fredlet’sTravels

Category: travelbunny

  • Dear Eden,

    See you in about 3 weeks =)
    -fredlet

    Booked my ticket today for PIT and hence the AT the Saturday following the flight.
    My dried out husk will emerge (smelly) from the trail a week later (if mom hasn’t wrung my neck from my Katzitude) and after a shower (or ten), I’ll wend my way back to Pittsburgh, see Eden and then fly home.
    =)
    (Let’s hope US Air/United doesn’t fuckbleep this flight up as badly as they did last time. I have lots of bad things I could say about them, but the timing isn’t so tight this time… though if they screw up this then I can’t promise that my side effect of shorting out all electronics near me won’t go apeshit like what happened to my Treo and mom’s house in Tx., but on a larger scale.)

  • Solio Solar Charger

    SolioIn the boonies? Need a bit of extra juice on the plane? Use this solar charger/spare battery to charge almost anything with a USB charger or use any of the custom tips that they have available for cell phones etc. This is good for not having to haul around 20 different AC adapters.
    Not only does this recharge in the sunlight it can also be a charge though-device for anything it can charge normally. Its built in battery will hold extra charge for when you aren’t in the sun or near an outlet.
    I tested this out with a video iPod and I got an extra 3.5 hours of play on the iPod.

  • Girl Friday

    One of the DVD’s in heavy rotation chez fredlet is Girl Friday with Joanna Lumley. I saw this on telly years ago on Oxygen (back in the late to middle ages when I had satellite tv) and finally managed to find it on DVD some years later. Though I haven’t managed to track down the audio book she put out yet.
    It has an accompanying book* which is much more in depth than what is on the video.
    I really love that the BBC does this.
    Its kind of what the Travel Channel used to be (and another that I watched to the exclusion of all else, save HGTV and Boomerang.) before it became the Poker Channel.

    *I do this with Michael Palin’s stuff (80 days, Pole to Pole, etc) as well, watch the series over and over, get the books and read their associated travelog.

  • Church



    Church, originally uploaded by fredlet.

    In a little church near Chatelet Les Halles (no flash used)

  • Alien – Chicago

  • PACKING LIST: Fredericksburg, Tx

    I was gone for a long weekend, and in Texas you can get a range of weather in a very short time. There’s a saying that “If you don’t like the weather in Texas, wait 15 minutes.”
    Well, yeah, it happened.
    I stepped out of the airport in San Antonio and started sweating – it was in the 70’s. I shucked off my down jacket and scarf (and pondered if I should have brought shorts in addition to the lightweight yoga pants that do almost as well as shorts.)
    Later on that weekend it was in the upper 20’s and they shut down the airport just shortly after I flew out due to ice and freezing rain.
    So saying that, I was actually completely comfy just having brought a backpack like this for the whole weekend (but mine cost $14 at Ross. The shoe pockets on the side are very handy since I put a pair of tennies in there and wore my Crocs on the plane).
    I really liked this for the plane since the new regulations for the liquids in a ziploc bag rule is making me re-think my packing technique for toiletries. I put the ziploc in the top most zipper pocket so I can hand it to the stern looking security guard and I put my somewhat girly flowered half moon dry goods bag (well, whatever is left that isn’t liquid) in the mesh area previously defined for a basketball. Heh. Fits really well actually.
    I also had a Longhorn’s cap in the mesh pocket, but somehow it ended up on Bud’s head instead of mine as I flew back home, so it wasn’t there on the trip back. =)

    4 days in the Hill Country:

    silk sweater (worn on the plane)

    black Mistral pants from REI (worn on the plane)*

    white tshirt

    black yoga pants

    khaki quick dry pants

    wool zipper neck long sleeve shirt

    long sleeve black t shirt

    long sleeve grey shirt

    bright orange long sleeve shirt

    black button down short with skulls (jammies)

    a pair of black long underwear (doubled as jammies)

    socks and undies

    down jacket

    pashmina scarf

    I know it seems like a lot, but frankly when I visit my mom (even for a 24 hour stretch) I have to have clothes from anything as dressy as dinner at a really posh restaurant down to running around in the mud with the poopers.
    I also managed to fit all of this because all of these items by themselves are rather thin. I layer them for warmth when it is cold and leave them single when its warm. It doesn’t hurt that I tend toward the wool stuff from REI. Yes, its an investment, but I find them and snap them up when they are on sale and I wear them non-stop, so I think I am getting my moola’s worth.
    The only thing I thought might have been good was one more of the white tshirts (Hanes vnecks) and my khaki yoga pants as well since I live in them.

    *These are great because they have about 12 gazillion pockets to put my plane tickets, ID for security. Then later I can put my Mylo and plane toys in the pockets so I don’t have to get into my bag when I’m trapped in my seat by a sleeping, drooling person.

  • PACKING LIST: 3 days in Hawaii*

    Clothes:
    periwinkle Columbia skirt
    lime green Columbia shorts
    black Columbia shorts
    white Tshirts
    black tshirts
    swimsuit
    flip flops
    tevas
    pareo
    socks and undies
    plane wear (yoga pants, tshirt, sweater, jacket (I do live in San Francisco, you know.))

    Things:
    Eagle Creek backpack
    Kiva foldup bag
    Treo/waterproof Treo bag
    waterproof Sony camera
    waterproof Otter Box for misc (solio, cables, etc.)
    Day pack/purse + purse fodder
    foldup cooler
    book
    journal
    SPF 9000 sunscreen
    snorkle/aquaglasses
    laminated fish identifier
    sunglasses
    Longhorns cap
    travel shampoo kit

    * No, I won’t be going to Hawaii anytime soon. But, these little lists serve two purposes: 1. to daydream about going to Hawaii and 2. to indulge the strange fetish I have about being able to run off on a whim with only a backpack and a few essentials.

  • CHICAGO: To Do list (according to JoeP)

    • Just in time to go to the Art Institute (Renoirs, Monet and Rembrandts up close and personal oh my, Shedd Aquarium and The Bean. 🙂
    • If you can, even if you dont like baseball, catch a Cubs game.
    • In fact, in todays NY Times, in the travel section, here’s a piece on Chicago: http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/09/15/travel/escapes/15hours.html

    Man, what would I give for a Chicago Dog right now… (Rosen poppy seed bun, Vienna sausage, with everything and celery salt. GOTTA have the celery salt.)

  • CHICAGO: Day 02



    Chicago marquee, originally uploaded by fredlet.

    As Jen was in a delicate state, we went only for a short time while she recovered in the hotel room.

  • CHICAGO: Day 00 (!)


    I’m here.
    Originally uploaded by fredlet.

    At the corner of Clinton and Van Buren in Chicago cooling my dogs after flying all night (and surprisingly, *sleeping* on the plane all through the SAN>>ORD leg in the center seat) then taking the CTA to Union Station-ish area where Amy and I ended up last time we passed through here.

    I dub thee MY STARBUCKS! They even got my triplebrevetepidnofoamlatte right.

    Hell’s bells.

    I was kinda sweating it taking the blue line since I didn’t obsessively plan this trip like the last time I was out here… and I have slept since then so the details didn’t stick too well.

    In fact, I’m surprised I am not freaking out right now… could be sleep deprivation, since I didn’t put EVERYTHING into my Treo (though having an unlimited wireless connection helps my Asperger’s more than you’ll ever know) such as the station I should get off of to get to Union Station, the exact name of the hotel (but frankly, I googled it earlier and only found one of that general name, and can google it from the Treo – see? Calming effect.)

    One would think that I am calming down, but I think its just that I have found a suitable remedy for my neuroses.

    I was walking from the plane to the blue line and was thinking about how other cities *in the U.S.* make me nervous, but other countries don’t.

    Haven’t figured that one out yet.

    Also haven’t figured out what makes me such a nervous nellie at times and yet, some people tell me I’m very brave… I think I just fake it well.

    We shall see.

    I’m really looking forward to this weekend. (think JournalCon without those pesky conferences and all the food, drink and more shopping with the same crowd. JournalNon if you will)

    I was reading TranceJen’s entry about this weekend and was happy to note that it wasn’t just me who is in a state of awe at the friends I’ve found on teh intarweb. Now I kinda groc the whole letter writing culture of old that has been resurrected in a slightly updated form.

    Well, there’s your disjointed entry for this weekend. I’m going to have about 3 hours sleep in the next day (added to the distinct lack of sleep I inflicted on myself by leaving getting ready until almost last minute before I left… (Hey, I think I’ve been kidnapped by aliens and my pod person is a slacker.))

    It reminds me of going to Paris and the resultant out of body state I usually have getting used to being at home again in my city and th 9 hour time difference between SFO and CDG.

    More later…