pay out at the end of the job.
Not terribly long after this resolution, the opportunity to test my workaholic self came up: friends were getting hitched in Hawaii and I have friends in Hawaii and I have friends going to Hawaii … what’d be more natural than a long (working) vacation in Hawaii?
I made my peace with leaving Doggle behind for two weeks, booked my flight and wrote up a budget.
Transportation: The flight was $415 RT. Not the best price I’ve ever seen but certainly quite as good as we were going to get booking that far in advance.
We needed a rental car and rental companies on Hawaii tend to be ridiculous. After stalking them for a while, and CarRentals.com, I scored a major deal.
The flight over was some kind of miserable. A mother behind me actually encouraged her bratly darlings to kick my seat and slam the tray behind me for four and a half hours. Apparently it kept them from screaming the whole way, or so she implied. It was about a miracle that I didn’t scream by the end of it when other passengers exclaimed about how “good” they were. So much for napping!
Housing: I shared lodgings with a dear friend for the first part of the trip and we experimented with AirBnB since all the hotels for around $100/night were … questionable. A bit sketchy, really. Part of that was because we stayed in Waikiki but I suspect that might have applied to just about any hotel on the island.
Splitting a $530 bill to stay at a host’s condo, complete with adorable dog, was an excellent alternative. I don’t know how people choose unreviewed places for the first time but I’m so glad someone took a chance on these hosts before us. We had easy walking access to the beach, grocery stores, a thousand ABC stores, essential dining like restaurants and malasadas. The only thing that was a bit frustrating was the parking situation but in the heart of Waikiki, we couldn’t be upset about having to pay for parking a few days out of the stay. At least we got 24 hour worth of parking out of any $15 parking fee, that salved the wound a bit. Plus I’d budgeted for $10/day originally.
Food and Dining: We ate breakfast at home, saving our pennies for the delicious snacks and meals later. Since I’m not big on breakfast anyway, a light bowl of cereal and fresh fruit enjoying the breeze was a perfect way to start any day. You’ll be treated to a rundown on the dining out later.
The thing that we always ruminate on when we go to Hawaii (“always”, like we go there regularly) is how expensive everything is – especially the food. Groceries are hardly more frugal than eating out, in some cases, and we’re not even talking about the Whole Foods type good stuff.
I brought my Honey Nut Cheerios from home, intending to eat it on the plane 🙂 but realized too late that I’d just make a mess. Saving it for later made it sting a little less when we had to pay astronomical prices for the milk to go with it: $4.60/half gallon, $9.60/gallon.
It’s common wisdom that you should always bring snacks and a water bottle from home to get you through the airport wait and flight, but I’ve been spoiled ordering snacks and meals on a few all-expenses-paid business trips. Those aren’t prices I’m willing to pay out of pocket by any stretch, especially considering what you get, but my palate forgets that it actually likes processed, packaged food when we get on a plane. Actually, I have to confess the biggest part of it is being both lazy and distracted before travel days so I don’t pack healthy fruit and nut snacks. Oh well, we can’t do what we should all the time, right?
In the end …
I couldn’t leave work behind entirely so I made the most of the trip by (oh so generously) sharing out part of my workload and only taking the most critical parts. I probably averaged about 2-3 hours of work a day, across a 7 day work week, and kept on top of just about everything that needed doing. The time zone thing was a bit of a challenge, though, so as usual, I reverted to nocturnal working hours to get the jump on my overseas colleagues. That worked well: play all day, work some at night.
The budget was roughed out at $70 of spending per day, though I had planned to spend less on my solo days. The two week trip came out to approximately $50/day (spending, not including transportation). Not too shabby considering the generally high cost of living and touristing.
Our biggest savings:
1. Staying with friends: we participate in the cycle of “crashing” life by offering our spare room to visitors pretty regularly, and so take up the offer of spare rooms from good friends without guilt. It also means that we spend time with the important people in our lives too. Win, all around! It’s not always possible of course, and we don’t impose if we can tell that they’re too busy or it’s a full house.
2. Being picky about being picky: We didn’t need to do anything fancy like dine at four or five star restaurants all the time. We like great food but we’re happy with unfancy good food too. Whether it’s a cheap plate lunch or a chef’s tasting, we enjoyed our meal and the experience for what it was. And there was no need to fight the crowds to find the “top-rated attractions” if there were other fun things to do, like the swap meet! We picked one or two important themes and stuck with it: Relax. Two beach days.
3. Not checking luggage: Aside from not paying extra fees, the limited baggage space kept us focused on only buying necessary souvenirs like thank you gifts and no more than one thing for ourselves. Of course, we did buy one extremely heavy thing that was an absolute bear to carry … best laid plans, hm?
Edit: Sunblock, guys. I forgot to say: never forget sunblock when you’re going to be out in the sun. Third sunburn of my life and I only just stopped peeling.
Over to you! Vacations and travel, what’s on your mind?
And follow eemusings as she continues her honeymoon around the world!
April 8, 2013
On a very quick visit to the Midwest…
A) I nearly shivered myself to pieces in the approximately 30 degree weather. Brrr. Brrr…. BRRRR….
B) Thankfully PiC really loves me and on a morning jaunt, scouted a Top Shop for me. Seriously, the guy remembered the one store where I like to get my leggings. My one pair of leggings I’ve ever bought. Thank goodness for the ridiculously good Patagonia jacket he found for me a couple years ago.
C) The Water Tower had a fun art exhibit and I had to document a few things for @CthulhuChick. Cthulhu-rabbit! Octo-heart?
D) What trip isn’t all about the food for me? Thanks to @aledonne for the recommendation, we stopped into Giordano’s for a few different pizzas. They were pretty good. Of course, I had to stop into Downtown Dogs for a Chicago dog appetizer ….
E) We also tried macaroni and cheese pizza, grilled chicken pesto pizza, and a fish fry. So. Good. (I want to eat mac and cheese pizza forever.)
F) My second old-fashioned with a cinnamon stick. You wouldn’t expect that a single detail like that would make a huge difference but it absolutely made the drink.
Except for the cold, I loved the city, the feel of fun and culture, and most definitely the food. We’ve been there on another quick trip in the past and were focused on Millenium Park and saw the famous Bean, etc., and I’ve worked in the city (again, briefly) and saw the Field Museum during a closed exhibit.
It feels like getting little very spaced-out nibbles of a vast and wonderful area.
Have you been to the Midwest? (I know some of you are FROM there!)
Next time, what would you recommend?
March 13, 2013
The Ferry Building is one of my favorite places to share with people. It is a tourist-traffic heavy location which isn’t usually my cup of tea but here that’s part of the fun; there’s usually some sort of performance artist(s) out front and the vendor stalls are always fresh, bright and stocked. The poorly lit photos here are down to my impromptu photography.
It’s best enjoyed at a slow meander, picking up a chip of chocolate or a taste of bread dipped in different flavors of olive oil, checking out the cheeses, desserts and fresh oysters on offer.
Food trucks line the pierside, produce and flower stalls interlock the front and back side of the Building.
The piles of fresh produce are positively enticing. Those vendors are no fools: plenty of fresh citrus wedges and apple slices were available for sampling. Even at those prices I still have to talk myself out of spending upwards of $4/lb for a bag of fruit or vegetables. They look so pretty. (Though microgreens for $24/lb? Really?)
There were canning jars that looked like a good deal at $3/jar. They’d be perfect for making ahead two-serving apple pies. If it weren’t for the thought of trying to take them home on BART without breaking them, they would have been mine.
Also, the flowers are so bright and cheerful, nestled in their big bundles, I was thistempted to buy the five bundles for $25 of tulips. Again, not being in the mood to schlep them home was pretty much my saving grace. Otherwise: flowers, jars, random veggies I’m not sure how to cook, even more chocolate…
Edit: I did go back this week to blow $100 on gifts. California honey,3 boxes of made in SF by a small business chocolates, apple butter, and a chunk of triple creme cheese. Just needs some bread and crackers to make a really good picnic. Except I can’t keep it. Drat.
March 4, 2013
I played tourist with some friends a while ago in Japantown… then I realized that I don’t live in Southern California anymore. I really am a tourist! So out came the camera.
There was a festival of some sort going on in the center of the plaza, so people and food stalls lined the walkways, ringing in the entertainment “venue”. There were so many Japanese pastries and treats! And cute little knickknacks that I’d never look at twice if it weren’t for the holidaying atmosphere. I had to stop myself from buying completely unnecessary things like (enormous) stuffed critters for Doggle to snuggle.
For the record: when you forgot to pack your bottled water, in genuine LA heat, cold bottled water for a dollar a bottle is very much not a ripoff.
This is where I got to try revolving belt sushi for the first time. You might think such a thing was terrible or you know, no more than a novelty to entertain children, perhaps, and you’d be half right. I was hugely entertained and it was actually pretty tasty.
The key was probably that they did a brisk business and so the sushi on the belts was constantly turning over. It’s no ridiculously good fancy-schmancy sushi, but it’s more than good enough to fill an empty roving touristy belly with a range of basic sushi options and a few delicacies like snow crab and toro.
Such a lovely way to top off a day with friends.
February 20, 2013
Y’ALL.
DISCOVERY! I’m super excited about this.
I’ve been booking travel, lodgings and car rentals for the year’s upcoming travel. “Seasoned” traveler that I am, you’d think that I would have remembered to try something like this before but nope, honestly, it was really just a mistake, a fluke.
My flight was originally booked for a Thursday instead of a Wednesday because once a year or two, I make a stupid mistake like that and book a flight or a hotel or the like for the wrong day. Luckily for me, United has instituted a 24-hour fee-free change period after purchase or this would be a very different post, full of chagrin and grumpy.
This time, my brain fizzle worked out wonderfully. The wrong dates, starting on the Thursday instead of Wednesday, were the dates I left entered into the car rental search page and just left there a few weeks back.
This was what I expected to pay:
Flipping through outdated tabs to close them out, the search page reloaded itself with new rates. My eyes about popped out and did a do-si-do.
Instead of the outrageous $40+ per day I had budgeted for, there was a quote for about $10/day! Even after all the ridiculous taxes and fees that get tacked on, we’d save about two thirds of the expected cost when all’s said and done just by doing without a car the first day.
I thought the difference was either: renting a car the day after triggers the special week-rate instead of a daily rate, even though it showed a much-improved daily rate and they even charge that for the extra day at the end there; or that special rates become active on that specific date. I’m leaning toward the week-rate thing, personally.
The full rental is still more than two full weeks but changing how it’s booked does this:
Start the rental on Wednesday, pay about $53/day every day.
Start the rental on Thursday, pay about $20/day every day.
This isn’t usually a luxury that can be enjoyed while traveling but thankfully, we’re booked to stay at an AirBNB place where the hosts are willing to offer a ride or two. That flexibility lets us spend a bit more for the first days and still come out way ahead.
The new rate:
You’d better believe I jumped on that with both feet.
Of course, before booking, I made sure to double check Fatwallet and Ebates to see who had greater cashback to help defray the surcharges and whatnot. It was only 3% from Ebates but that beats the 1% from Fatwallet. It’s not like I’ll see that money for a long while since the account just paid out and it has a minimum payout threshold but it’s nice to bank a little something for later.
Know what this means? MORE FOOD. Ok, it’s not like I didn’t already budget daily spending money but it’s nice to know there’s some flexibility in the budget now. I only anticipate spending on food and more food.
Pardon me, I’m going to carry on dancing a completely uncoordinated jig over here.