where have you been

[mrwicked]

Got all my $$ back from united for the clusterf*ck that was my flight up to oregon. They were actually awesome about it. 

Who here has done Scandinavia? Aside from Denmark in Sep, I am thinking we'll do northern lights and Lapland area in Sweden/Finland for Christmas. Mutha f*ckin arctic! Someone here has been..

[Lhalo]

On 6/8/2017 at 1:30 PM, mrwicked said:

Back from Oregon. Did few days at a super posh ranch in Bend for a wedding, then few days in Willamette Valley wine country which is pinot noir HQ. 

F*ck I love it up there - just other worldly pretty. And the weather was perfect.

Came back with 26 bottles of wine - mostly pinots but also some pinot noir rosé and a few sparklings. 

Nice work. What wineries did you hit up?

I've only been to Stoller and Ponzi so if you have any other suggestions I'd love to here them. 

[NJHalo]

15 hours ago, Stradling said:

I'll be at Wednesday's game. 

I'm working up in Rhode Island Tuesday into Wednesday. If I can get on the road early enough, I might get to Wednesday night's game. Otherwise, it's Thursday for me.

If I can get there Wednesday, I'll shoot you a PM and stop by and say hi.  

[mrwicked]

11 hours ago, Lawrence said:

Nice work. What wineries did you hit up?

I've only been to Stoller and Ponzi so if you have any other suggestions I'd love to here them. 

We did a little private tour with a woman who has a company in the area. She was fantastic. Took us all over, and had lunch set up for us at Hyland. Was great because it was a Tuesday so the wineries were not busy and we got to meet the staff and owners. 

We did Four Graces, Stoller (gorgeous property), Archery Summit (best pinot of the bunch), Hyland, Winderlea (great views) and Chahalem. We brought home 4-5 bottles from each. Highly recommend all of them.

Drank a ton of Ponzi while there, so good. And a bunch of other locals I can't remember, I have pics on my phone. What was really fun was at dinner one night near our BnB we ordered a bottle of Ayoub Latifeh pinot noir and really loved it. Eventually someone from a large table near us comes over and starts chatting. He asks how we like the wine, we say it's fantastic and say they should order a bottle too. Turns out he (named Mo) is the Ayoub winery owner out with his family for dinner, and the wine was named after his mother. He sent over a few more bottles for us to try, it was all damn good but the Latifeh was our favorite.  One of the ones he sent over was a Cab Franc / Pinot blend which was f*cking delicious as well.

All the above wineries get thumbs up from us! Was great to stock up our wine storage with Oregon stuff, definitely different than CA pinots (arguably better IMO). 

[Lhalo]

The private wine tour sounds like a great idea. We'll have to try that the next time we're up there. Thanks for the recommendations mang!

[Stradling]

1 hour ago, NJHalo said:

I'm working up in Rhode Island Tuesday into Wednesday. If I can get on the road early enough, I might get to Wednesday night's game. Otherwise, it's Thursday for me.

If I can get there Wednesday, I'll shoot you a PM and stop by and say hi.  

Sounds great!

[mrwicked]

1 hour ago, Lawrence said:

The private wine tour sounds like a great idea. We'll have to try that the next time we're up there. Thanks for the recommendations mang!

Oh yeah, it is the way to go. Wasn't that much, and definitely cheaper than a DUI! Plus she knew the wineries and workers well so they knew we were coming and took great care of us. It was a fantastic day. We were perfectly wasted by the end. 

[ten ocho recon scout]

On 6/15/2017 at 9:33 PM, mrwicked said:

Got all my $$ back from united for the clusterf*ck that was my flight up to oregon. They were actually awesome about it. 

Who here has done Scandinavia? Aside from Denmark in Sep, I am thinking we'll do northern lights and Lapland area in Sweden/Finland for Christmas. Mutha f*ckin arctic! Someone here has been..

Very high on my list. Ive only been to denmark and norway for quick layovers. Saw the city, but not out where youre looking. Ive done the canadian artic, but not lapland. Lapland has been a target the last few yesrs for christmas.

Look up "norway in a nutshell". Its a train tour, looks pretty awesome

[NJHalo]

On ‎6‎/‎16‎/‎2017 at 0:33 AM, mrwicked said:

 

Who here has done Scandinavia? Aside from Denmark in Sep, I am thinking we'll do northern lights and Lapland area in Sweden/Finland for Christmas. Mutha f*ckin arctic! Someone here has been..

The doctor I work with in RI went there last year for Christmas. Stayed at the Icehotel in Sweden. I think she said she stayed in the ice room one night, and a regular room the rest of the stay. If you have any specific questions, LMK and I will ask. I know they loved it.

[mrwicked]

33 minutes ago, NJHalo said:

The doctor I work with in RI went there last year for Christmas. Stayed at the Icehotel in Sweden. I think she said she stayed in the ice room one night, and a regular room the rest of the stay. If you have any specific questions, LMK and I will ask. I know they loved it.

That's exactly what I want to do! Yes, any info you have would be awesome and would be much appreciated. Curious when she went, what her itinerary was, where she stayed, etc etc etc.

Thanks dude! 

 

[Tank]

i think james bond stayed in that ice room once.

 

once.

[ten ocho recon scout]

A buddy at work did the ice hotel thing a few months back, too. Sounds like a pretty cool experience.

[notherhalo]

@mrwicked I have only been to the main cities a couple times each. Oslo and Stockholm are both beautiful cities.  People there pretend to be very quiet and reserved, as your personal space and privacy seems to be an important cultural value to them.  After a few drinks, and everyone will have at least a few....they will be your best friend and show you around.  

I thought Americans wouldn't get any love from their recent political history, but I found quite the opposite.  Football (not soccer) is already popular there and continuing to gain traction. 

As for the northern lights. I saw them in Iceland only, but I hear in the North of those other Scandinavian countries they are amazing.  I'd recommend it.   Reykjavik, once my favorite city ever is now spoiled by tourists, move on or just go to the gym there called World Class Larguar    It has to be hands down the worlds best gym   

---------

 

Anyone been to Mexico City?   Going there this weekend for the 1st time. 

[ten ocho recon scout]

When inwas in Stockholm, it was a pretty crazy halloween setup city wide, and it was only september. And the people at the pubs were pretty cool, the women pretty amazing.

Iceland is a blast. If anyone is interested, iceland air offers 3 day layovers there at no cost if youre headed for mainland europe or the UK. Its definetely worth at lesst one day.

[NJHalo]

On ‎6‎/‎19‎/‎2017 at 1:18 PM, mrwicked said:

That's exactly what I want to do! Yes, any info you have would be awesome and would be much appreciated. Curious when she went, what her itinerary was, where she stayed, etc etc etc.

Thanks dude! 

 

I spoke with her about the IceHotel. They had an awesome time there. They were there for New Years. She said there is about 2 hours of daylight at that time of the year. Lots of outdoor activities to do (dog sled, ice fish, snowmobile, etc..) If you don't like outdoor activities, so not bother to go there. She said the hotel has one restaurant and one bar (plus the ice bar) but there really isn't much else to do but sit in the lobby. So be sure you are up to spending time outside. She said they give you these heavy duty sleeping bags for the night or nights (max of 2 nites) that you spend in the ice hotel room. The only negative she said was having to undress so many layers when you had to go to the bathroom.

She told me that if you are serious, you need to book ASAP as it usually books up by now. Also, be prepared for Kiruna Airport. It is like they landed a plane at the North Pole, and you have to walk off the plane to the "terminal".

They are looking at going to Finland this year to either stay at the Igloo hotel http://www.kakslauttanen.fi/en/

or do the Icebreaker cruise on the Sampo and swimming in the Artic Ocean  http://www.visitkemi.fi/en/sampo

[NJHalo]

19 hours ago, calscuf said:

I had a couple nights in Stockholm.  Was super expensive and they've got some tough alcohol laws. 

Copenhagen is pretty cool, too.  I've mentioned this before but Norwegian Air typically has RT tix to Oslo, London Gatwick and Copenhagen for less than $500.  Upgrade to Premium for $500 more and it's basically international business class RT for $1000.  That's a great deal.

Like you guys I haven't ventured into the countryside or the far north.  Someday.

My next trip without the family will be backpacking/camping through New Zealand's southern island with one of my Aussie buddies.  But that one is a ways off.

Norwegian Air just started servicing Stewart Airport/Newburgh NY, which is less than an hour from my house. They have some crazy low prices non-stop. Definitely need to make this happen sooner than later.

Belfast Northern Ireland $99 OW

Bergen Norway $109 OW

Dublin Ireland $99 OW

Edinburgh Scotland $99 OW

Oslo Norway $160 OW

Prague CZ $139 OW

Shannon Ireland $119 OW

Trondheim Norway $192 OW

[ten ocho recon scout]

Yeah, norwegian air is the coolest thing that ever happened to me in life. 

I highly suggest anyone who can get a few days off take advantage. If you cannget even 2 days off, with your weekend, its worth the 300 dollar flight from LAX to western europe for a weekend. Its literally about the same cost ss vegas for a weekend....but you see the real eifle tower. (Not as many porn advertisements though, so theres give and take)

[notherhalo]

Norwegian Air Shuttle has to be the best budget airline.  They even have routes to the Middle East from Europe... $175 RT with decent seating, free wifi, snacks to make the ride less boring 

[ten ocho recon scout]

All new dreamliners, too. Decently roomy, good overhead space. TV with new movies in every seat.

Damn...now i want norwegian flights @ELEVEN

[notherhalo]

Mexico City was a surprise

oldest, largest city in the Americas with the most museums in the world, top 10 richest cities, etc

the slums look like they really suck, but no tourist that visits LA, goes to Palmdale

it's a direct flight from everywhere, it had the crappiest W hotel I've stayed at. 

Going to stay there a month, hoping the eventual kidnapping ends well

[mrwicked]

just locked down flights for my scandinavian adventure in a few months. going into copenhagen and out of stockholm about three weeks later, will work my way around as i see fit from denmark up into norway and the fjords and over to sweden.  so f*cking stoked.

[Adam]

1 hour ago, mrwicked said:

just locked down flights for my scandinavian adventure in a few months. going into copenhagen and out of stockholm about three weeks later, will work my way around as i see fit from denmark up into norway and the fjords and over to sweden.  so f*cking stoked.

Gross. So many white people

[Tank]

We leave for Maui next Sunday.

[Adam]

They let Vegetarians travel there?

[Tank]

yes, they do. all we're allowed to eat is pineapple and the occasional coconut. hoping to find someone generous enough to throw some asparagus my way once in a while.