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The past two weeks, since my last blog posting, have been a blur.  I’ve been dealing with our new home a lot, and I’ve been busier at work than I’ve ever been.  More importantly, I’ve had some wonderful weekends…

Last weekend was special because it was Valentine’s Day and I had a 3-day weekend due to President’s Day.  I celebrated with Jean – she got some tulips and irises from me, and we had dinner together.  Last Saturday morning we got up really early and went to check out the messed up bolts that were installed to hold our new home’s frame to the concrete pad, then we rushed home so I could meet up with my dad and head into LA for the Travel and Adventure Show at the LA Convention Center.

I’ve had a clipping from the LA Times for that show on our refrigerator for about 3 months, and it was finally here.  My friend Noriko told me that she’d been to it before and it was a bit of a disappointment because it was basically a gigantic sales pitch from hundreds of travel agents.  She was right, it was absolutely what she said it would be.  About 90% of the show consisted of travel agents, 8% was odd activities (zip line, scuba diving tank, etc), but the remaining 2% was the main reason I went – seminars!

My dad and I sat through 3 seminars.  We listened to two of the most famous travel writers, Arthur Frommer and Rick Steves, and we also sat in on a talk by to a kid named Zac Sunderland, who is the youngest person to ever sail solo around the world.  I’m not a huge fan of Frommer’s books because they seem to focus on the highfalutin segment of the travel spectrum instead of the backpacker (or for those on a budget just above the backpacker, like myself).  I do, however, own a few Frommer books, and he’s one of the most recognizable names in the travel industry.  The second travel book that I purchased was actually Rick Steves’ Paris, so I’m very familiar with his style.  I’ve also watched several episodes of his European travel show on public television over the years.  He’s a dork, but he does cover every corner of Western Europe and he’s all about finding a good deal.

I wish Tony and Maureen Wheeler, the founders of Lonely Planet, had been there instead…  I read a ton more of their books than Frommer or Steves, but it was still really interesting to listen to what they had to say.  Frommer suggested the people use Momondo when looking for the cheapest flights; they’re an aggregate travel site that looks for the best flight from everyone, instead of the companies that pay them off.  Rick Steves talked about learning something about the place you visit before going there so you’ll appreciate it more.

Zac Sunderland has a really interesting story, but he wasn’t a very good speaker.  A 17 year old sailing around the world all alone is incredible, but when the kid describes every single event as “it was just crazy”, you don’t get the details that a better speaker could deliver.  I think that hour would have been a ton more awesome if they’d invited Steve Nakano or Matt Harding, but I enjoyed it anyways.

My dad and I did visit about 15% of the booths after our three seminars, but I’d had enough and was ready to call it a day after an hour of pushing through the crowd to gather pamphlets for overpriced tours.  I did decide that my next big trips will be to either Israel and Jordan, Mongolia or Greece.

This weekend Jean and I celebrated 10 years together, kinda.  We met at a party in Tuscaloosa back in February of 2000, and then started dating in April of 2000 and have been together ever since.  We celebrated on Friday evening, then my dad came up and spent the night on Saturday night because today we went into LA to see the Dalai Lama.  Oddly, this world renowned spiritual leader and Nobel Peace Prize winning Buddhist monk was appearing at Universal’s CityWalk near Burbank.

The Dalai Lama’s story is amazing.  If you have Netflix, watch a few documentaries on him.  He’s a freedom fighter who preaches non-violence, and backs it up with religion, similar to Gandhi and Hinduism, or Martin Luther King Jr and Christianity.  If Jean had gone she could have worn her “Free Tibet” t-shirt, but she decided to stay at home.  Sheryl Crow opened up with three songs, including Here Comes the Sun, then the Dalai Lama came out, kicked his sandals off and sat Indian style in a big chair in the center of the stage.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama covered a lot of topics, but mostly spoke about being compassionate and how that starts with loving and nurturing children.  He reminds me of my Bible teacher from high school, Mr Barnes.  They’re both the most sincere and happy people I’ve ever known.  They both have this aura that’s hard to describe…  I enjoyed it a lot and hope to read more about both Buddhism and the Dalai Lama in the coming months.

This next weekend I’ll be going out of town with my buddy Dave.  We’re heading down to Baja to see the California grey whales calving.

Here are some pictures from the travel show last weekend:

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 21st, 2010 at 8:38 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.