Day Trippin’; San Diego Pt II
“Discovered by the Germans in 1904, they named it San Diego, which of course in German means a whale’s vagina.” Thanks Ron Burgundy! That’s right it’s back to San Diego I go.
This is Southwest? -I recently heard that Southwest made some changes to how they book and treat business travelers, but this was my first experience since said changes. Up to this point, I always viewed flying Southwest as a necessary evil. They had the best schedule and usually the cheapest flights. That said, I’m a huge fan of the new business ticketing process. The new program allows for priority boarding (SW’s version of a first class upgrade), more rapid rewards points, and a free drink. In other words no more stampeding to the ‘A’ sign to line up 20 mins before boarding. That alone was a huge improvement. Kudos to SW for listening to their business travelers.
Sunny with a high of 75 -unlike last weeks trip which was cold and rainy, yesterday was the much more what I love about San Diego, sunny, low 70’s, ocean breeze. This is why I could live here…if it didn’t cost a bazillion dollars to live close to the ocean.
Should have gone with the convertible -as a rule, renting a convertible is almost always a no-no on my company’s expense policy. When I booked my trip to San Diego, all the smaller and cheaper cars were booked so my choices were down to a small SUV, full size SUV, convertible, or luxury car (we must use Avis so there was no comparing other companies). The small SUV was the cheapest, but just as I was about to finish my reservation, I noticed that the convertible was only $3 more. Clearly not thinking I booked the SUV anyway. I’m so trained to do the right thing…either that or I’m tired of getting in trouble with finance, but that’s another story. As I was pulling out the of the Avis lot I saw some guys getting into their convertible and I realized that could have been me. Damn!
Karl Strauss is my friend -back in the 80’s when I lived in San Diego I worked for the first Karl Strauss Brewery (called ‘The Old Columbia Brewery), since then my family and I make them a regular stop when in southern California. The food is great and of course the beer is excellent. So when I pulled off the freeway for my meeting I was psyched to see a Karl Strauss Brewery down the street from my meeting location. While a lunchtime beer was out of the question, the food and service were great. If you’ve never been, put them on your list for your next visit.
I love/hate technology -most days I love technology and I should since that’s the reason I work in the field that I do. However, when technology goes wrong or doesn’t work, it can be downright painful. From the beginning of my presentation yesterday, I encountered issue after issue. Error messages and page refreshes were more common than actually demonstrating the software. I’m usually pretty good at doing a little song and dance in these situations and with the power outages in the southeast I was able to blame most of the issues on that crisis and get through the demo unscathed. Still few things make me sweat like standing in front of a room of people with a product that isn’t doing what it’s supposed to.
Riding off into the sunset -with my meeting safely behind me, there was nothing left to do but enjoy the ride back to the airport and enjoy the ocean view off to my right. If not for my wife and kids I might still be there.
Until next time…
[tags] Karl Strauss, San Diego, southwest airlines, business travel
Stay classy San Diego
I love San Diego. Without question it’s one of my favorite cities. I lived there for a year in my twenties and we try to vacation there when possible. It’s probably the only city in California I could see myself living in, so when duty called for a day trip, they didn’t have to ask twice.
Arriving early is not always a good thing - everything was going so well, I got upgraded to first class, that doesn’t happen often and even though it was only a hour flight it’s still better than riding in steerage, then we landed and sat…for a half and hour. Evidently arriving early means you actually get off the plane 20 minutes late.
It never rains in California -except when it does, like today. Clearly living in Phoenix didn’t prepare me for anything except sunshine. Do I even own an umbrella?
To go from TOGO’s -arriving late also meant grabbing a quick sandwich on our way to the client site. I like TOGO’s, so I was kinda psyched that there was one right next door. Except that the rocket scientists behind the counter had never worked at a TOGO’s before today. To say they were slow would be an insult to slow people. Ugh!
Were you waiting for us? -normally my meetings always start about 15 mins late. It seems no one can actually be prepared to start on time. Of course since I was starving and looking forward to my carefully prepared sandwich, that meant everyone was there on time and ready to go. So today TOGO means ‘to go’ in the trash. I think I got 3 bites…so hungry.
Thank God for wireless cards - about a month ago someone on my team mentioned we would be getting Sprint wireless cards for those occasions when we can’t connect to the internet at a client site. I didn’t pay much attention, but I installed mine and threw it in my briefcase and forgot about it…until today. So yeah, good call on the wireless card.
Airport food suc…wait is that a CPK? -it was as if the skies opened and the angels sang. No McD’s for me, California Pizza Kitchen here I come. It may not have been that good, but as hungry as I was, it was the best pizza I’ve had in a long time.
So there you have it another day in the life of a business traveler. Not too bad all things considered. I did get to see the ocean, which is always cool. Now with belly full, I’m off to Starbucks, not a bad day at all, somewhere Ron Burgundy is smiling.
Until next time…
[tags] San Diego, business travel, Starbucks, California Pizza Kitchen
Destination Beantown
Boston in January, not exactly a dream destination, but in this case a trip with a purpose. As my partners and I continue efforting to launch our career consulting business, we realized that conference calls spread across the country were fine for weekly progress updates, but they weren’t effective for real roll up your sleeves planning. So off to Boston I go for 2 days of offsite planning.
I can’t fire my travel agent because it’s me –after navigating 55 minutes of traffic I arrived at the check in counter only to find that I’d mistakenly booked my trip to depart on Sunday instead of Monday. Immediately visions of increased fares and long multi-stop flights popped into my mind. Gotta love Monday’s. Kudos to US Air for re-booking me on my desired flights without any increased cost. They even found me a non-stop for the return flight. Yes, I was floored.
Blind as a bat…almost –ticket crisis avoided I head to my gate and begin boarding. As I trek down the jetway I realize my glasses are still in the car. Now I really love Mondays.
Friends and family, but no expense account –After arriving at the home of my friend and business partner we hook up with his partner and my brother, who is also in town on business, and head out to dinner. I usually love nights out on the road, I especially love that I have an expense account that pays for it. However, as this is my business, and we don’t have and expense account, I realize dinner is actually on me. Ugh, must find corporate backing soon!
