Early August, I took a quick weekend trip to Chicago for their Rock N Roll Half Marathon. I had so much fun during my #AYCJ trip last year there, that I needed to find a reason to go back. I stayed with my now good friend via CouchSurfing.org from last year, so I was able to save on hotel costs. I was also fortunate enough to use a free Southwest Awards flight, so the overall trip wasn’t costly at all.

I took an early morning 7am flight from LAX Saturday, then returned Sunday night. What a quick weekend trip that was. Technically, according to our Vegas rules of “it’s not a turnaround if you sleep more than 3 hours,” I actually did a turnaround. Once I arrived in the afternoon, I took public transportation to the Health Expo. I had an hour to closing, but I didn’t stress, once you’ve been to one, you’ve seen them all anyway. Went to my couchsurfing friend’s apartment (which I helped her move into last time I was there), and we pretty much made it a blockbuster night w/ frozen pizza from Trader Joe’s. Yes, that’s some real Chicago pizza right there! I was still in LA time, so wanting to sleep at midnight to get a good amount of rest, was really 10pm for me, I didn’t even sleep until 2am.

Two hours later, I had to wake up to get ready for the start of the race. Ended up taking a taxi because trains don’t start until 5am. I was so early to the race that the set up crew was still working! It was dark. It was silent. No music. No announcers. I probably only counted 5 other people. I thought I was at the wrong place for a minute. 20,000 other people filled up the area pretty quickly, so it all became familiar again.

Prior to this event, the Philadelphia ING Half Marathon was my favorite. Chicago RNR Half Marathon just topped that. It was pretty hot & humid at the end, but overall, the scenic views and the energy of the runners and crowds, made the event amazing. We started at Grant Park, passed through Millennium Park (where “The Bean” is), through the downtown area passing Willis Tower (Sears Tower), to Soldier Field (where the Chicago Bears play), and came back around, ran along the tree-lines paths lakefront. The final miles to the finish line (pictured above), gave a nice view of downtown Chicago.

After the race, it was a quick eat downtown, explored Millennium Park once again, and stopped by some taping area for Transformers 3. Saw some teeny tiny explosions, pre-Michael Bay effects, so it was non eventful. It was interesting to see a bunch of flipped over burnt cars and pieces of junk everywhere though. Before I ventured home, I had a few drinks with a good friend I met from Team in Training this past summer, so we played a little catch up there.

And that was it! Fly in, hang out, run, eat, hang out, then flew back. I got all the tourist curiosities out of the way last year, so I was in no big rush or pressures other than to get my Chicago RNR Half Marathon medal, which was #4 of the 7 events I needed to get the big ass Rock n Roll Medal. Still one of my favorite cities to visit, and I’ll be back for sure! I highly recommend running this race next year, or even just to visit this beautiful city. Good times!

For a good 3 or 4 hours last night, I was finalizing my All You Can Jet trip via JetBlue’s special AYCJ trip. Initially news of the open booking window started as a link on the Facebook AYCJ message boards that it’s live around 9ish pm PST.

Last year, we had it to do it old school and actually call a JetBlue representative to book flights using written down flight numbers (for the quickest booking), or talk to them about your planned destinations. I think this new way is a huge improvement because you can get an overall view of your itinerary, pick seats, change seats, cancel flights, change flights, you name it. There were a few kinks last night, many were pretty frustrated to find out that their account has been “deactivated”. It was a database error, and it seemed like it was random because it affected some new jetters, as well as experienced AYCJers. People were left on hold for an hour or more, but seemed to slowly get resolved as the night progressed. Some cities weren’t available in the beginning, but eventually made its way to the AYCJ system, which one of my intended cities happened to magically appear.

So here’s my tentative schedule, being a weekend warrior AYCJer, taking no days off from work, probably not sleeping much

9/10-9-12 Portland, OR
When I went to Portland last year, lucky me, I had food poisoning the night before, and so when I got to Portland, all I did was sleep to fight off that sickness, then forced myself to check out the nightlife around 10pm. My last day at Portland too, was the beginning of MusicFestNW, so I didn’t really experience it. This year, I’m playing catch up and will get the full MFNW experience to check out as many shows, plus Smashing Pumpkins will be performing. Also that weekend is a Pints to Pasta 10k run, Do-Over Portland, and there’s supposedly 70 microbrews around town.

9/16-9/19 NYC & Philadelphia
I’ll be taking a redeye on Friday to NYC 5am, which I’ll only have a few hours until a busride to Philadelphia. I might have brunch with a friend, or just explore. The main reason for this weekend trip is for the ING Rock N Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon, which I did last year and LOVED it. It’s also #5 of 7 of the events on the road to getting all the Rock n Roll Medals. I’ll probably get a cheesesteak sandwich or two (or three) as well.

9/24-9/26 New Orleans, Louisiana
I’m pretty much sacrificing all my Fridays for AYCJ because of these redeyes. I’ll land in New Orleans, which I’ve never been before. I will have a full day to explore, then a night of craziness until I have to leave the next afternoon. Will have to do more research here so I don’t break the bank.

10/1-10/3 Portland, Maine
This last weekend is still up in the air, but just wanted to book it to reserve my spot for at least one trip. What is there to do in Portland, Maine? Honestly, I have no idea, but I’ve never been. This will definitely be a relaxing weekend, eating up some of that Maine Lobser i kept hearing about last year.

You can check out my AYCJ map here – http://www.everlater.com/sketch/aycj-2010

This is still as exciting for me this year as it was last year. It’s been fun providing tips to first timers this year, plus there seems to be so much pre-planning and conversations this year and I can guarantee that this one will be a memorable one (hope I don’t hype it up too much for myself). It’s going to be rough during the week, wishing I’m having fun with other AYCJ folks, but I’ll manage. Work environment doesn’t suck, so I’ll keep busy. Sure, I can only jet on weekends, but you know me, i’ll make the most of the limited time I’ve got!

Since this year I will be grounded from #AYCJ jetting on weekdays, I’ll take the time to give the jetters some tips, based on my interests in Los Angeles, and learning from my quick travels last year.

Before I start, let me give you a little background about myself so you can make the decision whether or not you are the type of person to make use of these tips. I was born in L.A., but grew up most of my life in the suburbs. I grew up going to Disneyland, Universal Studios, and all the amusement parks Southern California has to offer. I went on family vacations out of state, from road trips to cruises. Once I became of age, I partied my ass off driving to Hollywood and Orange County, ranging from clubs, house parties, raves, frat parties, you name it. I’ve already got all that out of my system. It wasn’t until 4 years ago that I moved to deeper into L.A, and beach cities of So Cal.

I’ve learned to live with the land of crazy traffic and road rage fanatics. I was never interested in biking around time (although I should) because I know the drivers suck here and I’d probably get run over, but things will change in the near future. So, by living here all my life, I can point out what are the tourist traps, the clubs and bars to avoid during a given night, what areas to visit. I don’t call myself an expert foodie, or expert traveler, but I’ll give you my tips as an L.A. native. There’s not much of that around here to be honest, well, at least not in the Westside. Many of the L.A. natives I know are already married and live more inland. All the writers of Fast Track Prototype are L.A. natives, so any of these blog posts will give that kind of local perspective.

So I’ll try to think of useful articles catered to the #AYCJ travelers who are reading this, because I know how tough it is to plan these city trips, especially if you’re traveling alone. There’s so much to experience, and there’s so many ways you can experience Los Angeles. Just as quick as you can love this city, you can in turn quickly hate this city. I’ve heard from people about their bad experiences, and you know what? They simply just went to the wrong places. I’ll try to help you avoid that. I still love this city, so if you have any ideas, leave them in the comments and we’ll try to help you. So from now until October, you will see more #AYCJ posts. Just a quick tip though, L.A. is pretty large, so you will definitely need to add in some time for traffic congestion between areas, and public transportation isn’t as great as N.Y. (although it’s somewhat gotten better.

You don’t need to be #AYCJ to think these articles are useful. You could even be someone visiting for a weekend, or someone who would be planning to stop by in the coming months. I’d be even happy to come meet you and hang out for happy hour. Happy travels!

4:49AM PST I get a missed IM from a good friend David whom I met in NYC’s JFK Airport:

“It’s backkkkkkkkkk AYCJ
get on it and book it!”

I immediately ran downstairs to get my laptop and my checkcard! It was one of those “Am I dreaming? Is this an Inception type of dream within dreams situations?!? This is too good to be true!” moments. Sure enough, saw the special, and shortly after I booked it!

Just two days ago, JetBlue announced the highly anticipated All You Can Jet pass, also known as #AYCJ, a hashtag popularized by its own Twitter community. This morning, they sold out. Last year’s pass was a big social media experiment to fill in seats for a usually slow period of travel, the month after Labor Day, and what a success it was! At the time I bought it, I was freelancing, working my own schedule, so I pretty much traveled the full month.

This time around? Things have changed and now I’m employed full time. Not complaining though, I love my job and everything related to it, so I’m only going to travel on weekends. Is it still worth it? Hell yeah it is. Sure I paid $699 for the AYCJ-7, but considering I probably used $2500 in fights last year, and 2 east coast flights this year, I will still be in the positive. Sometimes you can’t look at the prices, what you get out of it is the experience, meeting new friends, experiencing cities you would otherwise not visit, and the crazy stories you’ll tell your kids and grandkids.

I learned a lot last year and I never had a chance to finish my AYCJ blog adventures. Here are some quick key learnings:

• Pack even lighter. Last year I packed only a carry on and never checked in any bags. I still found that I packed too much clothes, or packed unnecessary items
• Research high priority experiences. Sure, most of my itinerary on the fly, but last year, I found myself missing some major concerts and music festivals by a few days mainly because I didn’t know. For example, I flew OUT of Portland before their big music festival started, and I arrived in Chicago hours after Oprah Winfrey had her large TV season premiere concert/block party AND my hotel was only 3 blocks away.
• I don’t need to stay at nice hotels. Granted, I didn’t sleep at 5 star hotels, but they were in between average and high end. I didn’t really sleep in the rooms anyway, so I’ll just try to see what works.
• Don’t be afraid to talk to other AYCJers. Everyone I met last year were really fun to talk to, and everyone had some unique and interesting adventures. I didn’t really get social until the second half of my trip. This time, I’ll start at the beginning and engage in more social media and IRL conversations.

Are you new to AYCJ? There’s a lot of pre-trip chatter in these places. Enjoy!
http://www.facebook.com/AYCJ
http://www.meetup.com/AYCJ-2010
http://twitter.com/JetBlue/aycj

I’ll provide more tips and experiences from now until we all start, and also along the way, since I will be grounded during the week!

Follow me on Twitter to catch my travels: http://www.twitter.com/sketch678

The biosuits I was picking up for our costumes were used. Kinda scary. On one hand, I highly doubt they would sell anything that is still contaminated, but the thought that this suit was once possibly exposed to killer chemicals and infectious diseases did cross my mind. If I grow an extra pair of testicles, I’ll let you know. Hell, I’ll put it on Youtube.

We were the Anti-Swine Flu Team, complete with biosuits, goggles and vials of Swine Flu Vaccine aka 100 proof vodka with syringes to apply the “shots.” It was totally a hit – when we weren’t “OMG GHOSTBUSTERS” or “LOLBEASTIEBOYS.”

Emosweater and I decided to hit up Vegas on Sunday for a turnaround and catch up with the others. When we hit state line we grabbed a sixer and downed three beers a piece before we hit the strip so by the time we got to the hotel room we were nice and saucy. Kids don’t try this at home, or anywhere else for that matter.

Lavo was cool, despite the fact that I spent most of my time outside when I finally did go in and join the group groove, I had a blast, up until Fez showed up. Now I don’t know if he was spinning or just hanging out with the DJ but he kept getting on the mic every fuckin 20 seconds to say something. Dude, stop interrupting the song, just let the music play, you’re fuckin annoying. Guess he wasn’t doing much acting on that 70′s show after all.

We hit up Drais afterward, greased the cigar girl a few bucks for free passes for the ladies, got a gander at Optimus Prime and that giant fuzzy Cheshire Cat Looking guy from Where the Wild Things Are in a costume brawl when Michael Jackson showed up and kicked their asses. Then it was a parade of gay men and dancing moonrakers, when Emosweater and I decided it was time to go home or die driving there in a losing battle to slumber.

This passed weekend Emosweater and I decided it would be fun to catch up with Sketch after his Santa Barbara Half Marathon. It’s got that coastal town feeling to it, like San Deigo, which is something we should have kept in mind when we stopped at Buttonwillow to eat at Carl’s and realized we were way off course. Two and a half hours to be exact. 5 North, straight shot, I didn’t question it. In my mind it sounded right, but we probably would have ended up a few miles outside of San Jose before we realized if we didn’t stop to eat. Without sounding too existential it really was more about the journey and getting outside of LA city limits for a change of pace, which we succeeded in doing, but the downside to it was, well, Santa Barbara just felt like Orange County or San Diego. Granted we were probably setting ourselves up for the local easy stop or the tourist trap setting on Main Street – I mean that would be like us directing folks to Old Town Pasadena or 3rd Street Promenade. These are the places you hang out at when you’re not 21, from out of town or just point all the non-cool people to when you need to send them to some generic place to do stuff.

The highlight of the evening, or the downfall depending on who you talk to, was when Emosweater was totally violated by some drunk guy, so much that I totally panicked for a few seconds. My instinct was to grab his hand and drag him out of there or step in between the two to break up space, but it was Emosweater and not some girl and it was a guy that was hitting on him and it was – it was so strange. Either I was frightened by it, or caught in some eerie fascination of what was unfolding. Then at Madison’s, some chola threw some shit at the bartender right next to us and things almost went gansta. I guess the excitement really fired up this random drunk guy, who went on a freak-everyone-at-the-bar-air-humping-spree. Of course Emosweater was the first to be accosted. It was so his night.

The drive home initially was rough, we went through three or four cycles of getting drunk and sobering up that day – with drinking starting at 4 pm, which is really taxing on the body we discovered, but after a few shakes of Monster and doing the ABC’s of name that boob, we made it home.

My favorite: Dirigibles and chesticles. How I never heard of chesticles I’ll never understand. Pure genius.

Going to play a little catch up here, since I’m way behind on the All You Can Jet recaps. Boston Day 3 happened on September 25. The trip was split among my cousin Rich, and my friend Stephanie, so the last night there occurred in the Beacon Hill. Daytime festivities were exploring the neighborhood, checking out the sights of the Charles River, local restaurants, and the farmers market.

Now for the nightlife. Just like any of the other places I’ve been to, the bars we bunched up in sections. Everyone seemed to be dressed to impress, and I noticed a lot of party buses bringing people to the bars. The drawback? Almost all the places had a cover! Even just a basic bar had cover! What the!

There were a select few that seemed to be the hotspots, so we checked out one called The Greatest Bar. Was it the greatest? Well, probably not the greatest ever, but compared to others on the block, it was alive and poppin. It was four stories high, $10 cover, first 3 floors access. The fourth floor had a different cover, because a band was playing. Music was the usual Top 40 mashups by some DJ, and as the night progressed, the dancefloor and vibe was really fun. Thumbs up to the Boston nightlife, slightly biased because Boston in general is a college town, so you know things can get crazy.

First day of Boston was Wednesday, September 23. For the most part, the day started in the afternoon after taking a flight from D.C around noon. I waited at a Starbucks finishing up some freelance work while my cousin was on a cycling session with his friends. When we met up, we caught up on what’s been going on with our lives. It’s been a few years since I last saw him, and it was probably only the fourth time we’ve hung out. We walked around his neighborhood, conveniently centered around major shops, reminding me of an Old Town Pasadena, and walking distance to the subway. Being a marathon runner, he took me to the official Boston Marathon Finish Line, painted on the streets. The rest of the night continued with dinner with his girlfriend, then worked on more projects back at the apartment.

Day two was a little more exciting as we headed to the Sam Adams Brewery just 3 train stops away. The facility isn’t the main brewery, but just a research and development branch, so it was a lot smaller than expected. The best part? It’s FREE. There’s a suggested $2 donation per person, but even that is worth it. We were greeted by our cute guide and was given a Sam Adams beer label as our ticket in. People from all over the U.S. came to check out the brewery – a couple from Michigan made this part of their honeymoon excursion, and this other guy from who knows where looked like it was his third or fourth time in the day (you can keep going back if you want) taking the tour. The first part was learning about the different ingredients making up the different Sam Adams beer, the second was a quick tour of the machinery, then the third was our favorite – the beer tasting! They gave us an 8oz glass, branded with Sam Adams, for the tasting. We tried several glasses of Boston Lager, the seasonal Octoberfest, and their Brown Ale. She talked about their limited run 22% alcohol beer, Utopia, which is about $120 a pop. It comes in a gold colored bottle, and it smelled like maple syrup.

After the brewery, we had some beer munchies and were ready for some food. We went to Legal Sea Foods where I tried some New England Clam Chowder (very very tasty!), some oysters (kinda small for the price), and a delicious shrimp pasta. It was in a mall, so I was hesitant to go, thinking it would be like a Panda Express of seafood, but I was surprised at how good it was. It’s a well known restaurant for Bostonians, and I’m sure there are more genuine places, but it’ll do for now – we had beer munchies, remember?

We walked off all that food at the Harvard campus. It was very quiet, with study groups gathered in circles around the grassy quad area, people on their laptops at random spots, and students walking from class to class. It wasn’t very busy. We just wandered around the shops until it was time to have dinner at U Burger, one of my cousin’s favorite burger places in Boston. I’ll save this place for another Closing Time post, but I’d say it comes closest to the taste of IN N OUT because they had their version of the Animal Style sauce, but it wasn’t quite there.

After dinner, we stopped by Fenway Park, where the Boston Red Sox play. The Red Sox were out of town playing New York, so we just circled the outside block. It didn’t take long to circle it. I’d say it felt like I walked around 4 blocks. Surrounding areas, just like other stadiums are full of bars, some small like the divey ones, and large like House of Blues. There was supposedly a taping of a Ben Affleck movie nearby because we saw all the signs, lights, and trailers, but nope, no celebrity sightings that night.

We realize it’s Wednesday, but Adventure Tuesday typically ends on Wednesday morning. Sometimes spontaneous and random things happen on Tuesday night. There’s also a good chance that nothing happens. So last night?

Things have been more of an inner adventure. I found myself discovering a missing piece to a puzzle that I’ve been trying to put together lately. Not literally a puzzle, but, you’d think that you were prepared for something, only to find out you weren’t prepared at all. So it’s a good thing I discovered this missing piece, or I’d be farther behind than I thought.

Imagine my surprise, waking up this morning to an email sent at 2:56 am from Sketch that he’s staying an extra day in Vegas. He’s supposed to be flying back tonight, but he said he booked another flight back to Vegas after being in San Francisco to stay another night with a super hot DJ friend of his so he can indulge in more free table service, pool parties with bikini clad go go dancers, music, mayhem, lights, camera and mother fuckin action.

My eyes are barely open, I’m reading this email with one eye open – I guess reading with both eyes is just too much to ask for in the wee morning hours – and I’m thinking to myself, this mother fucker! Anger? No not at all, just total and complete peanut butter and jealousy.

I don’t get jealous. Ask my ex-girlwhatevers, I don’t get jealous. But Mr. Sketch, to thee I say, I am fuckin stomp my feet and whine like a little school girl jealous.

Tuesday September 22 was almost the halfway point of the #AYCJ adventure. 15 days in to be exact, of 31 days. The day’s goal was to tackle as much of the touristy landmarks of DC as much as I could. The subway system in DC was so easy, mainly because everything was marked clearly, digital readings of when the train is coming, and a lot of walking and waiting spaces. My friend whom I was staying with suggested I go to Good Stuff Eatery (detailed review reserved for a later post), but it was one of the better burgers I’ve had so far on the east coast. It’s pretty much a tasty burger on a pandesal bread. I’d go back to it. It really was good stuff.

Second stop, The Capitol Building. I only had time to just walk by and take pictures though. I was amazed by the size of the building, did the “oooh-ahhh” thing and continued to surrounding buildings and the Capitol Reflecting Pool.

Not too far away was the National Mall. No it’s not a shopping mall, but it’s a national park of Washington, DC. Around the Mall were several museums, all for FREE. Yess! I stopped by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, which housed some modern art works. I’m more of a modern art enthusiast rather than the classics so given the limited time I had I only went there for the art. Also, I can’t get enough of dinosaurs, so the Smithsonian was next. Despite the grumpy old security guard at the door, there were dinosaur bones, fossils, Hope Diamond, moon rocks, planets, cloned animals, and all that science goodness.

Final stop of the day was the Lincoln Memorial. It was a trainride and a mile walk away, but it was worth it. It was like a 3-in-1. I was able to see the Lincoln Memorial (which I thought was smaller than I imagined, but the building that housed it was huge), see a great view of the Washington Memorial with the reflection pool, and stand on the exact spot where MLK did the “I Have a Dream” speech. The steps infront of the memorial was a popular spot to just sit and enjoy the view. Looking back, damn that was a lot of walking!

Shortly after, I met up with one of my friends whom I went to Elementary school with. She lived in NY, but was in DC for work. We had dinner, and caught up on life, because the last time I saw her was over 12 years ago! I tell you, the power of reconnecting on Facebook is amazing. She just responded to my “DC” status message, and synced from there. The rest of the night was rather uneventful because I had to finish some design work before the morning, so once again, it can’t be all fun and games. To recap the whole DC trip though, I had a blast catching up with my old marathon teammate, who was so hospitable being the host & guide for this city, meet new friends, catch up with an old friend, got to see different neighborhoods, saw all the landmarks I wanted to see, and had a peek of the nightlife in different places. It’s a great place to find running routes, and was very easy to get around. Although DC is a beautiful & clean city, the environment of the city was too business/political for me. “Not my scene.”

The difference between Bolt Bus and the Chinatown Eastern/Todays bus I took to D.C. was night and day. Not only was the Chinatown bus more expensive, the chairs were not comfortable, no power outlets, no Internet, and they made me walk to a shady run down leased office to have my confirmation page printed (instead of just showing my e-mail, like Bolt Bus accepted) and charge me an extra $1 for just having them press “Print” and use 1 cheap piece of paper! I had no choice because Bolt Bus doesn’t do Philly to D.C.. that sucks! I was just glad I got to D.C. in one piece!

On Monday, September 21, I met up with an old Team in Training friend who recently moved to D.C. because of work, and he let me stay on his couch during my trip. When I arrived, he was at work, so I dropped them off at his office so I can explore the city on my own. I didn’t really have a major agenda (when did I ever for any of the cities?) for Washington, D.C. except to check out all the landmarks and monuments. Not too far away, about a mile, was The White House. It was a lot smaller than what I had pictured in my head, but I had a sense of American pride just seeing it in person. It was well guarded with Secret Service police vehicles on all sides, but you had the usual waves of tourists with the photo peace signs, awkward family vacation poses, and romantic prom poses. On the back side of the White House, you’ll find more people gathering along the gate, but you’ll also find a view of the Washington Monument just past a large lawn area called The Ellipse that is home to the National Christmas Tree.

When my friend got out of work, we headed to the U Street area of D.C for some dinner and drinks. I learned that there really is no “D.C.” staple food, and the culture of the city changes with every administration change. People don’t really hang out in the downtown area, but everyone just goes outward to the other neighborhoods, the U Street being one of them. It was a fairly clean neighborhood, with new restaurants resembling those of the new downtown L.A. spots. The bars were inside what looked to be old houses, with each floor being a separate hang out area. Went to several with small rooftops, but my favorite bar was “Marvin“. No, not because of the name – it was actually pretty poppin that night. The bar is actually dedicated to and named after Marvin Gaye. Music reminded me of what I’d hear at The Do-Over, with classic 90′s hip-hop, funk, and soul. Crowd was mixed with your hip-hop heads to the business types still in their button ups looking like they came from work then happy hour. It had a really fun vibe, with several bar areas with a variety of good of beers on tap, a dancefloor, and a large rooftop patio. Just outside of Marvin, on its wall (pictured here) was Shepard Fairey’s first location where he put up the famous Obama poster. It was being covered by a beam of a new building, but luckily I was able to catch a bit of it. I prefer the special urban landmarks that locals only talk about, or very non-tourist versus the obvious tourist ones, so this was a major plus in my book!