Dima’s Corner

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

In the morning I took the bus back to the airport and met up with Peter who was nice enough to let me tag along with him to do some plane spotting at Schiphol. Early on we were able to catch a plenty of departures from Polderbaan east spot. It is located half way down the runway so the birds rotated right in front of us. Once again I wished I had a better camera especially with another two dozen people around me with telescopic lenses. Plane spotting is really big there, there were a few families out with kids and lawn chairs just enjoying the weather and watching airplanes.

After the morning departure rush we decided to go to another spot at Kaagbaan to catch some arrivals but by the time we got there, they switched the runway configuration once again and there were no more birds coming that way. Disappointed, Peter took me to the Aviation Megastore model store near by. And megastore it was - pretty much an entire warehouse filled with tons of models, aviation books, magazines, pilot supplies and so on.

We cooled down at the model store and went out to the east corner of the airport to watch the arrivals but once again they switched the configuration a few minutes after we got there. The planes were still pretty high at that point so I did not get any good pictures there. Soon we were heading over to a spot right next to the taxiway that goes to Polderbaan. There we were pretty much right next to the birds so the most of my good pictures came out of there. We spent a good chunk of time there shooting everything that came in - from Fokker 50s to a number of 747s. What really got me thou was that pretty much all the pilots taxiing by had their windows open and waving to the crowds taking the pictures or just watching there. I thought that was a really nice touch.

It was time to leave afterward Peter dropped me off at the terminal and I took the bus back to my hostel. I went out and shopped for some souvenirs and then met up with Gertjan, another couchsurfer. We had a quick dinner and unfortunately I could not join them for a party afterward since I was starting to feel pretty sick. I went back to the hostel and packed up. It was going to be a long day tomorrow.

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
• Coming home