Posts by blinkin2000

The road to Fjærland, Norway

Posted by Andrew on Aug 29, 2019 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

August 26th

Today was mostly another travel day. However, it was a planned 6 hour drive from Bergen to Fjærland. We started our day off with a huge breakfast buffet that our hotel thoughtfully prepared. It included everything an international breakfast could, including swedish pancakes and the infamous Norwegean brown cheese, brunost; which is basically carmelized whey from dairy. Once fueled up, we were remined that last year when we made this drive, we did not plan ahead for food and were stuck eating cold sandwiches from local gas stations or convineinbt stores. So on our way out, we asked the hotel staff if we could buy a plate from the breakfast buffet. Suprisingly, they offered us a travel food container filled with eggs, bacon, fruit, bread, and sausages. The best part, it was only $15 total; and they gave us coffee to-go. Now thats customer service.

With our bellies full and lunch packed, we took the long commute of 3 minutes to the airport to pick up our rental car. We won the car rental lottery and got a fancy BMW, a plug-in electric hybrid. It was brand spanking new with only a few hundred miles on it. Score! We hopped on the road, and away we go!

A few hours into the drive we arrived at our only ferry ride across Sognefjord. It’s quite an easy experience, you just drive on to the ferry at the end of the road and park on the large ferry. A worker comes around and takes payment of 150 kroner, or $14, and we are on our way. The total ride is about 10 minutes and we can get out of the car and walk around the ferry. It is very welcome break from sitting for a few hours. cfwef

Once on the Lavik side of the Sognefjord, we pull over to have lunch at a turnout that we recognize from our previous trip. It’s a quaint little picnic area covered by trees with a breathtaking view of the fjord. We snacked on our packed lunches and begin taking pictures. I was also able to take the drone out for a spin to get an areal view of the fjord. We knew this place is beautiful, but with the drone, our photography is going to level up. dsf

We continue onward to Fjærland for a few more hours. The view are completly spectacular. Since we had plenty of time, we stopped at many turnouts to take photos and fly dronie to take in the beauty of the land. We did have to make one pit stop since I was getting tired while driving; grabbed a coffee and some Norwegian snacks which looked so cool, i couldnt help but snap a photo.

We arrived at the Fjærland Fjordstove Hotel around 5 pm with a few hours avaliable before our set dinner at 7. Since today was mostly a travel day, we needed to get in some exercise before dinner. We took jaunty 4 mile walk/run through Fjærland and were in completly taken by the magesty of this place. We probably took two hundred photos on this walk it was just so amazing. Here are a few of our favorite.

Just before dinner, the hotel staff provides a 30-minute narrative about the history of the hotel and the land. Some great stories of how inaccessible the fjord was until the 80s when the first tunnel was built; before that, the only way here was by boat or an insane trek on foot. Dinner was homemade pasta, halibut, and a tasty tart. I had their delicious locally brewed beer, and Chelsie had an excellent wine that paired nicely with dinner.d ddfs

We wrapped today with the amazing view from the hotel common room and round of our favorite boardgame, Tiny Epic Galaxays

Sleepy Time!

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2019 Norway and London

Posted by Andrew on Aug 28, 2019 in 2019 Norway London | 0 comments

August 24th-25th

Our 2019 vacation to Norway and London was kickstarted a few days with some of the most excellent news that Chelsie was promoted to Cheif Revenue Officer (CRO) at SnackNation. Celebrations began immediately with dinners at our favorite restaurants in Pasadena, Union, and Sugar Fish. I am so very proud of what Chelsie has accomplished at SnackNation, developing and growing the company into what it is today. an Inc. 500 Top Companies to Work For in 2019.

Saturday, the day of our departure, we had a lot of things going on. It started with a SoulCycle spin class. Chelsie’s goal of 500 ridesz by the end of the year requires almost 5 days a week from here on out. We decided to do double classes to make up for some of the travel days.

Also, Mom and Bill, along with Jody and Gale had planned to stay the night at our house for the weekend. The plan was for them to visit with us for a bit while we packed for our trip and then see Nana and Papa on Sunday. We enjoyied a great lunch at our local fried chicken shop, The Crack Shack.

Fully packed we headed to the airport. This entailed us driving to Culver City, which took over an hour at 5 PM on a Saturday, ugh; then taking a Lyft to the airport. At the airport, we grabbed a bite at one of the nicer restaurants that featured lobster rolls. It was great quality for airport food, dfdsdf but not as good a Broad Street Oyster Company that comes into Sierra Madre RT Brewing once a month. kjhb

Our flight to London was great and uneventful. We were grateful to have Premium Economy on Virgin Atlantic where we enjoyed larger and cozier seats. Flight time was a total of 11 hours. Once in London, we had almost 5 hours to go from Heathrow Airport to Gatwick Airport to catch our flight to Bergen, Norway. Chelsie had previously booked us a private car which makes things very convenient, plus we had a chauffeur holding a sign with our name. Very cool. asdresdf

At Gatwick, we have about 4 hours until our flight departed. It was at this time that I realized that I might not meet my daily exercise goal. Last year when I started exercising to lose weight, I unintentionally created a personal goal of doing 365-days of exercise. Today, I am at 322 continuous day streak and I began to realize I might break the streak because we lost 8 hours in time zones and the 11+ hours of travel time. With that in mind, I thought it could leverage the downtime and try to fit in a run. Suiting up and leaving the Gatwick lounge, i soon realized that there was no way out of the airport. Multiple airport staff said that there is absoultly no way out without foerfiting the flight. Brainstorming with the kind folks at the Airport disability booth, we came up with a few ideas idea, including running through the waiting areas and running up and downstairs. I did not like this ideas as i thought it would create quite a scene. We finally came up with the idea that using an less-frequented escalator might be the best option. With that, I went to the “Gate 1-5” escalator and settled in for a massive hill climb. One hour later, and many awkward looks, encouraging comments, annoyed comments, and getting harassed by security twice, I had completed my workout. Breaking my streak was not in the cards today.

During my time climbing a million steps, Chelsie relaxed in the lounge, enjoying a fancy dinner, and listened to her audiobook. She was so relaxed, and into vacation-mode, I found her sleeping when I returned. The flight to Bergen was full and was uneventful. We changed timezones once again and lost another hour, arriving at midnight on the 25th. Being thoughtful, Chelsie had booked the Comfort Hotel Bergen Airport, which was a 3-minute walk from the airport. After over 24 hours of travel, we were ready for a nap. wewq

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Kingly Court, Tom Tom, Borough Market, & Scotch Eggs

Posted by Andrew on Nov 5, 2016 in England 2016 | 0 comments

Photo of the Day: Chelsie London Tubing

Over the next few days we spent enjoying our flat and the neighboring shops and restaurants of Carnaby Street. Our flat is a one bedroom  AirBnB located on Poland Street. It is literally walking distance to hundreds of restaurants and shops, including BAO, Dishoom, Liberty of London, and everything between Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus Tube stations. I am not including too many photos because there is scheduled a spectacular lighting event of the streets for the holidays. Based on some of the prep work we see, it should be amazing.

Day 2 of our trip we were still acclimating to the time change and savoring our time sleeping in. London is a home away from home, so there is no urgency to visit the sights and sleeping in is part of our holiday. Yay sleep! For lunch we head over to Dishoom, it has to by one of my all time favorite restaurants. The food is so flavorful and comforting, we dove right in and forgot to take any photos. I’m sure we’ll be back many times.

Later that evening we further explored the Kingly Court, a beautiful restaurant court in between Carnaby Street and Regent Street. Apparently there is a hidden 40s style Underground pub that requires a  reservation. We’re hoping to book on evening to report back. When deciding to take a holiday this year, we were quite undecided between going back to Japan or London. Obviously we chose London, but there is something interesting and intriguing about the Japanese culture calling us back. Or maybe its the food. Lucky for us there was Shoryu, a Japanese Ramen restaurant that filled that calling. Chelsie enjoyed some amazing Yakimono Black Cod Misoyaki with some Sake, while I went no-holes barred for the traditional Kotteri Hakata Tonkotsu Ramen and Frozen Kirin. The Kirin is served at -4ºC with beer slushy on top; so cool!

Day 3, we continued our journey to places that called us back to London, specifically Tom Tom and Borough Market. Tom Tom has a special place in our heart, as our Cousin Mickey used to frequent this coffee shop when he lived here. It is in the most quaint neighborhood between (or a part of) Belgravia and Pimlico and has the best Flat White in town. We often stay a while here people watching. It’s close to Victoria Tube Station and near many of the international Embassies are so the people watching is great; from folks traveling with suitcases to diplomats driving around in fancy cars. Very entertaining.

Later that afternoon, we head to Borough Market. I grab another flat white at Monmouth Coffee to accompany us on our food tour of the Market. Its a great coffee shop by the way.  Touring the markets offerings, we find  two  stalls that we try. First a local dairy stall offering a 1/2 pints of raw milk. Chelsie and I and give it a go. Wow, it’s so rich and creamy! Watch out Happy California Cows, the Scottish cows are on point. Looking for something new to try, we find ScotchTails with freshly fried Scotch Eggs. Today’s special, traditional pork scotch egg on a bed of rocket. This is something that we missed when we went to Scotland a few years back, and I was trying to use as an excuse to head back to Scotland. Well, ScotchTails delivers! What seemed to be a small snack was actually quite filling, the thick fried pork layer around an organic soft boiled egg (or however they make them). It was everything I hoped a scotch egg would be.

We wrapped up the late afternoon splitting up. Chelsie headed for a personal massage and went back to the flat to write yesterday’s blog. For dinner we headed to Burgers & Lobster which, as you may have guessed, offers burgers and lobster. It was tasty but seemed a bit like a novelty restaurant. Chelsie’s had their Lobster Roll which was the winner plate of the evening. Concluding our evening with a night cap from the Sun & 13 Cantons Pub. Cheers!

 

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London 2016! We’re back.

Posted by Andrew on Nov 2, 2016 in England 2016, London | 4 comments

Well, we are back in London for 2016. With transition of Chelsie’s new job and constant changes at SCE, this trip is long awaited and a well needed holiday. We were looking for some place where we could relax. Most folks would consider heading to Hawaii or a tropical island to lay on the beach to unwind; not us. London is our home away from home. Here we have our favorite spots in town and are very familiar with the tube and is easy for us to navigate. Our focus is to further explore the fantastic dining options while casually visiting our favorite landmarks. To continue the relaxing theme, we will condense a few days into each blog post. This way we can document our adventures without having the stress of nightly posts.

We departed LAX on a Sunday afternoon (October 30th) via Virgin America. We were lucky enough to have upgraded seats to Premium Economy on the new Dreamliner. The flight was fantastic! Chelsie took advantage of the comfortable seats and nearly slept the entire trip. As we flew over the eastern part of Canada, we were able to capture some amazing photos of the aurora borealis. They are so breathtaking to witness. With Chelsie enjoying her slumber in window seat, I struggled to capture the 15 second open shutter photo. Luckily one of the attendants allowed me into the Upper Class areas where I had full access to a window.

Our Airbnb flat is centrally located within walking distance of Carnaby Street. Conveniently, it is also within walking distance of two of our favorite restaurants, Bao & Nando’s! We generally have a travel dining rule to always explore new restaurants instead of revisiting. However, these two are worth breaking this rule and we did it on our first two meals. Nando’s is a South African food chain and is a great option if you don’t have time to research your next restaurant or need something quick. Bao’s Fried Chicken and Classic Bao was one of the reasons we decided to come back to London and select this location. Our favorite!

After dinner, we head to Westminster Tube station Exit 1 to view the London Eye & Big Ben.  If anyone is going to visit London for the first time, I always recommend taking this exit, especially in the evening. As you emerge from the Exit 1 tunnel, you are greeted by the twinkling light from the London Eye across the Thames River. While sulking in the view of the London Eye, you continue up the stairs and the towering Big Ben becomes visible. Its absolutely amazing. It was such an fun experience for us the first time, we continue to recreate it every time. Our evening ended with a walk to Westminster Abby.

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