I just fired off an e-mail to some colleagues I haven't seen since 2007, I was trying to put together the high level Travel Log since we'd last seen each other and came up with the following list of countries visited by year.

• 2007 – UK, Canada, Italy
• 2008 – Czech Republic, Austria
• 2009 – Italy, Portugal
• 2010 – Spain, Italy, France, UK, Ireland, Scotland, Mexico
• 2011 – Canada - doesn't really count.

Not a bad list considering I'd never left the country prior to 2004 (here's the breakdown prior to 2007).

• 2004 - Canada, Spain, Italy, France, UK, Czech Republic
• 2005 - Italy
• 2006 - UK, Germany

 I had to go back to the passport and do some recon to piece some of these back together.  I don't think I missed any.

This really makes me want to plan a trip abroad.  Too bad I have something scheduled for 2/3 of the weekend between now and August.

I can't break the streak, at least one country every year since 2004, and at least two every year since! Where should I go? Maybe just a long weekend!

Frequent Flyer from Gabriel Leigh on Vimeo.

I entered a photography contest for photos of art on Iowa State's campus.

University Museums is looking for great unique photos of the Art on Campus Collection for the second annual I Y Campus Art contest.  During the month of September we accepted amateur photographer’s images of any of the over 600 major public works of art on the Iowa State University Campus. 

Submitted photographs are placed below to be voted on by the community.  Votes will be collected during the entire month of October and the photograph receiving the largest number of votes will be printed as a poster and sold at the Brunnier Art Museum Store.  The winning photographer will also receive a framed poster.Voting concludes October 31. Winner will be announced early November on the website and through a press release. 

To vote for your favorite photograph, please email your choice of photograph with Title and Name of Photographer to Nancy Gebhart at [email protected]. 

"Study Break" is my favorite.

Photos are online and voting is open until the end of October.

So, Vote for me!  And then tell a friend!

http://www.museums.iastate.edu/CampusPhotoContest.htm

Also - I have an album online of the photos I took around campus that day, from which I selected these 4 entries.  Enjoy!

It’s time to plan a couple of fun (back to back) weekend trips!

Who’s coming with?!?

First up:

What: The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage festival.

When: Fri April 24- Sun April 26

Why: I can talk for hours about the Big E-Z, The Crescent City!  We’ll start with great food, cocktails and music and go from there.

Where: I have reservations at the Renaissance Pere Marquette Hotel

Who: Everyone who’s Anyone!

What: Loose itinerary:

• Friday - Drinking in the French Quarter (The hurricane was invented here)
• Saturday
  • Catch the bus to the Jazz Fest. 
  • Dinner at Commander’s Palace. (Featured this month as one of Saveur’s “12 restaurants that matter”)
  • More drinking (a Mint Julep to prepare for next weekend, perhaps). 
• Sunday
  • Beignets at Café Du Monde
  • Cocktails to go – Bloody Mary, Mimosa, Screwdriver take your pick.
  • Lunch at Port-of-Call (best Baked Potatoes and Burgers of your life)
  • Cocktails as we walk back to the hotel, off to the airport.

Followed the next weekend by:

What: The Kentucky Derby

When: Race is Sat May 3.  (Probably leaving Friday and returning Saturday)

Why: I just bought a new outfit (anyone know how to tie a bow tie?), and I’ve never been.  Besides who doesn’t love all the ladies in large floppy hats.

Where: I have reservations at the Fairfield Inn Louisville South

Who: Whoever!

What: I’ve never been to Louisville (or a horse race for that matter) but it sounds fun, right?  Some of my friends who are going have been to town many times and assure me it’s loads of fun.

Yup I'm still around. Rather than trying to recap the last several months I'm going to talk about my family trip over Christmas and New Year's.

Ever since Thanksgiving 2006 we (Mom, Dad, my sister, and I) have been talking about a trip at Christmas time. In 2006 we came chose to going to Hawaii, but didn't. this year we link the plunge and headed Is my favorite country and city... Italy!

We found flights departing on Christmas dg and returning the first Friday of the New Year. Non, my parents (and sister, but more on that later) had never bun to Europe, let alone Italy before, so we decided on a week long bus tour to see me than just Rome. Iprsteskd and said we needed more than the scheduled 1.5 days in the eternal city, if you did the math you realize he were gone more than a week, so we had a couple of days before the tour in Rome, and a day after.

You can count on me

So please have snow and mistletoe

and presents under the tree

I'm in Iowa until 12/27, is anyone around hit me up.  Then I'm in Chicago until the 7th.

I'm back in the windy city, after 2 weeks away.  I spent last weekend visiting Sean and Melissa in Hoboken.  Gloriously last Thursday was the first big winter storm of the season in Chicago, so after being several hours delayed getting out of DSM I got to spend 3 hours at ORD, my 6pm flight to Newark didn't take off until 9:30, so I didn't land until after midnight on the east coast.  In addition the flight was full of "slight to heavy chop" pretty much the entire way.  I'm pretty sure a couple of wine glasses were broken at one point.

So, since it was so choppy, and I hopped on a differnt flight out of DSM I didn't get nearly as drunk as I'd hoped in first class.  At least the service was good.  Then on the flight back into DSM on monday we were delayed for a couple of hours, and the jet bridge didnt work in DSM, so we sat at the gate for 15 minutes while they dicked around with it.  The silver lining came on Tuesday when I received an unsolicited e-mail from UAL apologizing for Thursday's delay, and crediting me 8000 miles.  Today I was concerned we were going to be in trouble due to high winds in Chicago, the flight 2 flights before mine was delayed for over and hour, the flight right before mine was cancelled.  Fortuantly we boarded early, and got our delay lifted, and actually landed early.  Joyiously (and as to be expected) traffice has been horrible.

So, last Friday we went into Manhatten, I got to see Melissa's office (in the Wall Street Journal building), and we went to a great russian reasteraunt.  The flavor infused vodka was great (And inspired Sean to try to make his own later in the weekend), and the food duck was quite tastey too.  However, the salt lick that Melissa and Sean shared left me quite parched from the couple of bites I had.  The caviar was lovely, although the samon variety was a bit too salty/fishy for my taste.  We were shit faced and home by 1.

Saturday we did a bit of shopping on 5th avenu (I know the magnificant mile doesn't have much shopping going on, so I had to go to NYC).  We saw the tree at Rockafeller center.  In fact while we were looking down on the skating rink we watched a guy drop to one knee and propose, it was kinda neat.  That evening we stayed in Hoboken, and went to meet up with a couple of Sean's friends at a swanky new resteraunt/loung.  IT was a realy fun place.  The drinks were a pricieer than the pub we started at, but that was to be expected.

Oops...

Eeh, 35 feet, 200 feet, what's the difference, don't the Blue Angels fly with a wing-to-wing clearance of like 12 inches. Why is everyone so upset?

A jet taking off at O'Hare International Airport missed a taxiing cargo plane by 35 feet in July...

...Initial reports indicated the pilot of the outbound United Airlines flight carrying 120 passengers and five crew members came within 200 to 300 feet of the cargo plane after taking evasive action by lifting off the ground early...

...The pilots of the United plane, accelerating down the runway at 127 m.p.h., took off early with a 25-degree climb instead of the normal 16- to- 18-degree attitude, according to FAA records...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0611150048nov15,1,409050.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

"Other world-class cities have used satellite-based tracking systems for more than a decade to inform waiting passengers exactly when their bus or train will arrive."

Chicago is piloting a GPS based bus tracking system in an effort to try to minimize the up to 1hr+ wait time that can occur between busses.  Finally!!! Even if it doesn't improve time, it will at least let you know when you should leave the house/office/whatever to avoid a long wait in the blistering cold!!!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/chi-0605080207may08,1,6710891.column

For the first time ever O'Hare was not the busiest airport in the world (in either number of passengers, or flights). 

See the Chicago Tribune story: http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-0601040304jan04,1,2028980.story