Chicago: Days 1-3

This week was the next stop on the comedy tour in Chicago, IL. This trip also marked the first time I'd be traveling alone for one of these trips because my boss was out in LA and would be meeting me in Chicago shortly before showtime. In addition to the travel and being alone in a strange city, I'd be responsible for the entire setup of the show on my own, which was definitely a lot of pressure. This was the second time I'd been to Chicago, but I stayed outside of the city before (and I was much younger), so I really didn't have much of a sense of anything except for the chill and the wind that Chicago is famous for.

I booked a late-morning flight on Delta for Tuesday morning. I have decided to stick to Delta when traveling for work as much as possible. Delta tends to not be the cheapest (and money is no object when it comes to these work trips), but they do seem to have the best time options, and I really want to start building up my Frequent Flyer Skymiles points, so thought with all the travel I have coming up for the tour, I should stay consistent with the airline.

I arrived in Chicago early Tuesday afternoon at O'Hare, met up with my driver and headed for the Sax Chicago where I'd be staying. Although there was apparently a Cubs game later that afternoon, there was not yet much traffic so the drive to the hotel was only around 30 minutes. When I arrived at the Sax, I hadn't even stepped out of the car when a hotel employee was greeting me with my check-in packet and room keys and grabbing my bag to take up to my room. Now that's service! By this point I was starving, so I quickly dropped my things off in the room then decided to wander and see if I could find somewhere to eat. The area the hotel was in turned out to be a very nice area with no shortage of bars and restaurants. This made me very happy, as I would not have to leave the little bubble around the hotel to do anything. I took a quick walk across the North Dearborn Street Bridge right outside the hotel over to the venue, the Chicago Theatre, to pop inside and say hi to the crew that was already putting together the stage for our show the next day (I was very excited to see that the venue was only a block and a half over the bridge from the hotel!).


The Chicago Theatre is on the national register of historic places, and it is just as beautiful inside as you would think a theatre on that list would be! The theatre had a beautiful dome with murals painted in it and all gilded in gold. There were gorgeous chandeliers hanging throughout the lobby and showroom.


By the time I left the venue, I was desperate to find a place to eat, so just walked a few more blocks until I found a restaurant with sidewalk seating, the Rockit Bar and Grill (it was a beautiful, sunny day in the mid-70s, so sitting outside hit the spot!). I ordered a salad, the BBQ pork sliders and a glass of wine. The food was delicious, and something about sitting out in the warm sun with my glass of wine watching people on the street was so relaxing that I could have sat there all afternoon! I did want to walk around a little bit before the sun went down, so after I finished up my late lunch, I made my way toward Millennium Park on foot, using the map on my phone as a reference, but generally wandering aimlessly. I somehow found myself in a more residential area that was quiet and peaceful compared to the areas I had just walked through. This is definitely where some of the wealthier people in the city were living, and I saw lots of families with little kids walking through the fountains and park down the hill from the condos. I thought about heading over to Navy Pier, but I wasn't in the mood for a Ferris wheel or cotton candy, so I thought it might not be worth the walk and made my way back to the hotel.

Millennium Park:


I checked in with the concierge to see if they had any ideas about where I could go to get a Chicago magnet and then followed their directions to the nearest drugstore, where I found the perfect magnet - a replica of the Chicago Theatre! By this point, people were getting off work and meeting up at all the restaurants in the area, so I decided it was time to get back to the hotel and order myself some room service. While I had hoped I might find somewhere to grab food while I was out on the magnet run, I decided I didn't feel like sitting in a restaurant eating dinner by myself, so I let the giant Caesar salad in the room solve the problem.

The next morning, the sky was unfortunately overcast and it looked like it might rain all day. I had a little time to kill before I needed to report to the venue, so once again took the concierge's recommendation on a "diner" type place where I could get a wide variety of things (I wasn't quite sure what I was in the mood for). Approximately 4 blocks from the hotel was a fantastic diner spot called Eggsperience Cafe. It was pretty crowded for a Wednesday at mid-morning, so I opted to sit at the counter where I could watch the TV and not be bothered. I ordered the chocolate & banana crepes, which were amazing! I wish I could fix crepes like that for breakfast every morning.

The rest of the day was spent working at the venue and finding a chance to get back to the hotel to clean up between rain showers. This was a long day having only one person doing the job that two normally do, so it was well after midnight by the time I trudged back to the hotel in the rain with all my things. I went to the promoter's office on the 4th floor of the hotel just to re-confirm my pickup time for the airport (5 a.m. - yuck!), and discovered there was a VIP reception on that floor for all the people participating in the comedy festival that week. So as much as I knew I needed to try and grab a couple hours of sleep before my flight, some of the guys I had been working with all day convinced me to stay and have a drink (which turned into three or four) and I ended up getting more of a cat nap than the few hour's sleep I had hoped for. The next day was just a blur of stumbling through a very crowded airport, boarding a plane in Chicago, getting off a plane in New York and sleepwalking through a day at the office. You better believe I crashed hard when I got home that night.

No more 4am wake-up calls when I have a full day of work that day...or maybe no more peer-pressure drinking?

My trip:


"Take me back to Chicago, I still dream of the lake of peacefulness
The warm summer breeze..." - Take Me Back to Chicago, Chicago (I thought this was a good quote because the weather was beautiful when I was out wandering around and it did feel peaceful...although I have no idea where that lake was!)

Miles Traveled Today: 1,580
Total Miles Traveled: 16,147

Washington, DC: Days 1-3

The next stop on our comedy tour was this weekend in Washington, DC. Having been to our nation's capital once before to hit all the monuments and tourist attractions, I was not bothered by the fact that the duration of our stay this time ended up being shrouded in gloomy, overcast weather and intermittent rain showers. I didn't have any tourist attractions left to see, so I would just be following the itinerary we had planned out for the couple days we'd be in town.

My boss and I arrived at the W Washington DC hotel, conveniently located a couple blocks from DAR Constitution Hall where our show was being held, Thursday evening around 9:15pm. I was excited to see that the view from my room looked out over the street and the Treasury building, but that is basically where my praise for the hotel ends. This particular W hotel is very modern, but it has gone overboard and resulted in an awkward room layout. Were I not staying in the room alone, the layout would have been rather uncomfortable, as the frosted glass shower backs into the bedroom and while only a shadow would be visible to someone sitting in the room, you can still clearly make out a person in the shower. Awkward. In addition, the sink and very small counter space are located outside of the toilet/shower area in the main room which just made for an overall bizarre and inconvenient layout that I didn't care for at all. I much prefer a more classic hotel room with the sink and a large counter in the same room as the shower and toilet!

Photo from the W's website. Not an exact replica of the room I was in, but gives a pretty accurate visualization of the shower situation:


The comedians and I met downstairs an hour later after settling into our rooms at J&G Steakhouse and had a nice dinner together. It's really gratifying to get to have these less "work-related" moments with the guys and be able to connect with them on a more friendly level. Oh, and to have a really expensive meal I am charging back to my company. I had the Sichuan Pepper-crusted Yellowfin Tuna, which was delicious. We sat around and chatted for a while, then all decided to call it a night.

The next morning, we were all up early for morning radio. The comedians were being split into two groups, so it was necessary for me to go with one of the groups, while our security guy went with the other. We were not going far, but we did have to drive the length of Embassy Row, past all the consulate buildings separating our hotel from the radio station. This provided no shortage of laughs, and I was thoroughly entertained. There is never a dull moment when you are sandwiched between two professional comedians on a 45-minute drive. We also had a little bit of a game going as to who could identify the flags flying outside the buildings. This was a gorgeous drive through a part of DC I had not seen before, much like being in New Orleans and then popping up in the Garden District.


The comedians spent about an hour at radio, and then we headed back to the hotel. My boss and I walked a couple blocks away and grabbed a quick omelet breakfast at the Corner Bakery. When we got back to the hotel, we were told that the view from the rooftop bar is incredible, so we decided to go check it out (sans 'bar' unfortunately!). There had been a line for the elevators the night before around the time we arrived and went to dinner - people completely dressed to the nines - and we had learned that the W's rooftop bar was the "it" place to go out in the city these days. The view was pretty awesome - it looked right over the White House's residential lawn. Had Obama been in town and wanted to grab some fresh air on his porch, we most certainly would have been able to see him. We mused for a little bit as to what kind of security they must have, considering what a clear view we had right into the most famous American home. Do they have snipers that had their eye on us the whole time? You almost have to believe they did.


At 10:45am, we were ready to head out on our next adventure of the day, and something everyone was very, very excited to get to be a part of. We had been invited by the U.S.O. to visit the wounded warriors wing at Walter Reed Army Medical Center while we were in town. This is something lots of celebrities do when they visit D.C., so I was very excited our comics (and myself!) were going to get to be a part of it. A few days before we left for our trip, we were notified that several times a year, the Pentagon hosts a special luncheon for the wounded warriors where they bus them and fly their families in to eat lunch and be recognized by high-ranking army officials. It just so happened that the day we would be in town, May 13, would be one of these special luncheons, so they were inviting us to attend this instead of the hospital! What a special experience to not only get to meet these brave soldiers, but to get to do so in one of the most fortified buildings in the world that very few people will ever get to see the inside of!

We first had to meet up with our liaison from the USO at a nearby hotel, and then under her escort, we were taken into the Pentagon compound. Getting up to the actual entrance of the building was literally a 10 minute drive from the official "entrance." It was a long, winding road that zigzagged back and forth, always keeping the iconic Pentagon walls in view. The whole drive was very climatic as we inched closer and closer to the building! The driveway indicated there was to be no photography from the road or the parking lots at the Pentagon. I was able to snap a quick photo undetected from the back of our SUV, though, of the sign at the checkpoint that indicated the entrance we were at was for DOD permits only. It all felt very James Bond-esque.


By noon, we were heading into an entrance marked "Department of Defense - The Pentagon," and going through metal detectors much like the airport...except that these workers were wearing fatigues and had automatic weapons. I'm pretty sure if the idiot TSA employees carried so much as a pocket knife I'd never fly again! We were then led down several long corridors to get to the banquet hall where the luncheon was being held. We were passing doors with signs on them that said things like "Afghanistan Task Force" and "International Terror Monitoring." It was overwhelming to imagine the important, world-changing conversations going on behind these doors. We also learned a few interesting tidbits; for example, our USO escort told us that although she is in the Pentagon every day and knows there are at least five floors below ground, she's never seen them and has to imagine the building goes much further down than that. It's pretty amazing to think that even people who work in the building every day still are completely in the dark on things as simple as that. By the time we got to the hall, I was so disoriented that I couldn't have found an exit if I'd wanted to. Well done, Pentagon Security. As simple as the layout should be (it's basically a circle, right?) it was very confusing with the inner rings and outer rings. I never really clarified exactly where we were in the building. I believe we were in the A ring, but I'm definitely not sure which of the five sides we were on.

Before we went into the room where everyone was waiting, our USO escort gave us a quick briefing: we were going to see some very gruesome injuries, the guys want to talk about their injuries and they are comfortable with it so feel free to ask questions, if we started feeling uncomfortable we could get an escort and leave the room, etc. (escorts were required just to visit the bathroom across the hall). I got more nervous at this point...I don't know what I was expecting to see, but what I saw was far more disturbing and made me more emotional than I thought it would.

Upon entering the luncheon, the first emotion that came over me was just complete intimidation. There were approximately 50 or 60 service men and women (approximately half of them in uniform) sitting at long tables with their families. At each table, there were at least a couple kids (people that were clearly younger than me) in wheelchairs. At first, nothing really appeared to be out of the ordinary, and I started walking around with the comedians as they greeted each table and handing out t-shirts and tickets to the show to the people who wanted them. However, I soon realized these were not just people in wheelchairs. As they started to wheel around the room and greet each other, I discovered most of them were missing both of their legs. People were missing 3/4 of their limbs. One guy we met told us his hum-v had rolled over an IED. He was missing both his legs and his face looked like a grenade had exploded on it - the entire left side of his face was practically stripped. He was actually one of the few who had visible wounds on his face. There were a few people not in wheelchairs, but I quickly noticed when they got up to walk around, they had severe limps. Everyone here had been profoundly changed by the war both physically and mentally, guys who aren't even old enough to drink or rent a car. It was so touching to hear their stories of bravery, and although I was standing on my own two feet, they made me feel weak.

In addition to the soldiers and their families, there was some serious army firepower in the room. The Secretary of the Army, John McHugh, was in attendance, as well as a 4-star general and some others who were very decorated. After I'd made a complete lap around the room, I shrank back to the wall and just watched each table light up as the comedians came over and shook hands and made the guys laugh.

After the luncheon had ended and all the soldiers were taken elsewhere, we headed back out through another maze of corridors and turns and escalators to the brand new USO wing in the Pentagon. Our USO escort was obviously very proud of this shrine, so we all acted as impressed as we could. Everyone was ready to get back to the hotel (and I was anxious to get over the venue) because we were running a little behind schedule at this point, so we didn't take much time to really give this area the time it probably deserved. One cool part of the exhibit were the photos beginning in 1941 when the USO was founded and going through present-day, showing different celebrities performing for troops overseas. Old photos of Bob Hope, Marilyn Monroe and many others lined the walls, documenting the 70 year history of the organization.

We were led back out the entrance we came through and took this opportunity to do a quick photo shoot, which we were warned several times was not allowed. But there was no way we were leaving the Pentagon without photos outside it's famous walls!



We got stuck in horrendous traffic getting back to the hotel, so the rest of the evening was a flurry of rushing around to get the show set up in only a couple hours. I learned that DAR Constitution Hall (where our show was being held), is a protected historic building built in 1928, and that every president since Calvin Coolidge has attended events there. I thought it was a beautiful theater, and the backstage was so distinct and everything just had an "old" feel...dark oak door frames, creaky wooden doors, etc. The show went well, and we even had a big group of the wounded warriors we had met earlier show up with the free tickets we had given them, which personally made me really happy to see them out doing something normal and having fun (even if it was from the constraints of a wheelchair). The next morning, my boss and I were up early and headed back to New York. As part of a deal we had made the night before, if I was up and ready to go at 7am, we would stop and eat breakfast at Cracker Barrel (a restaurant chain that abruptly ends in the mid-Atlantic region and a personal favorite of mine).

The hashbrowns were delicious. :)

My trip:


"And I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free.
And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me. " - God Bless the USA, Lee Greenwood

Miles Traveled Today: 452
Total Miles Traveled: 14,567

Northeast Casinos: Mashantucket

This past weekend, I was in Mashantucket, CT, for another stop on my comedy tour. Although I spent time at the casino just down the road (Mohegan Sun in Uncasville) several years ago, I was particularly excited about this trip to Foxwoods Resort Casino - it is one of the largest resort casinos in the world (and the largest in North America), has more slot machines than any other casino in the world, and it is also home to Mashantucket Pequot Museum, which was at the top of my list of things to squeeze in to my work schedule!

My boss and I left the office in New York at approximately 5:30pm on Friday evening and much to our surprise, hit hardly any traffic on our trip north. Foxwoods is literally in the middle of nowhere at the end of a long, curvy, desolate road. But the good news is that we were pulling in to the resort by 8:30pm.


We were being put up in the new wing of the casino, the MGM Grand, where the brand new theater (where our show is taking place) is located. We spotted an Italian restaurant, Alta Strada, right around the corner from the hotel check-in, so quickly dropped everything off in our rooms and then met back downstairs to get some grub. The restaurant was practically empty, yet they still asked us if we just wanted to sit at the bar and eat. Odd. I'm always a big fan of eating on my company's dime, so I rarely hold back. I got a glass of the cabernet sauvignon, a Caesar salad and the ricotta ravioli, which was delicious! The promoter for our show met up with us and chatted for a while, which seemed to drag on forever...I was fading quickly and we couldn't call it a night soon enough. Plus, I needed to wake up early to hit the museum first thing in the morning!

The museum opened at 10am the next morning, so I was up and ready to go after a great night's sleep in my plush king bed (another great perk of work trips...sleeping in a huge bed!) When I asked the VIP concierge the night before where the museum was, he indicated to me I would have to walk all the way to the opposite end of the resort to the third tower, so I allowed about 30 minutes to make the walk. Walking through the casino at this hour was pretty enjoyable...no cigarette smoke, no real noise, and hardly any people. There was almost an eerie calm over the entire place, which is pretty hard to find in a casino! It definitely took a while to make my way all the way to the sign that indicated I had arrived at the museum. So you can imagine my surprise when I found the door locked and could see no one at the front desk. I asked a woman working at a coffee booth across the hallway, and she had no idea why no one was in there. I was very disappointed - after all, this is really what I had been looking forward to this entire trip for!

After sitting and waiting for about 10 minutes with no one showing up, I found the number of the museum and called. They told me I was not at the museum, I was only at the museum's "information center," and that I would have to take a shuttle to the museum because although it was on the Foxwoods "campus," it was not actually connected to the casino. I was so frustrated! This was going to set me back nearly an hour, and I only had a little bit of time to play around with before I had to get into work mode. I ended up having to make my way all the way back to the MGM Tower where I started to catch the shuttle. What a waste of time my little journey was! The shuttle came almost immediately and took approximately 15 minutes to run its route and get me to the museum. When I arrived at the museum at approximately 10:45am, it was pretty obvious why this was not housed within the casino - the building was massive! (Although the photo below doesn't really do it justice).



Admission was $15, but I had a $3.00 off coupon I had grabbed at that completely pointless "information center." At this point, I knew I only had an hour to get through the entire museum, so I focused on the main part I wanted to see - the reconstruction of the traditional Pequot village. The artwork and weapons and tools galleries were necessary evils which I had to fly through to get to the village. I did spend a little time in the clothing gallery...but who hasn't seen Native American clothes, right?

When I walked into the room where the "village" was set up, I was a little bit overwhelmed. First of all, it was incredibly realistic. There were ambient noises of things like birds and bugs and flowing water pumping through the speakers. The large domed ceiling was painted very realistically to look like the sky. There were live trees growing. The pathway through the village was made of dirt. There were sound boxes by each wax figure speaking in the native tongue to give the illusion they were just living their life and I was lucky enough to peek into it. And although I knew the mannequins were all made of wax, they still felt freakishly real. I was also one of only a couple people in the room, which added to the calm that felt settled over the village. The space was also huge and made it feel believable that this is what an actual Pequot village actually looked like, out in the middle of an otherwise-uninhabited Connecticut.

Each wigwam hut had a scene going on outside it - whether it was an elderly woman mashing up food, or a young girl learning how to weave a basket, or two boys playing in the trees above the hut with their bows and arrows aimed at a squirrel in the tree across the way. There were also a couple huts you could actually walk in to and see just how small of a space one family was living in. It was all so incredibly well done, that I just can't say enough positive words about it. I was beyond impressed at how immersed the space made me feel in the Pequots' daily life and culture. Here's a picture of two men paddling through the river that winds down one side of the village, while a woman cleans fish next to her home.


The audio tour that went along with this part of the museum was also very well-executed. It described each scene as I came upon it, and then gave several options to learn more about something that was highlighted in that particular scene (i.e. the Pequot diet, tools used to hunt, etc.) It was really fantastic, and I don't think anyone who goes all the way to Mashantucket, even to gamble, should miss it!

On my way out, I found the room where a 350-500 year-old dugout canoe was being housed. The canoe was rescued from the bottom of a nearby lake, and is obviously a great source of pride for the museum, as two different greeters on my way in both mentioned to me to be sure and see it. It was pretty incredible to think of the natives rowing away in this canoe hunting for fish. I think it would probably submerge in it's current shape:

When I decided I had seen everything I came to see (in just over an hour, no less), I made my way back up to the main floor (the entire museum was built underground), and back out to the driveway to wait on the shuttle. A shuttle drove up after only a couple minutes of waiting, and I was back in the main casino a short time later. The show went well that evening after a long afternoon of working in the venue, I slept like a baby, and woke up eaaaarly the next morning for the drive back to New York with my boss, which only involved a couple pockets of traffic.

My trip (Atlantic City to the south and Foxwoods to the north):


"I have discovered that finding a song that mentions Connecticut is impossible." - Nicole Klein

Miles Traveled Today: 140
Total Miles Traveled: 14,115

Northeast Casinos: Atlantic City

My job is going to have me traveling a bit more coming up this next year with a comedy show I am producing, which bodes well for logging my travel mileage! I won't necessarily be staying in any one place long enough to see all the sights, but hopefully I'll be able to sneak a few touristy activities in from time to time, especially in the cities I have never been to. First up, Atlantic City, NJ.


I've been to Atlantic City several times for work now, and I find it less and less appealing every time. Something about smoky casinos and degenerate gamblers...in New Jersey...just doesn't really do it for me. I decided to invite my friend Marggee to partake in my all-expenses paid holiday weekend. Normally on trips like this, my boss would just drive me to wherever we were going, but because Marggee and I were trying to make a long weekend out of this rather than just arrive in time for the show, we investigated the many different modes of transportation that would get us there. The most attractive option was the relatively new ACES Train, which is essentially a speed shuttle between New York and Atlantic City. The problem we ran into is that it has a very limited schedule and runs only on the weekend - not accounting for a holiday Monday. The ACES Train was unfortunately out.

So we decided to rough it and check out the bus options. After checking rates between several different bus companies, we found the cheapest and quickest round trip service to be on Megabus. The bus left out of a totally disgusting Port Authority terminal at 8:30pm, which meant we had plenty of time to get there after work. The ride took only a little over 2 hours and cost only $36 (although my travel could be expensed, Marggee's couldn't, so the price was a consideration). We had a winner. Because neither of us had ever taken public transportation to a casino mecca, there was no way we could have known the unbelievably low caliber of clientele this bus would attract. We were two of the only people on the bus who actually had overnight bags packed; these were people going to gamble all night without having to pay for a hotel room. Fortunately, we did not have to interact with these heathens at any point, so we took the very front seats on the bus, connected to the complimentary Megabus WiFi and entertained ourselves by watching Julie and Julia on Netflix.

The drop-off location for the bus was Caesar's Palace, which is right in the middle of the main section of casinos, but nowhere near our relatively remote destination, The Borgata, which is separated from the general hubbub and mayhem of "downtown" Atlantic City (and for that reason seems to attract a slightly higher caliber of riff-raff). We were greeted when we stepped off the bus with a $20 voucher good for the slot machines inside Caesar's. Now if that doesn't make enduring the Port Authority bus terminal worth it, I don't know what would! This effectively made our transportation feel as though it cost next to nothing, plus we would get to do a little gambling for free - since neither of us would have actually spent our own money to gamble! We put a trip back to the Caesar's slots on the top of our to-do list for Sunday when we would have an entire day to kill.


We got checked in (VIP concierge, thank you) at the Borgata and immediately went in search of the employee cafeteria, for which we had all access passes and planned to eat as many meals as possible in. Calling it an "employee cafeteria" really doesn't conjure up the right image, I don't think, because this was more akin to a delicious buffet of home-cooked food. Everything was amazing, and we gorged for an hour next to cocktail waitresses and pit bosses who probably thought we had somehow snuck in to their hidden food wonderland. My favorite thing I ate in the cafeteria was the baked tilapia, and I would hit the tilapia section up several more times over the course of the weekend! The entire menu was rotating though, so there were always new things to try. My boss thought we were crazy and teased us about eating the cafeteria food when I could be expensing meals in the nice restaurants in the casino, but I don't think I could have eaten anything I would have enjoyed more, quite frankly. Sausage and hashbrowns and pancakes for breakfast and lots of fresh fish and meat and veggies for lunch and dinner...every time Marggee and I sat down with our overflowing plates of food, we would just laugh at each other and say things like "I am so happy right now." HA! Poor, malnourished New Yorkers.

Saturday I pretty much had to work all day setting up the show, so although I told Marggee to go to the spa or do something fun (or sleep), she ended up staying by my side most of the day helping out with the minutiae of producing a major comedy show. This was very helpful, since in the past when I've done this, I had always had a helper, but she no longer works for the company, so now it is just me flying solo. We had two sold out shows on Saturday night and a final sold out show on Sunday night in the Event Center which all ran smoothly.


I felt bad not being able to go play with Marggee all day on Saturday and basically having her stuck with me working, so on Sunday, we decided to take the shuttle to The Walk, Atlantic City's vast outlet center. The shuttle picked us up right in front of the Borgata and took us on a 15-minute ride that cost less than $2 to the outlets. There were hundreds of stores (we probably made it to 10 of them) and some great deals. Even though I'm not much of a shopper, even I couldn't resist some of the cute clothes I found at some seriously discounted prices!

From the outlet center, we made the short walk over to Caesar's Palace to redeem our $20 slot vouchers. Of course, to redeem them we had to provide all sorts of information, so I'm pretty sure I will be getting junk mail for free rooms and buffets at Caesar's from now until eternity. We blew through the $20 relatively quickly (although Marggee had a stroke of luck that only prolonged the inevitable). Because Marggee had never been to AC, I took her out the back entrance of the casino so we could walk down the boardwalk a little ways, which is personally my favorite part of this abysmal town. After wandering around aimlessly for about 20 minutes, we finally figured out where the shuttle would pick us back up and headed back to the Borgata to scarf down another cafeteria meal and get ready for the final show.

The Atlantic City Boardwalk:


After the show on Sunday, we went with the promoter and all the other people involved with the show to the little swanky bar in the middle of the casino. It was so incredibly smoky (and I was wearing some new outlet clothes!) so I couldn't wait to get out of there and get to sleep. Not to mention, the smoke was starting to bring on either some kind of allergic reaction, or was just making me physically sick. So with that, we hit the sack. The next morning, one of the comic's publicists was taking a limo back into New York that the casino had provided for her (long story), so although our bus tickets were round trip, we quickly ditched them and hopped in the limo bright and early. We all slept the entire way back, and I'm pretty sure we all crawled into bed and slept the rest of the day and night.

I enjoyed this trip to Atlantic City a lot...although I didn't get to go out on the beach as I have in the past, it was fun to have a friend around, and going shopping and gambling away free money was a nice reprieve from the usual monotony of work trips to this otherwise dreadful place. Next up: Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut!

"Put your makeup on, fix your hair up pretty
And meet me tonight in Atlantic City..." - Atlantic City, Bruce Springsteen

Miles Traveled Today: 254
Total Miles Traveled: 13,975

Phoenix: Wrap up

As much as I was dreading my early flight this morning, it turns out it was for the best, as the winter weather was coming down very hard on New York - and all the flights scheduled after mine were canceled and postponed for 2-3 days. I was on the flight back with some friends, so we ended up splitting a cab to get home more quickly and beat the weather. Mission accomplished - as I sit here writing this, the blizzard is just now beginning.

Overall, I got a wonderful impression of Phoenix, and although I can't imagine a situation that would take me back there, I thought it was a beautiful, clean city full of outdoor/nature activities to enjoy the gorgeous weather in - even in the dead of winter. If I ever do go back, I will definitely not miss the Grand Canyon, though!

My trip:


Our theme song for the weekend after chasing a non-carnivorous jack rabbit down the street in front of the hotel and several relatively peaceful cacti encounters: "Better watch out for those man-eating jack rabbits ... and that killer cacti..." - Hey Dude, TV Theme Song

Miles Traveled Today: 2,414
Total Miles Traveled: 13,721

Phoenix: Day 3

GAME DAY!!!!! We woke up bright and early this morning so we could belly up to the breakfast trough in the lobby before making the drive to Glendale for the game. We now had wheels with my brother's rented car, so were taking ourselves out to Glendale, which was approximately a 30 minute drive. We hit absolutely no traffic - but then again, we had timed our arrival for approximately seven hours prior to game time. So here we were at 11am circling the University of Phoenix Stadium, trying to figure out where our parking lot was, only to discover lots didn't open until noon!


So much for our brilliant plan of beating the traffic. We decided to make our way to Westgate City Center, an area of restaurants and bars in walking distance from the stadium, but more importantly with a parking lot where we could park and kill some time before our lot opened. We found Yardhouse, a sports bar that was relatively empty when we arrived but quickly began to fill up once we had been seated. The service at this restaurant provided perhaps the most frustrating part of the entire weekend. I don't know what kind of management would allow there to be one waiter at a sports bar next to the stadium where the national championship game is taking place, but that was what happened here, and we definitely drew the short stick. Tables that were seated 30-40 minutes after us had ordered and were eating before we ever even placed our order - it was insane! I've honestly never seen anything like it; usually when a waiter realizes there is a problem with a table, they will step it up and make sure they are taken care of. Not this one - my order even came out wrong and I was so exasperated with it after waiting over an hour for it to arrive that I didn't even bother to send it back for fear I'd never see it again. Needless to say, our waiter received no tip and we could not wait to get out of there!

By this point, we were able to get into our parking lot and headed for the stadium to scope out the area. We took a quick lap around and then headed back toward the Westgate area closest to the stadium on foot, where the Auburn band was playing and Auburn fans once again were out in full force. And once again, the Oregon fans were severely outnumbered, which was making this entire experience even more fun! We bounced around to several different bars to meet up with friends, all of which were completely packed, before heading back across the walkway to the stadium.

We were hustling to get back to the far end of the stadium through the throngs of people to participate in Tiger Walk, a favorite Auburn tradition that we were excited to participate in on the other side of the country! We got to where it was supposed to be and ended up standing around for a long time waiting for the buses to arrive. This was not a normal Tiger Walk in that we could only see the players through the tint of the bus windows rather than having them walk through a crowd of fans high-fiving everyone, but it was exciting once the buses finally showed up and we were all cheering for our undefeated Tigers on getting us all out to the middle of the desert in the middle of January!

Once Tiger Walk was over, it was time to start making our way into the stadium! It was a long walk to the opposite end of the stadium, but we went straight in and got settled in our seats ... and what amazing seats they were! We were basically in a private bleacher box that only had two rows of 8 in it. We were also in the seats closest to the ESPN College Gameday setup and had to stare at Nick Saban's ugly mug throughout the pre-game and halftime.


During the pre-game warm ups, the media swarmed around our star quarterback and Heisman Trophy Winner, Cam Newton.


The University of Phoenix Stadium was a very nice indoor stadium, and our seats were directly in front of a concession stand and the restrooms, so we were never far from the action! When trying to figure out if the game was being played indoors or outdoors while packing for the trip, I learned about the interesting way the stadium is able to keep live grass growing on an indoor field.

The field full of live, green grass and the stands full of spirited, orange Auburn fans:


An exciting weekend in Phoenix was capped off with the most exciting thing of all - Auburn wins 22-19 and is presented with the crystal National Championship trophy!


After the game we were tired and hungry. We had passed an In-n-Out Burger on the way to the stadium so made an executive decision that we must go there. We were not alone - the place was packed with Auburn and Oregon fans. It was my first time eating at this uber-poplar West Coast fast food spot, and I have to say, I was not overly-impressed. Not sure what the big deal is. I will take a Milo's cheeseburger back home in Birmingham over the In-N-Out double double burger any day of the week!

We are passing out hard tonight - a 10:00am flight back to New York awaits me. But it certainly feels good to be going to bed as a national champion!

Phoenix: Day 2

We woke up early early early this morning to fit in our hike, which I was very excited about - I don't feel like I get enough fresh air in New York! We had a filling breakfast of french toast, sausage, waffles and eggs in the hotel, and after receiving some quick directions from one of the employees at the front desk, took the pedestrian-friendly walk east on East Northern Avenue (approximately 0.7 mile) to Dreamy Draw Recreation Area, part of the Phoenix Mountain Preserve. We knew we didn't have much time (less than two hours) to explore a massive expanse of mountain trails, so decided to stick to the main paths and do our best to not get too turned around. I wish we could have had all day out here - this was a perfect day and a perfect location to pack lunch in a backpack and get totally lost deep in the mountain!

The trails were well-marked and with the lack of trees replaced by cacti and rocks, I felt I had a better sense of direction, as we could always turn around and see exactly where we had come from. There were some pretty steep trails where serious hikers with poles were headed up with bags packed for the day. The entire area was scattered with wanderers like us, neighbors out for a walk and runners with their dogs. There was something very refreshing about being up early, getting a little exercise and enjoying the fresh air and landscape around us.

We were literally sweating by the time we started heading back to the hotel - this was definitely a more exerting hike than we had realized! We got showered, and soon after, my brother and his friend arrived after making the early morning drive from Las Vegas. I had reserved a cab online via DiscountCab to pick us up at 1pm to head to the Scottsdale Waterfront, where the big Auburn pep rally was happening at 2pm. I had reserved the cab a week prior just to make sure we wouldn't run into any availability problems so decided to make a quick call just to confirm. They must have some operating board over at Discount Cab, because without even saying my name, they knew who I was and where I was calling from. Needless to say, the cab was already on the way to the hotel!

The cab ride to the Scottsdale Waterfront, which we confirmed with our driver actually fronts no discernible water, took around 30 minutes and cost $40 split between the four of us. The Waterfront is basically a big shopping/restaurant/nightlife area and definitely the trendy area of Phoenix. The sun was out bright this afternoon, so leaving the jacket at home turned out to be a great idea - more hands to hold my hot dogs and beers with! The pep rally was held out in a large open field dubbed the "Bud Light Fiesta" where a big stage was set up and was packed shoulder to shoulder with orange and blue!

After a bunch of cheers and Auburn celebrities taking the stage to fire us up, we moved like a pack of cattle toward a strip of bars a few blocks away. This seemed like a fun area, but with the swarm of Auburn fans, moving around was painstakingly slow. Auburn fans were heading to Upperdeck, where there was a big outdoor patio completely jammed and a line that looked a few hours long to get in, so we decided to go across the street to Dos Gringos, which had been labeled as an "Oregon bar." Dos Gringos had a sprawling upstairs covered patio where we settled in for a couple drinks and enjoyed the breeze. It was around this point that I realized Oregon fans were just NOT in Phoenix. Auburn fans were dominating as far as the eye could see. Even at the Oregon bar, while Oregon fans were in the majority, there was no shortage of orange and blue! The view of the "Auburn bar" Upperdeck across the street:

At this point I was trying to meet up with another group of friends despite a complete lack of cell service (Thanks AT&T - I'm only in the middle of a major city), and finally tracked them down a short cab ride away at The Lodge. We sat outside for a little bit on the patio out front, but as it started to get chilly we headed inside to a big booth where we had buckets and buckets of beer and bar food somewhat resembling a meal. Drinking all afternoon and evening, we ultimately hit a point where it was just time to leave. We tricked a cab driver into thinking we'd come all the way to Scottsdale for $25, so he agreed to give us that same rate going back. Had the meter been running, I feel sure it would have been closer to $40, so I definitely get a point for negotiation skills on this one. Tomorrow's game day!