Dima’s Corner

While I was still in Iowa, someone stumbled upon a nice deal on Spirit Airlines flight from Chicago to Puerto Rico so a bunch of people went ahead and booked their tickets. Since I was not sure if I would still be there, I waited it out and ended up booking my flight on American Airlines using my AAdvantage miles. Strangely enought, it was cheaper to book in first class than in coach (since the cheaper coach class seats were already sold out for Memorial day travel). I did not mind the bit of extra comfort on a four hour flight either.

On the way there, I had an hour and a half layover in Dallas, so I texted a buddy of mine who flies for American Eagle out of there to see if he was at the airport. As luck would have it, Trent was just pulling in to one of the gates so it was nice to meet up for a quick lunch and catch up. The flights themselves were not too bad. I was surprised that American does not do any service in first class on the ground, not even a glass of water - lame…

There were eleven of us total, so we ended up getting a van and a car in San Juan and drove out to Loiza, about 40 minutes east of San Juan. There we had two condos reserved at the Aquatica complex. It took us a while and when we finally got there, it looked nothing like the rest of the town, which was pretty run down. Anyways, our condo was on the third floor, with a spacious living room and kitchen, three bedrooms and a spiral staircase to the entertainment room and the exit to the roof where we found a grill and some sets of tables and chairs. Nice! The gated complex had a bunch of swimming pools, a hot tub, basketball, tennis, and sand volleyball courts, and, of course, beach access. There were also some surfing boards and kayaks in the storage, but we were never there during the day to check them out. All of that for about $22 per person per night. Not a bad deal at all

The rest of my Puerto Rico posts:

• Puerto Rico, day 2 - scuba diving
• Puerto Rico, day 3 - sailing
• Puerto Rico, day 4 - the jungles
• Puerto Rico, day 4 cont - old San Juan
• Puerto Rico, day 5 - Arecibo telescope, Project 727, and kayaking in a bioluminescent bay
• Puerto Rico, day 6 - Ziplining
• Puerto Rico, day 8 - Flameno beach on Culebra
• Puerto Rico, day 9 - Bacardi tour
• Puerto Rico sights and signs

I have been meaning to visit California for a long time now and finally all the stars have aligned - I found cheap tickets, Doug was going to be in town that weekend, and I could use the trip to get out of the Iowa cold and earn my last segment to get the Skyteam Medallion status with Delta for next year.

I spent  first night with Andrew in Newport Beach, just south of Los Angeles. We used to play soccer together in high school and have not really been in touch since then so it was nice to finally catch up. We started off the evening by riding a tandem bike to Fuji Yama for some sushi. Afterward we were joined by some of his friends for a glorious night of bar hopping next to the Newport Pier. Needless to say, the bike ride back was quite a challenge!

Next day I met up with my friend Doug and his girlfriend to drive down to San Diego. Since it was Doug’s birthday earlier that week, we decided to celebrate by going sushi bar hopping. We first got some dinner at Hive Sushi Lounge and it was some of the best sushi I have ever had, and cheap too during their happy hour (seaweed salad - $2.99, sushi pieces - $0.99, sushi rolls - $2.99 and so on) - our bill for three people was $34 . That included multiple appetizers, sake, and dessert! The only thing I was not impressed with was the white tuna - it tasted somewhat different from what I am used to, but oh well. Next, we made stops at RA Sushi, Sushi Deli, Wonder Sushi Plus, Katsu Sushi, and finally made it to the Gasslamp (party) Quarter. To be honest, we were not very impressed with our choices there. We walked around for a bit, then checked out Jimmy Love’s and rounded the night up at the Shout House piano lounge It was raining pretty hard on the way back to our hotel so we were all soaked and cold by the time we got back to our Days Inn.

Next day the weather finally cleared up and spent most of the day at the famous San Diego zoo (supposedly the best in the country). I did like it and there were a lot of animals. The layout of the park was kind of confusing thou. I still think the themed exhibits at the Omaha zoo were the best when we visited a couple years ago.

Once it got darker, we went to the Harbor Island to watch the Christmas boat parade of lights. It was actually really cool to see how some of the people decked out their powerboats, yachts, sailboats, and even a giant clipper. On top of that, many had music blazing and people dressed up in Christmas outfits causing spectators on shore to break out in cheers.

Afterward Doug had to drive back up to Ventura so I went to get my rental car and was pleasantly surprised to see that I was upgraded to a convertible Mustang, just in time for better weather. I went back to Hive Sushi Lounge to take advantage of their happy hour all day Sunday deal and then crashed at my hotel room for the night.

I spent the last half a day by driving around San Diego with my top down basking in the sunshine. First, I had some breakfast at Mimi’s cafe, which I was lead to believe would be a french pastry cafe, but instead turned out to be more of an IHOP with no pastry for desert. Oh well, I will know better next time. After breakfast, I drove around the harbor, the downtown, and crossed over to the Coronado island. It kind of reminded me of southern Florida - sunshine, palm trees, sky high gas prices… I definitely miss that (minus the gas prices).

My flight back was leaving San Jose at 8am so I had to leave very early. Trevor’s dad arranged for a guy to come over and spend the night at the villa and take me to the airport the next morning. It was a nice drive without any traffic early in the day and Ronald kept on talking about many different subjects so it kept me awake. The airport was nothing special, check in was quick, so were the customs (even though the line looked huge at first), and the security screening was a joke - I did not have to take my laptop or liquids our, nor did I have to take my shoes off. I just had enough time to grab some crappy Burger King before boarding the flight to Atlanta.

I had a six hour layover in Atlanta, so I called up two of my friends and we agreed to meet up for a quick dinner near the airport. Andy picked me up and we went to a Ruby Tuesday’s. Unfortunately Erik got stuck in rush hour traffic and could not make it. Andy just moved down from New York so we talked about his first week of MBA program experience, my trip to Europe which he could not join me for, and plenty of aviation geek talk :-). We got out of the restaurant and saw that Andy’s Jeep was booted. Thankfully they came out pretty quick and tried telling us that they saw someone walk out of the car and walk somewhere else which was bs and I had the restaurant receipt to prove it. So they took the boot off, Andy dropped me off at the airport, and I flew back home without any further delays.

Lessons Learned:

• Do not leave anything valuable in the cars, assume it will be stolen
• Lock valuables and documents if possible at all times
• Bring copies of your passport and driver license and carry those with you instead of originals
• Must pay cash “airport exit” fee when departing, prior to check-in

Stuff To Do Next Time:

• Visit Arenal volcano and hot springs (day-long bus tours, must sign up at least two days in advance)
• Visit Manuel Antonio park and beaches

View Costa Rica Trip in a larger map

A trip to Mt. Rushmore did not work out last Memorial Day weekend so we decided to give it another shoot this year. Everything looked like it was a go until Trevor instant messaged me at work a couple of days prior saying that he found dirt cheap tickets to fly down to Costa Rica. His dad and two brothers still live down there so we would have a place to stay and a car to use so it was a no brainer.

So early (too early!) Sunday morning off we went, first to Atlanta and then off to San Jose. The approach was pretty cool taking us through some awesome cloud formations in-between the mountains. We got in around noon and it took us another hour or so to clear the customs. At first they could not scan my passport and then the guy was not sure if I had to have a visa or not but it all worked out in the end.

Trevor’s dad met us at the airport and since it was lunch time, we stopped by at one place along the way. The food was actually pretty good, but I got the first taste of Costa Rica experience when they told me that I should probably bring my laptop with me, even though the car was parked just twenty yards away.

After lunch we got on our way to the west coast. It took a while since the most of the way was a roach with one lane each way and in some cases, one lane period. We got to Playa Hermosa where they used to run a surf camp (Trevor’s borther Kyle is a competitive surfer) and “moved into” Kyle’s villa about a mile away from the coast on a mountain hillside.

It was almost dinner time, so we drove back to the beach with Trevor’s other brother Joel and popped a few beer watching the surf. Afterwards we went to his dad’s for dinner made fresh from veggies he brough back from his farm up in the mountains. We came back to the villa and just crashed even though it was only about 9pm.

The rest of my 12 Days in Europe posts:

• Getting there (Detroit-Amsterdam-Paris)
• Paris - Touristy things and flying!
• Marseille (day one) - Touristy things and get-together
• Marseille (day two) - Touristy things
• Torino (day one) - Getting there from Marseille and party time
• Torino (day two) - Recharge
• Torino (day three) - Touristy things
• Milano
• Amsterdam (day one) - Milan to Amsterdam, pre-Queen’s Day concert
• Amsterdam (day two) - Queen’s Day Celebration
• Amsterdam (day three) - Doing touristy things
• Amsterdam (day four) - Plane spotting at Schiphol