Middle of the month,I took off to Costa Rica as a reward to myself for almost completing my pilots license and as a Christmas gift to myself. It’s been quite a year and I needed the trip. I had planned to go to Costa Rica last March, however I quit my job around the time I would have been going and money and time were tight. This time around I was suppressed to go with my roommate, but work got in the way for him, so I went solo. Read the rest of this entry

This Saturday I’m departing off to go adventuring in Costa Rica! Read the rest of this entry

During the month of April, while I was between jobs, I took a trip to Vegas and a trip to Denver/Boulder, Colorado.  Both of these trips were a blast and I’m so glad I was able to take the time to complete them.

Vegas!

My trip to Vegas was just a few days from the 10th-13th as I needed to get back to host a couple parties that weekend. I met up with one of my best friends, Brant and we stayed in a two-bed suite in the Hard Rock Hotel.  Brant, like myself, has been to Vegas a number of times before so we kept this trip pretty low key.  Avoided the clubs, wondering around the strip and expensive shows and instead just played the table games, laid on “the beach” and watched some baseball.

I always enjoy gambling with Brant cause he is great to learn from when it comes to the games. He also usually gambles with more money than I do so his strategy tends to be different and enjoyable to watch too. This trip was relaxing and fun. I did get to enjoy one show while I was there called “X Burlesque.”  The show was a modern day show that has been on the strip since last year.  It was quite a good time.  Full of laughter and lots of girls 🙂

I also Ended up trying a couple good restaurants while I was there. Check them out on the artofforking.com.

The trip was also profitable as I walked away winning a few hundred bucks playing blackjack and betting on some baseball. Always great to leave Vegas a winner.

Denver and Boulder, Colorado

My trip to Colorado has been most excellent. I left on the 24th and am in the Seattle airport writing this entry now heading back to Portland on the morning of the 29th. This trip was just me traveling, but I met up with a number of friends along the way and made new ones while exploring the area. The main reason for going to Colorado in the first place was to see some couch surfers I hosted at the end of the year. A couple Turkish girls who are living in Denver.

The timing of the trip was perfect as Hande was leaving on the 27th back to Turkey.  I was able to hang out with her a few times before her departure. She will truly be missed. The other reason to go was that  I’d never been to Colorado and I like to explore new places. Most of my time was spent in Denver as this was where the Turkish girls lived and where I was being hosted by an awesome couch surfing host, Scott.  Scott is a software developer like myself and works from home or wherever he has his computer on the project Triple Jack Poker.  Being able to work remotely wherever I am is definitely something I want to try doing one of these days with my time.

Scott and the girls gave me a great overview of Denver and Boulder.  We went to a number of restaurants and fantastic locations while I was in the cities. I was able to see and enjoy the following:

• Dinner with a great view of the city skyline
• The Red Rocks Amphitheater
• Biking around Denver on the amazing bike paths they have
• Enjoying a pint in downtown Denver while watching some baseball
• Dinner with a bunch of people including my friend Lenay, creator of Whim And Fancy.
• Coors Brewery Tour in Golden
• Poker, craps, blackjack and roulette winning $150 in a casino in Black Hawk
• Enjoying the awesome atmosphere of a Denver speak easy called Green Russell
• Making use of the Denver/Boulder transit system by taking the buses and light rail from Denver to Boulder
• Meeting up and drinking most of the day with my friend Anthony and his roommate Jerrad
• Hanging out around the Pearl Mall area of Boulder until late in the night
• Hiking up Mt. Sanitas which is part of the Rocky Mountains
• Going to a Rockies baseball game – though they lost 🙁
• Hanging out with some amazing people while I was there adventuring around Colorado

The trip was fantastic and I couldn’t have asked for more amazing people to make my trip awesome.  I didn’t get to see some people while I was there: my friend Cameron, and my cousins Jeremy and Chad, but I’ll see you all again later down the road.

Thanks to Hande, Duysal, Scott, Julia, Anthony, Jerrad, and everyone else I had the pleasure of spending my time with and meeting up with while I was in town.  You guys made my trip soooooooooo amazing.

Until my next adventure – coming up – Sasquatch at the Gorge Amphitheater in Washington coming Memorial Day Weekend.
Keep up the adventures! – Jason

I love traveling – getting away to far places seeing what the world holds.  This last week I had another chance to get out in the world this year and went down to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.  What a trip!  Full of excitement and fun being with some of my favorite people.  There wasn’t a lot I would have changed about this trip, but I did learn a few things.

Lessons Learned From Traveling
 

I’ve got on a few trips this year, and I’ve found that when you travel and you stay at a resort, it is much better to go with someone to be romantic with than with a bud.  Not that I didn’t have a blast with my friend Lewis, it was just that we would have had a much better time staying at a hostle with him than at a resort.  These are meant for couples or families.  Quite easy to tell this by the people we saw.

When I do travel with a group, much easier to have everyone be single or all in relationships than be a single with a couple.  Not that you can’t have fun together, just means that they’re going to want to have their alone time.  Also, when you are together at a beautiful place like Puerto Vallarta, it gets you really thinking about how single you really are.  🙂

Another thing about traveling with one or more friends – be sure you know up front where you stand.  This mainly comes into play when a guy is traveling with a lady.  Without knowing where things stand – easy to assume one way and have it be the other.  This isn’t related to this trip, but good to state.

Puerto Vallarta Adventures
 

I’m not listing everything I did in Mexico and I’m also not going into a ton of detail because there is too much to say.  I will say however that Puerto Vallarta was beautiful and a place I’ll definitely go back to, but not for a while.  I’ve got many more places to go to first.  Here are a number of things that I partook in while traveling around:

• Walked on the beach
• Swam in the ocean
• Swam in the resort pool
• Ate lots of food
• Drank lots of booze
• Haggled with the locals
• Smoked Cuban cigars
• Went to clubs
• Explored the city
• Enjoyed the board walk
• Went boating
• Snorkeling
• Zip lining
• Rappelling
• Rode a mule
• And much more!

I’d be happy to share more of my adventures in more detail if you’d like.  Just message me or meet up with me in person!

Below are pictures from my trip!

I got home Monday night (October 10th) from a nice 14 hours of flying back from Europe (actually is was cramped at tiring, but part of traveling) where I spent two weeks traveling with a good friend from high school, Janel, and had an amazing adventure.

Rather than splitting up my trip into three parts; one for Munich, one for Paris, and one for South Ireland, or writing a bunch of daily posts on how it all went, I’ve decided to just give a summary of my trip and allow for people to ask questions.  The pictures included in the post will be more useful than anything else.  Hopefully you can find the info if not enjoyable, perhaps useful!

Now to start talking about my trip… Read the rest of this entry