Trip to DC!

As I had previously mentioned, over the Labor Day weekend I took a trip to DC to visit a friend.  The main reason for the trip was to see the Mets (we went to 2 games) but we also went to The Hard Rock Cafe in D (of course) and took a tour of Ford’s Theater.  And of course I have already updated you all on the Stevie Nicks concert.

Here’s a few photos to recap the weekend, under the cut! 🙂

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Oversold Flights

On my trip to Tulsa, my first flight was overbooked and they were looking for volunteers to switch to another flight and they would compensate them. I was tempted, but then I was paranoid that I wouldn’t make it to Tulsa in time for the show (even though I still had an entire day to get there).

On my way home, neither of my flights were over booked, but the gate across from me was offering $400 in flight vouchers to switch to a different flight. I wasn’t too worried about getting home so I would have done it… and most definitely for $400 – that could easily be another trip to Tulsa – or probably a number of other placed I’d like to go!

Has anyone out there bumped a flight for compensation? How much longer did it take for you to get to your destination? If you’ve never done it – what kind of compensation would make you consider it? Cash money? Flight vouchers?

Tulsa Sightseeing Day 2 / Traveling Home

Sunday morning we decided to go to lunch at the Blue Rose Cafe. Back in the day Hanson used to sing outside near the dumpster because they were too young to get inside and play the bar.  It is no longer at the same location, but it is on the River so we figured we’d check it out.  They also were offering ‘The Hanson” a three cheese grilled cheese sandwich.  Although when 4 of the 6 of us ordered it, we were told the special was only Saturday!  Later we talked to the owner (I think?) and he said that they should have made it for us and also mentioned he was friends with Hanson’s parents and told us about them singing outside when they were tiny.

 

The next stop was Hanson’s child hood home because a couple of the people in our group had not been by.  Turns out, it is for sale… by owner.  I wonder if enough fans pool their money we can buy it and make a Hanson museum haha  Then we headed to the Golden Driller statue and then it was time for me to catch my shuttle to the airport.

 

I got a bit delayed at the security check in Tulsa.  I had to do the “invasive” full body scan.  Honestly, I am not sure what some people are so up in arms about – I didn’t see what my scan looked like but you stand in a box and then the scanner zooms around you.  (Plus anyone I walk by knows that I am short & chubby!) Something was flagged with my face on the scan so I had to have the back of my head patted down.  I don’t know if it is because I have a mouth full of metal (braces) or what… but it was only an extra couple of seconds and the Tulsa airport is super tiny so it wasn’t a big deal.

Somehow, every flight I take is at the last possible terminal.  This flight was no different.  We had mechanical problems and ended up being delayed for about 20 minutes – so of course we landed late.  In Minneapolis, my gates couldn’t have been further apart if they tried! I took a shuttle supposedly to concourse G but either I went the wrong way or the shuttle was not the most convenient way to travel. I also swear for a second I was behind Ryan from Ocean Grove. He was going way too fast for me to stop him to find out for sure / say hi if it was him and by the time I got to my gate the plane was half boarded! (Usually I pre-board)  I got on twitter and Ryan did tweet about going back to LA… so it is very possible it was him.

Tulsa Sightseeing Day 1

Well, at the end of my travel blog I posted that I’d be having a big breakfast. And boy, did I! I met up with a couple of girls also staying in the hotel and we walked to the Dilly Deli for breakfast and I decided to order “The Jed” which was “a cinnamon roll the size of your head” I figured, I have a HUGE head… no way would it be as big as my head! But it WAS. And needless to say, I did not make it through all of it lol

Then we headed to Dwelling Spaces and I spent $80 on postcards and pins… oh and a poster. LOL I picked up extras of the “Tulsa is my Graceland” stuff because a bunch of people who were not going wanted items so I am hoping I will have no trouble re-selling them. (That was about $40 worth of it right there)

My friend Keena met up with me after that and we headed to locations where Hanson shot the Thinking Bout Somethin and Go music videos around town. We drove by the river where they shot more of Go and did the photo shoot for the cover of The Walk and we went to Ida Red which is a cute little boutique.

Then I decided I needed a Tulsa snowglobe.  For those of you who aren’t Hanson fans, early in their career they released a VHS called “Tulsa, Tokyo and the Middle of Nowhere” in the beginning there is a snowglobe that plays Oklahoma that a friend bought for them before they went on tour.  They are still selling similar ones now… and I knew that if I bought it, I couldn’t take it on the plane because it is WAY too much liquid.  A checked bag was not something I planned on doing either so I ended up buying it and going to the UPS store… it’ll be at my house Friday.

Then we headed to Cain’s Ballroom and met up with some friends and hung out from about 4:30ish til 7:30ish when they let us in.  More details on the show in another post…

Traveling on Friday the 13th

I am actually writing this on Friday the 13th – though it is probably a few days after that this is being posted.  What can I say, I need to space things out so that I end up doing (at least) a post a day…  For it being such a spooky day… or whatever.. things went relatively smoothly…

I was going to wake up at noon, but found out Honor Society tickets were going on sale early at about 10:15. Hoping I was in fast enough to be one of the first 50 for a M&G, but we’ll see.  Then I decided to get my hair cut.  I cut off 10+ inches.  Donated 10 of it and the rest was gone in styling it once the ponytail was cut off. It is REALLY short (Last time it was this short or here about was in January of 09 when I donated it before going on the Rock Boat)

At 1:30 I left for the airport and thought I might be cutting it short.  There was some traffic, I dropped my car off at the valet parking and was at security by 3pm.  Got through that with minimal problems (I was paranoid because instead of my ticket saying Katie A, first name & middle initial it said Katiea.) The guy yelled at me because I didn’t have my laptop out. I didn’t realize I had to but I was quick…

As usual, my gate was pretty much the last one possible when walking.  I had a REALLY tall guy next to me on the flight, but he was nice and I tried to give him as much leg room as I could since I’m short lol  I also got my bag in the overhead bin FIRST but somehow the flight attendant decided it needed to be moved for someone else’s gigantic bag so it ended up somewhere else lol  The flight was about an hour and then it was time to stop in Detroit.

Of course, the airport where I wanted to walk around (they have 4 penny machines, none near me) my gate was just 3 over from where we landed!  I was able to get a baseball postcard for my collection (a collection i started on trips to see Hanson lol)
The flight from Detroit to Tulsa was PACKED.  There was a problem with one of the planes flying to OKC, so they had to shuffle people on to our flight and then those people had to figure out rides from Tulsa.  It was also one of the worst flights I was ever on.  There were 3 times when we hit really bad turbulence and I think the guy next to me realized I was not too happy the 3rd time and tried to make stupid conversation with me lol  I did not like him as much as the first guy because he was reading and had his elbows so far out one was poking me in the stomach.

When I got to Tulsa I found the hotel shuttle right away and the driver told me he was waiting for a crew from a flight that should be in at 9:20.  However, their flight got delayed to 10:30 so he ended up taking me to the hotel and heading back to pick up the flight crew.  I think he got sick of me telling him about Hanson’s life story. (Here I thought everyone in Tulsa would know about them! Guess not!)

My hotel is SUPER nice… and ridiculously nice for the price I got it for on priceline.  The only down site – at least on my floor, there is no vending machine with snacks.  I did not have a real meal all day! I got a snack pack on the plane though… but I think I’ll be having a big breakfast tomorrow…

Off To Tulsa! + contest bonus entry!

Today I am leaving for my trip to Tulsa, OK for the weekend.  I’ll get in to Tulsa about 9pm CT.  I do have a guest post lined up for Saturday and a book review for Sunday so my readers won’t be lonely.  (Though I probably won’t get many chances to update the links on the Facebook) Hopefully on Monday and over the week I will have a recap of some of the “sites” in Tulsa.

I am going to see Hanson – they are doing their Members Only Event once again in Tulsa.  This is a more intimate show and you must be a fan club member to attend.  The show will take place at Cain’s Ballroom in downtown Tulsa.  There are 2 sessions, 1pm and 8pm.  I am going to the later session and will be checking out some locations where they filmed their music videos “Go” and “Thinking Bout Somethin” during the day as well as hopefully hitting up the Blue Rose Cafe – the guys used to sing by the dumpster because they were too young to get inside and sing at the bar!

I am also hoping to make it to the Zoo as well, but we’ll see if time permits!

I have layovers in Detroit and Minneapolis so I am hoping I can add to my ball park postcard collection (I have St Louis and Atlanta from previous treks to Tulsa!)

Only my last flight – from Minneapolis to Hartford will there be internet on the plane – so maybe I can schedule some recap posts from the plane – that is, if I am not completely knocked out.  My last trip to Tulsa I slept 3 of my 4 flights and was sad to have missed my complimentary cookies!

As a bonus entry – comment on either the Prefense Giveaway or the Jon McLaughlin CD Giveaway with what your favorite Hanson song is! (Mandatory entry must be done first in order for bonus entry to count.  Bonus entry expires May 15th at NOON EST! You must choose 1 of the 2 contests to use your bonus entry on)

Take me back to Tulsa!


I really never thought I would be going back to Tulsa after my first trip there in May of 2009. But I was there for Halloween 2010 and it looks like I will be heading back once again in May 2011!

Yesterday I booked my flight and my ‘ticket’ is confirmed for the Hanson.net Members Only Event! I’ll work out the other details (hotel, etc) later. It will add a couple of states to my visited (or passed through) list as I have a layover in Detroit, MI and Minneapolis, MN.

I should have the whole day Saturday before the show to explore a bit (show is not until 8pm) and a couple of hours on Sunday before I head home too. It is my first time flying in to Tulsa directly – the past 2 times I have flown in to Oklahoma City. A ton of my friends are planning on coming too, some I haven’t seen in a loooong time so I am really excited 🙂

I’m hoping to secure some Guest Posts while I am away so there will still be content for you to read 🙂 If you’d like to write a guest post, check out what I am looking for here

Nate Berkus Show / NYC trip

My mom and I went to the Nate Berkus show taping today.  I’m not sure how much I can say but I will refrain from talking about the topics on the show until the show airs. (Probably in a few weeks – though I will probably type it up and save it now so I don’t forget stuff lol)  But here is a bit about our day:

First, we had an issue at the train station.  We were going up the ramp, slowly, and this woman went running past and said she needed a ticket.  Well, so did we… She ended up getting to the cash ticket machine before us so we were forced to use the credit card machine and therefore I got no change of Presidential Dollars 🙁  My brother and I are collecting these and thought it would have been nice to have a few more to possibly add to the collection. Ah well, we all made the train with plenty of time to spare.

We got to Grand Central and killed some time – I checked in and got the Historian badge on Foursquare!  Then we got a cab and headed to the studios.  We went by Pee Wee’s theater and I got the Pee Wee Badge too!

We ended up at the studio at about 11 and wouldn’t be checked in until 1.  They said tickets didn’t guarantee admission, so we wanted to make sure we were there with time to spare.  We were #8 and 9 in line.  Don’t let the line fool you though – just because you were there first, doesn’t mean you’ll get prime seating! We were in the back corner :/  I figured we wouldn’t be let in in the same order we arrived in but sheesh the side seating is really limited views! We could really only see Nate for one segment, which was filmed right in front of us.  There were lots of monitors around though.

The audience is mainly middle aged women who want to marry Nate.  lol I thought I was the youngest person there, but then a few girls maybe around my age ended up getting seated next to me.  The studio holds about 200 people.  His warm-up comedian is GREAT.  She did a segment on his show a couple days ago that I thought was hilarious (choosing a date by looking at the guy’s bedrooms!) and when I saw she was there I was psyched.  You get rewarded if you steal. I’m not giving any more information about this but my mom and I did not steal and therefore were not rewarded. (With an item I am kind of obsessed with lol)

Filming took about 2 hours – I don’t remember exactly when it started but we were there from about 3-5.  No gifts, but I don’t think he’s really given much stuff out.  He gave a can of paint one day though and that’s when I decided we needed to go. lol  We went to the Hudson Eatery across the street after – we were the only ones there and the prices were reasonable and the food was good!

Then we took a cab down to 5th avenue.  We were dropped off at a store with postcards so I got 10. Five for a dollar is a good deal lol  I probably should have even gotten more, since a few are for me to keep.  Next stop was Build A Bear and I picked up the David Wright jersey that they don’t sell in Connecticut (even though they sell the damn Yankees ones… but that’s a rant for another day!)

Next up was my new favorite store, Little Miss Matched.  They sell mis-matched socks! Since I wear a brace on one leg that goes up to almost my knee, I wear a knee high sock on one foot and a regular sock on the other.  So I picked up 6 fun new knee highs – and they have no matches!

The we stopped at B&N; because I had a gift card and picked up a case for my Nook.  There is a journal I wanted but they didn’t have it there 🙁  And then I saw Apolo was going to be there tomorrow 🙁  I want to see him but I don’t think I’m going to be able to pull it off because he is in CT the same night as I am going to see Let’s Make a Deal.

Then it was time to kill more time at Grand Central before finally boarding our train home! None of the doors were opened though and the tunnel was HOT.  Then we saw one door at the waay end was open so we had to go through that one and then in between every train car (and dang those doors are heavy). We went all the way to the second to the last car too lol  When I wonder why my arms hurt tomorrow – remind me its from opening huge doors on trains.

I got a pretty good picture (at least on the camera screen) of the Empire State Building, so I’ll try to post that at some point – OH and Nate show let us keep our ticket so I might post that too 😉

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