Category Archives: Babble About Anything Really

December Travels Begin Today YAY

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Remember when I started this blog to have a travel blog?

I am leaving tonight to start an insaneo trip that I have been waiting all year for.   It started out as a cruise to Hawaii, which leaves Long Beach on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  I then decided for funsies, to see if I could add a second cruise to the beginning since it seemed like a waste to have Thursday – Saturday off work, just to wait for my cruise.  Well guess what.  There not only was, there was also a second cruise for me to add.  So I am doing:

Long Beach to Ensenada
Long Beach to Ensenada and Cabo San Lucas
Long Beach to Hawaii and Ensenada

I had been toying with spending Christmas in Las Vegas because I get 5 consecutive days off work for only one vacation day.  Then I realized it was dumb to fly home from California, only to fly right back to the West Coast a few days later.  So I booked Las Vegas for 14 days.  And then added on four more Vegas days pre-cruise.

I fly home from Vegas on an overnight flight on a Friday.  I will unpack what I assume will be 387948374 pounds of coffee purchased in Hawaii and repack for a New Years Eve cruise leaving from New Orleans.

I will also go see Pen Pals with Melissa Gilbert during the 3 nights I am home in NYC before flying to New Orleans. Laura Ingalls!  I have a few other shows I’d like to fit into my very short time home but who knows.  I may do ALL THE THINGS.  I may just sleep.

Just between you and me – I hope I do all the things.

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Las Vegas Trip Report: I Hit The Holy Grail

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Good morning Las Vegas!

I am off work today and I can smoke in my room OMG heaven.

I had so many plans today but realized that moving hotels in between the plans would be a nightmare so I decided to cancel Fontainebleu.  I was double booked there and Encore tonight.  My thinking was that I did not want to be without a hotel on Christmas if Fremont would not let me check in early.  But ultimately, I’d rather not check into any hotel tonight so….let’s see how this goes.

As mentioned,  I have plans tonight. It is 9 am and I already don’t want to do any of them. I just want to gamble and sleep.

Today is (hold on while I count on my fingers) day 13 of this trip, which makes it day 12 since I last went degenerate.  Hmm.

Crazy to think of how excited I used to get about 2 week trips. Now those are short for me.

Went to Jardin for breakfast. I get the same thing every time. Three eggs your way. Every time it is great.

I have $80 for Cleo. Walking to her, I see all the machines i want to play and can’t because small budget.  I tell her I want to play all the machines but I cannot unless she gives me money.

I played $40 on one machine, cashed out for $60. $40 on other for zero.  I put the $40 tito back into the first machine and HOLY FUCKING SHIT is what I screamed when i hit 9/9 for the first time in my life, on a bonus when its doubled and playing $2.

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Las Vegas Trip Report: I Love Encore

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Hi Las Vegas, although you may as well be Oklahoma for all the fun I am going to have while working from my room today.

I went to Starbucks and people did not know how to form a line at all.  The employees had to sort that out, which took a bit of yelling “EXCUSE ME, LADY ON THE PHONE, THE LINE IS THIS WAY.”

The woman in front of me had resort credit she wanted to use up.  Perfectly acceptable.  Except she kept asking “how much is it now” about her total after each single item, but we started at like $20 and she made her way up to $80 so we didn’t really need to be asking after the first 3884798347 items now did we.

I also have resort credit to use up and I will also use it at Starbucks before I check out, but I will be less annoying.

I HATE WORKING FROM LAS VEGAS OMG I WAS TRYING TO STOP SAYING THIS IN EVERY TRIP REPORT BUT I CANNOT STOP MYSELF.

Tonight I have a Thai shampoo treatment booked and then I move to Encore.  I am actually not going to Soulo spa, because I had $100 in Groupon credit so I bought a Groupon for Mutao Spa. I did not think this one through when booking it because it is on Spring Mountain, but I did not leave time to check into Encore before my appointment, nor did I use all my resort credit so I have to come back anyway.  Oh well.

The shampoo was great.  I cannot say this enough – if you have never had someone else wash your hair while you are laying down, you are missing out.

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Immersive Experiences in New York City: Hero NYC and Astra Lumina

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Welcome to the New York City section of my blog, also known as my “Amateur Learns Aperture” series, where I go outside my apartment to find things to photograph in order to learn how to use my camera.

There are several different immersive light shows in New York City right now.  I am not sure if this was always a thing, since I did not leave my apartment in many years.  Or maybe these have existed this entire time.  I love all of it.

Hero was such a great time.  This one is located under Rockefeller Center, right at the ice skating rink.  I was fortunate to catch the Northern Lights show on its last weekend.  But per their website HERE, they have a new show coming soon.

You start out by watching an introduction video and then you enter the space.  My ticket was for 7:00 on a Friday and it was not at all packed.  I had some rooms to myself as I walked through them.

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New York City Tourism: Verrazzano Narrows Bridge, Sunset Park, Oculus, Domino Effect and Field of Light

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Hello it is me again, playing the role of Amateur Learning Aperture, taking my camera outside to do New York City touristy things while learning how to use my camera.  Only this time I am taking a step backwards as I bought THIS new mirrorless camera that has so many features I don’t know how to use yet.

I want to say again and forever that taking photography classes has greatly improved my mental health.  I am currently taking one on composition and I genuinely like the people in my class.  I will be sad to say goodbye to them next week and hope they pop up in future classes.  I also love when we show our homework.  This particular set of people really go out to find the most iconic things to photograph in New York City.  I keep adding to my list of places to photograph, inspired by them.

Since I last posted, I first took a trip to watch sunset at Verrazzano Narrows Bridge and then took a separate trip to watch sunset at Sunset Park.  For both of these outings, I was using THIS lens that I rented.   It was amazing with low light.  But I couldn’t zoom out as much as I would have liked at Verrazzano Narrows Bridge, nor could I zoom in as much as I would like at Sunset Park.  This would have been obvious to any seasoned photographer.  But I am still an amateur and I am learning by making mistakes.

Verrazzano Narrows Bridge, my last photoshoot with my DSLR:

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Turtuk, Ladakh, India Tourism

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Turtuk, India!  Continuing where I last left off writing about my trip around Ladakh.  The first half of the day, including Nubra Valley and Bactrian camels is HERE.

We arrived in Turtuk late afternoon.  We stopped at this cute restaurant for what I called dinner but my driver called lunch.

Then it was time to find a hotel.  My driver didn’t really speak English but somehow magically understood me when I said I wanted an attached bathroom.

He brings me to a place I don’t believe is a hotel.  It looks like a construction site.  It doesn’t look open.  He tells me to wait and he goes in and reports back that they have a room with a private bathroom but it is not inside the room.  I say no, less because of the unattached bathroom and more because are you sure this place is even open?!

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Christmas in New York City: Winter Wonderland at Pier 15

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Welcome to volume three of “Amateur Learns Aperture” where I take advantage of living in New York City to get outside while learning to use my camera.  Tonight, I brought my camera out to dinner at Winter Wonderland at Pier 15 in the Financial District.

I have to say, I picked the perfect time of year to begin this project as New York is really pretty at this time of year.  I have so many things to choose from and the pressure to see it all before I leave for vacation in three weeks, really inspires me to get out of my apartment.  This has been wonderful for my mental health.

Back to the topic here – as the title says, Winter Wonderland is located at Pier 15 down in the Financial District.  It is a bunch of glass (plastic) houses with a Christmas theme, complete with a view of the Brooklyn Bridge in the background.

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Introducing New Series: Amateur Learns Aperture in New York City, Part One

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Welcome to part one of a new series, where I write about leaving my New York City apartment to venture outside and learn how to use my camera. I almost titled this “Bites and Sights NYC” as I will indeed be visiting some New York City attractions and sharing photos of cute restaurants, so the name fits. But I liked the idea of maybe working the amateur photography in the title so the intent here is clear.

My brainstorming session went like this:

Me: New camera, who dis?

Me: No

Me: Learning ISO taking photos like whoa?

Me: NO

Me: F-Can’t Stop, F-Won’t Stop?

Me: SHUT UP

Me: Photography school, shooting things that are cool?

Me: STOP TALKING

Me: What about Amateur Learns Aperture?

Me: WHY WON’T YOU…Wait. that’s not so terrible.

I am doubling down by also attempting to improve my mental health by not wearing pajamas in public while doing these things. This is increasing the amount of laundry I have to do, which is a downside. Continue reading →

Ladakh Monastery Tour: Alchi, Likir, Basgo Castle and More!

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What a shit show today is.  Yesterday I posted HERE about how I completely fucked up and did not get my permit on time for my tour today.  I thought I had solved it all.

Then last night I get a message asking me what time to pick me up.  Um, who are you?  Driver.  I thought somehow maybe it was a driver for tomorrow morning to Stok, which I was planning to go since my full day tour was now in the garbage.  I told him I had a driver, he sent me a screenshot of my booked tour.  OH okay, so I tell him I spoke to (insert name) about my woes and that’s that.  Right?

WRONG.

This morning, I am up to go out to reception to give the dude my passport so he can get my permit.  He begins knocking on my door.  It isn’t him.  It is the dude I spoke to yesterday?  Maybe?  Ready to pick me up for the tour.  NO we spoke didn’t we?  Turns out it was not  him.  My mistake.  I had spoken to the tour company owner and then to another guy, who I assumed was the driver. He was not the driver.  The driver was the one who confused me by messaging me last night.

Or so this is what I have pieced together at this point anyway.

The driver decides he is going to go get my permit.  Okay.  I give him my passport and he tells me to be ready by 2:00, which is earlier than the time the hotel quoted me.

I am planning to be ready by 1:30 but he came knocking on my door at 1:20.

He must think (rightfully so) that I am a moron.   But I cannot possibly be the first tourist to make this mistake?

Off we go.  Some views from the drive:

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Dear Diary: I Left My Apartment and Traveled for Ten Weeks

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Remember that time there was a worldwide pandemic that put a halt on all travel?   I do.

Sigh.

I spent a lot of the pandemic traveling to Las Vegas.  But then I got sick of that.  So I booked a month long trip on Amtrak.  Guess what?  That was an insanely expensive reminder that the world is so much cheaper when you are outside America.  So I booked a flight to leave America.  For ten weeks.  And then sat back and waited to leave.

I had great plans for this trip.  I was going to be working remotely, but still had time to see things during the day and on weekends.  I purposely picked countries that were not too overwhelming with things to do and see.  Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia and then ending in Turkey.  I want to see all of Turkey but also thought this would be a great time to cross just Mount Nemrut off the list.

I was going to blog nonstop.  Every day.  Okay not every day.  But weekly. Multiple times a week!  I was going to be very conscious of the things I post on my personal Facebook page.  Should I be posting this here, or on my blog, where people follow it because they want to read about your travels?   Blog it is! Continue reading →