Richard's Reveries and Rantings: Travel

Fourth Annual Guy’s Ski Trip

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 06:53:34 GMT

Here are a few pics from the fourth annual Vividence Boy’s Ski Trip a few weeks ago. It was another incredible getaway filled with lots of great skiing, bar hopping, hot tubbing, red bulls, and of course, male bonding. Not as dramatic as our second annual two years ago at Jackson Hole (e.g. no one got pulled over by the cops, no fist fight in the SUV, no Famous Cowboy Bar ho down, and no snowmobile injuries) but a blast non-the-less.

Here are some of my favorite memories:
1. Fitting six guys in a 4 man hot tub… and explaining to everyone where the mysterious foam actually comes from.
2. Finishing off 8 frozen pizzas in 2 nights
3. Subsidizing a good chunk of my trip via late night Texas Hold’em
4. $1 PBRs at the bar, all day and night
5. Our exchange of grilled meats with our neighbors, in which we obviously got the better end of the deal (1 petite filet in exchange for a rack of ribs, sausages, and pulled pork)
6. Sean’s secret crush on the ex football player from South Carolina
7. Drinking Redbulls with sidecars
8. Blaine playing tour guide all week, along with his repetitive commentary about how shocked he was by the amount of development in Park City since he left 10 years ago… and his stories about certain “special landmarks.”
9. Jupiter bowl… all day baby!
10. Fake credit card roulette

I can’t wait till Whistler next year!

Christmas in Cancun

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 07:52:04 GMT

This holiday season, our family decided to mix things up at bit and spent Christmas in warmer climates. Rather than making the cross country trek to Washington D.C., E, K, and I decided to meet the fam down south in Cancun. We spend 6 nights at the Riu Palace Las Americas after being upgraded from the Riu Caribe… Thank GOD! The Palace was impeccably clean, new, and the clientele was civilized. The Caribe was filthy, dilapidated, and the clientele was pretty awful in terms of manners, dress, and general behavior (image lots of drunk kids and obnoxious tourists with armpit stains on their shirts).

Note: do not give too much credit to Trip Advisor for its reviews; they have been very hit or miss. I’ve stayed at a few places that reflected the positive reviews they received, but the Riu Caribe reviews were waaaaaaay off mark.

The vacation was a blast! Crystal clear water, awesome weather, great food (although all the restaurants started tasting the same after a few days), and potentially the best part of it all, having my sister Judy and mother around to help take care of K. The weeklong vacation was a bit hard on the little one; she was over-stimulated the whole time so she slept and ate very little. But overall, the trip provided the long overdue rest and relaxation the family needed.

Here are a few pics from the week.

Sean's Wedding Extravaganza

Thu, 01 Jun 2006 00:54:14 GMT

Its been a crazy couple of weeks but its time to update my blog.

Several weekends ago, I attended the wedding of my two good friends Sean and Sasha. In typical Moriarty fashion, the wedding was a four day extravaganza, held in Santa Barbara, CA. E and I used it as a good excuse to get a quick vacation getaway before the chaos of family life begins in about 3 months.

The wedding was gorgeous. Not only were the preparations and the setting incredible (great job Sasha), but the people who attended also made the wedding an unforgettable experience. I've known Sean since 1999 but after hanging out with his family, his buddies from Waterbury, CN, and his friends from past and present, I definitely got to know him much better that weekend.

There are way too many memories from the weekend to describe so I'll just get into the highlights:
1. Watching my two good friends getting married with the Santa Barbara Valley as the backdrop and a great Irish band playing romantic medleys during the ceremony.
2. Playing golf at Sand Piper golf course, and not caring that I scored in the triple digits.
3. Singing the Wild Rover at the reception with Sean and his closest friends and family
4. Drinking shots both families at O Mally's… apparently, I had pizza with them afterwards but my memory is a bit hazy at that point.
5. Learning to play bocce, after what could have become a messy rumble between our wedding party and a senior citizens league who refused to leave the courts which Sean paid to reserve
6. Drinking around the fire pit in the outdoor section at Arnoldi's restaurant; the manager was nice enough to let us lock up on the way out (4:30AM)
7. Santa Barbara food… as E kept saying in the words of Rachel Ray, "is deeee-lish." Santa Barbara Seafood at the Pier and Brophy Brothers were awesome!
8. Talking shop with Sean's dad Pat, about topics ranging from hydrogen based energy, ethanol, horse stud fees and Barbaro's ill-fated Preakness race.
9. Giving a speech to all of Sean's closest friends and family and revealing that he often calls me up out of the blue to tell me he's been thinking about me.
10. Realizing that our buddy Tresse and his wife Missy unexpectedly had a "2 for 1 Santa Barbara Special:" they gave birth to their twins early!

Here are some photos from the weekend. For the full collection, click here.

Another way down the mountain

Fri, 14 Apr 2006 22:54:14 GMT

I filmed this guy while I was at Vail/Beavercreek several weekends ago. This is off the top of the famous Birds of Prey World Cup championship downhill course, one of the top 5 courses in the world, which takes you from the peak all the way down to the base in just over 90 secs. Pretty cool eh?

Thoughts on Denver and Vail, CO

Thu, 06 Apr 2006 19:35:46 GMT

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of visiting Denver on business, and decided to extend my stay to get in a few more days of skiing at Vail before the season comes to an end. Here are my thoughts of both the city and the resorts.

Denver

1. Denver is tiny. We walked around the city and ran out of interesting things to see in about 15 minutes.

2. Being 5,000 ft about sea level causes you to lose your breath just standing in line.

3. Food in denver is horrible. Blah!

4. Once you get out of Denver Airport, its a ghost town for at least 10 miles... literally vast open fields. No where to eat or get gas.

5. People in Denver are generally pretty friendly.

6. Fat Tire (microbrew) tastes better in CO, than elsewhere.

Vail/Beavercreek

1. The drive out to the mountains is scenic and simple. Took about 1.5 hours with no traffic. Its straight highway all the way through. Much better than the trecherous drive from SF to Tahoe.

2. Both Beavercreek and Vail are incredible resorts. But too damn pricey. $80 for spring skiing is a bit much.

3. People who live in Vail are very nice. I skied solo for 2 days and met some very cool people (although most "lived in Vail only during the winter.")

4. People who ski in Vail are generally more advanced than those I've seen in other mountains. Thats probably b/c if you're going to be spending $80 per day, you better be good!

Also, one of my highlights from Denver: I went to a bar, ordered 3 beers, was asked by the bartender to choose heads or tails. I picked tails, got it right, and walked away with 3 free beers! What a great idea! Not only did it put me in a great mood, but I would have ordered more drinks later, even if I chose wrong, just to get at least one "free" beer. :-)

Phew... no surgery needed

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 22:01:53 GMT

Just got back from the doctor's office where we reviewed the results of my MRI. Luckily, I don't need surgery... it appears that I strained my rotator cuff and that my labrum is a bit frayed but all in all, my shoulder is fine and I don't need surgery. I do have to go through physical therapy over the next 6-8 weeks. If you ask me, it was totally worth it. Click here to see how I injured my shoulder [excuse my french].

If you've never been through an MRI before, its pretty freaky; it feels like you're in the middle of a sci-fi movie where your body is being inserted into a strange radiation machine. Once you're in, the walls of the chamber are literally just 3-4 inches away from your face and there rest of your body, and you lay there for about 30 mins while really loud (and dangerously sounding) AM radiation waves scan your body. Luckily the technician gave me headphones to listen to Sinatra through the entire process but unfortunately now, every time I hear "Love and Marriage" I'll have nightmares of being abducted by aliens.

Adventures in Jackson Hole

Tue, 21 Feb 2006 09:12:46 GMT

Last weekend, my buddies from my old company (Vividence) and I went on our second annual ski trip-- I guess when you go two years straight, it warrants becoming referred to as an "annual" event and thus makes it pretty much mandatory for all honorary attendees. The diabolical crew included Moriarty, Evil Tresse, Orange Shirt Guy, Wood, Bruch, and Patterson (who graciously coordinated this year's event).

The trip was likely one of the most memorable I've ever been on as all of the elements fell into perfect place. The mountain was incredible (see photos below), every night was truly entertaining in its own unique way, our ski/snowboarding levels were well matched making for excellent pace on the mountain, the day of snowmobiling through the national forest was perfect, the house was top notch with plenty of room for entertaining, and we were able to find plenty of redbull vodkas to keep our old bodies from shutting down before Sunday. Also, I may add, while I was possibly 1 of 3 total Asian Americans spotted in the state of Wyoming that weekend, I didn't feel any of the awkwardness that I've grown accustomed to when travelling to ski resorts in the east coast (e.g. West Virginia).

Some of the highlights from the trip include:

1. Going snowmobiling with the only guide who had a permit to take people into the national forest. After about 2 hours of relatively tame snowmobiling through untouched trails, we ended up going to the guide's remote cabin in the forest and having some of the most delicious ribeye steak I've ever tasted in my life! Then it was a few more hours of snowmobiling, topped off with a "go crazy thrash session" in a completely open and untouched powder pasture in the middle of the forest. We took our snowmobiles 50 miles per hour and its a surprise that we managed to avoid killing eachother. If you are ever in Jackson Hole, I highly recommend hooking up with Green River Outfitters.

2. The Apres snowmobile session we had with our three guides at the local bar following our full day of thrashing in the mountains. This included hanging out with pair of real cowboys who had more punchlines than Adam Sandler, Tresse getting behind the bar and playing bartender, and of course drinking shots o plenty for those of us who weren't driving.

3. The "name the famous person" game which ended up being a game of enforcing all of the drinking rules for violations such as "dropping the F bomb," crossing your legs, saying someones name, saying any conjugation of "drink," and my favorite, the continuous consumption rule. Needless to say, some of us with a more colorful vocabulary ended up drinking a bit more than others. "Orange shirt guy" (no names remember) has made a resolution to clean up his vocabulary.

4. Hanging out at the famous Million Dollar Cowboy Bar for about 30 mins before we wisely made a quick exit. Imagine 7 "preppy looking guys wearing expensive ski jackets" walking into a straight up western, square-dancing, locals scene where 80% of the men were wearing tight jeans and cowboy hats. After we realized that the row of guys lined up against the back wall were all givng us the "you don't belong here stare," we took the hint and mosied our butts out of there.

5. Batting almost 1000 for beef at every meal over the course of 4 days

6. Apres Ski at the Mangy Moose at base lodge... which one night was transformed into a raging trance party that Paul Van Dyke would have been proud of.

7. Blasting Van Halen every time we got into the SUV to head to and from each night of partying.

8. Running into 3 giant Moose in the middle of the slopes on the last run of the weekend.

I'm just glad this happens only once a year. I don't think my body can take this abuse any more than that.

The only lowlight I can think of is my shoulder injury which resulted from my tumble while taking a jump on my snowmobile going about 45 miles per hour. You can see it here.

Back from the Motherland

Mon, 23 Jan 2006 03:59:12 GMT

Earlier this month, E and I returned from a two week vacation in Korea and Japan. Not only was it a much needed break from work but it was also great to visit our extended families and introduce each other as husband and wife for the first time. In Korea, we attended my buddy Jung's wedding which was quite an event. Imagine watching the ceremony among 900+ other guests. Since our friends and I arrived a bit late, we were stuck in the "bleacher seats" and watched the ceremony on the jumbo-tron screens that were lined up along the wall of the banquet hall. Regardless, it was great to see my buddy tie the knot. We also spent time with a bunch of my cousins and all their children... all 7 of them. What a zoo!

In Japan, we visited Sapporo, Erika's parents' hometown, and spent time with her aunts and uncles. I think they felt very comfortable with me, since they got me underwear for Christmas. Of course we made a stop at the famous Sapporo beer factory. Then it was back to Tokyo to celebrate Christmas at her parents home.

Here are a few snapshots from the vacation. Enjoy!

My week in NYC

Fri, 06 May 2005 21:27:18 GMT

When I was in business school, my GF lived in NYC so I used to come visit every once in a while. I've realized on this trip that the city is much more enjoyable now that I have an income and can actually afford the lifestyle... even if I can afford just a few days.

I'm here on an ad agency tour and I've had a fantastic week. The food has been incredible. I think NYC is the only place where you can ask for Kosher Mexican fusion cooked by left handed Portuguese chef and have half a dozen places to choose from. Makes me realize how bad the restaurant scene is in Seattle when most people consider Thai Ginger the best place in town. :-(

I'm staying at the Hudson in mid town. Its my first experience in an Ian Schrager hotel and boy is it an experience. I knew it would be unique when my cab pulled up in front of a doorway with no sign or address, just subtle yellow lights against a white wall. My room is literally the size of a full size bed, + 1.5 feet on either side and at the foot of the bed. The lobby and bar is a feast for the eyes, both in terms of the design and the people... its frequented by celebs like Madonna and Orlando Bloom. My collegues were having drinks next to Christina Applegate a few nights earlier.

The city's energy is intense. Everyone is on the go and no one gives two sh*ts about you unless you're relevant. Everything you do needs to be done with authority. Whether its going into an elevator or ordering a coffee, hesitation is not well received among the city dwellers. Coming from Seattle, I'm used to striking up conversations with people in line (or as they say in NYC "Next, on line!"). I've received many suspicious looks from people here in NYC when I try to chit chat so I've reserved myself to talking to myself in these situations.

I'm here for a few more days and then its back to the Pacific Northwest. I hope I don't come back meaner than when I left Seattle.