2 posts tagged “travel”

I drove straight home to Ohio from North Carolina. We had a larger Thanksgiving than usual this year. My aunt and uncle from North Carolina, my cousin from Los Angeles, and my other cousin and her husband from New Jersey were all there. We had the traditional turkey dinner on Thursday afternoon, and on Thursday evening my cousins and I went to see Casino Royale. It was $20 for 5 tickets, which amazed my cousin from L.A., since he usually pays $14 for an individual ticket.

On Friday we visited the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I hadn't been there in 10 years, but it was still pretty much the same. It was a good way to fill a few hours, though. On Friday night I visited my friend David, and we played some games on his new Nintendo Wii. On Saturday I went to the Mount Union football game, and watched them defeat Wheaton, 35-3. After that, I drove up to Cleveland to see my friends Angie and Tim. Angie had won free tickets to a comedy show at the Cleveland Improv. We got to the show about 5 minutes late, but the usher sat us at a table directly in front of the stage, which was awesome. It was the ultimate "fashionably late" arrival.

On Sunday, Angie, Tim, and I went to Tommy's for lunch, then I headed back to Pittsburgh. In just over a week, I managed to put over 1,300 miles on my car, which is quite a feat, considering that my car still has fewer than 27,000 miles on it. I really needed to get out of Pittsburgh for awhile, and I'm glad I did. Upon returning to a place after being away for a week, you see everything from a slightly different angle. I'm energized and ready to take on the world.

I went down to Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill (i.e., the "Triangle") this weekend to visit Josh and to touch base with some former coworkers from IBM. I got down there on Saturday evening, after driving all day (8 hours, 495 miles). For the rest of the weekend we went out to eat, saw a movie,walked around Chapel Hill and Carrboro, and otherwise hung out. It was fun to catch up with Josh, since we are in similar places in our lives and have similar goals.

On Monday, I met my Extreme Blue mentor John for breakfast. John is a great guy and did quite a bit of personal mentoring with me during my internship. I was happy that I got the opportunity to thank him for his efforts and to demonstrate that I'm doing pretty well, partially due to his help. Monday evening, Josh and I went to the Chapel Hill Bloggers Meetup, which was run by Anton Zuiker. On Tuesday, I got up early to meet Nick, the MBA intern from my Extreme Blue team. When I worked with Nick, he had no children, and now he has a 2 year old son. Tempus fugit.

Random Trip Notes:

• I think bike shop distribution and density may be a good metric for estimating the livability of an area. I generally dislike the Triangle as a place to live, because it's amassive sprawl. One of the few areas where I'd consider living in the Triangle is downtown Chapel Hill/Carrboro. Josh and I walked in that area on Saturday, and we saw 2 bike shops. I don't think I saw a single bike shop in the rest of my travels.
• Danny's Barbecue still has some of the best BBQ I've tasted, and Pepper's Pizza is transcendental.
• You know you're in a place with some semblance of an entrepreneurial culture when you're bumping into people that make a living from Google AdSense revenue. That kind of occurrence seems natural in the Triangle, but I'd be taken aback if I met someone like that by chance in Pittsburgh.
• Going anyplace in the Triangle takes 30 minutes. I put 75 miles on my car just driving around on Monday.
• The Departed is a good film. I've started drinking cranberry juice in response.