Dima’s Corner

People have taken some amazing pictures (along with pictures of some interesting signs). Enjoy!

Lessons learned:

• Do not take a ferry to Culebra, instead fly from Fajardo/San Juan. Flights from Fajardo are $25-$40 one way.
• PR-188 toll road is $1.50 and much, much faster than PR-3
• Fort San Cristobal has free parking at the entrance, right off PR-25
• Parking garage at the old Froggy’s in old San Juan is insanely expensive, there is one just west of as well one a couple of blocks east of it

The rest of my Puerto Rico posts:

• Puerto Rico, day 1 - getting there
• 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

I could not make it out for the Air and Water Show in Chicago last year so I made sure to go and check it out this weekend. I met up with a few couchsurfers at the restaurant at the top of Hancock Tower to grab some food and watch the show. Unfortunately we were seated on the other side of the building, away from all the action. After we were finished with our way overpriced buffet, we strolled along the Lakeshore Drive past the North Avenue beach to the Linkoln park. There we finally settled down and watched the rest of the show with some more people. We got to see performances by and Aeroshell and Lima Lima aerobatic teams, the Leap Frogs and the Golden Knights parachuting teams, Air Force’s F15, F16, and A-10 and of course the Thunderbirds.

Once the show was over I walked back to the Navy Pier, had some ice cream and rode a bus back to the Millenium Park. From there I walked over to Exchequer to have some pizza. Since I still had an hour to burn, I decide to ride the L - the famous elevated subway system in downtown Chicago which I saw in the movies while growing up. It was not anything too special, more of sentimental value I guess.

On Sunday Tommy and Justin drove over and we hit up Six Flags Great America theme park. Right away we got in line for the Superman ride where you are riding facing down as if you are flying, similar to Mantra we rode at Seaworld. The ride was good but it took us an hour and a half in line so once we were done we went out and got ourselves a flash pass so we can skip the lines for the rest of the day. Right away we jumped on the Iron Wolf, a stand up coaster, followed by a 200 foot drop on the appropriately named Giant Drop. Next it was time do go for a few loops on the Demon.

Unfortunately, our luck ran out at that point and it started to rain, shutting down the coasters one after another so we spent the next half hour wondering from one end of the park to another in a fruitless search for a ride. We ended up riding the American Eagle wooden coaster and finished up with the indoor Dark Knight Coaster, neither of which I liked very much. On the way home our GPS decided to take us on a more scenic route across northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin which was a thrill ride of its own, especially after the sunset.

Lessons Learned:

• Metra has an all-you-can-ride weekend pass for $5.
• All day CTA pass good for subway and buses is $5.75, available at CVS around town.
• Bus 124 goes from Union Station to the Navy Pier
• Bus 121 goes from Union Station up Michigan Avenue past Hancock tower to the North Ave Beach.
• Flash pass is the way to go. Otherwise you can spend all day waiting in lines.

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

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