philpeeps.com » Travel

Carnival in The Crescent City

peeps — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 14:32:47 +0000

We spent Wednesday night through Monday in New Orleans for the first weekend of Carnival season in New Orleans. Everyone was gearing up for Mardi Gras and the town was full of energy, just without the massive crowds that will no doubt be flocking to the city over the next couple days.

Thursday, we checked out the horse races, the French Quarter, a stroll down Bourbon St and had a famous Moss Family fish fry (nom nom nom). It was our first time to the horse races and didn’t do too bad on our betting. We were down $5 on $30, so $5 spent for a couple hours of entertainment was surely worth it.

Friday, we went back down to the Quarter for coffee and beignets at the famous Cafe du Monde, took a stroll around Jackson Square and bought some artwork from the street vendors. Had a Muffuletta and Pimms Cup at The Napoleon House. Grubbed on some Popeyes after watching the evening Uptown parade before catching a show at Tipitina’s Uptown. The band we went to see was “Yo Momma’s Big Fat Booty Band“. They were pretty fun funk band. I highly recommend catching them if they ever swing through your town. The headliners were Leo Nocentelli (Guitarist of The Meters) with Bill Dickens (Bass for Janet Jackson), CR Gruver (keyboards), Jamal Batiste (drums) with special guest Art Neville of the Meters and the Neville Brothers. They rocked the house too and Bill Dickens plays a MEAN bass guitar!!!

Saturday was a pretty lazy day of chillin’ in our parade spot along St. Charles for the 3 Saturday Uptown parades. Munched on homemade crawfish etouffee and red beans and rice all day. Ended the night at Rock N Bowl to catch a Kermit Ruffins concert. For people that don’t keep up with the New Orleans music scene, you may recognize Kermit Ruffins from his role as himself in HBOs series Treme about post-Katrina New Orleans. He sure can put on a show. He played for a good 2 to 2.5 hours. He sure can blow that trumpet! and his piano player was INSANE! Tasha got her picture taken with Kermit and got a couple CDs autographed.

Sunday we got up early for the 2 Uptown parades and lounged around resting before stuffing our faces with some good ol’ New Orleans cuisine at Upperline Restaurant.

Monday we got up to see Rae, Darwin, and Laura off and then BJ and Jim took us to Destrahan Plantation for a tour and then drove us around the area before dropping us at the airport for our flight home.

Pictures from the long weekend are below. Click on the slideshow to go to the full album.

In & Around Jakarta

peeps — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 16:36:15 +0000

During my trip last week to Jakarta, I had Tuesday off of work because it was a public holiday, so a colleague from the local office we are working with took me on a scenic drive around the Jakarta countryside. We drove to the Jatiluhur Reservoir to look at an old dam built in the 1950′s, toward Bandung, Cianjur and then Puncak (click for a Google Map). The area is very scenic and beautiful once you get out of the pollution of the city.

Enjoy the pics. It was the first full-time camera duty I have experienced with my new iPhone 4 (yeah, yeah…that will get it’s own post soon) and I was pretty impressed. Some were taken with the Hipstamatic app for retro-type photos. With the grittiness of the area and the retro look from the App, it made for a pretty neat effect.

Click on the slideshow to take you to Photobucket where the pics are actually in order…

Valentine’s with Bintang

peeps — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 13:37:16 +0000

That’s right…we are apart for Valentine’s Day. My poor wife sitting at home while I am in my usual work travel spot having “dinner”. Let’s just say that there are some things Indonesia does well like pirated DVDs and fresh seafood in a tent. Most other things are a mess. On my 8th trip here and this is the saving grace

Fun with Flying

peeps — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:51:05 +0000

So I landed in London this morning basically on time. Took the tram over to Terminal 1 at London Heathrow and found that because of a computer failure, they didn’t have any departure boards working showing the departure times and gates. They were writing them with a sharpie on paper setup on an easel!!! So my coworker and I waited 4 hours for our boarding time and made our way to the most remote gate at LHR – Gate 74, Terminal 1! Upon getting there, we found that the jetbridge had a hydraulic problem and no longer lined up with the boarding door of the plane, so they shuffled us off to a waiting area and kept us posted with useless status updates for ~2 hours before telling us that the plane could not be inspected since they still couldn’t move the jetbridge so they were getting another plane for us…that meant 4 more hours of layover!!! So…the flight is SUPPOSED to leave in another hour and 10 minutes…we’ll see…

Hopefully sometime in the next half a day or so, I will end up in Almaty!

Whoa Nelly!

peeps — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 16:43:10 +0000

No posts since July, so I suppose one is due now…

July went by and we spent some time with Doug and Renee and their kiddos at the lake and at their pool. Was nice and refreshing with the heat this summer.

In August we headed out to the 3rd Annual East Texas Goats Guadalupe River Trip. Most folks camped out, but being late August…in frickin’ Texas, we stayed in the Holiday Inn. We also got to use our new waterproof digital camera for some action shots on the river without having to buy one of those cheesy disposable 35mm water cameras.

September was a busy month. For Labor Day weekend, Tasha had Brandy’s bachelorette party and Lisa’s birthday, for which we met up with Duane, Brandon, Denise and Bryce for a trip to Longhorn Caverns.

Brandy’s wedding shower was later in the month..same day as mom’s birthday and the same day I got to fly back from Colombia into Austin on a Saturday afternoon to catch all the fun. I also got to try out the new slingbox since the UT vs UTEP game was going on while I was traveling back home. Pretty neat technology! Check out the pics from Brandy’s shower below…

Late September/early October was pretty busy for me with work travel. Nothing too exciting, just a bunch of short trips. The weekends have been just as busy though. We had the State Fair Car Show and my dad came up to hang with us for the weekend. Tried all sorts of fried foods…fried butter, fried cookie dough, fried pecan pie, sweet jalapeno shrimp corndog, Fletcher’s corny dog, and a Fletcher’s jalapeno cheese corny dog. Got the car all detailed for the car show (thanks to the guys at Stuart’s since I was traveling too much to do it myself), only to have it rain that night!

The next weekend was Eric and Virginia’s wedding…awesome time, despite the reception place not having the UT vs Colorado game on TV . Seriously, who doesn’t have ESPN?!?!?! I kept everyone up to speed watching the live action via Slingplayer on my phone! Beat that iPhone fanboys! We forgot the camera so no pics Beautiful wedding with a nice Texas (UT) flare!!!

The next weekend we headed out to Mexico for Brandy’ss wedding at the Iberostar Grand Paraiso in the Mayan Riviera. We stayed for 8 days and had a blast. Some nights we (I ) can’t fully remember and some days we will NEVER forget! From catching Britney on fire with a flaming shot, to snoring so loud Tasha slept in the huge jacuzi tub, to a day trip for snorkeling and beachside chilling in Akumal with everyone, to a day trip to drive around Cozumel island to enjoy undistrurbed beauty and oceanside drinks and grub, and last but not least, the beautiful oceanfront wedding of Brandy and Todd. We thoroughly enjoyed meeting and hanging with their other friends and family in such a scenic and fun place! We didn’t even have to miss the Texas-OU game thanks to the wonders of Slingbox and free broadband at the resort. It rained most of the day anyways that day, so we didn’t miss too much resort fun! We stayed a bit longer than the rest of the group to celebrate our 5 year anniversary and then headed back home this past Friday. There are a ton of pics posted up, so have a look…

I think that is enough for now. If I think of more later, I will post. To look at the individual pics if you like, head over to the Photo Gallery…

- peeps

Back in the states!

peeps — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:02:01 +0000

Back from Colombia today. Not a real adventurous trip (I guess I should wait to say that until after my MIA-DFW flight, but oh well) . Saw more capybaras and some big iquanas about the size of the ones we saw in Cozumel. Bought some Juan Valdez coffee this time to see how it stacks up to the local stuff I bought last time and to the Juan Valdez coffee you can get here. Gotta see if the man and his donkey are worth the hype! There were some crazy thunderstorms in the town we stay in during the nights. I usually sleep though all storms but these ones were quite heavy and had some insane thunder…enough to wake me each night. I have some pics from the flight and the huge hotel room I had in Bogota that I will post later.

-peeps

Cozumel Baby!

peeps — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:34:16 +0000

This past week we went to Cozumel for 4 nights and stayed at the Occidental Grand Cozumel. It was just the 2 of us and we had a great time! The weather was mostly good, aside from the raining most of our last full day there. We took a snorkeling tour one day where we got to check out 3 different reefs. The last reef was a deep one and the water way pretty rough. By the time we got back in the boat it was about all I could do to keep from hurling! Next time I will be taking Dramamine for any snorkeling we do!!!

The resort was a decent place. We would probably stay there again if a smokin’ good deal came up, but it wasn’t so great we would just not consider other places the next time. I mean what kind of Mexican resort doesn’t have a swim-up bar????

Click on the pic to go to the pictures. Enjoy!

- peeps

Seattle…the city that doesn’t let me sleep

peeps — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 02:48:35 +0000

My flight to Seattle on Sunday was delayed due to mechanical problems. I had already chosen the latest flight from DFW since we were in Austin for the weekend. I was scheduled to arrive in Seattle at 11:15p. After a late arrival of the inbound plane and a mechanical inspection that removed our scheduled aircraft from service, I finally arrive in Seattle by 12:45a. My rental car reservation was canceled due to my flight delay and I waited for 15 minutes for the Hertz rep who had apparently taken a “lunch” break. After getting the car and checking in at the hotel, I settled into my room at about 1:30am. I suspect I got to sleep around 2am for a 6am alarm and 7am breakfast with colleagues and a day of meetings at a jobsite.

The next night I settled into bed around 10pm hoping for a restful night. The alarm was again set for 6am so I could arrive to the jobsite early and get all my work done before catching my afternoon flight. Through the night I think I woke up on average about every 20 minutes!!!! I’m not exactly sure what it was other than maybe a paranoia that I would miss my alarm since all my colleagues were leaving that morning leaving me as the only one heading to the jobsite that day. I managed to get through the day OK but I had to drag myself to the plane…where I am typing this during airplane dinner a questionable cheeseburger…yeah, I dunno either!

I requested an upgrade for the trip home after determining on the flight to Seattle that 4 hours and 20 minutes is beyond my economy seat threshold (yes, even exit row due to the shorter seat length resulting in weird thigh support) when I am tired and trying to sleep on the plane which is normally next to impossible anyways for me. I find the larger comfy seat and the free cocktails and wine in first do the trick to calm me enough for some sleep

On a better note, we went to a place called Salty’s on Monday night for dinner and had some awesome NW food and wine. The weather was amazing!!!

Well enough with my adventures in travel….time for a nap!

-peeps

The Great Outdoors

peeps — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 18:21:34 +0000

…sort of, but not really

I mean, we are outdoors, in the middle of the big trees in east Texas enjoying the sights and sounds of the outdoors, but at the same time, I am writing this on a wireless internet connection, listening to random tunes on the iPod waiting for the flat screen TV with DirecTV to tune into the Texas vs OSU game

So far we are really enjoying our time here at The Greer Farm. We were welcomed by Sid and Eva, the owners, yesterday and shown our cabin where we found a great little gift basket from my mom (THANKS!). The cabins are exactly as shown on their website. We got settled in and then took a trip to the local Brookshire’s. After that trip, I have determined that all grocery stores in big towns are just a rip off! There were small town values galore there! We came back to the cabin to find Tux, the Greer’s cattle dog waiting for us. He does this funny thing while playing fetch. While walking, he would bring the piece of wood we were playing with and drop it about 10 feet in front of us and then run ahead and wait for us to kick or throw it. This continued for a couple hours while we walked around the lake, sat on the dock, and chilled around the cabin. We cooked some nice ribeyes last night on the grill and watched a couple movies. It was pretty chilly last night so we didn’t hang outside for very long.

Today, we got up, made breakfast with the Greer’s farm fresh eggs and lounged for a bit before getting outside. We went for a fairly long walk, where we were greeted today by Peppie, one of their other dogs. He isn’t one for fetch really, but just a good companion for walking around. We checked out a pretty good portion of the farm, including the main house, chicken and goat pen (where I did a sweet Mark Wahlberg talks to Animals impression…here is the link for reference). I will post the video of that when we get back home. We also saw the blueberry and blackberry fields.

Tonight we are probably going to head into one of the nearby towns for their fall festival. Tomorrow we will likely just chill some more and maybe take a canoe out on the lake.

Hope everyone is doing well and will post more later.

- peeps

So how about an update?

peeps — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 02:45:09 +0000

So, here is what we have been up to the last couple months.

August
We spent a couple days tubing the Guadeloupe River (actually the Comal one day which wasn’t as fun) with some GTO buddies. It was fun to do 2 river days back to back and now that we have tubed the Comal, I can’t say we will ever try it again. The Guadeloupe is just SOOO much better. Natural rapids, less developments around, etc. After a weekend tubing the river, we spent a day or so in San Antonio checking out the Alamo, Natural Bridge Carverns, and the Riverwalk since it had been a while since we were down that way. From San Antonio, we headed towards Galveston (despite tropical storm Edouard hitting the area at the time. We killed some time on the way there at the Spoetzel Brewery where the lovely Shiner beers are brewed. If you have never been, I suggest you take the trip down to Shiner next time you are in the area to check it out. They give you 4 little cups of free beer and the tour is pretty cool too. We spent the rest of the week and weekend in Galveston at BJ and Jim’s beach house on the Bolivar Peninsula soaking up the sun, chilling out, and celebrating with friends. It was great to get away for such a long time and enjoy what would turn out to be probably our last trip to that beach house (thanks alot Ike! We enjoyed that place!!!!) More on that later… Rae and Hugh came back and spent the following weekend with us and we went to a place in Denton and saw a cool old man sing the blues!

During that trip, we “adopted” an addition to our family. With Rae and Hugh heading on a couple month vacation around Central America and then headed to Asia for who knows how long, Rae’s little doggie Darwin (a 7 lb Crested Malt) needed a place to hang while they were out gallivanting all over the world. We of course welcomed him in. So far, he has been a trip! Watching him and Jester play just cracks us up and the way he barks at ANY animal on the TV is always worth a laugh.

Pics of our canine family

Mid-August, I took another trip to Indonesia that I covered while on my way there, so you can read all about that below. Jakarta was quite different than the places I had stayed before in Indonesia, but not different enough… Traffic is INSANE there!!!!

At the end of August, our friends Doug and Renee had their 3rd child…Cade Carson! We went up to the hospital to visit the day after he was born (since I was flying back in from Indonesia the day he was born). I’m sure he will grow to be just as fun as his siblings!

Pics of Cade Carson and family

September
We spent a weekend in Austin and Burnet a couple weeks ago for Sara’s baby shower and Lisa’s birthday. I got to see Byron, who informed me that he and Christy are expecting! We chilled at Sara’s house for the shower while enjoying good food an good company. For Lisa’s birthday we drove into Kingsland to eat at the Junction House. While we were out that direction we drove out to see the Rybaski lake house…not sure if they still live there, but it still looked nice!

Pics from Sara’s shower and Lisa’s Birthday

Last weekend was Kai’s 1st birthday party (son of our friends Charity and Greg). He got all sorts of cool toys! Ahh to be a kid again!

Kai’s Birthday Pics

This coming weekend we are doing the Texas Motor Speedway Laps for Charity again! It is always fun! Hopefully they give a bit more room to stretch the Goat’s legs this time!

In sad news, Hurricane Ike let loose on the Bolivar Peninsula and wiped out much of the area. After scouring the web, I found the aftermath photos of BJ and Jim’s house. It looked like it was still standing, but likely had lots of roof damage and no telling what else. They will head down there once they are allowed to check things out and gather whatever they can salvage. I guess that is always the chance you take when owning Gulf property, I just wish Ike had chose somewhere else! Good luck to them while getting through this.

I am loving that football season is here now, although I know Tasha isn’t nearly as excited. She pretends to like it to humor me…she is a trooper! That’ why I love her!

Well, that’s all I have for now…Hook ‘em! and Go Cowboys!

- peeps