London, right around the corner.

The London 27.5 hour trip is this weekend! If any of you have more suggestions for sites to check out let me know in the comments. Things that can be seen from the outside 24 hours a day will be a great help. I know from experience the hours from 2A-6A can really get boring.

I'll put up a post for the photos but I doubt I will be able to do live updates. My phone will work over there but the international roaming data charges are mental.

24 Hour Trip: It Has Ben Awhile But This One Will Be Big

As you may have noticed I did not take a 24 hour trip this month. I did not take one becuase I wanted to save some funds and make September's trip even better. I think I did and hopefully you will agree.

September's 24 hour trip will be to London! And I am not talking about London, ON, Canada, no I will be traveling to the real London, UK.

I am scheduled to leave Sept. 21st and I arrive in London Sept. 22nd at 7:50 A local time. Now unfortunately I will not be leaving until 11:20 A on the 23rd putting me on the ground for 27.5 hours but due to the scope of the trip I think I can have some leeway. This gets me back to Cleveland at 3P EST which works out perfectly because the Browns are playing the Raiders at 4P and since that will be the only game they have a shot at winning this year I'll be able to watch it.

As of now the only things on my to do list are hitting Ricky Gervais's stand up show Saturday night and testing out their Coke. So leave me suggestions in the comments on what I should check out.

24 Hour Trip: New York Recap

Another 24 hour trip completed, another brilliant success.

I rolled out of the rack about 5A Saturday morning, grabbed a quick shower and drove down to the Akron airport in time to catch my 6:30A flight. Flying out of Akron is great because it is a small airport and you can get from your car to your gate in 20 minutes or less. The flight only takes an hour and I was on the ground a little after 7:30A.

The landing at La Guardia was awesome. The plane came down hard on the right side and bounced to the left, back to the right and then finally settled down. It was by far the roughest landing I have ever been in and I have had some rough ones flying into Colorado Springs. In the pilot's defense it was very windy and he probably got hit with a gust just before he touched down. It was jarring enough to invoke a few "Oh my gods" from some passengers.

I grabbed a cab around 7:50A and headed toward Battery Park hoping to catch the 8:30A boat (the first one of the day) to The Statue of Liberty. When I purchased my ticket for the ferry online there was a note saying plan on waiting in line for around 2 hours. If this warning held true a 2 hour delay would be a real monkey in the wrench for my trip. Fortunately I only had to wait about a half an hour and made it to the island just after 9A.

I spent about an hour on the island. There is not much to see but is was nice to see the statue up close. You can still go into the statue but only in the base of it. You need a separate ticket for that, is is free but they run out weeks in advance so I did not get into the statue but for 11 bucks it was definitely worth the cash to get over there.

When I returned to Battery Park it was a little after 10 and I was amazed by how many people were in line for the ferry. It was incredible the line wrapped all through the park. If you look at the picture below the people in the picture represent the amount of people in line when I showed up and the red line indicates the length of the line only about an hour later. I guess that 2 hour wait warning was justified.

(Click here for larger size)

My original plan was to hop in the tube and head up to central park, this would have saved me a ton of time and energy but I figured I would not see much of the city being underground so I decided to walk. A few minutes into my journey I realized I made the correct choice. The streets were absolutely packed with people even though it was only 10A. Several of the streets were closed down and vendors setup booths with everything from fruits and vegetables to "designer" purses and sunglasses. I found a great Coach European carry-all that matched my shoes so I had to buy it.

I choose the Empire State Building as my next destination because I figured it would get crowded and since I could see it from Battery Park so I figured I could get there without a hassle. I made it to the building just after 11:30A and it was packed, damned tourists, the line was wrapped around the building. I made my way up to the front of the queue to find out the estimated wait time, which turned out to be 2-3 hours. I tried explaining to the security guards that I was on a tight schedule but they would not let me cut in line. I had enough time to wait if I wanted to but it would severely cut into the amount of other things I could see so I decided to bin the Empire State tour and head toward Grand Central Terminal.

Getting over to the terminal proved to be a little difficult because I had to take a detour around a couple of streets that were shut down due a steam pipe explosion a couple days earlier. Officials claimed the air was safe to breath but all of the police officers enforcing the barricades were wearing respirators which made me question the air quality. The terminal is very normal looking from the outside but once you pass through the very little doors the interior is indeed quite grand. One of the grandest features of the terminal was that they have beer stands near the entrances to the train tunnels. That is a brilliant idea, what a great way to pass the time while waiting for your train. I figured I should sample some of the local brew while I was in town so I sucked down a couple nice cold Buds.

By now it was almost 2P so my next stop was going to be Reuben's for some much needed sustenance. According to the America Eats show on the History Channel Reuben's is located on Madison Avenue. Now either I walked right past it or they had to close shop due to their new found popularity from the show. I used the Google 411 service (800-466-4411 a free 441 service from Google) to get the phone # and address but there was no answer and I never found the building. Lucky for me in New York there are probably as many delis as there are Starbucks so I found another place to get my Reuben straight away.

With my belly now full of food and beer I was ready to head over to Times Square but on my way I stumbled on to Rockefeller Center. This was not even on my to do list but it turned out to be a great bonus. The observation deck of Rockefeller is only a few stories shorter than the Empire but has 2 big advantages. First there was no line, I bought my ticket and was at the top in 20 minutes. Second there is not a glass or fence barrier blocking your view. Another thing that is awesome is that the elevator has a clear ceiling and the shaft is illuminated with cool blue lights (see photos in my Flickr stream of the elevator and views of the city).

I finally made my way over to Times Square just before 4P. I popped in to the ESPN Sports Zone for a couple of beers and to catch the end of the Yankee's game. When I eventually left the Sports Zone I was hungry again so I stopped at Sbarro for an authentic New York slice. I walked around for a bit more then started toward Central Park.

When I arrived at Central Park I stopped at the Chess and Checkers House and lined up 4 chess matches and 2 games of checkers. Of course I played all 6 games at the same to give myself a bit of a challenge or so I hoped. I used the same Kasparov opening on each of chess matches so I could gauge the players and figure which match would require more attention. Non of the players responded to the opening with any sort of recognizable defense so I figured they were all low level players and I dispatched them quickly. The checker players proved equally novice and I defeated them handily. If I ever make it back there I'll look for matches in the 7-10 year old group as the 5 and 6 year olds never stood a chance.

The park itself is awesome, tons of stuff going on, concerts, huge playgrounds for kids, some type of fair with carnival rides and plenty of open space to just hang out. If lived in New York I could see myself spending a lot of time here. I made my way though the center of the park up to 85Th street which bisects the park. I would have liked to walk all the way to the North end of the park but I wanted to see more of the city.

My last stop on my NY tour was the UN. This was a bit of a walk from Central Park but I took a round about path to get there so i could see more of the city and a few more pubs. The trip to the UN proved to be a waste of time. I am not a big fan or the UN in general so I imagine my opinion is a little jaded but I was not impressed by their complex or most of their policies for that matter. It was almost 7P so I flagged down a cab to get me back to the airport in time for my 8:50 flight.

When I got to the airport I had a little over an hour to spare so I stopped in the lounge to kill some time. I made it to my gate 25 minutes early but as it turned out I held up the plane, not Dobbie Keibler style but since I was the last one to board they were waiting for me to take off. To the 22 passengers I made wait I would just like to say, suckers.

The flight back was solid, it was totally empty so just about everyone had their own row. I noticed that there was a couple that were on my flight out, so I was not the only one that flew to New York for the day. I struck up a conversation with Denny and his wife Jamie , last names omitted due to drunkenness, and found out they just flew out for the Yankee's game, solid! I think that would be a great idea for a future trip, especially if I decide to take a trip to a city I have already been to.

This trip could not have gone better. I really like the city, the amount of people out on the streets is preposterous. The one thing I was not impressed by were the buildings. Granted there are a lot of them but most of them are not that tall. You don't really have that cavernous feeling like you do in Chicago. If I ever go back I'll take advantage of the tube so I can save myself a bit of walking. I covered just over 11 miles, at least according to google earth that is how much ground I covered. I only spent about 13 hours in the city and I would have liked another 4 or 5 hours to do a little more exploring but the trip was so cheap I can have another go at it sometime.

My August trip is going to be put on hold because I am planning something completely mental for September and I'll need the extra cash. I hope to have the details for September hammered out this week and as soon as I do I'll let you know. If anyone would like to donate cash or One Pass miles to my cause let me know, cheers.

New York Pictures

Check this post on Saturday 7/21. I'll be updating it with photos from this month's 24 hr trip.

This Month's Trip

I decided to go to New York City for this month's 24 Hour Trip. If you remember when I came up with the idea for these trips I said they would I spend no more than 24 hours in the location of the month.

This trip will be well within the 24 hour time frame. I am only scheduled to be on the ground for about 14 hours. I am hoping to have time to see The Statue of Liberty, Times Square, The Empire State Building and stop at Reuben's on Madison the home of the Reuben sandwich of which I am a huge fan.

I'll put up a post Friday night that I will be able to post pictures too during the trip, so check in Saturday for live updates.

First 24 Hour Trip Recap

I completed my first 24 Hour Trip and almost everything went as planned. There were a couple of minor snags but nothing that wrecked the trip.

My flight out left right on schedule at 8:56P EST and I lucked out when checking in I noticed that the last row had two empty seats so I changed my seat and had plenty of room.
My plan was to sleep on the way out so I would be well rested when I landed. Unfortunately I did not get any sleep because the flight ran into turbulence about every 20 minutes. The turbulence does not bother me (although some people did not care for it, I saw several people making a b line for the crapper to throw up) what drove me nuts was the jackass pilot ringing that damn bell and telling people to sit down every 20 minutes. I don't know why he did not just "say stay seated until further notice", then I could have gotten some rest.

I landed at 11:20P and was out of the air port and in my car @ 11:40, having no bags is just one of the many advantages of traveling this way. It was still early so I figured I would drive around a bit. I killed about an hour checking out the city it is easy to get around since the streets are in the standard grid format. There are a lot of one way streets but at no point did I think I was lost.

I hit the In N Out burger just before it closed and I have to say those are some good burgers. If you have never tried one I highly recommend it. When I was done eating I drove around a bit more then I found a parking spot without a meter on the street near Fisherman's Wharf which is not too far from where I had to catch the ferry to Alcatraz.

Perfect, I made it made it in plenty of time to catch the boat to the rock. By plenty of time I mean 5 hours early, this is the only part of the trip that kind of sucked. There is not much going on at 3A so I walked around the piers for a couple hours then found a nice bench and read for a couple hours. Luckily Starbucks opened at 6A and I was able to get some coffee to charge me up for the day.

When I finally got in line for the boat to Alcatraz it was around 8:30. I meet a group of people from UK and they were all cool except for one chick that kept whinging about how terrible American food is. She had a particular dislike for the coke (the pop not the drug) us yanks serve. Apparently in the UK they mix some kind of magic coke powder with carbonated water and it tastes much better. Perhaps a future trip will have to be to the UK to test out the pop quality.

Once you get to Alcatraz you have to listen to a speech from one of the park rangers about safety and areas that are off limits. You are then free to go off on your own. You have the option to watch a video about the island but all it is the Discovery channel special, which I already saw so I skipped it. Since I was on the first boat over I should have headed straight to the audio tour since the island was still fairly empty but I decided to go exploring on my own. I thought it was hilarious that they had one broken down buildings simple labeled as "Rubble"(see image below). From the pile of rubble I had a great view of the city. It is only 1.25 miles away and while I know they claim there are strong currents I could easily swim across and escape from Alcatraz.

Click image for larger view.

By the time I got over the audio tour the place was fairly packed. If you are planning to take the tour definitely take the first boat of the day and then once you get there head straight to the audio tour. The tour is very interesting but I would prefer a actual tour guide. With the tour guide you can ask questions and to can talk to the fellow tourist. With the headphones you are kind of in your own world. It takes about 45 minutes and is included with your tour price.

Once I finished exploring Alcatraz I hopped on the boat to Angel Island. Angel Island is a 740 acre state park east of Alcatraz. The island has been many things through out the years, military base, quarantine center and a Chinese immigrant detention center are just a few of them.

I took the tram tour of the island, it lasted about an hour and was nice because they point out everything on the island that you might miss if you just walked around your self. The tour is informative but I would have rather gone off on my own because after the tour I did not have enough time to hike up to the top of the island before the boat back to pier 33 left. The top is only 780 feet high but I would have liked to see the view. If I ever go back, Angel Island will be on my list again and if I am staying for more than 24 hours I'll camp on the island.

When I got back to main land I headed over to pier 39 for lunch. I was amazed at how crowded the entire area was, every restaurant had a line out the door and it was 3P. I eventually found a place, The Sea Lion Cafe, with a short wait so I put my name in for a table. While I was waiting I checked out the menu and was disappointed that they did not have Sea Lion on the menu. I settled for some clam chowder in a sour dough bread bowl instead and it was delicious.

It was around 4P when I finished eating leaving me with about 5 hours to walk around Fisherman's Wharf, hike up to Lombard St. and get over to the Golden Gate bridge. I was able to get all of these done with time to spare. The one thing that was a bitch was getting to Lombard St. since it was a long up hill climb from the piers. I finished my list of things to do and see by 8P giving me plenty of time to head back to the airport and catch my flight home, which took off on time getting me out of town within the 24 hour time frame.

Looking back on this trip I don't really think I'll be able to travel any other way from now on. I had a total blast, it was great meeting people from all over the country/world and it was even more fun telling them I flew in just for the day. Plus I got to see and do everything I wanted to and did not spend much cash in the process. That being said this is not for everyone. I was dead tired by the end of the trip, I was awake for almost 43 hours by the end of it (damned turbulence) and I probably walked close to 30 miles. Also I think this is definitely something you have to do solo. If you are traveling with someone else obviously they will be interested in different things so you will spend more time at each location thus reducing the number of things you can see. Also if you are the kind of person that likes relaxing and well planed out trip this is certainly not for you.

First 24 Hour Trip in the Books

The trip was great, I'll do a full write up later today. Here are some photos for now.

First Trip - Locked In

My first 24 hour trip is scheduled. I am really squeezing this one in under the wire for the 24 hours stipulation. I land at 11:02P Friday and takeoff at 11:00P Saturday giving me 2 minutes to spare.

I am not going to get a hotel room, I figure I can just bounce around until 9A when my tour starts. I may however rent a car since I can get a crappy one for $30 it will probably be cheaper than cabbing it.

New Feature! 24 HourTrips.

Starting this month I'll be taking one trip per month to tourist/fun locations around the country (United States only for now, at least until my passport comes in). The thing that will be different about my trips is that, in the spirit of Jack Bauer, I will spend no more than 24 hours at the location of the month.

I figured this would be a good way to check out popular sites without all the fuss of taking time off work, booking hotels, packing bags, renting cars (I should be able to cab it most of the time) and finding restaurants. Plus I am not the kind of guy that needs to stare at something for hours but I would like to see it in person and snap a few pictures.

My first trip will be to Alcatraz. I may be heading out as soon as this Saturday 6/9. I found a flight that gets me to San Fransisco @ 10A and a return flight that leaves @ 11P. I also found a website that will let me book the Alcatraz tour and a 1 hour bay boat tour. I should also have time to stop at the In N Out burger near Jones Street. I know it is on Jefferson St., I said "NEAR Jones St."

Of course I will post my experiences and pictures of the trips and probably let you know if it was worth it. I already have several trip ideas in mind but post your suggestions in the comments.