How to Travel: A Humble Guide from a Coach Class Business Traveler

One of the perks/downsides to my job is that it necessitates a fair amount of travel. As someone who very much enjoys traveling, I often consider it a perk rather than a downside, but there are some disadvantages as well.

Pros: I get to go to a bunch of cool places this year. At the very least, I'm heading to Bethesda, MD (holy rich area), Seattle, and...drumroll...Amsterdam! I'm pretty psyched to go to two out of three of those places. Nothing against Bethesda, but it doesn't quite cut it when compared to Amsterdam. Or even Seattle! Seattle has become one of my all-time favorite cities.

[Pike's Place, Seattle, WA: 2012]

Cons: While it sounds a little snotty, traveling for business sometimes gets lonely and even a bit boring. The movies elevate business travel to something for the rich, famous, or elite, but I can tell you from experience that eating in a restaurant by yourself in a city that you don't know at all is far from the world of the rich, famous, or elite. Instead, it's pretty isolating.

[The Alamo, San Antonio, TX: 2012]

But over time, I figured out a few traveling tricks that have saved me time, money, and, of course, the inevitable absolute heartache of hanging out in a strange city by myself. So without further ado, here they are. Maybe they'll help you too.

[A ridiculous store in a mall in Bethesda, MD: 2013. I told you they're rich.]


1. This probably goes without saying, but wear uncomplicated shoes for flying, since the TSA makes you take them off in the security line. You'll be annoyed at yourself for the time it takes to get your shoes off and on again, and you'll be annoyed at the people behind you in line because they'll be annoyed at you for taking to long. Just don't do it. Don't be a disturber of the peace. Don't be like Gandalf.

2. If you're at all in a rush, avoid security lines with families with small children. It's a fact of life that anyone traveling with kids is going to be stressed, because not only are there more people to chase after, but there's more stuff that needs to be wrangled. Don't make the stressed out family more stressed by standing behind them and inwardly seething because the baby is crying, there are bottles that can't go through the machine, the toddler is running away, and the parents are trying to get all the bags on the belt and all the shoes off the people without sending the kids through the xray tube. Plus all the plastic bins will be gone. It's in everyone's best interest for you to just pick a different line.

3. Don't dress like a slob for the flight(s). There's really no excuse to look like a hobo in the name of comfort. You're in a public place, and therefore it's worth making at least some sort of an effort. More importantly, you're representing your company. If you strike up a conversation with anyone, you want to make a good impression both for yourself and for your employer.

[Undisclosed location in Columbus, OH: 2013]

4. If you bring a computer, put it in your bag so that you can get it in and out in the most efficient way possible. You have to take it out to go through security, and it's a total pain to have to unzip four zippers, unstrap some Velcro, put the computer in its own bin, send it through the machine, get it back in the bag on the other side, re-strap the Velcro, re-zip all the zippers, and then have to deal with all the rest of your stuff.

5. Have all your travel documents easily accessible so that you can get through security and on to the plane as quickly as possible. Doing that helps avoid the stress of trying to find it while everyone else in line is waiting for you. It's also good to have on the destination end, so that if you're renting a car or checking in at a hotel, you can get in line faster.

6. Speaking of lines, BEAT EVERYONE TO THE RENTAL CAR DESK. Those lines seriously take an age and a half to get through. I don't know why, but I swear... rental cars are by far the slowest part of the entire traveling process. I don't care how you do it, but get there first. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.

[Times Square, NYC: 2013]

7. Do everything in your power to fit all your stuff into your carry-on bag. There's no reason to bring two extra pairs of shoes if it's going to cost you $25 dollars to check your bag. Plus if you have to wait at the baggage carousel, there's no freakin' way you're going to get to the rental car desk first, and that is paramount!

8. While in the city, avoid all the awkwardness of eating by yourself. I usually don't want to eat a long, heavy meal while traveling, so I usually just find the nearest grocery store, grab some yogurt and granola, and call it a night. That meal can even double as breakfast, and I save a lot of money on my eventual expense report. Note: if you do that... make sure the hotel has a fridge in the room. Lukewarm yogurt is gross (voice of experience here, people).

9. If you're somewhere you've never been before, use one of your evenings to do something! Go see a movie. Check out one of the main tourist attractions. Walk to the nearest Starbucks. Make sure you're in a good part of town before doing that. Don't hide in your hotel just because you're by yourself!

10. If it's the same price, choose a king sized bed when booking your hotel room. Having that much bed real estate (especially when accustomed to a twin sized bed) feels like the most luxurious benefit out there and brings you one step closer to the rich, famous, and elite. Because that's obviously what you're going for.

[Somewhere over the US: 2012]

So there you have it. Those are my 10 tips for traveling. Anyone else have some travel ideas worth sharing?

The Homebrewing Experiment: Part 1

First, a little background: this year, Official Blog Fiancé has made it a goal to try a bunch of craft beers. Over the last several months, it's become a fun hobby! Whenever we're in a new place, we'll try to pick up a few individual bottles and then we stash them away until it's time to break one out with dinner (or something). This new-found interest made it easy to figure out a birthday gift for Official Blog Fiancé this year!

Northern Brewer Homebrew Supply makes some really nice quality homebrewing kits. There were three difference options for kits, so I picked the middle one. Having never tried it before, the deluxe homebrew kit seemed a little intense, but the beginner one seemed a little too simple. So the intermediate one was the answer. The best thing about it was that it came with a recipe kit including all the ingredients, so I chose the one that I thought Official Blog Fiancé would like best and put it in my shopping cart.

When it arrived, the boxes were HUGE. I had tried to tell UPS to let me pick it up from their warehouse/store, but it turns out they only got it right for one of the packages. The other got delivered to my apartment, which really meant it got delivered to my landlords. Oops. The lovely elderly people downstairs had to move a large box with Northern Brewer advertisements boldly emblazoned all over the sides to the foot of my stairwell. I swear, landlords...it wasn't even for me!

Intro complete. On to the interesting stuff.

We made the beer this weekend! Actually, we really just started it, since it has to ferment before it's actually beer. First, we watched a fun/corny/educational video that described all the steps. Then we dumped a lot of purified water into a large pot and steeped some grains like you would steep tea.

 

Eventually we figured out that we didn't need to hold the grain sack there the whole time. The pot had some pretty helpful handles.

 

We steeped until the water temperature made it to 170 degrees. After that, we removed the grains, boiled the water/beer tea, and then added some malt.

 

I wish I had gotten some pictures of the malt, but it was a two-person job. The malt was a quart of liquid that weighed a full six pounds, and the pot needed to be stirred constantly while it was added. Ergo... no hands to spare.

 

After the malt, the stuff boiled for an hour, and we added some hops at regular intervals. While it boiled, we sanitized the next equipment.

 

The sanitization process looks simple, but picture this: a 7-gallon bucket needed to be filled with purified water from a Brita filter. Official Blog Fiancé worked on the sanitization process while I was cutting up potatoes and putting herbs on a large pork roast for dinner in the same area. Water is running, large pieces of brewing equipment are lying around the kitchen, raw meat is sitting on the counter in the corner, and the two of us are dancing around each other trying to both use the sink at the same time. In retrospect it was fun. At the time, it was amusingly stressful.

 

This picture was clearly taken after we took the beer tea - or wort, according to the directions - off the burner.

Once the wort had cooled down enough, it was time to pour it into a large bucket to start the fermentation process.

The entire house smelled like hops. The Catholics were having mass in the church right down the street, and you could smell the hops from outside the house. I'm pretty sure the scent wouldn't have reached the church, but in case it did... Catholics: my sincere apologies. It didn't smell great. The smell of dinner soon overtook the beer smell though, so it didn't last too long!

After pouring, we added more water and then sealed up the bucket. We stuck in the aerator, shook the bucket a little to get some extra oxygen in the mix, opened it back up, added some yeast, and the process was done...

FOR NOW!

This whole process took us a good four hours, so we're really hoping that our efforts pay off. I think we'd both be disappointed if all the work turned into bad beer. But if it's good, we'll invite you over to try it!