Brett and Nate like to punish themselves. They proved it by getting up early and going for a run our very first morning in town. It wasn鈥檛 a long run, but it was on the cobblestone streets of Antigua, which can鈥檛 be fun. A few minutes after they came back, Brett got a message from someone he knew when he was on his mission here years ago, who just happened to be in Antigua with his girlfriend for a cake piping class. ...
Antigua has continued to grow since the last time we were here. There are a lot of great places to eat. After a long trip to get here, we needed to eat (and drink). Before we could go off wandering around town, we needed to get settled at the house we rented to be our home base for the next few weeks. We toured the property, met the gardener and the maid, and decided who would stay in which room. Let me just say, this place is fantastic. We knew it would be nice, but it鈥檚 even nicer than the VRBO listing made it look. This is going to be a great trip. ...
We took a taxi to the airport. It costs about $40 each way (after tip). Parking at the airport is $15 per day, so the $80 taxi ride is a money saver for any trip longer than 4 days. This trip is going to be a bit longer than that. When you hire a taxi to take you to the airport, you never know if they鈥檒l pick you up or drop you off on time. Will they drive the same route you drive? Do they drive faster or slower than you? So you plan on a little extra time. We also allowed a little more extra time because we knew we would be checking a bag filled with our scuba stuff. We had scheduled the driver to pick us up at 9:30. He called at 9:20 to make sure he had the right address. He showed up right on time, drove the shortest route, and got us to the airport by 9:50. We walked straight to the self-check kiosk, checked in, turned in our bags, walked through security without stopping (there鈥檚 never a line in San Jose) and sat down at our gate. I guess we didn鈥檛 need as much buffer as we thought. We had nearly two hours until our flight was scheduled to leave. ...
Wow. I didn鈥檛 expect to find a place like this in Burley. My expectations for food establishments in Burley were set very low by a terrible experience I had at Wendy鈥檚 on my way through town several years ago. But this town has come a long way in my eyes since I started participating in the annual Spudman Triathlon. I have come to realize just how beautiful it is to be right here on this part of the Snake River. And now I鈥檓 finding great places to eat. Burley keeps finding new ways to impress me. ...
I live in a part of Utah County where there are very few businesses of any kind. We can鈥檛 even get pizza delivered to our house from any website other than Dominos.com, which is just sad. So when Charmaine鈥檚 little sister, Lisa, wanted to go to a local restaurant, because it was so good, I was more than a little skeptical. When Charmaine confirmed that she had been there previously, and that it really was quite good, I figured I should give it a shot. ...
I moved from the Seattle area to Utah County about four years ago. One of the hardest parts of that move was the extreme lack of good food in Utah. I grew up in Utah and always figured we had good food here, but just in the expensive restaurants. I was wrong. There is no substitute for seafood only a few hours old, and it will never be possible to have that kind of freshness in Utah. One coping method I鈥檝e found is to go on vacations, with the goal of eating great food being high on the list of reasons for choosing a location. ...