Cain is Abel

The trip to Ecuador went very smoothly. Mary and I have recently discovered the secret to being comfortable while traveling. Beer. Going through an airport sucks. Waiting in an airport sucks. Being on a plane pretty much sucks. Beer makes all of these things much more awesome. We tried some “Sweet Water 420″ while we were waiting in the Atlanta airport for about five hours. It made the time fly by.

(I like this picture because you can see Mary and I in the reflections)

Ecuador was a culture shock. We had a honeymoon suite at the Cafe Cultura in Quito. It was a very nice room, but not by American standards at all. The water was very unreliable, and during certain times of the day you could not get running water. Heating was also a bit of an issue, but it was the colder season. Very few people spoke English, so we were forced to learn and try Spanish – and I think we did a pretty damn good job of it.

What Cafe Cultura lacked in American amenities, they made up for in quality. Their service was amazing, and the food was even better. Every morning we had fresh squeezed blackberry juice, coffee with hand whipped sweet cream, water with mint/lemon, and that was just the beverages. Despite the amazing food, the altitude must have been doing something to mess with our stomachs, because we could barely finish our meals.

The markets were somewhat disappointing. It was pretty much the same 5 or 6 stores over and over, and 90% of the things you saw for sale were extremely mass-produced. This may be because we visited during the down season. We did find a few gems, and were able to find gifts for most of our relatives.

On our 3rd day, which was a Sunday, we visited “Old Town” in Quito. Ecuador is a very Catholic nation, and their mass was in progress while we were visiting. There were quite a few bands playing, and people in the street, so we definitely picked the right day to visit. The markets there were…more of the same. We did get to eat in a nice little place in the center square, where we had some Pilsener. (Ecuador’s beer brand)

After staying 3 nights at Cafe Cultura, and basically being forced to immerse ourselves, our trip got easier. We met our guide, Roberto, who took us through Ecuador for 2 days before we left for Galapagos. We stayed at the JW Marriott the night before.

The Marriott was awesome. They upgraded us to a honeymoon suite, which included access to the executive lounge. The executive lounge meant free food, and 1 free drink! Very awesome. We also got to see a little Ecuadorian TV. Like most TV…nothin’ special.

Our first day with Roberto was a long drive towards Otavalo, the “Largest indigenous street market in the world!!”. One of our stops was Cayambe, a small town that is known for their “biscochos”. The biscochos are basically buttery biscuits that you generally eat with cheese. Mary and I each had some, and were incredibly sleepy during the remainder of the car ride.

At one point, Roberto had mentioned that eucalyptus is used in the biscochos. I knew that eucalyptus had a narcotic effect, so I asked if that effect stayed in the biscochos. Apparently in that town, they also have saunas where eucalyptus is used as well, and it is supposed to “enhance your relaxation”. I’m pretty sure we had an experience with a true opiate of the masses!

We stayed in Hacienda Pinsaqui, outside of Otavalo. It was a lavish, hidden Hacienda, which was almost empty because it was the off-season. As soon as we arrived, a band started playing just for us, people came and took our bags, etc. We are not used to that kind of treatment, so it was just a little awkward. The room was a bit more modern than Cafe Cultura, and had a sweet wood-burning fireplace. That night, the band played for the handful of guests at the bar. They served us tea, and some sweet liquor that I’ve never had before. It was a good stay.

Otavalo market was pretty disappointing. Sure, it was the off-season, but they were selling all of the same mass-produced stuff that the other markets were. Almost nothing was unique to Otavalo at all. Oh well.

After Otavalo, we started our trip back to Quito. We stopped in the national park, and walked down a little hiking trail next to “Guinea Pig Lake”. Apparently they eat guinea pigs in Ecuador. The scenery was beautiful – a lake at the base of a volcano. We made use of Mary’s new camera and the panoramic setting.

The drive to and from Otavalo was also noteworthy. Their roads are filled with 1) Diesel trucks that cant go more than 15mph, 2) Small cars trying their best to weave between traffic on 1-lane streets, and 3) INSANE buses that would literally run other cars off the road. Also, cows are just wandering along the sides of streets. They obviously are owned by somebody, but they just chill on the side of the highway.

We stayed in the Marriott again that night in Quito. No suite upgrade that night. We just swam in the pool and relaxed before tomorrow mornings’ trip to the Galapagos…

Stay tuned for tales of dragons, pirates, and Ecuadorian moonshine. Part II and the Galapagos TR are coming soon!

Once again, a usual Vancouver morning at a cafe for breakfast/blogging.

Our plan for the day was to bike to the Capilano Suspension Bridge – but luckily we found out that it was a good 15 mile bike up a hill before we went to the rental store. Instead, we took the SeaBus to North Vancouver, and took a bus from there to Capilano. Public transportation in Vancouver is extremely reasonable as far as pricing goes. Interestingly enough, they dont even have a place to check your tickets on the SeaBus. Seems like it would be pretty easy to just walk through and get on without paying.

The Capilano Suspension Bridge was very fun. We took some good pictures, which I’ll be able to upload as soon as we’re home. I also bought a pretty sweet hoodie for myself as a souvenir, which is good because I don’t usually buy too many souvenirs.

We got on the bus going the wrong direction as we were leaving Capilano. We were planning to get back on the SeaBus, but it brought us up to Grousse Mountain. We just shrugged it off and figured we just need to sit on the bus until it turns back to the SeaBus. It wasnt until we had already turned around that we realized that Grousse Mountain would have been pretty sweet and we should have just rolled with it. Ah well – something to see next time.

We went to a British Pub called Chester Cheese’s for lunch. Sampled a few more local brews, and this big 500ml bottle of “Monty Python’s Holy Grail”, all of which were excellent. We shopped a bit before getting on the SeaBus to return to greater Vancouver.

This will need to be a 2-part blog, because the battery is running down on the laptop and I will need to turn it off soon. So until next time…

Started out this day the usual Vancouver way, by walking to a coffee shop and just chilling out with a delicious cup of coffee and a giant muffin. This is always a very nice time to get in a blog post. After reading over my first few blogs, I would definitely like to include some more pictures to spice them up a bit. They are pretty text-heavy and could use some sprucing up.

After the coffee shop, we headed to the Vancouver Art Gallery, or VAG. The VAG was very unique in the way it was set up. The lower level was completely dedicated to early photography from different regions. Mostly from about 1890-1920. The second floor was dedicated to trees, and their role in art. Tree-art is especially prominant in Canada, and this was probably my favorite floor in the VAG. The third floor was extremely unique. It was divided into 2 sections. Each section had dozens of televisions set up, all playing interviews from people from the same “utopian” city. The exhibit was designed to highlight the argument that utopia is different to each individual, even if they are all living in the same utopian city.

After the VAG, we returned to the area near the New Amsterdam Cafe, where they have an upstairs Vapor Lounge. In the Vapor Lounge, you just pay 5$ and sit around a table that has a Volcano Vaporizor on it. You pack the vaporizer, it inflates a huge bag, and you pass it around. Oddly enough, we were probably amongst the oldest people in the room. We chilled there for an hour or so, and then walked back to our hotel to relax before dinner.

Dinner was truly the highlight of this vacation day. We walked along the seawall to a restaurant called Cardero’s. We had been looking forward to some good west-coast fish since before our vacation even started. I ordered the West Coast Salmon, which was the house special. Mary had the Halibut, which had just come into season. Both meals were absolutely amazing – I really can not say which I liked more.

To compliment our great seafood, Cardero’s also had a variety of local brews on tap. I can’t remember the names, but we each had 1 light lager and 1 medium cream beer. All 4 beers were excellent, and went very well with the fish.

Cardero’s is definitely among my top 5 meals of all time. The service was quick and polite without being too in-your-face. The food was easily a 9+/10. The beer was a 9+/10. I would reommend this restaurant to anybody in the Vancouver area.

Only 2 full days of vacation left! We will be cramming in the Capilano Suspension Bridge, UBC trip, Conservatory, and looking through a few open houses in the next 2 days.

We don’t want to leave.

Mary kidnapped me and took me to New Harmony, Indiana for our 1-year anniversary. It was a great time.We rented a log cabin out in the middle of their park, and out of 11 cabins, ours was the only occupied.

There was a wood burning stove in the middle of the living room, a giant bar-like kitchen area, a bathroom, and 2 bedrooms (which we did not use).

We blew up our air matress near the wood burning stove, spent a good hour figuring out how to get a fire started, and then just hung out for a good 2 hours before leaving to eat at the Red Geranium. The food was great. I ordered the roasted duck breast, which I’ve decided I like much more than chicken. There were “wasabi mashed potatoes” which taste very much like they sound. Fairly gross . There was also this new vegatable on my plate. I commented to Mary that it looked like “a cross between broccoli and asparagus”. Our waitress must have heard me, and came over to tell me that it is a brand new vegetable, broccoli crossed with asparagus. Neato!

We spent the next day exploring New Harmony. The town looks pretty much like every other run-down town in the midwest except for 1 key difference – The people actually took care of their house and land! The houses, though modest, were very well taken care of and fit perfectly in the quaint little town. There was not even a McDonalds in New Harmony. Their movie theater only had 2 movies, and they both only showed 1 time per day. Despite how ridiculously small the town was, the people still put in enough time to make the place look nice. Other small towns need to follow New Harmony as an example.

We saw the outdoor church, visitors center, and a few other random “old historic” buildings that were lined up as tourist attractions. Much like the cabins, the town was deserted. I suppose December is not their biggest month for tourism. The visitor center (on the right) was the most impressive piece of architecture in the town…and it was out in the middle of nowhere, overlooking

All in all, Mary and I had a great time. We got to spend plenty of time together, without the many distractions of reality. The 1-year anniversary is a big landmark, and really pushes our relationship to a new level. I can only hope the next year is as good as this one was.

‘Til next time -

My Dad, Dan Berry, George King, and myself went to the UL Cardinals game yesterday, and witnessed quite a beating . The Cards were very favored to win (I think the spread was 27 points? Not sure on this. ) so the 48-17 score at the end was pretty much expected. UL is a high-scoring team, regardless of their opponents, so you can always expect an exciting game.

At the end of the game, they played “Country Road” by John Denver (I think?). The very same song played by West Virginia last year, after the collosal upset due to a rule-breaking, game-breaking, on-side kick made at the end of the game. The exits were blocked, so all of us UL fans had to sit there and listen to those inbred hicks sing their song. I never thought that I’d be cheering for WV to win, but in this case, a win for WV is a win for UL. And win they did – WV beat Rutgers 41-39 in triple overtime last night, and made UL the Big East conference champions. Orange bowl for us!

Now, I am an amateur college football fan at best, so I’m not going to try to delve into stats, other teams, or any of that stuff – but from what I understand, UL will be going to the Orange bowl vs Wake Forest – which means I’ll probably be going to Florida on Jan 2nd

Huzzah!
-Dan

Monday evening, my Dad and I went to the SBIR seminar at the French Lick Casino and Resort. It was only a 1 and 1/2 hour drive from my house…but half of the trip was through 2-lane streets and crappy towns. Surprisingly enough, there were very VERY few billboards and advertisements for the casino on the way there. Probably a big indicator of the lack of traffic in their casino.

We got in, dropped our bags in our room, and headed straight to the casino. My dad had found a handful of quarters that he planned on giving to some slot machines. Walking through the casino, we couldn’t find a single machine that would accept quarters! For the first time in history, we were upset that we were unable to give up our money. Oh well – to the poker room.The poker room looked nice, there were about 12 tables set up in the room, and everything was pretty clean and new. Of the 12 tables that were set up, only 1 was playing a game, and only 8 players were seated. Lucky for us – they were playing 1-2NL holdem, which was what we were looking for. And we were able to occupy the 2 empty seats to fill the table. I cashed in 200$, my dad cashed in 100$, and we went to work.

My dad busted out early with an 88 v KQ hand on a JT7J9 board. He could have played the turn better, but once he got to the river there was no way he could have laid it down. Ah well .

I had worked up a ~550$ stack by 11pm. I doubled up off of some old guy when my 77 hit a 784 flop. 8 on the turn. 5 on the river. He paid me off big with his 66, and promptly left the table in anger.

So it’s about midnight, and I limp in with 44. Everybody else at the table limps in (as was extremely usual for this game – these players were horrible) and we see a 664 flop. Bingo! I lead out 10$ into a 10$ pot – I had been aggressive the entire game, and was probably making 80% of the preflop raises at the table, so I was expecting plenty of action. The god-awful player to my left (who always had a pissed off look on his face) min-raised me to 20$. I was 100% sure he had a 6. And i was about 90% sure he’d call my all in, since he’s the type to always think the other guy is bluffing. I push all in, which puts him all in for his remaining ~250$. He calls and shows A6, I flip my 44, his angry face gets even angrier. The turn is a 5. The river is a damn 600$ A. I die a little inside.

Despite the awful loss, I was still up about 60$, and continued to play for another 2-3 hours. By the end of the night, I had 140$ profit, 4 coronas (which cost me 5$ a piece…no free drinks here), and a 7$ meal comp for the deli. Not a bad night at all. The poker room in that casino really really needed some improvement though.

1) The dealers were slow, and they switched dealers every 30 minutes. We were maybe getting 20 hands an hour.
2) 6$ table rake every 30 minutes instead of raking x% from each pot. This is absolutely ridiculous. We are paying between 25c and 50c PER HAND with this rake structure. Fuck that.
3) Nobody is even there. Put up some billboards so people can find this place. Driving through 10 hick-ass towns to find a casino isn’t exactly easy access.
4) Poker is huge. Absolutely huge. Highlight it, bring people in there, and they will lose their money there and elsewhere in your casino. The way it was run, they obviously didnt really give a shit. The dealers were amateurs, and rules were broken frequently.

In the end, at about 2am, there were 5 players left, and we requested that the rake be lowered to 3$ instead of 6$. The poker room manager decided that this was ok, but would have to check with the other manager when she got back. We paid our 3$ and continued playing. About 20min later, the other manager came to the table and told us that they were not authorized to blah blah blah and we would have to pay 6$ from now on.

The response of the table was pretty much “fuck it, that’s too much, we’re leaving”. Good job, bitch. You got greedy and wanted 30$, and in demanding it, you lost the 15$ you could have collected. Now your poker room is empty and you have nothing to do for the rest of the night.

I cashed out my 340$, and returned to my room where I’d get about 3 hours sleep before going to the SBIR conference (which applies so little to me, and really isnt even worth note). It was a pretty good time, and even with the horrendous table rake, the game is beatable. But those folks at French Lick really need to change some things for that casino to be successful.

The trip did inspire me to visit my local casino – Casino Aztar, and see how I fare there. I’ll come back and write a trip report once I’ve given it a shot.

Until next time…