Mokka mit Schlag » Travel

2010 was the first complete calendar year in which I was both a Zipcar member and in New York the entire year. How’d it work out?

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Apparently the airport wireless does not reach into the plane though. Shouldn’t have bothered to board early.

American Airlines is now selling cheap (relatively) upgrades to first class at checkin at the airport. I wonder if I can get one online in advance? On a short hop–e.g. New Orleans to Dallas–it can actually be cheaper to by the upgrade ($35) than to check two bags ($50).

Is there a tethering application for the Android yet for those airports that don’t have free wireless? That would also come in handy when my parents’ wireless network flaked out over the holidays. If there isn’t, maybe I should write one.
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Just noticed that Louis Armstrong (a.k.a. Moisant) has free wireless now. Hardly seems worth a blog post. Maybe I should be using Twitter.

Better yet, I should figure out a way to feed Twitter into this site.
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I flew American Airlines for the first time in a few years yesterday. It was cramped, uncomfortable, and crowded. I could tell they’ve stuffed in extra rows of seats since the last time I flew them on anything but a shuttle. The snacks were bad, small, and expensive ($4 Cheese plate: One piece of cheese, four crackers). Beth liked the movie (Horton Hears a Who) but they charged $2 for headsets.
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Last night Beth and I had dinner at what Zagats rates as the single best restaurant in Orange County. I won’t name names, because they were nice enough, and I don’t want to slam them. The food was good. The service was good. The wine list was excellent, though unfortunately neither of us was drinking. The seating was wonderfully spacious and private, far better than anything you’ll find in New York, where any restaurant worth eating at has crammed the seats together closer than RyanAir. But at the end of the meal our general reaction was, “That’s the best restaurant in the county?”

The meal was OK, but hardly memorable. It certainly didn’t rise to the level of world class restaurants like The Gotham in New York, Commander’s Palace in New Orleans (at least pre-Katrina; I haven’t eaten there lately and I’ve heard it may have gone downhill), or ‘t Fornuis in Antwerp. Food-wise I don’t think it matched the much less pretentious local Chaparosa Grill. Only one dish, the tuna tartare appetizer, really impressed us; and that was offset by a salad that just didn’t work. The remainder of the meal was about average for a nouvelle cuisine restaurant in this price range.

I suppose that’s only to be expected. When in New York, I wouldn’t expect to find the best restaurants in Westchester County or Long Island. Then again, for years one of the best restaurants in New Orleans was on the West Bank. Maybe we’ll have to try eating in L.A. next time. But still, you’d think there’d be room for one world class restaurant somewhere in the O.C.
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Shoreline Park, 2008-06-24, 6:12 A.M.