You love it

this resort we're staying at for the week, you can really tell the toll covid's taken on staff. rooms not ready at check in time, i assume due to limited cleaning staff. went to grab lunch at the pool bar earlier, and there was one bartender and maybe a couple waiters taking orders to tables and lounge chairs. ditched that idea after no one looked my way for ten minutes. now i've been waiting nearly an hour for a room service salad.

we're only here because my wife's at a conference over the next three days, and this is where rooms were available, so not complaining since we're getting half the room & board on her company's dime, but just too bad because this place is pretty cool otherwise.

hahaha after an hour, i called down to dining services to ask for an eta on my salad. they said the info had a room number one off from mine and it was outside that door. it indeed was, but the receipt and bag had my room number, so clearly their fuck up. i ain't eating a salad that's been sitting out in the AZ heat for however long, so i currently have the phone on speaker calling dining services back to get a refund - it's been about 200 rings and no answer. i'm having doordash drop off some food in the meantime.

Barcelona in six days!!!

nice!

this trip we're currently on that's not going so hot is a test to see if madrid as a work/family trip in a couple months would work. so far, i don't think so lol. i'll see spain one day!

You’re normally very good at this, but that one sucked. Own it. Move on.

PS - If you’re struggling because you’re hangry you can always go to In N Out.

Awesome Joe - ¡Pasa un buen rato!

And great linky-poo there trag. Gonna bookmark that one for future reference.

After taking 2 months off over Christmas I'm really trying to stay in that mindset of pulling back from the rat race a bit and putting myself and the wiffey first more often. Kinda like being kind to ourselves before worrying about too much else kinda thing. So we've started planning our next breaks/holidays because you just have to have stuff to look forward to.

My MiL's family all live in Melbourne, waaaaaay over the other side of the country from us. We last spent christmas with them in 2018 and we've decided its time again this year. So planning on taking all of December off and going across early to spend a few weeks travelling the Mornington Peninsular and south of Melbourne before having Christmas with them all. Should be fun.

And then its gonna be Italy in 2024. We think 3 weeks on the ground there (so not including travel time) will do us. Planning on October at this stage. I want to hire a car and do some driving, particularly up north but wherever really. Any suggestions on that, RM crew?

i suggested going to a restaurant tonight, because i no longer trust the room service here, but my wife was tired from a long day and insisted. she's now on hold with dining service trying to get an eta on the food we ordered an hour ago. so yes, i'm once again hangry.

once the nights on her company run out, i think we need to find another establishment.

Room service is for suckas

I’ve never had issues. And it wasn’t my first choice today… I took the kid to the restaurant here but she immediately cracked the shits because it was peak nap time on her Chicago clock. Pulled the plug on that, put her down in the room, then couldn’t leave.

This is the part of the conversation where I simp for timeshares because full kitchen in unit for a situation like this.

Heard that. Wife’s company is paying for this room through Thursday, so figured we could make it work. Didn’t expect such incompetence.

It’s our last night in Northern Arizona. The Grand Canyon is likely the highlight of our trip. It’s also the reason for our trip.

I would love to come back and explore more of this state. There are so many jaw-dropping places here.

Much of the area by the Grand Canyon, and all the way up to Page, where Horseshoe Bend is located, is like being on another planet.

On another note, if you are a veteran, I would highly recommend getting the free lifetime pass for entrance to the national parks. It’s worth it. We’ve visited six different parks on our trip, and it saved us $135 in entry fees. It’s good for you and up to three guests.

Well worth it. We used it for Acadia and hoping to hit two more this summer.

I hope you get there. Spain is amazing. Barcelona is the only other city (besides NYC) that I can really see myself living in long term. I adore it.

Still haven't been to Madrid yet, though. That's definitely on the list. I really want to see the whole country.

We were in Madrid last summer. Loved it so much. It is so beautiful. Very fucking hot in the summer though. My only regret is not taking a day trip to Toledo.

Have a big travel decision to make soon. I have a milestone birthday coming up a year from now, and one thing I've always wanted to do is travel to St. Helena Island in the South Atlantic. But you have to plan pretty far in advance, fly to South Africa, then 6 more hours on a small plane to the island. Stay a week, then reverse the flight. I think it would be neat as a trip for this specific birthday, but I also feel like I would want some time to explore South Africa as well, so that pushes the trip pretty much into 2.5 to 3 weeks. Not sure either of our employers would go for that at this point. My other option would be to save that for a retirement trip and instead do either North England and Scotland, or some kind of Nordic trip.

That all sounds awesome Ruddo.

We booked three tix to Boston yesterday for a wedding in June. We almost always fly for free due to our rewards program but there were limiting factors this time out, so we paid out of pocket for the first time in a few years. $2500 round trip to Boston Awful.

we're winding down here..all packed and movers come on Monday..have stuff to finish up all next week but then so looking forward to taking the Coast Starlight Train from LA to Seattle..35 hours in a sleeper car