Tag: travel

Smooth as a good scotch

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Yeah, I know, gushing about how awesome a day was, is so 2001 brogging.  But it occurs to me just how rare it is that I find myself having what seems to be a genuinely good day; not to sound overly pessimistic, it just really does feel that way to me.

Anyway, I made a day trip up to Detroit, to catch a baseball game.  And anyone who’s paying attention should know by now that “going to go see a baseball game” usually entails going to see the city.  That being said, I had never been to Detroit, let alone Michigan in my entire life, and a baseball game was as good as excuse as any to tackle two goals at the same time.

Eventually, I’ll update my baseball parks page with the ballpark I went to watch the Braves lose in this time, but I just can’t really get over how smooth of a day everything went for me.  I ain’t even mad that the Braves lost.  I ain’t even mad that I had to wake up at 5:30 a.m. in order to make this day even happen.  Everything else just went so well, that it’s put me in a fantastic mood.

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Photos: Denver Trip, Coors Field

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

For my birthday, I ventured out to Denver, Colorado, a city and state I’ve never been to in my life.  Obviously, baseball was on my agenda, but it was also a perfect excuse to get to see and catch up with a long-time friend that lives out there now.  Who was gracious enough to show me the ins and outs of the Downtown Denver area before I headed off to go watch baseball at Coors Field, the home of the Colorado Rockies, and ballpark #23 on my list to eventually see all 30 Major League Baseball parks.

As a whole, I liked Denver as a city.  It feels like the vast populous of people are kind on the young spectrum, and I can’t recall seeing too many actual families and older people in general.  For the matter, the diversity in the city seemed a bit lacking in comparison to what I see on a regular basis in my daily life.  In other words, not a whole lot of black folk; but not a whole lot of other demographics either for the matter.  And of course, there’s the whole pot thing; now aside from the occasional drink, I’m pretty much clean as a whistle, but far be it for me to criticize the Romans in Rome.  It kind of makes the place kind of relaxed, if not devoid of any chips in any convenience stores late at night.

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Real Men Don’t Wear Small update: Colorado

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

The journey continues on in the 2013 season, with, depending on how you want to look at it, is either my first official ballpark trip of the season, or unless seeing Marlins Park for a WBC game should count in its own right.  But whatever, I made a trip out to Colorado, where I was able to visit and see baseball at MLB park #22 on my journey, Coors Field, the home of the Colorado Rockies.

And because I’m such a baseball hipster that likes minor league ball more nowadays, I also made a secondary trip, 70 miles south of Denver to Colorado Springs, to see a game at Security Service Field, the home of the Rockies’ AAA affiliates, the Sky Sox.

The best ironic holiday of the year

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

You know who’s not working today?  Me.

You know why I’m not working today?  Confederate Memorial Day.

Yessir, a day that only a handful of states actually acknowledge, and really that’s only privy to state workers.  A lot of my co-workers often say that it’s embarrassing that Georgia acknowledges it, but I don’t hear them complaining about the paid day off work that comes with it.  Personally, it’s funny in an ironic way, but I’m also of the mindset that it’s best to embrace and acknowledge all history, good and bad.  It’s what makes things what they are, and it’s what makes Georgia, Georgia.

Either way, I’m glad that I have today off.  Having spent the entire weekend in Denver was fun, and I was happy to catch up with my homegirl Amy, as well as knocking one more MLB park off of my list, and getting to go see a minor league park in Colorado Springs additionally.  But after a weekend of lots of food and drink indulgence, with not enough sleep, high altitude effects, and even less sleep after taking the redeye back to Atlanta, today being off is a little bit of a godsend, even if it’s for “embarrassing” circumstances.

I now possess a jar of legal moonshine

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Over the weekend, some friends and I made a day-trip up to Gastonia, North Carolina, which is about thirty minutes south-ish from Charlotte.  It’s sort of an annual trip that we make so we can go to Mary Jo’s Cloth Store, typically to get fabrics and materials needed for Dragon*Con costumes.  Despite the fact that I don’t really need any substantial fabrics for what I plan on doing this year, I still committed to being driver.  Regardless, while on the way up I-85, a particular billboard had caught my eye.

LEGAL MOONSHINE AVAILABLE EXIT 19B

Moonshine?  As in the nuclear race fuel that farmers and rednecks made on their fuel that was usual like 200 proof and could get a human being drunk as easily as it could strip the paint off of an automobile?  And it was being sold legally?  Oh man, this I had to check out, and since I had the almighty power of being driver, everyone else was at my mercy to indulge in this crazy notion that I needed to acquire said legal moonshine for myself.

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This really only makes sense in Samoa

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

The story: Samoa Air plans to institute a pricing model based on the weight of the passengers plus their luggage.

Has anyone ever missed a flight due to weight restrictions? I have. Long story short, I was trying to get on a flight to Mississippi, and according to all information, there were several open seats available. Much to my horror, the door closed right in front of me, and very confused, I asked why no more passengers were being allowed onto the aircraft? Because the aircraft had reached its weight capacity.

Mind you, there were five seats available at this point, which means that the flight reached its weight limit well before reaching its occupancy limit. The passengers already aboard had successfully compensated for the weight of five entire human beings.

Needless to say, I was incensed. I couldn’t imagine what it was like for those who had actually paid a full fare to get on that flight and were denied.

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Photos: An afternoon in Miami, Florida

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It’s been a while since I made a day trip like this, but despite the fact that I really actually don’t like Miami all that much, the allure of watching World Baseball Classic baseball inside of a ballpark that I had never been to before made it all worth taking a very short trip down to South Florida for an afternoon.

I mean literally, I was off the airplane at 9:30 a.m., took a cab into Little Havana, walked around for a few hours and had some amazing Nicaraguan food, before heading into the park.  New Marlins Park is actually pretty nice for something that’s in Miami, and I guess all those disgruntled taxpayer dollars at least made something pretty nice and a great place to watch baseball.  But due to the risk of getting stuck in Miami overnight, I opted to bail from the game in the 7th inning, and with a little bit of luck, I was back on a flight to Atlanta by 4:30 p.m.  Not too shabby of a way to spend a day, and not a bad way to make Miami a little bit more tolerable – by hardly staying.

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