1.) They never have my book at airport bookstores. That’s understandable now; the book came out almost two years ago. But I never saw it in any airport bookstores in late 2008/early 2009, either. Waaaaaah.
2.) Flying at the end of the month has a drawback: the crossword puzzle in the in-flight magazine is always finished. Double waaaaaah.
I was in Cleveland most of this week for a combo trip that had some work and some fun. But one of the most fun parts of the trip was flying there.
Delta Airlines cancelled one of my flights at the last-minute. I was supposed to go from Pasco to Minneapolis to Cleveland and be there by 4:00 pm. But Delta re-routed me: Pasco to Salt Lake City, then Salt Lake City to Atlanta. Then Atlanta to Cleveland. That added about five hours to my schedule, and after some weather delays, it ended up being a six-hours-longer day of flying than my original plans.
On the bright side, Delta upgraded me to first class for the long trip between SLC and Atlanta. I haven’t flown first class in about 20 years and, let me tell you … what a joy that flight was. The flight attendants are always bringing you drinks, snacks, wet towels, anything you need. The seats were, like, super-comfortable and plenty roomy. I had an electrical outlet at my chair, so I could use my computer without draining the battery. Oh, and I got a very yummy hot meal.
That’s a chicken breast sandwich (with cheese) on a fresh, ciabatta bun. The Sprite is in a real glass, not a plastic cup. Inside the napkin is real silverware. The fruit was fresh. It was really good.
I ordered the $12.95 in-flight wi-fi and was able to do email, surf the web, etc. I emailed my wife and told her I could never fly coach class again.
And then when I got to Atlanta, I flew coach up to Cleveland. And then home to Pasco yesterday. Sigh. At least I got a taste of first class. May not get another bite for a while.
I was over in Seattle earlier this week for the SMX Advanced conference at the Bell Harbor Convention Center and, for the first time, I stayed right next door at the Edgewater Hotel. Not only that, but I also scored a room on the Elliott Bay side of the hotel. This was the view out my window:
There were various boats and ferries passing by the hotel on a fairly regular basis, but they’re not so loud as to be annoying or anything. It’s very peaceful, and I really would’ve liked to have more time to just sit and relax in the room. Here’s another pic that looks a little more toward the city.
The hotel itself was quite nice, too. Very distinctive stylings and decor. The staff was very good. I’ll definitely want to stay here again at next year’s conference, and I’m sure the family would love it, too, on our next visit.
Two things that the typical hotel can and should do to be better than everyone else:
1. Provide real towels. I don’t understand why every hotel around offers those small, barely-fits-around-your-waist towels that no one loves. It would be so easy to offer regular-sized towels.
2. Provide real toilet paper. I also don’t get why hotels all feel that they have to offer that industrial strength stuff that’s barely softer than sandpaper. Bust out some Charmin and separate yourself from the competition.
Why don’t hotels do this stuff? Is there some industry rule that towels need to be small and toilet paper has to be rough?
If the TSA/FAA is going to create a bunch of silly, new in-flight rules (see story here and read comments here) as a knee-jerk reaction to the attempted attack on Christmas day, I’m going to change my travel plans for 2010.
After missing most of the SEO/SEM conferences in 2009, I was hoping to attend more next year. But flying was already a big enough pain in the arse, and now it seems things will only be worse moving forward. I’m glad that I’ve already committed to speak at one event here in the Tri-Cities, and two others that are within driving distance. And at the moment, the only U2 show I’m planning to attend is also a short drive away. (I have Oakland tickets, too, but not sure about using them. If the TSA/FAA rules are going to be silly, I’ll probably sell those.)
Terrorists suck. Kneejerk reactions do, too.
I’m not much of a gambler. Don’t have a clue how most of the dice games work. Don’t play cards enough to ever play for money. But I’ve been to Las Vegas a few times in the past and always had fun dropping a few dollars into a slot machine to see what might happen. And I was planning to do it again a couple weeks ago when I was in town for the U2 concert.
Only it seems times have changed and Vegas doesn’t want my money anymore.
That sign was on every slot machine I saw over the course of four days. You can’t insert coins. You can’t insert dollar bills. Apparently you have to find the casino desk and buy some kind of credit card-type thing and insert that into the machine when you want to play the slots.
Too much effort for casual gamblers like me.
I spent more than 3 hours sitting on my duff at the Las Vegas Airport on Sunday. I had change in my pockets and plenty of $1 bills. I would’ve surely dumped a lot of that into a slot machine, but it was too much work.
Not that it really matters and not that I really care, but I wonder how much casual money from people like me Vegas is missing out on with these new slot machines.
After the girls got back home last week, Sean and I took off for an overnighter in Seattle — boys night out of sorts, you could call it. It was perfect: 8th row seats at Safeco Field to see the Mariners and Tampa square off, an amazing game that ended with the Mariners winning 7-6 in 11 innings on a 2-run, walk-off HR with 2 outs and 2 strikes on Ryan Langerhans, and even a 4-star hotel room at a 2-star price (thanks to Priceline).
I’ve put 21 photos on Flickr. I think this one is my favorite because of the 4-level depth of field — from Crawford to Hernandez to the Rays coach to the fans. Pretty cool.
Cari got home last night from a 4-day trip to Minnesota, and I decided to follow her flight on FlightAware.com just like she and the kids do when I’m traveling. Thought this image of her flight path was cool:
I like how they flew through the maze of storms approaching Minneapolis, and I really like how I can follow this kind of thing on the Internet. Technology is amazing, y’know?
I’m no globe-trotting jet-setter, but I have stayed in plenty of hotel rooms in the past couple years. And I’ve never stayed in a room with as bad a bathroom as the Hyatt Hotel in Santa Clara, California.
How bad was the bathroom? Let me count the ways:
1. Sink
It’s bad enough that the sink sits up high, on top of the counter; everyone knows sinks should be below counter level. But look — the darn thing is sideways! Who’s the genius that decided we’ve been doing it wrong, all these decades of having the faucet to the rear of the sink?
2. Hot/Cold Faucet
Everyone knows that hot water is to the left and cold is to the right. That’s how it works when the faucet is behind the sink. So, in this sideways arrangement, you’d assume that pulling the faucet closer to you (i.e., to the left) would be for hot water. And you’d assume wrong. Not only is the sink sideways, but the faucet is also backwards; pulling the faucet closer (i.e., to what should be the left) is for cold water. Stupid.
3. Towel Rack
How do you explain putting the towel rack below the sink, where the water will splash all over the dry towels as you wash your hands and face? It’s a terrible spot for a towel rack, and it also means you have to lean a bit to get your face above the sink — you can’t get right up close to the counter.
4. Vertical Toilet Paper
Again, who needs years of familiarity with having a horizontal roll of toilet paper? Not the Hyatt. No, they have the TP sitting vertical, so all your learned muscle movements related to pulling and tearing the bum wipe are completely useless. Total fail.
5. Toilet Paper Placement
It’s not just the vertical stance, but also the terrible placement. You don’t really get a sense of the depth in this photo, but that roll of TP is way back against the wall, completely out of reach to anyone not named Plasticman. To get there, you have to turn your body, rotate your neck like Sybil, and contort your arm into a position that it wasn’t meant to form. I strained muscles I didn’t even know I had just reaching for some TP.
Why not put the TP near where the towel rack is (and hang it horizontally), then move the towel rack to the wall above the toilet … like at every other hotel on earth? And mix in a normal sink while you’re at it, Hyatt.
On the bright side, the water pressure in the shower was pretty good.
I have a lot of them coming up again this year. Not as many as last year, which was completely ridiculous. But still, it’s looking like I’m traveling at least once every month for the first half of the year.
And then the U2 tour starts in the second half of the year, so who knows what’s going to happen then.
Thing is … I think this may need to be the last year of so much work/business travel for me. I love going to the search marketing conferences and seeing all the great friends who I usually only trade emails with, but I practically go “off the grid” when I’m gone. The email backs up, and that’s a problem when you get about 200 emails per day (as I do). And I get no client work done, no personal work done, no U2-related work done, etc.
Most of all, every time I leave, I miss Cari and the kids more than ever. For a variety of reasons, I’m quite aware these days that our time is limited, and no one ever lay on their death bed thinking, I wish I’d spent more time traveling and working. I just don’t like being gone so much.
So I’m thinking next year I need to not be.
