This blog is going to be based upon an e-mail that I sent out on June 15th to most of you who know George.
For those of you who don’t know George – he is a long time friend of mine who I actually met through my mother. We met each other for the first time 31 years ago at the age of 19. We are both the same age and we have been best friends for all these years.
About a year ago, George started getting ill and for the last 2 months has been in and out of the hospital several times.
Some of the following info may sound odd as far as timing goes but that is because I wrote it almost a month ago. I will however try to update it in the places where I can do so and add more info to tell a fuller story.
It’s a long one so don’t attempt to read any further if you've got things to do. Wait until you get a moment, sit back and enjoy.
Hello one and all!
We have just returned from a crazy trip to the states. (June 4 to June 12. Remember now - most of this was written on the 15th of June)
Including the Copenhagen airport for both departing and arriving, we have been to these airports within the last 9 days –
CPH
SEA
SFO
LAX
LAS
CHI - was cancelled but our luggage went there without us and then it went on to EWR while we got redirected on a different airline to:
JFK.
Then ground transportation from JFK to EWR to pick up our luggage.
Overnight at EWR
STO
CPH
We didn’t have flight tickets for all of these destinations because there just was not the time to get them before going. Our trip to the states was a very last minute decision. Yet I did have several other tickets for other destinations that we did not go to and I did have several tickets for the same destinations but with other airline companies. Confused? Me too.
The reason for having two handfuls of tickets is because all of the planned flying was to be stand-by as I work for SAS airlines and having tickets on hand is the way it has to be done when flying other airlines than the one that I work for.
I ended up taking out so many paper tickets out of the machine at work that it actually broke down or ran out of tickets or something or another because it just shut down on me while I was in the process of taking the tickets out. This means that I was not able to take out all of the tickets that I needed. There are 2 other ticket machines at work that I know of and one of them was out of order. So on to the last possibility. Still I did not get all of the tickets that I needed.
When we left Denmark, I had a back-up ticket to get from NY to London on British Airways but not the ticket from London to CPH and I had tickets from NY to Frankfurt on Lufthansa but not from Frankfurt to CPH and I had no tickets at all from NY to CPH on SAS. But that was ok because since I work at the airport, I can connect to our internal website and buy the tickets that I need, on-line - so I was not really worried. What I didn’t know was that from all SAS departure airports in Germany, a paper ticket from the machine is required. The machines are of course, in Denmark so I would have needed to take a ticket out of the machine before ever even starting my journey. But the other tickets would be a snap via the computer - unless the internal employee web-site is down and it was! – what a hassle.
I knew in advance that I could only use 8 tickets for our travel companion, Andy.
What I didn’t know was that the 8 tickets count from the time of taking the tickets out of the machine and not from the time that the tickets are actually used. I of course started out by taking lots of back-up, US flight tickets for our travel companion which ate up the quota of 8 tickets and I still had not even taken the return flight ticket out yet.
I know that all flight companies that accept me as a stand-by passenger also accept Jens as a stand-by travel passenger (with exception of a few Muslim countries) but what I didn’t know was that not all flight companies that accept Jens and I, will accept a travel partner. In other words – the 3 of us could fly on Lufthansa but only 2 of us could fly on British Airways. It was a true circus of tickets in the air. All of this means that somewhere along the line, we were going to have to pay last minute full fare rates which can be quite expensive.
Departure from Las Vegas was impossible.
All United flights were full or we could get part of the way but the next connecting flights were over booked.
For those of you who don’t know me – this is pretty much a standard story when going to America.
For those of you who do know me – it’s ok to yawn now and skip to the photos.
We went into a panic and I offered to buy a full fare ticket from LAS to CHI.
The airline agent was sweet and spoke to me like I was a retarded 12 year old - speaking very slowly with big exaggerated mouth movements –
D o n ‘ t .... y o u ....
u n d e r s t a n d.... s i r…..,....
T h e.... f l i g h t.... is.... o v e r.... b o o k e d.......
T h e r e ..... is ..... n o t h i n g.... t o ....b u y.
We made a crazy dash to buy any ticket on-line just to get out of LAS and get to NY.
Can you say: “last minute rip-off” with a twist of delay?
We had to buy tickets because the airline agent told me that if we don't get out of Las Vegas today, Thursday, we wouldn't be able to get out on Friday.
I think it was Price-Line we hit up first. Filled out the forms and hit the send button. We got a reply saying that you could only buy tickets on-line for flights that depart after 24 hours of on-line purchase. So we tried another on-line site. We got lucky that Jet Blue would accept a few dummies like us and let us pay through the nose to get on board a flight. Yes, the same company that landed on the Hudson River.
So after buying the Jet Blue tickets, I went back to the very sweet slow talking United flight agency and told the woman that we bought tickets on Jet Blue and asked where do we pick up our baggage so that we can check them onto Jet Blue.
She told me, “We already sent your luggage on the Chicago flight. You can pick up your bags in EWR.” Guess what? Our Jet Blue flight was headed for JFK. Well…… so much for flight safety. “I thought flight regulations state that all baggage must fly with the passenger.” She answered, “oh no, not if it’s only a national flight.” Gee, that’s dumb I thought. Wasn’t it national flights that smashed into the Pentagon and the Twin Towers? I would think that if you were going to have an exception to the rule, you would let it be on over seas flights so that the plane blows up over the ocean or at least in another country.
We made it to JFK and made a dumb mistake of taking a shuttle van from JFK to EWR. It was the last shuttle of the day and they told us we better hurry if we wanted to get on the van. There were several other passengers in the van and we were the second to the last group of persons to be dropped off and we got off at Pennsylvania Station in NYC and had to now get on the train to EWR airport. The entire trip would actually have been cheaper and quicker to have taken a taxi the entire way. Finally we got to the luggage carousel at EWR and luckily found our bags. Next we got on a tourist telephone and called a near by airport hotel. The hotel shuttle bus picked us up and we checked in at 1 in the morning. Order pizza at 2 in the morning and by 3 we were having pizzeria nightmares.
It all worked out that I was able to e-mail the SAS employee ticket office and have them e-mail me tickets to get home. We were lucky that there was space but we had to stop in Stockholm on the way as the direct flight home to CPH was totally booked.
That was just the short story of the air travel. Now comes the story between leaving home and returning home.
OK - so the whole story started out with a planned trip to Connecticut to visit my sister Jeanette and my nice Nicole who lives in CT. Nicole is the daughter of my sister Christine.
But at the last minute, those plans fell through and quickly became a holiday in Barcelona and Sitges. We booked a hotel on-line for Barcelona and I dialed direct to a on-beach hotel of Sitges.
Before and during the planning of the Connecticut / Spain travels, I had been talking to George daily on the phone the previous 2 and a half weeks. I decided it was time to see George when during a number of phone calls, he could hardly speak. Jens encouraged me to go see George because Spain will always be there. At a moments notice I had to change all hotel and flight plans. And that was tricky trying to get the flight tickets to work (which did not go smoothly nor without a hitch as you have just read) and convince a non-refundable, on-line, web hotel to at least give me some sort of discount on another hotel in Hollywood.
Also because of flight delays, and over booked flights out of Seattle and San Francisco, it was not until late Friday that I got to see George and I had planned it to see him a whole 24 hours before.
Before arriving at George’s place, I went to the market and bought a bunch of easy eating food. I thought it was awful that his big daily achievement was eating a banana. I bought a lot of juice and lots of stuff that he could just pop into a micro wave oven or pop open and eat. I also bought 2 larger frozen meals – one for him and one for me since going to a restaurant that evening was out of the question.
When I walked into the house, George was happy to see me and thrilled to see all the food but said, “Oh Eddie, I can’t eat all of that.” I said, “Well I’m not asking so you have to just eat it!”
We sat and talked and visit.
Then other friends also popped in later that day – first was Al and Adrian. Al cuts hair and really dolled up George and he looked so much better than when I first saw George only 3 hours prior. Then Trevor also walked in. George was able to get up and sit in the kitchen, facing out to the area where he has his bed. He moved his bed into the dinning area because he was working on his bedroom before he got ill. While George was getting his hair cut, and all the others were talking and carrying on. I was in the background cleaning up in the kitchen. George’s back was towards me so he never saw what I was doing. And what I was doing was collecting a bunch of stuff and throwing it out. I think George has everything that he has ever touched in the last 50 years. He still has the lamps that were in the house where I grew up back in the 60’s and I saw some kitchen jars that I had in my home when I lived in OC in 1984.
I just started grabbing stuff and put it in plastic bags to throw out on my way out of his house when I was to return back to our Hollywood hotel. “Oh, he doesn’t need this….and he doesn’t need that….” I would say to myself. “What we need is a big dumpster.” I threw out a few business cards among other things. “George is in no condition to be doing business…. Just get rid of it”, and out they went. My eyes caught the word “nurse” on one of the business cards that was just laying haphazardly on a pot lid laying carelessly on a chopping block. I put it back thinking that maybe he would need that card. About 25 minutes later Trevor asked George if he had the telephone number to his nurse. I was amazed that without even looking, George reached out his hand towards the pot lid, grabbed the business card and handed it to Trevor. OK – this guy is a collector of thing that you and I would throw out. It's a rather large collection but he seems to know exactly where everything is at. I got worried and hoped that he didn’t need any of the other stuff that I threw into the plastic bags.
Both Trevor and Al offered assistance with putting George’s house in order. But both guys agreed that it would have to be with George’s conducting of what goes and what stays. Al said that something may mean nothing to others but could mean a lot to George. Trevor said that anyone could spiff up George’s houses by getting rid of a lot of stuff, but it wouldn’t be George’s house. And more than ever he needs the place to be fully his. It all made sense while I was ready to shift the bulldozer into Drive.
Eventually after a long nice visit, the guys finally left and I popped the frozen dinners into the microwave.
What a surprise to see George devour his meal and I mean devour.
I left at about 10pm and returned the next day at about noon time on Saturday with Jens and with another batch of market goods. Jens greeted George and I just walked straight to his fridge and made a sandwich and commanded, “Here! Eat this!” Not only did he eat it, he ate a second sandwich too . My sister Christine had arranged to met me at George’s home. We had a short little visit and then another one of George’s friends popped in. That was our clue for Jens, Christine and I to head out to the Staples Center and grab a bite to eat. No one at that time knew that a major event was soon to take place there. See a clip here of the concert that never will be. After lunch, we drove back to visit with George and then eventually Christine had to leave.
While making small talk, our conversation turned towards food and restaurants as most conversations with George usually end up in that direction. George really wanted to take me to a Mexican Buffet on Sunday, the following day. I told George that if he felt good and had the energy for it, we could try it depending upon how he felt but I suggested that we leave the plan open.
Later on that evening Jens and I headed back to Hollywood. We were just about to exit the freeway when my cell phone rang. It was Andy calling from Hollywood Studios. He had seen enough and was ready to be picked up. The timing was perfect.
It was a plan that I should be at George’s house Sunday morning at 10 to be at the buffet restaurant before the big morning rush. I was sure that there was no way George could get up for this big event so I said, “Well George, if you can find the energy, it could be really fun.” But I knew even if he could get up, how in the world would he even be able to attempt a buffet table. As George slowly got into my rental car, and then pointed the way to the restaurant, I told him that if at anytime he wanted me to turn the car around and go back, just speak up – no problem.
I pulled up to the door of the restaurant, getting as close as I could to make the walk for George as short as possible. George hobbled in. I parked the car and then met George at the front door of the restaurant. We walked in together and I said, “Let me get a plate for you George and you go have a seat at the table.” “Oh, let me just take a look”, he said with big hungry eyes and then grabbed a plate himself and started loading up the biggest plates I have ever seen. Again I was shocked. I’m thinking – no way is this ‘banana-a-day guy’ gonna eat all that food. He had steak, fish and chicken all on one plate along with all of the other goodies too. And down it went and he got up for a second serving of everything and ate it all and then asked me if I could get him desert. Slices of watermelon, papaya, cantaloupe and pudding cake and down all of that went. Wow! He ate more than me – I couldn’t believe it.
He couldn’t believe that I just wanted beans and rice – “I know it’s simple food”, I told him, “but you can’t get this in Denmark”. We still laugh about it. And writing about it just makes me want more.
After gorging at the buffet table, I took George back home and dropped him off. I continued to speed down the 5 freeway to meet my folks for lunch at the North Woods. I barely touched my food. It was a quick visit – about 2 hours. After talking over barely untouched salad and dogie-bagged stake, I hugged my parents good-bye and zoomed back up the 5 to George's house to do a quick number on his yard. I would have done more but Jens and I and our travel companion, Andy, had dinner plans at 8.
That was my quick visit with George. I had expected to be visiting him in the hospital and was so glad to learn that when I got to LA, he had been discharged and glad to see that he was back to eating like a pig as normal.
When I returned home I had a long list of e-mails to read and I was sad to read the latest news that George is back in the hospital. I hoped it was just the meds that knocked him out. Jens and I had a talked with an HIV specialist who told us that the medicine will be really hard on him but that is what he would have to go through before getting better.
OK – if you made it this far and didn’t skim – give yourself a golden star (or
check yourself into a psycho hospital and get a life).
Now for the fun stuff – Pictures - Yeeee-aaaaaay!
We just arrived to Seattle. The Radisson hotel is literally just 4 minutes from the luggage carousel. We took our bags up to the room and then came back down to street level to have a puff of fresh air.
As you can see we are still half dressed in our travel clothes.
We finally get into some real duds and ease on down the road to Denny's.
On the way we take a group picture. The weather was wonderful but we were here for just an over nighter before going onto LA.
Having a Grand Slam at Denny's.
The next day we are up early and doing a quility breakfast at the hotel restaurant.
(But we really wanted that cheep-o greasy Denny's slammer.)
(though i am always cleaning up after others, that's not me in the background)
We arrived yesterday at LAX and it's now the first full day in LA - where it never rains. The weather in Seattle, where it always rains, was better than it was in LA - go figure!
But still it's t-shirt weather and the view is great from this shopping center.
While I am out visiting with George, Andy is out on Hollywood Blvd looking for his star sign.
Our hotel is just around the corner from the Kodak Theater where Andy and Jens spend some of their free time.
On my second visit to George's house, Jens comes along with me.
the picture is taken with my cell phone. I was so sorry that i didn't bring my real camera and take a few pix of my sister Christine while having lunch at the ESPN Sports Bar in the
Staples Center.
While Jens and I were visiting with Georg, Andy was desparate on Wisteria Lane.
Early Sunday morning on my way to go visit George and take him out to breakfast, I dropped off Jens and Andy at Farmers Market and The Grove.
OK - they don't looks so big here but these must be the worlds biggest plates. It's a huge steak, fish and chicken on that platter. If you are looking for more than just a tasty taco and you want a real Mexican experiecne then I would highly recomment you to stop in and check out La Huasteca restaurant. At least check out the web site - it will make you mucho hambre.
Mayan art work on the wall.
This is just a partial shot of the huge line of food.
Later a live mariachi band will play some Mexican music.
Our last night and Andy has managed to get us tickets to the private Magic Castle club. Andy loves magic and cards. I was so surprised to hear that Andy was even aware of this private club. We had our last LA meal here and saw some wonderful magic.
It's our last day in LA and just before heading out to Las Vegas we have 2 hours to do last minute shopping at the Kodak Theater Hollywood and Highland Center. It's the place where they pass out the Oscars.
Jens almost gives himself a concussion landing his head on this cement pillow.
The original travel plan was to be just 5 days in NY and CT for a bit of eating and some picture taking. But the trip evolved into a LA visit and since we were on the other side of the planet and since Jens loves slots and Andy loves poker and magic, we decided to extend our LA visit with a 3 day side trip to Las Vegas.
The Divine Miss M welcomes us to LAS.
(Hey George - once you are feeling better and once I get enough nerve to make another trip out west, let's meet up and see the show.)
We stop for a kodak moment in front of the world famous Welcome to LV sign.
Just shortly after the sign, is this amazing 'smaller' LV hotel - The Luxor.
We decided to stay here because Criss Angel was performing here.
It was pretty amazing stuff.
We turn our car over to valet and schleb our bags into the pyramid lobby.
That's me blurred out to the right with my soon to be independant suitcase.
Andy couldn't understand what was taking so long to check-in.
Sorry Andy, I was having a long conversation with the guy who checked us in.
I met some of his colleauges and I felt as if he was about to hop over the counter and give us a personal tour of the city.
We get up to our room, un-packed, ordered room service and enjoyed the view from the 23rd floor.
This is the view by day looking down and to the right.
This is the view by night looking out and left.
The green block is the MGM. In front of that is the Tropicana.
Back down in the lobby and we are soon on our way out to cruise the strip.
Near by is the NY NY hotel.
Further on is the Paris Hotel.
This one looks like it is going to be extreamly moderen and high tech.
Maybe they'll call it: The Scandinavian.
But of all of them, this is the one that amazes me most - The Venetian.
After traveling to Venice, I think it's amazing how they make you feel almost like you are really there in Venice. But the most amazing and mind bogolling fact is that the huge casino hall is under the canals.
We found the Las Vegas outlet mall. It's huge! It goes on forever and the prices were very very low. We got some really good deals here.
What were the chances that the only other customer in this desert surf shop was from Denmark?
It was a hot day of shopping. 2 hot cups-o-java for 2 hot guys. Unfortunately they got up and left before Andy could snap the photo. Just so you're not confussed, that's me and Jens instead.
One of the evenings we went downtown to have dinner and see the sky show.
We had a pretty good meal here at the 4 Queens.
On one of the evenings we went to see Criss Angel. He is a very unusual magician. The show was on the bizar side and some of the tricks were absolutly amazing. AND just as amazing.... was that Jens was able to get ahold of Criss Angel's producer and had Criss Angel personally sign a photo to Andy. We were not allowed to take photos so you will have to see him at this link or search him yourself on the web - there is lots of stuff on Youtube.com
Jens did some magic of his own. For about 20 minutes Jens made the entire audience disappear until his lovely assistant elbowed him in his ribcage and suddenly.... presto-arresto, alla-ka-zam - everything was back the way it was.
I also took the guys to the amazing shopping Fourm at Ceaser's Palace.
One of the first shops we came to had a poster of a guy who looked almost identical to Andy.
It was in Ceasar's Palace where we ate our last meal.
Andy says to Jens: Don't look now, but there's Elvis and Julius Ceaser having a cocktail just on the other side of the Trevi fountain.
The lazagna was delicious.
So that's it. Our LA and LV travel is over. We had a good time and the worst was still to come.
But you already read about the LAS airport fustration in the beginging part of this blog.
It was more than we could handle. We felt as if we needed a vacation after arriving back in Copenhagen.
As we get ready to leave the hotel and go back to the airport, Andy points out this card that is imbeded in the thick glass door. "Take a look at this", he tells me. Weird! What's a card doing in the middle of that glass door - I wondered. Andy tells me - "Chris Angle put it there" and Andy begins to explain the trick to me. Later when we got home he shows me the Youtube video clip of the trick - unbelieveable - really unbelievable. But it was there and I touched both sides of the glass myself.
This is the end of part one.
Hope you found it entertaing and that it didn't put you to sleep.
Leave me a message and me know what you think.
For those of you who don’t know George – he is a long time friend of mine who I actually met through my mother. We met each other for the first time 31 years ago at the age of 19. We are both the same age and we have been best friends for all these years.
About a year ago, George started getting ill and for the last 2 months has been in and out of the hospital several times.
Some of the following info may sound odd as far as timing goes but that is because I wrote it almost a month ago. I will however try to update it in the places where I can do so and add more info to tell a fuller story.
It’s a long one so don’t attempt to read any further if you've got things to do. Wait until you get a moment, sit back and enjoy.
Hello one and all!
We have just returned from a crazy trip to the states. (June 4 to June 12. Remember now - most of this was written on the 15th of June)
Including the Copenhagen airport for both departing and arriving, we have been to these airports within the last 9 days –
CPH
SEA
SFO
LAX
LAS
CHI - was cancelled but our luggage went there without us and then it went on to EWR while we got redirected on a different airline to:
JFK.
Then ground transportation from JFK to EWR to pick up our luggage.
Overnight at EWR
STO
CPH
We didn’t have flight tickets for all of these destinations because there just was not the time to get them before going. Our trip to the states was a very last minute decision. Yet I did have several other tickets for other destinations that we did not go to and I did have several tickets for the same destinations but with other airline companies. Confused? Me too.
The reason for having two handfuls of tickets is because all of the planned flying was to be stand-by as I work for SAS airlines and having tickets on hand is the way it has to be done when flying other airlines than the one that I work for.
I ended up taking out so many paper tickets out of the machine at work that it actually broke down or ran out of tickets or something or another because it just shut down on me while I was in the process of taking the tickets out. This means that I was not able to take out all of the tickets that I needed. There are 2 other ticket machines at work that I know of and one of them was out of order. So on to the last possibility. Still I did not get all of the tickets that I needed.
When we left Denmark, I had a back-up ticket to get from NY to London on British Airways but not the ticket from London to CPH and I had tickets from NY to Frankfurt on Lufthansa but not from Frankfurt to CPH and I had no tickets at all from NY to CPH on SAS. But that was ok because since I work at the airport, I can connect to our internal website and buy the tickets that I need, on-line - so I was not really worried. What I didn’t know was that from all SAS departure airports in Germany, a paper ticket from the machine is required. The machines are of course, in Denmark so I would have needed to take a ticket out of the machine before ever even starting my journey. But the other tickets would be a snap via the computer - unless the internal employee web-site is down and it was! – what a hassle.
I knew in advance that I could only use 8 tickets for our travel companion, Andy.
What I didn’t know was that the 8 tickets count from the time of taking the tickets out of the machine and not from the time that the tickets are actually used. I of course started out by taking lots of back-up, US flight tickets for our travel companion which ate up the quota of 8 tickets and I still had not even taken the return flight ticket out yet.
I know that all flight companies that accept me as a stand-by passenger also accept Jens as a stand-by travel passenger (with exception of a few Muslim countries) but what I didn’t know was that not all flight companies that accept Jens and I, will accept a travel partner. In other words – the 3 of us could fly on Lufthansa but only 2 of us could fly on British Airways. It was a true circus of tickets in the air. All of this means that somewhere along the line, we were going to have to pay last minute full fare rates which can be quite expensive.
Departure from Las Vegas was impossible.
All United flights were full or we could get part of the way but the next connecting flights were over booked.
For those of you who don’t know me – this is pretty much a standard story when going to America.
For those of you who do know me – it’s ok to yawn now and skip to the photos.
We went into a panic and I offered to buy a full fare ticket from LAS to CHI.
The airline agent was sweet and spoke to me like I was a retarded 12 year old - speaking very slowly with big exaggerated mouth movements –
D o n ‘ t .... y o u ....
u n d e r s t a n d.... s i r…..,....
T h e.... f l i g h t.... is.... o v e r.... b o o k e d.......
T h e r e ..... is ..... n o t h i n g.... t o ....b u y.
We made a crazy dash to buy any ticket on-line just to get out of LAS and get to NY.
Can you say: “last minute rip-off” with a twist of delay?
We had to buy tickets because the airline agent told me that if we don't get out of Las Vegas today, Thursday, we wouldn't be able to get out on Friday.
I think it was Price-Line we hit up first. Filled out the forms and hit the send button. We got a reply saying that you could only buy tickets on-line for flights that depart after 24 hours of on-line purchase. So we tried another on-line site. We got lucky that Jet Blue would accept a few dummies like us and let us pay through the nose to get on board a flight. Yes, the same company that landed on the Hudson River.
So after buying the Jet Blue tickets, I went back to the very sweet slow talking United flight agency and told the woman that we bought tickets on Jet Blue and asked where do we pick up our baggage so that we can check them onto Jet Blue.
She told me, “We already sent your luggage on the Chicago flight. You can pick up your bags in EWR.” Guess what? Our Jet Blue flight was headed for JFK. Well…… so much for flight safety. “I thought flight regulations state that all baggage must fly with the passenger.” She answered, “oh no, not if it’s only a national flight.” Gee, that’s dumb I thought. Wasn’t it national flights that smashed into the Pentagon and the Twin Towers? I would think that if you were going to have an exception to the rule, you would let it be on over seas flights so that the plane blows up over the ocean or at least in another country.
We made it to JFK and made a dumb mistake of taking a shuttle van from JFK to EWR. It was the last shuttle of the day and they told us we better hurry if we wanted to get on the van. There were several other passengers in the van and we were the second to the last group of persons to be dropped off and we got off at Pennsylvania Station in NYC and had to now get on the train to EWR airport. The entire trip would actually have been cheaper and quicker to have taken a taxi the entire way. Finally we got to the luggage carousel at EWR and luckily found our bags. Next we got on a tourist telephone and called a near by airport hotel. The hotel shuttle bus picked us up and we checked in at 1 in the morning. Order pizza at 2 in the morning and by 3 we were having pizzeria nightmares.
It all worked out that I was able to e-mail the SAS employee ticket office and have them e-mail me tickets to get home. We were lucky that there was space but we had to stop in Stockholm on the way as the direct flight home to CPH was totally booked.
That was just the short story of the air travel. Now comes the story between leaving home and returning home.
OK - so the whole story started out with a planned trip to Connecticut to visit my sister Jeanette and my nice Nicole who lives in CT. Nicole is the daughter of my sister Christine.
But at the last minute, those plans fell through and quickly became a holiday in Barcelona and Sitges. We booked a hotel on-line for Barcelona and I dialed direct to a on-beach hotel of Sitges.
Before and during the planning of the Connecticut / Spain travels, I had been talking to George daily on the phone the previous 2 and a half weeks. I decided it was time to see George when during a number of phone calls, he could hardly speak. Jens encouraged me to go see George because Spain will always be there. At a moments notice I had to change all hotel and flight plans. And that was tricky trying to get the flight tickets to work (which did not go smoothly nor without a hitch as you have just read) and convince a non-refundable, on-line, web hotel to at least give me some sort of discount on another hotel in Hollywood.
Also because of flight delays, and over booked flights out of Seattle and San Francisco, it was not until late Friday that I got to see George and I had planned it to see him a whole 24 hours before.
Before arriving at George’s place, I went to the market and bought a bunch of easy eating food. I thought it was awful that his big daily achievement was eating a banana. I bought a lot of juice and lots of stuff that he could just pop into a micro wave oven or pop open and eat. I also bought 2 larger frozen meals – one for him and one for me since going to a restaurant that evening was out of the question.
When I walked into the house, George was happy to see me and thrilled to see all the food but said, “Oh Eddie, I can’t eat all of that.” I said, “Well I’m not asking so you have to just eat it!”
We sat and talked and visit.
Then other friends also popped in later that day – first was Al and Adrian. Al cuts hair and really dolled up George and he looked so much better than when I first saw George only 3 hours prior. Then Trevor also walked in. George was able to get up and sit in the kitchen, facing out to the area where he has his bed. He moved his bed into the dinning area because he was working on his bedroom before he got ill. While George was getting his hair cut, and all the others were talking and carrying on. I was in the background cleaning up in the kitchen. George’s back was towards me so he never saw what I was doing. And what I was doing was collecting a bunch of stuff and throwing it out. I think George has everything that he has ever touched in the last 50 years. He still has the lamps that were in the house where I grew up back in the 60’s and I saw some kitchen jars that I had in my home when I lived in OC in 1984.
I just started grabbing stuff and put it in plastic bags to throw out on my way out of his house when I was to return back to our Hollywood hotel. “Oh, he doesn’t need this….and he doesn’t need that….” I would say to myself. “What we need is a big dumpster.” I threw out a few business cards among other things. “George is in no condition to be doing business…. Just get rid of it”, and out they went. My eyes caught the word “nurse” on one of the business cards that was just laying haphazardly on a pot lid laying carelessly on a chopping block. I put it back thinking that maybe he would need that card. About 25 minutes later Trevor asked George if he had the telephone number to his nurse. I was amazed that without even looking, George reached out his hand towards the pot lid, grabbed the business card and handed it to Trevor. OK – this guy is a collector of thing that you and I would throw out. It's a rather large collection but he seems to know exactly where everything is at. I got worried and hoped that he didn’t need any of the other stuff that I threw into the plastic bags.
Both Trevor and Al offered assistance with putting George’s house in order. But both guys agreed that it would have to be with George’s conducting of what goes and what stays. Al said that something may mean nothing to others but could mean a lot to George. Trevor said that anyone could spiff up George’s houses by getting rid of a lot of stuff, but it wouldn’t be George’s house. And more than ever he needs the place to be fully his. It all made sense while I was ready to shift the bulldozer into Drive.
Eventually after a long nice visit, the guys finally left and I popped the frozen dinners into the microwave.
What a surprise to see George devour his meal and I mean devour.
I left at about 10pm and returned the next day at about noon time on Saturday with Jens and with another batch of market goods. Jens greeted George and I just walked straight to his fridge and made a sandwich and commanded, “Here! Eat this!” Not only did he eat it, he ate a second sandwich too . My sister Christine had arranged to met me at George’s home. We had a short little visit and then another one of George’s friends popped in. That was our clue for Jens, Christine and I to head out to the Staples Center and grab a bite to eat. No one at that time knew that a major event was soon to take place there. See a clip here of the concert that never will be. After lunch, we drove back to visit with George and then eventually Christine had to leave.
While making small talk, our conversation turned towards food and restaurants as most conversations with George usually end up in that direction. George really wanted to take me to a Mexican Buffet on Sunday, the following day. I told George that if he felt good and had the energy for it, we could try it depending upon how he felt but I suggested that we leave the plan open.
Later on that evening Jens and I headed back to Hollywood. We were just about to exit the freeway when my cell phone rang. It was Andy calling from Hollywood Studios. He had seen enough and was ready to be picked up. The timing was perfect.
It was a plan that I should be at George’s house Sunday morning at 10 to be at the buffet restaurant before the big morning rush. I was sure that there was no way George could get up for this big event so I said, “Well George, if you can find the energy, it could be really fun.” But I knew even if he could get up, how in the world would he even be able to attempt a buffet table. As George slowly got into my rental car, and then pointed the way to the restaurant, I told him that if at anytime he wanted me to turn the car around and go back, just speak up – no problem.
I pulled up to the door of the restaurant, getting as close as I could to make the walk for George as short as possible. George hobbled in. I parked the car and then met George at the front door of the restaurant. We walked in together and I said, “Let me get a plate for you George and you go have a seat at the table.” “Oh, let me just take a look”, he said with big hungry eyes and then grabbed a plate himself and started loading up the biggest plates I have ever seen. Again I was shocked. I’m thinking – no way is this ‘banana-a-day guy’ gonna eat all that food. He had steak, fish and chicken all on one plate along with all of the other goodies too. And down it went and he got up for a second serving of everything and ate it all and then asked me if I could get him desert. Slices of watermelon, papaya, cantaloupe and pudding cake and down all of that went. Wow! He ate more than me – I couldn’t believe it.
He couldn’t believe that I just wanted beans and rice – “I know it’s simple food”, I told him, “but you can’t get this in Denmark”. We still laugh about it. And writing about it just makes me want more.
After gorging at the buffet table, I took George back home and dropped him off. I continued to speed down the 5 freeway to meet my folks for lunch at the North Woods. I barely touched my food. It was a quick visit – about 2 hours. After talking over barely untouched salad and dogie-bagged stake, I hugged my parents good-bye and zoomed back up the 5 to George's house to do a quick number on his yard. I would have done more but Jens and I and our travel companion, Andy, had dinner plans at 8.
That was my quick visit with George. I had expected to be visiting him in the hospital and was so glad to learn that when I got to LA, he had been discharged and glad to see that he was back to eating like a pig as normal.
When I returned home I had a long list of e-mails to read and I was sad to read the latest news that George is back in the hospital. I hoped it was just the meds that knocked him out. Jens and I had a talked with an HIV specialist who told us that the medicine will be really hard on him but that is what he would have to go through before getting better.
OK – if you made it this far and didn’t skim – give yourself a golden star (or
check yourself into a psycho hospital and get a life).
Now for the fun stuff – Pictures - Yeeee-aaaaaay!
We just arrived to Seattle. The Radisson hotel is literally just 4 minutes from the luggage carousel. We took our bags up to the room and then came back down to street level to have a puff of fresh air.
As you can see we are still half dressed in our travel clothes.
We finally get into some real duds and ease on down the road to Denny's.
On the way we take a group picture. The weather was wonderful but we were here for just an over nighter before going onto LA.
Having a Grand Slam at Denny's.
The next day we are up early and doing a quility breakfast at the hotel restaurant.
(But we really wanted that cheep-o greasy Denny's slammer.)
(though i am always cleaning up after others, that's not me in the background)We arrived yesterday at LAX and it's now the first full day in LA - where it never rains. The weather in Seattle, where it always rains, was better than it was in LA - go figure!
But still it's t-shirt weather and the view is great from this shopping center.
While I am out visiting with George, Andy is out on Hollywood Blvd looking for his star sign.
Our hotel is just around the corner from the Kodak Theater where Andy and Jens spend some of their free time.
On my second visit to George's house, Jens comes along with me.
the picture is taken with my cell phone. I was so sorry that i didn't bring my real camera and take a few pix of my sister Christine while having lunch at the ESPN Sports Bar in the
Staples Center.
While Jens and I were visiting with Georg, Andy was desparate on Wisteria Lane.
Early Sunday morning on my way to go visit George and take him out to breakfast, I dropped off Jens and Andy at Farmers Market and The Grove.
OK - they don't looks so big here but these must be the worlds biggest plates. It's a huge steak, fish and chicken on that platter. If you are looking for more than just a tasty taco and you want a real Mexican experiecne then I would highly recomment you to stop in and check out La Huasteca restaurant. At least check out the web site - it will make you mucho hambre.
Mayan art work on the wall.
This is just a partial shot of the huge line of food.
Later a live mariachi band will play some Mexican music.
Our last night and Andy has managed to get us tickets to the private Magic Castle club. Andy loves magic and cards. I was so surprised to hear that Andy was even aware of this private club. We had our last LA meal here and saw some wonderful magic.
It's our last day in LA and just before heading out to Las Vegas we have 2 hours to do last minute shopping at the Kodak Theater Hollywood and Highland Center. It's the place where they pass out the Oscars.
Jens almost gives himself a concussion landing his head on this cement pillow.
The original travel plan was to be just 5 days in NY and CT for a bit of eating and some picture taking. But the trip evolved into a LA visit and since we were on the other side of the planet and since Jens loves slots and Andy loves poker and magic, we decided to extend our LA visit with a 3 day side trip to Las Vegas.
The Divine Miss M welcomes us to LAS.
(Hey George - once you are feeling better and once I get enough nerve to make another trip out west, let's meet up and see the show.)We stop for a kodak moment in front of the world famous Welcome to LV sign.
Just shortly after the sign, is this amazing 'smaller' LV hotel - The Luxor.
We decided to stay here because Criss Angel was performing here.
It was pretty amazing stuff.
We turn our car over to valet and schleb our bags into the pyramid lobby.That's me blurred out to the right with my soon to be independant suitcase.
Andy couldn't understand what was taking so long to check-in.
Sorry Andy, I was having a long conversation with the guy who checked us in.
I met some of his colleauges and I felt as if he was about to hop over the counter and give us a personal tour of the city.
We get up to our room, un-packed, ordered room service and enjoyed the view from the 23rd floor.
This is the view by day looking down and to the right.
This is the view by night looking out and left.
The green block is the MGM. In front of that is the Tropicana.
Back down in the lobby and we are soon on our way out to cruise the strip.
Near by is the NY NY hotel.
Further on is the Paris Hotel.
This one looks like it is going to be extreamly moderen and high tech.Maybe they'll call it: The Scandinavian.
But of all of them, this is the one that amazes me most - The Venetian.After traveling to Venice, I think it's amazing how they make you feel almost like you are really there in Venice. But the most amazing and mind bogolling fact is that the huge casino hall is under the canals.
We found the Las Vegas outlet mall. It's huge! It goes on forever and the prices were very very low. We got some really good deals here.
What were the chances that the only other customer in this desert surf shop was from Denmark?
It was a hot day of shopping. 2 hot cups-o-java for 2 hot guys. Unfortunately they got up and left before Andy could snap the photo. Just so you're not confussed, that's me and Jens instead.
One of the evenings we went downtown to have dinner and see the sky show.
We had a pretty good meal here at the 4 Queens.
On one of the evenings we went to see Criss Angel. He is a very unusual magician. The show was on the bizar side and some of the tricks were absolutly amazing. AND just as amazing.... was that Jens was able to get ahold of Criss Angel's producer and had Criss Angel personally sign a photo to Andy. We were not allowed to take photos so you will have to see him at this link or search him yourself on the web - there is lots of stuff on Youtube.com
Jens did some magic of his own. For about 20 minutes Jens made the entire audience disappear until his lovely assistant elbowed him in his ribcage and suddenly.... presto-arresto, alla-ka-zam - everything was back the way it was.
I also took the guys to the amazing shopping Fourm at Ceaser's Palace.
One of the first shops we came to had a poster of a guy who looked almost identical to Andy.
It was in Ceasar's Palace where we ate our last meal.
Andy says to Jens: Don't look now, but there's Elvis and Julius Ceaser having a cocktail just on the other side of the Trevi fountain.
The lazagna was delicious.
So that's it. Our LA and LV travel is over. We had a good time and the worst was still to come.
But you already read about the LAS airport fustration in the beginging part of this blog.
It was more than we could handle. We felt as if we needed a vacation after arriving back in Copenhagen.
As we get ready to leave the hotel and go back to the airport, Andy points out this card that is imbeded in the thick glass door. "Take a look at this", he tells me. Weird! What's a card doing in the middle of that glass door - I wondered. Andy tells me - "Chris Angle put it there" and Andy begins to explain the trick to me. Later when we got home he shows me the Youtube video clip of the trick - unbelieveable - really unbelievable. But it was there and I touched both sides of the glass myself.
This is the end of part one.
Hope you found it entertaing and that it didn't put you to sleep.
Leave me a message and me know what you think.
