La Caletas, Mexico, 25 June 2011

There are no words or pictures that can describe La Caletas. I woke up cranky and pissed at the world (happens a lot) the morning before the trip. Even after spotting some sea turtles on the boat ride over I was still cranky. Even after passing Los Arcos I was still cranky. But once I saw that beach we were about to land at, I perked right up. Paradise, simply Paradise. Open bar, food buffet, and excellent snorkeling. We even got to hold a parrot and a squirrel monkey. We ended up exploring towards the end of the trip after hours of snorkeling and found some donkeys to play with. If you ever visit Puerto Vallarta do not miss you chance to check out La Caletas. You can book tours for cheap from Vallarta Adventures. After returning home even the nicest resort I’ve ever seen was a let down. We met up with another couple we had met during the trip and went back downtown for dinner and drinks. Mr. Bean face.

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - 22-26 June 2011 (Part 2)

This day we decided to sleep in a bit and take the later shuttle into town to get some souvenirs. We started out at the swap meet. Surprisingly they were less pushy than I had expected. Not to say they weren’t pushy, but it was less than I had expected. Found a penis flute. After walking around for a bit we decided to grab lunch. We tried a sampler platter that was pretty good. We then noticed some iguanas in the trees so, we snapped some photos. We then went back to shopping and bought some margarita glasses and a fruit bowl. All of these gotten broken on the transport back to the states. However they are all glued back together. We then decided to get a drink on the beach at the boardwalk. I didn’t know how many people could possibly be walking by and selling stuff. We probably said “Nada” like 100 times. They sold everything from shrimp on a stick to para-sailing. Next we walked down the boardwalk and got talking into a tequila tasting. It was pretty harsh, but we drink margaritas so we bought a bottle (only souvenir that survived). There was an old church in town and we stumbled across it, so we figured we might as well check it out. We then heading back to the resort to swim and rest up because we had to get up early to go to La Caletas, the private beach on the south coast of Banderas Bay.

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - 22-26 June 2011 (Part 1)

This isn’t going to be an easy trip to explain. We had wanted to go to Mexico for our two year wedding anniversary, but we found a deal that had to be used by the end of June. My birthday is at the end of June so we decided on that. We were surprised by how short the flight was to get to Puerto Vallarta. Upon arriving we were greeted by vultures trying to shove us into cabs. We were told on the plane to find the yellow cabs with a number. That way if you get robbed you have something to identify to the cops. So we walk across the street to catch a yellow cab. We drove for a mile or so when we notice another yellow cab was following us. Oh god! Then our cab driver turns into an unnamed street with dirt roads and takes a left behind a building. Are we going to have to fight already? Panic filled the car at this point. “Is this the main road?” “No I’m making a U-turn.” Pheeeeew!!! Everything else was normal at that so we relaxed and enjoyed the drive. Upon arriving at the hotel (Garza Banca Preserve Resort) we were still a little on edge, but this quickly subsided. I don’t have the words to do this place justice. It was simply paradise. We were greeted with cucumber margaritas while they explained to us what there was to do in Puerto Vallarta and how to get around. They then walked us to our room. The room was amazing. Private hot tub on the balcony, hot tub in the bathroom, hammock on the balcony, it was simply amazing. The view of the ocean wasn’t bad either. It was probably 85 degrees outside, but c’mon a private hot tub on the balcony. We had to get in. We relaxed for a bit and went down to the bar to get some food. After lunch we decided to check out the infinity pool. Back to the hot tub and then dinner. There was a weird show going on during dinner. It almost put you in a trace. Dinner was amazing. We then headed to bed. I woke up on my birthday to a room full of bugs. It wasn’t gross (most of them were dead) just a bit strange. We then received a call from the front desk reminding us that we had to check out the time shares across the street. We did this because afterwards they give you a card that saves you 40% on the cruises and island adventures. This took awhile and was a bit annoying, but totally worth it. It turns out the rooms we were staying in will cost $800,000 a month as of next year. Lucky us. After saying no to close to a million a month it was time to relax. All I wanted to do for my birthday was snorkel and that’s what I did. We then caught a cab to downtown Puerto Vallarta and checked out the swap meet and boardwalk. There were a lot of restaurants on the boardwalk and we picked a great one. With some time to kill before the hotel shuttle putted us up, we decided to have a drink at a bar. What we found was Red Pub. It was pretty nice. Once back at the hotel we decided to get in the community hot tub because they had fire pits. What an excellent birthday.

Karaoke - 15 June 2011

After trying a new sushi place called Wasabi Sushi we decided to go have a drink somewhere. We ended up going to the Lamplighter and the result was terrible yet awesome karaoke. Enjoy.

Daejon, South Korea - 31 May - 10 June 2011

I had gotten an assignment to do a job in Daejon, Korea for 12 days. This is what unfolded. Not much to say on this one just look at the photos. Juicy girls, weird food, and bad weather.

Synthesizer Project as of May 24th, 2011

This is a project I've been working on for awhile. It's getting closer to completion. This video shows the operation of the tuning knobs and the control modes. The Control modes that are shown in order are: 16 channel continuous step, Stop and manual step forward and backward, One time loop with stop on specified note, reset on specified note, reverse on specified note, and Random (this isn't functioning very well yet). The output is only set up as a triangle wave at this point too. I hopefully will get some other tones very soon. I threw in a few photos of the progress.

SeaWorld - 14 May 2011

The original plan for the weekend was to go to Venice Beach and camp somewhere near LA.  This prompted our good buddy Mike to drive in from Phoenix, AZ.  Due to misinformation neither the Venice beach trip nor camping ended up happening.  Good thing I had Seaworld tickets.  Before heading to Seaworld we stopped at our favorite breakfast spot close to our house. The 19th hole has a great view and really delicious food.  Yum Yum that place rules.  Time to head to Seaworld.  At Seaworld you have to plan your plans around the show times so you best get a map at the gate and plan you day first thing.  I don’t remember the show times but, I do know we had time to kill before the Sea Lion show so we rode Journey to Atlantis first.  This ride is half water ride half roller coaster.  I think they call it a water coaster.  The line was short and we had enough time to make it to the Sea Lion show.  This is one of the funniest shows at the park.  A must see.  We were so pleased with the Sea Lions that we went to go feed some.  We had some time to kill before the Pets Rule Show so we checked out the Polar bears and Beluuuuuuuuugaaaaa whales.  Pets rule is another great show at seaworld showing nothing but household pets.  Well it used to be, this time they had a Kangaroo for some reason.  And who knew you could train cats?  OK enough sitting around let’s go wrestle on the ropes.  Wow that was violent and I’m limping.  Due to line’s we missed the dolphin show.  However Charlene managed to get in and take a few photos.  We then walked around and checked out all the other exhibits and rode the Shipwreck rapids ride and got soaked.  Last but not least was Shamu Rocks.  This is the night time version of the show with Rock n’ Roll music playing and more emphasis on the Killer Whales.  This show was great until that rat bastard Shamu blasted us with water causing the rest of our night to suck.