canyonwalker: Hangin' in a hammock (life's a beach)
Italy Travelog #21
Chia, Sardinia - Thursday, 29 May 2025, 2pm

We decided to enjoy a take-it-easy day at the resort today. That's a choice with consequence, though. What we've chosen to say No to is a catamaran and snorkeling trip! Alas, as much fun as being out on a boat on azure waters can be, and as much as I've wanted to snorkel since I was a boy, I've found out the hard way, by two failed attempts, that I'm not able to snorkel. Maybe I could with some careful instruction, maybe not. But I definitely can't with just, "Here's a mask and some fins, now jump in!" Plus, Hawk is reluctant even to try because swimming poses to much of a threat to her injured back. But hey, just because we're not going snorkeling doesn't mean we sit around our room swallowing our tears, there's a pool to enjoy!

Update, 6pm Thursday: The whole snorkeling trip was a fail. Due to high winds and problems with the boat, nobody got to snorkel. Now I'm so glad we stayed home and enjoyed the resort!

Pool deck at Conrad Chia Sardinia (May 2025)

Ha ha, the joke was on us. That pool is cold. Like, seriously, the only people going in the water are the couple from Minnesota and the couple from Germany. All the rest of us dipped a toe in and said OH HELL NO! 😱

But again, there are more options here than go back to our rooms and swallow tears. There are comfy lounge chairs with beautiful views across the pool and to the ocean beyond.


Lounges in the shade at pool deck at Conrad Chia Sardinia (May 2025)

Some lounge chairs, like the pair we got (photo above) are even in the shade and pair to form a day-bed for two.

Plus, a few minutes later we got drink service, so imagine that picture above with us in it plus a piña colada and a margarita. (Yes, we're drinking like we're in Latin America while being in Italy, but frankly all the Italian drinks on the menu look disgusting.)

We chillaxed on the pool deck for almost 2 hours, until we decided it was time for lunch. We placed an order at the little cafe over to the side. The host came to fetch us when our food was ready.

Lunch by the pool at Conrad Chia Sardinia (May 2025)

Apparently they don't serve food at the lounge chairs. I guess that makes sense because otherwise people'd generally make a mess of them. So we sat up straight and enjoyed our lunch at a little pool-side cafe table. Hawk ordered a bowl of spaghetti while I played the Ugly American card and ordered the hamburger. BTW these were two of literally only four entree choices on the menu, so it's like we skipped over all the cibo tipico to pick these dishes. Plus, we've recently been unimpressed with the island's cibo tipico.

After lunch we stretched out in our shaded day-bed for a bit longer before heading back down to our room. Hawk has now gone upstairs to the spa for a deep tissue massage— a mea culpa comped for yesterday's fuckup with cibo tipico. I'll join her up there after her massage for us to use the hot tubs together.


canyonwalker: Hangin' in a hammock (life's a beach)
Italy Travelog #17
Chia, Sardinia - Tuesday, 27 May 2025, 4:30pm

Our flight from Rome to Cagliari this morning was uneventful. And mercifully short, at 1h15m. That's because we were cramped into average-minus economy seats— not that Aeroitalia even has roomier seats, except in the exit rows— and there was no wifi. Sigh. Yet another budget European carrier. At least so far they've only joked about having to pay €5 to use the toilet.

BTW, if you're wondering how to pronounce "Cagliari", it is not Cag-lee-ARR-ee. That's kind of an Anglo pronunciation. In Italian the g is basically silent when paired with an l. Thus the locals all say CAL-yah-ray. It sounds a lot like they're saying Calgary— the city in Alberta, Canada. But fortunately the weather here is better. It's sunny and around 80° today.

The Conrad Chia Sardinia (May 2025)

It was a long ride in a van from the airport down to our hotel. We're not in Cagliari/Calgary but in the small town of Chia, on the southern tip of the island of Sardinia. Parts of the drive were through fairly rural areas. The roads in this spread-out resort hotel are mostly dirt roads.

Once on the property, we checked in and stowed our luggage. Our room wasn't ready yet. We rode in a golf cart over to a hotel restaurant near the beach. There we met several colleagues and joined them for lunch. And to put our food on my sales VP's tab. 😅 Not that the company isn't paying for it anyway; this is Club.

Private patio at the Conrad Chia Sardinia (May 2025)

We drew out lunch waiting for a text from the front desk that our room would be ready. Actually pretty much all of my colleagues were waiting for the same. Around 4pm I gave up because I felt like I was about to fall asleep and rode a golf cart back to the front. Our room was ready; they just hadn't texted us. 😒

The room is large, reasonably comfortable, but also kind of bland. The one interesting feature it does have is a large, private patio (see above). We're on the first floor, though, which kind of means no view.

Ocean view? Well... (May 2025)

I lifted my camera up over my head to look over the bushes around our patio. Yeah, we can kinda see the ocean from here. But this is not what I think of when I think "beach resort". I feel like my company either got rooked on picking this location... or cheaped out. I'm already reconsidering my choice to stay an extra day here at my own expense. It's not worth the nightly rate for this. 😔

canyonwalker: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Travel! (planes trains and automobiles)
Italy Travelog #16
36,000' over the Tyrrhenian Sea - Tuesday, 27 May 2025, 10am

This morning we woke up early, 5:30am, to eat breakfast in our room, check out of our hotel in Rome, and taxi to the airport. We were out the door and in a taxi before 6:30, at the airport by 7:15. We're headed to Cagliari, on the island of Sardinia.

In case you're wondering, "Wait, you only toured Rome for one day?" the answer is No, we had two days there. At this point I've skipped over our Monday tours, leaving them in my blog backlog for now, to avoid getting too far behind. I'll come back around the to the backlog later. For now suffice it to say that Monday was busy. We toured the Vatican for several hours then took the metro back into Rome's city center to visit several sites such as Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, and the Pantheon. It'll probably take me 3 days to catch up on blogging about all of that. And boy, are our feet tired from all the walking!

With this flight to Cagliari we're shifting gears on our trip. Our quick visit to Rome was the "us" part of the trip. Cagliari is the "club" part of the trip. We'll be with work colleagues, the top performers globally from my sales team, for the next few days.

Italy!

Apr. 2nd, 2025 08:24 am
canyonwalker: The colosseum in Rome, Italy (italy)
Italy. We are going to Italy!

I made brief mention last week about planning a trip to Italy and getting side-tracked planning our Thanksgiving holiday with family instead. Well, ultimately we got both trips planned last week. We're going to Italy at the end of May.

Italy!

Better yet, this trip is mostly free because it's my company's President's Club. "Club", as it's often referred to in sales, is part of the incentive/reward system in sales organizations. Top performers are nominated to Club each year and go on a trip, together, somewhere fun for a few days. Typically it's a beach resort. I won a club trip for the third year in a row at our annual sales kickoff in February.

Over the past several years this company's club trip has always been somewhere in Mexico or the Caribbean. While I hate to be the sort who looks a gift horse in the mouth, part of me each time has lamented, "Againnn?" I've been to those locales many times, and they're easy enough to get to from the US they don't feel that special. I've even suggested gently to our execs, "How about next year in Greece? Or Italy?"

Well, I don't know if they were listening to me or made the decision completely on their own, but this year it's in Italy. And that's awesome, because I've never been to Italy.

Italy!

Club this year is on the island of Sardinia. We'll have 3 nights at a nice hotel there. Hawk and I have chosen to extend it, at our own cost, for an extra night— as it seems such a shame to travel 7,000 miles away and stay just three nights. Oh, and we're also adding a pre-stay in Rome. Rome! We'll fly to Rome, stay there for 3 nights (at our own expense, but we've picked a really nice hotel— and gotten it on points!), then fly a short hop to Sardinia, stay there a total of 4 nights, then fly home.

Italy!

canyonwalker: Uh-oh, physics (Wile E. Coyote)
Has this ever happened to you? You set out to book a trip somewhere, and in the process you end up booking a totally different trip somewhere else? And the first trip still isn't planned? It happened to me today. 😂

One of my goals for today has been to book our trip to Club. Club? Yes, President's Club, the annual incentive award for top sellers in many organizations. I won a trip to Club again this year, for the third year in a row. And this year Club is in Sardinia, Italy. I'm excited about that because it breaks the pattern across the past 7+ years where my company has held Club in the Caribbean or Mexico. We've been to those places on our own, and they're closer to home, too, so they seem less special than Italy.

So, we're trying to pick our flights to Italy. The trip's in late May. And I've got to get this done by tomorrow— which, for me, means today, because I'm taking the day off from work tomorrow. Except while researching flight options it struck me, "Hmm, I should start looking at Thanksgiving travel plans to visit family."

At first, looking at Thanksgiving travel to the East Coast seemed like a short tangent... then I went down the rabbit hole on it. Good news? We've got flights booked, and they're at convenient times and much better prices than I expected. Bad news? Those are our Thanksgiving flights. Italy in May, booking deadline tomorrow, is still TBD!

canyonwalker: Mr. Moneybags enjoys his wealth (money)
Wednesday night at SKO was the award dinner. We dressed up— well, some of us did; I dressed to the nines in a jacket and black bow tie, complete with cuff links and pocket square— and sat for a nice dinner— well, maybe someone's dinner was nice; my steak was tough, and I left more than half of it uneaten on my plate— in the hotel ballroom. Ahead of dinner we mingled for drinks as a magician worked the room to entertain us. The magician, Nick Ivory, worked for us at our trade show booth at AWS re:Invent in December. When he saw me roll up in my tuxedo he recognized me right away.

The sales awards ceremony was good night for me. I was called up on stage for three awards: Deal of the Year (Americas), New Logo Deal of the Year, and SE of the Year (Americas). I was named to President's Club. Again. Now for the 3rd year in a row!

That "Deal of the Year (Americas)", BTW? The company's biggest contract ever. We re-signed a customer for $11 million over 3 years, a significant upside from what they were spending with us previously. The New Logo Deal was a lot smaller in size but was recognized because of the great work I help lead in putting together a business case. We found a return on investment of 7-to-1 for them, powered largely by a new feature in our product that no one else had thought to do the math on yet. Now that business case is an example we lead with in talking to other prospective new clients.

canyonwalker: Sullivan, a male golden eagle at UC Davis Raptor Center (Golden Eagle)
Los Cabos Travelog #19
Viceroy hotel, San Jose del Cabo - Thu, 9 May 2024, 9am

Today's our last morning in Los Cabos. Our flight leaves a bit after noon; our shuttle to the airport leaves at 10am. As I've been waking up at 6am, that actually leaves us me few useful hours to enjoy the resort and/or the beach— if I wanted. Sadly I cannot find the energy to care. Other than socializing a bit with colleagues I passed on the walk over to the breakfast room earlier this morning, I've been content to sit quietly in my room.

Relaxing in the morning on our private deck at the Viceroy (May 2024)

It's a comfortable room with a beautiful view, I must point out. But beyond that artificial horizon lies a beach. And probably some of my colleagues. But today I don't care to see either one.

The beach, I don't care about because it's not actually that nice. Oh, it looks beautiful, a wide band of pale brown sand. But it's actually very gravelly and hurts to walk on. And the surf's too rough to enjoy going in further than knee-deep. Oh, and the water's cold, too.

As for my colleagues? I've been feeling a malaise at work for several months now. I'm disengaged and don't care much anymore. Hanging out with colleagues just doesn't seem much fun under the circumstances. Yes, this is the same reason I bailed early from the awards dinner last night. I'm happier keeping my own company here. 😔

canyonwalker: Uh-oh, physics (Wile E. Coyote)
Los Cabos Travelog #18
Viceroy hotel, San Jose del Cabo - Wed, 8 May 2024, 10pm

This evening was the awards dinner for Club. Everyone here for Club, and all our +1s, assembled on the beach for dinner and cocktails. Like last year, the head of our sales organization went one-by-one through all of us employees present and shared a little personalized story about why he liked having us on the team. Perhaps because it all was so similar to last year, I just wasn't feeling it. I opted to leave 30 minutes early— well after the executive speeches but before the free drinks stopped. I went back to our room— our room with a beautiful living-room deck, now lit with evening lights— and vegged.

canyonwalker: Walking through the desert together (2010) (through the desert)
Los Cabos Travelog #17
Baja California Sur, Mexico - Wed, 8 May 2024, 3pm

Today we went ATV riding in the Baja desert. It was another of the A-or-B activities arranged for my company club trip. I think the "B" activity was a spa treatment, so yeah, I was totally going with Option A. Hawk, too.

Geared up for ATV riding in the Baja desert (May 2024) A bus took us to a spot over an hour away. Fourteen of us were aboard for the activity.

After the difficulty I had with snorkeling yesterday you might wonder if I'd want to try another physical activity. Hell yes! It's not the physicality.; it's my familiarity with the equipment. While I've never driven an ATV before I have been driving 4x4 vehicles for 27 years. I'm very confident with reading trails and picking the right line through obstacles. As I took the while after a quick briefing on the controls, I thought to myself, "This is like a Jeep and a lawnmower had a baby."

The photo above/right of me in my gear is the only one I have from this activity. The guides told us multiple times not to try using phones or cameras during the trip. "You'll need to keep both hands on the wheel and pay attention to driving," they advised us. Which was totally reasonable. But it was also because they were taking pictures for us to sell at absolutely hideous prices. How hideous? Over $100 for a digital download of 20 or so pics they made. $72 for single photo printed as a souvenir. Fuck no.

The ATV I drove was a two-seater, front and back. I had wanted a solo ATV but Hawk didn't want to drive. Thus she rode as my passenger for the full hour.

While we were out on the trail we saw other groups in the same area. Other outfitters offer ATV rides, too. And some offer a much more classic 4x4 way of traversing the desert....

We rode modern ATVs through the desert; others rode these ancient ATVs (May 2024)

I was amused we saw camels in the same area as Hawk had spotted beach camel rides a couple weeks ago when we were planning activities for our Los Cabos trip. I was way more interested in ATVs than camels, though. "Compared to ATVs," I warned, "Camels are stinky and mean."

canyonwalker: Hangin' in a hammock (life's a beach)
Los Cabos Travelog #13
Viceroy San Jose del Cabo - Mon, 6 May 2024, 11pm

This evening our company held a welcome soirée for Club. It was in the "bird nest" just outside our room. (Though actually it looks more like a squirrel nest or maybe a beaver den.)

Yes, this was a welcome reception even though Hawk and I have already been in the area for two days. We pre-extended our trip, paying for the extra two nights on our own. Today's the official arrival day and is why we switched hotels and checked in to the Viceroy.

At the soirée we ate and drank until around 9. Hawk went back to our room after that while I went upstairs to the bar on the roof to drink some more with colleagues. There are some people in the group who drink like fish. I'm trying to respect my own limits and not get sick or get so sloshed I do something stupid. (One colleague already dived into a 4' deep pool and got a bloody forehead from hitting the bottom. 😨) Even so, I drank more than I really wanted to tonight. ...But not so much that I'll be sick. I think. 😰

Club gifts were slightly less generous this year than last. Recall last year in addition to a bag of towels and flip-flops and suntan lotion and crap like that we got a nice USB speaker and... oh, did I mention?... $800 cash. This year there's no valuable item like a USB speaker. I did consider bringing mine from last year to use in the room but decided not to as I imagined we might get another one this year. 😂 Alas, no. And instead of $800 cash we have an allowance to spend up to $800 on food and file an expense report for reimbursement.

An $800 expense limit is not the same as $800 cash. $800 cash is $800 in your pocket, literally. Last time we took the $800 cash meant for 3 days of food and drink and stretched it to cover not only all our meals for 5 days but also the costs of a rental car for two days to tour the island on our own and other incidentals.

An expense limit means up to $800. And we've got to eat $800 of food and drink— or at least order it and throw it away 🤣— to get the full amount. But we don't have expensive tastes. And we're allergic to paying ridiculous resort prices even for basic food. That bougie $133 lunch? We only did that because we knew we were eating on other people's money. And even with OPM we couldn't stand to do it more than once. It's just not our character to spend money wastefully even when it's not ours.

canyonwalker: Hangin' in a hammock (life's a beach)
Los Cabos Travelog #12
Viceroy San Jose del Cabo - Mon, 6 May 2024, 4pm

Today around lunchtime we headed back to San Jose... but not the one near our home. Now we're in San Jose del Cabo, Baja California Sur, MX instead of San Jose, California, US. This is officially the club part of our club trip. The next 3 nights at the Viceroy hotel in San Jose BCS are being paid for by my company.

In a previous blog I wrote about what I saw as the difference between 4.5 and 5 star hotels based on the distinctive service at the Waldorf Astoria. By that rubric the Viceroy is at hest a 4.5 star hotel. The rooms may be nice— though we wouldn't know, because we haven't been assigned a room yet— but other than that it's just a normal, large hotel. When we arrived the lobby was busy with people checking in, and we had to wait. At the Waldorf there was never a line, for anything. There were always enough staff on hand to greet us immediately.

Looking across the water-court at the Viceroy hotel, San Jose del Cabo (May 2024)

Like I said, our room wasn't ready yet when we arrived, so we left our luggage with the bellmen and grabbed our beach bag to head down to the pools and the beach. The pools and beach are out across this... water court, I'll call it for lack of a better term... and then down a few levels. Descending those levels on ramps feels like leaving the Ziggurat.

We staked out a couple of beach chairs and put on suntan lotion. We headed first for the surf. That was mostly a no-go as the waves were pounding too hard to want to go in deeper than our knees. And Brr, the water was cold! Oh, and the sand was rough, too. It hurt my bare feet to walk across it. We retreated to our beach chairs and ordered lunch from the beach-side cafe.

Lunch was... edible. I.e;, it was bland Mexican food. And overpriced, though not $133-for-two-people bougie.

After eating we hung out at the pool for a while. Many of my colleagues were there. Some of them were already pretty well liquored up even at 2pm. Ah, day-drinking. It's a younger man's sport.



Around 3 we headed back up to the lobby to see if our room was ready yet. It was. They just hadn't texted me like they said they would. We went to the room, started to unpack, then thought to make walk-through videos like the one above. 😅 And it's not just for showing off. Making and narrating a short video like this is a great way to remember things months or years later. I'm trying to remember to make short videos more often of cool places I go.

canyonwalker: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Travel! (planes trains and automobiles)
Los Cabos Travelog #1
SFO United Club lounge - Sat, 4 May 2024, 7:15am

We got up early this morning to head to the airport. Not quite zero-dark-thirty, more like five-dark-thirty. ...Which, with sunrise getting earlier as we head toward summer, wasn't even fully dark. The sky was already starting to lighten at 5:30. Technically sunrise occurred minutes before we climbed into a car at 6:10 for the ride to SFO but it was hard to tell because today it's cloudy. And cold. And it started raining on the drive. No more early summer weather here. What a great time to leave!

This morning we're flying to San Jose del Cabo, Mexico. It's the first leg of a multi-stop beach and desert resort trip.

Things are looking good right now. The weather's shitty (for May) here this weekend but much warmer in Cabo. The highs there will be reliably in the mid 80s the next several days. Our flight's looking to be on time, I'm enjoying a bit of free food and drink in the United Club lounge (yay, elite status!), and maybe I'll catch up a bit on sleep on the 3 hour flight.


canyonwalker: Hangin' in a hammock (life's a beach)
Los Cabos Travelog #0
At home - Fri, 4 May 2024, 10:00pm

This evening Hawk and I have been packing for our next adventure trip. I know, I'm not even done posting blogs from our New Zealand trip— I've got probably 15 journal entries still to go!— and here were are getting ready to head out again. And no, it's not Alaska. Though I wrote earlier today about planning an Alaska trip, that's not 'til June. It's not even the next trip. It's, like, four trips away in the future. Tomorrow morning we're leaving for a nine days in Los Cabos, Mexico and Phoenix, Arizona.

The Los Cabos part of the trip is the President's Club trip I won at work. Well, part of it is club. The club trip is 4 days and starts Monday. We chose to extend the trip, at our own cost, for an extra two days, flying down there Saturday morning. We'll be off on our own at a beautiful resort (more on that soon!) before joining the company group after two days at a different hotel.

Club is over on Thursday. Instead of flying home or extending another three days in Los Cabos (the five we've planned are plenty) we'll fly to Phoenix, Arizona. We'll be there for three days at a nice hotel with a waterpark. Splashing around in pools at a hotel in the US is kind of more our speed than visiting an overly commercialized, "foreign lite"  resort. And my in-laws are flying out from Pennsylvania to join us for those 3 days in Phoenix. That Sunday we'll fly home... and they'll fly with us, to visit us in California for a few days.

Anyway, it's late Friday night here. Our flight leaves in about 10 hours. We're pretty much all packed. And we're packed fairly lightly. This trip is all leisure, no work. No work clothes, no work computer. Just shorts, light shirts, two pair of sandals, two swim trunks, and a few bottles of suntan lotion.

canyonwalker: wiseguy (Default)
One thing I remember well from last year is how April and May seemed to go by in a blur. ...Okay, that reads like a self contradiction. What I mean is that I had so much fun travel in April and May last year that everything else, especially working, seems like a blur. Hey, it's kind a nice thing to think back on a time and wonder, "Wow, what did I even do at work during those two months?" 😂

Last year April and May were bookended by trip and filled through the middle, too. Just writing this summary makes me feel a bit dizzy:


This year looks like April and May could be another blur. ...Not quite yet, though. I mean, it's it's already the 5th and I haven't been more than about 5 miles from home this month. But soon. Starting tomorrow!

  • Saturday we leave for 16 days in New Zealand. (Actually it's only 14 days in NZ; one day each way is spent on travel)
  • In May we're going to President's Club again. Yes, I won again this year. This year it's in Los Cabos, Mexico.
  • We're adding a 3-day weekend at a resort in Phoenix onto the end of the Cabo trip
  • We might visit Alaska at the end of May.
  • Who knows, maybe we'll squeeze a weekend getaway somewhere in between the above!



canyonwalker: wiseguy (Default)
I got word on Friday that "Club" this year, aka President's Club, aka the annual resort trip for top performers in my company's sales organization that I won in February, will be in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico this year. We'll be at a fairly swank resort hotel on the beach for 4 days in May. If I go.

Wait, what do I mean "if"? Well, over the past few weeks I've been thinking about the places club might be this year. Cabo has been on the short list. It's a predictable tourist destination for this sort of thing. And I've been thinking, "Enh, if it's Cabo I'm only 50/50 for going."

I've been to Cabo before. For club, even. It was back in 2019. It was a... reasonably good... trip but also one that left me not wanting to go back for more. See my 5 Takeaways from the Cabo Trip for details.

And this trip being 4 days, that's 2 days that are part travel so there are only 2 full days at the resort. It's not a big trip. I'd rather spend the time off from work going somewhere of my own choosing, even at the cost of paying my own way. The main thing that keeps me "in" for this trip is the fact it's face-time with leaders and key coworkers.

canyonwalker: wiseguy (Default)
Day 2 of our sales kickoff (SKO) summit in Las Vegas went well. The program continued to be well run with an appropriate amount of content and enough (today occasionally just enough) flare to the presentations to keep people engaged. But the best news came at the evening's awards dinner. I won President's Club. Again.

"Again" is because I won "club" last year, too. This year I was named as SE of the Year for North America.

This caps another year in which I've often been unsure how well my contributions are recognized and appreciated. I'm pleased with the win.



canyonwalker: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Travel! (planes trains and automobiles)
It's only what, 9 days since we actually finished our trip to Grand Cayman? And I've just finishing catching up on my blog backlog. I would've caught up sooner, maybe only 2 days late, except that I've had two other trips in the meantime. And now one of them, the San Antonio trip, is getting backlogged. At least that one should only finish 36 hours behind. But now that I'm caught up on travelogs from Grand Cayman it's time to do a trip retrospective. Here are Five Things:

  • Our choice to extend the trip 2 days was a good one. Yes, it was expensive. Those extra 2 days on our dime cost over $1,200. That's a lot of dimes. But much as we expected, the 3 nights paid for by Club would have been too brief of a stay on the island, especially considering the travel time there and back.

  • Our choice to book flights that allowed an overnight in a hotel on the outbound trip was a good one. It turned out that with a flight delayed 2 hours we didn't get much sleep. But that was better than flying a redeye— or worse, missing a redeye connection, which happened to a few of my colleagues.

  • I've said many times before that every trip I forget one thing. That's not a hard-and-fast rule, of course, Some trips I don't forget anything. This trip I almost forgot one biggie: the hotel overnight in Houston on the outbound leg. The day before the trip I was reviewing plans for Sunday and tried finding which hotel I'd booked to see what dinner options would be available at/near the hotel. That's when I realized that I hadn't booked a hotel. 😱 I'd looked at options and more or less picked one... but I didn't actually make the booking. 😧 Well, I did get around to it... one day ahead of time. 😅 Lesson: always recheck your plans 24 hours before you leave.

  • Our choice to travel with only carry-on luggage was the right one. It meant not taking dressier clothes (e.g., trousers and loafers for me) but we absolutely didn't miss dressing up. We also considered checking a bag just to not have to lug carry-ons around the airports, but the time we'd have lost checking and reclaiming that bag 4 times would've made every airport more of a hassle.

  • Finally, the good experiences we had with guided tours on this trip, particularly swimming with the manta rays and snorkeling (even though it was a bust for me), make me more interested in looking for guides on future trips. One of the reasons I've been reluctant is that outfitters are hit-or-miss. We've had a few flops when we've hired tours. I feel more comfortable traveling by my own wits than outsourcing it to someone who may take my money, a lot of money, and give me a shit experience and not care— wasting, at that point, not only my money but also my opportunity. Maybe I need to be more willing to take that risk.


canyonwalker: My old '98 M3 convertible (cars)
Grand Cayman Travelog #15
GCM Airport - Thu, 18 May 2023, 11am

Here's where we shift gears on our trip to Grand Cayman. The president's club portion of the trip is over today. Most attendees are heading home. A few of us are staying on, though. On our own dimes. Because that means no more pre-organized trips like swimming with stingrays and the bat cave with an underground lake we enjoyed the past few days, we're shifting gears back to our norm of self-guided touring. We've rented a car.

We piled on a 10am shuttle bus to the airport with several of my colleagues. They were all carrying full luggage. Hawk and I had one small bag between us. (I was carrying my computer in case something went wrong with the rental arrangement that required replanning.)

The shuttle driver kindly offered to take us to the rental car offices after dropping everyone else at the airport. He warned that it was far away and hard to walk to from the airport. It was... across the street. And not some monster, 10-lane street with speeding cars and trucks but a little two-lane. With a crosswalk. I guess Grand Cayman gets a lot of tourists who are happy to traipse around big resorts hotels but throw a fit if asked to cross a street somewhere.

Rented a Kia Cadenza on Grand Cayman (May 2023)

I mentioned above having brought my computer in case I needed to replan if something went wrong. Well, something did go wrong. The rental agency's computers were down. The one person working there was able to find my reservation on a printed list, though it took her four attempts flipping through the sheaf of papers. My reservation was the second one listed, on the first page. 🙄 But I guess she appreciated my patience, and/or my decision to buy all the optional insurance, because she upgraded me at least 2 car classes. We've got a Kia Cadenza for the next few days. It's a full-size car and it's way bigger than we need.

One weird thing I've noticed right away about this car is that the driver's seat is on the left, like a car sold in America— or Canada, Germany, France, et. al. But driving in the Cayman Islands is done on the left side of the road— like in the U.K. It's nice that sitting in this car is familiar; I won't have the problem of opening the wrong door to enter! But that doesn't help with driving, as I'm sitting on the opposite side of my vehicle from most other drivers on the road.

canyonwalker: Hangin' in a hammock (life's a beach)
Grand Cayman Travelog #12
Westin, Grand Cayman - Wed, 17 May 2023, 9pm

After a nap of a few hours this afternoon I was feeling... well, if not better at least less bad. I frittered around the room doing quiet things for a while (like catching up part-way on blogging) then changed into my swim trunks to go downstairs for the hot tub. En route to the hot tub we stopped at the pool bar for a pair of piña coladas, Hawk's a virgin (no alcohol) and mine... experienced. 😅🍹😋

After a pleasant soak we headed back upstairs to shower and change for our evening soirée. The company had another catered group dinner this evening, this one on the beach.

Sunset on Grand Cayman (May 2023)

We all arrived as the sun was setting over the Caribbean Sea next to us. The food wasn't quite ready (servers were still setting things up) so a bunch of us took turns making photographs with the sunset.

Dinner began as the sun dropped below the horizon. Food-wise it was quite a big spread of various meats, virtually all of them overcooked and dried out. I give them an A for effort and D for execution. But there was an open bar. That can make up for a lot of culinary shortcomings. 😂

As dinner wound down our head of sales and CEO spoke. The head of sales recognized each person who joined Club this year and said something nice personally about each of us. The CEO spoke, too, and kept his part brief, mostly just "Rah, rah, let's go out after this and have even more success this year!" It was kind of a wrap-up dinner as club ends officially tomorrow morning. A few of us are staying on, though, on our own dimes.

After dinner there was dancing with a DJ playing music. I noted with some amusement that the music was all "Greatest hits from the late 1980s". It's almost like most people here are as old as me. 🤣 I didn't dance, though, as I wasn't really feeling it. We left the party somewhat early, just before 9, and headed up to the room to wind down.

Tonight I'm going to get to bed early again— I'm still a bit tired— and hopefully this time sleep the whole night through. Tomorrow we aim to get up early and fill the day with activities on our own.

canyonwalker: Hangin' in a hammock (life's a beach)
Grand Cayman Travelog #5
At the Westin, Grand Cayman - Mon, 15 May 2023, 10pm

It's been a pretty good first day here on Grand Cayman. Though we didn't finish lunch until sometime after 2 we made good use of the rest of the day, striking a fine balance between relaxing and enjoying things.

Pool at the Westin 7 Mile Beach in Grand Cayman (May 2023)

First up we headed outdoors. The skies were cloudy, threatening rain, but the air was plenty warm so we figured we'd enjoy it as long as we could. We walked past the hotel's pool and hot tubs, planning to come back to them later. Our first order of business was the beach.

On 7 Mile Beach at the Westin in Grand Cayman (May 2023)

We got a great pair of lounge chairs on the beach. The hotel has a team of "beach ambassadors" to manage assignment of chairs. I figure that's to solve the problem that exists at many resorts of people rushing out early in the morning to reserve a chair by throwing a folded towel on it, then leaving it there all day long while they do other things. We also placed our towels on our chairs to do other things— but other things for us was to get in the water right in front of our chairs!

The ocean here at 7 Mile Beach is walk-in warm. It's not bathtub warm, the kind that requires no acclimation, but acclimation was fast and easy. The water's also calm and very clear. As I was wading in 5' deep water I could see straight down to the white sand at my feet.

As we waded in the ocean we met up with a pair of colleages who were doing the same. The four of us talked "shop" and travel for a whle, until it was almost time to get out and dry off. We went back up to our chairs to sit for a bit. Alas the cloudy skies with humid warmth weren't enjoyable for just sitting around to soak up the sun, so we picked and moved to one of the hot tubs.

After a good soak in the hot tub we went up to our room to recharge for the evening event. We got to the room around 4:30pm, showered and changed, and then relaxed until just before 6pm. At 6 we went downstairs for a reception dinner.

The evening soirée was nice. The food was at least decent, and the drinks (and the food) were free. Our group was a bit on the small side. I don't think we had more than around 25 people there— and that includes employees who made club plus all our +1s. It felt like at best two-thirds of the people who should be here. Of course, at least two people are still MIA from weather related flight cancellations last night. But more than that, a number of club winners weren't able to make this trip because the date was only announced 5 weeks ago. For example, one of my colleagues already had a two-week trip to Italy booked.

Those of us who are here had a fine time, though. After the caterers shut down the bar in the reception room, the head of our department urged us all to move over to the hotel's beach bar. After that shut down we all moved inside to the lobby bar. 😂 Well, we didn't all move at each step. There was some attrition each time. The hour felt later than it was. For example, the beach bar closed at 9. To a lot of us it already felt like 10 or 11.

I had one more drink with the team indoors then called it a night. It's only 10pm now but this seems like a good time to wind it down. Hawk and I have plans to get up early tomorrow for breakfast then visit the beach again before we leave for a snorkeling trip just after noon!

Profile

canyonwalker: wiseguy (Default)
canyonwalker

May 2025

S M T W T F S
     1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 3031

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated May. 31st, 2025 12:58 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios
OSZAR »