Picture of the Day: Horse at Little Bighorn

Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument
Outside Billings, Montana
09.28.2005 

Quick Trip to Upstate New York

Today I had to go to upstate New York for work. It was just a quick day trip and I was busy working the whole time but two things of note happened.

First, when I was going through security at DTW I got flagged to go through an expedited security line that the TSA was testing out. All I had to do was take my phone out of my pocket and walk through. There was no need to take off my shoes and coat or remove liquids or my computer from my luggage. It was awesome! It really is the little things in life.

Secondly, I had a little extra time between when my meetings wrapped up and when I needed to be at the airport for my evening flight so I snuck in dinner at the original Dinosaur Bar-B-Que on Willow Street. I was first introduced to Dinosaur Bar-B-Que when a friend of mine from grad school who was from Syracuse gave me a bottle of their sauce. It was really awesome so a few years back when I was in the area I made a point to go there and was not disappointed.

This evening I ordered a pulled pork sandwich with a side of macaroni and cheese. My sandwich was fabulous. The pork was tender and juicy and the sandwich was served on a nice soft roll with tons of cole slaw. I also really liked my macaroni and cheese which had a nice little kick of spice and pepper. It was definitely a great treat in an otherwise very long day (I left home before five and won't be home until ten thirty tonight at the earliest). If you find yourself in Syracuse you should definitely make a stop.

Now I am hanging out at the airport (yeah for free airport WiFi!) waiting for my delayed flight to go home. It's been a long day and I hope we take off soon...

Picture of the Day: Deer in Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park
Wyoming, United States
09.27.2005 

Picture of the Day: Hanauma Bay in Oʻahu

Hanauma Bay, O'ahu
 Hawai'i, United States
02.06.2005

Picture of the Day: Flying into DTW at Sunset

Michigan, United States
08.2011

Picture of the Day: Skyscrapers Along the Chicago River

Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. 
05.2011 

Work Weekend in Pasadena

After leaving Las Vegas last Friday morning I headed out to Southern California for another work assignment. I guess that if you are in a situation where you need to work over the weekend it is better to have to do it somewhere warm and sunny like Pasadena instead of back home in the cold and snow.

The hotel we were all staying at was in Old Pasadena which is a fun area full of great shops and restaurants. After I finished checking in I had a little bit of time before my meeting so I grabbed a fast lunch at Chada Thai. I had one of my favorite Thai dishes, pad see ew with beef, which also included soup. The food was tasty, came out quick, and was inexpensive - everything that I look for in a lunch place.

After work on Friday evening my colleagues and I headed to Choza Mama for a dinner of Peruvian food. My entree of pulled pork and yams was okay, but I enjoyed the ceviche appetizer that we shared. When we were walking to the restaurant we spotted an adorable cupcake shop, Dots Cupcakes, so we decided to grab dessert there. I had a wonderfully moist red velvet cupcake that was just as tasty as it looked.

We were spending the weekend working at the Pasadena Convention Center which just so happened to be across the street from the Pasadena Antique Center. On our lunch break on Saturday one of the other women and I couldn't resist heading over there to wander around for a few minutes. It was packed with all sorts of things and it was fun browsing. I ended up buying a cool old ravioli rolling pin for my kitchen and some vintage reproduction California postcards for fun.

For dinner on Saturday night we went to Mi Piace for some amazing Italian food. We shared a wonderful charcuterie plate and then I had a delicious plate of ravioli for dinner. The homemade pasta of the ravioli was spectacular and I loved the citrus zest on top. For dessert we split a tiramisu that was wonderfully moist without being soggy. 

On Sunday during our lunch break we couldn't resist a quick run to Dots Cupcakes again. I wanted to try some additional varieties so I got three yummy mini cupcakes, mint chocolate, chocolate coconut, and fleur de sel. They definitely kept me going for the rest of the afternoon at work.

By the time we wrapped up on Sunday evening I was completely exhausted and not up for going out to dinner (lame, I know) so I ordered room service. Monday I was up bright and early at four in the morning to head to LAX for my flight back to Michigan.  It had been a long week and I was excited to be finally going home.

Viva Las Vegas

During the rest of my business trip to Las Vegas the week before last I was busy during the day at CES but I had some opportunities to eat some great food outside of work.

On Wednesday morning I had the special treat of being able to get breakfast with a friend of mine from undergrad, Lee, who was also in town for CES. It was great to be able to catch up and hear how his quickly growing family was doing. We went to Bouchon at the Venetian, which was fantastic. I had the Bouchon French Toast which was in a bread pudding style with layers of brioche, custard and apples. Wonderful company and wonderful food is a great way to start the day.

After breakfast I headed to the conference center for another full and busy day. At the end of the day I had a work dinner with a supplier at Smith & Wollensky for fabulous steak. I started with the Wollensky salad which had bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, and fried potato cubes on a bed of lettuce. For dinner I tried the beef tenderloin trio with three filet medallions featuring a fig demi-glace, Cajun seasoning and my favorite of the three, a gorgonzola crust with applewood smoked bacon. We were stuffed after the steaks but I just couldn't resist ordering the apple tart for dessert. Delicious!

 
My friend from work got us invitations to the iHeartRadio party DJed by will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas so we headed there after dinner. The party was held at Haze Nightclub in the Aria and was awesome. Will.i.am played great music and the lighting effects were really cool. You could definitely tell there was a large nerd contingent there since everyone (including me) was unabashedly taking tons of cell phone pictures.

On Thursday night after I was done with work for the day I had a supplier dinner at Zeffirino in the Venetian with colleagues.  The restaurant had a nice atmosphere overlooking the Grand Canal and it was a fun evening. To start we had carpaccio with shaved parmigiano and rucola sprouts followed by a salad of mixed sprouts, toasted almonds and smoked tofu. For my main I choose sea bass with capers and then we had a trio of mini pastries for dessert. Everything was great but my favorite by far was the carpaccio.

Friday morning I headed to the airport for my flight to LAX since I had to spend the weekend in Pasadena for work. Even after all the times I have been in the Las Vegas airport it always cracks me up that there are slot machines throughout the airport. That is some serious dedication to gambling!

If you are interested, check out the first part of my Las Vegas trip here: Hello From Las Vegas

Hello from Las Vegas

After only being back in town from New Orleans for the weekend I had to head out to Las Vegas for work on Monday evening. Currently, Las Vegas is hosting International CES (Consumer Electronics Show), American Beekeeping Federation - Beekeeping Conference, Photo Marketing Association 2012 Show and the first round of the Miss America pageant. Can you guess what I am in town for? Yes, this nerdy girl is here to check out the lastest and greatest electronics.

Vegas is crazy right now with over 140,000 people in town for CES. We had to wait for forty-five minutes in the taxi line to catch a ride to our hotel and our taxi driver said that the busiest time of the year is always CES. By the time we checked in it was late and we were starving so we decided to head to In-N-Out Burger for a quick bite. I love In-N-Out from my days of living in California so I was excited to get my standby favorite of a double-double animal style (double cheeseburger with added sauce, pickles and grilled onions) with animal style fries (fries with sauce, cheese, and grilled onions). Yum!

After we finished eating my co-workers hit the strip, but I had other pressing matters at hand. In my hurry to pack I stupidly forgot my power cable for my MacBook Air so I headed off to the Apple Store at the Forum Shops which was luckily open until eleven. I love the customer service at the Apple Stores. They are always so nice and helpful and the woman I was dealing with gave me my corporate discount without me even asking for it.

Armed with my new power cable I started walking to the entrance of the Forum Shops on the strip when I was enticed into Banana Republic and Ann Taylor by some sale signs. Nine dollars for a long black sweater? Okay, I'll get it. Eight dollars for a cute red shrug? Well, if I must. After paying for my ridiculously cheap purchases I checked out the cool entryway to the Forum Shops with spiral escalators and headed back to my hotel room to pass out asleep.

Tuesday was my first day at CES and I couldn't believe how busy it was. I had to wait over half and hour in line just to get on the monorail to take it to the convention center. With over 1.6 million square feet of exhibit space I only saw a fraction of it and was exhausted by the end of the day. One day down, two more to go!

NOLA Road Trip Day 7: The Long Road Home

Unfortunately, Wednesday was our last day in New Orleans. We had a really wonderful time so we were sad to see our trip coming to an end. Frank even joked that we should come back for the NCAA Final Four even if Michigan (his alma mater) or Duke (my alma mater) wasn't in it. I think any excuse is a good excuse to visit New Orleans. 

Before leaving town we had to take care of a few very important things, like eating breakfast one last time at Cafe Beignet. It is amazing how a person can eat beignets for breakfast three out of four days and still want to go back for more. Someone seriously needs to open a beignet shop in Ann Arbor. 

Of course we ended up getting beignets (just as delicious as ever!) but I also got a croissant filled with ham and cheese and Frank got a crawfish omelette with bell peppers and Swiss cheese since this was going to be our last sit down meal of the day and we needed something a little more hearty than just beignets to fortify us for the very long day of driving ahead.

Being the day after the bowl game all of the Michigan Sugar Bowl gear was on sale for half off in the stores around Canal Street. I had to take advantage of this and got a sweatshirt and a t-shirt for a grand total of thirty dollars which is a steal compared to the prices that are charged for Michigan gear back home. I couldn't believe that they even had t-shirts for sale with the final score on them less than 12 hours after the game was over.

We also had to make a stop in a praline shop so we could bring some of the famous sweets home. French settlers to Louisiana modified the original French recipe by substituting readily available pecans for almonds and adding cream as a thickener. Yum!

By the time we hit the road it was nearly eleven o'clock Central Standard Time and we had a 1060 mile drive ahead of us. Frank was a superman and drove the whole way, making it back in just over fifteen hours.  When we finally arrived in Ann Arbor it was nearly three in the morning and we were both absolutely exhausted. It was a wonderful trip but it was nice to be able to sleep in my own bed again.

If you are interested, check out the rest of our road trip to New Orleans here: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6