Recently in Vacations Category

Greetings, friends! I realize I've been extremely lax with updating the blog over the past few months, but things truly have been incredibly busy. It's not a good excuse, but it's the plain truth; there just hasn't been any time to kickback and draft a good blog entry.

Despite the hectic schedule, I did find time to travel out to my 'ole stomping grounds - San Francisco. Thanks to a conference that Liz had to present at, she offered me the opporutinity to travel with her out to the City by the Bay. Free room & board? Free airfare? I was in!

We arrived into San Francisco early in the afternoon on Saturday, and after a short ride on the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), we found ourselves smack-dab in the heart of the city - at the intersection of Market and 3rd Street. The conference was being hosted across several hotels; our hotel was phenomenal on so many levels... the rooms were nice, clean, quiet, and featured real balconies that you could sit comfortably on. It was centrally located - we were in the Union Square neighborhood, which is almost in the middle of everything.

After unpacking, we headed out to the infamous pier/wharf area.

The weather was nice; much nicer than I recall it being when I was working in San Francisco... it was a tad windy on Saturday, which is normal, but it was sunny and warm. We walked along the pier, passing huge docks and watching the various ships and barges navigate their way around the bay.

After walking for a bit, we sat down for a quick beverage at the Pier 23 bar and restaurant. They offered outdoor seating, so we snagged a few seats and enjoyed the views.

For those not familiar with the area, the piers are all numbered. We started at Pier #1, which is located at the end of Market Street. The piers run north and south along Embarcadero Street; there are actually two "Pier 1", two "Pier 2" and so on (one north of Market, one south of Market). We were walking north toward the infamous Fisherman's Wharf (Pier 39). For reference, AT&T park (the ballpark that's home to the San Francisco Giants) is south of Market, at around Pier #40.

After enjoying the fine beverage and the views, we continued walking north along the bay. We reached a point where we could easily see Alcatraz island. Thanks to the clear skies, it was easy to see. A sailboat photobombed my picture, but it still turned out OK...

We kept walking toward Pier 39, which is home to several interesting attractions; primarily the large packs of sea lions that feed and sun on small floating docks, and the Fisherman's Wharf food court/market place.

Here are a bunch of the sea lions, hanging out and enjoying the nice weather:

Our stomachs were starting to rumble, and with the smell of freshly cooked and steamed seafood wafting through the air, we decided to head over to the food court/market area.

There were quite literally dozens of options for places to eat, and each offered live, fresh lobster, crab, mussels, and plenty of other tasty seafood. We settled on a vendor and browsed our options... lobster?

Or Dungeness Crab?

We ultimately decided to go with the crab. We picked-out a crab, the monger steamed it and cracked the shells, and we found a little perch to stand at and enjoy the awesome crab. We also had some fried calamari, which was excellent.

Bellies full, we walked up Hyde Street. Hyde Street is one of the steepest hills in San Francisco - it averages a 31% incline grade; the mid-point of Hyde Street is where the infamous Lombard Street begins (Lombard is the windy road that's often featured in movies).

The next day, I woke-up and went for a run. Liz was presenting at the conference and would be gone all day, so I had to fend for myself. I decided to run the same route that we walked the night before; it was about 5-miles round-trip. The un-fun part? Running up Hyde Street... here's the view from near the bottom:

About midway-up:

And near the top; it's a little less steep near the top, but you can still appreciate the grade:

Truth be told, I didn't run all the way up Hyde; I simply couldn't. I stopped a few times and snapped pictures, let my legs and heart recover, and then chugged my way on through.

After a well-deserved shower, I hit the streets, looking for some breakfast. I found a great little cafe called "Little Griddle" and ordered the "Bits & Pieces" scrambler. It featured maple smoked bacon chicken sausage, crimini mushrooms, sliced yellow onions, diced stake tomatoes, cheese, and a boatload of hashbrowns. It hit the spot after the run.

Nourished and content, I wandered around San Francisco, making my way down Hayes Street (great shopping and cafes), over to Market, down Market toward the Mission/Hayes neighborhood, where my old apartment was. I was truly shocked to see that it looked exactly the same as it did in 2001/2002 - paint color and all. Here it is:

Talk about a blast from the past.

From there, I swung into a small cafe for a brioche donut (filled with white chocolate macha) and a coffee. I took a break, surfed the internet, and enjoyed the awesome little courtyard.

I had a rather long walk back to the hotel; I had to cover about 3 miles by foot, and in doing so saw some interesting things. From tame to obscure:

Farmer's Market - looked nice; lots of good offerings.

Dog dressed as Superman:

Godzilla and a princess walking on the sidewalk (I followed them for about 1.5 miles).

And this store. Odd combinations anyone?

Man, if only Madison had a place where I could do my laundry while drinking espresso, eating some sausage, and enjoying an ice cream cone... I'd never leave!

For dinner that night, we decided to do some small plates at a really cool tavern called "Burritt Room & Tavern." It was close to the hotel, and came highly recommended. We wandered-in, ordered some phenomenal cocktails and browsed the menu. Our choices landed us on:

Charcuterie (duck prosciutto, traditional prosciutto, and salami, with grilled sourdough)

Chicken liver with shiitake mushrooms:

And some baked macaroni and cheese, of which I forgot to photograph because it wasn't quite as good as the first two plates. With two more cocktails, we received our check... $99 for three plates and four drinks! EEEEEEK - we definitely weren't in Madison...

On the way back to the hotel, I snapped a semi-cool photo of a cable car operating at night. The cable cars are awesome, but based on the mass quantity of calories I'd been consuming, walking was a better option.

Liz had the next day off, so we woke-up, worked out (another 5-mile run for me), and made our way over to Chinatown for some Dim Sum. Dim Sum is sort of like a buffet of chinese food, only you won't find stir-fry or fried rice. It's primarily finger food, and let me tell you, it's delicious.

Here we are in Chinatown:

I love those hanging lights; if you look closely in the background, you can see a banner that reads "Chinatown."

After passing by countless Dim Sum joints, none of which had any english signage, we decided to eat at "Great Eastern." Heck, if President Obama ate there just a few weeks prior, it had to be good, right?

Boy howdy, was it good. First round of Dim Sum included steamed pork buns, salt prawns, and some type of spiced pork.

Round two consisted of fried fish rolls (basically large, deep fried sushi roll):

Round three consisted of baked pork buns, mushrooms, and a few other items I'm forgetting about... it was all superb!

We had made plans to catch-up with some friends of Liz's from college. They live in Oakland, but had lived in San Francisco for a few years as well. We took the trolley car from Union Square over to Mission-Hayes district, where we met-up with them at a wonderful little coffee shop. From there, we wandered over to a huge park, and then did some browsing and shopping in the Mission-Hayes district. Lots of thrift stores and unique places.

One of the places we ventured into was called "Paxton and Gate" and it featured an ecclectic mix of goods - from taxidermy to gardening supplies and everything in between; there were so many neat things to inspect and ponder. I saw an awesome hanging garden idea in the back; I snapped a photo for future reference.

They took us to an old bar called "The Homestead" which was a super cool place. I believe they said it was built in the mid-1800s and has been a bar ever since then. It was such an awesome old bar. If I lived in San Francisco, this would be my hang-out...

After enjoying a few drinks with her friends, we headed back to the hotel, where we did some shopping at some great stores in the area. I swung into AG (Adriano Goldschmeid) and bought a pair of blue jeans. We also hit Macy's, Nordstroms, and a few other places. I miss good shopping places like this!

With the clock pointing at nearly 8:00pm, we ventured over to an amazing sushi place called "Sanraku." It was recommended by Liz's friends and wow - was it great.

Seaweed salad and edamame to begin with:

Followed by two rolls (dragon and 49er) and nigri (fatty tuna and mackerel):

The next day arrived, and Liz was committed to more conference stuff, so I (wait for it) went for a run, took a shower, and then walked to a Dotty's - a breakfast place that is infamous for its unique take on comfort breakfast dishes. Upon my arrival, there was a line out the door; I waited for about 35 minutes before beign seated at the bar area.

My options were many, but I decided to go with the "house made whiskey smoked fennel sausage scrambler, with spinach, mushrooms, and house cured cheddar cheese". It was accompanied by a plate of rosemary/sage homefries and a thick slice of house made jalapeno cheddar cornbread.

Phenomenal. Oh so superb. With not much else to do during the day, I ventured back to the little cafe that had the brioche donuts, grabbed a seat, and did some work via remote connection. After a few hours, my gut said, "Hey, why don't we eat again?"

I decided to walk over toward Mission Street, and along the way found a pizza place called "Little Star Pizza" - they were offering personal pizzas with a drink for $10. Sounded like a bargain, so I stopped-in.

At the recommendation of my server, I ordered a roasted egg plant with chicken, basil, and garlic pizza. I'm not sure what their idea of personal is, but when the pizza arrived, it was much larger than I had envisioned - I'd say it was at least a 12" pie...

The pizza was delicious, but I only ate 1.5 pieces, as I didn't want to stuff myself too much. To help settle my gut (and guilty conscience for eating so much) I wandered around the city some more and spied this odd little store; yes, that's a bare-breasted pattern on the fabrics... hmm.

On the way back, I stopped at Yerba Buena Park - a little oasis located in the middle of the city.

Liz had several receptions to attend after the conference that evening, so I joined her for some free grub and drinks at a few of the hotels. It was nice to meet her friends and colleagues; they almost all have their PhDs, though, so I didn't contribute much by way of intelligent dialouge. ;-) Nah, just kidding - I had a good time chatting with everyone.

The next morning, we decided to venture to the north end of the piers, grab breakfast, and then rent bikes so that we could ride across the Golden Gate Bridge. We took the cable car from the hotel to an infamous bar/restaurant called "Buena Vista."

Buena Vista is known for its Irish Coffee and for being one of the older establishments that's still in business in the city. I skipped the Irish Coffee, but did order an awesome crab and tomato omelette with sourdough toast.

We walked from Buena Vista to the bike rental place, picked-up our bikes, went through a hasty fitting, and then hit the trails toward the Golden Gate Bridge.

There were a few steep hills to climb, but thankfully the route was nearly 100% via trail, so there wasn't much (if any) automotive traffic to contend with. We stopped near the Presidio to snap a picture - you can see the bridge in the distance.

We also passed by some incredibly nice houses along the way... the houses in this neighborhood had an average price of $8.7-million, according to Zillow.com...

The houses were located right along the bay (there was water directly opposite of them), and very close to one of the cooler pieces of architecture I can recall seeing - the Palace of Fine Arts.

Apparently, the Palace has fallen on tough times because it's slowly sinking into the ground. They've closed it and have relocated most of the attractions to new locations. It's such a shame, because the place was absolutely gorgeous.

After the quick pitstop at the Palace, we continued on toward the Golden Gate. Here's a nice shot of the rental bike as we neared the bridge. Can you believe the weather? It was quite honestly 75-80F and sunny every single day.

We eventually wound our way up and across the bridge, where we stopped at a large park for a quick break, a drink of water, and to take-in the views of San Francisco. My photos didn't turn out as well for two reasons - one, the photos were facing into the sun, so the lighting was terrible; and, two, the bridge itself is 1.75-miles long and when you calculate in the distances for the park and greenspace around the bridge, the city photographed a lot like a speck on the horizon. So, no photos "from the otherside." Sorry.

We rode back into San Francisco, and as we did, I snapped this selfie photo.

With time left on our rentals, we decided to ride along the pier area, only this time we rode well into the south side of the piers - when we hit AT&T park, we stopped and turned around.

We returned the bikes and then walked back to the hotel, where we got ready to take the BART over to Oakland for a dinner with Liz's friends. After some quick calculating, I figured we rode nearly 22-miles on the rental bikes - not a bad ride! And, it would make the evening's dinner feel a little less heavy.

Once in Oakland, Liz's friends picked-us up from the BART station and drove us to a "park" as they called it. Imagine the slight bit of surprise when we arrived to a cemetery. Apparently it's quite the norm for people to hang out at the cemetery. I can see why - the place afforded gorgeous views of both Oakland and San Francisco, and it really was configured like a large park. There were huge areas of green space where people could picnic and enjoy the awesome weather.

While we were there, I snapped a few pictures of some of the cooler, more interesting mosoleums. Here's where the Ghiradelli family (yes, of the chocolate fame) rests:

And here's the mosoleum for Samuel Merritt - it's the square unit to the right in the photo below. He's a bit of an Oakland legend - he was a physisican for a number of years (in the early 1800s), the 13th mayor of Oakland, and he founded a very popular nursing college. He also built a large lake in the middle of the city.

The attention to detail on some of the mosoleums is phenomenal - look at the custom-made lock on the Merritt facility:

After spending some time at the Mountain View Cemetery, we headed into town for some Korean BBQ. I'd never had it before, so I was both excited and nervous... Imagine my relief when I learned it was primarily fried and/or grilled chicken.

Liz's friend Jonathan did all of the ordering for us - he knew his way around the place, so we put the steering wheel firmly in his hands. He kicked things off with a Korean lager called "OB." It came in a comically large bottle - there's a pitcher of water behind the bottle for reference...

For an appetizer, we had something called "cheese corn." It's exactly what it sounds like, only better. They take a cast iron hot place and load it up with fresh kernels of sweet corn, scallions, and peppers, then cover it in cheese and heat it to molten-hot temperatures. Everything sort of boils and binds and chars together to form an unbelievably delicious plate of goodness.

To help cleanse the pallete (and our arteries), a noodle salad was ordered next. It consisted of cold noodles with a pile of vegetables, hard boiled egg, and an awesome sauce that was both sweet and spicy. It was excellent!

For the main entrees, we ordered two versions of chicken. One was fried and featured an allspice flavor; the other was a super spicy grilled version. Both were beyond excellent. Everything was so fresh, flavorful, and delightful. I wish Madison had a Korean BBQ place.

The restaurant was a load of fun; they were playing cheesy 80s, 90s, and 00s pop music (quite loudly). The staff were fantastic - super helpful and friendly, and they even gave us a complimentary pot of soup (very similar to egg drop) and a corn-fritata-like dish. We spent a few hours there, yet the time seemed to fly by.

After a nightcap at a local pub, we headed back to San Francisco on the BART. I managed to fall asleep during the ride; I guess all that food induced a bit of a coma. Thankfully Liz was able to stay awake, or who knows where we would've ended-up.

Liz had a full conference day the following day; I went for a morning run, where I stopped by San Francisco's other famous bridge - the Bay Bridge - the snap this photo.

I spent the rest of the day taking it easy. I stayed primarily in the hotel lobby, where I did some work and did some work on a side project I'm doing for the Capital Brewery Bike Club (I set-up their website and manage some of the content for it. It's still rough, but it's a new site so that's to be expected).

As we had a super early flight the next morning (it departed SFO at 6:00am), we decided to take it easy on the final night in town. That 3:45am alarm clock would be buzzing far too soon... We decided to walk a block or so to a local microbrewery called "Thirsty Bear Brewing Company."

It's an interesting brewery concept because they serve Spanish-style tapas as their primary food option. We started off with some salmon tartare with pintxos (one-bite skewers):

The tartare was superb; so fresh and tasty. The pintxos were excellent as well - one featured a fig with spiced goat cheese; the other consisted of marinated manchego with membrillo (it's similar to a pear).

Up next was some grilled asparagus with Meyer lemon and some Setas Al Ajillo, which are mixed wild mushrooms, garlic, madeira, butter, and chili flakes. The asparagus was excellent; the setas were a tad too buttery for my liking, but still good.

And finally, because I'm a total pig, I decided to order a pulled pork flatbread. I was quite shocked when it was delivered, as it was much larger than I had anticipated, and it was more doughy than I thought it would be. But, it paired well with the brews we were enjoying...

We settled our tab ($109... gotta' love San Francisco!), and turned-in early. Before I knew it, the alarm clock was yelling at me to wake-up and head to the airport. After a short (and very easy) cab ride to SFO (the BART doesn't run before 5:00am), we were standing in line waiting to board the flight back to Wisconsin.

What a great trip. Perfect weather, great adventures, and just a fun experience. I got to try some new foods, meet some new people, and visit some old familiar places. Many thanks to Liz for the great trip - I really enjoyed it!

Howdy folks.

Yep, it's been a while since I've provided any entertainment (?) or updates - sorry about that. I can only offer the usual excuses - busy with work, running around catching-up on things over the weekend, and so on.

I did spend the last five weeks or so eating totally bad, barely running, and barely riding... so, that means I've gained about 20-pounds... it's funny (not really) how I can go from 170-ish to a solid 190 in just over a month. Ugh. I guess it's time to get back into some sort of routine so that I can shed some of those awesome pounds. Or, maybe I should just throw-in the towel with this fitness crap and "enjoy" myself. Torment...

But enough about my woes. Aside from eating poorly and not exercising, I've actually been having a fun time. I was invited to hang out at a car show with my cousin a few weeks ago, and that was a blast, even if it was 100F outside. :-)

I snapped a bunch of pictures; I won't really take time to explain them here - most of the cars I photographed appealed to me because I had some sort of familiar relationship to them from my days while working at the Auto Museum or from my days as a technician at the Ford dealership.

Apparently the show has become so popular that they had to limit the number of cars/entries for judging to 350. I guess when you see the trophies they award, it's not so difficult to figure out why so many people are eager to participate in the show:

I also took a road trip on the motorcycle to visit a friend of mine from Arkansas. You may recall that my friend Nat came to Wisconsin to visit me a few years ago - there's a lengthy entry about it here.

Well, ever since the bank was closed in 2008, Nat and I have kept in touch. Nat launched his own marketing/brand partner business and did really well at it. With each visit to Arkansas, I'd make sure to spend time with Nat; I learned that he was considering a life change - getting away from the rat race and focusing on something that was important to him.

Imagine my surprise when I received a text from him a few weeks ago that showed a shopping cart full of New Glarus Brewing Company products. I immediately responded with, "you're either in WI, or you're a bootlegger." New Glarus doesn't sell their products to anyone outside of Wisconsin proper.

He responded that he was in Wisconsin; sort of. He had taken a short trip "over the border" from Iowa and was stocking-up on supplies. After some prodding and interrogating I learned that he had moved to Dubuque. Dubuque is only about 1.5 hours from Madison, so we made plans to hang out for a day.

I packed my saddle bags, suited-up, and hopped on the Harley for an enjoyable cruise down highway 18/151 to Dubuque. I let Nat know that I was in town and he swung by to pick me up so that we could head to Dyersville, IA - home of the "Field of Dreams" movie site.

While I've only seen the movie once, it was cool to check out the field and the house. The house has an interesting story - it's been family owned for quite some time; when the movie producers were searching for a site for their film, they stumbled across this farm and decided to select it for "home base."

They modified the house by enlarging rooms, adding windows, and extending the white picket fence. They installed a special irrigation and fertilization system so the corn would be tall enough by early June (when filming was taking place).

Here's the house -

It looks bigger than it is, and it also looks like it's farther from the baseball field than it is. It's interesting how the camera can distort depth of field/distance. I walked just a bit to the left of the house and snapped a picture of the baseball field and that infamous corn:

There were people playing baseball on the field; I didn't think to bring a glove, although it was probably for the better - it was over 100F out there and I didn't feel like shagging any fly balls. We walked around the field, checked out the corn, and then decided to seek out some food.

We drove into Dyersville and stumbled across a little place called "The English Pub." Dyersville isn't too big of a place, so our options were limited, and to be honest, we were a little nervous about the place before we stepped in.

Once inside, we quickly discovered the pub was a gem. Great atmosphere, a few friendly locals, and a sign that immediately caught our attention. It read, "Pub Pizza: 126,357 sold"

Hmm. We were starving, so we ordered a 'za. We watched as the bartender flipped the dough, added fresh ingredients, and snuck the assembly into a pizza oven just behind the bar. The result was fantastic:

We scarfed that pizza down in no time - it was truly delicious.

From Dyersville, we made our way back to Dubuque, where Nat gave me a tour of his new digs. These are pictures from the school he'll be attending for the next 3-4 years:

After strolling around the campus grounds, we took a little tour of the downtown area. Dubuque is a pretty cool place - much better than I would've ever thought it was. There's a great little museum that had this larger than life statue - it'll probably look familiar to a painting you may have seen:

From the downtown area, we meandered over to Nat's favorite watering hole - Paul's Sportsman's Club. This tiny little bar was straight out of the 1950s and even had this awesome antique hamburger cooker. I can't do justice trying to describe it, but we did learn that it was manufactured in 1932 and that Paul acquired it in 1949. It's been in use every day since. The burgers looked really good, but we didn't partake.

We did have a brew - I opted for an old classic, the PBR.

After a beverage and some popcorn from Paul's, we made our way over to the banks of the Mississippi, where an old brewery (Dubuque Star Brewing Company) had been converted into a restaurant called "D-Star." Before we walked into the restaurant, I snapped a picture of this iconic landmark:

That's the "shot tower," and it was used to form molten lead into perfectly round balls of lead that were used as bullets and cannon balls. They'd pour the hot lead from the top of the tower into tubes of various sizes. By the time the lead worked its way to the bottom of the tower, it formed into a perfectly round ball of shot.

We walked over to the D-Star, which was filled with memorabilia from the days when the building brewed, bottled, and produced Dubuque's finest beer.

We scored some seats on the second level, enjoyed a Potosi beer (from just across the river), and a couple of burgers. The burgers weren't anything to write home about, but the atmosphere and conversation were definitely stellar.

After dinner, we took a quick stroll through the downtown area, where I snapped one final picture for the trip - this is the clock tower in Dubuque.

Nat graciously dropped me off at my hotel where I was able to grab a solid evening's sleep before hitting the road the following morning. On the way back to Wisconsin, I decided to take some back roads and wound-up in Monroe. It was a nice diversion, and it reminded me that Cheese Days are coming up soon! :-)

I wound-up putting on 250-ish miles on my little road trip - the most miles I've ridden in a single trip since acquiring the Hog. It rode like a dream.

And finally - a few pet updates. I bought a cat tree for Mack and Shiloh. It's actually made from tree branches, and they seem to love it.

And last but not least, my friend Chris from work went to the EAA show a few weeks ago and sent me a picture of this B-29 flying superfortress. It's ironically named, wouldn't you say?

It's ironic when you consider the B-29 was capable of carrying 20,000 pounds worth of bombs in a single run. The B-29 also delivered the atomic bombs that landed on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One wouldn't expect such a beast to share the same name as this creature...

...I'll make it anywhere... it's up to you, New York, New York!

Oh, New York. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways: the vibe of the city, the hustle and the bustle, the awesome pizza, the even better bagels, the infamous landmarks, the great public transit system, the beautiful parks, the eclectic mix of people... It's such a great city. If I only could make $500,000+ per year, I'd probably really enjoy living there.

But, since I don't make anywhere near half-a-mil per year, I have to make do with a company-sponsored visit. I was in New York for a training class last week; I got to spend a full five days in the city, and I did my best to take as much of it in as possible. Allow me to share the story.

My adventure began at the Milwaukee airport, where I boarded a direct flight to LaGuardia. While waiting for the plane, I couldn't help but notice how dumb our society has become... case in point:

Seriously - who tries to cram a water bottle into a newspaper recycling slot? While my camera's lens wasn't quite wide enough to show it, there was a plastic bottle recycling bin directly next to the newspaper bin shown above. Ugh.

The flight to New York was uneventful - we arrived a full 25 minutes early, which was nice, because the less time one has to spend on an airplane crammed full of east coasters, the better. At times it felt as if I was trapped in a casting call for the next season of Jersey Shore... nearly everyone was loud, self-absorbed, and obnoxious. Thankfully, I had an entire row to myself, so I was able to don the headphones and immerse myself in an Adam Carolla podcast.

I purposely packed light - a backpack only - so after exiting the tarmac, I was able to make my way to the ground transportation area, where I purchased an unlimited MTA MetroCard. The card would allow me unlimited use of the bus and subway system.

Thanks to the wonderful folks at Google, I was able to chart a public transit route from LaGuardia to Wall Street; I took the M60 busline to 125th and 3rd, then hopped the 5 train south to the Bowling Green stop. Total time to destination: 50 minutes. Total cost: included in my $29 unlimited ride card. Compare that to a 1.5 hour taxi ride at $60... not bad.

I checked-in to my hotel, and made my way to the 44th floor, where my room was located. I opened the window shades and enjoyed this view -

My hotel was on the southern tip of Manhattan, directly next to Battery Park. That's the Statue of Liberty in the background - if you look closely, you'll see it (it's near the top left-center of the photo).

The southern end of Manhattan is known as the "FiDi" area (Financial District). There are brokerage firms, the NYSE, and tons of bank headquarters. It's also just a few blocks south of the new World Trade Center. While on a walk that I took later in the day, I snapped this photo of a church, with the new World Trade Center in the background. You can see that they're making great progress on it:

After settling in, I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and went for a run. I started my run in Battery Park, then worked my way up the Espalande trail. The Espalande trail follows the Hudson river and is absolutely spectacular. It'll take you from Battery Park all the way north to about mid-town. The trail is completely closed-off from traffic, so it's a haven for walkers, runners, bikers, and skaters.

After a 4-mile jaunt, I went back to the room, showered, and then set-out on foot to find some authentic New York pizza.

I worked my way up Broadway until I hit Canal Street, where I turned east and wandered through the infamous Canal Street shops. If you're in the market for a fake Louis Vuitton purse or a fake Rolex, this is the place for you. There are countless shops full of counterfeit goods. Here's a photo that I snapped while inside one of the shops - no idea who the people next to me were, but note the return policy that's written on the piece of cardboard under one of the purses:

I kept walking down Canal Street until I hit Allen; Allen is where Chinatown and Little Italy meet. I turned north onto Allen and walked another mile or so until I was deep in the heart of Little Italy. The smell of pizza, lasagna, ravioli, basil, and other Italian goodness filled the air. My olfactory senses were overwhelmed... each restaurant smelled better than the next; I eventually settled on a place called "Lil' Frankie's" - it looked authentic and there wasn't much of a wait for a table.

Lil' Frankie's didn't sell pizza by the slice, so I was forced to order an entire pizza. But the great thing about most New York pizza places is that their pizzas come in a reasonable size - I'd say they average around 12", so as long as you don't scarf down the entire pie, you're not too glutinous by enjoying half-a-pie by your lonesome.

I browsed the menu and decided to try the classic pizza - a Margherita. Topped with fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, and tomato slices, it's the yardstick by which all pizza is measured. In went my order, and within 10 minutes, this piping-hot beauty arrived.

It was extremely dark inside of Frankie's, so the photo is a bit dark... apologies for that. Alas, the pizza was superb. The crust was perfectly crispy yet chewy. The toppings were fresh and tasty. Along with two Brookyln Brewing Company beers, the meal was a hit, and it only cost $25. With my belly full, I hit the sidewalk for the 3-mile walk back to my hotel.

I took the Allen/Canal/Broadway route once again, and was tempted to buy a fake Rolex, but resisted. These guys didn't look quite as trustworthy as the small shop owners.

Once back at the hotel, I crawled into bed and slept like a king. The room was surprisingly quiet, thanks largely to the $350 fine for anyone caught honking a car horn in the FiDi area.

The next morning arrived and I woke up early to run before walking over to One New York Plaza, where my class was being hosted on the 31st floor of the building. 1NYP was built in 1969 and hosts a ton of businesses and educational facilities. As you can see, the day was absolutely perfect - not a cloud in the sky.

I made my way up to the 31st floor, checked-in for my class, and took a seat in the classroom. The school was offering a free "breakfast" with class, although it wasn't much of a breakfast... Eggo waffles, donuts, bagels, and granola cereal... not too healthy, to say the least. I opted for a cup of coffee and browsed around before the class started.

I spotted a heli-pad on the bay - apparently, this is a "commuter heli-pad" - executives and power-types fly-in to work on their own helicopters... during peak commuter times (7:45am and 3:30pm), the heli-pad is completely full, with other helicopters hovering nearby waiting for an opportunity to land. It must be nice to be able to take a helicopter to work each day...

The first day of class went really well - we had a group of about 11 in our class, and the subject matter was interesting and engaging. Class wrapped-up promptly at 5:00pm, which left me plenty of time to wander the city.

It turns out that Parmilla, a family friend from Malaysia, recently moved to New York, and she contacted me to see if I'd like to join her and her husband for dinner at an infamous Fish-n-Chips joint in the Greenwich neighborhood. Not one to dismiss an opportunity for Fish, I jumped at the chance, and made the 3-mile trek north to Greenwich village.

I love the neighborhoods in New York - this was taken just south of Greenwich:

And for some reason, this intersection reminded me of the Abbey Road album cover for the Beatles...

I arrived to A Salt & Battery, the little fish-n-chips place that Parmilla and Daniel had agreed to meet me at. The place was t-i-n-y small... literally standing room only with 5-6 barstools against the window.

Everyone in the place spoke with a thick British accent, further lending to the authenticity of the place. The menu options were limited - 4 types of fish, chips, and British beverages only. I placed an order for haddock with chips and a Moorehouse Witches Brew beer.

I chatted with Parmilla and Daniel, and caught-up with them and their NYC adventures. As luck would have it, their apartment was near the corner of 125th and 3rd; if you'll recall, that's where the M60 bus dropped me off so that I could take the 5 train south to Wall Street... how crazy?!

Our fish was soon ready, and it looked spectacular:

I'm pleased to say that the taste matched the looks. And for good reason - the fine folks at A Salt & Battery recently beat Iron Chef Bobby Flay in a food challenge competition for fish and chips. The fish was absolutely divine - flaky, fresh, and clean, with an expertly applied batter that was almost to die for. It was so good, in fact, that I bought a t-shirt from the proprietors. I can't wait to wear this to my next Wisconsin-based fish fry adventure...

After inhaling our fish, we walked over to a small pub called "Fiddlesticks," where we had an after dinner drink and a small dessert. The dessert looked awesome - a flourless chocolate cake with a tres-leches ice cream. While I didn't partake, it looked fantastic.

After the fish and drinks, I walked back to the hotel - nothing like a 3-mile walk back to the hotel to help work-off the greasy goodness of a fish fry. :-) Along the way, I passed Maserati of Manhattan, where I spied my next car:

Yummy.

Parmilla made a collage of photos from our visit to A Salt & Battery and sent it to me the next day; she used her iPhone to take the photos, edit them, and assemble them into this neat presentation. I've since downloaded the photo applications as well - I can't wait to start using them.

Thursday arrived, and it was one again time for class. Only this time, rather than suffering through the "breakfast" at the class, I stopped by Leo's for a breakfast bagel. Check out this monster - it's an everything bagel with an egg, turkey bacon, and Vermont cheddar. It was darned good, if not too big to eat... I had to remove one half of the bagel so that I could eat it.

Just like A Salt & Battery, Leo's was a tiny little place that was packed with people. I was able to make my way through the line in almost no time, and was shocked that my breakfast, along with a 1-liter of water only cost $7. And here I thought New York was pricey... I guess so long as you know where the good "local places" are, you'll be OK.

For lunch, I wandered over to Crumbs Bakeshop... I'd heard of Crumbs while listening to the Howard Stern show on Sirius, and had wanted to sample their cupcakes for quite some time... the case of goodies looked promising:

I selected a small lemon cupcake (only 300 calories!!) and then walked over to another local pizza joint called Underground Pizza. A few locals had tipped me off to this place, and am I grateful for the suggestion. The pies looked amazing:

(Thank goodness I was running each morning and walking everywhere)

I ordered a slice of sausage pizza and enjoyed it, along with my cupcake from Crumbs Bakeshop.

Talk about tasty. I think the Underground Pizza was better than the pizza from Lil' Frankie's - it seemed more authentic and true to the NYC style of slice. I folded it like a pro and enjoyed every bite before returning to class.

After class was done for the day, I returned to the streets, where I wandered around a bit. I walked past the infamous Wall Street Bull...

And then I worked my way up to the SoHo district, where I stumbled across the headquarters for my favorite cologne/perfume shop - Bond No. 9.

I was excited to sample their latest fragrances, but didn't purchase anything - there weren't any intriguing new scents, and I've been pleased with my current collection, so I saved my sheckles and kept on walking. Many thanks, however, to the friendly and helpful folks at the Bond No. 9 store - I appreciated their time and patience as I sniffed and sampled countless fragrances. :-)

By around 8pm, the 'ole food pit was grumbling, so I started investigating food options. After a few misses, I landed at the Fraunces Tavern and Restaurant. The place looked good, and the Yelp reviews were favorable, so I wandered in and requested a table for one. I was promptly seated and presented with a massive beer menu.... I decided on a porter, and also requested a side of "bourbon-ginger roasted mixed nuts."

The porter was good, but the mixed nuts were extremely ordinary. They didn't taste any different than what you'd find in a regular can of Planters mixed nuts... my server returned and asked what I'd like for dinner, and based on her recommendation, I went with the fish-n-chips.

And boy, am I glad that I did - they were stellar - perhaps even better than the stuff from A Salt & Battery... the fish featured a crispy Guinness batter that was as flavorful as it was plentiful. Wow, was it good. I only wish that I hadn't been sitting directly beneath a huge red neon sign, because I wasn't able to capture a good photo... this is the best of the bunch...

After dinner, I returned to my room, watched some television, and called it an early night. My final day of class was on Friday... I had planned to skip the last half so that I could browse around Manhattan, but the class was so good that I decided to stay until the very end.

At the end of the day, I received a text from Parmilla, who invited me to join Daniel and her at a little pizza place near mid-town. Once again, I laced-up the walking shoes and trekked the 4.1 miles north to 53rd street, where I met them at Don Antonio's for pizza.

Along the way, I passed several cool places, including this doggy day care:

And the infamous New York Times headquarters:

But enough about that, let's get back to dinner... :-)

Don Antonio's features some interesting pizza options, including a pizza that is partially deep-fried before being finished in a wood-fired brick oven. Parmilla, Daniel, and I ordered like kings - we started with caprese, which featured house-made mozzarella, fresh tomatoes, and fresh basil. It was divine:

Before long, our first pizza arrived - it was the aforementioned specialty pie... by par-frying the crust before baking, the dough puffs up and becomes slightly pastry-like. It was topped with smoked bison mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil. It was delicious.

To follow-up the specialty pizza, we ordered a sausage pizza and a margherita pizza. Both arrived, and both were spectacular, although I think the sausage pie stole the show.

With our gullets full of pizza, we took a walk toward Times Square; the crowds were unreal.

We also walked past several infamous landmarks, including the Ed Sullivan theater, which hosts the Late Show with David Letterman. As it was a Friday night, the show wasn't active, but that didn't prevent me from snapping a photo of the marquee.

While walking around the Times Square area, we spotted this little beauty - a Lamborghini Gallardo convertible. Nothing like seeing a $200,000 car casually rolling around the busy streets of downtown Manhattan... on a Friday night, nonetheless.

Seemed like such a shame to have a 550-horsepower, all wheel drive, clutchless manual transmissioned beast like that in the city. I'm guessing it spends the majority of its time idling around, stuck in traffic. If the owner of that fine automobile is reading this, I'd be happy to help it stretch its legs out here in Wisconsin.

We kept walking around midtown - the area is almost surreal. There are so many signs, lights, businesses, and people...

Parmilla led us to the "2-month store" on 42nd Street; this store changes every two months, based largely on current events. As luck would have it, the store was set-up for the pending NFL draft day - the draft would be held at this store in New York. They had tons of NFL gear, including all of the new jerseys/uniforms on display:

More interestingly than the jerseys were the game shoes that were on display - these were actually worn by folks like Tom Brady, Cam Newton, and so on. Here are Cam's kicks:

Upstairs there was an interactive exhibit; the fine folks from Wilson were on-hand to demonstrate how they manufacture footballs. Wilson is the exclusive supplier of all footballs to the NFL, and they brought actual employees and equipment to demonstrate how footballs are assembled. It was pretty interesting watching them cut the leather blanks, sew them together, insert a bladder, lace the ball, and then inflate and test it. Here are a few pictures from the process:

The lady in that last photo (lacing the ball) has been lacing footballs for Wilson for 35 years. That's unreal!

And finally, we got to see the actual Lombardi trophy. This wasn't the copy that each team receives after winning a Superbowl, but instead, was the original trophy. It weighs 15-pounds as is crafted from solid silver. This is the trophy that you'll see on TV right after a team wins the Superbowl; after the game it returns to NFL headquarters.

After wrapping things up at the NFL Draft Store, we continued walking south toward Union Square. We stopped-in to Mario Batali's Eataly, which is like a self-contained food court, grocery, and wine store. Inside, we found four different restaurants, a massive grocery store, dessert retailers, a pasta counter, a butcher shop, and more. To say it was impressive would be an understatement. Here are some photos from inside the place:

Those are imported olive oils - there were several rows of shelving like that full of olive oils.

That's one of the common eating areas... after you grab your gelato, desserts, wine, and sandwich (or pizza, or lasagna, etc) you can assemble in the common area and enjoy your bounty. As mentioned, there are also 4 "sit down" restaurants inside as well.

A row of scrumptious looking desserts...

We left the crowded Eataly venue and continued over toward Union Square, where the Occupy Wall Street group was in full effect. It was amazing how busy the area was, especially considering that it was nearly 10:00pm...

We took a peek at the national debt clock and quickly became depressed...

Having walked nearly 8.5 miles, I decided to call it a night. Parmilla, Daniel and I all bid each other a farewell, and then I boarded a train for the FiDi. It felt good to sit down and relax for a bit; between the running and walking, I managed to log nearly 13 miles that day... not bad.

Before I knew it, the train had me back near the hotel.

I made sure to pack my bag that night - I had to be awake and on the train by 7:30am the following morning so that I could make my 10:05am flight from LaGuardia back to Milwaukee. My poor backpack didn't know what hit it - to say it was stuffed full would be an understatement:

Saturday morning arrived far too quickly; I took a shower, grabbed my things, paid my hotel bill ($1672 for 4 nights!!!), and hit the street. I made one last stop at Leo's for a final breakfast bagel:

I shared my bagel with a flock of birds while sitting on a bench near Battery Park. I think they were grateful for my generosity; there was no way I could eat the entire bagel, so I gave them the half that I couldn't fit into my trap. :-) There's something so great about sitting in downtown New York on a Saturday morning... it's eerily quiet and relaxing.

With breakfast in my belly, I walked over to my local train station, where I planned to take the 5 train north to Spanish Harlem, where I would pick-up the bus to LaGuardia.

There was only one problem with my plan: the lower Manhattan trains were all closed for maintenance work... yikes!! I quickly consulted with my Google maps and found that I could catch a northbound subway from Canal Street... some 1.25 miles north. I hoofed it up to Canal Street, got on the 2, and after 45 minutes arrived near 125th street. I hoofed it some more and found the M60 bus near Lexington, boarded and breathed a sigh of relief.

The relief was short-lived; I had less than 1 hour to get my plane ticket and make it through security. Thankfully, everything went smoothly - I made it to my gate just as they were calling for "last chance" to board the plane. I'm so glad I didn't have a suitcase to worry about!

I hopped on-board, took my seat, put in my earphones, listened to some more Adam Carolla, and enjoyed the return flight.

Back in Wisconsin, I drove to Watertown to pick up the love of my life - Flea. It was good to see her, and I'm guessing she was happy to see me as well... she wouldn't leave my lap during the drive home:

I also made a detour while heading home so that I could enjoy a dinner with Dan & Tara - we ventured over to Crawfish Junction to catch-up with one another. It was a stellar dinner, although it wasn't real good for my waistline... here's the "burger" that Dan and I split:

That beast was called "The Hangover Burger" and featured a deep-fried 1/2-lb patty of beef, along with onion strings, bacon, a fried egg, "funeral potatoes" (cheesy hashbrowns) and barbeque sauce... I'm not sure if it's meant to help cure a hangover or if it's supposed to induce a food hangover... I definitely felt a food hangover after eating half of it.

We called it a night, and I called the whole week "great." I can't wait to get back to New York - I absolutely love it, and was thrilled to have had the opportunity to visit again. If you've never been to New York, you must go. I'd recommend staying in the Financial District - I've stayed uptown, midtown, and downtown... I like the FiDi best - it's reasonably priced and thanks to the subway, you can get anywhere quite easily. The walking isn't bad either - just bring comfy shoes.

Our author approaches a dusty, soot-covered blog, takes a deep breath, blows away the superficial layer of debris, and with a broad, sweeping motion, clears the remaining dust from his beloved blog...

...cough, cough... ...sneeze... ...cough...

Ahh. There we go. Holy cats, people - I have been quite neglectful of my blog. Can you believe it's been nearly a month since the last entry? Wow. What's the excuse?

None, really - yeah, I've been a little busy, but I've mostly been lazy with respect to paying attention to the computer. I've barely been checking my home e-mail, let alone thinking of witty and interesting blog entries. :-)

So... you may recall from a previous entry that my boss and friend Steve had put together a team to participate in the LiveStrong Austin Challenge. He did an amazing job of building an excellent team, and together, our team raised more than $9,000 for the event. That number put us in the top 35 teams in terms of money raised for the event!

Each of us ponied-up the money to book our own hotel rooms, fly to Austin, and participate in the Challenge. With 20 people on our team, this was quite a commitment, and a testament to Steve's charismatic style - he was able to recruit 20 truly excellent people and get them to train, fundraise, and travel for the event. Kudos to everyone!

With the money raised, our flights and hotels booked, and our legs conditioned, there was only one thing remaining - participating in the actual event. The Livestrong organization sponsors 13 challenge events, from 5K races to bike rides to marathons to ski events; they're held at various cities around the country. Steve targeted the October 15th Austin event, as it was his wife's goal to participate in this challenge before she passed. We raced the event in her honor.

Steve, his mom (Judy), his daughter (Claire), his son (Will), and I drove to Milwaukee on Thursday night so that we could catch a semi-decent night's sleep prior to flying to Austin early on Friday morning. We booked rooms at the lovely Super 8 near the airport and hunkered-in for the evening.

I'm not much for hotels... They feel dirty to me, I worry about bedbugs, I can hear all of the activity taking place in adjacent rooms, and I don't generally sleep well because I'm afraid I'll oversleep and miss a flight/meeting/commitment. And Thursday night was no different... I was in my room by 8:30pm, wiped-down the entire room with Lysol wipes, scoured the bed for bugs, and proceeded to lie wide awake until 3:45am.

The alarm went off at 4:30am, so I scored a solid 45 minutes of "sleep." Ahhh.

We made our way to the airport, where we met Dan (Steve's trainer and friend) before heading to our departure gate. We flew to Kansas City, where we picked-up Steve's mother-in-law (Jeanette) and her two friends (Lea and Ariel). The nine of us boarded a flight in KC and flew to Austin, where we landed at around 11:30am.

We picked-up rental cars (a Dodge Grand Caravan and a Chevrolet Traverse) and then set about finding a lunch spot. We were all starving, as none of us had eaten since well before sunrise. Unfortunately, there was a slight miscommunication, and one group went to the hotel, while Steve, Judy, Claire, Will and I went to Whole Foods for lunch.

The Austin Whole Foods is amazing - it's massive, and it has a ton of unique food offerings, all of which are made to order. I opted for my old-time favorite, grilled chicken tacos on corn tortillas:

With our bellies full, we made our way back to the hotel. We checked-in, and then walked down to the LiveStrong village. The LiveStrong village served as "ground zero" for the Challenge weekend.

We picked-up our race packets, and here's where the story gets really interesting. :-)

The LiveStrong Challenge weekend consists of two primary events - a 5K run/walk on Saturday, and an optional bike ride on Sunday. The bike ride offered 4 distances: 20-mile, 45-mile, 65-mile, and 90-mile options. To participate in the bike ride, you had to pay an additional entry fee ($125) and raise at least $250 for the event. You also had to supply your own bike.

If you were able to meet those criteria, you were afforded the opportunity to ride with Lance Armstrong, provided you were up for the 45-, 65-, or 90-mile routes (the 20-mile ride took a different route from the longer rides).

I paid the entry fee and raised enough money (I think my total raised was about $1875, thanks to the MidTown Pub fundraiser event), but at the last minute, decided to not pack and fly any of my bikes down for fear of having them damaged in transit. It was a bit of a let-down, but I really didn't want to have anything get damaged by either the TSA or the airline.

I mentioned that Steve is charismatic and resourceful... It turns out that he was contacted just prior to our event by the CEO of LiveStrong.

The CEO (Doug) mentioned that he (Doug) was looking forward to meeting Steve and his family and asked if there was anything he could do to help us out. Steve casually mentioned that I wasn't going to ride as I didn't want to travel with my bike. Doug said he would try to find a bike for me to use.

A day before we were due to arrive in Austin, Doug told Steve that he found a bike for me to use; all I had to do was walk over to Mellow Johnny's Bike Shop and tell them that there was a bike waiting for me to use for the Challenge. Please note that Mellow Johnny's is Lance Armstrong's bike shop, and nearly everyone that works at the shop is involved in one way or another with Team Radio Shack/Trek/Lance Armstrong.

So imagine my shock when I walked into Mellow Johnny's and said, "Hi, I'm here to pick up a bike for the Challenge," and their response was, "We don't have a bike listed for you here."

Again... no big deal. I figured it wasn't meant to be, and I would enjoy the weekend no matter what. As I browsed around the shop looking at t-shirts, jerseys, and cool gadgets, the head mechanic for the shop came up and asked if I was "Doug's friend, Steve." I said that I was. He said, "We have a bike for you - it's in our VIP vault and it will be up here in a minute."

I wasn't sure what that meant, but anytime someone uses the words "VIP" and "vault," you know it's going to be good. And sure enough, within 5-10 minutes, a bike was presented to me by one of the mechanics.

That, my friends, is a 2011 Trek Madone 6.9 that belongs to Andreas Kloden. Andreas rode THIS ACTUAL BIKE in the 2011 Tour de France. No lie.

I became light-headed and faint; I was going to be riding a hand-built, custom-spec'd, uber-bike that was used in the Tour de France by a pro-rider for Team Trek. Holy cats - Steve, you are THE MAN. I pinched myself about 300 times as the mechanics did their best to set-up the bike to my needs. Here it is on the work stand as one of the mechanics swaps out the stem for a slightly shorter one:

I chatted with the mechanic as he worked on the bike, and asked him, "Is this seriously Kloden's bike? I mean, it's a replica, right? Not the actual Tour bike - it can't be."

The mechanic said, "I was on the 2011 Tour team; I did support and set-up for the team this year, and I can tell you that I worked on this very bike for the entire Tour. It is the real deal - it's Klodie's bike - chips, scars, and all."

WOW.

"Any idea what this bike is worth?" I asked.

"In tour form, with aero wheels and carbon bars, probably around $20,000. As it sits now? Probably around $15,000, give or take. Did you need aero wheels?"

"No, I think I'll be OK with these," I said, my mouth dry. This bike cost more than my car, and it weighed half of what a bag of kitty litter does... in full race form, it tips the scales at 14-pounds. My Cervelo R3, for comparison, weighs-in at 16-pounds. A 2-lb difference is huge when it comes to biking - it's nearly impossible to shed 2-lbs from a race bike... I can't imagine what tricks and goodies Kloden's bike featured.

After about 20 minutes, the bike was "ready" for me. I wasn't picky - they offered to do a proper fitting, but I was so floored with the scenario that I said everything would be fine as was. Beaming from ear-to-ear, I met-up with Steve and we walked back to the hotel.

Once back at the hotel, I took a few more photos of the ride - here you can see Kloden's name affixed to the frame:

And here's one more side-view of it. What an amazing marvel of engineering and fabrication - pure carbon fiber with the best-of-the-best components. Wow.

I took the bike up to my room, salivated over it for a few more minutes, and then laced-up my running shoes and went for a pre-dinner run. It was so great to be back in familiar territory - I ran just over 6-miles on some of the world's greatest running trails compliments of Barton Springs Trail. This is where I spent every single morning while I lived in Austin; 6 miles each morning alongside the gorgeous Lady Bird Lake. The miles flew by, and before I knew it, it was time for dinner.

Our group assembled in the lobby, and we walked down to an awesome little Tex-Mex restaurant, where we enjoyed a wide variety of Austin specialities. From table-made guacamole to street tacos to enchiladas, we feasted like kings and queens. Steve generously picked-up the tab for our entire group - I can't imagine what it cost, but thank you again. The sun was fully set, and most of us went back to the hotel to get some sleep.

Dan (Steve's trainer and friend) and I went carousing around the town for a bit - we had a drink at a roof-top bar, and then wandered down 6th Street, watching people and listening to bands along the way. At around midnight we decided to call it an evening - the race would start at 8:00am, and neither of us had slept more than an hour the night before.

Race morning came, and our team quickly took control of the hotel lobby.

Our plan was to meet in the lobby by 7:15, at which point we would make the short walk to the starting line as a group. The event organizers requested that we all be ready to go by 7:45am - the race would start at 8:00am from the 1st Street bridge.

Claire, Steve's daughter, was up-and-at-em - here she is in her team shirt with race number proudly affixed:

And here are Lea and Ariel (with Wendy in the background) getting ready to make their way to the starting line. We all looked pretty good, considering it was 7:15 am and most of us were operating on little sleep.

Someone had a great idea to ask the hotel staff to take a picture of our group; I'm glad they did, because this is the only picture I could find of our entire team. We're all in our team t-shirts and ready to run (or walk):

Our team made its way to the starting line; the weather was phenomenal. Here you can see the sun just rising over Lady Bird Lake. Any questions as to why I so enjoyed running in this area?

We arrived in perfect time; the organizers were sharing details about the race, thanking sponsors, and providing information about the event. There were more than 2500 runners and walkers, all of whom raised more than $2.3 million for the event.

Steve, Dan, and I posed for a pre-race photo - you can see the Four Seasons behind us, and you can see my "new look" - yep, that's a full-fledged beard on my mug.

I started growing the beard on a whim, and then decided that I would stick with it until I had a full Brian Wilson beard (from the San Francisco Giants)... for those not familiar with Brian Wilson, he's a reliever for the Giants. He helped them win the 2010 World Series, but he's best known for his crazy beard and antics. Here he is at the 2011 ESPY awards:

And here he is, on the mound during a game:

Truth be told, I hate the beard. It's bothersome, it makes my face look fat (although that may have more to do with my steady diet of donuts, cookies, and other bad foods), and it's just plain ugly. But, I'm sticking with it until at least Halloween... we'll see what happens from there. Back to the race...

At 8:00am, they sung the national anthem, and after shedding a few tears (it was a moving moment - remembering why we were there, what we were doing, and all of those who have battled with, lost to, and/or continue to battle cancer), I snapped two last pre-race photos. You can see the number of folks that were in attendance:

Seconds after snapping the photos, we were off.

The race wasn't "staged" by pace, so we had to navigate our way through the crowds of people in an effort to find some open running room. For the first 5-6 minutes, we struggled to average a 12-minute mile; there was a lot of stopping/starting/weaving as we weaved in-and-out of people. We also ran into Doug (the CEO of Livestrong) and talked to him for a minute or two. I thanked him profusely for his help with the bike...

And then we were truly off-and-running. I snapped a photo as we ran our way up Congress Avenue:

And someone in our group took this awesome photo "down" Congress - I'm not sure who took the photo, but it turned out really great (it may have been Wendy?). You can see the runners and the capital of Texas in the background. With the morning light, it's a really cool photo:

Steve, Dan, and I ran our way to the finish line with a finishing time of 27-minutes on the dot. Factor in the 5-6 minutes we lost during the beginning, and our pace was very respectable. It was Steve's first 5K, and any sub-30 minute time is truly impressive. After crossing the finish line, we turned around and ran the course backward in an attempt to find the rest of our team.

We found the crew and joined them for a return to the finish line. Here's Steve's mom (Judy), his niece (McKenzie), and his sister-in-law (Julie):

Julie and McKenzie ran the race as well - they finished in 25-minutes, which is totally awesome. They also ran back to find the group, and I happened to snap this picture as they were returning to the finish with our group. Great race, you two!

With about half-a-mile to the finish, Claire decided she wanted Steve to put her on his shoulders and run to the finish. Steve hoisted her onto his shoulders and with some help from Martha (a friend of Steve's family), Steve, Claire, Will, and Martha all made a speedy b-line to the finish:

Here's Steve and his kids after the race:

What a great event. Everyone did a wonderful job of finishing the race; we were slightly hungry, so we decided to make our way back to the LiveStrong village with the hope of scoring some breakfast grub.

Here's our group as we made the trek back to the village:

We arrived to the village, only to discover they didn't have any food. While there was a post-race meal, the meal was on Sunday (after the bike ride). D'OH!

We debated about where to go, and finally settled on another round of Whole Foods. I enjoyed some scrambled eggs with spinach and mushrooms, a small piece of pork sausage, a biscuit, and some cookies. I'm telling you, the Austin Whole Foods is simply awesome. I love that place!

Bellies full and legs well-run, we made our way back to the hotel, where thanks to another one of Steve's connections, we had plenty of ice cold beverages and snacks waiting for us. We settled-in at the hotel's pool, where we snacked and drank while watching the Badger football game and socializing with one another.

After enjoying more than our fair share of beverages (and Cheetos), we decided to head over to the infamous Allens Boots. Allens is where I purchased my very own pair of cowboy boots a few years ago - it's the Mecca of boots and western wear, and is a must-see place when in Austin.

Here's a peek inside of Allens... this is a row of boots - men's size 12. Yep, every boot in that row is size 12.

A few people bought boots; Steve bought some boots, some shirts, and cowboy hats for us. Here we are leaving Allens; I've got Will (Steve's son) with me. Yes, he got a hat but wasn't wearing it at the time of this picture:

Man, that beard is hideous. :-D

We stopped at Sugar Mama's for some cupcakes, and then made our way back to the hotel, where we prepped for dinner. I hit the trail for a quick run, hopped in the shower, and then led our group to the infamous Rudy's Country Store and Bar-B-Que for some traditional Texas barbeque.

The line was huge - the place was absolutely packed (I think it took us 30-45 minutes to get through the line to place our orders):

But the wait was well worth it. I had some brisket, some pork tenderloin, and a jalapeno sausage link. Yum - just look at the smoke ring on that pork!

After eating at Rudy's, we returned to the hotel, and then hit Austin's 6th Street to celebrate the events of the day. For those not familiar, 6th Street is essentially one big party - it's 10-12 blocks worth of bars and bistros, all with tons of live music. Without exaggerating, nearly every single bar has a live band, and between every bar is a small food stand, with offerings that include pizza, bbq, brats, fish-n-chips, tacos, and more.

We wandered-in to Camino el Casino, where we enjoyed a few beverages - primarily PBR and scotch (Steve's favorites). Here's part of our group raising a toast to the great weekend:

From left to right, it's: Steve, me, Dan, Tamara, and Wendy.

From Casino, we wandered down 6th Street, encountering Ferraris, Bentleys, Jaguars, Aston Martins, and a few Audi R8s along the way. Austin loves its exotic cars!

The crowds became heavier and heavier, and at 9:00pm, Austin closes 6th street to cars. Here's what the streets looked like as we made our way down to Molotov, another one of 6th Street's clubs:

I'm not sure what was more crowded and difficult to navigate - the 5K or this bar-scene-turned-street-party?

We shimmied our way into Molotov, scored a booth, and did our fair share of people watching (and commentating). Wendy and Tamara bought us a round of drinks; a kind waitress took another group photo for us. Here we are, about to call it a night - we were all tired and ready to call it an evening:

From left-to-right, it's: Dan, Julie, Steve, Tamara, Wendy, me.

Shortly after that photo, we walked the 1.2 miles back to our hotel, where I found a little friend waiting for us. Apparently our hotel had a "house dog" that served as an ambassador to the place. He was a super nice, extremely mellow yellow lab. I never caught his name, but I liked him nonetheless.

Sunday morning arrived, and I was up, dressed, and ready to roll by 6:00am. The bike ride was scheduled to start at 7:00am, but thanks to the large number of participants (4300), the event was moved (literally at the last minute) to a location about 30-miles west of Austin.

I hopped-in the van and made my way west. With about 5 miles to go until I reached the destination, traffic came to an abrupt halt. After not moving more than 200 yards in 15 minutes, I started to get nervous - it was 6:45am, and I was still at least 4.5 miles from the start of the ride. Judging from the traffic around me, I could tell that everyone was heading to the same place - the start of the ride...

I waited in traffic for another 5-10 minutes before making an executive decision. There was no way I would make it to the start, and the idea of riding an unknown course (without a map), on an expensive bike, with 4000 other people sounded worse and worse. So, I pulled a U-turn and headed back to Austin.

I figured I would park near my old Trigger Point office and ride my familiar roads. I wouldn't be "riding with Lance," but at least I'd get to ride this amazing bike in a familiar and comfortable environment.

I parked the van, unloaded my bike and hit the roads of what is known as "Austin Hill Country." The views are amazing:

I rode the beast of a bike for a solid 40 miles, and it was awesome. The bike was so stiff, so fast, so silent, and yet so smooth. It was absolutely effortless to ride it - the shifting was seamless, and it accelerated like nothing else. I had a "loop" that I had ridden countless times on my Cervelo and knew that it would take approximately 48 minutes to complete. With the Trek, I finished it in 44 (and some change). I'm sure some of it was due to excitement, but I think a lot of it had to do with how efficient that bike was.

After the loop, I rode through some familiar neighborhoods and on some back roads. I stopped and took a picture along the way, just so that I would never forget this incredible experience:

Tour. de. France. Actual. Team. Bike. Oh. My. God.

After nearly 3-hours in the saddle, I returned back to the van and drove back to Mellow Johnny's, where I reluctantly returned the bike to its rightful owners. They removed my pedals; I thanked them again, and then went back to the hotel.

We watched the Packers beat the Rams, and then went out for dinner at Z Tejas, another Austin mainstay for upscale tex-mex cuisine. Most of our group opted for enchiladas, tacos, or burritos. I went with the daily special - sea scallops with chimichurri sauce and asparagus:

Sunday night was rather quiet; we were all quite tired from the previous night, and I was tired from my long ride. Monday morning came along, and it was time to pack and head to the airport.

Here's Judy (Steve's mom) and Claire - notice the pink cowboy boots:

Our return flights were uneventful, although they did run behind... we got delayed in KC for over an hour, and then had to take an alternate route from KC to Milwaukee because of some weather concerns. But, we landed safely. Back in Wisconsin, we stopped at Rocky Rococo's for some pizza, and then parted ways.

Back home, I unpacked my things and remembered that I scored a few goodies from the event. Because I raised more than $1,800, my goodie bag included a few extra items like this Nike LiveStrong backpack and Team LiveStrong hat:

Because Steve raised more than $4,000, he received a backpack, hat, and a LiveStrong team cycling jersey - talk about cool!

And there you have it. It was a great weekend spent for a great cause and honoring an even greater person. I truly enjoyed meeting everyone that was at the event, and I can't thank Steve, Doug, and the Mellow Johnny's people enough for the bike. I owe everyone a huge debt of gratitude!!

There's talk of making this an annual event, and that's an idea I would fully support. I can't imagine the good things we could do if we focused on this for an entire year - let's get after it!

Before I sign-off, here are a few miscellaneous photos and comments/quotes from the weekend:

Claire, in her cowboy hat (can you guess her favorite color?):

Our small group running to the finish line for a second time:

Steve and his family out on the course (shady):

Our team t-shirt design (front):

The pictures were created by Steve's nieces and nephews, all of whom ranged in age from 2 to 13. They were asked to draw pictures of a tree bending toward the sun (it represents the lyrics from Pearl Jam's song, "Present Tense"). What you see above are their drawings, and those made-up the front of our shirts.

On the back of our shirt were the lyrics to Pearl Jam's Present Tense (Jody's favorite song, and the inspiration for the team's name), along with some sponsor logos:

I did the layout/design for the t-shirts, and Steve bought them for us. Thanks again for the wonderful weekend and inspiration, Steve. I was proud to be a part of the team and would love to do it again.

And finally, some memorable quotes:

"I now regret eating an IHOP omelette for breakfast."
- Steve C., at mile 2.5 of the 5K race

"Are those flip-flops?"
- Steve L., at mile 2.75 of the 5K race as we got passed by a woman running/sprinting in true flip-flops

"Hey buddy"
- Voice of Marty, who was there in spirit, but not in body.

"Hey Steve.... doin?"
- Will, Steve's 2-year old son, asking his favorite question (aka "whatchya' doing?")

"Why?"
- Will's follow-up question

And there you have it. Until the next entry...

Jed e-mailed me earlier this week to say that we had been PR'd again - even after we left Puerto Rico. It turns out the local paper ran a story/travel report about Luquillo, Puerto Rico, a few days after we had returned from Puerto Rico.

Here's a link to the story: Wisconsin State Journal Article about Luquillo, PR

The story focuses primarily on the El Yunque rainforest, but if you read it carefully, you'll probably see that the author has similar experiences and thoughts about the area as we did, although the author is a bit more "diplomatic" with his descriptions and accounts.

In other news, I spent the better part of this week catching-up on work activities, cleaning-up my diet (argh - I'm so sick of training, eating healthy, and busting my butt... I may quit, seriously), and getting things back in-order here at the apartment.

I did another dog transport yesterday - drove a greyhound and a cat from Madison to Eau Claire - it took about 8 hours when it was all said and done, so that more or less ate-up my entire Saturday (I left Madison around 1pm and returned around 9pm). I did some late night grocery shopping (I find that Woodmans, Whole Foods, and Willy Street Co-Op are best visited after 9pm), finally got home around 10:30, and called it a night.

Today's agenda includes the usual: I'll hit the road for a run in about an hour, then will ride (hopefully outside, as the weather should be decent), will do some lifting, and then make meals for the rest of the week. Exciting, eh?

Luuuuuuuuuucy - I'm hoooooooooome!

Holy Mofongo my friends - long time, no update!

And for good reason; I just spent a solid week vacationing in Puerto Rico, and you can bet your sweet bambulance that there are some good stories to share, so read on... :-)

The trip started way back during the summer of 2010, when I mentioned to my friends Jed and Jamie that I had a coworker who owned a nice condo in Puerto Rico. The coworker rents the condo from time to time, and as luck would have it, we could rent it for a reasonable rate. They expressed some interest, and we kicked-off a little (emphasis on the word "little") research into Puerto Rico. I believe much of that research was conducted while drinking, or at least within close earshot of a drinking establishment, because before I knew it, we had purchased roundtrip airfare and plunked down a modest deposit on the condo.

And so began our adventure. I extended the invitation to Amy; she accepted, and before we could say "tripleta," we were fully committed to a vacation in sunny Puerto Rico.

Note: Because of the size of this entry, it's broken into two pieces.

To continue reading this article (part one), click the link below.

To jump to part two of the article, click here.

To view the photo album (with 200+ pictures), click here.

Click below to continue reading Part One of the story...

Apparently my blog software doesn't like long entries; it wouldn't allow me to enter any more text, so I had to break this entry into two parts. Sorry about that.

To read Part One of the entry, click here.

To view the picture album (200+ photos), click here.

...or continue reading Part Two by clicking the link below.