Robert’s Blog

On the eve of the new year, and a new decade, I have some thoughts about what the first decade of the 21st century meant for me, personally, and what I happily foresee happening in my life during the next upcoming decade that will begin in a few short hours…

They last decade was the ten years in which I grew up from a boy to a young man to now a man. I just turned 30 years old this month, and as many people like to remind me. “Wow 30… Now you are really a man…” And they are right, it’s not just about the age, it’s more about how I grew emotionally and mentally as a person. I have so many fond memories of college, running around downtown Brooklyn, around the Metro-Tech campus of Polytechnic University. And for a long time (years in fact) during the last 10 years, I wanted to go back to that. I missed being that boy/young man, not really having responsibility. The city was my play ground at times.

So first I want to go over what happened in my life the last decade and what it meant to me:

Back in 2000, I was in my Junior and Senior year of my college career at Poly. I was a little behind on credits, but I really wanted to graduate in 4 years and get out into the “real world.” In other words, I was tired of school, tired of living at home, and I wanted to make money. Lots of money!

I doubled up on classes, and had a few consecutive semesters of 18-21 credits.

I also changed majors at this time, because I was too far behind on the pure CS curriculum, and even if I managed to pull passing grades in Differential Equations, Linear Algebra, and Discrete Mathematics, there was no way I was going to be able to graduate on time, at least 1 semester behind, or even possibly a full year.

So with the help of Paula (still only my girlfriend at the time), I made the extremely hard personal choice of switching majors to Information Management, which was still under the CS department, but had slightly less math, and slightly less CS based electives (although most electives were CS based), and the few electives pulled away from the CS courses, became information management related courses.

At the time it was one of the hardest decision I ever made, because I really wanted that BS in CS and not a BS in IM. This decision would effect me emotionally later in the decade, when I decided to try to go back to school for my CS masters to prove something to myself, but there was really never anything to prove.

There was always something more than academics for me. Academics for me was always just a tool to get to where I wanted to be in life. There was always this underlining desire, a need actually; one that is embedded in the fabric that made me the boy I was, the young man I became, and now the man that I continue to evolve being. I wanted to start a family. I always did, and I wanted to be strong for my family. Like my grandfather for his family, I wanted to be the stone, the foundation that everyone could rely on to help build them up to be able to do the same for their own families when the time comes. It was always one of the most important things to me since as far back as I could remember. Everything I did since I was 5 years old was to make me a better man in the future, in now what is the present, so I could start my family and help be a better head of that family.

So in May 2001, I graduated from Polytechnic University with my degree of BS in IM. and I got my first full time job at Lehman Brothers. I started as a Systems Analyst in 2001 (shortly before the September 11, attacks), as I skipped the entry level training program, since I worked at the company part-time throughout college, starting as an intern the summer between my freshman and sophomore years in 1998.

Over the summer when I started work full time at Lehman in 2001, Paula and I were basically broken up. We barely spoke to each other, let alone saw each other. I was depressed over this, and the only thing that made me feel a little better was shopping and blowing entire pay checks on expensive electronics and things like first generation wireless internet services, etc. At one point I was buying a new model of the Palms every week. J&R was my drug of choice during the breakup with Paula.

Fate pushed Paula and me back together. After 9-11, Paula lost her job at Telecordia, and she needed a place to live or she had to move back to California. I convinced her that we could get an apartment together and try to work things out.

In December 2001, pretty much on my 22nd birthday, Paula and I moved into our own apartment in Queens.

For the first time I was paying rent, paying for my own food, utilities, etc. There was little left over on my entry level salary for my habits, like electronics, legos, and music and movies.

I had REAL responsibilities. And no matter how little she did depend on me, I had Paula to think about as well. This is when I transformed from a boy to a young man.

My stomach problems which started in high school just kept on progressing throughout college, and continued to do so in the 00’s

Within a year I moved up to Senior Developer (2002). And Paula was on her way to Syracuse University to study for her MBA. We would visit each other on the weekends. We would fly from JFK or LGA to SYR, mostly on JetBlue or US Airways (mostly she few to the City, but I enjoyed the short times I spent up at Syracuse. I wish I took a week off here and there and stayed up there for a couple of weeks with her.)

Syracuse was a lot of fun. It felt so far removed from our apartment in Queens, my job at Lehman in Jersey City, and my responsibilities. It felt like I was a college kid again.

But these escapes from reality were short and I was at work every Monday (even going to work almost straight from JFK, with a quick stop at my queens apartment to change into my work clothes.) with a new goal.

I had to save money to buy Paula a ring! I woke up one Saturday next to Paula and it just hit me, I wanted to marry her. I still wasn’t making enough money to cover all of the living expenses and save for a ring, so I had to tighten the belt. I started making my own lunch instead of buying it, I also stopped buying my monthly DVDs and other small toys (like small legos sets). My entire 2003 bonus went towards the ring as well.

I worked hard to impress my manager and my manager’s manager, and a year after that in 2003 I became Team Leader.

2003 we made the decision to buy a condo in New Jersey and move out of the city. I was tired of apartment living and renting. Paula was studying abroad in London for a couple of months with an Internship as well, and I had to pick out the condo myself. She didn’t exactly like my choice, and we did a lot of renovations before moving in; especially the kitchen! :) Thanks Nonno! For two months, while we renovated, I moved back home to my mom’s, who also moved to Jersey a year before we decided to start looking in NJ.

2003 also had another big moment for Paula and me, bought her a ring from the diamond district in the City.

And on March 8, 2003, I proposed to Paula in the Brooklyn Botanical garden.

Paula graduated from her MBA a semester early, in December 2003. And the Christmas season had a dual personal celebration for us. Paula graduating and I unofficially was notified that I was going to be promoted to Assistant Vice President. I also got my first “big” bonus that year.

So it was official in 2004, and within three years of starting, I became Assistant Vice President (my first corporate officer title).

In 2004, I had a itch to see what else was out there for me professional-wise. I updated my resume and began submitting to companies and also posting on the Job sites.

I made it to the second round of interviews that Microsoft, and I had airline tickets to fly to Seattle, but Paula and I decided we really didn’t want to move to Seattle and I called it quits on the interview process. To this day, not finishing the interview process still leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and I promised myself back than, that I would never again not finish an interesting interview process, even if I already know I probably won’t accept an offer if one would be made for me.

I also received a job offer at Citigroup, which I turned down, after speaking with my management and decided to stay with Lehman and work on a new project.

It was now 2005, I moved up to Project Leader. I was working hard on a new project called EAM (Enterprise Account Management), where I was the architect and manager of the middleware team.

I still found time in my busy schedule to take dancing lessons with Paula for our upcoming wedding.

And on Friday, April 29, 2005, Paula and I got married! :) It was the happiest moment of my life to date! As you can see on our wedding DVD, I couldn’t stop crying at the alter. And my family will still tell me that seeing my cry for joy, made them all cry as well.

After the wedding, we had some money saved, and we were able to sell our condo for a large profit. We used the money to buy our town house in Bridgewater, NJ.

Having a large mortgage was tough. Back in the condo, the mortgage wasn’t much more than my rent, and other the years I got some raises, so we were living comfortable. Eating out multiple times as week, at least once or twice at the Cheese Cake Factory. Buying lets of DVDs, and legos, and so many useless things again.

It was time once again to tighten the belt and focus on the new house and starting our family. I also turn 25, and I definitely had a small “quarter life crisis”. I felt so much more like a family man. It was time to put wasteful things away and focus on my family. But at the same time, I still felt like just a big kid! :)

My stomach issues became too much to bare and Paula made me start seeing doctors. I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis and Acid Reflux.

In 2006 the EAM project was full steam ahead, and screwing up really meant the possibility of getting fired or at least shifted out of the critical path. I became Project Manager on the middleware side, and by June, the system went live and was successful!

Paula started law school at Pace University, which definitely grounded us in the NY-NJ area.

In 2007 I was promoted to Vice President and managing a team of 12 directs.

My long running stomach issues finally were fixed after seeing four different types doctors.

My Nana (my grandmother on my father’s side) passed away after battle cancer for three years. It hit me pretty hard. I loved my Nana, she has a dedication in my book that I’m working on. She really did step in to help take care of me when another failed…

In 2008, we got our pooch Lily! A Siberian Husky that has brought an amazing amount of join to our home! We requested her from a breeder of show dogs located in Upstate New York before she was born. She was born on April 1st, 2008. She’s the most lively, cutest, and smartest pooch you have ever met.

This pretty much was the end of my climb in Lehman Brothers, as in 2008 at the height of the financial crisis, the government decided, “Lehman wasn’t too big to fail.”, and the company filed bankruptcy. What a mistake they made, and now a 150+ year old American company is gone, and the Brits are getting all the benefits of buying the remains of Lehman for 250 million for the business plus another 900 million in real estate (prime real estate off of Time Square).

2008 was a very busy year for me. I was interviewing at various companies since the collapse of Bear Sterns, being afraid that we were next. The Sunday night that Bear Sterns was bought by JP Morgan Chase, I updated my resume, which I did not update since that time I was interviewing while still working at Lehman back in 2004.

I interviewed at some many companies, that Paula and I bought had to work on scheduling the interviews, sometimes two companies a day. Some of the big names were: Apple, Google, JP Morgan Chase, eBay and PayPal, Ameritrade, Pershing Bank of NY. I got the job at Apple, but Paula and I made a decision not to move to Cuppertino, California to Apple’s HQ. I also got the job at Pershing twice, and twice turned it down.

Instead after the bankruptcy, I left Lehman (didn’t accept the Barclay’s offer; Barclay’s is the British bank that bought lehman for a song and a dance after helping to left it slip into bankruptcy, by leaving the meeting to save lehman the weekend of the bankruptcy. Since they both it after the bankruptcy, they are not responsible for it’s debts, etc…) and accepted an offer at Citigroup.

From the end of 2008, throughout 2009, and presently I have been working for Citi, building a new system. I retained my Vice President title, and I am the architect and Applications Development Senior Project Manager for ALL development on my current project. I currently am back up to my 12 direct reports, and in 2010 we are planning on further expanding the team.

Also in 2009, Paula graduated from Law school and is now studying for the BAR exam for both NY and NJ in February 2010.

We also took a cross country drive! One of the best trips, probably better than all of our trips except for our honeymoon in the Cayman Islands. We drove from our home in New Jersey to Cleveland, OH, to Chicago, IL, to St Louis, MO, to Kansas City, MO, to Denver, CO, to Salt Lake City, UT, to Lake Tahoe, NV, to Sacramento, CA! It was a once in a life time trip with amazing experiences!

A week after we got back to NJ from our cross country drive in August 2009, my father passed away. The last time I heard from him was a day before we left for our cross country trip. It was a screaming voicemail from him. Pretty typical from him actually. We just couldn’t see eye to eye. He was out of my life for 12 years and when he came back, he wanted to just pick up like he never left, but I didn’t have the time nor the desire to do it that way. If he wanted a relationship, I was opened to that, but we had to work on it and start slow. Also I expected him to the bulk of the work. But he just wanted to sweep it under the carpet, and those who know me, know that’s an impossibility. Especially after not even calling me more than a handful of times after he left, except after hearing through the grape vine that I had a serious girlfriend, he called to tell me he was glad I wasn’t gay.

Anyway, after hearing his voicemail, I tried to call him back, and left my own voicemail, telling him I saw his missed call on my phone, and pretended not to hear the voicemail, but he never returned my call. My father’s family and I had a big falling out since his death…

Turning 30 was big for me. There’s a lot of childish things that I started to put away. I felt that my twenties I was still a young man and a kid at heart. But now, I know it’s time to be a fully grown man, and it’s time to be a family man, the head of my own family.

Paula threw me a awesome 30th birthday party with my friends and family (mostly family, as I have a big family :) Being Italian and all…). It was local, as I love my Bridgewater town! There was a surprise party at this awesome place called Chimmeny Rock Inn, and than bowling. My first game I bowled in 10 years I scored a 169! Not too shabby man! :)

So the first decade of the 21st century, has been very important for me and Paula. We graduated college, got a jobs on Wall street which helped to give our family seed money to grow, took a quick detour for an MBA, we got married, went to law school, drove coast-to-coast, and I grew up from being a boy to a young man to now a evolving man. And now waiting for the next decade to start with hopes and dreams.

So what are my hope and dreams and expectations for the next 10 years. Well, I think these next 10 years will be the most important in Paula and my family, in terms of growing it. We will start having kids, probably buy our next house which will probably be the house we live in until our kids go to college and move out, and maybe the last “primary residence” we buy for the rest our life (not taking into consideration a possible downgrade when we retire). I’m hoping to also buy a vacation house. I think we will also firmly establish us financially in the next decade. The first decade of our life together, I think was a great start financially. I think we are on schedule for our plans in terms of property. I think we are slightly behind on having kids, but we are going to correcting this soon! :) I hope to becoming Senior Vice President soon, and to continue growing in my career. And I hope that together with Paula’s help once she passes the BAR this winter, we will be able to firmly secure our financial future and position us well for the decade after this one to grow our retirement nest egg.

Hopefully the next decade will be full of children, health, happiness, and prosperity for our family.

And I wish everyone a happy, healthy, and prosperous new decade for all!

-R

I have been doing a lot of sprint-mini-soul-searching sessions since my father passed away. I think it’s an important time to look back and remember that my father was NEVER there for me, but I turned out ok.

And I made sure I NEVER used my father not being there for me as an excuse. Not only to other people like teachers and family, but also to myself. It’s something very important for all of us to realize that we have our educational, professional, and family (since we probably will all eventually be family-building later in our lives and some of us have already started.) fates in our own hands.

I know it can be hard at times when you feel you need to do everything on your own, because I been there many times. And what I can tell you is I met so many people in my life that had it ten times harder than me, and they did not give up.

There were so many students at Poly, some who came from the ghetto, and worked their ass off and graduated and got professional engineering jobs and moved themselves out. It was not easy, I know some of them actually had to sleep in the library, ducking from security guards, because they could not study in their apartments (in the projects) with gun shots going off down the hallway, or because they lived with their younger brothers and sisters and the small apartment was too noisy.

I know of another person who got his girlfriend pregnant just the second year of college and even though Poly is an extremely difficult school to keep up your grades, he graduated with an EE (Electrical Engineering) degree with a above 3.0 GPA. He was so proud to be able to have his son in his arms when he graduated at Lincoln Center, and be able to use his new Engineering Job to support his young family.

And more personally, lets take a look at Nana, who got a divorce during a time where it was not just Taboo, but something that the Church would still excommunicate you for. She didn’t give up, she took care of her family and had a pretty good life! She was such a strong woman, and definitely an extremely positive and powerful influence in my own life.

And of course there is Nonno. He came from a well-to-do, nicely-dressed Italian family. He came to America for love. Following my Nonna here to this country. He tried to continue the family business of selling hand-made lace, and suits, etc. But the industrialized west that was America, wanted to pump cheap products out of factories instead of by a full town of woman and tradition. He walked the streets of Manhattan looking for work, and walked into a construction site, and asked for work, he told the foreman to let him carry the bags of concrete on his back. He got that job, and since that day he was in construction his entire life. He feed his family of 5 children and bought a beautiful home with that career, and he never looked back at the easy life he had in that small town in Italy.

You have to really put your own life in perspective. Is what I’m going through at this moment really a reason to bitch and moan. Or is just another bump in the road, and I’ll make it through, because not just because I have to, but because I know where I want to go with my life and this shit is not going to stop me!

Look at people you know who have had it harder than you, and think, if they could get over that mountain, how hard could it be to get over this hill standing in my way.

It’s ok to be scared, and it’s ok to fail, but it’s NOT ok to let that fear stop you from trying. And if you do try and fail, again that’s ok, but it’s NOT ok to stop trying to pick yourself up and just stop trying.

If it helps, think about this “If I fail and don’t try again, of the people I wanted to make proud, (alive or dead), what will they think of me. And that’s something I can not bare to face! That’s what I’m really afraid of!” I used this thought to push me forward my entire life. I did not want to make my nonno (grandfather in Italian) disappointed.

Just remember: If Nana or Nonno could do what they did in life, than why can’t I do what I need to do on my own!

-R

Since he passed away a couple of weeks ago, I started to think about our history. Here are some interesting Tidbits about my Dad and me (not in chronological order):

0. My mom and dad separated when I was 1 years old.

1. He used to take me to Toys R Us for a new Matchbox car and lunch at Roy Rogers.

2. We used to take me to Train World under the “L” on McDonald Ave in Brooklyn.

3. He came to my communion (at the Church) in Jeans and my mom yelled at him to go home and get something nice to wear.

4. He moved to Florida and promised to come for visits a few times a year, but it ended up to be once every few years until I was 12.

5. The last time I saw my dad until around the age of 21 was, was at my Confirmation at the age of 12.

6. He also didn’t call much and there was a large gap with no phone calls until one day, when I was 18 he called to tell me “He was happy I was not gay” since he found out I was dating my future wife Paula.

7. When he first moved to Florida, before the phone calls stopped, on my Birthday and Christmas
he would tell me he mailed me my gifts. The never ended up showing up and after weeks I would try calling him back, and when I did reach him, he would say, “they are in the mail” or “they must have gotten lost in the mail”. There must be an entire post office with my own zip code just holding the lost gifts he promised.

8. One time he came to visit from Florida, we fill plastic Easter eggs with vinegar and little taped packets of baking soda. We would shake them up and throw them at each other trying to get the other wet with vinegar when the eggs would pop opened from the foam that would form.

9. Another time he came back to visit, maybe when I was 9 years old, we went to Radio Shack to get some parts for a project I wanted to work on. There was this microchip I needed (an Op Amp 386 chip), and I guess he didn’t want to pay the $3.00 for it, so he started a fight with the guy helping us find the chip in the store (I guess to distract him), and he stole it. When he showed me the chip in his pocket, and I asked how he got it since he did’t pay it, he didn’t answer me. When I told him I didn’t want it, because he stole it, he got pissed and said, “Fine, I’ll just keep it and glue a transistor to it, and make it look like a Microchip Bug!”

10. We used to play with my Matchbox cars on the living room floor at my Nana’s house. He would make ramps out of her books.

11. When he worked as a salesman for a metal distribution company, he brought me a bunch of copper wires, and rods for my projects.

12. When he moved back to NY, and I was living in a condo in NJ, he wanted to visit to take me to lunch one day when I was working from home. He came by and we went to TGI-Friday’s. Over lunch he started talking about how he liked going to Strip Clubs. He said he likes going there with friends and just hang out and talk, and that “And it’s even better to talk to your friend while a naked girl is sitting on your lap.” He said he would like to go to a strip club with me and hang out. Naturally I was a little taken back. Not that I didn’t like strip clubs, just that I thought it would be kind of weird hanging out with my father at one.

13. When he first moved back to NY, I was living in Queens. He called to tell me and asked if he could come over. I said “ok.” Paula was already up in Syracuse studying for her MBA, so it was just me and him. We hung out for a few hours than he went home. It was weird, because it was the first time he visited me that I really wasn’t too excited to see him. I guess I was just tired of everything. Who knew if he wasn’t leaving for Florida tomorrow.

14. After just a few months of living back in NY, he was not happy that I wasn’t opening up to him and coming to see him as much as he wanted. He called me up one night and started screaming at me. I exploded into rage and started screaming back at him telling him how dare he talk to me like this after leaving me as a kid and never even calling. He hung up the phone. We didn’t speak for a couple of months. After that he refused to call me for months at a time because he thought I should be the one calling him.

15. When I was a child he took me to one of the parks on the side of the belt parkway between Toys R Us and the Verrazano, and we used to fly kites. He had this one blue kite that had some tar on it, so he called it the “special trick kite” since the weight imbalance made it fly weird.

16. He once told me someone named “Mr. T-Rex” stole money from him when he tried to start some business in Florida, so that’s why he can’t call or visit, since he didn’t have the money. This might have been believable, but I was like 19 years old… I called him out on this saying “Come on dad, do you think I’m stupid?” He said, “No no it’s the truth…” Whatever right? Even if there was a Mr. T-Rex, maybe a visit was out for now, but phone calls too?

17. When he was supposed to visit when I was 20, I waited with Paula at my mom’s house until 2 in the morning, before giving up and heading to the Vegas diner in Brooklyn and calling it a night.

18. The last I heard from my dad was a voicemail message the day I picked up Paula from the BAR exam. The only words he left on the message were (in a nasty voice): “How could you didn’t visit your aunt?!” I called him back as soon as I heard the message. He didn’t pick up the phone however, so I left a voicemail pretending not to have heard his voicemail, and told him I just saw his missed call and wanted to call him back. I told him, I just picked up Paula from the BAR exam and that we were leaving on our two week vacation, driving across country in two days and to call me back. He never did… He died a week after we got back from vacation.

19. He sent me a birthday gift from Amazon.com in December 2008. He called to ask me if I got it, but I didn’t. At least I didn’t think so. He said it was on the way, and I thought back to all the times he told me “it was in the mail” and it never showed up. I was so pissed that he was trying to play this old game with me when I was a grown man. But it turned out he did send it and it just got mixed up in between my own boxes from Amazon that Paula and I were ordering as Christmas gifts, and didn’t get a chance to open yet.

20. The reason he gave me for having to move down to Florida, was to start a new career, since his business partners up in NY “screwed” him and he wasn’t able to get new clients, being a salesperson. Sounded like a plausible reason to a 7 year old…

21. When I didn’t list him as my father on our Wedding Invitation, he responded with a big “NO” written on the RSVP… But he came to the wedding anyway.

22. He hit on Paula’s cousin at our wedding rehersal dinner.

23. He once called me from Florida when I was 19 and when I asked him to write me an email if it’s too difficult to call me, he said “I’m bad at typing, and don’t like to do it, so no.”

24. He would sometimes call and leave weird sounds on our voicemail and hang up.

I will add more to this list if I have time and as I remember them.

I just want to say that the day I came home from work and heard my father passed away, I walked my dog Lily, before heading to Brooklyn to be with the family. On the walk, I said a pray and said outloud (to my father), “I don’t know what to say. I forgive you. But man were you an asshole. But I forgive you.” I tried to think of what to say and just gave a heavy sigh, shook my head, and said “I don’t have anything else to say…”

The morning to leave Utah came so quickly, even though I had the worst insomnia stint that night.  Robert on the other hand, was way too tired, but was ready to get a morning head start. We left around 7ish, hoping to get to Lake Tahoe by early afternoon.  We had about 7.5 hours of driving ahead of us; but what we hated more was to face the first 2.5 hours of drive through Utah. The night before, we checked google map and saw that we again will have to go for hours without towns, service or rest area. After 20 minutes of civilization thanks to the Salt Lake City metro area, again all we saw was sand, This time, they look like dried salt fields, as far as the eye can see – panning to the sandy mountains.  The eerie, overcast skies didn’t help our travel through this barren land.  I think the only structure we saw was this crazy thing that was tall that look like a tree of balls.  We took pix of it, coz, it was so unusual.

When we are getting near the border, we start to see glimpse of buildings among the sand, of course, that would be in the Nevada side.  As we crossed the border to Nevada, we finally took our first break at the land of casinos and buffets. West Wendover, the first exit, have a few casinos, that were decent looking that of course advertised buffets.  Took the time to get some breakfast at the McD’s and we were off again.  Even though it’s not developed region, Nevada, proved to be much more “happening” place than Utah.  There were always some type of town or some signs of civilizations every 30 -40 miles of nothingness. Signs for “ranches” were also amusing.  Robbie said that each rest area boast some slots if the weary traveler need to feed their gambling needs.  We didn’t make any gift shop stop but did put gas a few time, but we did enjoy the different landscape the drive brought us.

We passed by the Reno metro area.  I was so amazed how in a decade the place has changed from the dilapidated gambling mini-city of my younger years to a more modern metro area. When we are finally about an hour from Lake Tahoe, we again encountered some crazy steep driving to get to North Lake Tahoe and our resort – Hyatt Lake Tahoe.  We even video taped some of the crazy winding road, which brought us some spectacular views.  When we finally got to Hyatt, Robbie really liked the cottage feel of the resort.  They welcomed us with some champagne but with some bad news. At first they informed us that for some reason they did not have any more rooms with King Size Beds, but alas they find one.  When we got to the room, we were a little disappointed at the view of our scenic view room but to we thought that that was the only thing available.(next day – couldn’t take it anymore we were able to fix this and finally got the room we deserve.. bad front desk in this hotel though.. I wanted to strangle them)  Aside from that it was really situated in a very scenic area. We were both tired, so we opted to just go to the restaurant in the hotel which served a very delicious luau buffet with hawaaiian music and dancing, and not to mention a roast pig. After dinner, we tried our luck ih the Csino but retired to our room early to regroup after the driving that we did for that 2 days.

The second day at lake tahoe, brought us poolside and lake side. I thought the pool would be much more warmer than it was. Even with the sun beating on your back and over head, my teeth ws sill chattering when we were in the pool. My fave was the hot tubs they were more quiet and they gave the heat that I needed to keep myself from shivering as we laid under the sun to dry up.  After drying up, Robbie and I went to the other side of the resort, to finally see Lake Tahoe up close. It’s one spectacular view that no words I may use today could not describe the beauty the beauty of the surrounding mountain and the clear lake.  i went right next to the water and went up to my ankle in the cold freezing water. Robbie on the other haand, took a dip in the 62 degree Lake Tahoe. He said it’s refreshing, as I thawed my numb foot and ankle. Simple italian dinner at the restaurant followed by some time in the casino ended our 2nd day in Lake Tahoe.

Our third day in Lake Tahoe, we ventured to drive the scenic route to South Lake Tahoe to Harvey Casino.  We collect Hard Rock glasses from each Hard Rock so we had to pick our Lake Tahoe one.  I found a lucky Star Trek slot which quadrupled my $20 – twice. It was fun too! We rested and pack the rest of the day so that we could have an early morning departure from Lake Tahoe.

The next morning brought a short drive to Sacramento.  We got there in about 2 hours, only because we encountered during our descent from the mountain.  We got some Jack in the Box before going to see the family.  The family cooked and bbqued for our arrival. My mom was very happy to see us, and have cooked my favorite food – Kare Kare (peanut based meat dish with chinese long beans & eggplant), among other things like lumpia (filipino version of eggroll).  After having lunch with the family, we took our godson to Toys ‘R Us for his birthday presetnt.  He was so happy there, and he even got a birthday balloon and crown.  Sacramento was so hot considering the highest temp in Lake Tahoe was in the early 80’s. Despite the heat, there was minimal humidity so it was bearable.  My friend since high school, Tracy, and her family came down and visited. The babies were so cute and had a good time playing in the yard. Family also had some cake for my belated birthday and for graduation + cake for our godson’s birthday. To top it off, they had a filipino dessert – Halo Halo topped with some Ube Ice Cream (shaved ice with milk and some tropical coconut-based fruit + sweetened beans).  The cake was incredible – it was from a Filipino Bakery – Red Ribbon.  They got the Variety Kind with 4 different flavors. Everything was good.  We topped the night with a very noisy game of Password. We got so into it (women v. men –> women came back from 4 point deficit to beat the men) that at one point Robert fell off his chair. At least no injury or broken glass – just lots of laughter.  We ended the long day at around 11pm at our hotel – The Hyatt Place in Rancho Cordova, 5 minutes from my relatives house.

Next day, we slept in and then spent more time with family.  Robbie got some great massage then we were taken to Thunder Valley Casino. Great Buffet. Not much time for gambling, as we were flying out that night. I got a short massage, but was told we had to go. We got to the airport on time, only to find out that our flight is delayed 3 hours. I never saw so many people napping at the gate, as I did that night. People were laying on the floor and just made make shift pillows out of clothing or bags. I think we were the last flight to leave tha 3:30am. The last stores and restaurants closed at 11:30pm.  We were so tired, the 5 hours in the airplane flew by and when we woke up we were about 30 minutes away from JFK.  At about 3:30pm on August 13th, after picking up Lily, our cross country road trip finally came to an end.  We closed it by getting some well-deserved sleep with our Lily!

P.S.

Lily was a bit upset with us for two days, but that place did take a good care of her.  She’s now back to normal – as hyper and as crazy as she was when we left :)

We had such a great time this time, that after a day or two, here, we already planned another trip in the near future of going cross country again with a different route(NJ to San Diego), a south eastern road trip, a northeastern road trip (NJ – Maine) and a northwestern road trip (OR, WA, Vancouver).

-Paula

Our trip from Denver to Salt Lake City was the highlight in our trip.  I-70 brought us to the heart of the rockies.  The trip, some of them are video taped and most memorialized by pictures, cannot be expressed through any of the videos and pictures we have taken.  The trip brought us to some of the most spectacular and amazing creation of nature.  We were in awe at how beautiful Colorado’s mountain and how at times, travelling through the mountain made you feel so small comparative to your surrounding.  The mountains also had in essence isolated you from everything else.  It was definitely a trip that must be seen in your own eyes.  I think Robert and I can talk about the whole event for hours, and never get the essence of what we saw the first few hours of that trip. 

As we crossed the border to Utah, we were amazed at how the landscape changed virtually just as you crossed the border.  The first 2 hours in Utah was spent on I-70 stuck in a desert, barren and vast, sand as far as the eye can see, and nothing else.  It was a sight to see, but we were a little freaked out about the fact that virtually there are nothng around.  At times there were span of 100 miles or more of no service, and in that span, we did not see any town, any person, or any building.   In that sense, it felt welcoming to even go to a more local and smaller highway – US 6, which proved to be more populated than I-70. US 6 also brought us to more desert, which eventually turned into more opportunity to travel between ranges of mountain and more uphill climb.   Most of this road was one lane per side, which was a pain especially when they decided to delay traffic by closing one lane, making us wait for more than 10 minutes to be able to use the oiiiWe were very happy to have reached the Provo metro area, and finally see a town with stores and restaurants, after hours of travelling without seeing much of anything which could equate to civilization.  To my dismay, there were no trips for souvenirs, coz the miles we spent in Utah, we did not encounter any of the cool stores that I grew to enjoy going to during our first few days on the road.

The Provo-Salt Lake City Area is developed and looks just like any suburb in American, with lots of subdivisions and strip mall.   Salt Lake City is small but quite modern.  Our first stop – Robert’s west coast fave – Carl’s Jr.  After finaly having our lunch aftter 8.5 hours on the road, we finally reached our  hotel.  We were both so thanful and was glad.  We ate in and relaxed to get ready for the next day’s long trip to Lake Tahoe, NV. 

We got so many pictures from this leg, that select pictures will be posted while we are on vaca, but we will do more when we get back.

That’s it for now.

breakfast: McD’s
lunch: Carl’s Jr
dinner: room service

-p

- P

Paula and I have been so busy and having so much fun during our first 5 days of our cross country trip, we haven’t had a chance to upload any pics. Also our dash board mounted web cam, has been overwhelmed by the sun, so most of the pics it automatically takes have been all white, and really hard to make anything out.

We are spending our second day in Denver (it’s the first city we have spent more than one day in) so we finally had a chance to upload some. It’s a small subset, only 115 of over 2,100 pics!

Here’s the link to Our first few legs… Enjoy!

-R

Today started out around 7am. We quickly gathered our stuff and we were on the road in about 1/2 an hour. Stopped by for some fuel for the car and some fuel for him ( espresso from non- other than Starbucks). We experienced a bit of the morning rush hour traffic which was really not that bad and we were on our way.

5 minutes from our Kansas City hotel (which is funny enough is in Missouri) we finally entered the state of Kansas. After an hour on the road, we were waiting for flat prairie to be all around us, but what we saw was more of a hilly. It took another hour or so before we saw the flat prairie we expected. We stopped by a service stop where we shortly stopped for breakfast and then we kept going.

Today’s ride was very beautiful, with ever changing scenery. It started a little hilly, then became very flat and when we got about 100 miles closer to Colorado, we started on a small incline helping us get to more than 5000 feet by the time we got to the Denver Metro area. It was funny, how when you cross Kansas to Colorado, the land somehow also changes. It becomes more rugged and less agricultural. More cowboy like in my opinion. I told Robert, I could picture some Marlboro man riding around on the wide expanse of land. Along the way we stopped by 2 travel center where they sell souvenirs – one in Kansas and one in Colorado. Those are always fun excursions. It breaks the monotony of being in the car, and you always find something interesting in there like cedar boxes or something native to the place we are travelling from.

As we got closer to Denver, we notice that the lay of the land also became a little more mountainous, and soon we saw the outline of the mountains in the horizon. The land also became more developed and later it became more populated and more urbanized. We were thrilled when we finally spotted Denver’s buildings.

During dinner, fatigue set in on both of us, and we couldn’t wait to veg out after the long drive. We did manage to walk to the local street mall area where we went to a local cafe for some quick dinner. Highlight of the dinner for me is the appetizer of garlic truffle fries. We walked back and after getting some of our pictures downloaded to the hard drive, Robert passed out. Tomorrow will be our time to really decompress from the previous days trip. We decided we willl stay local and just catch up on rest before another long drive on friday and saturday.

breakfast: McD R: egg mcmuffin; P: sausage mcmuffin
dinner: appetizer: truffle fries: R: smoked mac and cheese and grilled chicken + ongrape and ion soup; P: pan seared cornmeal crusted salmon served on top of rice and spinach + side salad.

-Paula

Today is our “take it easy” day so we didn’t do much but to make our way to Kansas City. We planned this day to get ready for a big travel day tomorrow – a 9 hour ride from KC to Denver. 

We had a leisure morning with breakfast at the hotel restaurant.  After breakfast, we made our way to Kansas City.  We made  a few stops on the way to fuel up.  Our major adventure today is finding this travel area somewhere between SL and KC where there are various fast food places and gas station.  There’s this cool gift shop store where they sell different local products on sale including souvenirs.  They had t-shirts, mocassins, glass art, guns and fireworks, among other things.  I couldn’t resist taking a picture of this room filled with so much fireworks – it was funny.  We saw so many fireworks store advertisement throughout our drive, that Robert wished they allowed you to light up the fireworks in the back of the store or on the parking lot so he could buy and light some fireworks.  Boys will be boys. :)

Yesterday we sighted the first Jack in the Box.  Today we saw another one, but we opted to wait till we get to Kansas for our next meal.

Of course, as it is Kansas City, we had some Barbeque.  We followed the hotel attendant’s suggestion and went to Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbeque. We had an all american meal of bbq and beer.  We had some locak Kansas Beer and it was great with the bbq. Despite some other guest’s insistence  that we should try some other joint, we thought the bbq at Jack was impeccably good and of course they offer huge portions.  We were gonna drive around a bit, but we really wanted to get some rest before tomorrow.  Before going back to our hotel, we did find a drive-through Starbucks where Robert satisfy his Starbucks obsession today.  So for now, this is it….

Breakfast:  P:  short ribs and scrambled egg burritto w/ potato and green onions hashbrowns; R: breakfast buffet
Dinner: appetizer: wings & burnt ends; P: Jack’s best combo (very big – had to take most of it home) with barbeque beans and cheddar corn; R: sliced meat trio (pork, beef and turkey) with bbq beans and cheddar corn.   
 

-p

Our morning plan to rest up didn’t happen as we woke up early.  Robert decided he’d like to go for a morning walk to get us our mandatory glass collection and to get himself some Starbucks.  When he got back, he chucked our breakfast roomservice plan to go for a ride on the L.  It was cool, much smaller, but similar to the New York Subway.  After our short ride, we stopped by this place Wow Bao, that I heard about from my research in the Internet. It was a good brunch of express rice bowls and potstickers. We also picked up some baos for the road.  For those who don’t know what baos are, they are asian buns, they are white.  These baos have different fillings: some had teriyaki, chinese bbq pork, kung pao chicken or dessert one with either coconut or chocolate.  I have to say that they are darn good and well made for a to go place.  The only thing that did not agree with me is the pomegranate ginger ale.  It was like drinking all ginger and no other flavor :P  

Our drive is filled with corn husks and greenery.  We thought that the dark clouds will bring our first down pour or maybe a distant twister – but we drove out the storm system without any drama or adventure.  We momentarily left I-80 and now is on I -70 which will be our road of choice for the next few legs.  After tomorrow, all the legs will be long and probably very tiring. 

When we arrived in town, we checked in at our hotel, no getrting lost this time. Then we went to go and see the Arch.  We were very impressed at how serene the park that surrounds the Arch. Very nice place to hang out, with a lake and tree-line pathways.  Robert even ran a few blocks to get a good shot of the arch. The only thing we were kinda bum about is the heat. It is much hotter out here in St. Louis than in Chicago.  We saw a little shower in Chicago but when we were leaving the sun came back up and the sun was back again after our trip through  some storm clouds.

For dinner, we looked for our old standby – Hard Rock which is located in the old  Union Station which is now this cool shopping/eating/recreation place.  Really kudos to St. Louis for using sometihng that is not used into a really trendy place to go and hang out.  that’s all for now….  tomorrow, a short drive and bbq. YUM..

brunch: Wow Bao: P (rice bowl w/ mongolian beef with pork dumplings); R (rice bowl w/ chicken teriyaki with chicken potstickers)
snack:  mini baos 
dinner:  Hard Rock Cafe:  P (salad with garlic toast & french fries) R (chicken  club sandwich & french fries)

That’s all for today.. Our driver is alread out like a light and I should get some rest too….

What a day!!!! First, to those who wants to see what the trip cam captured today, please defer to look at those pix.  Robert did not check the setting this morning and ended up that Mr. EEEPC decided he’s using his own webcam instead of the one on the dash.  So today’s trip pix from the dash cam is nothing but Robert and I’s head.  Fortunately, I have navigator cam that I take of the road. So you’ll have some pix of the trip from my eyes and some from Robert’s urging.  We will be uploading them after I go through the camera files.

Thank goodness we gained an hour since we burned the candle on both ends today.  We did the touristy thing for 3 states – 2 cities.   We woke up fairly early to go to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and since we were pressed for time, we cabbed it only to realize that every street that leads to the rock hall has been blocked for some type of walk or marathon, even though we didn’t see anyone doing it, so we just ended up going on an endless circle in the cab, only to let out few blocks anyways. No time gained – sigh. We did an express tour of the Rock Hall and then dashed out of Cleveland. 

Robert was so excited to see that somewhere in Ohio, in the rest area, he could go for Hardee’s. Unfortunately, it’s not all of them. So we tried to go to the last rest stop but we did not find one there. Ended up finding one in Ohio. It’s a sister company to west coast’s Carl’s Jr. Somethings are familiar but not all Carl’s sandwich are available, not bad for a rest stop lunch though. 

We hit a big city traffic jam in Chicago.  Our front desk person informed us that its usually not that bad but there was a marathon today of some sort.  Almost ended up  in the wrong hotel – robert supposedly has used on older trip plan for all the hotels.  This time, I was sure it was the wrong hotel even before we tried to register, since I specifically tried to find one by the river. The hotel, after we finally got there - thanks to gps having problems with the buildings blocking it service, did not disappoint.  It overlooks the river and really comfy.  Hopefully we get lucky all the way to Cali with our hotel choices.

Tonite, we were going to venture to the original Uno’s but our front desk person recommended a place 2 blocks away called Giordano’s.   It was a good choice!  The deep dish was awesome. Robbie also enjoyed an Italian Sausage Sandwich.  It’s one of the most tasty sandwich I’ve ever tried. On our way out, a young man asked for food, so we gave him the pizza left over.  Our waitress even gave us free dessert – Tiramisu and Cannolli :P If you are in Chi-town, try to drop by the restaurant but our waitress said that the wait is usually about 2 hours, so 30  min wait is a good wait. Plan to wait, it’s not bad, they are located in various locations through out Chi-town. they have the traditional chicago style pizza and other italian dishes. Price is not bad either.

After dinner, we opted to walk on the North Michigan. I think part of it is the Magnificent Mile, chicago’s version of NY’s 5th Avenue.  It looks more like Park Avenue. Anyways, we were very surprised that there were a lot of drunk locals who are throwing bottles on strangers.  However, when we did get by the river, it was such a beautiful night to walk and just sight see.  Robert even ventured down the River walk while I took the time to indulge on taking pictures of the lit city and just people watch.  The city is alive with all the tourist walking at night; it’s actually very beautiful to watch.  There were also some boats still going around the river, mostly the last of the tour boats and the police, but it just livens up the city. I love the concrete seating that was built in the walk way, very sight seeing friendly.  Robert and I both like the city and intrigued enough that we plan to come back by plane next time and just spend a few day getting to know the city more.  We also manage to get some souvenirs and now it is time for some rest.

breakfast: Daniel’s @ our hotel –> P: egg benedict; R: scrambled eggs with ham and rye toast 
lunch:  Harvee’s –> P: frisco sandwich and ranch fries; R:  chicken club sandwich and ranch fries.
dinner: Giordano’s –> pizza; P: fried wings; R: italian sausage sandwich.

tomorrow, we will take our tme and try to leave by 1p.  Morning will be spent resting.. we are pooped.  

-p

T