Entry Three - Puerto Rico, July 6th - 14th 2012
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San Juan - For night and day one Picante Pants and I started in Old San Juan. We rented a car in the airport and were pleased to find out that the Nissan Sentra we reserved was out of stock so we were stuck with a Wrangler... Darn. We got to our hotel in late, but just in time to see the city in full swing on Friday Night. Old San Juan is a fantastic city. It is old, loud, walled, and incredibly touristy, but if you know the right places to go you can get a quick glimpse of the city's culture. We went to a dive bar, played in the casino, headed for breakfast Mallorca, toured Castillo San Felipe del Morro, and took a walking tour within the city walls.
The observatory was amazing, and was really the largest single lens telescope in the world... and did I mention it was the site of the finale of Golden Eye?
From Arecibo we headed deeper into the mountains to our evening retreat. Our hotel was on a a mountaintop. I was immersed in nature, surrounded by exotic flowers, awoken by roosters, without television, and in a polar opposite world of San Juan. That was exactly the point. 
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Utuado, and Casa Grande Mountain Retreat - After San Juan we took off in our kick @$$ Wrangler and headed for the mountains. En route we were detoured by word of "The Worlds Largest Telescope"... Whaaaat, in Puerto Rico. I was skeptical, until I saw the thing. This was the Arecibo Observatory.
Rincon - Our next stop was two nights in "The SoCal of Puerto Rico". We shacked up in a small surfer hotel (right by the beach... boooiiiyy). We partied at the Tamboo Beach Bar, ate a ton of seafood and mofongo, and relaxed on the beach. We drank killer $2.75 Cuba Libre's, at like kings, and saw sites like this.
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Entry Two - Bonnaroo, June 7th - 10th 2012
Bonnaroo… What a glorious place.
This year was my first adventure to Manchester Tennessee, to what has become a cultural phenomenon unlike anything I have ever experienced.
Me and my buddy arrived at midnight on Thursday with one functioning tent (a one person tent at that), some beverages, snacks, and children’s lawn games,
but by Friday morning we awoke to a full tent city. Our (well equipped on not their first rodeo) neighbors had extra tents, tarps, food, extracurricular activities, chairs, sheets, more booze, and just about everything else I could have ever needed.
This year was my first adventure to Manchester Tennessee, to what has become a cultural phenomenon unlike anything I have ever experienced.
Me and my buddy arrived at midnight on Thursday with one functioning tent (a one person tent at that), some beverages, snacks, and children’s lawn games,
but by Friday morning we awoke to a full tent city. Our (well equipped on not their first rodeo) neighbors had extra tents, tarps, food, extracurricular activities, chairs, sheets, more booze, and just about everything else I could have ever needed.
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These are the only pictures i took... in know. Here is the work of the proffesionals, http://www.bonnaroo.com/photos/
With all of the set-up behind me the real party began. Bonnarro is a functioning community of music loving crazy people. Not crazy in the, I am a threat to society, but crazy in the, for four days I am going to pretend I don’t have a job or problems and dance topless by myself in a LED lit Hula Hoop crazy. My kinda crazy.
I saw (not in any order); Big Gigantic, The Kooks, Two Door Cinema Club, Feist, Ludacriss, St. Vincent, Foster the People, Radiohead, Major Lazer, Flying Lotus, The Temper Trap, Punch Brothers, SantaGold, Childish Gambino, The Roots, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Skrillex… and believe you me that is a SMALL list.
I played Frisbee, sat on the lawn, drank beer, hung at my tent, played children’s ring toss, chilled, raged, all while clearly in the for and or background some of the greatest musical acts on earth transitioned in and out of sets. Skrillex’s bass was so intense that my whole body rattled from tooth to toe.
I loved it, all of it, and I don’t know who said it, but it was a better description of the event than I could ever come up with…
Bonnaroo,
While driving down I wished I wasn’t going,
While I was there, awake at 8am in a 90 degree tent, I wished I was somewhere else,
But when I got home all I wished is that I was back at Bonnaroo.
As a believer of the whole experience being greater than the sum of its parts I leave you with this. Go to Bonnaroo. Prepare for Bonnaroo. Love Bonnaroo. Even if only this one time.
With all of the set-up behind me the real party began. Bonnarro is a functioning community of music loving crazy people. Not crazy in the, I am a threat to society, but crazy in the, for four days I am going to pretend I don’t have a job or problems and dance topless by myself in a LED lit Hula Hoop crazy. My kinda crazy.
I saw (not in any order); Big Gigantic, The Kooks, Two Door Cinema Club, Feist, Ludacriss, St. Vincent, Foster the People, Radiohead, Major Lazer, Flying Lotus, The Temper Trap, Punch Brothers, SantaGold, Childish Gambino, The Roots, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Skrillex… and believe you me that is a SMALL list.
I played Frisbee, sat on the lawn, drank beer, hung at my tent, played children’s ring toss, chilled, raged, all while clearly in the for and or background some of the greatest musical acts on earth transitioned in and out of sets. Skrillex’s bass was so intense that my whole body rattled from tooth to toe.
I loved it, all of it, and I don’t know who said it, but it was a better description of the event than I could ever come up with…
Bonnaroo,
While driving down I wished I wasn’t going,
While I was there, awake at 8am in a 90 degree tent, I wished I was somewhere else,
But when I got home all I wished is that I was back at Bonnaroo.
As a believer of the whole experience being greater than the sum of its parts I leave you with this. Go to Bonnaroo. Prepare for Bonnaroo. Love Bonnaroo. Even if only this one time.
Entry One - Shenandoah Valley, 4/29/2012
This is the official start of my travel log. This was a Saturday - Sunday afternoon trip that Piccante Pants and I took on a whim. After doing a station appearance in Chantilly we were off for Shenandoah, with one quick detour... Wine Country. For those of you who don't know (I didn't) Virginia has over 250 vineyards, most of which are open for tours and tastings. The map below, for example, is just the Northern Virginia Region.
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For this trip we started at Aspen Dale Winery This place was unique because it had little food morsels to pair with each of the wines. Some good cheeses, pates, and chocolates each meant to change the flavor profile of the wine. There was also a dude playing acoustic guitar, he was able to play Everlong, and I tipped him accordingly. $7.50 for a tasting of only five wines is a little steep, but atmosphere and the allure of food pairings offset that in my mind. 3.5 out of 5 stars. Next was Chateau O'Brien The Chateau was really a quick stop in before they closed at 5pm. They had two tastings, one for $5 and one for $10. Though usually I am attracted to the big reds found on the pricier sipping, I was drawn to the Apple Wine of less costly one. The people were friendly and the Apple Wine was quite fulfilling, as it tasted exactly like apple juice, with a 9% alcohol kick. We were pressed for time and bought a bottle for later even though at this moment none of the wines stand out in my head. 3 out of 5 stars. Last for this trip was Barrel Oak Winery I was very skeptical about this place because of its size and popularity. I was right, it was slammed with several "Events" happening in and outdoors. We did the "deluxe tasting" and threw down 9 wines, each of which were presented by a women who was friendly and funny-ish, but more concerned about telling us of her own Wino tendencies than about the wines we were chugging. One wine stood out to me by name and taste, and luckily a manager with some passion for his products presented this Chambourcin was by far the stand out of the wine. 2.5 out of 5 stars. |
Next we headed for Front Royal. A small town with Civil War history, and a grand total of thee Yelp reviewed Restaurants and Two Star Hotels as the peak of luxury. We chose a hotel (Not noteworthy) and a restaurant. Here is my Yelp Review of Soul Mountain restaurant if anyone is interested. We awoke the next morning an headed south on Skyline Drive. We pulled up to the entrance booth and were greeted by a lovely women who told us that we were visiting the park during the one week of the year when all national parks were free. Boom... She also said that the trail head that we were looking for was almost two hours away and that the hike would take 6-8 hours to complete. Thanks lady, I'll trust my gut on this one. We headed south through a strangely empty Skyline and in an hour an ten minutes we had reached our destination... Old Rag Mountain. We did a 9.5 mile hike, with 3200 feet in elevation change in under four hours. Props piccante, props.