A Travel First...

Friday is a huge day for me. It will my very first flying experience on Southwest. Yes, I have flown thousands of miles over the last decade, but never on Southwest. I haven't been avoiding the airline, it was never an option. My home airport used the be Des Moines, and it is not a Southwest city. But since my move to Oklahoma, I am firmly in Southwest territory. In my 11 months here I haven't seen a flight price that makes it logical for me to fly on the famous airline, until this weekend

We are going to San Diego to a wedding of a childhood friend. I scored $180.00 roundtrip fares and looking forward to the trip. I heart San Diego.

Keep it classy San Diego!

It Has Been Since June...

You are right, I haven't made a post to this blog since June. This year has been crazy for me. I moved to a new city, joined a swim team, started a different job, met heaps of new friends, and I have been trying to keep my sanity.

I have done some traveling this year. I went to LA in February to visit my friend Krystal. She is one of my friends from New Zealand and was in the states by herself for the first time (She is only 20). We had a chance to hang out a bit and I was able to fly from Tulsa to LAX on a buddy pass from my friend Sean.

I made a very quick trip to New Zealand in May on a last minute flight, and a cheap one at that. I was there to see my friends, visit some of my favorite spots, and to eat some great food. Mission accomplished.

In July, I spent a long weekend in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. It is in the middle of the Ozark mountains. The hills/mountains are beautiful. There are some very historic buildings and the place we stayed was AMAZING!












Since I am living fairly close to my relatives, I have spent some time over the last year with family in Iowa. They have mainly been long weekends, but still fun to catch up.

I have some plans over the rest of the year. I am going to San Diego for a wedding the first weekend of December and a trip back to Iowa for 10 days in late December.

I am trying to make a renewed effort to do more and document some of the travel I have planned in 2011.

San Diego and San Francisco

I celebrated an important birthday in September, it ended in a 0. To celebrate, I wanted to spend a weekend somewhere. I had my Facebook friends pick my location, and the winner was San Diego. My heart was set on San Francisco, but the flight price and time did not match my budget or work schedule, so San Diego it was. A couple of days before leaving I was playing around on an airline website and notice there was a very good price for airline tickets for the Sunday I was going to be in San Diego to go to San Francisco. I bought the ticket.

San Diego
I have often heard rumors that San Diego has the same feel and look that Sydney does. I love Sydney, so I knew San Diego might be my style. I arrived in San Diego very early in the morning and wanted to head straight for the beaches. I spent some time on Black's Beach near La Jolla, just a few minutes north of San Diego. The beaches were covered in fog when I arrived, but it ended up being a stunning midday on the beach. There were interesting people all around, I loved it. Plus, the beach had tall cliffs, similar to those on the east side of Sydney.

I then spent some time in and around the center of the city. Since San Diego is one of the main spots for Marines, there is a strong military presence. There are boats scattered all around the harbor and even some boat, museum type spots. The downtown area has a great district call the Gas Lamp District. There are heaps of high end stores, restaurants, and lots of hotels.

San Diego had a great vibe. There were lots of things to do around the city and the people seemed to love to be outside, and who wouldn't with perfect weather most of the year, as well as being real people. I loved it!

San Francisco
San Francisco has a very live and let live attitude. You can really see anything there, and I wish I would have been there more than 12 hours, but I don't think it is going anywhere. When I got off my early morning flight I went immediately to look for the sites that San Francisco was so famous for. There was Fisherman's wharf, the Financial District, Golden Gay Bridge, Alcatraz, Bay Bridge, amongst others.

There were also interesting people. From businessmen in suits to people walking down the street with very little clothing on. There were good restaurants, nice people, and beautiful weather when I was there. I will be back, soon!









Photos of San Diego and San Francisco on Flickr

San Francisco...Why Not?

I will be honest, I really wanted to go to San Francisco next weekend. It is a city I am very interested in learning more about and exploring. But, the day I wanted to book the ticket from Des Moines the prices had shot up over my budget. I was slightly crushed, but still very happy about the weekend in San Diego.

Thursday night I was bored, so I thought why not see how much it would be to fly from San Deigo to San Francisco for a day, my friend Max would be there and it would be great to see him. I was shocked! I found a roundtrip ticket on my favorite domestic, hub-and-spoke, legacy carrier for only $76.00 for the day! So add San Francisco to the list!

This trip is totally my style, trying to cram in a lot, at a reasonable price. I will have video and pictures to show off the fun I am having!

Kevin and Nick in Munich!

Kevin and I returned from our long weekend trip to Munich on Monday. We had such a blast! Here is a look at our trip:

More photos are available on my Flickr site.

Walking Around
We spent a lot of time looking around the city of Munich. We did some walking tours of the Aldstadt, Marienplatz, and Englisher Garden. Aldstadt is the main center of the city with fantastic architecture, and elite shopping. Marienplatz is a part of the Aldstadt where there is a lot of history. It is an area that the ruling family of Bravaria lived and ruled. It is also a place that Hitler and the Nazis used as a center for its 'Program.' The Englisher Garden is a very famous place. It is a park larger than Central Park in New York, it has a few lakes, some animals, great running, fantastic trails, surfing, and even naked sun worshipers (although it was too cold for that)











Deutches Museum
I have been to many museums, but the Deutches Museum was colassal. There was everything science and technology. The biggest thrill for me was the aviation exhibit. I am sure that Kevin was very bored in it with me, I was like a 4 year old.





Dachau Concentration Camp
Kevin and I were both very interested in visiting a Nazi Concentration Camp. We picked a great one. Dachau was the 'model' concentration camp. They did testing of building design, death design, and work design. The goal was to work people to death. There were 200,000 processed through the camp, and around 32,000 were killed. There were several recreated buildings including the barracks, but several buildings remained including the incinerator, maintenace building, and the bunker. We took a tour that highlighted huge amounts of information about the history of the longest running concentration camp, how it was liberated, what happened to the SS and SA, and what has changed on the grounds. It was a remarkable place, and I learned a lot, but it wasn't the same 'powerful' feeling I have heard others having. There were bits where I realized how many people died there, and amazed by the fact they kept 2000 in a barrack designed for 200. It was one of the most memorable experiences I have had.











BMW
Kevin loves BMW, so we had to check out the museum and Weck. It was a bit disappointing because it was just a huge showroom. I did snap a couple of pictures.




Olympic Park
The famous and infamous Olympic Park was a great area. They have turned it into a fantastic civic area. We checked out the Swimming Pool and large area where concerts are now happening. There was also a great hill to hike up and see fantastic views of the city. What a great spot!









Hostel
This was Kevin's first stay in a hostel, and I think he loved it. We made a short video about it.

Milwaukee...It is worth a look

One of my best friends moved to Milwaukee earlier this year. Kevin and I decided it might be worth a trip. I have been to Milwaukee many times, focused mostly on Summerfest. This time it was to hang out with Mike and see more of the city.


During the trip, Mike kept getting called back to work so Kevin and I were left to ourselves. We started out with a walkabout around Lake Michigan.





We then headed to the Museum of Art and took some creepy photos.







The riverwalk downtown was the next big stop, and totally worth it.





And finally, what Milwaukee is known for -- BEER!





Take a long weekend and spend it in Milwaukee - even if you aren't from the Midwest. Oh, and Midwest Airlines is the BEST look for them as well!