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Review - The Wrecker

Yesterday I finished The Wrecker by Clive Cussler. I was disappointed. Cussler usually does a good job with his underwater action/adventure stories, but he tried his second historical fiction featuring Van Dorn Detective Isaac Bell. Cussler should stick to action and adventure stories. This was actually pretty boring until the last 20 pages or so. And talk about predictable.

I'm moving on now and reading Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

Review - Be Our Guest

I finished Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service by the Disney Institute this morning. Yeah, imagine that, me reading a Disney book.

Of all the companies out there, Disney does an amazing job at satisfying the customers needs. in fact, they formed the Disney Institute to share their story and show other corporations how they can excel at customer service.

I enjoyed the book from a management point of view. There were great examples throughout the book. Lots of good ideas. My biggest complaint is there is a lot of repetition in the book. This 200+ page book could have been reduced to 15 pages if all the repetition had been left out.

Portland PLA

I returned from Portland. I had a good time and it was a good conference. I really appreciated the fact of not having to move from hotel to hotel but having all the meetings in the convention center. MAX, the light rail service in Portland offered us a free ride back and forth from the hotel to the convention center. That was especially nice as well, making it a very nice way to get around.

Hotel room

View from my room

Walkways along the river

Walkway along the river

View of the city from the River Walk

Since the conference is held every 2 years, I have a couple of years to plan. It's going to be in Philadelphia in March 2012 and even DeeAnn wants to come! I'm looking forward to returning to that great, historical city.

Why I Love Traveling With My Wife

I'm sitting in Portland, Oregon anticipating a great Public Library Association conference. But I didn't bring DeeAnn with me and I already miss her. Why? Well...

1. I had to use a regular parking lot. (Okay, the driver was there waiting for me the minute I pulled in the lot at 5:30 am, but I don't even get covered parking)
2. I was not pulled out of the security line to the "special" line. (Since there were only about 5 people in line I guess it didn't really matter. But I only had to keep track of one computer, one pair of shoes, one coat, one bag, etc.)
3. I didn't get on the plane first! (Didn't really matter since I had a reserved seat so I could afford a last minute potty break)
4. I had to sit in a seat which forced me to bend my legs! (No bulkhead, whaaaaaaa!)
5. Couldn't sit in the convenient seating on the train. (I always enjoy the looks of people when they realize they have to move! But it was a free train ride from the airport to a block from my hotel)
6. No extra room in the hotel room. No extra space in the bathroom even though the room is pretty good size. (And no female things on the bathroom counter. I don't even know how to use a hair dryer.)
7. Lastly, no wife to tease. But at least I feel pretty good about bringing her here and showing her around.

I'll post pictures when I get home and have access to a way to download my pictures.

5th Wedding Aniversary

It's hard to believe but DeeAnn has actually put up with me for 5 years. Yesterday we celebrated our wedding anniversary. Since wood is the traditional gift for #5, I allowed her to drag me up to a nice bed breakfast located up Ogden Canyon.

The Alaskan Inn, in Ogden Canyon

The main lodge of the Inn

Our Cabin, the Windsong Lodge

Set up the canyons, surrounded by pines and aspens and mountains

There we has a private cabin decorated in a woodsy theme. After making a brief stop to look at RVs and the Camping World store on the way up, we found the Inn, checked in, and had a little time to relax.

Our room, complete with a fireplace

For dinner I had read about a new Mexican restaurant that Salt Lake Magazine had rated as the best Mexican Restaurant of 2009. It was in the new Junction area of Ogden, where the old mall used to be. The restaurant was busy and it was a good thing we had made reservations. I did see a new pasta, pizza and salad restaurant next door that we need to try out at some point. After dinner we made our way back to the Inn where we watched some old videos of our wedding day.

Jacuzzi tub in the middle of the room

Kitchenette included a fridge, sink and microwave.

The Inn is located along the Ogden River

Saturday morning included a nice breakfast delivered to our room consisting of a Belgian waffle, bacon, hash browns, orange juice and hot chocolate. And that was just my breakfast! We finished breakfast, packed up and headed off.

Our cozy little cabin

It was lightly raining as we left Ogden, and started raining pretty good as we made our was south through the Salt Lake valley. We stopped for a few minutes at the IKEA store, picekd up a few items, and began our trek home. As we drove past the point of the mountain it began to turn from rain to snow. That continued for some time until we hit Orem and then it pretty much stopped raining and snowing and everything else. The animals were all glad to see us and we have returned to our Saturday afternoon routines.

Disneyland, February 2010

While it feels like we just returned from Disneyland the last time, we went again last week. This time we took my brother Dean, his wife Sara and their youngest son Brian.

Each time we go it is fun to watch the others and see the park through their eyes. Dean and Sara had not been to Disneyland for 15 years and had never been to California Adventures. Brian has not been in a couple of years and there were new rides he had not yet experienced. I was looking forward to seeing his reactions from Toy Story.

Brian and Sara at the new Troubadour Tavern. It's a new counter service restaurant we found back between It's a Small World and Toon Town. It has actually replaced a different restaurant, but the menu is new. They feature kielbasa sausage with sauerkraut, and three different kind of baked potatoes. Since I've never seen baked potatoes at Disneyland and I am a big fan of potatoes, I really wanted to try this out. It was not too bad. The location was certainly not very busy since it is a little out of the way. But I hope this place stays as I am looking forward to returning and trying some of the other potatoes.

Dean enjoying It's a Small World. They have added a few Disney characters, such as Donald Duck, Arial, Nemo, Stitch, and so forth in various settings throughout the ride. But it's still a fun ride to take people on to annoy them.

DeeAnn and I enjoying It's a Small World. I am still in a good mood so it must be before we have entered the "zone".

There is quite a lot of construction going on in both parks. At Disneyland they had just reintroduced Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, but with a version without the headphones one used to wear. They have emptied the lagoon and are replacing tracks meaning all the ships, canoes, rafts, island and Fantasmic are all down. At California Adventures they have walled off the street in front of Turtle Talk with Crush to lay tracks for the new red trolley, have opened a shortcut path from Tower of Terror to Bugs Land, are still working on the new Little Mermaid ride (replacing the old show with Whoopie Goldberg), are working on the Silly Symphony Strings (replacing the Orange Zinger), and have almost finished the new World of Color nighttime water show. Besides all that they are making good progress on the new Cars Land portion of the park though you can't really see much of it from the park.

This was my 14th visit to the parks, DeeAnn's 51st visit and our 8th visit together since we were married 5 years ago!