Photo Lab 2

Photo Lab 2

Saturday, June 25, 2016

Here are a few more pictures that I took to practice using my cameras for my big trip coming up. I am going on the Journey in the fall, and I heard last week that it is best to practice taking pictures before you go on trips. I think this is good advice, especially for me because I don't spend a lot of time taking pictures. In fact, I had a plan to take pictures, of my family, on Sunday, the 26th of June. I remembered a few times during the day, but kept thinking it would be better to take pictures later. Then, I completely forgot! So not only is practicing picture taking good for leveling up my photography skill, I also need to practice the art of remembering to take pictures. I have two cameras the first is my phone a Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge , the second is my Nikon Coolpix S570 camera, which I love because I can point, shoot and get great pictures! So I'm taking pictures with both so that I am comfortable with each.

Grant of Land - Phone

The pictures I took on Saturday are of pictures or framed things at my parents house. I mainly did this because I'm a bit nerdy and I love family archival stuff. This one below is a picture of a Grant of Land to my Greatx4 Grandfather John Clark. He purchased land in Scott County Indiana. The cool thing about his document is that it is signed by Andrew Jackson. Though from my knowledge of signatures, sometimes these documents were signed by the president's secretary or a stamp. It's still cool in my opinion.

This next picture is a photo of my Dad in high school. It is in my sister's old room and she has it next to a snow globe of a piano? Wait I think that might be a vanity...um that's weird. I think perhaps the snow globe was a gift. But wasn't my dad adorable!

Dad and Snow Globe - Coolpix

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

On Tuesday, I took some photos on my way from my work to my gym. The first picture I took was of a door. My cousin Bre, who is practically the best photographer I know went through a period of taking pictures of interesting looking door. On their trip to Alaska there were quite a few. Since she is a good photographer, I think perhaps, she knows what to take pictures of. So I tried to. This door is at the Dioceses in Phoenix. The whole building is pretty, but it's hard to get the entire building in a photo, so I just took a picture of the door! 

Door Photo - Coolpix

Then I continued walking and I took a picture of this street sign. There are usually street signs around the city that change from time to time. But the ones around Phoenix currently are quite confusing to me. They read: "The door is open." There are a bunch of them that say this, but nothing else. I'm not sure what this is supposed to mean, but I guess it runs in the theme of the door photos for the day. Also, I think there is a quote from Mother Theresa about Happiness and the door is open. So I think that it fits with the diocese photo as well. Which was not my intention, but kind of fun now that I'm see it!

The Door is Open -- Phone

After I went to the gym, I walked to my car, before I got inside. I saw this iconic sight from my garage. It is a Camelback Mountain, called such because it looks like a camel. Even though camel's died in the Americas thousands of years ago, I guess America doesn't forget! The mountain has an amazing hiking trail and a great view of the city. So if you are ever in Phoenix you must check it out...actually, I advise only visiting the hiking trail in the fall, winter or spring, in the summer it can be hazardous and quite a visitors get overheated and stuck while climbing. I also thought it would be a good picture to take, because if there is a haboob, a dust storm, this summer this spot will be a good place to get a picture of the wall of dust. So hopefully, I can get a picture of that.

Camelback Mountain - Coolpix

HOSA Hub of Social Activity Post 2

HOSA Post 2 June 11th 2016 

Guess what? This past Sunday I went on a little day trip. I went down to Tucson to visit family. My cousin Bre is moving to Michigan and my aunt had a dinner to send her off. I also made plans to go to Tucson for the 3rd and 4th of July. So I am going to put both trips on one post after that is finished. 

Today, I want to do a second HOSA post about an social activity that happened June 11th. It was the last Saturday before my sister, Caitlin, started working. As you may remember she just graduated in May from school. She already had a job at the time, but it started June 13th. So, earlier in the week I said we should get a drink on the 11th as a send off. That is what we did, we also invited Kelsi because when we went out over my birthday we said we should get drinks soon. 

So I tried to find a location that was centrally located between us that we could have a drink. I wanted to try a place we had not been to before. I used this app called Untapped, which I use to track beers and rate beers that I drink. I like the app because it helps me remember if I liked a beer and sometimes it helps me remember why I liked it. I think the app could be better because it doesn't suggest beers based on previous ratings, but I don't think there is an app that does that! Untapped does have a list and map of venues though. So with that I was found a tap room called Huss Beer Company. I think perhaps I was familiar with the beer from beer festivals because it sounded familiar, but I had never been to the room.

I was a little concerned because the location is in a business plaza, but when I went inside it was very nice. When I first went in the lights were mostly off and the lighting was from the windows. The seating was super cute. There are many tables and chair sets that are all different. There are also games that you can play, which I wanted to play, but never got around to it. 

I arrived first, a little early, and found a table for us. The bartender came right out to ask me what I wanted. I think usually people go up to the bar to order, but I think I had a look on my face like a lost dog while picking a seat! The bartender was super nice and friendly. And I ordered a beer called Koffee. I have heard of coffee flavored beer before but never tried it. It is so yummy. It taste like chocolate covered coffee beans, but without the chocolate. The coffee I drink at work tastes more like water and/or burned water with a hint of the coffee taste. So the beer had a more pure coffee flavor. It was so delicious that when Kelsi arrived she ordered one. Caitlin cannot drink beer. Huss had one cider and one wine on tap. She got the cider, and it looked like apple juice. We nursed our drinks and chatted for quiet a while. As the evening waned the house lights did come on so that threw the chill vibe off. Which was fine. People around seemed to get a little more chatty, and the group playing Jenga caught everyone's attention a few times. But it was all in good fun. At one point a herd of people came in to get handles of beers to go. It was quite the location.

So at the tap room you can order food or bring it in, but they don't have food there. Since we didn't know that, and we didn't know much in the area we decided to go south a few miles to get sushi at a place called Sting Ray. It is right next to Orange Theory Fitness off the I-10 and Ray. Caitlin and I go to the OT Fitness sometimes and every time I go in I just think about the delicious sushi while I'm running on the treadmill. But I had never gone to Sting Ray before. 

We arrived around seven and were seated quickly. We ordered other drinks. I was going to get another beer, but then Caitlin asked if they served Sake Sangria. They don't officially have that drink, but they did serve it. So I ordered one, Caitlin did too, but only after making sure that it was gluten free. Then we decided to split some sushi rolls. It was quite tricky because certain ones had gluten, and we removed one of the ingredients in one roll, but the crunchy roll we ordered anyway and Caitlin didn't eat that one. It could have been quite the issue with the waitress, but she was so nice about it. She was very concerned and she seemed like she enjoyed learning more about the menu items as well. What a great attitude! The waitress also reminded Caitlin of Julia Stiles, which she took well too and was a running joke all night. 

The sushi was very good, so was the Sangria. This will probably just make my treadmill thoughts even worse, but oh well. We spend a lot of the night laughing about the jobs, guys and life in general. So it was really a good Social Activity! I think it was a good send off for Caitlin, even if she had to go home before midnight because she is a real working adult now and she wanted to get a good night sleep--not the day before, but two days before her first day of work!

Daily Photo Lab

Daily Photo Lab. June 22, 2016

I heard a great tip about photography and travel today. The tip was that you should start taking pictures before your trips. If you get to your location with your camera still in the box then you can be sure that your pictures will not be as good. Now I have two cameras, one on my phone and a camera by Nikon called Nikon Coolpix S570. My cousin Bre who has a bigger photography passion than I do recommended it because it was an easy "point and shoot" camera. Which is exactly what I need. The camera is not right out of the box, however, there was a long period where I couldn't remember which cord I needed to charge the battery. I decided to figure that out a few weeks ago. So I finally charged the camera. The memory card held pictures from my picture to San Miguel! Which was you might remember was basically the first trip that I blogged about, at least the first one that I blogged about and finished! If you don't remember here is a link: Day 1 in San Miguel. It was in March of 2012. So that has been a long time for me to have a camera and to have not used it. Therefore, I must practice before The Journey, my trip to Ireland and the United Kingdom. So, I'm going to try to take a picture a day with both my phone and my camera. Hopefully that lasts. I will try to post the photos up, but may not be daily.

One more piece advice I heard was the best light for photos is in the morning or afternoon and not in the middle of the day. So I will try to take the photos in the correct light, but I don't know much about that. Maybe photographers can give me advice, after I have some handle on it!

Today's photos...

Photo of Jojo - with toy, Taken with Galaxy Phone

Photo of Unnamed Rooster, Taken with Coolpix

Day 2 Photo June 23, 2016

So on this day I woke up thinking that I should take pictures of things that people take pictures of while on trips. Most of the time people take pictures of their friends and family which is great, but on trips people tend to take pictures of buildings, landscapes, art, as well as family and friends! Therefore, I had that in mind and went to work with my camera. A dust storm came in at the end of the day, which made for cool lighting. So I took a picture of that. I also took a picture of a bunch of metal bugs. They are at the convention center. I have seen people take pictures of them before, so I think they are something travelers take pictures of. So I decided that I should as well. See below:

Dust Storm, ASU Downtown Phoenix - CoolPix

Giant Bugs, Phoenix -  Phone

Day 3 Photo June 24, 2016

This day I planned to take my camera to work so I could take a picture of my lunch. I know that people take pictures of their lunch especially while traveling. I knew I was going to eat with some of my friends at work so I thought it would be a good chance to practice take picture of food. However, I did not bring my camera, I did have my phone with me, but I decided against it. Food porn makes me blush! So, instead I decided to take pictures of art I have at my house. I know that people take pictures of art when they are on trips. So I thought I should practice. The lighting is okay, but I think the lighting on art that is on display will be better. I chose these arts because they are arts that I have think of as mine and not a hand me down of pictures that my parents didn't want anymore. I have a few other arts from when I was a child that I think of as my art, so perhaps I will do that another day!

Art! - Phone 

Art! - Coolpix 

Hosa - Hub of Social Activity Post 1

HOSA Post 1 - May, 29th 2016

Now that I have explained what the HOSA is I can start my first Hosa post. (Here is link if you missed: HOSA). I have been wanting to share this for almost a month, but I could not work out how to do so on a travel blog. I didn't travel anywhere, unless you count to my parents, which I don't count. If you do visit Phoenix ever, then you might want to partake, so there is trip related value to people outside of the area.

Anyway, for this first Hosa post, I want to explain what happened on my birthday this year. As I said I went over to my parents house first, in the morning. Let's skip ahead a little, because that part wasn't too interesting. I mean for me it was interesting because my parents gave me gifts. Also, my mom and I went to get pedicures. So it was fun for me, but not very interesting to read about.

The week before that was my brother's birthday and I suggested that we should try an escape room, but by that time it was a little hard to coordinate. So we decided to go for my birthday instead. If you don't know what an escape room is I'll explain. What happens is that your and your group are locked into a room. Inside the room there are puzzles and clues that you need to solve in order to find the key and escape. You have one hour to escape. Now, if you are curious the door to the room is not actually locked, but if you leave the room then you cannot go back into the room. Also, these are all puzzles and there aren't any physical obstacles. That would have been fun too, but I think I understand why they limit to just the mental games and puzzles. The escape room we did was called the Puzzle Room.

Let me back up, because part of the fun during the day, though maybe not fun for the driver, my Dad, was that on the way to the Puzzle Room, we had to pick up my sister, Caitlin, and my brother, Tyler. Separately! It was quite hilarious, though don't tell my Dad. He seemed a bit stressed. We picked up Caitlin alright, except that she was a little slow at getting in the car, apparently there was an emergency session of her putting a gift in a bag! Also, Caitlin had just spent the day-before and the morning-of driving in a Razor thru the desert. She had barely arrived back.

Then, we went to pick up Tyler. He suggested that we meet off the freeway at Southern, but I said, there is not an exit at Southern. But he was saying there was, and my Mom believed him, which is fine, but she has google maps on her phone, so she could have looked. Then, for whatever reason, my Mom said that we needed to get off the freeway early, drive through the speed trap that is Guadeloupe. Then he ended up meeting us at a different location! All the while we were all trying to give Dad direction. He did the right thing by listening to Mom, but that wasn't the fastest thing!

Either way it doesn't matter, because we arrived at the Puzzle Room in plenty of time. The door is unlabeled maybe to be mysterious, but there was a sandwich board out front so it wasn't too hard to find. My brother had purchased a groupon for the room and he did it for six people. There are only five of us, so I invited my friend, Kelsi, to come. She was the only one who had done an escape room, before. However, she had never been to the Puzzle Room before. She wisely made the decision to meet us at the Puzzle Room instead of getting a ride.

Since we had never been before, the moderator took an ample amount of time explaining the game, and fielding questions, but I think we were all still confused. Once we were ready to start the Moderator did this funny script about us being there to look at a place to open a coffee shop. He explained who the previous tenant was and why the room looked the way it did, then he left the room because he "forgot" something. Then on screen there was a silly video about being trapped by the previous tenant and if we didn't get out we'd be cursed! For Life!

Anyway, after that the time starts on the clock. I wouldn't explain all the tasks, because maybe you want to experience them for yourself. I don't want to ruin it. I will say that I learned a lot about my family that day. Like, we cannot count to seven. However, we can multiply large numbers easily. We also turned off the lights so many times, that I think it fits the definition of insanity. As in doing the same thing and expecting different results! I also learned that you can't just decide which letter goes to which symbol on a cipher, you have to have a clue! Finally, if you open locked boxes, make sure you take everything out of the box!

The Puzzle room ended up being very fun. I love it! It was hard at first, since we had never done an escape room before, we had to learn as we went along. We were pretty good at the puzzles, but we weren't as good at finding the puzzles. So in the end, we lost. We were so close too, the key was in our mitts, but we didn't have enough time to escape! So, now we are cursed! For Life!

The Puzzle Room is downtown, which is near where I work. So I know the restaurants in the area. After we were cursed, we decided to find a place to eat. I wanted to pick a place with delicious food, that is too far to walk to at lunch, and some place that my family had not been. So we went to Cibo. It is the best! The pizza is so good. It is in an old house, there are a lot of restaurants in old houses in Phoenix. As I said the pizza is very good, but the pizza is not served at lunch, during the week.

The only complaint about dinner was that the table next to us were a bit loud and the acoustics of that room made it a louder still. They didn't really bother me too much, but my parents are starting to get sensitive to loud restaurants. The outdoor seating may have been better, but my birthday is in May, and we weren't sure if it would be too hot so we sat inside. The pizza was just as good as I remembered it. They are 12" pizza, and you can share with another person, but I did not! We also had a birthday crepe, with Nutella and banana! Yum!

So, I think that's it for the first Hosa Post. The Puzzle room was fun, I can't wait to do a different escape room, hopefully this one will be more successful. Dinner at Cibo was delicious.

H.O.S.A. Hub of Social Activity

H.O.S.A. Post 

The last few posts, I have been trying to think of a way to incorporate some other events into my blog. Since the blog is about trips I wasn't sure if I should, but I really want to. I love creating posts and blogging events in my life, and those logs from relatives long ago. So I have been thinking about it for a while. I think I have it settled. I can write posts about events that are not trip related. I will call them HOSA posts. I have mention the Hosa before in Grandma's Cabin post. I didn't really explain what it is so I will do so.

It started many decades ago, in the early days of Grandma's Cabin. This may have been invented before Grandma's Cabin, but it's the first time in my memory. If it happened before the Cabin, it was probably at the original cabin,  named Zartacla and in Colorado, and reinvented at Grandma's Cabin.  Hosa is an acronym that stands for Hub of Social Activity. When I was younger I thought Hosa was a special way to describe the campfires that we would have a Grandma's Cabin, because this was the only time the word was used. This is despite the fact that I knew that Hosa meant Hub of Social Activity. In my defense at the time of creation of the word Hosa happened before I could read or write. So I couldn't really put together that the letter H in Hub was the first letter in Hosa and so on. 

Breaking Ground of Hosa - Picture by Megan 

I am not alone, many of us associate the Hosa with campfires even though we know the meaning of the word. As proof of this. My cousins decided to upgrade the Hosa pit over Memorial Day Weekend. Then posted online that they updated the Hosa pit complete with pictures. Which is proof the Hosa and campfire are interchangeable. Check out the pictures.

Upgraded Hosa. -- Picture by Megan
(People in picture, Carson and Karen)

However, Hosa also holds the original meaning, Hub of Social Activity. The family in Tucson have Sunday dinners together and use the word Hosa to coordinate them. I'm pretty sure of this, because when we are invited to Christmas, Thanksgiving and other holidays we coordinate using the Hosa extension as well. Therefore, it is acceptable to use Hosa for campfires and for other events outside of campfires.  

The Hosa is so big in the family that I even had t-shirts made one year for the Christmas gift exchange. I had my friend, Tracie help with design. The actual end result, I'm not sure was that great. I had never made t-shirts before, and I wasn't sure about the sizes or material. So I think I did a bad job about picking those, but I think the logo design is cute. I did an original sketch for it, but I haven't done art on the computer for a long time and I only did that for some classes. I really need to work on it. So Tracie helped me with that. I also came up with the catch phrase at the bottom of the design. HOSA -- Where All Things are Toasted. Which is much better than my attempt at humor on a t-shirt in March: So hungry I could eat a horse - Ancient Dothraki Proverb

So that is what the Hosa has been in the past. The Hosa posts will be more on the Hub of Social Activity side, because campfires over the internet isn't advised. Oops my dad joke's are showing! The posts will be about social activities I have in town. For people traveling around the Phoenix area, then this could be helpful for your trips, but for me they aren't actually trips. I will try to post one up later this week or next about what I did on my Birthday, and another about what I did last weekend. I think both activities are worth sharing, because I think other people should partake. Also, the main reason for this blog is so that I remember my trips, and I want to remember these activities. Therefore, I think Hosa posts can fit within B-dog's triplog realm. And it is decided.

Saving Money for the Journey

Last post, I wrote about my experience booking international flights. I mentioned that I originally felt that 2017 was the time for The Journey, a trip to the United Kingdom and Ireland, but I ended up planning a trip for fall of 2016. The one reason I wanted to wait was to save more money for the trip. So, how was I able to pay for the trip? The trip cost less than I thought, I found savings, and I dusted off the budget that put me through college!

The Journey cost less than anticipated:

First the cost of the Journey was less expensive than I originally thought. I know that going to Europe is expensive, but I sometimes think that milk is expensive. As in, I think it will be $4 or $5, but when I go to the store it is always around $2. Which, I think stems from a few times growing up, I would try to buy a candy or toy, and wouldn’t have enough money. Though, I don’t think anyone looked twice, it felt so mortifying, that I would rather have unrealistic ideas on the price of milk than to be out of money. So, when I thought about going to Europe I was of course thinking the price was two or three times the actual price! Since, the initial decision to plan the trip, I have worked and reworked a budget of expensive, I also add “crazy just-in case” scenarios into it. Guess what! It was at least half as much as I thought it would be.

Found ways to save:

Of course, the price is greatly affected by the time of year, room accommodations and meal plans. Which, I did my best to find deals. The main expense is the flights. If you take your time, however, you can find affordable flights. Sometimes the flights didn’t seem much more than flying to the East Coast. Keep in mind that booking international flights is done earlier than national flights. So that could account for the price comparison.

The second biggest expense could be the hotels, but we decided to look at alternatives like hostel international and airbnb. I originally planned the trip around hostels; mainly because hostel international has good tools and the hostels are centrally located. Also, European vacations often evoked the hostel image into the imagination. Overall the hostels probably were the most affordable, but we decided that an important part of the accommodations was the bathrooms. Since the airbnb rooms were still affordable and in our price range we determined to book rooms that way. In Cardiff, there weren’t very many airbnb rooms. So, we ended up finding a room at the Royal Hotel. I came across it when I was looking at for castles, and the hotel looks adorable. It was also in our price range. So that is the only place we are staying in a hotel.

The next biggest expense, will be food and alcohol. Although, the United Kingdom is no Italy or France when it comes to food, there are still many dishes that I would like to try. So, I don’t want to be too frugal when it comes to dining. However, there is still many ways to save on this expense too. First, some of our airbnb hosts provide breakfast, which if they do I will be eternally grateful for. Second, having a small lunch or snack will allow us to save on that meal. Now, for alcohol, I must admit I love beer. I hard alcohol and wine have a time and a place, but I like to drink beer as an experience in and of itself. I like both micro, and home brews and large brews as well. They each have their own feels and tastes. So I will be drinking on our trip, however, I have no plans to overindulge. I allocated a certain amount which I can spend every day and not spend more. The amount can be rolled into the next day however. I will see how this works. I have heard that in Europe beer is served warm, so perhaps I will save money because I wouldn't like it. I think I will be okay though. Having a beer served warm doesn’t sound as bad as having a beer go warm. I can't wait to find out!

We also have some tentative day trips, sights and tours that we planned. However, these aren’t nearly as expensive as I would have thought. Many of the museums are free to get into first of all. Many of the sights will have self guided tours, which can save some money. Like with food, I don't want to limit experiences because of money, so I have allocated a certain about for activities, but there wouldn't be any experiences that I will refuse because of money. Though if I am debating about whether to do something or not, then the cost might be the deciding factor.

Budgeting and saving for the Journey:

After realizing the true cost, and finding ways to save on the expenses, I had to set up a plan to save for the Journey. This wasn’t too difficult. It was only three years ago that I finished my bachelors. I was able to go to my first four years of school via my parents, however, I was woefully unprepared for college and after two years, I left it. I worked as a waitress for a while until a friend started going to school for an Associates in Paralegal Studies. I quickly followed, and that was the last of the four years.

Then, I started working and I went back to school for my bachelors. I had about $10,000 in savings at the time from a job I had in high school. So I used that to slowly work my way through school. I would pay for a semester and then try to replenish the savings during the semester and the summer. I did pretty well at this, but slowly it drained away and the last four semesters (I wasn’t going full time so I had many semesters) I would use a Visa card and pay that down as much as I could before the next payment. Perhaps, it would have saved me money if I got student loans, however, I didn’t know enough about student loans at the time so I didn’t feel comfortable with them. Also, having to pay 18% or more in interest is painful for me, so I knew that I would pay off my credit card as soon as possible. Anyway, the last payment of my last semester had me at $8,700 in debt which I paid off 13 months later. Because of this lifestyle of putting every extra dollar to pay for school I was able to reapply that to saving for my trip. Though perhaps, I am not as frugal as before.

The goal of saving for the Journey has made me tightened up some of the loose ends that I’ve developed. I use the 50/20/30 rule. That is 50% to needs, 20% to financial goals, and 30% for fun. Now that I am done paying for school my fun money has been used at coffee shops and shopping on Amazon. These are not bad things. However, I would much rather spend my money on experiences like trips or events than fancy coffees or graphic tees. So, cutting them out wasn’t too difficult. I use Mint.com to track spending and to remind me if I go off my budget, though I tend to use Excel to create the actual budget. I added the Journey in my goals last fall, and I love seeing the bar fill up. I really like the goals section of Mint. You can estimate trips this way. It will ask you how much for flights, hotels, cars, food and activities. When I paid for the flights I simply removed the flight from the estimate.

Even though I am saving money for the Journey, I am planning to use my credit cards to pay for the trip while I am there. This is mostly because of safety; I do not want to carry too much money in cash. I will pay off the balance after the trip. After paying for this trip, I have to start saving for a trip for fall of 2017. It will probably be about a week in Colorado. So I will probably continue to use these money habits for a while, though hopefully, I will not need to be as aggressive.