Miscellaneous Fun Stuff

[Superbone]

I thought this was funny, because honestly I used to talk to my father-in-law about the Roman Empire often, lol.

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Timely too. I was just on the grounds this week! It has been on my bucket list to see the Colosseum and Roman Forum ruins. It was one of the emotional, awe inspiring moments of my three week European vacation I just completed through Scotland, France, and Italy.













The Pantheon added for good measure:


And here was another one of those moments in Florence:


This is my ideal physique that I've been targeting with my fitness journey. After a year and a half of hard work I'm actually getting close. I had a LOT to chisel away to start.

[Kryptonic]

Very cool bone…. My wife and oldest just went in June and had an amazing time. Thanks for sharing your pics. Any good stories from your trip?

[Superbone]

Very cool bone…. My wife and oldest just went in June and had an amazing time. Thanks for sharing your pics. Any good stories from your trip?

Oh, man. It was a whirlwind. I learned that three weeks is too long for a vacation away from home. I was starting to drag that third week and started slowing down. Originally planned to see more of Italy but just kept it to Rome and Florence due to said slowing down. It started out with a bang in Edinburgh where I saw a ton of entertaining shows at the Fringe Festival. The highlight was one called The Banana Brothers if you ever get a chance to see it. The brothers are American so maybe it'll be performed in the States somewhere. I also got to hang out with my oldest son and see him perform his act so that was awesome. Hiking Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh was a highlight. Also made a day trip to Aberdeen and did a walking tour of the town. I was in Scotland for about a week. We did some whiskey tasting as well as sampled the local beers. Lots of great fish and chips with mashed peas. Didn't sample the haggis as I'm too picky of an eater.

Then my son and I flew to the South of France via Amsterdam. We missed our connecting flight as KLM gave us to flights that were too close together and it was impossible to make our connecting flight in time after going through customs. We had to book an entirely new flight to get to our destination of Nice/Monaco. Silly us thought our baggage would still go to the Nice airport even though we didn't make the flight. Turns out the luggage doesn't travel if you're not on the flight. We didn't know how it works. So we get to Nice and we don't have our luggage. After lots of finagling, we finally leave the airport for our destination in Monaco with the understanding that we'll have to come back to the airport to retrieve our luggage the next day. Luckily we had a great receptionist at our hotel in Monaco and she was able to arrange (after a lot of French speaking and being hung up on!) to have our luggage delivered to the hotel. Unfortunately, we didn't get it until midnight that second night (and last night) in Monaco. We had packed our best suits for the opportunity to go to the famous Casino Monte Carlo featured in the James Bond films. We didn't get there until 2 in the morning and it said online that they were open until 4 am. Well, they told us members only at that time! So we took our pictures in front of the casino and walked around the corner to another casino where we ordered martinis, shaken, not stirred.

Earlier that day we hiked Nietzsche's Path in a nearby town called Èze. From Monaco we traveled by train to Marseille for another couple nights. My son and I did a six mile round trip two man kayak expedition along the coast. That was pretty amazing and you kayak to a private cove. I'll post some pictures when I get a chance. After that we traveled by train for two nights in Grenoble where we took the Grenoble Bastille cable car up high above the city. Next up was a train to Paris where we stayed for three nights. Went to the Moulin Rouge, heard some great jazz, and saw Barbie (English with French subtitles) in a movie theater on the Champs-Élysées. Also went down into the Catacombs where I got a few creepy pictures. Saw a couple museums while there as well. You might have heard of a little one called the Louvre or something like that. The Mona Lisa is a lot smaller than I expected.

My son and I then separated while he met with and stayed with some friends in France while I traveled off on my own to Italy. I had a great time hitting the various museums and seeing some amazing statues and paintings. Also lots of gelato and great food. I'll tell you though that it was a grueling day getting back home on Friday. Over 15 hours in two planes with a 3.5 hour layover in Boston. France and Italy were nine hours ahead of Pacific time so I got those 9 hours back along the way which technically got me home the same day although it would have been the next morning without the time change. I'm still recovering from jet lag. I got up at 3 am yesterday and 5:30 am today. My normal arise time is after 9 am.

[Nodack]

That’s awesome bone! I am with you on the three weeks being too long for a vacation. I love going on vacation but every time I am always ready to be home by the end. I did Italy but never made it to France. I have been watching the latest Walking Dead spin off Darrel Dickson and it all takes place in France. I have been enjoying the scenery.

[Split T]

Fun stuff Bone…I just got back from a South America trip…gonna do Europe next year…still working out some details, but gonna hit Italy and Switzerland.

[Superbone]

Fun stuff Bone…I just got back from a South America trip…gonna do Europe next year…still working out some details, but gonna hit Italy and Switzerland.

How was South America? What all did you do?

[Superbone]

[Split T]

Fun stuff Bone…I just got back from a South America trip…gonna do Europe next year…still working out some details, but gonna hit Italy and Switzerland.

How was South America? What all did you do?

My wife’s parents are both from La Paz, Bolivia. So we spent most our time there visiting extended family. We did go to Salar De Uyuni(largest salt flat in the world) and Lake Titicaca(highest navigable lake in the world). We also missed our connecting flight in Colombia on the way there, so we spent 24 hours in Bogota(ate some good food and toured a Botanical Garden there).

La Paz is a cool city. I especially liked their public transit system. A collection of cable cars in the sky above the city. It’s a city built in the mountains(12,000 to 13,600 feet) and as such is uniquely designed to have this type of public transit. The altitude did get me a bit though. I’d been to Peru before(Cuzco/Machu Picchu), which is also very high, but maybe I’m older now or maybe because we split the Peru trip up(Machu Picchu is only 8000 feet) and only spent a couple days at 12,000 feet(Cuzco) and that made a difference.

[Nodack]

That’s freaking high. I spent a little time in those altitudes hiking as a young man and remember having to stop to rest every 12 feet. I can’t imagine living at that altitude. I suppose you get used to it after you get acclimated. I remember cars had carburetors and no fuel injection back then and people would change the jets in their carburetors to allow more air because cars ran like crap at higher elevations too. I’m past my prime for that kind of altitude anymore.

[Nodack]

Awesome commercial!

[Kryptonic]

Sam Jackson just makes everything amazing. Great commercial! Shoulda pulled out his capital one card at the end

[Superbone]

This is awesome.

[Kryptonic]

Wow…. So cool. Makes me miss my grandpas. Both served WW II. Both earned Purple Hearts and bronze stars… just hearing the stories that they’d tell were insane. They truly are the greatest generation.

[Superbone]

Wow…. So cool. Makes me miss my grandpas. Both served WW II. Both earned Purple Hearts and bronze stars… just hearing the stories that they’d tell were insane. They truly are the greatest generation.

I couldn't believe his age. He's a role model for sure. Not sure if he should be on the roads any more though.

[Kryptonic]

Wow…. So cool. Makes me miss my grandpas. Both served WW II. Both earned Purple Hearts and bronze stars… just hearing the stories that they’d tell were insane. They truly are the greatest generation.

I couldn't believe his age. He's a role model for sure. Not sure if he should be on the roads any more though.

Yea, I was a little alarmed to hear that part but at the same time... Who the hell would I be to tell that guy to stop driving? No way.

One of my grandpas was driving a supply truck and was blown up while transporting supplies. My other grandpa was in a battle in the black forest and was one of a couple that survived out of his whole platoon. Said he had to crawl out of the forest and took him a couple of days.

[Superbone]

Wow…. So cool. Makes me miss my grandpas. Both served WW II. Both earned Purple Hearts and bronze stars… just hearing the stories that they’d tell were insane. They truly are the greatest generation.

I couldn't believe his age. He's a role model for sure. Not sure if he should be on the roads any more though.

Yea, I was a little alarmed to hear that part but at the same time... Who the hell would I be to tell that guy to stop driving? No way.

One of my grandpas was driving a supply truck and was blown up while transporting supplies. My other grandpa was in a battle in the black forest and was one of a couple that survived out of his whole platoon. Said he had to crawl out of the forest and took him a couple of days.

Wow. Incredible stories from incredible men. But seriously, as it appeared in the video, the light seemed to be red for a good 2-4 seconds before he plowed through the intersection. I think even he would agree no matter how many lives he saved in the war fighting for his country that he doesn't want to end somebody else's due to bad driving. He mentioned something about thinking he had maybe followed a truck through the intersection which was clearly not the case. Obviously, his mind must have wandered. I know it's not the point of the video and I think he was and is an incredible man, it's just that eventually, all of us come to the point where we probably shouldn't be on the road. I know it happened for my grandparents.

[Superbone]

I just came across this. This is pretty funny. Not sure I agree about the travel though before the winning bucket. I don’t think she had control.

[Kryptonic]

I suggest you go to a 3A girls game sometime…. This happens on the regular. It’s painful and the refs usually just play through it or they’d be there all day blowing whistles.

[In2ition]

I just came across this. This is pretty funny. Not sure I agree about the travel though before the winning bucket. I don’t think she had control.

Haha!!

Reminds me of when I watch Anime with my boys. Scenes that are suposed to be about 10 seconds worth of action can take 20 minutes. She had a nice release on the shot though.

[BigLewy]

Wow…. So cool. Makes me miss my grandpas. Both served WW II. Both earned Purple Hearts and bronze stars… just hearing the stories that they’d tell were insane. They truly are the greatest generation.

I couldn't believe his age. He's a role model for sure. Not sure if he should be on the roads any more though.

Yea, I was a little alarmed to hear that part but at the same time... Who the hell would I be to tell that guy to stop driving? No way.

One of my grandpas was driving a supply truck and was blown up while transporting supplies. My other grandpa was in a battle in the black forest and was one of a couple that survived out of his whole platoon. Said he had to crawl out of the forest and took him a couple of days.

Wow. Incredible stories from incredible men. But seriously, as it appeared in the video, the light seemed to be red for a good 2-4 seconds before he plowed through the intersection. I think even he would agree no matter how many lives he saved in the war fighting for his country that he doesn't want to end somebody else's due to bad driving. He mentioned something about thinking he had maybe followed a truck through the intersection which was clearly not the case. Obviously, his mind must have wandered. I know it's not the point of the video and I think he was and is an incredible man, it's just that eventually, all of us come to the point where we probably shouldn't be on the road. I know it happened for my grandparents.

Reading these posts made me miss my grandpas as well. Both served, but one passed away when I was fairly young so I didn't get to hear as many stories from him. My maternal grandfather lived much longer and boy did he have some stories to tell. He was actually in Pearl Harbor, as he was in the Navy, with his identical twin brother, and a torpedo hit their ship but the detonator somehow bent on impact and never went off. So they were all fine luckily, but apparently after that, the Navy started separating any siblings that happened to be on the same ships just in case the worst happened. He didn't like telling stories about Pearl Harbor often, and refused to watch anything on TV relating to it.

I also had a great uncle who fought in Germany in WW2 and actually had a German soldier's sabre and helmet that he took. I don't remember if he found them or took them after killing someone, but when I was like 8, I remember being over his house and he had me put on the helmet and hold the sword and good grief were they heavy.

What a generation, indeed.