Travel Thread

[The U]

I experienced a 40 degree weather swing a few days ago. I had been staying in Santa Monica for the week. One morning I woke up and it was 63 degrees. Was walking around with hoodie and shorts. Drove to Palm Desert a few hours later that day and watched the temp climb to 113 degrees. Ended up in Joshua Tree and the temps settled back down to around 100. It’s hard to “dress for the day” with that kind of variation. Drove back to SaMo that night.

[RonnieFranchise]

isn’t 63-113 a 50 degree swing?

[dodint]

I love Joshua Tree. Need to get back there.

[The U]

isn’t 63-113 a 50 degree swing?

Yeah 50 not 40. I blame my red eye flight home. My brain and body are struggling today.

[Sam's Drunk Dog]

Those temp swings are a typical fall/spring day in PA.

[tifosi77]

I work in Santa Monica and live in the Valley, and I see temperature swings like that all the time. The road I take that connects the Valley to the coast is called Topanga Canyon, and in a straight line there's about 9 miles and a big hill between Ventura Blvd and PCH. There are days where it's easily a 35+ swing, or even more on either side of that hill at the same time of day.

[DigitalGypsy66]

I thoroughly enjoyed the marine layer temp changes we had in LA in June.

[The U]

I work in Santa Monica and live in the Valley, and I see temperature swings like that all the time. The road I take that connects the Valley to the coast is called Topanga Canyon, and in a straight line there's about 9 miles and a big hill between Ventura Blvd and PCH. There are days where it's easily a 35+ swing, or even more on either side of that hill at the same time of day.

Ah yes, I’ve done that drive. Two years ago I was driving around Calabasas and Malibu. I took a detour into Pepperdine and sat there looking out at the ocean like….i can’t believe this is a real campus. Fun side story…My wife was incredibly hungover/sick from drinking too much at a party the night before so she threw up in a trash can on campus and then at a Jack in The Box a few miles down the road. Now whenever we see a Jack in The Box I ask her if she wants me to pull over so she can barf.

[The U]

I thoroughly enjoyed the marine layer temp changes we had in LA in June.

I experienced the marine layer and then was also wondering if I was experiencing some wildfire haze. There was a day or two last week when I couldn’t see certain buildings downtown or mountains like I normally could.

[tifosi77]

I took a detour into Pepperdine and sat there looking out at the ocean like….i can’t believe this is a real campus.

It will take some convincing to get me to believe their graduation rate is an actual positive number.

[DigitalGypsy66]

Watching the Barves-Padres at Petco made me sad we didn't get to see a game there last summer. I think I looked but they were on the road the end of that week. Did see the Dodgers though.

But I really liked San Diego. We found some random-ish beach and semi-climbed down the cliffwall (with the help of some Point Loma Nazarene University students) and it was really beautiful to see the sunset over the Pacific. And that university looks right over the ocean, and has a baseball field that runs up to the edge of the cliffs down to the ocean. I later used Redfin to see what it cost to live there...and yep, a little out of my price range. Any view of the water is $1million plus, and I routinely get house listings sent to me in excess of $3million.

[NTP66]

Our daughter has off from school today and tomorrow, so we went to Hershey’s Chocolate World. It was actually pretty enjoyable - daughter especially liked it. Made our own candy bars, and watching that entire process was pretty interesting. Finished it off with one of those absurd create your own giant Reese’s Cups that will take us weeks to finish. Hit up Primanti Bros for lunch, since it’s been years for me.

Today was a good day.

[shafnutz05]

Our daughter has off from school today and tomorrow, so we went to Hershey’s Chocolate World. It was actually pretty enjoyable - daughter especially liked it. Made our own candy bars, and watching that entire process was pretty interesting. Finished it off with one of those absurd create your own giant Reese’s Cups that will take us weeks to finish. Hit up Primanti Bros for lunch, since it’s been years for me.

Today was a good day.

Chocolate World is always fun. I still enjoy that ride despite doing it probably a dozen times at this point. We were there last night to take our son to see the Blippi show at the Hershey Theater.

We went to Stuff'd (right across the street from Primanti's). I cannot possibly recommend it enough. The best cheesesteak I've ever had, and I've had a lot. The workers there have shirts and the back says "Pat and Geno who?"

[NTP66]

That little area right there has a lot of good places to eat and shop. It’s very nicely done.

[Orlando Penguin]

We went to Stuff'd (right across the street from Primanti's). I cannot possibly recommend it enough. The best cheesesteak I've ever had, and I've had a lot. The workers there have shirts and the back says "Pat and Geno who?"

Stuff'd you say? Hmmmm, I'll have to check that out the next time I'm in the area. There's all the eye candy on the Primanti's side of Chocolate Ave that you can miss what's on the other side.

[Beveridge]

Our daughter has off from school today and tomorrow, so we went to Hershey’s Chocolate World. It was actually pretty enjoyable - daughter especially liked it. Made our own candy bars, and watching that entire process was pretty interesting. Finished it off with one of those absurd create your own giant Reese’s Cups that will take us weeks to finish. Hit up Primanti Bros for lunch, since it’s been years for me.

Today was a good day.

We did that with the kids last summer. The Reese's cup was a hit.

[shafnutz05]

We went to Stuff'd (right across the street from Primanti's). I cannot possibly recommend it enough. The best cheesesteak I've ever had, and I've had a lot. The workers there have shirts and the back says "Pat and Geno who?"

Stuff'd you say? Hmmmm, I'll have to check that out the next time I'm in the area. There's all the eye candy on the Primanti's side of Chocolate Ave that you can miss what's on the other side.

Yep, it's tucked back in behind Fenicci's. Just opened in July, used to be a food truck. There's also a creperie back there too that's supposed to be excellent.

[NTP66]

Our daughter has off from school today and tomorrow, so we went to Hershey’s Chocolate World. It was actually pretty enjoyable - daughter especially liked it. Made our own candy bars, and watching that entire process was pretty interesting. Finished it off with one of those absurd create your own giant Reese’s Cups that will take us weeks to finish. Hit up Primanti Bros for lunch, since it’s been years for me.

Today was a good day.

We did that with the kids last summer. The Reese's cup was a hit.

Yeah, my daughter went to town on that, lol. It's sitting in our fridge right now, and we'll probably have some tonight for an impromptu movie night.

[skullman80]

Our daughter has off from school today and tomorrow, so we went to Hershey’s Chocolate World. It was actually pretty enjoyable - daughter especially liked it. Made our own candy bars, and watching that entire process was pretty interesting. Finished it off with one of those absurd create your own giant Reese’s Cups that will take us weeks to finish. Hit up Primanti Bros for lunch, since it’s been years for me.

Today was a good day.

We went there last year (just as two adults) since my niece had a softball tourney out there. It was a fun time. Lots of cools things to do and see even as an adult.

[LITT]

does anyone haev a need for a DC metro card with a few bucks still on it

[dodint]

As for the DR chatter I am staying at Breathless in Punta Cana in October. Taking notes.

Take a bunch of ones and fives with you for tips. I went to the bank and took out a few hundred before we left for tips.

This ended up being good advice and worked out in most situations. For full length massages we tipped $40 so we brought some $20s. And we didn't take out enough so I tipped housekeeping in Pesos that I got from a local ATM. But otherwise it was really great having that cash on hand because, as others have said, the tipping frenzy starts at the baggage carousel and doesn't stop until you hit the security line on the way out.

I could see tipping banned at extremely high end resorts. In general resort workers get paid **** and are often given bonuses (or penalized) based on what is said about them in online reviews. We tend to tip very well when we go to one and by the end of our stay have a personal wait staff that's eager to please.

This is the sentiment that made me circle back and dig up these posts. When I got home I looked into whether my tips were too high or too low, I just wasn't sure and felt uneasy about it all trip.
It turns out we were tipping the appropriate amounts from what I could tell....however, I stumbled into some reddit threads about tipping at Punta Cana resorts. Wow, some really interesting viewpoints in there. Most alarming were British travelers that don't tip and were livid that "Americans brought their tipping culture to the Dominican Republic and have spoiled it by tipping resort workers that do not expect tips" because "once the workers realize you're not tipping they stop providing excellent and timely service." I mean....yeah?
They went on to say that the tipping is damaging to the resort workers and is unethical. Amazing contortions of logic to avoid a relatively small additional cost to a lavish trip.

[Dickie Dunn]

**** Brits.

[shafnutz05]

I can't recommend Hershey Park's Halloween nighttime events enough. Took my daughter tonight and it was a great time. Wasn't too crowded, Fridays seem to be best for that. Park didn't open until 5.

[iamjs]

did a quick visit in Philly over the weekend. Shaf, you need to give us outsiders a heads up about the parking situation throughout the city.

Hit up a skate shop and grabbed some old stuff from the 90s. Grabbed a ticket off of StubHub for the Flyers and ended up in a suite. Was kinda awkward since I kept on getting a look like "who is this guy and how did he get in?" By the halfway point of the first, I ended up doing in and out of the suites and watching the game from various bars. Got turned around more than a few times, but to be fair most of the doors didn't have a "you need a badge, pass, etc." type of warning.

Today I ended up driving through the old shipyard. I typically don’t get too attached and chatty about my navy time, but seeing these ships like this hit differently. There were a few that you could walk right up to them, like walk within a few footsteps of the ship. The one security guard said that since the yard is mostly empty on Sundays, you can walk anywhere within reason. He said just be observant of the Property of US Government and No Trespassing signs and you shouldn't have any issues.

Before leaving, I took a ride down to Pat's was somehow able to get a spot right behind the building, so it was the rare instance of being in Philly and not having to try to wedge my car into a spot that may or may not fit. Of course I post it on FB and everybody gives me the "you need to go to __________. Don't go to Pat's." I'm just a tourist doing touristy stuff. If I wanted to check out the best cheesesteak in Philly, I would have asked ahead of time. I just wanted to go to Pat's/Geno's because I had only been there once before late at night and don't remember much about the last visit.

[NTP66]

Before leaving, I took a ride down to Pat's was somehow able to get a spot right behind the building, so it was the rare instance of being in Philly and not having to try to wedge my car into a spot that may or may not fit. Of course I post it on FB and everybody gives me the "you need to go to __________. Don't go to Pat's." I'm just a tourist doing touristy stuff. If I wanted to check out the best cheesesteak in Philly, I would have asked ahead of time. I just wanted to go to Pat's/Geno's because I had only been there once before late at night and don't remember much about the last visit.

This is where you lost me.