#LyfInFocus

Californias Great America

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 17 Jan 2014 20:33:00 +0000

Be Sure to Check Out my Previous post: So Cal Waterpark's!

After a long day of driving up the coast, I took a day trip to California's Great America. Those of you from Chicago, or who follow theme parks, will know that this isn't the only Great America. Both Six Flags Great America and California's Great America, were opened as sister parks by the Marriott

CA Great America Map

Corporation (yes, the hotelier) in 1976. When built, the parks were designed with a nearly identical layout and attraction selection. Currently, both parks still feature The Demon, Loggers Run, Columbia Carousel with Fountain/reflection pool, and Pictorium.

After working at Six Flags Great America, it is very eerie to walk about a new park yet it feel completely familiar. But nonetheless, the park is beautiful and very well maintained and provides a very welcoming atmosphere.

The parks newest attraction (and reason that I arrived extra early!) is Gold Striker!, a Great Coaster International wooden coaster. The very compact wooden coaster features a 100' drop and lots of tight turns. The result is a fast and exciting coaster that was much needed for this park. However, recently the park was forced to add tunnels


Gold Striker in Motion

and sound deadening foam to the coaster because of increased noise complaints from a nearby company. While it initially looks as if it might detract from the ride experience, I think it added to it as it created a lot of close calls for riders and made it feel faster. After having an opportunity to ride in both the front and the back, I liked the back a lot better as it felt as if it was pulling you through the twists and turns faster.

Vortex

I then proceeded to ride Votex, a B&M stand up coaster. These always look to be good coasters, but unfortunately the restraint system design makes for a very uncomfortable ride.

Flight Deck

Before heading into the water park, I made my way to "Flight Deck", a B&M inverted coaster (think Batman for those of you who have been to a Six Flags). The best part of this ride is the lake flyover, where you are brought within feet of dipping into the lake on a tight turn before the end of the ride. I highly recommend riding in the front on this one.

It was then off to work at Boomerang Bay. While not a large water park, they manage to pack in the guests quite well and gives it a larger feel.

At the end of my day, the guards wanted to do a bit of yoga, so I decided to join in. All in all I had a great day at California's Great America, and can't wait to make it back someday soon!

Didn't get enough photos? check out more in the #LyfInFocus-CA Great America Album.

Be Sure to Check out my Next Post: Winchester Mystery House and Surrounding Attractions

Cruising the Coast on the 1

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 21:30:00 +0000

Be Sure to Check Out my Previous post: So Cal Waterpark's!

After a nice time home in Southern California, it was finally time to head up north. While the quickest way is to head through the center of the state, it is quite possibly the most boring drive. After passing through Los Angeles, it is mainly agriculture farms. So I decided to take the famous California 1 right up the coast. Living in the golden state all of my life, I had never taken the famous route before and was excited for the opportunity.

Portillos!

So I jumped on the road and started the 10 hour drive and was ready to take on the day. My first stop was at one of my favorite restaurants, which has only just recently spread to the west coast after getting its start in Chicago. That restaurant, is Portillos. Famous for their Chicago Style Hot Dogs (don't even think of asking for ketchup!) and Italian Beef, it was surely a spot I couldn't afford to miss. I get the Italian Beef sandwich dipped (they dip the sandwich in the gravy), and man was it good. The bread was the perfect amount of soggy and the meat had so much flavor.

After lunch I found myself in the heart of the never ending Los Angeles traffic jam. For those of you in disbelief, and don't think it could be that bad.... come give it a try. At most daylight hours you can be guaranteed to run into the traffic, which is usually at a dead stop. The only time you can potentially avoid it is after about 9PM.

Looking out over the Ocean

Once outside of downtown, I headed towards the coast and hit the beautiful Pacific Ocean. It was
very fortunate that it was a clear day, as you could see for miles out over the ocean. The road mostly follows the shoreline, and every now and again it slips slightly inland.

Andersen's Pea Soup

There are many unique places to stop along the way, one of the first being "Andersen's, home of the World Famous Split Pea Soup!". And its a big deal. The restaurant has a museum and gift shop inside all to support the towns pea soup craze. Some of my favorite parts of the place were multiple murals and signs talking about their history. Regrettably I didn't have any of the soup as I wanted to stay on time, but its definitely a place that I would like to return to.

About another hour up the road is a small beach town called Pismo Beach that I had vacationed to
many times before. It's beautiful beaches and quaint little town serves up a wonderful summer getaway for families from all around. If you ever have the chance to visit, be sure to visit the many restaurants serving up fresh caught Fish n Chips.

Pismo Beach

Entrance to Hearst Castle

Next up was the beautiful mansion grounds of Hearts Castle. Located in the beautiful sprawling hillsides of San Simeon, it is one of true gems of the California coast. Built in 1919 by media giant William Randolf Hearst, the combined 90,000sq. ft. Castle is quite a site to see. A extended history can be found on the Wikipedia page, but in short he left the estate in 1947, it was turned over as a national landmark and soon thereafter a museum. Tours are offered multiple times a day, and are worth taking if you have the time. If you are short on time, you can view the mansion at a distance from the visitors center and tour the free museum.

Elephant Seals

Just past the castle, before you head into picturesque cliff side part of the journey, you can stop off to
see giant elephant seals on the beach. These seemingly peaceful mammoths, can get quite loud when they start to bark at each other.

Sunset Over the Pacific

The final leg of the journey (which is about 2-3 hours in length) is up towards Big Sur, on the famous cliff side route on the 1. I was lucky enough to hit the mountainside just before sunset, which made for some absolutely incredible views. If you ever have the opportunity to pass through here, I would highly recommend sunset. It was a sight that I will

Me watching the Sunset

never forget.

My journey came to a close in Santa Cruz where I gathered some much needed sleep. The next day I would be heading just over the mountains into San Jose/Santa Clara where I would be getting back to work.

Didn't get enough Photos? Check out the #LyfInFocus-Cruisin' the Coast Album.

Be Sure to Check out my Next Post: California's Great America!

So-Cal Waterpark's!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 16:30:00 +0000

Be Sure to Check Out my Previous Post: Six Flags Magic Mountain

Beautiful Southern California. Palm trees, sandy beaches, and Hollywood is what normally comes to mind. However, we are graced with a wide array of water parks to keep your toes free of sand and thrill level at a maximum!

I had the opportunity to visit 4 of them:
-Six Flags Hurricane Harbor-Valencia
-Raging Waters-San Dimas
-Knott's Soak City- Palm Springs
-Knott's Soak City-Orange County

Approaching the Park

Raging Waters is part of a chain of 3 water parks in California

Water slide at the Park
You might recognize this from
the movie Norbit

(Sacramento, San Jose, and San Dimas). However the San Dimaslocation is the most well known, mostly because of its close proximity to Hollywood, it has been featured in numerous movies and TV shows and Music videos. Some of them include Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure, Norbit, and most recently Justin Beiber's "Beauty and the Beat" music video. While the park is not very large, it has more attractions than any other water park in California. There are many winding paths and high and low areas in the park that make for lots of walking throughout your day. Besides the attractions (which are some of the best around) some of the highlights of this park are its unique food outlets that include: Pinks Hot Dogs, Breyers Ice Cream, Dole Whips, and Carl's Jr.

For those of you who don't know where Palm Springs is located, it is about 1.5 hours east of Los

Wave Pool

Angeles, and is at the start of the California Desert. Meaning that once you hit the summer months, it is HOT. Daily temperatures

Tornado

are in the triple digits and clouds are rare. Soak City is located in the middle of the city and has been around since 201 when it operated as the Oasis Water park. Since the Soak City name change, most of the park remained the same with their large Wave Pool, 3 main slide complex's and a lazy river. The only major addition to the park was the Pro Slide Tornado which opened in 2006. The park has a great family atmosphere, and with lots of grass and misters it is easy to stay cool even out of the water.

Soak City OC Slides

The Orange County location is unique as it is a sister park to the Knott's Berry Farm theme park. This location had many of the same types of attractions, and a massive Lazy river. One thing this park benefited from was lots of wide open walkways and seating areas. A unique feature was their "no chairs allowed" grassy areas. This was neat as it didn't allow guests to move chairs out of their designated areas and gave families nice picnic areas to eat at in the park. With the screams of roller coaster riders in the air, its a great atmosphere for a day in the pool.

Following my day at Soak City Orange County, I ventured into Knott's Berry Farm for some night coasters. One of the attractions I was most

Xcelerator

looking forward to experiencing was the Timber Mountain Log Ride, as they had just recently reopened after a major renovation. While it may seem to be a simple Log Flume ride, it is one of best themed attractions around and certainly the best flume ride that I have ever experienced. However once in the park I found out it went down for maintenance shortly before I had arrived. I planning on returning sometime in the near future. Since the park was closing so soon, I was only able to ride Pacific Spin and

Knott's at Night

Xcelerator (one of my favorite coasters).

Overall Southern California has a great selection of theme parks and water parks to visit, and will certainly leave any thrill seeking tourist satisfied.

Be Sure to Check out my next post: Cruising the Coast on the 1!

Six Flags Magic Mountain

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 15:30:00 +0000

Be Sure to Check Out my Previous Post: The Disneyland Resort: Part 2-Night Time!

Growing up in Southern California, I am very lucky to have several theme parks and water parks all within about 2 hours from anywhere that you are (LA traffic depending of course). Here's a short list of what we have readily available to us:

Six Flags Magic Mountain Entry

Theme Parks:
-Disneyland
-Disney's California Adventure
-Knotts Berry Farm
-Six Flags Magic Mountain
-Universal Studios Hollywood.
-Sea World
-Lego Land California

Water Parks:
-Sea World Aquatica San Diego
-The Wave Waterpark
-Raging Waters San Dimas
-Pharaoh's
-Knott's Soak City Orange County
-Knott's Soak City Palm Springs
-Six Flags Hurricane
-Lego Land California Water park

And of course plenty of Zoo's to live up to your hearts content. However of all the years that I had lived there, I had only been to 1/2 of them.

Hurricane Harbor

While I had been to Six Flags Magic Mountain on a few occasions, I had not been into their water park. After working for Six Flags Great Americas Hurricane Harbor, I tried to see some similarities, but unlike other Hurricane Harbor clones, there was not much of anything that was the same. One of the first things that I noticed is it was a small park land wise, and they had to be very creative with their use of space. The 3 main features of the park were an activity pool with a few basketball hoops and slides, a lazy river, and a

Hurricane Harbor Wave Pool

wave pool. The standout features in the park however were the slide towers and coasters that surrounded you. It was a truly encompassing feeling.

After a day in the water park, I headed into the dry park to ride some coasters. With only 2 hours left in the operating day, I had to make my choices wisely. I made sure to catch a ride on Apocalypse (Formerly Terminator Salvation), and is a great GCI wooden coaster. With Millennium flyer trains and plenty of twists and dips, it is a memorable coaster.... especially the full speed station fly-through.

Tatsu Track at Night

was then off to the parks signature flying coaster that dominates the treetops of the mountain, Tatsu. When considering all of my coasters it consistently sits in my top 3, if not number 1. Its height combined with its smooth track and elements make it amazing. Also it has one of the largest pretzel loops at 124 feet, and makes for an incredible ride experience.

I ended the day on Full Throttle, the parks brand new coaster. During its marketing, it was branded as the YOLO coaster. Boasting about the worlds tallest loop (160 feet) and worlds first top hat element, it promised to be an unforgettable ride experience. One of

Full Throttle Launch

best features of the ride was there were only lap restraints, which is quite rare for an inverted coaster. Once I was seating in the back car, there was a short amount of anticipation that built up before the coaster rocketed to 70mph and straight into the massive loop. The sheer size of it was incredible, and the launch speed had been calibrated perfectly that the coaster almost slows to a stop at the top and you are left hanging for what seems like forever. You then plummet back to the earth into a few turns before a dive loop, coming to a stop in a tunnel. After a few lighting and sound effects, you are sent backwards, halfway through the dive loop, and accelerated back out and over the top hat, and then slowing to a stop before reentering the station.

My Full Throttle Ride Photo

Overall, the ride was better than anticipated, but did not live up to the hype. The strong points were the smooth launches and fantastic hang time combined with the lap bar only restraints. However where the coaster fell short was in the very short layout, and the top hat that went straight into the brake run. It was fun, but would not be worth a very long wait of over 45 minutes.

View of the Coasters from the P-Lot

While I didn't get to ride all of the coasters, Six Flags Magic Mountain still proves to be a great park for any level of coaster enthusiast. The rides deliver thrills rather than fears, and always leave you wanting more.

If you didn't get enough here, there's a few more photos in the #LyfInFocus-Six Flags Magic Mountain album.

Be Sure to check out my next post: So-Cal Water Park's!

The Disneyland Resort: Part 2-Night Time!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 15:30:00 +0000

Be Sure to Check Out my Previous Post: The Disneyland Resort: Part 1-Day Time!

When the sun goes down, the magic only grows at the Disneyland resort. Main Street USA is glowing brightly with Broadway lights and glowing gift shop windows. The infamous Cinderella Castle is brilliantly lit with deep blues and purples, then changing to reds and oranges. It truly is one of the most magical times of day, and you truly lose yourself in the park.

Our Glow with the Show Ears!

For most guests, souvenirs take form of hats adorned with "Mickey Ears" of all different styles. They make children feel as if they are princesses or wizards, help soon to be married couples celebrate the Disney way, and for others just have their name embroidered on the cap. More recently Disney has developed a new pair of ears that are both technologically advanced, and stand out in any crowd. They are called "Glow with the Show Ears", and they do exactly as they sound: they glow with the show! In short, there are multicolored LEDs in each ear, and an infrared receiver in the ears, and when you are at select shows throughout the Disneyland Resort (and now at Fantasmic! at Walt Disney World) they sync with the theatrics.

The hats were only $25 each, and we both had to have them! With the darkened midways, we stood

out from everyone else and got tons of compliments. Currently there are several different shows are areas at the Disneyland Resort that we found that they synced with:
-World of Color
-Fantasmic!
-The Cars Land Stoplight (with the 3rd blink being slightly longer)
-Fireworks
-Mad T Party
-And Oddly enough, the Mickey and Friends Tram Downtown Disney station (They turn orange like the tram color).

Fantasmic!

If you are not in a show area, they still light up and change colors as you walk around, and when the
hats are close to each other, they pulse and change colors in time with each other, almost like they're friends saying hello. The best part of the hats, is that there is no buttons to push in order to sync it with a show or other interaction area. Once you pass into an active zone, they ears immediately start responding to what the zone transmitter tells them to. So as soon as the show starts, your ears are already going.

Fantasmic!

Back to the rest of the evening, we managed to see both of the nighttime spectaculars: Fantasmic! (Disneyland) and World of Color (California Adventure). Fantasmic opened in 1992, and has be delighting audiences of thousands nightly ever since. The show includes water effects, lasers, live actors and pyrotechnics at a cost of nearly $75,000 per showing (Thanks Wikipedia). It is a 23 minute show that excites and delights children of all ages (even us 20+ year old children at heart).

After enjoying Fantasmic!, we enjoyed a few minutes of the fireworks show before headed over to

Giant Turkey Legs!

California Adventure for "World of Color". However we were on a mission, and that mission was for turkey legs. After looping nearly all of California Adventure, we were nearly giving up hope as we passed the back end of the bay and found the pure gold that was the turkey leg man. Needless to say, this photo shows we were happy.

Back to the show......Opened in 2010, World of Color is a massive display of fountains, projection, fire and lights on Paradise Bay. While there are no live actors, and essentially it is a "push play and let it run" style show, it is nothing short of incredible. The sheer brilliance of the colors and size of the founains all perfectly in sync with the music, make for an unforgettable experience. It was a low attendance night for the show (often times you are squeezed shoulder to shoulder with people) so we had room to spread out and take photos without worrying about disturbing other viewers. And of course, we had our Glow With The Show Ears on :)

Now normally I am not one to post videos of Disney shows or rides in their entirety, but for you to truly get the impact of how awesome the show is, and mostly to see the implementaion of the Glow With the Show Ears, take a look at this video (even if its just the first 2 minutes). However, please dont skip ahead, and watch the full first minute. Seeing the ears start right with the show and hearing the crowds reaction to the effect is awesome!

Now unfortunately, on most nights there are very few guests actually utilizing the ears (this was a video from a pass-holder preview night), so the effect isn't nearly as dramatic, however over the years i can see it growing. I will certainly be bringing mine with me every time I go.

Our End of the Night Photo with Mickey and Walt

With the conclusion of World of Color, the night was coming to a close. And with a few night photos of Cars Land, the Tower of Terror and the Carthay theater, we said good bye to the mouse and headed home. All in all, it was an awesome day, and probably the most fun i've ever had at Disney (and that's saying a lot!). It reminded me that we all need to take some time every now and again to let our inner child out again with some of your closest friends.

Bucky's New Friend

It was good to see Stella, and Bucky seems to have a new friend.

Didn't get enough Disney Photos? Check out the full #LyfInColor-Disneyland Resort Album here!

Be Sure to check out my next post: Six Flags Magic Mountain!

The Disneyland Resort: Part 1-Day Time!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 24 Oct 2013 15:30:00 +0000

Be Sure to Check Out my Previous Post: Eating on the Road.

Welcome to Cars Land!

The Man, the Mouse, the Legends. There is hardly a sole in the world who would not see the familiar 3 ringed shape of Mickey Mouse and not be able to tell you who he is. And for as long as he has been an icon, there has been Disneyland.

Being from southern California I have grown up with the magic that is Disneyland. Some of my first memories are walking through the massive parking lot up to the main gates of the happiest place on earth with the beautiful steam train perched atop the entryway at Main Street Station. As I grew up, the magic continued to be a place to be with friends and escape daily life. It was where I had my first experience being in a marching band, parading down Main Street.

But ever since my first visit, the park has grown to what we know today as The Disneyland Resort. With 2 theme parks, downtown Disney, 3 hotels, 65,000 employees, and what was at one point the

New California Adventure Entrance

largest parking garage in North America (with 10,250 spots) It has truly grown to massive proportions.

When I found out that I would be coming back to California for a short time, I made plans with my friend Stella to make the trip. Neither of us had seen each other in quite some time, so it was both a friendship reunion, and a day to pay homage to the mouse. And on the morning of July 11th, we woke up early and made the quick 1 hour drive to Anaheim.

Now one thing about Disney that many people are deterred by is the price, and I don't blame you! Here's a basic price breakdown:
1 Day 1 Park: Adult-$92, Child $86
1 Day Park Hopper: Adult $137, Child $131

And that doesn't even include the $16 parking fee and food in the park. So when you plan your day, it

Holder of 2 Season Passes!

is something you have to save for. But the experience you get in the parks and the theming both on and off the rides is incredible and well worth the money.

I chose to get an annual pass for $279 as I knew I would return in the next year for sure. This pass had the most blackout dates with Summer, weekends, thanksgiving and the two weeks leading up to X-mas blacked out, however I don't like to visit in those peak times anyways so it was no issue for me.

Radiator Springs (Cars Land)

While I had been to both parks previously, California Adventure had just finished its massed renovation and re-imagining project that included Buena Vista Street, Hollywood Land and most importantly... Cars Land! The massive expansion included an incredibly accurate rendition of Radiator Springs. When you walk up to see Cars Land, you can see the impressive Cadillac Range towering over the end of the strip. All down the main drag you

Chilli-Cone-Carne

pass Filmores, Sarges, Maters Junkyard, Flo's V-8 Cafe, The Cozy Cone, and Luigi's Tire Shop, with not a detail to be spared. We decided to dine at the cozy cone, and found all of the food to be appropriately themed as well. I had the "Chilli-Cone-Carne," which was served in a bread cone! It was pretty great. Other cone themed dining included Pop Cone and Ice Cream cones.
Attractions included Maters Junkyard Jamboree, Luigis Flying Tires and the massive E-Ticket ride Radiator Springs Racers. I didn't ride the first two attractions, but the racers were just incredible. The Ride vehicles are similar to those on Test Track at Walt-Disney World (Slot Car), and they even have the signature eyes on the windshield.

Radiator Springs Racers

I wont spoil the ride experience for you, but essentially it is a cruise through the hills surrounding radiator springs that culminates in a race against another car, and the winner is always different! While it is an extremely family friendly attraction, It was a ton of fun to ride and was definitely a thrill. A couple of suggestions though if you plan to ride:
-Lines are very long throughout the day, and FastPasses are gone within the 1st hour of park opening, so make this your first stop.

Racers Ride Vehicles

-They offer a single rider line (but it is still only about 1/2 the wait of the regular line), and unless your group really wants to buy the ride photo, this is the best way to go. However if you have small children, you will need to wait in the Stand-By line as they will split parties to fill seats.

Inside the Tower of Terror Lobby

-Take plenty of pictures, as you may only get to ride it once with the lines. I took a lot and still regret not taking some of different elements of the ride and line.

After the Racers, we proceeded to my now second favorite ride the park (second now to the Racers), The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. Utilizing a different (and operationally more effective with a higher capacity) ride system, it is a slightly different experience to its sister tower at WDW. The ride line includes the same pre-show sequence in the library, and dark and dingy boiler room leading up to the service elevators. The ride experience is a drop tower, but is more mild for those of you who do not enjoy the standard drop tower. I normally cant stand them, but love the ToT. Give it a shot, I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Paradise Pier

Touring around the rest of CAA we checked out the new Trolleys, Paradise Pier, and of course
California Screamin'. We did find Jesse from toy story and tried to see if yelling "Andy's coming!" would really make them pretend to be just toys, but unfortunately it didn't worth a shot though, and anything to make Stella embarrassed is worth it to me.

We then headed over to the Disneyland side for more of the

Pickles in Hand!

classic Disney experience. Our stops included Space Mountain, Star Tours, Matterhorn (whose new ride vehicles are great!), Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones, the Haunted Mansion and Splash Mountain. The park was fairly busy so most lines were around 45 minutes long. But no matter when you have your trusty pickle at hand!

We ended our "Day Time" in the parks with a walk through Mickey's

We Met Mickey Mouse!

house. Now I'm not sure what Stella thought we were waiting in line for this whole time with a bunch of kids, but when we reached the end, boy was she surprised that we got to meet Mickey Mouse!

Well this post has gone on for a while, so I'm going to separate it into 2. The second half will consist of nighttime fun in the parks.

Be Sure to Check Out my Next Post: The Disneyland Resort: Part 2-Night Time!

Eating on the Road

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 23 Oct 2013 15:30:00 +0000

Be Sure to Check out my Previous Post: Vegas!

Often times, we are deadlocked in a cold war battle with roommate's, family members, and friends in

Eating on the Road

where to eat for dinner. Will it be Fast Food or Casual Dining? Mexican or Italian? Should we get an appetizer... or how about split that big sundae for dessert? This should sound familiar to just about everyone, and I'm sure at times we dream of the day when we get to make all the decisions on our own for what we're going to eat. Well part of this summers journey, was making these decisions every day.

Living on the road, I am forced with making the choice of where to eat twice a day, every day. There are days where I love it, and others where its a serious personal struggle. Today I'll settle some questions that have been asked of me about my summer eating habits, and how one eats on the road:

1) Doesn't it suck to eat alone all the time?

Double Dipping is Good

Yes and No. While all of my days are made up of about 80% me time, the times that I take to sit down at a restaurant and get to just relax, are wonderful. I enjoy the moments to have a drink, watch some sports and listen to the world around me, and not have to worry about watching what the staff is doing. But having to stare at an empty seat across from me, and seeing families and friends laughing together does get a bit harsh at times. This is why I often choose restaurants where I can sit at the bar
and have conversation with the bartender or other patrons. In doing this I have truly met some of the nicest and most interesting people across the country. Just last night I talked with a bartender who
was working her way through school where she was studying Vocal Performance and Political Science. She was happy to talk all about her life dreams and ambitions. Everyone truly has something to tell, and I am always happy to listen (ever had me ask you "tell me a story?). And plus... isn't it nice knowing you can double dip and not be judged?

2) Can one live off Taco Bell?

Smothered Burrito

Definitely. While I do switch up what I eat pretty often, Taco Bell is never a bad decision. Its the best food to eat in the car as it easily fits in 1 hand, doesn't make a mess, and is CHEAP. For less than $5, I can get 2 Beefy Nacho Griller's, and Bean and Cheese Burrito and a Drink and be stuffed. When I feel like "dining in", the new Smothered Shredded Chicken burrito is delicious. And who can be sad when Cinnamon Twists are around? Not to brag, but I've also mastered eating a Crunch wrap Supreme while driving ;)

3) Hotels with Free Breakfast rock right?
Wrong. 90% of the time the eggs taste like cardboard, the bagels are about as hard enough to break windows, and the sausage is more questionable then elementary school lunch. Families on a weekend vacation will eat at the hotel breakfast because its a great value and will live with the mediocre at best food selection. But when you're on the road every day, a bad breakfast can set up a bad day. Its why more often than not, Starbucks or an Egg McMuffin are worth the expense to start the day right.

Chick Fil-A Chicken Biskit (My Favorite)

However, for those of you who do make your housing selection based on free breakfast, here is my general review of what you will get at different hotel chains:
-Fairfield Inn, by Marriott: Consistent good coffee and fresh juice options, but the real winner is the individually packaged Otis Spunkmeyer muffins that you can grab and go.
-Holiday Inn Express: Avoid the eggs, but the pancake machine and signature warm cinnamon rolls are worth waking up a bit earlier.
-La Quinta Inn: Everything is about the same here, nothing good and nothing bad. Usually the biscuits and pastries are stale. Go with the Activia yogurt if you must.
-Springhill Suites by Marriott: Pretty decent all around, and the coffee was great.
-Hyatt Place: Fantastic! I have stayed at 2 of these this summer and they were both great. The dining area is set up like a big family kitchen/dining room. The Mini Donuts were good along with all of the hot food options.

4) What are the best places to eat?

Royal Burger at Red Robin

This one is tough, and in the end most people won't agree with me. When looking at where I eat, I seem to be a creature of habit and don't vary much in where I eat I am drawn in by places with a bar, good service and consistently good food. After long days on the road, or at a park, the smallest things are what I look forward to the most. If I dine out and don't have a good experience, it just makes life on the road all the more lonely. But in review, at least 4 nights a week you are most likely to find me at one of these places:

-Red Robin: With Bottomless steak fries with all of their sandwiches and some of the best burgers around, whats not to love? They have a great beer selection and, for something unique, try the Irish Shake!
-Buffalo Wild Wings: When its game time, there's no better place for fans. I regularly ate here during the NHL Playoffs and now during football season. Also the Game Changer brew by Red Hook, is truly the best beer to accompany your wings.
-Applebees: With 1/2 priced appetizers and drink specials after 9 every night, its one of the best stops. The bartenders are always friendly and the food is always consistent. Most of the time, its the Turkey, Bacon, and Avocado sandwich, but my new favorite is the 4-Cheese Macaroni with Honey Bar-B-Que Chicken crisper's.

5) Do you ever try anything new?

Deep Fried Apple Pie

Of course! While many times I eat at the same places (because I know what I am getting), I love to
try the local favorites. If I remember before leaving a park, I ask for the best local food joint and eat there. In doing this I've found some incredible restaurants across the states:
-Kannah Kreek Brewery (Grand Junction, CO): While the beer and pizza was great, the deep fried apple pie for desert was to die for.
-Oklahoma Joe's Bar-B-Que (Kansas City, MO): Arguably the best bar-b-que in the United States. I've already wrote about it back in my Kansas City post. See it Here.
-Voo Doo Donuts(Portland, OR): With some of the most unique doughnut toppings and filling, the famous Voo Doo Donuts cannot be passed up if you are ever in Portland.

Doughnut Display at Voo Doo Donuts

So now I pose a question to you all: Do you think you could eat out everyday? Why or why not? What would your habits be? Comment below, as I'd love to hear your opinions and suggestions!

Be sure to check out my next post:
The Disneyland Resort: Part 1-Day Time!

Vegas!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 21 Oct 2013 18:30:00 +0000

Be Sure to check out my last post: Arizona!

Well normally.... what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.... but I'll let you all in on it just this once.

The Fremont Street Experience

Vegas is just a short 4.5 hours from home, and a drive I've done many times before. At state line, I made the stop at Buffalo Bills casino to ride the famous Desperado roller coaster. At its opening in 1994 it tied the record for steepest and longest drop (225') and at 80mph, was just slower than Steel Phantoms 82mph. The Ride experience starts with a chain lift through the casino, and rises high

Desperado Roller Coaster Ticket

above the desert floor, where it then plummets at a 60degree angle under the earth. The rest of the ride experience is nothing special, and honestly is downright painful. The coaster cars hurt your back as it rocks down the nearly 6,000ft of track. But after the ride, and 30 minutes later, I arrived at the Monte Carlo Hotel.

While I had only paid the rate for a lower level floor, the desk clerk upgraded me to a corner room on the 31st floor! It was huge and we were only 1 short of the top floor. The view was of the new City Center complex and across the 15 freeway.

View from the hotel room at the Monte Carlo

Official Wet'N'Wild Vehicle

I was excited to visit the new Wet'n'Wild Vegas, as it was the first Water Park to open in Vegas since
the strip location closed in 2004. The new park was located off the strip in a residential area and has plenty of room to grow. The slides were all shining and the wide open feel has a lot to build upon. I apologize for not taking more photos, but I definitely want to go back.

After the day at Wet'n'Wild I spent the night down on Fremont

Slide through a Shark Tank

street seeing some of the great free attractions. almost nightly on
the weekends there are live bands playing on the street. There's also the "show in the sky", which an awesome LED light show that is on a massive cover that stretches down the entire street. This seasons shows were all based on classic rock such as The Doors, The Who and the Beatles. We also ventured inside the Golden Nugget Hotel to see a water slide that goes right through a shark tank!

When it came time to leave Vegas the next day, I took a stop at the World Famous Gold and Silver Pawn Shop, from Pawn Stars! I was hoping to see Chumly, be he wasn't there... must have been out doing some mindless task for the old man.
On the drive back, I took a stop at one of my famous roadside sights: Rock-A-Hoola Water Park at beautiful Lake Delores!

Rock-A-Hoola Waterpark!

OK, its actually closed down, and has been empty since the summer of 2004. Its located a little over 1/2 way to Vegas in the middle of nowhere, and is honestly no surprise that it closed. The lake has since dried up and plants have over grown what is left of the park. Most of the slides have been removed and there is nothing left around it. However this desert location used to be quite the family destination when it opened in 1962. Check out this promo video for the park while it was open:

While it is nothing special, it has always served as a running joke between me and my friend Huntington that when we strike it rich, we would buy it out and reopen it. While it was closed down and there were some no trespassing signs, I still ventured in to collect some photos of what was left. There are plenty more in the #LyfInFocus-Vegas album, but here are a few of my favorites.

Before making it back home, I took a stop to see my good friends Annie and Jeremy, whom I hadn't

Annie and Jeremy with Bucky

seen in quite a while. They actually just got married last weekend too, (they were engaged when I visited over the Summer).

Didn't get enough photos? Then head over to the #LyfInFocus-Vegas album.

Be sure to check out my next post: Eating on the Road!

Arizona

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 21 Oct 2013 15:30:00 +0000

Be Sure to Check out my Previous Post: Where did #LyfInFocus come from?

Well after a few much needed days at home with my family, I'm back on the road again ready to hit

The Road to Mecca

the West Coast!

First up is the Phoenix Arizona area. To get there is a quick 6 hour drive through the beautiful desert! Can you see my hint at sarcasm?? I even passed the road to Mecca on my way.

It was a little toasty.

I had visited phoenix several times, from the air and the Sky Harbor Airport, but never to actually see the city. Well unfortunately for me, I came at the hottest part of the year, where it was no joke, 118degrees outside!! And there was a small bit of humidity to accompany it, so I was miserable. I joked with one of the pool managers that I could bake cookies in my car.... she then responded "oh yea, my guards do it at least once every summer!" It was just miserably hot. And later that night, I walked out side and it felt like it had really cooled off.... in reality it was just 104. Just crazy. I don't think my iPhone much liked it either.

However, to offset the heat, there was what I will forever argue is the best carne asada around. (If for

Fili's Carne Asada

some unfortunate reason you don't know the pure gold that is carne asada is, please Google it). Fillibertos Mexican food is a chain of Mexican restaurants in both southern California and Arizona, and is quite delicious. I enjoyed both a Carne Asada Burrito and Carne Asada fries, and was in pure heaven. At that point the heat was non-existent.

SpringHill Suites by Marriott

During my stay in Arizona I stayed in a SpringHill Suites by Marriott, one of my favorite properties. My room was separated into 2 parts, with a sitting area with a couch on one end, and the beds on the other. And for $69 a night, it was a great deal!

Here's a Hint at whats coming up later this week

On my way out of Arizona, I stopped by the Cardinals Stadium, which is pretty cool. Its a stadium with a retractable roof, as well as a retractable field!! You might wonder why they do that, and the answer is simple. So the grass can grow under the sun!

Be Sure to check out all of the photos in the #LyfInFocus-Arizona album!

Be Sure to Check out my next post: Vegas!

Where did #LyfInFocus come from?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 18 Oct 2013 18:30:00 +0000

Be Sure to Check Out My Previous Post: Road Trip to California: Day 3- Colorado to California!

So some of you may have been wondering where I came up with the title #LyfInFocus (and if you weren't, just humor me for a minute). Well it wasn't some master plan that I came up with at the beginning of the summer. Actually, I had some pretty bad titles, that just never seemed to fit.

Well at the beginning of the summer, I started this blog, and then shortly found out during training week that I wouldn't be able to post until the summer was over for obvious reasons. But I had started writing just a bit so I could plan out how it would all go. But as any good blogger knows, your work is nothing without a good title. I think of a few of my favorite blogs that I read on a daily basis and their titles:
-Screamscape (www.screamscape.com)- Its the webs largest and most comprehensive database of news updates and coaster/ride rumors for theme parks around the world. But would its readers be as drawn to it if they called themselves "Amusement park news collection", probably not.
-WestCoaster (www.westcoaster.net)- This page is a collection of photo trip reports from mainly west coast theme parks. Sometimes they have other parks not on the west coast, but what a cool name!

But other times they are a bit more personal, or link to their personalities. For me, #LyfInFocus came to me on my last day on the road, in the middle of Southern Texas. I was sending a snap chat to a friend, and captioned it "my life is this focus". And then it came to me that I've spent my life this past summer in a Focus. Thus #LyfInFocus. Its Lyf because Life In Focus was taken. It instantly felt right, and I told a few people and they agreed.

This summer, I have had 3 different cars, all Ford Focus'. Each of them I had a different bond with, but I think I had the closest relationship with my first car. Her name was Fiona, and she was with me for my first 11,000 miles this summer. She was a Sterling Metallic Grey Hatchback. Here are a few pics of her.

Unfortunately I had to eventually return her for an oil change, and was then given a new focus, this time a White Platinum sedan, with leather interior and Sirius Satellite Radio pre-installed! She drove great, especially in sport mode. However after about 2 weeks, she got named Jail Bait, and I had to exchange once again.

My last car, was another Sterling Metallic Grey Hatchback, this time, there was a 2 toned maroon and black leather interior, that smelled like cheap cologne. Took me about 2 weeks to finally get that scent out of there.

So after a month of blogging, I'm quite happy with the title, and feel that it applies to my life quite well and have adapted it in other areas too.

So what do you all think? Is it a good fit? Is there anything else I could be doing to make these more interesting to read for you? As always, thanks for your time, and I look forward to continuing to write more of these in the coming weeks!

Be sure to check out my next post: Arizona!

Road Trip to California: Day 3- Colorado to California!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 18 Oct 2013 15:30:00 +0000

Be Sure to Check Out My Previous Post: Road Trip to California: Day 2-Kansas and Colorado!

And for my next trip.... 800 miles in 12 hours! So to be honest, scenery wise this was the most dull

Leaving Colorful Colorado

of days. Most of the drive was through desert with not much to see. However while there were a few side trips I could have taken, I was so excited to get home that I pushed through and didn't even stop for food. However i think this does take the cake for most states in 1 day at 5; Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada and California.

Shortly after getting on the road, I came to Black Dragon Canyon. It was a cool natural display of 250 million years of sediment layers. I couldn't pass up the opportunity for a panoramic photo. It is also important to note that there was the typical roadside Utah Indian peddling his necklaces and bracelets. If you feel insulted by this, please don't. I make this statement, because at almost every small little rest area in Utah there were Indians selling necklaces. It was just something interesting I noted.

Panoramic shot of Black Dragon Canyon, UT

The final stretch of I-70 was down a grade surrounded by a beautiful Forrest, no pictures were taken here because the road was quite windy. I then came upon the I-15 which would be my road home for the next 500 miles.

Welcomed by Arizona! How Fancy

After leaving Utah, there is about a 20 mile stretch of Arizona through some cool tall canyons.

When I came into Vegas I made my final gas stop, and decided to document the bugs on my car. I got her washed the day before I left Purdue, and this was the accumulation as I drove across the country. It was pretty crazy! some of them even seemed to be a part of the paint from the high speed impact.

Bugs I Collected

From here it was 4.5 hours until home, and boy was I excited! One of the best parts was that my younger brother was unaware of me coming home, so when I pulled into the driveway, boy was he excited.

Welcome to California!

Well that brings us to the end of the cross country trip. In total it was about 2,100 miles and roughly 34 hours of driving, but it further amazed me at what a beautiful and Diverse country we live in.

If you want to see all the pictures from this trip, be sure to check out the #LyfInFocus-Indiana To California Album!

Be sure to check out my next Post: Where did #LyfInFocus come from?

Road Trip to California: Day 2-Kansas and Colorado

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 16 Oct 2013 22:30:00 +0000

Be Sure to Check Out My Previous Post: Road Trip to California:Day 1- St. Louis!

I got spotted in Kansas

When Dorothy said "there's no place like home", I wonder where in Kansas she must have been referring to, because besides Wichita and Kansas City, there's not much there. Day 2 included about 700 miles of driving, with a total of around 11 hours on the road. And until you hit Colorado, there's not much to see besides plains and farmhouses, so really anything on the side of the road that looks semi-exciting is worth a stop.

The Roadside Zoo

About 30 miles outside of Oakley, KS, I started to see hand painted wood signs for a roadside zoo that included: like rattle snakes, skunks, fox's, and the world's largest Prairie dog. And these signs happened about every 5 miles, so by the time I was an exit away, I was pretty excited.

The attraction was called Prairie Dog Town, and inside the main building was a single cash register, and 2 nice ladies, peddling their exciting zoo for only $8. For a lone weary traveler, its small price to pay for 20 minutes of

Rattlesnakes

entertainment. After walking through the "gate" (she raised a broomstick that crossed over the two counters), I found myself looking into a large wooden box filled with about 10 rattlesnakes. The rattle sat quiet, but they would surely strike at a meal if it came close enough.

I then stepped outside into the large fenced farm, to find prairie dogs, and their holes, everywhere! They're quite cute the way they

Prairie Dog and his holes

sit upright with their paws in front of them looking at you curiously. Past the wild cute rodents, are several large cages containing various wildlife, ranging from pigeons, to Russian boars. Walking around on a hot day, most of these animals were staying in the shade just to stay cool. However when passing the goats, they were

Roscoe the Miniature Donkey

jumping all over each other to get as close to you as possible, because I might have had some food pellets. The miniature donkey, Roscoe, was one of my favorite animals, as he was very docile and loved to be pet. His big ears were so soft, and would have stayed there all day if I continued to scratch them.

On the stranger side, there were disfigured cows with 5 and 6 legs each. Apparently, some of the past cows that had been there, were purchased by Ripleys, Believe it or Not! museums to be put on display.

Worlds Largest Prairie Dog

And the World's Largest Prairie dog, he was just a 17' tall sculpture, hidden from the highway by a wall behind him. They never promised a real Prairie dog, so no sense to be disappointed.

On my way out I visited the gift shop to pick up a few postcards, and check out the odd collection of taxidermed animals, and other knick knacks. So overall was it worth it? Yes. Would I stop again? Sure. There's not much else to do anywhere around, and I would love to give Roscoe some more loving.

Driving through the Rockies

About 4 hours down the road, I finally hit Denver, or as I referred it to as "civilization". Denver is a pretty big city, but is spread out north and south and not so much east and west. The downtown is quite pretty and with the Rockies as the background, it makes for great pictures. However I still had about 5 hours on the road, so there was no stopping for me. As soon as you get out of the city, you immediately head up a steep grade and are heading through the picturesque Colorado Rockies. The mountainsides and cliffs line the freeway as it winds through following the river. Small mountain towns are spread out, and are filled with expensive ski resorts.

My favorite spot along the route was in a placed called "No Name", I would have take a photo of the sign, but it was only on the side of the highway, and I couldn't stop there. But the rest area was along the side of the river and had a beautiful green hillside all around. There is a camping area next to it,

The "No Name" rest area

and someday I would like to return to camp there.

The end of my drive was all at night, and there wasn't much to see when I arrived in Grand Junction.

Didn't get enough photos here? Then check out all the photos from the 3 day drive in the #LyfInFocus-Indiana To California Album!

Be sure to check out my next post:
Road Trip to California: Day 3- Colorado to California!

Road Trip to California: Day 1-St. Louis

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 16 Oct 2013 20:38:00 +0000

Blue Slushie, Check.

Be Sure to Check Out My Previous Post: A Day at Purdue!

With Blue Slushie in the cup holder, and Howard stern on the radio, I started my 2100 mile drive to
California. The drive would be broken down into 3 days, each averaging 12 hours of time on the road including pit stops.

Day 1 of the drive took me through Illinois, Missouri and ending in Abilene, Kansas.

St. Louis Arch

My First stop in downtown St. Louis, MO at the Arch. It is a beautiful monument that truly towers over the city and dominates the landscape as you drive in. It is located in a large grassy park overlooking the Mississippi river. When I was there, the line to go to the top was at least an hour long, and I didn't have that sort of time, so I took some photos, enjoyed the beauty of the arch and got back on the road.

Now with a long few days ahead of me, I made sure to try to have at least some fun out of the car, and Six Flags St Louis was the highlight of Day 1. It was a pretty hot and sticky day, so the majority of the guests were there for the water park, so the lines for all of the coasters were pretty short. Most of the rides were standard, and not necessarily noteworthy. I rode all of the coasters for credit toward my coaster count. Today's count was 9. As some rides were just standard coasters, I will just highlight my few favorites in the park.

Batman: The Ride.

First was Batman: The Ride. It is the standards Six Flags Batman Clone, except it exits the station
from the left instead of the right. The rest of the layout was essentially the same, but the landscape was a lot more bare than what it is at other parks. Still a great ride, and back row is still my favorite spot on this ride.

American Thunder with Got-2-B-Glued Decals

Wooden coasters are always a thing of beauty and their construction and appearance can always be appreciated wherever you are. Six Flags St. Louis has 3 wooden coasters: Screamin' Eagle, The Boss, and American Thunder. Screamin' Eagle was a nice hilly ride, with lots of bunny hills both out and back, rode on the front to get a view of the surrounding area (nice green hillsides). The Boss was extremely overrated. It had a lot of elements that should lead it to be a very exciting coaster, however the trains that it used were extremely rough and led me to actually sit down and recover after just 2 rides. I think with a re-tracking and newer trains this could prove to be a much better coaster, but for now, i would say avoid it.

American Thunder however was fantastic. Using my favorite Millennium Flyer trains, it provided both a very smooth ride and plenty of airtime. My only complaint was that it was too short!! Six Flags also has a very interesting collection of advertisers throughout the park, and this coaster train was shrink wrapped with Got-2-B-Glued adverts. Nothing says roller coasters like good hair gel.

I also took a ride on Pandemonium, a spinny car coaster. These coasters are much smaller in size and often resemble a carnival style "Wild Mouse" ride. Essentially, the trains are only 1 car long, and after ascending the first lift hill, the cars are able to spin freely based on the weight distribution of the riders as you travel the track, leading to a different ride experience every time you ride. Despite all the spinny, there is not much nausea that accompanies this ride, and leads to a very fun ride experience.

At the end of the day, I took a ride (OK more like 4 rides) aboard Mr. Freeze Reverse Blast! This

Mr. Freeze, Reverse Blast!

LIM launched coaster, sends rides through an inside top hat, and up a 218' vertical tower all in reverse at 70 mph, before plummeting back to the earth and flying through the elements once more going forwards back to the station. This is a great launched coaster and the theming was done very well inside the launch building. However the coolest part of this ride was its "side-to-side" loading station. Essentially there are 2 separate loading tracks, that each slide towards the center of the building to line up with the main track, and then launch from there. This allows one train of riders to be experiencing the ride, while the other train is loading new passengers, which is not usually found on non-complete circuit launched coasters. Also fitting with the "Mr. Freeze" theming, the show/launch building was chilled quite nicely and made for a nice bit of relief on a hot summer day. Check out this video to see what I mean about the cool loading station.

Well 4 hours and 9 new coasters later, it was time to leave Six Flags and continue on down the road. It was a nice break in my day, and made the rest of my day of driving much nicer. Today also marked 100 hours of driving so far this summer, which was pretty cool.

100 Hours in the car so far!

Didn't get enough photos here? Then check out all the photos from the 3 day drive in the #LyfInFocus-Indiana To California Album!

Be sure to check out my next post:
Road Trip to California: Day 2- Kansas and Colorado!

A Day at Purdue!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 22:53:00 +0000

Be sure to check out my previous post: Indiana Beach!

After spending the better portion of the last 5 years at Purdue University, it has truly become a second home to me. During my time there I made friendships that I'm sure will last a lifetime.

After Indiana Beach, I made the very short 30 minute trip back to Lafayette to stay the night before spending my day in Boilermaker nation. My day started with a car wash at the Jungle Themed drive through Car wash to give Fiona (my car) a good scrub down. This was her first wash all summer so it was much needed. After the wash, it was off to what turned out to be one of my favorite places on campus: Harry's Chocolate Shop.

Vanilla White Russian at Harry's

So Its not really a chocolate shop (I don't even know if they sell anything with chocolate), but an awesome and historic bar at Purdue. Opened in 1919 as a soda fountain, they served the students of Purdue university for mainly lunchtime items. It later acquired a liquor license and began its service as the common day bar. Purdue lore states that it was a speak-easy during prohibition and the hatch in the floor used to be covered by the counter and was the passage to the underground bar. That hatch now leads to the liquor storage area. So whether that story is true or not will remain with those students who visited during that controversial age. In any case, they are home to some great memorabilia and some of the best drinks (with a debatably higher alcohol content) around. Whether it be a Green Dragon or a Baltimore Zoo, everyone can find their drink of choice. Personally?? I like a Vanilla White Russian.

Megan with Lanie

During my time as an RA on campus, almost as a joke I started having my 1 on 1's with my staff resident over lunch at Harry's, when she said yes, and we both realized how good the food was, it turned into a weekly occurrence. About a month into the year we became regulars and had a the same waitress every week that we built a great relationship with. So needless to say, upon my day at Purdue I couldn't miss out on this weekly tradition.

Megan with Bucky!

After my time at Harry's I headed back to my friend Megan'sapartment to meet her dog, a Lab named Lanie! Being a little animal deprived over the summer, I may have been a bit more excited to play ball that Lanie was, but nonetheless we had a great time. After the traditional photo with Bucky, I parted ways and headed out to visit my friend Chris and catch up on the past month, and of course get some new EDM tunes for the road.

Mary with Bucky!

That night, I stayed at my friend Alexis and Mary's apartment, surprising Mary for her birthday which was 2 days later. Staying up late and catching up with friends, made it seem like yesterday that I was spending all of my days at Purdue.

Pam and Mary with Bucky!

The next morning before heading out on the road for my 3 day trip to
California, I met 2 friends and office clerks Pam and Mary for breakfast at Panera. It was again good to catch up with people that I had seen daily for so long.

Be sure to check out my next post: Road Trip to California-Part 1: St Louis!

Indiana Beach

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 19:59:00 +0000

Be Sure to check out my last post: A Few Days in Illinois!

Well hey there! Its been a few weeks since I've posted here, but don't worry, I'm back!

Welcome to Indiana Beach!

Located in scenic Monticello, Indiana, Indiana Beach has been a
Hoosier family destination since
1926. The amusement resort, whose slogan is "There's more than in Indiana", is located in a peninsula on Lake Shafer. From the moment you walk onto the wooden suspension bridge and see the hills of the roller coasters out over the lake, you know you're in for a different experience.

On the suspension bridge

Indiana Beach takes a step back from the bigger corporate run amusement parks and has a closer friendlier feel to it. Fences are chest high, concessions have wider more open windows, and there is minimal "restricted areas" to maximize the amount of sidewalk space for the guests. The coasters rumbled by with the screams of joy, and the traditional spin rides stretching out over the side of the boardwalk made for a truly hard to match atmosphere. If you haven't gotten it yet, I

Tacos!

really loved Indiana Beach. Sure there are not massive record breaking coasters, or high gloss buildings, but what it didn't lack was a fun and welcoming feel to it.

Our first stop was the "World Famous Taco" stand, where these cheap tacos, actually proved to be pretty delicious. With a freshly fried shell, some meat, lettuce, cheese and salsa, I was pleasantly surprised!

Next stop was a unique "attraction". Feed the Fish. OK, there wasn't a big line or some big show, but it was certainly unique to pay $0.50 to feed these incredibly hungry fish some pellets out of your ice cream cone. Check out the video of them jumping all over themselves.

Pinball Room

One of the more exciting things at Indiana Beach, apart from the coaster lineup, was the arcade games! I'm a bit of a pinball fanatic, and the amazing selection of pinball machines was hard to match elsewhere. They also had a full room just for Skeeball (which for some unexplainable reason I'm really good at). And an awesome and rare game called Fascination (Check out details on Wikipedia).

Steel Hawg Coaster

Another unique attraction was Dr. Frankenstein's Haunted Castle, voted world's best walk through attraction in 2008. While there are no scare actors inside, there are a lot of great scares inside and the hard work of the Indiana Beach staff on the upkeep of the attraction truly makes it a great experience. There is a $3.50 charge for it as it is not included with the wristbands, but it is definitely worth it.
While Indiana Beach does have a great lineup of wood coasters and


Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain

some unique steel coasters which may leave you either asking for a chiropractor or jumping back in line for more, they by no means steal the show. As you walk around the park, there are several other things to keep you busy throughout the day. From the $10 unlimited ride zip line, the water ski/Dive show, and water park, there is something to keep everyone in the family happy.

Now for a break in the day, the trip isn't complete without a visit to the "Skyroom and Roof Garden Lounge". With reasonable food prices and a great beer selection (and air conditioning for those hot and humid Indiana Summer days), its the classiest place in the park. The large glass windows provide for great views out over the park, as well as the outdoor Roof Garden Lounge has live entertainment on most evenings.

At Night on the Skyride

While watching the fireworks out over the lake, riding the Double Shot at the same time, its

An Interesting Crowd at the Beach

needless to say, I ended my first trip to Indiana Beach on a high note and cant wait to return again.

Check out some more photos of my trip to Indiana Beach over in the #LyfInFocus-Indiana Beach Album.

Be Sure to Check out my next post: A Day at Purdue!

No post on Sunday

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 13 Sep 2013 19:44:00 +0000

Ok it's not Sunday, but there will be no post today. Some other obligations have come up that have prevented me from being able to give you 2 top quality posts today.

I will work to have them both put up over the weekend for you so please stay tuned.

In the meantime please enjoy this factual statement about Mr. Willy Wonka.

A Few days in Ilinois

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 11 Sep 2013 19:42:00 +0000

Be Sure to Check Out My Previous Post: Iowa!

At the Harbor, the Best Pool

Well with a small break ahead of me, I started off to Illinois, The Land of Lincoln. I think its quite an odd slogan for a state. My drive took me across the Mississippi (I have never seen it before), through the rolling hills, and finally down into the suburbs of Chicago. Now for those of you who have never been to Chicago, I'm sure you have probably met someone who is from the "suburbs" of Chicago. For most cities if you refer to the Suburbs, they are usually within 30 minutes of downtown. However with Chicago that is not nearly the case, as you can live up to an hour and a half outside the city and people will still refer to it as the Chicago Suburbs. The city is just that massive.

So I was only really in Illinois for 1 full day, but I spent it with 2 of my favorite things: Pizza and Six Flags. First I met a few friends for lunch at the best Chicago Style Pizza restaurant: Ginos East! Some may argue this with me, however you do not have my taste buds. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of it, but just know that it was as incredible as always.

Me ad my friend Andrew

Then when the afternoon settled in, I met my friend Alex for an evening at Six Flags Great America. Last summer I interned with them and had an amazing time, so I hoped to see a few friends when I stopped in.

We weren't able to make it to the park until 5:30 because of a lot of traffic, but the park wasn't too busy so it all worked out. Once we reached the Harbor, I made a stop in each section to see what guards and supervisors were on-duty. It was really wonderful at how many people were excited to see me as well as asking all about what I had been doing.

Since they were all busy with closing duties, we left the harbor to ride NAMTAB (that's Batman

The Sun Setting Over The Harbor

Backwards). That's right, the famous inverted coaster was running in reverse. Now I have ridden plenty of coasters in my time, but it is pretty rare for me to find one that actually gets me scared the entire ride through. We rode in the back, i mean the front, but it was really the back. What I'm saying is we were in the location that would be the back if it were running forwards, but was facing backwards. Am I making it clear? It was incredible. I know the layout of the whole ride, but was still surprised at every twist and inversion.

X-Flight at Night

Now they were only running it for a short time, but have announced that they it will be running next at Six Flags Magic Mountain (Which is great for me as this is my home park!). So if you get the opportunity once it is running in the spring, be sure to make the trip!

Now we lucked out and found out that the park was going to be running extended hours that night as it was the first night of summer. All you had to do was show a photo of a flyer they had posted online and you were given a wristband for 2 extra hours of coasters!

When night fell, we made our way over to the new nighttime show, ignite! Its an outdoor show where
all of the effects are done by lights, lasers and video projection. Overall the show was very corny, and honestly the story line (starting with the Chicago fire) was really bad, and the projection mapping was nothing to call home about. HOWEVER, for a non-Disney park, it was fantastic! The show and stage has a lot to grow upon and I hope they improve it in the coming years.

Check out some more photos of ignite! over in the #LyfInFocus-Illinois Album.

Be Sure to Check out my next post: Indiana Beach!

Iowa

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 09 Sep 2013 15:30:00 +0000

Welcome to Iowa

Be Sure to Check Out My Previous Post: Around Missouri!

So as you may have expected, Iowa is not really the most exciting state. That is not to say that there wasn't anything to see here. Iowa is a very flat state, and full of farmland as far as the eye can see. And for those of you baseball fans out there, it is also the state where "Field of Dreams" was filmed. But besides that? There is not to many noteworthy items out there.

My first stop was in a small town called Corydon, with a population topping out at around 1,600. Here are some facts about Corydon:

Corydon's Theater!

-The Grocery store is no larger than a 7-eleven.
-You are 23 miles form the closest McDonald's.

How does this bridge work?

-The movie theater shows 1 movie a twice a week. Once on Friday and once on Saturday, however it is in RealD 3D!

However it was a neat feel, because everyone knew everyone. I enjoyed this little town quite a bit, but was ready to leave by the end of the day.

Old Water park

Now one of my favorite places to stop and photograph are old closed down water parks and theme parks. I think they way the land grows around them and how they look all dead and dormant is really cool! Just outside Des Moines, I passed a closed down mini-golf course and water park right off the side of the road, so I took a quick minute to check it out. Definitely worth the stop in my book. I think the wave pool water needed to be changed ;)

One of my other stops that day was in Pella, IA (City Slogan "A little touch of Holland"). This city was neat because of the building architecture here. I wasn't able to snap any photos, but feel free to Google it!

Lost Island Water Park

In Waterloo I went to a pretty cool water park called "Lost Island Water Park." Lost Island is themed to be, well you probably guessed it, a lost tropical island! This park was family run and had tons of awesome rides and theming to rival any corporate park! They also had what I now consider to be the gem of all water slides: a ProSlide Hydromagnetic water coaster! These rare slides are fairly new, and propel riders up hill by Linear Induction Motors! Pretty cool ehh??? Well if you don't know what that means, its basically a water slide that goes uphill and is propelled by magnets.

Hydromagnetic Water Slide

You get airtime on the hills and the acceleration is awesome! If you ever have the opportunity to ride one, don't miss out! It was the highlight of Iowa for me.

My last stop was in a town in the middle of nowhere, Osage. I had to be up pretty early for this place because it was a 1 hour drive to the nearest hotel. It was very pretty there, and I even took a nap in my car with the windows down because the light breeze and warm air felt amazing.While I was napping however, I was awoken by a man driving down the road on his mower. I was truly in the middle of nowhere.... or just the mid-west.

A man just cruising on his mower

Well that wraps up the first part of my summer! Pretty crazy huh? So far, we're at June 20th, or 1 month since I left Purdue. I hope you have enjoyed reading these as much as I have had fun writing them. In the next week you can look forward to my mini-vacation in Illinois and Indiana, along with a quick stop in at Purdue! After that will be coverage of my 3 day drive to California. There will also be 2 theme park trip reports tucked away nicely in there.

My Visit to Six Flags on my break

I also ask my readers that if you were one of my friends to receive a post-card from me during my travels, to please take your photo with it and send it to me! If you didn't receive one and wanted one, then send me a private message with your name and address and I will do my best to send one out to you in the near future.

Thank you to everyone for your support, and please if you have questions or comments about my travels, please comment!

Didn't get enough photos? Check out more photos in the #LyfInFocus-Iowa Album!

Around Missouri

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 07 Sep 2013 00:25:00 +0000

Be Sure to Check Out My Previous Post: Kansas City-Part 2 "Worlds of Fun/Oceans of Fun!"

Welcome to Maryville

Well my week in Kansas City was a blast, but I was ready to get back out on the road. A little over 2 hours north was my next stop, in Maryville. Out of all the small town that I visited this summer, Maryville was easily one of my favorites. The town of just under 12,000 people, is mainly kept afloat by the local university: Northwest Missouri State University (Go Bearcats!). With the amount of school spirit in this tiny town, it could easily rival a major university. The campus was small but very pretty with how open everything was.

Great Pizza!

As with most small towns, everyone was extremely friendly, and during my audit at their community pool, I had an awesome time talking with their guards and managers. I even happened to pass a few of them in the local Wal-mart the day after and they made sure to come up to me to and say hi again. I ate a small family pizza shop and had some of the best pizza on the road! I also ate at the Applebee's and had a blast with the bartender, who joined my team for their trivia night. Someday I hope to return to this town, it was a blast.

Cows!

So after leaving Maryville, I headed east, and passed through the "Tri-C" area and met some cows who were very interested in what I was doing. I took a quick stop to go and say hello and snap a photo. And driving the back roads of Missouri wouldn't be complete without being slowed down by a combine on the road.

Very Nice Comfort Inn

My last city in Missouri, was Chillicothe. A slightly larger town, with still not much going on. However the notable stop here was the Comfort Inn & Suites that I stayed in. It was only 3 years old, but had won the #1 ranking for their brand for the last 2 of the years. And they didn't disappoint!

Eating like an Adult

The decor was awesome, and the rooms were very comfortable. Right next door was another Applebee's, where I realized that as an adult, I could order an appetizer, skip the main course and go straight to dessert! Definitely a great decision.

Didn't get enough photos? Check out more photos in the #LyfInFocus-Around Missouri Album!

Be Sure to Check Out my Next Post: Iowa!

Kansas City-Part 2 "Worlds of Fun/Oceans of Fun!"

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 06 Sep 2013 15:30:00 +0000

Be Sure to Check Out My Previous Post: Kansas City-Part 1 "Welcome to KC!"

Worlds of Fun!

The Patriot

Well after a few audits in the area, I decided to take a day off. And what better to do on a day off than to go ride new roller coasters! The local Cedar Fair park is World's of Fun/Oceans of Fun, and is themed off of "Around the World in 80 Days". When I arrived, the parking lot was deceiving and made it seem as if it was going to be packed, but once I was inside I immediately realized this would not be the case. I came around 5PM for their evening discount, which would give me 4 hours of solid coaster riding before they closed at 9PM.

My first ride of the day was "The Patriot", a B&M inverted roller coaster. With station length loading, I was on within 5 minutes. It was a great coaster, and was truly amazing to be riding a roller coaster again for the first time since October. With my feet hanging free, and the cool breeze rushing past my face, I was in pure coaster bliss. After 4 inversions, I quickly ran back through to the front of the line for more. Just as good as the first time.

Funny Warning Sign

Next I headed down to "The Timber Wolf", or as locals call it

Front of The Line Passes

"The Wimper Wolf". It was a typical wooden coaster, and was a great one for kids to get their start on. In the line I found a funny sign (pictured here) and thought this should be common sense. Unfortunately while waiting in the station, (which had a grand total of 8 people), it broke down and they had to call out maintenance. During the downtime, I talked with the ride operators, many of whom had worked this ride for 4 years (and also it was their first coaster as a kid!). After maintenance left and we boarded, I rode the expected to be rough coaster, and when reaching the brake run by the transfer track, the brakes tripped a sensor and we have to be evacuated from the ride. Not the dramatic, full track walk, that most enthusiasts hope for, but cool none-the-less. We were then handing Roller Coaster Gold: Front of the Line Passes. While it wasn't too significant to receive these on a day like I had visited (as there were really no lines at all), It was still cool to get them.

My next ride was an S&S Double Shot tower. Was pretty decent and provided a great view of the park.

Next I attempted to walk to the other-side of the park for some of their other attractions. I say attempted, as many of the main walkways were temporarily closed off for some big trucks to drive through with stage equipment for the next days Christian Rock festival. Next up was the Boomerang. Nothing special, standard Boomerang.

From here, I traveled to the parks tallest coaster: The Mamba. People were raving about this one, but
I didn't get it. But had fun anyways on this long-trained Morgan coaster. I will say the ride-op here was a little to enthusiastic about his job.

I then started to walk towards the other wood coaster, but stopped when I saw quite a unique sight. The Rapids rides loading dock had been drained and all of the employees were wearing life-jackets. I thought at first that maybe there was a rescue happening, but after surveying the scene (E&A people feel free to chuckle), I saw that 2 rafts had wedged themselves stuck when moving into the storage area. Check out this video of how theme park maintenance gets the job done.

After a brief stop for some comedic relief, I made the trek down to "The Prowler". This was a great woody, and would itself through the surrounding trees and hillside for a thrilling 2.5 minute ride! This was the only ride that had any sort of wait, so I decided to utilize one of my front of the line passes. So I proudly walked up the exit ramp, excited to present my golden ticket, however the ride

operated looked very upset when I showed it to him, and when asking where I wanted to sit I told him the front. He then proceeded to announce to almost the whole station that "Hey people waiting for the front, you are going to have to wait to ride because this guy has a pass". Glares all fell upon me as I walked on to board. I felt as if I had committed a theme park crime. Waiting for them to clear the train for dispatch, while 3 feet to my right were angered guests who had waited in line started me down, was an awkward experience. But soon after, the train was sent on its way and I had a great time! The Prowler uses Millennium Flyer Trains, which are smooth and still provide plenty of airtime. One of my favorite wooden coasters to date.

With about an hour left until the park closed, I got in line for "Spinning Dragons". A cool mini coaster where the cars spin freely based on the weight distribution as it glides through the twists and turns.

I ended my day with 2 final rides on The Patriot before saying goodbye. Overall World's of Fun was a
great park. It had all the standard coasters and attractions, and even a few unique experiences. I was quite happy with it being so slow during my visit, as it allowed me to see all of the park. It would be a few weeks before my next coaster day, so it was a great way to hold me over.

Be sure to check out more photos in the #LyfInFocus-Worlds of Fun Album!

Be Sure to Check Out my Next Post: Around Missouri!

Kansas City-Part 1: "Welcome to KC!"

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 21:58:00 +0000

Be Sure to Check Out My Previous Post: Wichita.

Great Wolf Lodge, Kansas City

Kansas City, KS/MO. Home of the Chiefs, killer Bar-B-Que and more roads crossing state lines than
any other city! Kansas City is split partially between Kansas and Missouri, so it is very likely that in your daily commute you will start in one state, pass into the other and pass back into the first before the even arriving at work! Its all quite confusing.

My stay in Kansas City lasted about a week, which was nice because I was able to have some sense of normalcy by returning to the same room every night and not having to repack my car every day. It was also great as I needed a new case for my phone, but the one I wanted from OtterBox could only be ordered online and I was never in a place for long enough to get it shipped to me in time. This case is pretty awesome too, as it has a battery pack inside that gives me about twice the battery life (enough to last through a whole day!), as well as the legendary defender protection. Needless to say it was a pretty exciting day when it was delivered.

Schlitterbahn Kansas City

While I never ventured into the actual downtown area, I did plenty of driving all around it. My stops included both a Great Wolf Lodge (which is awesome for families!) and Schlitterbahn and a few other parks in the area. Schlitterbahn was pretty cool because they had a FlowRider, and only 1 other person riding. On days when I know there is a FlowRider, I get to the park early just to get a few runs in before getting to work. The rest of the park was pretty cool, because all of their attractions were connected by their now infamous "Transportainment" concept (where you can access most of the attractions without even getting out of your tube!). They also had a Soaring Eagle recently installed which was neat to see.

Oklahoma Joe's Barbecue

My time in Kansas City couldn't be complete with a trying some legendary KC BBQ. If you ask the locals, they all recommend one place "Oklahoma Joe's", the gas station location. That's right, a world famous BBQ restaurant is in a Gas Station. After arriving, I think of it more as a gas station is located in a restaurant. For the history of Oklahoma Joe's, be sure to check out their website. But if you ever consider a visit, keep a few things in mind:

My meal at Oklahoma Joe's

-There is always a line.
-If you come around lunch or dinner time, be prepared to wait 30 minutes or more.
-You aren't allowed to hold a table while you are in line, however because of this rule, there is always a table available. There is just some kind of magic that makes it work this way.
-All of the food is good, but don't pass up on the brisket!

Schlitterbahn River

The food was delicious and the prices were extremely reasonable. Be sure if you pass through Kansas City to make this a must see/eat!

All in all, I loved my time touring around Kansas City, and can't wait to come back. In the next post, I make my first non-work theme park stop at World's of Fun!

Be sure to check out more photos in the #LyfInFocus-Kansas City Album!

Be Sure to Check Out my Next Post: Kansas City-Part 2 "Worlds of Fun/Oceans of Fun!"

Wichita

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 15:30:00 +0000

Be Sure to Check Out My Previous Post: Stillwater Station.

Welcome to Kansas

Before starting to travel, we were all told that Priceline would be our best friend. And for the most
part, they weren't lying. When I booked my hotels I did so in 1 of 3 ways.

1. Marriott- For weekend rates, these are killer. In almost any city you can get a room on either Friday, Saturday or Sunday for about $69 a night at one of their business level properties.

2. Priceline.com Express Deals- They tell you the area, a few amenities and the star level of a hotel for a discounted price and you book without knowing the name. For most areas you are able to look at the list of hotels and figure out which one the express deal is going to get you.

3. Priceline.com Name Your Own Price- This can get you some awesome deals if you work the system right. I've been lucky enough to get some $300 per night rooms for about $50.

If you want some tips on Priceline bidding or express deals, let me know I've gotten pretty good at it!

Hyatt in Wichita

Well when I looked ahead to book in Wichita, I decided to book in the city using Name Your Own

View from my room

Price. I ended up scoring a Hyatt Regency (3.5 stars) for $50! This hotel was awesome. Any I ended up picking a great time to visit Wichita, as they were having their annual RiverFest, which took place right outside the hotel. There were Zip Lines, helicopter rides, carnival rides and fair food! It was pretty awesome.

When i'm alone I can double dip!

One of the hardest parts of being on the road alone... is well... being alone. If you have never gone to dinner by yourself, or even more-so, gone to the movies by yourself, it is quite an interesting experience. While in Wichita I went and saw 2 movies: The Great Gatsby and The Hangover Part 3. Wichita is fortunate to have some very nice movie theaters, large screens, plenty of seats and beautiful digital projection. Now The Great Gatsby I had been looking forwards to seeing for quite a long time, and if you haven't seen it I would highly recommend it. Oddly enough as I write this post, now months later, it has just come on video and I hope to purchase it later this week.

While in the theater for Gatsby, I had most of a row to myself, and the theater was maybe 20 percent full. Just before the previews started, an older couple came in and sat right next to me. They had the choice of almost any seats in the theater, by they chose the ones right next to mine (they didn't even leave a 1 chair gap!). There wasn't even a greeting from them, almost as if they didn't recognize me sitting there. Well I almost let it fly, until they talked all the way through the previews and into the first 2 minutes of the movie. I finally moved, but seriously how rude!

Meal in my seat in the theater!

When I went to see the Hangover, I chose a different theater. This one was one of the theaters where they serve you your meal in your seats! It was pretty awesome. The food was pretty good, reasonably priced, and they even served reasonably priced alcohol! The experience was awesome, and was not disruptive at all. If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend it!

So overall, I loved my short time in Wichita, and hope to return on another trip.

Be sure to check out more photos in the #LyfInFocus-Wichita Album!

Next its Off to Kansas City, where I will break it down into 2 parts for you.

Be Sure to Check Out my Next Post: Kansas City-Part 1 "Welcome to KC!"

Stillwater Station

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 02 Sep 2013 15:30:00 +0000

Be Sure to Check Out My Previous Post: See Norman!

So when I received my routing and found out that I would be in Oklahoma, Stillwater was on my radar of places that I had to see. If you are wondering what the significance of Stillwater, OK is to me, then you are in luck!

During my time at Purdue, I was heavily involved with the Bands department, eventually becoming a sister (yes a sister) of Tau Beta Sigma, Honorary Band Sorority (its a co-ed organization, but is technically considered a Sorority). Anyways, our national headquarters is located in at Stillwater Station in Oklahoma and is shared with our brother organization, Kappa Kappa Psi (also co-ed).

My visit happened on a Sunday so the office wasn't open, however everything surrounding it was. Stillwater Station is an old railroad depot, which was dually as cool for me as I love trains. The building itself was very well preserved. Surrounding the main building was a preserved train car as well as a paved brick pathway.

TBS and KKY currently have a program where chapters or individuals can buy personalized bricks to help repave the surrounding area of the depot.

This short 15 minute stop out of my whole summer meant a lot to me. I have given alot to this organization and it has given a lot back to me and it was truly an honor to visit. For those who are also part of either of these two organizations, I encourage you to make the journey someday.

For more photos be sure to check out the #LyfInFocus-Stillwater Station album!

Stay tuned for the next post: Wichita!

See Norman!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 31 Aug 2013 17:00:00 +0000

Be Sure to Check Out My Previous Post: Texas to Oklahoma!

See Norman!

Ohhhh Oklahoma. OHHHHHH Oklahoma. Ever wonder whats in Oklahoma? Well Normans in Oklahoma. That's right, I am in Oklahoma. Well to get technical, I WAS in Oklahoma. But there is a city called Norman, OK and its right outside Oklahoma City where I was staying. Apparently its known for festivals, Bed and Breakfasts and Indian Art. But I'll just take the big sign with my name on it.
So this was my first city on my own, and I was very nervous. If you're wondering why, here's a little insight into what I do. I audit waterpark's, resorts, and pools that use our risk management services. These audits are done randomly and undercover for our clients, and they do not know when we come. When I go, I go in as a guest and video tape the lifeguards with a concealed video camera in order to make sure they are up to standards. After that I test guards on their skills and review the facilities paperwork. Its pretty cool! Now heres a few questions that you are probably wondering:

-So you look like a creeper with a video camera?Yes unfortunately. However a big portion of our training is learning how to conceal the video cameras in order to not get spotted by park employees, but at most to keep their guests at ease.

Oceans of Fun!

-Do guests get upset if they see your camera? Yes... 99% of the time. We carry an auditor ID badge with us at all times in the park, so in the event that a guest confronts us (or most of the time they just start giving us weird looks), I simply explain to them what i'm doing and show them my ID badge and they usually are quite accepting. In the event that a guest is unhappy still, they will usually go to a park official, who will again explain what we do. Unfortunately at that point the cover is blown, however that is still better than getting the cops called!

-Do you get to ride the rides and swim in the pool? Yes and No. There are 2 general rules for this. The first is it must not make the audit any different, by drastically altering our daily timeline. The second is that if it helps you blend in, it is definitely beneficial. Essentially this means be smart about it. Don't go waiting in a line for a slide if its an hour long and will then make the client have to stay an hour later that night. For me, getting in the water depends on a lot of factors. Here are a few: if the weather is nice, if I feel comfortable leaving my items alone (or else I have to pay for a locker), and if swimming laps will make me seem more normal. Its a fine line, but I do have a job to do :)

University of Oklahoma

Moore Tornado Damage

OK, back to Oklahoma (haha, get it?). So Oklahoma City was alright. There were some neat sights. The University of Oklahoma was very impressive, there was a rock climbing gym housed in an old grain elevator, and the Moore tornado damage. Seeing the damage was incredible. It truly made me feel small in this world, over how short of a time something could be destroyed. The cars on the freeway slowed almost to a crawl in this area and that's the only reason that I was able to take photos. Normally I would think that taking photos of this devastation is morally wrong, but despite this I feel that is was important for the world to understand how significant this damage was. My heart goes out to all the families affected by this tragedy.

Tulsa Lightning

The rest of my time in Oklahoma City was pretty uneventful. From there I travelled to Tulsa, OK. Theres not much to say about Tulsa, besides that a killer thunderstom passed through. Pictured is some of the lightning that I was able to capture. From here I travelled to Stillwater, OK and that will be in the next post (yes that's where the TBS and KKY National Headquarters is located!).

For more photos check out the #LyfInFocus-Oklahoma Album!

Be Sure to Check Out my Next Post: Stillwater Station!

Texas to Oklahoma

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 30 Aug 2013 15:30:00 +0000

Be Sure to Check Out My Previous Post: Bucky The Beaver!

Margaret with Bucky

Well now that we have Bucky all buckled up safely into the passenger seat, it was time to leave Texas, on the road to my first audits on my own.

Sky with Bucky

Drive time was looking to be roughly 7 hours. However today, was going to be one of my favorite drive days all summer for one reason, and that was because in the course of my 500 miles, I would get to stop and see 3 friends whom I hadn't seen in about a year each.

My first stop was in Austin, where they're trying to... keep it weird. I didn't fully understand the concept, but I also didn't spend much time in the city. Once I arrived in Austin, I met my friends Sky and Margaret for a nice lunch at a local Chinese food joint. It wasn't bad at all, you cant go wrong with orange chicken. After about an hour, I said my farewells, but not before taking photos with Bucky!

After Austin, I continued on my way up to Dallas, passing by Baylor University. It was a beautiful campus. It was at this point that I decided one of my constant stops would be major colleges and universities. I love seeing the different campus', especially their football stadiums.

So in Dallas I was meeting my friend Andrew for dinner, but before I decided to make a stop and the

Dallas Cowboys Stadium

Cowboys stadium and Six Flags Over Texas. Conveniently they were across the parking lot from each other. Now I don't know how many of you have seen the Dallas Cowboy's stadium, but its massive! the giant glass and metal structure shines in the Sun and has a very intimidating atmosphere to it. Inside they have 2 Jumbotron's that span nearly the entire length of the field! Someday I hope to be able to go inside.

Texas Sky Screamer

Across the street at the Six Flags I got to see their water park, whose slide tower structures almost looked UFO like. I also was able to see a few of the coasters from the road. The Sky Screamer was also running which was pretty cool. If you don't know what those are, think of those spinning swing set carnival rides, and put it on steroids.

Shortly after I met Andrew for dinner at a local Mexican restaurant, which was quite delicious! I love Mexican food, and am quite the critic on it, but it was quite enjoyable. Plus getting to catch up with Andrew was nice. After a short tour of his home, and of course a photo with Bucky, I was back on the road for the last 3 hours of my trip.

See Norman!

Night fell shortly after I entered Oklahoma, and arrived right about 10PM. I was staying in a Holiday Inn Express, and it was my first night on my own on the road. While I missed my new friends, it was quite nice having the entire room to myself.

For More Photos Check out the #LyfInFocus-Texas to Oklahoma Album! (The photo quality of these is not my best and I aplogize for this! They get better I promise!)

Stay Tuned for the next post: See Norman!