Trip to the beach

I'm getting really bad at updating, but I suppose the more you travel the fewer new places there are to go. I need to start expanding my horizons!

But this past weekend I went on a short-notice trip to Savannah and Tybee Island, right here in Georgia. Having never been to either city, it really was an exciting trip. Savannah reminded me a lot of Charleston, SC - only if Charleston was smaller and not nearly as cramped in the downtown area (although Charleston does beat it out in terms of things to do and history). I even got a chance to stop by the Moon River Brewing Company. The food was great, although the beer was average.

If you're ever in town, two "musts" are Zunzi's (a great hole-in-the-wall place for lunch that apparently is loved by everyone in town) and The Distillery, the only craft beer bar in the city. When you stop by The Distillery, make sure that you save room for dessert and order their deep-fried moon pie. It is truly exquisite.

Tybee Island was also a blast - we got to go up to the top of the lighthouse on the north side of the island, and had an awesome calzone at Lighthouse Pizza (wonder where they got their name...). The beaches weren't all that crowded and were gorgeous - we even saw a pod of dolphins swimming just off of the shore!

All in all, it was a very pleasant trip. Hopefully I'll have more weekend trips like that in the near future - but in the meantime, I'm busy planning my first trip to Europe. Can't wait!

As always, safe travels - and let me know if you need any companionship for a trip you are taking!

~G4

Scandinavia

Yet again, long time no type! But for a change, I come with big news - this coming August, I'll be making my first trip to Europe! I'll be spending a full day in Iceland, followed by a full week in Sweden. As of now the plan is to just hang out in Stockholm, although I'm sure we'll venture outside of the city at some point. I am very excited for the trip - it will be my first venture abroad in quite some time.

In other news, I got back from Columbus, Ohio. I got to walk around campus and take in everything at Ohio State (even the sign honoring Woody Hayes...booooo), which was quite something. I could have done without the bitter cold, but you can't have everything!

I've posted pictures from my Ohio trip on Facebook - make sure to check them out!

As always, safe travels - and let me know if you have any expeditions you'd like any company on!

~G4

Quick trip to Ohio

I'm still waiting to get done loading my pictures from my road trip to Maine/Canada, but I just made plans today to travel to Columbus, Ohio for a day. I'll be briefly taking in THE Ohio State University, and hopefully snapping a few pictures along the way. I'll also try to be better about updating more regularly...just been so busy recently!

Happy Valentine's Day to you all!

~G4

East Coast Road Trip

Just this past weekend, I was informed that some family was taking a road trip to Maine/Canada to get their new german shepherd. They will be heading through multiple cities along the coast, but will eventually end up in Portland, Maine for sure. Hopefully we'll get to stop and see a bunch of sights along the way!

I'll make sure to post pictures and any fun stories upon my return. Until then, safe travels!

~G4

Hawaii (but not me)

I got a new friend on Facebook a week or two ago, and he just posted pictures of his Clemson gnome in Honolulu, Hawaii. The objective of this blog is really to just show Clemson's presence all over the planet (although it gives me a great excuse to travel), so I added a picture from Chris' photo album to my map to show the additional coverage Clemson gnomes have had on the planet. Make sure to go take a look!

As always, safe travels, and let me know if you need any company on future adventures!

~G4

It's Basketball Season

Well, that was embarassing. After our first touchdown against SC we seemed to be flying high, but then after Dawson couldn't hold on to a snap all of a sudden it was over. Extremely disappointing - first time losing to SC back to back in 40 years. The only reason I haven't stopped my payments to IPTAY is because rumor has it Terry Don is on his way out...if that isn't the case, I doubt I'll be getting season tickets next year. I'd rather spend my money/Saturdays traveling as is.

That aside, Thanksgiving was a blast. Saw tons of family and friends throughout the holiday weekend, and even made plans to go to New York in August of next year. I'm also working on details for a trip to Europe around the June-August time frame. Should be a fun summer - now I just need to make some plans for Winter and Spring.

Here's hoping the basketball team can salvage some sort of moral victory this weekend in Columbia. Won't be holding my breath, though.

As always, safe travels!

~G4

Trip to Oklahoma

I got back from my trip to Oklahoma last weekend, and what a trip it was (but don't get me started on the long drive). Seeing a game at Oklahoma was a truly awesome experience - for any college football fan, it is a must. From what I've seen so far, they take the cake on pageantry and the overall game day experience.

Also, if you're ever in town make sure to try the Iron Starr and get the BBQ Club. It's smoked turkey, brisket, bacon and cheese on Texas toast. It's out of this world, and a short walk from the stadium.

The other highlight of the trip was getting to try the infamous Whataburger fast food chain. I'd hear stories of their superiority to other fast food burgers, and I will admit that outside of the West Coast it is the best fast food burger you can get. But In-N-Out still reigns supreme (that being said, I would still take a road trip to Birmingham to get to the nearest Whataburger).

We got to drive through Arkansas and Mississippi as well, but we didn't really have time to stop and check out any of the sights along the way. I'll just have to make sure to swing back through at some point in the near future (I know Clemson will be playing Ole Miss in a few years, so perhaps then).

But as of now, it's just traveling around for the holidays. Don't really have a ton coming up other than our big night game this Saturday and doing Thanksgiving in Charleston and Greenville. If you've got any big trips coming up and want some company, I've got nothing but free time. :)

As always, safe travels! And Happy Holidays!

~G4

Yet Again, Long Time No Type

So much has happened since I last posted. We went to Auburn and lost. Our football team was awful. Now we look half decent, although not nearly as good as we should. I went to Penn State and saw Illinois win for the first time ever in Happy Valley (meaning I must have brought Clemson's good fortunes in football up north). I've gone back and forth for many tailgates, and had great times on campus at Clemson.

But I haven't been anywhere exotic or new lately. That will be changing in just a few weeks when I go to Norman, Oklahoma to see the former #1 team in the country take on Texas Tech. We'll be stopping in Nashville and probably Arkansas along the way, so there should be new experiences to share in the near future.

Unfortunately, my trip to Rhode Island never came to fruition. There is still the possibility of me going there in the future, but no plans have been put in motion yet.

I also found out that I will be spending Christmas in Blue Ridge, GA which will be another first for me - it's still Georgia, but hopefully we can have a white Christmas!

Anyway, just wanted to touch base and let everyone know that I haven't been on the road much, and sure could use a nice trip. You going anywhere soon? :)

As always, safe travels!

~G4

Costa Rica

Firstly, I had a blast this weekend at the North Texas game. Our defense looked nothing short of awful so that has me worried for the Auburn game, but at least our running game doesn't appear to have too much of a falloff. Can't wait to play Presbyterian next week - let's see if they have any more trick plays like the one they ran against Wake!

But on to the more important story, my week long adventure in Costa Rica. There's too much to share on here so I will try to keep it as short as possible.

We landed in San Jose on the 21st and had private transportation to the Arenal Volcano - the third most active volcano. Our room had a private porch with rocking chairs so you could sit outside and enjoy the view. If there aren't clouds around the top of the volcano at night, you can even see magma come shooting out the top of it. While there we visited La Fortuna Falls (which you can go swimming in - although the water is quite cold), did a hike in the Arenal National Park, and went whitewater rafting. All along the way we saw wildlife, had great local food, and had amazing tour guides. If you ever plan on going to Costa Rica, a stop at Arenal and La Fortuna is an absolute must.

I was then transported from Arenal to Playa Flamingo on the Pacific coast. This is one of the many hotel resorts you can stay at in Costa Rica (we choose the Pacific because it seemed to be a little bit safer than the Caribbean). The resort we stayed at was gorgeous and had all drinks included. You know I loved that! But around the pool you could constantly see iguanas and many indigenous birds, which was a nice reminder that you weren't just at some resort in Florida. While at the beach we went zipling on a canopy tour (which is worth the trip to Costa Rica by itself) and had an ATV tour along the beach, which was incredibly fun.

We then went back to San Jose for a day to do a coffee plantation tour at the Doka Coffee Estate. It was actually quite interesting to see the process they use to pick which coffee beans meet their high quality standards. We sampled a lot of coffee, had a bunch of chocolate covered coffee beans and bought a bunch of bags of coffee to bring back for friends. We then stayed the night at a wonderful 5 star hotel (we had been slumming it in 4 star hotels until that point), and woke up the next day to fly back home.

All in all, it was probably the best trip I've ever been on. When you factor in the total cost of the trip, I don't know if I'm going to find a better "bang for your buck" trip than Costa Rica. I highly recommend you go find out for yourself! If you're interested, I've included links below to the companies we used on our trip.

All of my pictures are on Facebook (posted by my friend Kris), so make sure to take a look when you get a moment!

And finally, it appears that work may bring me to Rhode Island at the end of this month or the beginning of October. I'll make sure to post more details when I have them.

As always, safe travels!

~G4

Links from the trip:
The company who booked everything for us (I can't thank them enough!): http://www.mapcr.com/
The resort we stayed at near Volcan Arenal: http://arenalspringshotel.com/
The company that did all our tours/transportation around Arenal: http://www.desafiocostarica.com/
The resort we stayed at on the beach: http://www.resortflamingobeach.com/index.cfm
The hotel we stayed at in downtown San Jose: http://www.mybeaconescazu.com/

Long Time No Type

It's been a while since I've updated. I've been so busy traveling that I haven't really had the chance to update the blow with pictures. Here's a quick summary of what we've missed since my last post:

- I visited Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia for the first time over July 4th weekend. Saw many beautiful sights, visited a brewery and a vineyard, and managed to get to a friend's renewal of vows in Frostburg, MD. Also had some pints at Dante's in Frostburg - I highly recommend you drop by if you're ever in town!
- I then flew to California (another first) with my friend Justin. It was my first trip where someone volunteered to bring me along (since I was shipped to Ethiopia with Christen years ago). We got to see San Diego and some of the sights in Los Angeles. What a trip!
- Upon arriving back from California, I then joined a group of Clemson graduates on their Annual Beer Trip. We drove around North Carolina visiting many breweries, bars and restaurants. Needless to say, while many mornings we didn't feel the best we still had a heck of a time. Among the places I would recommend, I'd say that Raleigh was by far the best city of the trip. With places like Big Boss, LoneRider, and The Pit BBQ we had ourselves filled with pork and beer. The Highland Brewing tour in Asheville was also a trip (if you go, make sure to check out the Big Ass Fans that they have on the ceiling - they are unreal). And of course we stopped at Foothills in Winston-Salem, which has long been a favorite of mine. I'm just waiting for the day that they release a shirt for my favorite beer they make - People's Porter.

Since then, I've been preparing for my trip to Costa Rica next weekend. I'm getting very anxious for this - can't wait to share all my stories with you upon my return! Hopefully it won't take me more than a month to update next time. :)

Up until now I've posted all of my pictures both to Facebook and Google Photos. Instead of using both, I'm just going to be uploading to Facebook from here on out. So whenever you want to see pictures from my latest trips, head over to the FBook or check out my Google Map.

Well, that should be enough of an update for now. As always, safe travels!

~G4