Boy Sees World

Contenders for this year's LipDub

2012-02-04T09:25:00.001-08:00

or

OK, I'm not really serious about the 2nd one... though APL does know it quite well.

Can We Leave Yet?

2012-02-01T21:54:00.000-08:00

After weeks of studying availability of Star Alliance Awards, I had put a solid itinerary together: SAN-LAX-FRA-HKG-AKL-HKG-ICN-SFO-SAN. The plan was to fly to Hong Kong in style, stay free at the awesome Grand Hyatt using award nights, spend 5 or 6 days showing the family my old haunting ground, and then continue on to New Zealand. We had planned on purchasing a Star Alliance South Pacific Airpass to cruise around the Cook Islands, Papeete, Fiji, and possibly New Caledonia. When I finally got the whole itinerary on hold, the departure date was January 29.

Unfortunately, Alexander caught a cold the preceding week. By Friday he was coughing violently. By the weekend, he was having fevers.

This was very bad from a planning perspective. I had nights booked in Hong Kong. I had very scarce business class award seats on hold - 3 together on every flight, which is unheard of. So trying to push back the itinerary became a very time-consuming and annoying process.I basically had to use the rudimentary tools available to attempt to keep track of award availability on about 10 different airlines.

On the 28th, by a stroke of luck, United released a boatload of business class award seats between Sydney and the USA. I was able to cut out a pretty daunting return itinerary (AKL-HKG-ICN-SFO - over 3 days) and replace it with SYD-LAX. I immediately called USAir and had them make the change. Plus we were able to push back our departure day to January 30. We would all be healthy by then! And since I knew how fortunate I was to have that UA LAX-SYD inventory open up, I made a backup reservation for us, leaving on Jan 31... just in case!

Saturday was a glorious day. We walked by the Beach in Del Mar, had lunch, and APL played in a park by the beach. I was so relieved to have our flights settled, and to be able to finally relax.

Unfortunately, that relaxation did not last. The USAir rep had made a mistake. She had left my AKL-HKG leg in the itinerary and had just added SYD-LAX. We were scheduled to fly from New Zealand to Hong Kong and then leave from Sydney to go back to Los Angeles. I did some research into how I would fix the reservation. I then checked my reservation again - the SYD-LAX leg had disappeared. This was not good.

I checked availability of flights and called USAir (reservations cannot be done online). The representative looked at my itinerary and said, "I don't think you can do this." I did not get a good vibe from him at all. The unspoken booking rule with USAir is if you don't get a helpful rep, HUACA (hang up and call again). I told the rep I had to go do some research and would call back to get it fixed. He said, "No problem", and we left it at that.

I called back a minute later and found an awesome rep. Cathy immediately understood the issue and went to work to get it fixed. Unfortunately, as Cathy was working diligently to fix my itinerary, Rep #1 decided to cancel my itinerary. Cathy did everything she could. But in the end, the itinerary was canceled into oblivion. And a couple of the segments did not go back into inventory. Cathy was incredibly apologetic (as was her supervisor). But there was nothing they could do. The seats were gone.

Those HKG-AKL seats never reappeared. I will spare you the gory details but those itineraries come with limited hold periods. And APL has stayed sick. As each day passes, I have been making new reservations. I push the departure back some more. At one point, I had us booked us to go to Hawaii for a few days to recuperate and to use our Hyatt nights. But APL was even too sick for that.

It's getting very tough again - as that surprise UAL inventory is gobbled up. I'm not sure when we're leaving. I think we're going to New Zealand. I will know for sure once APL is healthy and I am able to ticket something.

Here's what itinerary fatigue looks like:

Departure Delayed

2012-01-29T22:32:00.000-08:00

APL got sick, then Mama caught it, and now Papa has it. Mama and Papa probably would have traveled with it. But it would be cruel to impose those flights on APL. So our trip has been pushed back. Hopefully we can leave soon.

Club Med Coral Beach Eilat (ugh) and Aqaba (ahhh)

2012-01-11T17:11:00.000-08:00

Given the frenetic pace at which we were to be exploring Israel in December, we had decided that once the family had dispersed, we would go somewhere for a relaxing vacation (cue foreboding music). Because we were using Star Alliance award travel, it became obvious that it would be almost impossible to get to somewhere warm outside of Israel that was not in a state of upheaval. Egypt would have been the obvious destination... but post-Mubarak it was too unstable. So we decided to stay in Israel and head as far south as possible - to Eilat.

We wanted it to be at an all-inclusive so that once we arrived we would not have to worry about anything (cue worry music). I researched what was available in the area, and we ended up deciding to go to Club Med Coral Beach. It would be the kind of place where we could unpack and then spend a week or so swimming, windsurfing, diving, reading and blogging. No worries about where to go for meals, no need to even carry ID, and a kids' club for APL.

I had been hoping to arrange for January 2 to January 11 and when I brought up those dates, there seemed to be plenty of availability. I arranged for flights for us, leaving Israel on the 11th of January. On November 27, 2011, I tried to book our Club Med dates, but suddenly nothing was available after the 9th. I booked Jan 1 to 9 (prepaid and non-refundable) and then looked into switching to another hotel for the 2 extra days we had in Israel.

The more I looked, the less I liked the idea. Eventually, we just decided to avoid the hassle of switching hotels, and to change our flight to retutn on the 9th - notwithstanding a hefty change fee. But before I did that, I called the Club Med resort in Israel directly to double-check that they had not held back some inventory from the central reservation system. Here's how that call went:

Me: Hi. I have a reservation for January 1 to 9 and I want to know if you might have anything available for the nights of the 9th and the 10th. We would like to leave on the 11th.

Club Med Coral Beach rep: You have a reservation until the 9th? We are closing on the 8th.

Me: Closing? Why?

Club Med: For renovations. (cue apocalyptic music)

Me (completely shocked): What the #$$%@#!$$?!!

I was blown away by this. There is no way I would ever book a place that was closing for renovations. There was no indication on the website. There was nothing in the email I received from them.

When I gave the rep at Coral Beach Club Med my name, she confirmed that I was booked until the 9th. She seemed confused and suggested I call the central Club Med office to confirm my dates. And so I did:

Me: I am booked at Club Med Coral Beach from Jan 1 to 9. I just spoke to someone at the resort and she told me they are closing on the 8th.

CM: Let me check. Oh yes. I see your reservation. You are there until the 9th.

Me: Are you sure? They just told me that they are closing on the 8th.

CM: That's incorrect. You are booked until the 9th. She made a mistake. You don't have to worry about that.

Me: You're positive? I have to change my flights to leave the 9th. I am not going to be able to change my flights after I commence travel.

CM: Absolutely positive. The rooms are available until the 9th. There is no problem with your reservation. Don't worry about it.

Can you guess what happened next? On December 16, I changed our flights to return on the 9th of January. We departed for Israel on the 17th of December. On the 25th of December, I picked up a voicemail from Club Med stating that they were closing on the 8th and that I would have to adjust my plans accordingly. (cue MOFO music!)

I was scheduled to arrive at their location less than a week later and they were telling me I had to change my plans. Plus, we were busy touring all day every day. I didn't have time to try to change plans. And it was the week between Christmas and New Year's!

I sent them a couple of terse emails but had little choice at that point... We couldn't change our flights once travel had begun. Plus Tim had made arrangements to fly to Eilat from Montreal to join us at Club Med. I did look into a change... It just wan't going to be possible. But we are troopers. We figured we would make the best of it... (cue "you're screwed" music)

On January 1, 2012, we flew to Eilat from Sde Dov airport. Gorgeous flight!

Upon arrival at Club Med, we were flabbergasted. A complete dump. Clearly they were winding down in anticipation of closing. Karin told me not to unpack.

I felt terrible for Karin. I felt furious at Club Med. It was so unprofessional.

We didn't unpack. And the next day we looked around and met some of the staff. They too were being forced out on the 8th. In fact, most of them were going to be unemployed on the 8th. No one was happy. Except APL.

APL had gone to the Kids Club on the 2nd. He loved it. He didn't want to leave it. At the end of the day on the 2nd he begged us to bring him back the following day.

APL continued to love the Petit Club on the 3rd but by the end of the day, the Kids Club Honeymoon had worn off. He had no interest in returning.

Meanwhile, I was done with Club Med Coral Beach. They had completely let it go. The staff was demoralized. And the air was disgusting: Our room was on the 7th floor but it was overlooking the exhaust from the kitchen. Guess what we smelled if we opened our patio door? Lunch exhaust. Dinner exhaust. Breakfast exhaust. Repeat.

I tried keeping the balcony door closed but the AC wasn't working. I called down to get it fixed. They promised me they would. I called again. They promised again. Finally, on the 4th, someone at the front desk told me it was off for the winter. No AC. Basically the door had to stay open or the room was 90 degrees. But if the door was open, the room stank.

I called and asked for a room change. They said they only had a room on the same side of the hotel. We checked it out. It also smelled like lunch exhaust.

We had tried to make the best of it, but we had to cut our losses; Every day we spent there was a day of the opposite of relaxation. It was anti-relaxation. We had to leave.

The only thing at that point keeping us there (aside from having prepaid the entire trip) was Tim. I had to convince him to leave with us. It didn't take much convincing. On the 5th of January we informed Club Med that we would be leaving. My hours of research had convinced me of the following: Leave Eilat. Go to Aqaba.

On the 6th of January, we got into a taxi and drove to the border with Jordan. We paid $30 each to exit Israel, walked across a few hundred feet of no-man's land, and then got a cab on the Jordan side.

FANTASTIC MOVE.

We spent three wonderful days in Aqaba.

Club Med has refunded us a few days of accommodation. But the story will not end there. They put us through the ringer on this one. Just writing about this makes my blood boil. What a waste of my time, energy, and money.

And since this blog is called "Boy Sees World", I should let you know what APL knows of all of this:

1. We flew to Eilat form Tel Aviv. From the plane, we saw the Dead Sea and the desert mountains. "It was a great flight!"

2. The Club Med Petit Club has toys.

3. There is lots of juice at Club Med in Eilat.

4. We left Club Med and took a taxi to Jordan.

5. The Hotel in Aqaba has an awesome pool.

6. The flight back to San Diego was really long.

Tiberius, Masada, and the Dead Sea

2012-01-07T13:12:00.000-08:00

Tel Aviv and Jerusalem

2012-01-07T05:20:00.000-08:00

APL is 3; Time to Fly Around the World

2011-12-20T20:16:00.000-08:00

When APL was zero years old, flying - one of my favorite activities - turned from fun to the opposite of fun. When APL was 1 year old, flying failed to improve. At 2 years of age, flying became barely tolerable. But it was still constant work. He could not focus on anything for more than 3 minutes. So we had to have a new activity for him every 3 minutes. A 10-hour 2-leg trip to Montreal, for example, would require approximately 200 activities. But diaper changes accounted for probably 14 of those... so really we only needed 186 prepared activities for him.

Three-years-old was the transformation. At 3, APL was able to focus. And he began to LOVE flying. Going to the airport was awesome. And once on the airplane, he would give real-time narratives for the entire plane to enjoy: "Oh! A police car! That plane is taxiing! TRUCK! What that man doing? TRUCK! OH! Look! That is a runway. Remote control tower! A plane is landing! Why there are clouds? OH! LOOK! HELICOPTER!!!" And so on. Much fun.

And so it occurred to us that a window of opportunity has presented itself. We can now travel with APL. And he doesn't have to be anywhere - such as in school. Of course we had to be somewhere - namely at work. K was particularly enthusiastic about removing that obstacle. And so we discussed this with the powers that be... and... presto... we are traveling.

The first portion of this trip is to Israel. Two cousins will be having their Bat Mitzvahs on Masada. We will be traveling with family gathered here for the rest of December. After that, we will be spending a week in Eilat. And the one and only Tim will be joining us!

In terms of how we are traveling, given that we will soon have no income... Actually, that is not true. My blogs bring in a good $10/mo now. And I think I can get that up to $20 without much effort. But that does leave a deficit - especially if one wishes to travel in biz class minimally.

The travel itself is almost all going to be on points. We traveled to Tel Aviv on points and we expect to do so for South America, Asia, and wherever else we may end up.

Let us discuss points for a moment. A couple of years ago, I bought a lot of points for less than $0.008 per point. Consider that an economy fare from San Diego to Tel Aviv is in the vicinity of $2,000 each (we are traveling over Christmas and New Years after all). Through much effort, I managed to snag biz class seats for all of us for 360,000 points. That works out to under $3,000 for the 3 of us. Yes, biz class for less than 1/2 of what economy would have cost us. How, you may ask, is this possible? Well, I won't pretend it's easy. It takes time and effort. If you are interested, I suggest spending time in the forums at Flyertalk. Or at one of the travel blogs such as The Points Guy.

In terms of where we will be staying, much of that will also be on points. But some will not be. I have been contacting hotels about our travels to see which hotels wish to be part of this blog. After all, when we were in India, we ended up being "incentivized" because of the blog I was writing at the time.

I should point out that using points around Xmas is almost impossible. It took me hours on the phone with the airlines and hours pinpointing award availability. But it was worth it. Traveling in comfort makes all the difference in the world.

Did I mention that we were not all on the same plane? Yes, APL and I flew SAN-YYZ-FRA-TLV and Karin flew SAN-EWR-FRA-TLV. So the first 2 legs were apart. APL came with me, since he and I love flying. He probably would have preferred being with his mama, but mama does not enjoy flying as much (at all?). We ended up meeting in Frankfurt for a 10-hour layover in the Lufthansa Business Lounge. That worked out pretty well, since they had showers, beds, a play area, food, wifi, and lots of Xmas chocolate. I had tried to get Karin onto a JFK-FRA flight in F so that we could try out the coveted First Class Terminal at Frankfurt but that open inventory is apparently hidden from USAir. I spoke to 5 separate agents about that but eventually gave up.

The traveling worked out well. APL loved it. He was especially excited when I turned his Air Canada seat into a bed on the YYZ-FRA leg. He bounced on that bed for at least an hour. And he got to know a few people in our cabin. He has a knack for cruising down the aisle, smiling at everyone, and figuring out who wants to interact with a super-cute 3-year-old. He then knows who his friends are for the trip.

The only snag we encountered was upon arrival in Tel Aviv, at 3:45 AM. We exited the plane and stood at the end of the jet bridge, waiting for our stroller - with 4 other families. We waited and waited. Eventually, all the passengers had left and the crew had left and security had left. It was just us. Someone came by after about 25 minutes and said that the strollers had been sent to baggage claim.

We headed to baggage claim, where our stroller was not. After another 25 mins, we were told that the strollers had been too heavy to load onto the plane in FRA. Complete BS, of course (our stroller weighs a couple of pounds). We then had to spend half an hour trying to get a report filed for our missing stroller. We ended up at our hotel at 6:00 AM. We had assumed that we would go straight to bed, sleep for a few hours, and then explore Tel Aviv.

Apparently, APL had a different plan. His plan was to bounce off the walls for 20 minutes and beg us to go out. Karin went to bed. APL and I went to breakfast.

After breakfast and running around the hotel, APL and I joined Karin for a siesta. That lasted until about noon.

Tel Aviv has been fun so far. Pascale came to visit us from Jerusalem, we walked around the Souk, had some falafel and strawberries, and found a park for APL to enjoy. On day 2, we headed to a coastal park area and played for a couple of hours. Mama and papa jumped rope and APL jumped naked through a fountain.

Cathy, William and Katya arrived later in the day and APL was thrilled to be running around with them.

APL is very excited about day 3 since Mamia and Grandpa are arriving.

Our family tour of Israel begins on Friday.

Until then, I expect we will continue to sleep at odd hours, eat wonderful Israeli food, and explore the local area - somewhat dictated by APL's sleep schedule.

Estrella's Latest

2011-12-14T16:20:00.001-08:00

Surprise

2011-12-12T20:34:00.001-08:00

APL's First Creative Writing: Cars

2011-11-15T18:52:00.001-08:00

Lightning McQueen crashed. And he broke his tires.

Lightning McQueen and Mater decided to go tractor tipping! Suddenly, they heard something. They saw it. It came out of the trees. It was cutting the grass and chasing them. A monster! They were scared. They crashed through a fence.

They got away from the monster. Then they went out to fix the road.

Sally stayed with Lightning McQueen so that Sally wouldn’t get scared.

They saw something with wheels and it was Doc. They decided to go to the bridge. When they got there, they went over the bridge. Then they went to Japan and got on an airplane and went to downtown Tokyo. Sally boarded the airplane. Mater changed colors and shape. Sally got out of the plane and saw something bluish red. It was not a monster. Then they saw a building. They saw something blue – Finn McMissile. They decided to go out to dinner to Maseleh*.

Sally decided to race. But Sally didn’t go. And Lightning McQueen didn’t go. Then Lightning McQueen took off: VROOOOOOOOOOM. Then Finn McMissile decided to go home – to Radiator Springs. Then they all decided to sleep.

Finn woke up. Sally and Doc and Lightning McQueen and Mater all woke up. They decided to go out of the house. There was no one outside and it was raining. They went back into the house. They told everyone that it was raining.

*Maseleh is a restaurant in San Diego that serves tofu, pizza, and broccoli (according to the author).

Bowling in Austin

2011-11-06T16:37:00.001-08:00

APL's First Attempt at Photography

2011-09-29T21:34:00.000-07:00

Conversation Today

2011-09-11T17:51:00.000-07:00

(as we are driving)

APL: What car is that, Papa?

Papa: Honda Civic

APL: What car is that one?

Papa: Volkswagen Golf.

APL: What car is that one?

Papa: Nissan Altima

APL: What car is that one?

Papa: A Saturn.

(pause)

APL: What is a Saturn?

Papa: Well, Saturn is a planet... and it's the name of a car.

(pause)

APL: We need a moon car.

(pause)

APL: And we need an earth car.

Milestone

2011-07-11T20:42:00.001-07:00

APL is at the computer navigating YouTube videos without our assistance.

Recent Quote

2011-06-08T12:49:00.001-07:00

"I love everything."

Race to Ring Doorbell and the Daily Hide

2011-05-30T07:27:00.001-07:00

"Show me an angry face."

2011-05-14T10:26:00.000-07:00

Things APL Has Said To Me Recently

2011-05-04T23:13:00.000-07:00

"I don't need to brush my teeth."

"I don't need to floss."

"I don't need to put away my toys."

"I don't need to go to school."

"I don't need to wash my hands."

"I don't need to make a pee pee."

"I don't need to take a nap."

"I don't need to go to bed."

"I don't need to go sleep."

"I love a milkshake."

Bath Time

2011-04-26T21:41:00.000-07:00

This evening, APL decided to take a bath. I was in the room next to the bathroom when I heard, "Papa, I want bubbles." I responded, "No, Alexander, I don't have any bubbles." He miraculously accepted that.

Two minutes later I walked into the bathroom and... there were bubbles in the bath. Alexander flashed me a huge smile. I stood there, surprised, trying to figure out his source. Finally, he pointed to a shampoo bottle and a conditioner bottle, and said, "I use these for bubbles."

He dumped over half a bottle of each into his bath. He got his bubbles!

APL's 3rd Birthday Party

2011-03-30T12:08:00.001-07:00

Major thanks to Nicolas for doing the awesome camera work.

And a few pics from the birthday party:

APL @ Breck

2011-03-26T07:06:00.001-07:00

Papa Sends Video to APL

2011-03-09T11:19:00.000-08:00

APL has been away for the past 5 days... so I had to send him a "Remember me?" video.

Note: Please keep in mind that I only had Screenflow for an hour when I made this video.

APL Hits the Slopes

2011-02-23T19:25:00.000-08:00

APL & O's

2011-02-17T21:32:00.001-08:00

Conversation APL & I Had Today

2011-02-02T17:58:00.000-08:00

APL: Why this cheese is cold?

Me: It was in the refrigerator.

APL: Why?

Me: That's where we keep our cheese.

APL: Why?

Me: So it doesn't spoil.

APL: Why?

Me: Because cheese will spoil if it's not kept cold.

APL: Why?

Me: If it's not kept cold, mold will grow on it.

APL: Why?

Me: Ask your mother when she gets home. She's a scientist.

APL: Why?

Me: She studied science in school.

APL: Why?

Me: I think she liked science.

APL: Why?

Me: Maybe you should ask her that.

APL: Why?

Me: Because you are asking me about Mama's state of mind.

APL: [pause] OK.