Bentonville?

Haven't posted in a long time, mainly because we have been too busy with work and flying back and forth between CT, LA, and SF visiting each other every weekend. But, for all our avid readers, be ready for 2008 because Jaime will be blogging from Bentonville, Arkansas! Yep... Jaime found out her next rotation is in Bentonville, so she'll be living there from Jan-Jun '08.

Since most of you will never ever be anywhere near Bentonville, we've decided to fill you in on all the exciting(?) things that happen there. Until the new year rolls around, we'll still try to update this with some random stories here and there.

We'll leave you with this pic so you'll know where Jaime is headed... we actually had to check the map when we first found out.



If any of you have actually lived in Bentonville and have suggestions on where to live/eat, let us know. Hope you all have a happy holiday!

Where Everybody Knows Your Name

The past few weeks have been crazy. The two of us have been flying back and forth every weekend from coast to coast in an effort to spend our weekends together. That's left little time for us to keep up with our friends and family. This past weekend, we decided to spend some time in Boston, MA. Luckily, the weather was nice, the flights were uneventful (no delays... shocking!), and we had a chance to spend some quality time with our peeps.

We started the weekend by taking a nice stroll through the Boston Commons. The flowers were blooming, the birds were abuzz, and the 100 degree heat kept the masses from converging on our meeting point...


We decided to walk up Newbury Street, one of the famous shopping districts in Boston. There were lots of beautiful brownstones and trendy little boutiques along the way...


A couple destined for divorce (kidding!), rented a cute London taxicab to whisk them away from the chapel...


Afterwards, we waited a few minutes so that all the people (tourists) ahead of us could get their pics, and then we dutifully took our shot of the place where everybody knows your name...


The gang strolled over to Quincy Market for some snacks and (non-alcoholic) liquids to quench our thirst.

Our last stop of the day was a trip to an Italian street fair in the North End, where we played silly games for $5 a pop and ate sausage sandwiches, seafood and pasta...

We lucked out towards the end of the day with a beautiful sunset... not a bad way to spend a few days!

We're looking forward to going back before the weather takes a turn in the other direction. Maybe we'll get a chance to watch Web's Boston Celtics in action with their new trio of all-stars.

The 7 New World Wonders

After 100 million votes cast via the internet from around the world, the announcement regarding the new, seven man-made wonders of the world was made today (on 7/7/07). Interestingly, the Pyramids of Giza were excluded from the voting after Egyptian officials claimed it was disgraceful that the Pyramids needed to be part of the voting process.

Therefore, there are now officially 7 man-made wonders of the world, plus the Pyramids, which were automatically included among the winners. The world's take on the wonders of the world are as follows:

- The Great Wall of China
- The Roman Colloseum
- India's Taj Mahal
- Jordan's Petra
- Peru's Macchu Picchu
- Brazil's Statue of Christ Redeemer (in Rio)
- Mexico's Chichen Itza
- Egypt's Pyramids

We haven't been to 5 of the above 8 winners! There's so many places to go and so little (vacation) time. Although we were sad that Angkor didn't make it, it's unrealistic to think that 12 million voters in Cambodia would be able to compete with the 1 billion people who voted for the Great Wall and the Taj.

You can read about the winners and the losers at the official website: http://www.new7wonders.com/

Din Tai Fung (Soup) Dumpling House

Before relocating to Stamford, Jaime said she wanted to squeeze in one last meal at Din Tai Fung (DTF), a spot that is world-famous for their soup dumplings. The first DTF opened in Taipei back in 1969, and since then they have opened a few more in other Asian countries like Japan and China. The one in LA is the only one (that we know of) currently located in the US.

To beat the hordes of hungry diners that start lining up 30-45 minutes before the place opens, we have to leave our apartment about an hour and a half before the doors swing open (just in case there's traffic). It doesn't matter if it's a weekday or a weekend... there is always a wait. If you are even the slightest bit late and miss the first seating, your best bet is to bring a book! We've waited up to 2 hours on some occassions to be seated.

While standing in line, you are handed a clipboard with a menu on it. The menu is in Chinese and English, and you mark off the items and quantity that you want and hand it back to the hostess. When you sit down, the waitress confirms your order and within seconds the food is on your table.

After that, you sit back and enjoy the meal...

Directions to eat soup dumplings (per the back of the official, DTF chopstick wrappers given out at the restaurant)--we like the pork ones:
1. Pour vinegar into the small saucer with the ginger
2. Gently lift one dumpling and dip it into the ginger-vinegar sauce
3. Place it on your spoon
4. Take a nibble of the dumpling skin and sip the juice (soup)
5. Drizzle some vinegar and ginger slices on top of the dumpling
6. Now enjoy it!


Don't forget the soy and ginger-vinegar sauce...


We also love their Shanghai rice cakes...


Many of our friends have been to other soup dumpling shops, but they say they can't even bear to return once they've visited DTF with us. The skin of the DTF soup dumplings are made so thin that it is an art form.

If you don't believe us, check it out for yourselves:
Din Tai Fung, 1108 S. Baldwin Ave. Arcadia, CA 91006 or http://www.dintaifungusa.com/

Fun Times at Coronado Beach

The day started out innocently enough. We went down to Irvine to run a few errands and get Jaime set up for her pending move back to the East Coast. Afterwards, we decided to drive another 65 miles to walk around San Diego. Web was pretty excited... we've lived in SoCal for 3 years and this was his first trip to San Diego that wasn't for business. Unfortunately, after walking around for about an hour in the Gaslamp District, he turned to me and said "is this it?"

We decided to drive over the Coronado Bay Bridge to visit the small island of Coronado, five minutes south of downtown San Diego. This was more our speed! In addition to having a very resort-like, walkable little downtown area that was clean and pretty, the pristine beaches also boasted something that Jordan was really excited about... a dog-friendly beach!

Jordan was in heaven... a huge expanse of perfect, powdery white sand beach, featuring at least 50 dogs playing in the water, chasing after soccer balls, or just layin' out to catch some rays with their owners. Of course, our "special" dog did her usual thing, hanging out by herself digging in the sand. Either way, it was a great day and we finished it off with a "splendid" meal at the Rhineceros Cafe.

Here's some pics...


Unlike the dogs in the pic above, Jordan hates the water...


She kept herself busy digging in the sand and finally got tired...

We stayed until the sun went down, with the top-rated Hotel Del Coronado in the background...

Deal or No Deal!

In Southern California, you run into celebrities everywhere... the grocery store, bars, LAX, etc. It's even harder to to avoid the people trying to become celebs! We were walking around today when we saw a huge group of scantily-clad women lined up outside of a small, brick-covered building. We thought to ourselves... damn, 6 PM, isn't that a bit early to be lining up for the clubs?


It turns out that it was an open casting call for the gameshow Deal or No Deal. At first, we thought it was for people trying to be guests on the show. But, we soon learned that they were trying out to be the ladies charged with the critically important task of looking pretty and opening suitcases for the contestants.




The casting call must have said "must be skinny, wearing a short dress with heels at least 4 inches high."


Who will be the next Vanna White?


It led us to wonder whether "serious" actresses like Nicole Kidman or Angelina Jolie ever put "looked pretty and opened suitcase on a nationally televised game show" on their resume when they were getting started in Hollywood!

Snowbird Resort, Utah

We spent the past 4 days relaxing at the Snowbird Resort, part of the Wasatch National Park in Utah. Snowbird is a huge winter vacation spot, home to some amazing ski trails. It also had plenty to offer in the summer! There was zip-lining, alpine slides, horseback riding, whitewater rafting, fishing, day excursions to Salt Lake City, and of course, hiking. Web wasn't feeling 100% so we stayed around the resort and did some hiking and picture taking.

The resort itself is located at the base of an 11,000 foot high peak (taller than Macchu Picchu!). We got on the high-speed tram which got us to the top in about 5 minutes! After that, it was a long, windy hike to the bottom. Along the hike, we saw beautiful wildlife, amazing landscapes, waterfalls, and we were breathing some of the cleanest air in months!

Here's some pics...

Taking the tram up...


The view from the top, 11,000 feet above sea level...


Some shots along the hike...

2.5 hours later...almost there...we see the resort!

Yikes! We see this sign after we finish the trail...

Airport Hassles

We stumble out of bed at 6:30AM this morning to catch our flight to Salt Lake City, Utah. Wait... another trip!? It's Web's company's annual retreat, and this year the company invited all employees and their guests to spend a four-day weekend at the Snowbird Resort. Having just returned from our around the world trip, we find ourselves at the airport once again, dealing with baggage, check-in lines and security lines.

We arrive at the airport a little earlier because Web had trouble checking-in online the night before. At the counter, we go through the usual routine of printing our boarding passes. However, this time, the computer tells us that Web has no reservation. Turns out that our travel agent booked 2 tickets under Jaime's name and none for Web... not a good start. In the next hour, we try to "get it fixed" and end up experiencing some fantastic customer service.

Since the flight is overbooked, the airline is unable to get us on our original flight. Instead, we get sent to another terminal to catch a different flight. We walk about a mile (with our carry-ons) to the next terminal and check-in, only to find out that the woman at the first terminal never returned Web's ID. We take another round trip between the terminals to retrieve Web's ID and check-in. At the security line, the x-ray machine breaks down with our carry-ons stuck inside! The machines are shut down and we can't get our bags until they come back "on line"; we finally clear security more than 20 minutes later. After all this fun, we still have about 3 hours to kill before our flight takes off!

Utah is only 1.5 hours away by plane, yet this ordeal took us over 8 hours door-to-door! Don't you love traveling though airports?

Temecula, SoCal

Jaime, Julie, Gary and I decided to take a trip to Temecula this past weekend. Most people know California vineyards for the more-famous wineries of Napa and Sonoma. Others know of the Santa Barbara region in SoCal from the movie Sideways.

Temecula is the less well-known wine-country just north of San Diego. We started our drive to Temecula after lunch and due to traffic, arrived more than 2 hours later; many of the vineyards were about to close. It's usually supposed to take only about 45 minutes to an hour from the Westside, but this being LA...

Regardless, once we arrived we were pleasantly surprised by the beautiful little vineyards, which were less crowded than the ones found at their more famous neighbors...



Gary and Julie are "members" at some of the wineries, meaning we got the red-carpet, VIP treatment when we rolled up...


Being VIP means we get free tastings!

Polishing off a fresh bottle of red while overlooking the beautiful valley... not a bad way to spend a lazy Saturday. Of course, the weather was beautiful (as always!)...

Nothing new here... just another picture of Web being mature...

Olvera Street, Downtown LA

As part of our ongoing attempt to find something redeeming about LA besides the sunny weather, oops, we mean "find the beauty all around us", we visited Olvera Street over the weekend...

Olvera Street is this neat little Mexican hood in downtown LA. There's a lot of Mexicans in SoCal in general, but Olvera Street seemed to be a pretty good "locals" spot. Olvera Street is also home to the oldest known home in LA, Avila Adobe. The Avila Adobe is representative of the California lifestyle from the early 1800's.

The Avila Adobe open-air courtyard...

We got to take in some local dancers giving a free performance...

Jordan seemed particularly interested in their colorful dresses...

... although she could care less for the churros...

The tacos were delicious, and ridiculously cheap!

The shopping area was crowded with tourists, but Jordan found some peaceful moments to chill out...

Anyone interested in becoming the next Nacho Libre had their choice of costumes...

There were also a lot of stands selling zapatos...

All in all, a pretty nice day for a Sunday in LA. Amazingly, we didn't even hit much traffic on the way there!

Oh! The Places We Will Go...

After traveling for 3 months, a lot of people back home have asked us what places are left for us to visit (as if we'd seen them all!). Without hesistation, we came up with the following "dream destinations". In no particular order, here's some of the places we are really excited about visiting...

• S. America; Peru (Macchu Picchu), Buenos Aires, Patagonia, etc.
• Easter Island
• Nepal/Bhutan
• Japan
• China (gotta visit the Motherland)
• Thailand (other parts)
• Laos
• Moscow/St. Petersburg
• Other parts of Africa (we'd love to do another safari , most likely in Kenya or Botswana)
• Egypt (depending on whether al qaeda is still beheading U.S. citizens on Al Jazeera)
• Southern coast of Spain
• Other parts of Italy (Amalfi Coast)
• London (depending on whether the British Pound is still 2 to 1 vs. the USD)
• Iceland

What's on your list? We'd love to get more ideas from our family, friends and readers!

Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handy

Many of our friends have been asking us the same "deep" questions upon our return. Web, of course, can't be serious for a minute and starts answering with Jack Handy-like Deep Thoughts. We finally sat down and put the figurative pen to paper...

1. What was your favorite place?
J: There were too many amazing places to pick just one favorite...Barcelona, Spain, Cinque Terre, Italy, and Santorini, Greek Islands.
W: Cinque Terre, Italy... gorgeous landscapes, beautiful, warm people, and awesome food!

2. What was your most memorable place?
J: SE Asia, although I can't pinpoint an exact city or country. Just watching how people survive with the little they have is amazing. There are poor people everywhere in the world, but to see and to live alongside them was striking; our daily worries are nothing compared with theirs.
W: Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia... to think that wars have been fought century after century, with Buddhist and Hindu leaders taking turns leading the masses from these temples... it was a profound, mystical, moving experience.

3. What have you learned? About the world? About yourselves?
Jaime's thoughts...

• There's no place like home: It was surreal to travel to so many places in such a short period of time; living out of a suitcase and staying in hotels for months is tiring. It was great to come home to our family and friends.
• All work and no play is no fun: In America, everyone is so focused on their jobs and making money. It's great to be successful and make lots of money, but for me, that work/life balance has always tipped more towards having a better quality of life. What's the point of making all that money if you can't spend it and enjoy yourself? I'm as hard a worker as the next person, but if my company is going to only give me 10 vacation days a year, you can bet your life that I will use every last one of them. It makes me sick when I hear about friends who leave vacation days on the table, or have their bosses give them grief when they try to take a week off here or there. This trip has reaffirmed my belief that there is more to life than working and making $. I have tried to get Web to change his mentality; he's already taken a baby step by going on this trip.
• Life is short: Yes, it's a tired cliche, but it's so true. Our 3 months of traveling went by so fast that we wish we had 3 more. We both hope our trip has inspired our family and friends to go out and travel the world. My advice is to go out and experience the things you've read about in magazines, make the time to travel to places you've always wanted to go, and live your life to the fullest. If you don't find the time to do it now, you may never get the chance. It is only a dream right now for us to have the opportunity to go on another trip like this. Our friends think we're crazy, but there are still so many places that we want to see.

Web's thoughts...

• Money may not buy happiness, BUT...: Money may be no guarantee of happiness, but money affords you flexibility and ownership of your life. If we hadn't saved so aggressively these past few years, we would not have been able to go on this amazing trip. If we weren't so responsible with our finances, we would have had more stress with our bills while we were away. In the end, money is only part of the happiness equation, but there's no doubt that having more helps! Now's the part where we have to figure out how to get more...
• America gets a bad rap: Although people abroad seem to "hate" Americans, the smarter ones separate American policy from Americans. Yes, we ran into a number of "ugly American (tourists)", but we ran into just as many inconsiderate Chinese, German, Korean and Japanese tourists. America may not be utopia with its endless consumerism, celebrity-obsessed culture (btw, what's happening with Paris these days?), and inequality, but in the end, there's no place in the world that offers a better opportunity for a driven individual to make something out of nothing. As our driver and friend Dara from Cambodia put it: "To live in America, that would be like heaven. I could work hard, save my money and make a better life for myself and my family."
• American values... the way to go?: Many people touched on the different ways Americans and Europeans approach life. As the Economist summarized, Americans are obssessed with the accumulation of wealth, while Europeans are obsessed with quality of life. As amazing as it is to take this once-in-a-lifetime trip, I'm excited to start work again and get back to building our asset base. Call me American... I want to be rich!
• Beauty is all around us: On this trip, we saw 90 year old Vietnamese rice farmers subsisting on almost nothing, smiling as they drank their tea along the water. We saw Cambodians missing limbs, blinded by land mines, smiling widely at the American tourists whenever they sold their $1 postcards. We sat alongside a mass of people at the Vienna Opera House, sharing in the unforgettable memory of a beautiful evening watching Tosca. We saw tourists and locals alike breathing the beautiful air of Cinque Terre as they hiked the cliffs of the Ligurian Sea. Even in this desolate, soulless city called the city of angels, we are sure that beauty exists. To that end, Jaime and I have decided to try and make the most of our weekends in LA.

Here's a pic of our friends Dara and John admiring the beauty of the pics they took at Angkor that very day as they drove us around, blissfully unaware of what their lives are "lacking". If you ever visit Angkor and need a guide, John and Dara are your guys! They are 2 of the hardest working people we've ever met and we can't thank them enough for our great experience at Ankgor. John and Dara, if you're reading this, we hope you're both doing well.

Sunny Los Angeles, CA

After 3 months of traveling non-stop, we walked through the front door of our apartment and were greeted with a lot of enthusiastic wroo-ing. For those of you who have met Jordan (the greatest doggie of all-time), she makes these funny wolf-like howls when "speaking". We happily played with her for about an hour, put her leash on to take her out for a walk, and as we were walking down the street an SUV pulled up alongside us on the sidewalk...

Guy driving SUV: Dude! That's a great lookin' dog, maaan.

Yes, readers, we are back in LA. Dude, not even 1 minute into our return to LA and it's back to... Dude.

Despite being in the land of "Dude!", it's good to be home. Unfortunately, Monday morning, 6/4, is Web's first day back at work. Let's hope he doesn't kill himself on the commute into Thousand Oaks, CA.

Note: We affixed asterisks (**) next to the posts where we added in our Greece pics.

On another note, we've been getting a lot of the same questions from our friends. We'll try to answer them in an upcoming post. Until then, cheers.

Time Warp

Since the weekend of May 26th to 28th is a big religious holiday in Greece (long weekend), we got to see the locals kicking back and relaxing at the local bars, clubs, and trendy lounges. From Friday to Sunday it was on. Every bar and lounge was busy pumpin' bass and pourin' dranks.

Partying in Greece is like gettin' down in a time warp. Every bar/club religiously plays Justin Timberlake, but his latest tracks were paired with hot 80's and 90's hits like...
- Snap: I've Got the Power
- C&C Music Factory: Everybody Dance Now
- House of Pain: Jump Around
- Justin Timberlake: What Goes Around
- Beastie Boys: You Gotta Fight
- Bob Sinclair: World, Hold On (some Euro-techno sounding song popular in the 80's)
- Wonderland Avenue: White Horse (see above... they played these two techno songs as if they weren't out of style already!

No matter what, nothing made us laugh harder than seeing a bunch of non-English speaking Greeks go crazy every single time Fatman Scoop started rockin' his well-known anthem:

"BASS DROP OH OH OH OH OH... You got a 100 dollar bill put yo' hands up You got a 50 dollar bill put yo' hands up You got a 20 dollar bill put yo' hands up You got a 10 dollar bill put yo' hands up Single ladies I can't hear ya'll Single ladies Make noise! Single ladies I can't hear ya'll Single ladies Make noise! All the chicken heads be quiet! All the chicken heads be quiet! All the chicken heads be quiet! Whats your Zodiac sign What, what? Whats your zociac sign I can't hear ya'll Whats Your zodiac sign? Yeah, Yeah Oh, Oh If you got long hair put yo' hands up (uh huh) If you got short hair make noise! If you got long hair put yo' hands up (uh huh) If you got short hair make noise! If you got long hair on your head (ladies!) If you got long hair on your head If you got long hair on your head >From your ear To your sleeve Even if you got a weave Can I get a 'whoo whoo' Can I get a 'whoo whoo' Can I get a 'whoo whoo' Oh, Oh Can I get 'whoo whoo' Can I get 'whoo whoo' Can I get 'whoo whoo' Oh, Oh To all my niggaz that hit it from the back Who wanna have sex with no strings attached Can I get 'wha wha' Can I get 'wha wha' Can I get 'wha wha' Oh, Oh Can I get 'wha wha' Can I get 'wha wha' Can I get 'wha wha' Oh, Oh..."

They just could not get enough of Fatman Scoop.

Honeymoon Crashers**

Our friends Hiro and Connie got married this month. They planned a peaceful, picturesque honeymoon and told all their friends how much they were looking forward to getting away from it all and relaxing together... as one... blissfully sharing their new married-ness with one another following an unforgettable wedding on the West Coast with all their family and friends.

They took a long flight filled with connections involving long-haul planes to puddle hoppers. At the end of it, they settled into their bungalow on top of the cliffs overlooking the Aegean Sea, and fell into a relaxed slumber. That evening, as they sipped their wine alongside the resort pool, a couple peeked around the corner and shouted "Hiro... Connie... wazzup?!"

Yes. Unfortunately for Hiro and Connie, their honeymoon was at the exact same resort on Mykonos where we were staying. We tried our best to give them their space the next few days, but we kept running into each other; Mykonos just isn't that big!!!

Here's some pics of Mykonos...

Some beautiful sunsets...

The streets of Mykonos... note the patterned footpaths...

Bars on the waterfront...

Pelican just chillin'...

Some windmills along the water...

Another good spot to watch the sunset...

Although this seems to be the spot for taking pics! Web joins the gang...

Halfway through the week, we switched hotels (to give Hiro and Connie some peace and quiet) and booked a hotel on the other side of the island. Here's our view...

Web playing in the waters of the Aegean Sea...

Followed by a little relaxing...

Congrats again Hiro and Connie! We hope you enjoyed the rest of your honeymoon...