I would love some help from my well-traveled friends! In less than two weeks Bethany and I will be boarding a plane to fly across the pond and journey to Ireland for 12 days.  I am so excited in many different ways, particularly because this is the first time I’ve been out of the country longer than a day. 

We have been planning this trip for nearly two years in terms of budgeting and logistics, and while we’ve tried to do our due-diligence with research I’m we’re still afraid that we might miss something that we’ll regret not seeing.

This is where I need help from my well-traveled or Irish friends: What should we do in Ireland? We want to make sure when we come back and tell people about our trip, people can’t say “I can’t believe you went to Ireland and didn’t go there or see that!”

We’re going to be flying into Shannon and staying slightly north west of there.  We do plan on going to Dublin for a few days, but will be mainly based along the western side of the country.

I would love for you to share me any advice you may have, either in the comments here or on Facebook. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with me!

This weekend Bethany and I flew out to Minnesota to watch our friends Joel & Katie get married, and while we were here on Sunday we tried to kill some time before our flight by going to the Mall of America.  We originally planned to spend a few hours at the Mall, but given our disappointment in the attraction (which probably warrants a future blog post), we cut our trip short by 1.5 hours.  At that point we were trying to figure out how we could kill another 90 minutes, while feeling fatigued and wiped out.  At that point all we really wanted to do is sleep, but it’s not like you can go get a (reputable) hotel room for that amount of time, and there aren’t a lot of places where it’s acceptable to sleep in public.  The airport is one of those few places, but it’s an awkward and uncomfortable experience.

The light bulb came on in my head: Why doesn’t someone start a business where one could essentially get a cot or a simple bed for a nap – at the airport?  Imagine that on the terminal there is a room you could go into which houses many cubicle-like partitions.  Each partition has two things in it: a bed/cot and an alarm clock (or a phone for wake up calls).  You check in at the front desk, reserve your partition for a period of time and catch some Zzz’s before your next flight. All of the sudden these painful layovers aren’t as bad, you have an answer for those awkward few hours between being hotel-less and waiting to get on the plane. Bethany even came up with a name for the business: Nap on the Fly

Some questions arise from this business model – but fear not, I have (half) thought this through:

Why wouldn’t this be a cheap hotel?

Because you have a set time limit – you can’t rent a cot longer than 4 hours.  We all know that in reality any nap over 2 hours takes you well best the groggy stage where your next night of sleep is pretty much ruined.  If you have a layover that’s more like 8 hours, then you may be better justified in getting a hotel room anyway.  This isn’t meant for those airline snafus that keep you in a city over-night, so you’re not really competing or replacing hotels.  Also the rooms are incredibly spartan: no TV, no furniture, and the lights are incredibly dim – because after all you should be napping.

What about your bags? Aren’t you supposed to keep an eye on them?

Yes you’re right, and the way you can do that is by supplying the partitions with a locker-like case where you can store your bag next to you while you sleep.  It’s one of those cases where a key locks it and you can pull the key out and pull it in your pocket.  Now your luggage is in a safe place.  Yes there is not an additional component in your partition, but we’ll draw the line at these three things and allow nothing more.

What about couples and families traveling? Will you have rooms for them.

Sorry, but these are individual napping quarters.  Each cot is a twin size, and each person must have their own partition.  This will also ensure that people are not doing other things besides sleeping in these cots.  I know this leaves families out of luck, but maybe the next expansion of this business will include a solution for families.

This sounds great, but how much will all of this cost?

I don’t’ think it would be too unreasonable to charge $10 for the first hour, since there are inherent costs with changing/washing sheets.  Killing an hour with $10 is cheaper than spending that same hour in an airport bar somewhere.  It would be up for debate how much the additional hours are, maybe after the 2nd hour the price drops by half.  $30 for 4 hours of quiet rest should be decent trade off, especially for business travelers.

What other holes would you poke into my idea? Feel free to ask any questions you’d like to fully bake my idea.  Also if you like this idea enough to run with it, go for it – I just ask for a modest founder’s fee

We drove into Austin and made our first stop Mayfield Park.  Mayfield Park was basically a garden/nature preserve that offered some small hiking trails through a forest.  As we walked through I couldn’t help but be reminded of the Blair Witch Project.  As we walked into the walled area of Mayfield and saw all of the peacocks and other large birds.  We collected some great pictures of these beautiful creatures, as well as some night shots of us around the scenery.

As we were walking out, we spotted a huge one in the tree – which we noticed by the bird’s um. rainfall.

We headed out from Mayfield over to Mount Bonnell, which is a large hill that’s capped off by a series of stairs.   It reminded me of Red Rocks in a way. When we got to the top we were treated of a nice view of the river overlooking the city.  The houses nearby were large and extravagant.  Coupled with driving up and down large hills, it almost had an “LA” feeling to it.

We drove into downtown and arrived at our hotel – the Hilton Garden Inn.  The hotel had a nice 18th Floor Bar that had a really nice appetizer, with some really underrated appetizers.  My sister aid that the queso dip was the best that she had ever had.

We headed out to downtown, starting our evening with dinner at Piranha Killer Sushi.  This was a great middle-of-the-road sushi place, with reasonable prices, a great atmosphere, and good food that was presented well.  If you’re in Downtown Austin, in the mood for Sushi, and aren’t looking to spend an arm & a leg – give them a try.  We were pleasantly surprised.

Next up was the staple of our trip: seeing a band play in the live music capital of the US.  We went to the storied Elephant Room, which is a place that has been a live music staple in Austin for quite a while.  We caught a modern/experimental jazz band called “Blaze”, a quintet featuring drums, bass guitar, trumpet, bari sax and a turntable.

The experience we had at the Elephant Room, described in one word, would be “token”.  As someone who appreciates and makes live music, it was spot on for what I was expecting and hoping for.  The picture in my mind, was illustrated by everything in the Elephant Room: the fact that it’s in the basement and dark, making it an underground experience; the fact that it was classy, but yet a little dirty; they had a diverse and eclectic mix of beers; and the band that played was rooted in jazz, but doing something strange and new.  As it turns out, the experience was exactly what I expected – not that it’s a bad thing.

What made the live music experience in Austin so compelling was the fact that the mystique of live music scene was enough to draw people out.  As with each band performance, you have the friends and fans that come out to see the band – this is typical of what you see in a city like Denver.  Unlike Denver though, the remainder of the room was filled with people knowing that they were going to see some live music that they may have never heard before, offering a great intimate musical experience.  The fact that people seeking this experience filled the bar only added to the venue (and city’s) reputation for the great musical experience.  In a circular way, the city’s success feeds on itself, creating an environment that leaves musicians in other cities very envious (and perhaps even a little jealous).  It was really something to see.

Speaking of things to see, we departed the Elephant Room and made out way over to the famed 6th Street.  Christina and Tony had been there a few weeks back and saw the street lined with various bars and clubs, and were eager to see what this place would look like on a weekend.  What we saw on Saturday was unlike anything we were expecting.  It turns out that 6th Street is closed on weekends to allow for the volume of pedestrian traffic.  The people descend upon the street in a way that more resembles Bourbon Street in New Orleans, only with newer surroundings and a wider street.  The whole scene was just chaotic.  We ended up not going into any bars, and made our way back to our hotel room.

The next morning we woke up to join my cousin and her family for breakfast at the Kerbey Lane Cafe.  They served these wonderful gingerbread and pumpkin pancakes, and we were treated to some great new tastes.  We were also entertained by my second cousin, who will turn 2 in a few weeks.

Austin turned out to be a great city, definitely exceeding my expectations.

As soon as we stepped out of the airport, we were welcomed by that Texas humidity.  It’s definitely not the pleasant Colorado fall weather out here. Thursday had temperatures spanning to the high 80′s, with the humidity approaching the same.  I think we ended up bringing the cool weather with us though, as on Friday it cooled down to the 60′s with very low humidity.  Today is the low 70′s with the humidity staying low, feeling like a pleasant late-summer day.

The last two days were filled with me working, but I did manage to break away in the evenings to enjoy some great restaurants Christina & Tony found.  We had lunch at Madden’s, in the neighboring town of Bryan.  They had the most amazing tomato bisque that was simply to die for!  We also enjoyed lunch at “Freebirds” which is basically a variation of Chipotle.  For those in Fort Collins: I’m not sure if it would rate the quality of Big City Burrito, but it was definitely a step up for Chipotle and maybe Qdoba.  For dinner we went to FishDaddy’s Grill House, which had some excellent smoked ribs that were a great value.  We’ve definitely ate well down here in Texas!

On Friday afternoon we went to the Messina Hof Winery and experienced a brief tour followed by an excellent tasting.  if you’re a fan of sweet wines, this would be a great winery for you.  They had a really good Port that went well with chocolate, as well as the Solera Sherry – which tasted like a cinnamon roll.  At the vineyard there was this pond that was full of turtles.  When we approached them, they all swam right over to us, thinking we were going to feed them.  It made for a crazy picture:

The Vineyard also made for some pretty pictures as well:

Before we left College Station my sister gave us a tour of the Texas A&M campus.  It’s a beautiful, spread out campus.  One of the highlights was this tree that created it’s own arch over the sidewalk.  They say that if you walk under the branches with the person you love, that you’ll be together forever.  Bethany and I snapped a picture under this tree:

We then stopped off at the book store and snapped a picture in front of her new university:

Next up: Austin!

Savannah definitely wasn’t what I was expecting.  I was expecting a small little southern town, but Savannah was definitely bigger and more touristy that I originally thought. I also didn’t have an appreciation for just how much American History is present in that small southern town.  Going around the Old Town area, it was amazing just how many old buildings have been restored, as well as the history associated with each building.  We took a trolley-bus tour around the downtown area, which turned out to be a very educational and interesting experience.

I Twittered it earlier, but I didn’t realize that for a period of time that Catholicism was prohibited in the Georgia colony.  I guess fears of being extremely close to the Spaniard Colonies prompted fear that Catholics in Georgia would have a disposition towards Spain – thus prohibiting Catholicism would eliminate such concern.

After our Savannah tour we made our way to Hilton Head, South Carolina where we will be until we head home.  The resort we’re staying in is very beautiful!  After skipping lunch, we had an early dinner in Charley’s Crab Restaurant.  I can’t appreciate the experience of eating seafood while watching the sun set over the water.

Tomorrow we’ll make our way to the beach and do some bike-riding around the area, so I’ll hope to take more pictures and share them.

Speaking of pictures, I’m having trouble uploading them to Flickr this evening. I’m sending them to my home computer now and will try uploading them there.  Watch for a follow-up post with pictures!

9News from AP:

United Airlines will begin charging domestic travelers $25 for a second piece of checked luggage unless they belong to some frequent flier programs. United’s parent — U-A-L Corporation — says it hopes to earn more than $100 million in revenue and cost savings a year from the new plan. It will take effect May 5. A United spokesman said Monday the new policy will help keep United’s fares competitive.  The $25 fee won’t apply to customers who have premier status or higher in the Mileage Plus program or silver status or higher with Star Alliance.

Is the airline industry (which could very well follow United’s lead) really out to make flying as miserable as possible?  I realize they’re hemorrhaging money, but they need to find a better way than nickel-and-dime passengers for every option.  Have you seen that low-cost airline commercial where everything on the plane from the reclining chairs to the overhead compartments have a coin-slot in them.  I bet some of these airlines like United looked at that commercial and said "Theses guys are onto something?"

There’s nothing I hate worse when you’re flying and they won’t give you the whole Coke can, as if some bean counter somewhere figured that if they only served 60% of Coke to you then they would save Y amounts of money per year.  This is just the next evolutionary step of this.  I’ll admit to being a notorious over-packer, but when they’re weighing your bag to the ounce to their limits, you now have the gall to charge for that second bag that we’re really using just to defer this policy.

When will the airline industry realize that charging for those stale peanuts is not going to save their industry. They need to fix their business model, utilize better technology (get off of radar and onto satellites) and get away from the notion that every empty seat on a plane is equal to a company-wide loss.