Globemaster's Travel Blog

Calm nights in Southern California

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 22:01:47 -0800

We have had a few warm calm days and nights in Southern California. One would not imagine that it’s winter …

I have been on a Starbucks coffee drinking schedule again.

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 22:02:17 -0800

I have been on a Starbucks coffee drinking schedule again. For a while I just did not need to drink coffee again. When I returned to my habit, the large coffee size seemed humongous. My hand would buckle under its weight and I would imagine sipping it throughout the day … fast forward a few weeks later … Now that same large coffee seems a tad small. I find myself looking behind the counter to see if they gave me the correct size. Sure thing, it is the largest coffee size available. Oh! I hope that it does not continue decreasing … spoken like a true addict

Here is an idea for airlines. Boarding Passes that use minimum ink.

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:24:31 -0700

More and more airlines these days require you to print your own boarding pass. And no, it’s not for our convenience but for the purpose of the airline saving some money. Since they have pushed that step of the boarding process onto the traveler here is a suggestion to make it easier, read less costly, for that same traveler.

Please create the boarding pass with minimum writing and no ads, fancy graphics or color at all. Just print the minimum information. Some airlines, like Virgin America print these huge red squares on their boarding passes requiring us to use up an ink cartridge to print two passes. Where is the environmental sense in this anyways. They are not the only culprits. Some companies make you print four pages for one simple boarding pass. I know for a fact that such technology exists to place multiple images on one piece of paper.

Why waste ink, paper and the traveler’s hard earned cash. Make it a bare bones printout … or even better let those that want it store the boarding pass info on their phone. No harm there … So there’s my million dollar suggestion …

I had no idea that elevatort at JFK Airport can get so busy

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:52:07 -0700

It was a Friday before the weekend, afternoon and we arrived to JFK all ready to spend a nice weekend in New York State. All we had to do was pick up our car at the rental area and be on our way. This included a ride in the elevator to the Airtrain. Well, that was not so easy. Many others had the same idea. Lines were enormous at each elevator, and the elevators were so tiny two passengers with carts/strollers could fit for the ride. Since all levels were busy it would take the elevator 10 minutes to return. Awful!!!!!!!!!!!! It took us over one and a half hours to get to the rental area … We had a baby with us and cart with bags and were not able to use the escalators. One piece of advice. Try to stay away from the elevators at JFK if you can at all! BTW, JetBlue was the airline.

OK, Here is another good bakery: Natas Pastries in Sherman Oaks

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:01:25 -0700

I got a few treats from Natas Pastries last week. Yum. They call themselves L.A.’s Portuguese Bakery. Cool. I really liked their specialty dessert, Nata, a flaky outer shell with creamy inside (custardy). Light and tasty. The only problem was that I could eat very many of these. Their light flavor and consistency makes it feel like you have had none, when actually you have already eaten five.

Here is their info:

Natas Pastries
13317 Ventura Blvd. #D
Sherman Oaks, CA 91423
nataspastries.com

Le Pain Du Jour Take 2 : Awesome Croissants

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 10:07:03 -0700

I don’t stop by Le Pain Du Jour often because it is just out of the way for me. I was fortunate to be in the area early last week. It was around seven in the morning and the store was full of goodies. I loaded up on croissants, chocolate croissants and chocolate croissants with coconut … yum yum yum .. Love this place. Soooo good. We had a croissant left over until the next day and it warmed up perfectly inside the toaster oven. Delicious. I am sure there will be more and more of my takes, so to speak, on this bakery ….

Le Pain Du Jour Inc
828 Pico Blvd Ste 2
Santa Monica, CA 90405
(310) 399-4870

Where is the good local coffee in the Hamptons?

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 23:15:19 -0700

One thing we could not figure out while vacationing in East Hampton was where the good local coffee shops were. We saw Starbucks in several places. Ok, that’s that. We were hoping to find some cool local rustic, or perhaps modern coffee shops that serve awesome coffee. We asked around; wherever we ate, at the supermarket, in local shops, etc., but no one knew of any good local places. They just knew of Starbucks. This was not just the case in East Hampton but also all of the other small Hampton towns. I am either sensing a good business opportunity here or they are keeping their good coffee shops really really well hidden. IDK.

Garmin Nuvi 260w gets confused if there is a roundabout.

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 23:48:56 -0700

Regarding our Garmin GPS Nuvi 260w : It gets confused every time there is a roundabout. If you are entering or leaving a highway and the on/offramp circles around , the unit will get confused and lose its focus. It will start talking about recalculations etc. At that point I do not need recalculations but concise directions.

Another thing that is annoying is when there are several quick turns. It gets totally confused. This is most obvious when you are on a highway and need to move over several lanes to change roads, then change them again. It starts spelling incorrect information.

Overall it is great. One just needs to know these quirks. It is important to know your general directions and not rely solely on your GPS. You’ll get confused in cases mentioned above.

Citarella Markets - really really nice

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:39:37 -0700

After having spent a week in East Hampton we were hooked on the Citarella Markets. Their products are top notch. The produce, baked goods, prepared foods and the like tasted great and most of the stuff had no artificial and chemically related ingredients. It was a bit pricey but oh so good. If you find yourself in this part of Long Island check it out, if just to stroll through the aisles and check out their offerings. They have several stores in the region.

Citarella
2 Pantigo Rd
East Hampton, NY 11937-2604
(212) 874-0383
http://www.citarella.com

Virgin America allows first bag to weigh up to 70lbs - makes a huge difference

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:25:45 -0700

Most airlines allow only up to 50lbs for your first bag. In our case that always involves weighing the luggage at home, reorganizing, weighing again, taking things out, loading more in your carry-on and similar. If you go over that limit the fines are huge.

The 70lbs weight limit that Virgin America saves us time because we can never pack over 70lbs in just one suitcase. This makes our packing much less stressful. So thank you the people of this airline.

The $15 per bag charges are still there but that seems to be a usual thing these days. How quickly everyone has adapted to this … hmmm