Our tans have nearly faded and we’ve stopped saying “Hola” to everyone we pass (including the pizza delivery guy), but the photos of our annual winter vacation will keep our memories of our annual winter vacation alive just a little bit longer!

This year we ventured to the “other side” of Mexico to Puerto Vallarta. We stayed at the Barcelo la Jolla de Mismaloya, a resort about eight miles (and a 30-minute cab ride) south of Puerto Vallarta proper. Having become accustomed to the beautiful beaches of the Mayan Riviera and Dominican Republic, we were a bit disappointed with the small, shady and cold beach at this resort, so we spent our days by the pool. But really, how bad can lying by the pool, reading good books with a frosty beverage in one’s hand for seven days straight really be?

Our room was quite nice — the nicest accommodations we’ve ever encountered in all of our tropical travels. We also were on the 9th floor so had a beautiful view of the resort and surrounding area, including the ocean. The resort’s buffet was standard fare, with breakfast providing the best options. Unfortunately, I became sick for a portion of our trip, although I can’t for sure attribute it to anything I ate.

We ventured out of the resort one day to the small town across the street, La Jolla. There we took a tour of the local tequila factory (not much of a tour — just the two of us who found a staff member who showed us around and gave us a few shots) and also experienced the Puerto Vallarta Zoo. Our very close encounters feeding the animals was certainly something to behold, which you’ll see in a few videos in the slideshow. I would have included more videos of Roger feeding the animals, but in his excitement, his language became a bit colorful and sadly my video editing skills do not include standard bleeping. As it is, you will hear Roger ask “Is this where camel toe comes from?” in one of the videos … bad enough, but not that bad that I’d sacrifice the entire video!

When we returned to Minneapolis we were met with 45 degree temperatures, but only for a day. Last week’s frigid weather made us wish we’d booked our trip for two weeks! However, it is good to be home and both of us feel well-rested after a much-needed vacation. And that’s just how it should be.

I added the photos from our New York City trip to our web site quite a long time ago—but I never made mention of them because I hadn’t quite finished captioning them nor had I figured out how to add the video snippets I’d also taken (our new Canon Digital Elph comes with the ability to shoot video). Well, the wait is over! Captioned photos and videos are here!

I recently installed SlideShowPro Director, the content management system that nicely complements SlideShowPro, which I’ve been using happily for quite some time now. Well, with the recent release of Director and other enhancements to the tool, re-ordering and captioning photos is now a breeze, and I can now easily incorporate videos into my photo slide shows, too. While I’m no Martin Scorcese, my favorite snippets are the Party Shuttle tour guide describing how Wall Street got its name, and the video of a Navy recruitment rock band singing some crazy song by Korn. My Christmas wish will soon include a somewhat more legitimate video camera, so perhaps I’ll be posting more video soon!

Roger and I spent this year’s Memorial Day weekend in New York City. Roger having been there only once for a brief business trip, and I myself having never been there, we were especially excited to tackle the Big Apple and play tourist. Here are a few highlights:

• Dinner at Mesa Grill. Our first night in NYC we made reservations for Bobby Flay’s well-known southwestern restaurant. We started with a fantastic quesadilla stuffed with pork and cojito(?) cheese, topped with barbecue sauce. For the main entree, I enjoyed an adobe chili-rubbed pork tenderloin complemented by a tamale stuffed with sweet potatoes and a maple pecan butter glaze. Roger delighted in a 16-spiced-chicken and a squash-filled tamale. And for dessert we split a cobbler filled with seasonal berries. The best part of the entire evening may not have been the food, however. About half-way through our starter, I looked over to the kitchen and Bobby Flay stood there himself! A brush with Food Network fame!
• New York Party Shuttle. Roger and I boarded a small bus bright and early Saturday morning and enjoyed a six-hour tour of the city, guided by our excellent tour guide, Luke, and very skilled NYC driver, Jahaida. We especially enjoyed this type of tour as it took us throughout the city to all the spots we wanted to see (Wall Street, Ground Zero, Times Square, Central Park, etc.) and gave us a brief introduction to places we wanted to explore further. Highly recommended!
• A walk through Central Park. Prior to our visit, I didn’t quite understand why going to Central Park was a “must” on any NYC visitor’s list (probably because we I grew up with lots of green space). However, we immensely enjoyed the few hours we spent there. We strolled the very walkable paths, stopped to watch the Central Park Dance Skaters (roller skates: they’re coming back in!) and enjoyed an ice cream treat from a cart vendor. The weather was gorgeous, too.
• Grand Central Terminal. Our hotel was located near this city landmark. While there isn’t much to “do” here, we ate a few meals on the run here and also lucked out to see the Celluloid Skyline exhibit, documenting the role the city has played on the big screen. The terminal also has a classic, retro, romantic feeling to it … so you can’t help but want to wander through and spend a little time on the steps overlooking the passengers.
• Ellis Island. Roger and I skipped the Statue of Liberty—it was easy to take photos from the ferry instead—and instead landed on Ellis Island. The 90-minute audio tour was excellent and made the experience much more enjoyable than had we not taken the tour.

Aside from some serious travel issues coming home (canceled plane made for another night of travel), we are both ready to visit again. Photos are on their way.

Yesterday afternoon I arrived home from Portland, Ore., where I attend the 2006 WebVisions conference. I’ve posted more of my thoughts on the conference over there, but here are a few details from the trip.

• Beware of booking your trip through the Portland, Oregon Visitors Association (POVA) Web site. I booked the Portland “Big Deal” which included some city coupons and vouchers for free breakfast. I much rather would have preferred a hotel room, which I didn’t get when I arrived. (Somehow my reservation was booked for September rather than July, by no fault of my own.) Fortunately the manager at the Holiday Inn admitted their mistake and somehow found me a room in their oversold hotel. (When I got back to my room on Thursday and my key wouldn’t work, I feared, however, that I’d been kicked out and would find my belongings on the curb!)
• I had a chance to hang out with friend Kari of Mandate Media and Politics and Technology fame. We dined and drank at the cool retro Doug Fir, whose neighboring hotel, the Jupiter, claims to be the best place in Portland for your illicit affair.
• Portland gets it with the mass transit! I rode the “Max” for free all day Saturday in “Fareless Square,” from the Convention Center to Pioneer Square. Minneapolis has a long way to go.
• A trip to Portland can’t go by without a visit to Powells, one of the largest independent bookstores in the United States. I also took in the Portland Saturday Market where I shopped from unique vendors. And admittedly, I enjoyed the tax-free shopping at more familiar stores, too, in the Lloyd Center, Oregon’s largest shopping mall. (Why is it that I live 10 minutes from the nation’s largest shopping mall and still enjoy shopping the same stores in other cities?)

What a great weekend! I think if I had a choice to pick up and move anywhere in the United States, it might just be Portland.

I’ve posted a few photos of my recent trip to Pittsburgh. One of the things that made my trip so enjoyable was my stay at the Doubletree Hotel. I’ve never been a guest at a Doubletree, and so many things went right that I had to write about what a great experience I had.

• Upon my arrival, I received a fresh, warm, chocolate chip cookie. Delicious! On its Web site, the Doubletree states that the cookie is one way it differentiates itself from its competition.
• My room had all the amenities you wish every hotel room had: a digital thermostat that actually responded when adjusting the heat. Incredibly comfortable bedding. Reliable high-speed and relatively inexpensive internet access. Brand name toiltrees. And a perfect alarm clock. I read in a recent survey that of all the things guests wish for in a guest room is an alarm clock that’s easy to set and pre-programmed with the local radio stations. The Doubletree hit the nail on the head with this one.
• My first day in the hotel’s restaurant, I had a light breakfast of oatmeal and orange juice. When I returned the next day, my server recognized me from the previous morning and asked me if I wanted the same thing I had yesterday: oatmeal with brown sugar and bananas on the side, and a glass of orange juice. Great memory. He got a big tip.
• A few days after my return home, I received a survey about my stay. The most humorous part of the survey was that one entire survey page was dedicated to the temperature of the cookie: “Was your cookie warm?” And just today, I received a personal e-mail from the hotel’s guest services manager thanking me for completing the survey. Obviously, the Doubletree has this part down pat.

The Doubletree has proved that customer service is, indeed, not dead. If only all hotels could follow their lead.

While waiting for a shuttle to transfer us from our hotel to the airport, a colleague and I were advised that it’d be cheaper — not to mention nicer — to split a cab to the airport instead. By our luck, the only cab waiting at the hotel happened to be a towncar with “limo” plates, leather seats and tinted windows. Our driver also happened to be an ex-NFL player for the Cleveland Browns. While he chauffered us to PIT, he dropped the names of dozens of famous football players he took to the field with in the mid-60s, until he blew out his knee and was forced to quit playing. (All of these facts were completely lost on me, of course, having no knowledge or care of professional football.) So he found a taxi service in the red, turned it around, and built a fleet of eight limos that is probably one of the best-known and most reliable methods of transportation in Pittsburgh. When I arrived home, I had an e-mail waiting for me (how many taxi drivers have sent you an e-mail?):

Dear Ms. Struthers:

It was a pleasure providing you with transportation during your recent trip to “the burg”. If you find yourself returning, I would be more than happy to provide you with service with a smile.

Regards,

Jessie Davis
Jess Transportation
412-287-7581

So, if you need a great ride in Pittsburgh, give Jessie Davis a call.

I am posting this from the Pittsburgh International Airport, which offers free wireless internet access throughout the terminal. “Pittsburgh International Airport is among only a few airports equipped for wireless communications in the country and one of the only ones that does not charge a fee.” Excellent.

The best things about coming home from a vacation in another country are my own down pillow and featherbed; snuggly, slobbery dogs; fresh Peet’s coffee (Peaberry Especial!); real Diet Coke; and that I can finally poop again. (Traveling always throws my system for a little loop. Not Roger, though. Lucky him.) The worst things are the weather (only 50 degrees colder here than where I was yesterday); piles of laundry; the fact that I can no longer eat like a European simultaneously holding my knife and fork without looking like I’m shoveling food into my face; and, of course, having to go back to work tomorrow. Sigh.

Roger and I arrived home from Jamaica last night. We spent a week at the Royal Decameron Club Caribbean resort in Runaway Bay, sleeping in, basking in the sun (burning our armpits), enjoying food and drink, and reading good books. (One of the best books I read was The Life of Pi — the perfect book to read while sitting by the ocean, a book about a boy and a bengal tiger aboard a lifeboat, lost and floating in the ocean). The captioned photos of our trip tell a more complete story of our week in paradise, as Roger calls it. I’m contemplating posting the nicknames of the regulars we saw on the beach or in the restaurant. I’m afraid if I do I’ll be considered a horrible person.

Of course, no vacation could be complete without a few hiccups. We didn’t get our originally booked room the first night, most likely the result of a complicated money laundering scheme involving the Colombians and Jamaicans (really). In fact, we even saw a Colombian-looking man in the restaurant on our last day of the resort, in white linen pants, smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee, observing his surroundings and talking on his cell phone. Suspicious. When we did get our correct room, the situation worsened: no hot water. Well, we had hot water, just not enough to get any of the soap out of our hair. But no worries: Our room issues were resolved the next day and all was made well with a complmentary bottle of champagne.

The worst part of the whole trip had nothing to do with the resort. No, the worst part was the discovery of some scratches (gouges, really, the size of the Grand Canyon in my eyes) in our new iPod, just one week after it walked out the store. I’m sure the scratches occurred as a result of my shoving my sandy beach towel into the iPod’s protective case to wipe off a smudge. I cried. I regretted my very existence. I contemplated never looking at or using the gadget again. Fortunately this morning I found several promising solutions for buffing the scratches out, so all will be well (I hope) once I order some “Applesauce” (that’s what it’s called) and buff the scratches out.

So life is back to normal tomorrow. Tomorrow I turn 31. Not a very important birthday, says my brother. (Thanks, Ry.) Just one year older with more wrinkles and more sunspots. I’m back to work (until March 17; we have the day off, as I like to tell people for St. Patrick’s Day, but that’s not really the truth; it’s just a university floating holiday), and Roger hits the road again. And we’ll be counting the days until next year, when we find ourselves again under another palapa, hiding behind our sunglasses, with cool drinks in our hand.

In late September/early October, Roger and I went to San Diego for a few days. Roger worked the ACE Hardware Show at the Convention Center, and I had several days to explore the city in our rental car. (After a few days Roger was asking me for directions!) Our first afternoon in the city we explored the zoo; after that I was on my own. I found my way to Fashion Valley for shopping, wandered around the museums of Balboa Park, and traveled to Coronado and throughout San Diego’s landmarks on the Old Town Trolley Tour. Our final day, once Roger’s show was complete, we ventured out to Point Loma and Cabrillo National Monument so Roger could mark off another lighthouse.

San Diego’s food was fantastic. Our hotel was in the Gaslamp District, which comes to life at night with people swarming to the great restaurants and bars, and to Petco Park, where the Padres played in the division series playoffs during our stay. We enjoyed several brews at The Yardhouse and steak for Roger’s (33rd!) birthday at G5 (Georges on 5th). His birthday was topped off with two cherries on a gooey sunday from the Ghiaradelli Ice Cream Parlor. Two nights we took the car to the Hilltop District. We had the most phenomenal meal at Parallel 33, where all of the food is inpsired by food from around the world on the 33rd parallel (I enjoyed a duck confit salad, something I’d never tried before, while Roger had Alaskan halibut. Our dessert — “Madeleines of Medjool Date Cake with Vanilla Rose Gelato” — was so amazing we almost ordered another after finishing the first). Our final night we dined 50s-style at the Corvette Diner where our waitress, Lucky, threw straws in the air and Roger yelled for her to take our order.

And finally, just three months later, photos of the trip are now online (most from the San Diego Zoo). Enjoy.

It’s approaching 70 degrees in Minneapolis on this last Monday in March. That’s almost as nice as the weather we had in Mexico again this past February. Pictures are now online.