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For work, I had to go to the Birmingham area.

Birmingham, England.

Once we (my co-workers and I) arrived, we made our way to the hotel – Village Urban Resort. I guess they call it a resort because it has a restaurant and a fitness center attached – not the stereotypical image of a resort having palm trees and outdoor pools and spas and such.

Now for various things I observed on the trip:

• I appreciated that everything at the hotel started with the same letter, specifically V.

  Village hotel, Velocity fitness center (AKA gym), Verve restaurant, Victory pub. I was disappointed when someone pointed out that their conference center is called The Hub

• I also appreciated their cold water. The water coming out of the bathroom sink was the coldest I can remember. I suspect they increased the air pressure in the rooms so they could allow the water temperature to be below freezing.
• Everyone in Europe uses credit cards with chips instead of magnetic stripes. Everyone taking our cards assumed a chip and put the card in a chip reader, and we had to tell them to swipe it instead. And their reactions were always along the lines of “Oh, I haven’t had to do that in years!” And it would take them a few tries to get it to go through.
• Our first night we had dinner at Miller and Carter. Ignore whatever people say about British food – that was the best steak I ever had.
• Our second night we went to Jimmy Spices. Avoid that place if possible. It’s an international buffet – they have a variety of foods from all over. It’s all-you-can-eat, and the emphasis is on quantity over quality. And it’s not that much cheaper than a quality place. Note: they have the driest brownies ever. Not hard, just dry.
• The next night we went back to Miller and Carter. The other guys got the same thing they got the first night, but I opted for the salmon. It was fine, with a nice presentation, but it wasn’t worth it. I would have rather had the steak again.
• The steak was around $30. I could enjoy eating that steak because it was on the company dime. Or many dimes, I suppose. I would have enjoyed the steak even if I had paid my own money for it. While $30 is high for a meal, I know there are steak places around home that will charge $50+ for a steak meal. And I can’t imagine getting double the enjoyment or nutrition out of that steak compared to the $30 steak.
• The next night, we went to The Farm Inn. They had more variety than Miller and Carter, and everyone liked the food.
• The next night, we went into Dickens Heath and ate at Giovanni’s. That was an Italian place, of course. The owner/operator had a thick Italian accent, but his wife had a Scottish accent. The food selection was limited, but the quality of the food made up for it. I’ve had smoked salmon before, but it has always tasted more like raw fish and I didn’t like it. I tried the smoked salmon on the appetizer sampler at Giovanni’s and it was quite good. I did not try the mussels, but others did and they said they were the best they’ve had – “the first time I’ve had mussels that weren’t rubbery”.
• The last night, we tried to go to Morton’s, which is right next door to Giovanni’s. Unfortunately, this was a Friday night. Whereas both places were sparsely populated during the week before now, this was the start of the weekend so it was different. The place was standing room only. We did not have reservations (or, as they asked us “Are you booked?”) so we were turned away.
• We left Dickens Heath, not wanting to go to Giovanni’s two nights in a row, and went back to Miller and Carter. I got steak this time, not wanting to miss out on another chance at the best steak I’ve ever had. This time, however, I got the fillet (pronounced as fill-it there – the British are decidedly not French) instead of the ribeye. I must say I preferred the ribeye. I’m not a fan of the texture of a fillet – it seemed squishy. Some people might call that tender, but to me it’s squishy.
• The desserts were also very good at Miller and Carter. We all got different things and everyone was pleased with them.
• We did more than eat while we were there, but I’m guessing that most people reading this don’t want to hear about our meetings discussing motor control software.
• I didn’t drive in England, but I was a passenger of the guy who was driving for the first time on the left side of the road. Driving is intense in England because there are no pauses. Here in the US, there are plenty of stop signs or stop lights – you get a few seconds to stop and look at road signs or think about your next traffic decision. In England though, with all the roundabouts, you can make your whole trip without ever stopping at all, so you need to know what you’re doing ahead of time.
• And if you ever drive in England, it’s good to know that you are not allowed to turn on red. They do occasionally have a traffic light. But no turns on red, unlike here.

Stay tuned for the next installment – the airplane.

Day 4

Church in the morning, then some downtime inside due to rain.

I think the boys watched some car racing on TV and read.

After lunch though, the sun came back out and the boys went fishing.

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We took a long weekend to visit relatives in central Minnesota.

Day 1

Get to Chicago. Nothing fancy here.

Stayed at a Hyatt Place because I thought Hyatts were supposed to be nice. It was okay, but we we not impressed. In fact, we were so unimpressed that we cancelled our reservation for the trip back. There wasn’t anything necessarily wrong, other than the carpet in our room looked dirty.

But that’s what turned my wife against the hotel. In the morning, just before we were checking out, she stopped at the front desk to let them know the carpet looked bad. The guy at the front desk told her two things: “That’s not the room you were assigned at booking.” and “If you had let us know earlier, we could have given you a different room.” He was defensive and hostile, which is a bad tone for someone in the hospitality industry. The main reason why we felt like switching hotels was his first statement. He never asked for her name or room number, and he never touched his computer. How did he know what room we were in and what room we were originally assigned? He didn’t. He was just trying excuses.

Day 2

Leaving Chicago took longer than expected. I-90 was under construction for all of Illinois, so instead of going around 70 MPH, we spent our morning going 40 MPH. For about 50 miles. They didn’t have enough crews and equipment to work on 50 miles of road at once. Rather than break the huge job into manageable sections and close only as much road as they can work on at once, they shifted traffic over, tore up all 50 miles of road, and now are rebuilding the road – presumably waiting to reopen any lanes until the whole thing is done.

We were going to stop for lunch in Eau Claire, but we made worse time than we had expected so we stopped for lunch in Wisconsin Dells – Buffalo Phil’s, which the kids had fondly remembered from our trip there a few years ago.
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Another year, another trip to Maranatha. Which means another vacation recap blog post.

Don’t read that opening sentence with the wrong tone of voice – it’s a happy time, not a here-we-go-again dour attitude. The kids love going; we look forward to it each year.

Visit 2010’s recap of our trip to Maranatha for a refresher course, or to see how similar trips to Maranatha are. We want them to be similar, because kids need traditions.

Let’s see… things to recap.

• The Beach

  The beach was good, weather cooperated for the most part.

  I got some photos of the sunset our first night there.

  

  

  Given the number of phones and teenagers there, I bet there were a ton more sunset photos on Instagram too. The problem with those is that the photographers kept sticking their own heads in the way.
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I took Alpha on a trip to Cedar Point. I hadn’t been there since 1990-something.

It’s a lot smaller than I remember.

I’m sure it’s the same size – it’s just my perspective has changed. Most of my memories from there are as a grade-schooler and middle-schooler.

Things I’m disappointed aren’t there anymore:

• IMAX – a highlight of the day because of two things: air-conditioning and sitting. Plus that feeling you got when the movie crested the mountain peak and you thought you were going to fall…
• Pirate Ride – I didn’t like roller coasters much, so this flat ride was one I handle.
• Paddlewheel excursion – I didn’t ride this much, but it was a nice diversion. Again, not a roller coaster.
• Jungle Larry’s Animal Safari – I was trying to remember where exactly this was. I think Mantis or Millenium Force is there now.

Things that changed:

• Junior Gemini – It’s still there, just as a Snoopy ride now
• Ferris Wheel – It’s supposed to be by the train station. Although having it right by the shore does provide a nice view now.
• Steam Enginges – I didn’t check, but it seems to me that the trains have been converted from coal power into something else. There’s no smoke, and no nostalgia-inducing smell.

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And you thought I was done with the vacation posts. This one is just observations, no photos.

• We have an ancient Michigan saying: The grass is always greener in Florida. That is especially true in February.
• Two paths diverged in a Knoxville, and I – I took the one less travelled by. I knew we would be on the freeway a lot, so I chose to take the back roads from Knoxville to Atlanta (129 to 411, jumping on I-75 just north of Atlanta). It was a nice drive, apart from the several miles I was stuck behind someone going 5-10 under the speed limit. That’s the downside of the back roads – one lane each way near the mountains means there are not a lot of opportunities for passing. But, more time to enjoy the scenery. Miles-wise, it was a lot shorter, but time-wise it was about the same. Only, the GPS was not happy with me. It was doing all it could to get me back to I-75 the whole time.
• Florida must be where bottled water got its start. All the tap water there tastes like swamp. If you ever travel to Florida, be prepared to avoid the local water supply.
• Even though you might not want to make the trip down and back and down again, take the 2YO to breakfast in his pajamas then bring him back to the room to change into his clothes for the day. Otherwise, he will end up walking around the theme park all day with oatmeal and orange juice on his clothes.
• If you do go to the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta and you are expecting Dolphin Tales to be just dolphins performing tricks and stuff, you will be surprised. Dolphin Tales is a musical – people singing and choreography and such. It just happens that some of the actors are dolphins.
• Atlanta speed limits are confusing. The signs said 55 MPH, but everyone was going 65. Then I saw the sheriff pass everyone going 70.
• I took 3 books on the trip but didn’t get to read at all. When you are the driver on a road trip, your options are limited to what you can listen to in the van. Other than that, you are sightseeing or sleeping.
• I figured out how to objectively tell whether a place is fancy or not. I figured this out while surveying our condo. It is fancy if the shower uses real tile that goes all the way up to the ceiling. Average places will use a plastic shower surround thingy. A good place will use ceramic tile but only to the top of the shower. Our condo had tile all the way to the ceiling, and they were 9′ ceilings even. I’m glad we went during the off-season when the rates are lower, because we could not have afforded this place otherwise.
• I had the chicken flatbread thingy for a meal at a Disney resort. I now know that flatbread is a culinary term that means bad pizza.

Day 6

We spent the morning at the rental condo, mostly playing in the pool.

I didn’t take any photos of that, because I was in the pool. Being in the pool required a delicate balance of sunlight. The water was cool enough that I didn’t want to be in the shade, but my skin was pale enough that I didn’t want to be in the sun. Finally, I borrowed some sunscreen from a friend and I could stay warm-ish.

Here is our condo. We were on the first floor, which was great because of the kids and stroller, but also because then I didn’t need to worry about all the noise the kids made bothering the people below us. On the other hand, I could tell, around 5:15 am each morning, when the people above us were getting up.

Then we had lunch and headed out to Downtown Disney, getting there around 1:30.

Early afternoon is a much better time to arrive at Downtown Disney than is evening. If you’re thinking about going there in the evening, don’t bother unless you’re not driving. If you don’t need to park, it’s not so bad.
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