What Would You Do with a Free Day in L.A.?
Posted January 28, 2008 by Rosalind Gardner · Filed Under Adventures
As I’ve only been to L.A. a couple of times and only for very short durations, I haven’t seen or done much more than shop on Rodeo Drive, a movie star home tour, trip along the Walk of Fame and stroll the beach and pier in Santa Monica.
This time I’m contemplating either the Universal or Warner Bros. studio tours, seeing the Dr. Phil Show, maybe checking out the Fashion District or the The J. Paul Getty Museum.
So, tell me… what would you do with one day in Los Angeles? Got any other suggestions or ideas? Appreciate anything you have to offer!
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1,000 Places to See Before You Die
Posted January 26, 2008 by Rosalind Gardner · Filed Under Books, Travel Guides
Here’s a review that I posted to Amazon after seeing a number of negative comments about Patricia Shultz’s “1,000 Places to See Before You Die: A Traveler’s Life List“.
I received “1,000 Places to See Before You Die: A Traveler’s Life List” as a birthday gift from a friend a few years ago and it has since become one of the most well-thumbed volumnes in our travel library.
It’s fun to scan our green highlighted entries and remember with pleasure the places we’ve been, as well as review entries we’ve marked with stars as places we plan to visit.
I’m not sure how anyone can make the suggestion that the book is a ‘grandpa list’ with off the beaten track trips such as “a ballon ride over Masai Mara” and “the Tasman Glacier” listed right on the front cover. I don’t see many 80 year olds on those types of adventures.
Although I agree that the Toronto Four Seasons listing is dubious when so many locations of interest in Canada seem to be missing, the food at the Four Seasons is actually quite fine.
I recommend 1,000 Places to See Before You Die: A Traveler’s Life List as a good starting point for creating your own list of places to see before you die.
500 Destinations on My TripAdvisor Map
Posted January 8, 2008 by Rosalind Gardner · Filed Under Adventures
I just added a bunch more cities to my TripAdvisor map and am now up to 500 destinations as you can see from the screen capture in this post.
Customer Service Hertz at YYZ
Posted January 7, 2008 by Rosalind Gardner · Filed Under Rants
We rented a car over Christmas from Hertz at the Kipling and Dundas Street kiosk in Toronto.
The folks at that location were excellent… friendly, fast and helpful. We received an upgrade to a PT Cruiser for no extra charge, and when I remarked that the car was a tad dirty and somewhat odorous, the car jockey ran in and returned immediately with a $15.00 voucher to use for either a car wash or as a credit toward the rental.
The Hertz customer service experience at the Toronto International airport Hertz location on January 3rd was quite another story.
- My cheerful “Good Morning” greeting was not returned in kind. There was no “Good Morning” or “Happy New Year”… nada.
- The agent literally barked at me. “You returning the car?”, “Did you fill up?” and “What’s the mileage?”.
- The desk clerk processed the paperwork which I signed. After slapping another piece of paper on the counter, he appeared to continue working on our file.
- After a lengthy pause he regarded me with a look that said ‘What the he** do you want?”, so I asked if we were done. “Ya.”
No “Thanks for your business” or “Have a nice day”. Just “Ya.”
My response to his extremely poor manners? “You’re welcome… NOT! Next time we’ll rent from Budget!” loud enough for the agents at the Budget car rental counter to hear. 
Technorati Tags: Hertz, Budget, car rental
Stay in Shape with a Ropeless Jump Rope
Posted January 6, 2008 by Rosalind Gardner · Filed Under Health Products
How’s this for a cool gadget for staying in shape on the road?
This ropeless jump rope lets skip rope in limited space indoors and will not interrupt the flow of your workout routine by getting caught in your feet.
You input your height and weight into the device, and the LCD on one of the handheld units informs you of calories burned, jump repetitions, and exercise time, or the device has a “talking” mode that informs you of exercise progress.
Part of the training regimen of professional boxers and Olympic wrestlers, jumping rope exercises your cardiovascular system while exerting less stress on knees than jogging, strengthens your arms and shoulders, and ten minutes of jumping rope can burn as many calories as running an eight minute mile.
The handles of each unit have three 2 1/2-oz. re movable weight inserts, a snapping sound occurs with every jump to help you maintain proper jumping rhythm, and the unit comes with a workout DVD and bag for ease of travel. 10″ L x 1″ W. (1 lb.)
The
The Ropeless Jump Rope is available at Hammacher Schlemmer.
Technorati Tags: jump rope, ropeless
Slide And Negative To Digital Picture Converter
Posted January 5, 2008 by Rosalind Gardner · Filed Under Photography & Optics
Ed and I have thousands of slides between us that we want to turn into digital photographs, so I’ve just ordered this slide and negative to digital picture converter.
Ed wanted the one that cost 1700 bucks because it handles large volumes of slides quickly… but because we have (he has) tons of time on his hands, I opted for this one at only $99.95.
It converts old 35mm slides and film negatives into digital images, allowing you to easily preserve your memories without having to rely on a conversion service, and allowing you to clear valuable storage space of cluttered slide carousels and dusty photo boxes.
Slides and negatives are placed into a tray that aligns each properly; the touch of a button scans the image instantly.
It has a 5MP CMOS sensor that provides 10 bits per color channel for data conversion, and uses fixed focus and automatic exposure control and color balance, resulting in clear digital images without loss of resolution.
It can scan images up to 1,800 dpi and uses three white LEDs as a back light source.
For photo transfers and power it has a USB cable that plugs into a PC running Windows XP and includes software that allows you to edit, crop, and resize your slides as well as convert your negatives into positives. Requires Windows XP. 6 1/2″ H x 3 1/2″ W x 3 1/2″ D. (1 lb.)
The Slide And Negative To Digital Picture Converter is sold at HAMMACHER SCHLEMMER.
I’ll let you know how it works out.
Technorati Tags: picture converter, digital, slides, negatives
Il Paesano: The Perfect Pizza in Toronto
Posted January 4, 2008 by Ed Szajniak · Filed Under Food
One of the things I’ve missed most since moving away from Toronto is truly tasty pizza. (In my not-so-humble-opinion, they just don’t DO pizza here in the west… or bread).
Our favorite pizzeria is Il Paesano Pizzeria which is located in a tiny strip mall at 396 Brownsline in Toronto’s west end. The building’s exterior gives no hint of the wonderful treats within, yet Il Paesano has been in business since 1959.
Folks like Wayne Gretzy and Kurt Browning have enjoyed their fantastic zaaaas and left their marks upon the walls.
Their pies have thin crust New York style crust and just the right amount of delicious tomato sauce.
My mouth waters just to think about it. Sadly, I’ll have to wait until May to enjoy yet another. In the meantime, I’ll just look at the picture below and savour the recollection.
Technorati Tags: pizza, New York style, pizza, Il Paesano, pizzeria, Toronto
20% off at eBags.com this Sunday ONLY
Posted January 4, 2008 by Rosalind Gardner · Filed Under Coupons
Just a quick note to let you know that there’s 20% off at eBags.com this Sunday ONLY! This is in addition to eBag’s already low Winter Sale prices.
Click here to get 20% Off at eBags.com this Sunday, and replace that tattered old suitcase, pack or duffel.
Technorati Tags: ebags, coupon, sale
Itinerary Change Frustrations with Air Canada
Posted January 4, 2008 by Rosalind Gardner · Filed Under Rants
I booked our Christmas trip to Toronto on July 17th, 2007. On the original outbound leg we were booked to depart Penticton (YYF) on 20-Dec 2007 at 09:15 on AC8351, arriving Vancouver (YVR) at 10:19. Then we were to connect to AC1134 departing YVR at 12:00 and arrive Toronto (YYZ) at 19:25. (See the screen capture below).
On October 21st, I received an itinerary change notice that put us on AC102, leaving Vancouver at 14:30, or 2 and a half hours LATER than our originally scheduled flight.
When we arrived in Vancouver, we went directly to the gate and discovered that there were seats available on both the 11:00 flight AND our originally scheduled flight, AC1134 still leaving at noon.
However, despite seat availability we were told that we could NOT travel on either of those flights as Transport Canada requires that passengers travel with their baggages.
So, why is that a problem? Book us on the flight and retag our bags to travel with us on the same flight.
The Air Canada desk agent’s response was basically “Sorry, no can do”.
We tried again in the Maple Leaf Lounge and got the same “no can do” response.
HUH?
Air Canada had more than an hour and a half to transfer our bags to our original flight and they couldn’t do it?
Now contrast that response with the one we got in March from Singapore Airlines when we wanted to change to SQ17 which left Incheon an hour an a half earlier than SQ15, on which we were booked.
“NO Problem!!!” said the Singapore Airlines desk agent.
We watched as she made ONE phone call that had our bags whisked to our new flight and we had our new boarding passes in hand in under 5 minutes.
So, Air Canada, what the heck is YOUR problem? Do you like frustrating your good customers? Or, are your agents just lazy as all get out? Would you have made that change if we’d been traveling in Executive Class?
I WILL be writing the letter and Air Canada, you have some ’splaining to do’.
Technorati Tags: Air Canada
Better Views from the YVR Maple Leaf Lounge
Posted January 3, 2008 by Rosalind Gardner · Filed Under Adventures
Well, seeing that I was talking about airport lounges today, thought I’d write a quick note from the Maple Leaf Lounge in the domestic terminal in Vancouver, British Columbia where I’m current enjoying a beer and Ed is munching on chips.
Other than the fact that we’re now only an hour away from our home in Penticton (and my oh so precious kitty that I haven’t seen in 2 weeks), I like the Vancouver airport lounges better because the view is much better… MUCH.
