Ah, the Feeling of Summer

With tomorrow being June 1st, I have a feeling of anticipation, of excitement.

I always do, every since . . . well, every since I was a kid, I guess. For me, as a child, summer was the most exciting time of the year. It wasn't Christmas, wasn't my birthday, or anything like that. It was summer . . . because summer meant school was done . . . for a couple of months, at least.

It's funny that I still have a sense of excitement and anticipation, many years after my final day of school, with June being one calendar day away.

As a kid, summer also meant getting to stay up late and watch baseball. It normally meant going to a Texas Rangers game, or two, or three. And when I was younger, summer meant playing baseball. Pretty much, to me summer = baseball.

The Texas Rangers have always been my team. Win or lose, rain or shine, through thick and through thin, I have been right there with them. Through division championships, through relievers throwing chairs into the stands, through no-hitters and perfect games (I was at Kenny Rogers'!!!), through Oil Can Boyd, through having first-half leads to fading back after the All-Star break, through it all, I've been there.

Fortunately, I was also at one of the biggest World Series games ever to be played in Arlington.

The idea of the Rangers playing in a World Series has been laughable for most of my life. The Rangers are the lovable losers, the "Aw shucks, we'll get 'em next time" team. The fact that they played and had a really good shot (it still hurts) at winning a championship still blows me away because just like I dreamed about summer for nine months out of the year, I also dreamed about the Rangers playing in a World Series.

But just like summer eventually came around on the calendar, the Rangers also eventually had some World Series success:

And like so many things in life that we dream about, it was . . . well . . . awesome.

I had the unbelievable fortune of being able to be at Games 3 & 4 of the '11 World Series. Game 3 was not too much fun, on the Rangers side. But Game 4 was incredible. I still have the front page of the newspaper hanging in my office, commemorating what a historical game it was.

It's fun . . . and fulfilling, in a way, to be able to actually see something that we have hoped and dreamed about come to fruition. The World Series being played in Arlington actually happened.

And once again, just like it does every year, at midnight tonight, June will happen.

Chicago Travel Guide, Part IV

If we're doing a travel guide, we have to talk about food, right?

That really is the truth. Food is so much of our experience in a place. Food helps us get closer to the culture of a place. It shows us what is important to a locale, what locals like, perhaps what locals don't like.

And Chicago is no different. I went into my trip to Chicago excited about their famous foods: deep dish pizza, Italian beef sausages, Chicago dogs. And for the most part, I was not disappointed.

I had always heard about the hot dogs at Wrigley Field. And I'm not sure why. They were not that tasty. The Old Style beer was, though, even though temperatures hovered in the 30s on the day I went. If I were really in the mood for a good dog, though, I'd go to Chavez Ravine. The Dodgers Dogs are out of this world.

But back to what Chicago does well . . .

Yes, that's a pizza. And yes, it's good.

This is Lou Malnati's. And it was the best pizza we had in the Windy City. We also tried Gino's East. Many tourists opt for Pizzeria Uno. The word on the street is that is where tourists go . . . but it's not that good. What I do know is that deep dish pizza is truly a pie . . . or more like a casserole.

We didn't eat there. But that is a really big McDonald's.

Just down the road from the Mickey D's is a place called Portillo's. Everything we had there was good. Supposedly, they have really good Italian beef. I cannot say from personal experience how good that is . . . but I can say their dogs are dynamite, as well as their cake shakes:

What's a cake shake? A milkshake with a piece of chocolate shake. Hands down, one of the most unique . . . and best things I have ever put in my mouth. So good, we had to try it twice. I had always wondered how good a pickle on a hot dog could be. Now I know; it's tasty. Don't believe me? Just ask The Fridge:

And last, but most certainly not least, the Italian beef sandwiches (I would recommend getting them wet everywhere you go):

Mr. Beef is good. And as you can tell from the building's facade, it's a very authentic experience. But my vote for best in the city is Al's #1 Italian Beef:

I recommend ordering it hot, which means it comes with peppers on it. But then remove the peppers before eating. That will give the beef a nice flavor. But the beef is so good and is so overpowering that the peppers really get in the way when trying to eat the sandwich. Al's has a number of locations around town. I enjoyed the downtown one, as you are able to stand at the counter and watch everyone go by and, if memory serves me right, catch a good view of The El (the downtown subway line).

Chicago Travel Guide, Part III

Wicker Park is a lovely little area of Chicago. I say little because it is so quaint and nice that it feels like a small area. I have no idea how large Wicker Park actually is.

You could literally spend all day walking around the area, looking at the homes. I only had a couple of hours, so I hit the high spots noted in the Frommer's Day-to-Day Guide.

The following is pretty typical of the gardens and yards of the houses in the area:

Along Hoyne Ave. (I believe that's where it is), you'll find this little gem:

I had breakfast the morning that I was in Wicker Park at the Bongo Room. Wow. My travel guides did not steer me wrong. If I remember correctly, there is more than one Bongo Room in Chicago. I believe there is a good location close to Soldier Field, just south of downtown. One thing that makes Bongo Room great is you never know exactly what will be offered on the menu, particularly in terms of their specials, because they offer whatever is in season (a sign that fresh ingredients are being used). Fortunately for me, this little ditty was offered when I was there:

Red velvet pancakes with vanilla bean sauce. Damn straight.

I realize that the next pic will not interest everyone. But I have always been fascinated by strange architecture, buildings that don't necessarily make sense. The Flatiron Building in NYC has always blown my mind. And after seeing it in person, my mind is truly blown. Chicago has their own Flatiron Building. Not nearly as large, it, nonetheless, sort of has a Chicago feel to it:

Wicker Park is a great place to visit, a nice little excursion from the rest of the Windy City. Much of it has a trendy vibe to it that is contagious. Lots of locally-owned restaurants and shops. And it's not far at all from downtown or other major spots around the city, just a few subway stops. In fact, in this picture, taken from the subway boarding area, you can see just how close downtown is (note the Sears Tower in the right background):

Just hop on the blue line and stop at Damen:

Chicago Travel Guide, Part II

Chicago's downtown area is a great place to spend the day . . . or the week.

This above picture is not actually in downtown . . . but it's of downtown. It's taken just north of downtown, along the shoreline of Lake Michigan. But this picture gives you a hint of the skyline of downtown. As I mentioned previously, Chicago has the feel of NYC. But it is much, much more manageable.

The next picture, on the other hand, is not something you would expect to see close to the downtown of a large metropolitan city. But this is what makes Chicago great:

Many great people hail from Chicago, such as Paul Harvey:

The Magnificent Mile is a great road to walk up and down and window-shop. Lots of high-end shops, similar to Fifth Avenue, but much more accessible. I wouldn't spend tons of time on it . . . and I sure wouldn't walk an entire mile on it (though I'm not sure there's really that much to see, anyway). But it's an interesting spot.

The Chicago River meanders through downtown. And the city has done a great job of capitalizing on it (this is from the Michigan Ave. bridge):

Much of what makes downtown great is all of the beautiful things you happen upon:

And the remarkable things that you happen upon:

If you are an art fan, the art museum on the eastern edge of downtown is a must. You'll see classics, such as Seurat:

And one of my personal favorite artists, Van Gogh:

And American Gothic:

Chicago Travel Guide, Part I

I have heard it said that Chicago is a more manageable New York City. I think that is true. Chicago has the feel of a very large, metropolitan city. But it is not so large; and there is not so many things to do and see that one feels overwhelmed and not able to even find a place to begin.

We had basically a long weekend in Chicago, when we were there.. I would love to go back and spend more time there. But even our limited time, I felt, gave us a good primer, a good introduction to the city. Three days and two nights afforded us the opportunity to hit the main places that we wanted to go. But it was by no means enough time to do an exhaustive tour of the city.

Unless you absolutely detest baseball, or sports as a whole, an absolute must is Wrigley Field.

I truly believe that this would be a great place for anyone to go, even if you only have a cursory interest in the Chicago Cubs, baseball, or sports. This stadium is so unlike any other stadium around that it is truly a novelty.

There is much about modern stadiums to be desired . . . the music blaring through the speakers, the larger-than-life scoreboards, the food that is out of this world . . . those things are all good and great. But Wrigley Field takes you back . . . back to the way baseball used to be. It leaves you to wonder if this is the way it still should be?

Be it that way or not, going to Wrigley is an experience that every baseball fan should attempt to make at some point in their lifetime. It truly is unlike any park around.

Published Again!!

Check it out:

 http://reviews.indietravelpodcast.com/books/2013/how-to-travel-the-world-on-50-a-day-by-matt-kepnes/

Boston Travel Guide, Part IV

You gotta eat. So if you're gonna eat, eat well.

The aforementioned Pizzeria Regina is definitely at the top of my list for things to recommend in Boston. It just might be the best pizza I've ever had.

This place was very interesting:

Unfortunately, I have no recollection of the restaurant's name. I know it's in the North End. I'm 99.9% sure it's on Hanover St, on the east side of the road. What you see is what you get with this place: one room. Literally, that is all that the restaurant is. 4 or 5 tables and the kitchen is literally right beside you. I wound up ordering octopus (by mistake). But the presentation of the meal was incredible. They served it to me straight in the pan it was cooked in. Incredible.

Charles Street, close to the Charles River, is a great street to walk. We found a number of good eateries on that road, including a great breakfast spot, Panificio, as well as some wonderful small Italian restaurants.

I do remember being offended (sort of), though, while at Panificio, from the following conversation:

Guy in restaurant: "Yeah, not looking forward to today."
Proprieter: "Why not?"
Guy: "Gotta go to some little po-dunk town in Texas."
Proprieter: "Oh yeah, where?"
Guy: "Abilene."

I lived in Abilene for seven years. Abilene is not po-dunk.

A good rule of thumb when trying to pick among a number of restaurants (like on Charles St.) is to look for stickers on the door. Along with the stickers of which credit cards restaurants will take, some great restaurants will have certain identifiable stickers on their door, such as Zagat, Trip Advisor, etc. It's not that you can't go wrong when you see a sticker, as we have been disappointed in some places with those markers. But more often than not, I have found, that if a place has a Zagat sticker on it, you will most likely enjoy your meal.

A place I would not recommend going is Cheers.

I was told by others that it was not worth time. And they were correct. It's not worth your time, either. Fortunately, I was in the area, so I was walking by it, anyway. I would recommend only stopping by if you are literally walking by it. If not, you will regret the minutes it took you to get there.

Boston Travel Guide, Part III (Things Worth Checking Out)

My time in Boston consisted of a Thursday morning - Saturday morning. I literally squeezed every minute out of those days to see what I could.

The only problem is it rained about half the time I was there. However, I did not let that stop me. While nearing ruining a pair of shoes and almost catching pneumonia, I walked all over Boston, checking out the sights.

*Harvard--What a great place. The whole area and much of Cambridge is a great place to simply walk and take it all in. Unfortunately for me, my time at Harvard is when it rained the hardest. Therefore, I have almost nothing in the way of pictures. However, I was able to snap this picture while under an overhang. The picture doesn't do it justice because Memorial Hall is beautiful:

*Nooks & Crannies--It seems to be a universal lesson in travel, all around the world that things you find most interesting during your travels are not the things you set out to see and experience . . . but the things that you find along the way, such as this little gem at 17 Milk Street:

Now that being said, there are plenty of things worth your time and energy to see in Boston, like . . .

*The Old State House--You have to pay to go in to see the good stuff. But I just enjoyed seeing how it has been preserved amongst the newer architecture and buildings. It was here that the Declaration of Independence was first read:

*Paul Revere Statue & Old North Church--Boston has its share of statues, many of which are great. This particular view in the Paul Revere Mall is of note because of the view in the foreground of the church from whose steeple the lanterns were seen by Revere, telling him that the British were coming:

*Boston Common--No matter what time of year it is, this city park is great to walk through:

*Be Aware!--Not of crime, of which we witnessed none during or stay, or anything like that. But be aware of your surroundings. Boston is such an old, well-preserved city that breathtaking views are literally all around:

Boston Travel Guide, Part II

If you are in Boston; and you are a fan of baseball . . . or of sports . . . or of history . . . or life, you simply must go to Fenway Park.

I was surprised to see that the Citgo sign is not right outside the left field fence. In fact, the sign is not anywhere close to the field. It's a few blocks away.

Fenway Park is a beautiful sight.

At a capacity of 37,400, it is one of the smallest parks in the country. That also means there is not a bad seat in the house.

The Green Monster seats (on top of the left field wall) are pretty cool.

We were in Boston the week of the World Series. Since the Sox were not in the Series, not that I could have gotten tickets for it had they been, the only way to see Fenway was a tour. I highly recommend the tour.

Boston Travel Guide, Part I

Boston is a great city, full of history and spunk. It was in Boston that it first realized, though I had heard others speak of it for years, that there truly is a difference between the northern part and the southern part of the USA. I do not mean to say that one is better than the other; they are just different. To overexaggerate it a bit, people are overly nice to your face in the south; people pretty much give it to you straight in the north.

We experienced that while on a sidestreet in the North End, Boston's Italian community. We were looking for a specific pizza restaurant, which I must highly, highly, highly recommend. I'm not sure if it's possible to say something is the best. But if it's possible to classify pizza as the best I have ever had, this would be it, Pizzeria Regina:

Darn good pizza.

Anyway, back to my story. While trying to find Pizzeria Regina, we were walking down a sidestreet, off of one of the main drags in the North End, Hanover Street. We realized that we were clearly not headed in the direction that we wanted to be going, so we decided to ask for help. A foreman of a construction crew was the first person we saw. We hesitated to ask for his help because he was in the middle of cussing one of his crew members up and down. But we decided to go ahead and ask for help. It was amazing. He finished his profanity-laced stream, looked at us, asked if we needed help, provided help in a very friendly, warm fashion, then went right back to giving it to his guy. Very refreshing.

The lesson learned is one that we already knew and one that we continue to learn every time we travel. The main roads of a location and the main sights of a town can be very rich in flavoring your experience there. For instance, you simply do not want to miss things like Harvard, Fenway Park, and a cannoli at Mike's Pastry Shop. But what really makes your trip worthwhile and memorable is the places that are not highly touted in travel books, things that you never expected to experiences because these sorts of things get you in touch with local people, people living their day-to-day lives in ways that you do when you're at home. Getting off the beaten path, perhaps even getting lost, helps you connect with the true heartbeat of a place. When you do that, you come across the most amazing things, memories like this on a seemingly remote part of Beacon Street:

Nashville Travel Guide

Nashville is a great place to visit. Even if you're not a country music fan, you can find plenty to do and see during your time in the city. It's a great weekend excursion, though I'm not sure you could make a whole week out of the city, unless you plan on really exploring the area around the city.

I was impressed with the laid-back feel to the city. My first trip to the city found me staying at a retreat center, Scarritt Bennett Center, close to the campus of Vanderbilt University. That area really scratched my itch, as it has sort of an old, historic feel because of the beautiful buildings, mixed with a college vibe, with some organic, locally-grown food thrown in for spice.

Since Nashville is the capital of Tennessee, there is plenty to see and be a part of for the history buff:

There is more than enough to tickle your fancy with music. I was impressed that country music is just part of the Nashville scene. Much has been done there outside of country music. But country music does dominate:

While we did not actually take in the Grand Ole Opry or any other major country music sight, we have been to the Bluebird Cafe a number of times. Since I have already mentioned it in a previous post, I won't go into length here about it. But it is a really cool place:

Regardless of your musical taste, you really need to go to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Even if you are not a fan of the twang of a country music ballad, the slide guitar of a honky tonk, or the sad feeling of a tear in your beer, this place is very interesting:

I could write multiple reviews about the food. I won't bore you with all the details. So let me just list a few places that I would highly recommend you check out: Pancake Pantry, Fido's, and Donut Den.

Take a drive, walk, or ride up and down 16th & 17th Avenues, otherwise known as Music Rows. Recording houses and the meccas of music line these beautiful streets.

I wouldn't say Nashville should be on your list of places you absolutely must see. But, if you happen to be in that part of the country or can somehow make it there for a few days, by all means, do it.

Published!

Check out the great travel web site, Indie Travel Podcast (indietravelpodcast.com). A part of their site is a wonderful section of reviews of all sorts of different things, from places to accommodations to travel gear: reviews.indietravelpodcast.com

Part of what makes the reviews so wonderful is the reviewers. Ha! (I'm one.)

Anywho, I just had a review published: http://reviews.indietravelpodcast.com/books/2013/frommers-day-day-travel-books/

I've got some others ones on there, as well.

Food Is Good

When my wife and I travel, we tend to base our experiences off of what food is available and what food we consume.

I don't think that's really right or wrong. But I do think it's rather unique.

When others look through our travel photos, they either laugh or remark how good of an idea it is that we take so many photos of  the food we eat. And as we think back over our travel, we tend to rate our trips based upon how good the food was.

So, with that in mind, a trip to Austin, Texas last year was really, really good.

My mouth waters just thinking about it. The top pic is from Juan in a Million in Austin. I wouldn't necessarily say it's the be breakfast taco I've ever had. But it's definitely the largest.

Then there's Kreuz's Market in Lockhart. Hands down, best barbeque brisket I have ever had. Wow. So good you don't even need any sauce. And that's a good thing because they don't serve it, anyway.

Then there's Lone Star Donuts in Round Rock. Yep, they make a donut that is that big. We didn't get it. But their regular-sized donut is out-of-this-world.

One could have a great trip to Austin just by eating their way through these places. And as you find with most great eateries, it's not just the food but also the experience, the charm of the place where you eat it that makes the experience what it is.