Owner: Occupation Vacation URL:http://occupationvacation.blogspot.com Join Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:23:08 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: Many people think it is our occupation to take vacations but in truth it is just in our dreams. Site statistics:Click here
The Regency Hotel Downtown - Columbia, MO 2007-11-17 01:00:00 When I booked the room, despite the rough picture of the hotel, I notice on the website it claimed that The Regency is downtown Columbia
's "premier" hotel. And I will say The Regency does have the "premier" location but beyond that it is far from "premier" . Walking through the hall to my room I wondered why the rooms had glass walls and the hallway wall was shoddy. It occurred to me that at one time it was a motel style building and that the hallway I was walking in was actually a balcony. This was later confirmed at Harpos when some Cyclone fans said they had been staying at The Regency long enough to remember it without those walls. On top of that, once inside my room I noticed the door to the adjacent room was barely able to be locked and I decided it would be best to leave my laptop in the car. In my book The Regency has only one feature that makes it "premier" and that is location.The thing is, despite the place being a dump it is also the best option to stay at in Columbia. I Read more:Hotel
, Downtown
First Impression - Columbia, MO 2007-11-14 22:53:00 You might be asking yourself Columbia
Missouri? Who takes a vacation to Columbia Missouri? But understand this trip was part of achieving my travel goal of seeing a football at every school in the Big 12. At this point I've now seen a game at eight out of the twelve schools and each trip is an experience unique to itself. For example, when we went to Norman Oklahoma the young lady at the hotel desk told us that "I spoke to god today, and he said if I'm (referring to herself) good tonight there will be good weather for the game tomorrow." That was my first introduction to Norman Oklahoma and the bible belt. So what first impression did Columbia Missouri have offer?Well it could of been that the "Premier Hotel Downtown" was anything but "premier." Or the juxtaposition of human "manikins" modeling in the window of a trendy art gallery in the middle of a historic country town. Or it could of been the shirts at Booches Billard Hall's that read "Closed on Sunday, see you in church." And I Read more:First
, Impression
Travel Goals 2007-11-11 16:35:00 Have you ever said "I haven't taken a vacation in years," "I can't afford to travel," or worse "I haven't got the time?" These statements just astound me because I believe traveling is a vital part of life. By traveling you create shared life experiences with friends and family. By traveling you are exposed to a variety of cultures with varied histories. By traveling you try new things and confront new ideas. And you have fun. It is for these reasons that I decided I wouldn't let work get in the way of life and have started top put together my travel goals.I intend to have a drink in all 50 states.I intend to see a football game at all schools in the Big 12.I plan on going to Mardi Gras in New Orleans every year until I die.I intent to visit every country in the E.U.Some of these goals my seem fairly pedestrian, such as seeing a football game at all schools in the Big 12, but this goal helps me keep in touch with college friends I may not otherwise see. Having a drink in all 50 st Read more:Travel
, Goals
Urban Wrap Up - Charlotte, NC 2007-11-10 00:00:00 It's about time to wrap up Charlotte
and move on to my next destination but before I do, there were a couple of places I need to mention. The South End and NoDa were the most promising neighborhoods in all of Charlotte because they exhibited signs of uniqueness. The South End has a smattering of warehouses that have been converted into new uses such as condos and galleries. It has a new train station and it already is a walkable neighborhood both of which should support future development. Clearly though NoDa had to be the most unique neighborhood in the "city". I quoted the city because oddly NoDa s more country town gone artsy than it is an urban district. I say that because to get there you essentially drive out of uptown into into rural North Carolina, though technically still in the city, until you reach what appears to be a main street of a country town crossed with the East Village. I'd recommend getting lunch at Cabo Fish Taco as our food was excellent and the restaurant sto Read more:Urban
NASCAR - Charlotte, NC 2007-11-08 11:06:00 I couldn't possibly leave Charlotte
behind without mentioning NASCAR
. I didn't know this but Charlotte is the home of NASCAR, and in fact in uptown work has begun on the NASCAR Hall of Fame which should open in 2010. While in town I heard stories of people tailgating for the entire week leading up to a race so I wanted see the track and what all the excitement was about. On the last day of the trip we drove out to the Lowes Motor Speedway as you approach the road leading up to it could easily be defined as a super-highway. With the exception that it isn't a limited access road this road is so big with multiple lanes in each direction it even has lights that are designed to turn the street from two-way to one-way when needed. I can only imagine when the party ends and people begin to head home the sound of revving of engines and peeling out of cars that must be heard as this street becomes a race track.Now understand I've been to quite a few tailgates in my years but once I saw the
Banned Photos - Charlotte, NC 2007-11-05 22:10:00 One of my favorite things to do when traveling is to take pictures. I like to shoot buildings, alleys, plazas, streets and basically just about everything urban. Anyhow I was taking pictures of a building in Charlotte
and I had a strange thing happen to me. I was told I couldn't. Yes, I was in a plaza taking a picture and a security guard shouted out "No pictures! No pictures!" Now in all fairness I was probably standing on private property, all be it arranged to appear as a public space, so I moved to the sidewalk and continued taking pictures. I had read about this happening to photographers elsewhere so I felt I was being told I couldn't do something that I was well within my rights to do.I wanted to bring this episode up because photography is a part of most everyone's vacation and we aren't all aware of our rights regarding photography in the U.S. First I'd point you to The Photographer's Right, it basically explains that if you are on public property you can take a picture Read more:Banned
Nightlife - Charlotte, NC 2007-10-29 21:29:00 In every city I must experience the nightlife and so I spent a couple nights exploring Charlotte
's scene. I put back a few at a couple of places including Connolly's On Fifth, The Alley Cat, and Cosmos Cafe to mention a couple. Connolly's On Fifth is your typical American version of a an Irish Pub complete with pop or hip-hop playing on the speakers. The Alley Cat is a very large club that has that "lowest common denominator" feel appealing to a crowd in their twenties by playing typical rock and pop. I was a bit disappointed with the scene because it took hitting up many venues before I found a place that I enjoyed.Though I'm glad I kept searching because I eventually found Cosmos Cafe and it was my favorite place of the weekend. Not only does Cosmos Cafe have great food but it had a great environment. As the day turned to night the establishment transformed from a high end restaurant to a stylish urban lounge, complete with good drinks, good staff and high energy music.Another im
Transit - Charlotte, NC 2007-10-26 10:26:00 For a city that is clearly oriented around the automobile a feature of Charlotte
that gave me hope was their soon to be open light-rail service, the new LYNX Blue Line. I was encouraged by this development because along the line you could already see transit oriented development going up in preparation for the line's opening. The benefits to neighborhoods such as The Southend will be significant because they already have some elements of a quality urban fabric but are missing the foot traffic to make them vibrant. Further the Uptown station has development along the tracks that include a Reid's Market and a couple of restaurants making it very convenient to shop or dine. What's great about this new service is that you could already see neighborhoods start to grow and maybe in the future Charlotte will have some vibrant neighborhoods worth exploring.To see more of Charlotte's new light rail system take a look at the flickr set LYNX Blue Line - Charlotte, NC Read more:Transit
Holiday Inn Center City - Charlotte, NC 2007-10-23 11:45:00 I choose the Holiday
Inn Center
City to stay at because it appeared to be close to the center of Uptown and I figured it would at least be comfortable. The lobby is nice, but a touch dated as if it had been redone during the late 90s with no further updates. The room was clean and the bed was comfortable essentially it was functional. Although the linens haven't been updated to the high thread count as most of the higher-end hotels have done in recent years. The hotel was comfortable and it does actually have one very nice feature.The best feature of the hotel is its rooftop area. It allowed for great views of the city and many photo opportunities. Additionally there was a nice pool and hot tub on the roof that are a perfect way to relax after a night out on the town. And finally an interesting feature of the roof itself is a large sundial that made an otherwise bleak view of the backside of the building into an interesting view. All in all if you visit Charlotte
and want an acceptab
First Impression - Charlotte, NC 2007-10-22 03:34:00 Before arriving in Charlotte
I didn't know what to expect. Would it be a historic city like Philadelphia or would it resemble a sprawling city like Houston? When I arrived at the Holiday Inn-Center City (Uptown), I immediately noticed a couple of items supporting the sprawling city view point. First
most of the streets in Uptown are one-way, which says to me that the streets are oriented to the car and not to the pedestrian. Second, there appeared to be various large construction projects on the scale of city blocks which again leads to an urban fabric that is not oriented around the pedestrian. And finally large parking garages and surface lots encircle Uptown creating a barrier between Uptown and the surrounding neighborhoods. So unfortunately, right away I felt that Charlotte fit the Houston model of a sprawling low density city.That said I was still curious to see what Charlotte had to offer so after checking in I headed out right away to explore Uptown. On a positive note it's c Read more:Impression
Urban Wrap Up - Seattle 2007-10-17 21:33:00 Seattle
has everything a great city requires. It has the population and building density, good mass transit, unique neighborhoods, skyscrapers and historical buildings, retail, and nightlife. Each one of these items add to into the amazing level of vibrancy that exists in Seattle. In many cities you'll find large areas of parking garages and surface lots where cars live and not people. Where in Seattle the density of people and buildings is just right and you almost never find a surface parking lot breaking up the urban fabric. Adding to the urban fabric is a great transit system that could take you all over the city, is easy to find, and has free service in the downtown during the day. Additionally unlike some cities that may really have a downtown and the suburbs, Seattle has a variety of areas including historic neighborhoods such as Pioneer Square, upscale well manicured neighborhoods such Montlake/Capitol Hill, as well as high-rise office blocks. The streets are activated becaus Read more:Urban
Nightlife - Seattle 2007-10-16 02:46:00 As someone who enjoys going out regularly, the quality of nightlife is key to my overall impression of a city. So we headed out our first night to explore the Belltown area. It had a couple of bars that I'm think we caught on an off night because they were slow. The first one, Viceroy, is an upscale lounge that is a good place to start the night, meet up with friends and then head somewhere else to turn up the energy. The second bar, SEE Sound Lounge, is more of an upscale dance club that has a very sharp appearance, unfortunately the sound on the night we visited was more hip-hop then techno/house which we were expecting. On balance Belltown was an average bar district that was worth visiting but didn't quite deliver.After exploring Belltown we decided that Pioneer Square was probably another neighborhood to explore for nightlife. I enjoyed Trinity, which is large club with multiple rooms each playing their own musical styles. We found the international house to be enjoyable as did Read more:Seattle
Pike Place Market - Seattle 2007-10-12 00:51:00 Our first day in town we walked down to Pike PlaceMarket
because it was high on our list to see in Seattle
. What we found was that the market was bustling with customers, had musicians playing in the street and that it was more of a neighborhood than a just a market. Instead of just one main arcade it consists of multiple buildings along a narrow street that reminded me of streets in the French Quarter.In the main building it was full of people, watching the fish toss, tasting fresh fruit, buying art or just exploring the market. As we walked through the main building you could see that the signs over the stands must of been hanging for decades. And between stands of fresh vegetables and just caught fish you may find a diner or an Asian fast food restaurant. Out on the street there were artists with small stands and more shops filling additional buildings which created a rich vibrant street life. The market truly was a neighborhood and that made it well worth visiting. I'd suggest a
Hotel Max - Seattle 2007-10-10 00:53:00 When planning this trip we viewed downtown Seattle
with local live to find a hotel close to the central business district, Pike Place Market, Pioneer Square, the Monorail and some nightlife options so we could walk to many of our destinations. We also wanted the hotel to be somewhat unique, centrally located and one that would deliver a high level of service. So after putting together a list of hotels in the area and visiting the hotel's websites I knew Hotel
Max was the place to stay.The building itself was constructed in the 1920s and stands in stark contrast to its interior which has been redone with an upscale, urban-chic motif. The lobby screams swanky and that feeling flows throughout the hotel, even to the doors of each room. Each door has an unique piece of local art displayed on it adding to the atmosphere. We dubbed ours "The World is Mine" because it remind us of our favorite club track. The rooms were small, as many reviews pointed out, but they were impressively redone a
Seattle First Impressions 2007-10-05 03:43:00 We grabbed a cab at the airport and headed downtown. Immediately the terrain jumps out at you as mountainous, green and lush. Just outside the airport construction of the light rail connection to the airport was underway and once completed will connect to the transit tunnel in downtown Seattle
. It took about a thirty minutes to get downtown and once there I could see the streets were bustling with people and activity.My first impression was that I was going to enjoy this city. Additionally it was easy to see that the city has been going through a boom recently with new buildings going up all over and many that had been finished in recent years. When we pulled up to Hotel Max I knew we were set to have a great time as the hotel was in the middle of a vibrant downtown and appeared at a glance to be upscale, modern and reflecting the progressive direction of Seattle.Coming up we will be sharing our experience staying at Hotel Max , visiting local attractions, and more on Seattle. Read more:First
, Impressions
Gameday - Columbia, MO 2007-11-23 22:04:00 As usual we got a late start with our tailgate due to our parting the night before but once we got going we hurried over to campus. Near the stadium I noticed the lots had signs stating "No alcohol. No grilling" of course we didn't setup in those lots. As we had been driving around I noticed a fraternity house parking cars with a Cyclone tent in the yard so we doubled back and setup there. And that was the right move.We joined the tailgate with some Cyclones at the fraternity house. Now these guys had to be twenty years my senior but they had a bar set up, music cranked up and well clearly they got a much earlier start than we had. As we knocked back a couple of beers these Cyclones recruited young ladies to join them for a shot. You'd see a group of girls walk by and they shouted "have a shot with us" and one would bring the girls back to the makeshift bar. In the hour we were there they must done shots with thirty different girls. It was a riot. I was reminded of my college days w Read more:Columbia
Nightlife - Columbia, MO 2007-11-21 11:39:00 The first night out we searched for a place to grab some food and a couple drinks. What we found was Booches and who knew that we had found one of the top ten burger joints in America as rated by USA Today in 2000. Booches is an old time billiard hall that sells burgers that are cooked right behind the bar. Though I'd actually call them sliders as it was suggested to order at least two because of their small size. Beyond the great burgers, Booches is an gritty billiard hall that I'd guess has a pretty high level of players visiting it regularly. I say this because as along the wall a variety of cues are locked up awaiting their owners arrival for that next game. We had a good time there and I'd suggest on any visit to Columbia
getting a couple of burgers and playing a little pool at Booches but don't go on Sunday as they are closed for church.Now over the years I've made many trips to Kansas City's Westport neighborhood for the Big 12 Basketball Tournament and I visit Harpo's e
Urban Wrap Up - Columbia, MO 2007-11-25 17:09:00 Well this is my last word on Columbia
and I must say it was a good time. Booches burgers cooked at the bar offered a unique to Columbia experience. The tailgate was a good party that I'll always grin about. The game unfortunately didn't go so well for my Cyclones as they lost to Missouri but the fans were great. The Regency, well proved the old adage of "Location... Location... Location." And Columbia reinforced my beliefs that walkable downtown's with human scaled buildings create more enjoyable experiences for visitors and residents alike. I do have a few regrets from this trip that I'll have to correct in a return visit to Columbia. Columbia offered a larger variety of nightlife than I experienced so next time we'll have to bar hop some more to get a better taste. And one year I'll have to get going early enough on game day to fully enjoy the tailgate, because I clearly missed out on a lot of fun. And finally I still don't know why they spell it "Mizzou?" So you know I won' Read more:Urban
The Best Care in the Air 2007-11-30 20:39:00 When I book a flight the first thing I do is check to see if Midwest Airlines has an available flight. I do this because my experience with other domestic carriers has often been less than pleasant and Midwest out performs them in every category. Midwest's advantage starts long before boarding the plane with ticketing and carries through to the flight which includes first class on board amenities. Because of Midwest's size they often have one or just a few gates at an airport and this leads to short or non-existent lines at the ticket counter. Once on board Midwest has two levels of seating, Signature and Saver Service both of which allow for better leg room than most domestic carriers. Although I did prefer when they only had the Signature Service because that is truly a great way to fly and you always had a great seat. And if you've never flown on Midwest their signature is fresh baked chocolate chip cookies while in flight that are always good. I suggest if you ever have the opp
Give Amtrak a try 2007-12-13 00:40:00 Living in Milwaukee, WI I will occasionally spend a weekend in Chicago to visit friends and family, go out on the town or catch a Cubs game. Recently I've explored various transportation options to make my trips easier and more affordable. I've taken the Megabus to Chicago and it is affordable and a fairly quick ride. And this past Thanksgiving myself and Mariiana needed to travel to Glenview, IL, a northern suburbs of Chicago, so we took the Amtrak from Milwaukee, WI. And I must say it was positive experience from the first stop to the last.Our journey began at the recently redeveloped Milwaukee Intermodal Station, as we arrived we were amazed at the beauty and cleanliness of the new station. The old station would of fit in well in the Eastern Block whereas the updated version is fresh and inviting architecturally. Additionally the new station has added Greyhound service to better connect to smaller communities and intends on adding other various modes of transportation in the futu
Occupation Vacation Has a New Home! 2008-02-26 19:46:33 The time has come to move to a bigger and better site. Occupation Vacation
can now be found at In addition to the blog I'll be adding new site features such as a photo gallery and interactive Maps of where these trips took us. Further I'll be covering New Orleans, South Beach and Rio in the coming weeks! Read more:New Home
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