Trip to Canada...cleaning the airport?

I recently returned from a three-week trip to Canada. It was to spend some time with a friend from my mission, and to see his stomping grounds. I have A LOT of food places to blog about, but I will start with one of the more odd experiences I have had this summer. The first Friday I was in Canada I was volunteered to help my friend's dad clean the carpets at the Calgary airport. It was an interesting experience and another random thing to add to the "completed" side of my bucket list. 

Here is my badge...

and a picture of me with the machine I pushed for 6 hours around as we cleaned 8 air bridges.

It was a fun experience and another item to add to the randomness list of my life.

Randomness of Life

For those who don't know I am 1) a social media junkie, 2) a couchsurfing supporter, and 3) enjoy spontaneous randomness. That being said I was able to satisfy all three of these thing this past weekend.  I was on Facebook and noticed a news article about two cancer survivors who are driving around America shooting a documentary about the fact that there is life after cancer. 

You can read that article Here

After I read the article I immediately wrote on their Facebook page to offer my support, and before I knew it was hosting them at my house for Friday and Saturday. They interviewed my for about an hour and a half for their documentary and I took them hiking and showed them around the beautiful state that is Utah. It was a great opportunity and I am glad I was able to meet both Evan and Eli. 

Now for the older guy in the middle of the photo. He was a freelance photographer who took pictures of all three of us throughout the interview and as we "hung out" to run a story of their traveling for the Chicago Tribune. Overall it was a fun experience. 

The highlight of the trip was watching the Opening Ceremony for the London Olympics. It was fun to share that experience with them and a few other friends. The highlight being when Sir Paul McCartney had everyone singing Hey Jude. The entire house was singing and sharing the moment together. 

It is truly an Olympic ceremony that I will always remember!

Trying to be more healthy...We will see how long it lasts

I am trying to be more healthy...I know all my traveling and eating might seem like I am doing the complete opposite, but since my birthday (June 23)...I have not consumed any soda. It is my first step of cutting out sugar and other unhealthy stuff that I eat (Apparently cancer loves sugar...so that means I should consume less). Once again, I am at the beginning of this process so all the unhealthy food I have eaten during my travels will still be blogged about.

However, I also am trying to "Go Green." You all know about this movement of using more organic/natural products..reducing one's own carbon footprint. This being said I decided to try this new toothpaste called Revitin.

I have used it only once so far, but I liked that it was not an overpowering of minty flavor like most toothpastes. It is a nice citrus flavor (It reminds me of some citrus flavored chewing gum). Anywho, it is an all natural toothpaste. 

If any of you have ideas of awesome "Go Green" products that I should introduce into my life...let me know buy commenting or emailing me. I am always open to suggestions. 

I will also be posting about my recent three-week trip to Canada. I am just spending today doing laundry, catching up on work and life, and letting my body reboot.

Thanks for reading...

Boy Scouts and Whataburger

On the last day of the baseball trip we went back to Good 2 go Taco, because it was that amazing. 

Then we I let my father indulge in his guilty pleasure...Boy Scouts! We went to the National Scouting Museum. It was actually a very impressive museum. It was very well done and looks like a lot of money went into the building of it. It was cool to learn a little bit of the history of boys scouts, and now when my dad goes to his next scouting meeting we will be the "cool" guy.






Then we stopped by our last meal before heading to the airport. We stopped at WHATABURGER. This is just a chain fast-food joint, but since we were there we needed to try it.  We split a cheeseburger, patty melt, onion rings, and french fries.

It was a run of the mill fast-food burger. The rating will be in contents of fast-food items and not food as a whole.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Bald Heads

It was a nothing special, but not disgusting fast-food hamburger.

That is all for the baseball trip to Texas. The next several blog post will be about my three week trip to Calgary, Alberta CANADA!

JFK and hamburgers

In Dallas we ate lunch at this Chop House Burger joint in Arlington Texas. I found it on the Diners, Drive-ins, and dives list. (this is one of the first places I look when researching for good places to eat)

This place was located in a kinda run down strip mall. You would never think to stop there without the help of DDD. 

  I ordered their signature Chop House Burger. Char grilled ground beef and slow roasted brisket mixed , house made steak sauce, apple wood bacon and smoked cheddar cheese on a butter toasted bun. It was a decent burger, not my favorite or life changing, but it is a step up of any fast food restaurant. It was a good variation from the normal hamburger because of the brisket that is mixed in with it.
However, the onion rings were pretty awesome! They did not un-seed my favorite onion rings of all time, but it defiantly found a place in the top 5.


Rating: Hamburger  3.5 out of 5 bald heads......Onion rings get a 4.7 bald heads out of 5

During our time in Dallas we also visited the Book Depository....the building where Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK. Since I am a history junky (this was my major before I changed to communication, and so I just got a minor in history instead). It was interesting to take the self-guided tour with headphones and learned a lot about this crazy event in our nation's history. It was fun and I am glad I can cross that of my bucket list.

It is out of the window all the way to the right and second from top that the shot were fired that killed JFK riding down the street in the forefront.

A visit to Mecca

During the trip to Dallas we made a pitstop to the new Dallas Cowboys football stadium. This stadium is considered by many to be the Mecca of football. Here are some pictures from the enormous stadium.

This stadium can seat 80,000 and its total capacity is 110,000. This stadium sells  all 80,000 seats every game. The largest crowd ever was the 2010 NBA All-Star game that was played at the stadium. The crowd was announced at 108,713.

Here is a picture of the gigantic video screen. The screen is 159 feet by 71 feet for 11,200 sq. feet. Below you can see that the dotted line square around the Jersey number is the size od a movie screen, hopefully that helps you comprehend that massiveness of this screen. I am not a gamer, but I would love to play video games on this screen.

As you can see in this picture there are no column in the entire stadium. That way no one has their view obstructed. The stadium is held up by two 300 feet arches that go deep into the ground to supply the needed support to keep the structure standing.

Here is an aerial view.  The raised square in the middle can be opened along with the two glass sides behind each end zone to provide the feeling of being outside and allow for a breeze to move through the stadium. 

The stadium was super awesome. We got to take the tour that consisted of seeing the locker rooms for the players and cheerleaders. Jerry Jones' personal suite (He is the owner of the Cowboys). We also got to go run around on the field after the tour. It was an awesome experience.

Final Fact: It cost 1.3 billion dollars to build

Good 2 Go Taco

As some of your may already know I am a Food Network Junky....I got this next restaurant recommendation from Adam Gertler via the show Best Thing I Ever Ate--the episode is entitled "Hidden Treasures." (In case you would like to YouTube it and watch the segment. 

The restaurant is called Good 2 Go Taco, and its humble beginnings began in a gas station, Unfortunately it has moved locations to a new modern, hipster (no in a bad way), and bigger location to allow for a better experience for the customers. 

I orders two tacos: The Honey Bear and Paris TX

The Honey Bear

This taco starts with a flour tortilla topped with chile-honey bacon, scrambled egg, spinach, and goat cheese. This taco was very good and I am a sucker for goat cheese, but for me the bacon had too much honey on it; however, my father LOVED it and didn't think so...once again that food is like art and everyone has a different preferences and interpretations.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Bald Heads

I would have given it another half to full star if it had been more bacon taste than honey. 

Taco #2

Paris TX 

(This is the taco that was on the best thing I ever ate)

This taco is built on the same awesome flour tortilla as the previous, then grilled flank steak, egg, spinach, hash potatoes, and hollandaise. 

Rating 5 out of 5 Bald Heads

This taco was AWESOME! I crave it at least 3 mornings a week. I would contemplate moving to Dallas so that I could eat this taco everyday.

I am currently in Calgary, Canada and would love recommendations for place here, and I will be in Rhode Island and Maryland in August. Past your suggestions my way!

Annual Baseball Trip with Dad--Part Two: Dallas

After spending two days in the Houston Area my father and I drove three hours north to Dallas, Texas to concluse our baseball trip. We went to the Rangers Baseball Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Arlington is a city just outside of Dallas.

Here is a few pictures. 

The Outside

The inside

The view from outside was very impressive; however, both me and my father were disappointed with the architecture beauty on the inside. We were not impressed with the look or the food at this stadium.

However, Rangers Stadium did have the most expensive item I have seen at a ballpark so far. It is the called the Champion Dog and costs $26.

You would be surprised by how many of them they sell each ball game. You see people all over the ballpark carrying them and eating them.

A visit to Galveston Island

Galveston Island is about an hour or so drive Southeast from the City of Houston, TX. It was interesting to go see the "beach" at the Gulf of Mexico. I stuck my feet in the water and it felt like a jacuzzi. It was crazy how warm the water was.

We made a pitstop for lunch at the restaurant shrimp & stuff

I order this fish and chips and it was really good!

The fish was cooked wonderfully. the fish was moist and tender, and breading was crisp, flavorful, and not overly oily. 

I give the fish a 4 out of 5 bald heads. 

(I am a hard critic here because I grew up in San Diego where I have had many a delicious fish and chips).

I give the chips a 1.5 out of 5 bald heads.

The chips were nothing special. A step above the frozen one you can buy at the grocery store.

After lunch we went to and watched a short film about the great hurricane that destroyed Galveston in 1900.

Here are some pictures of the aftermath:

It was cited that it was the worse natural disaster in American history. You can read more about it READ ME PLEASE!

Afterward we drove to the Houston Space Center and took an awesome tour; followed by another baseball game. 

Annual Baseball Trip with Dad--Part One: Houston

Every summer my father and I go on a baseball trip. I look forward to it every year, and it is always a great time and we are slowly reaching our goal to watch a baseball game in every stadium. This summer we went to Houston and Dallas to watch baseball and eat delicious food. We grade every stadium but the architecture, design, and by the food offered at the stadium.

Houston was our first stop. We  planned it that for the two games in Houston, the Astros would be playing the Padres. Both my father and I were pleasantly surprised by Minute Maid Park in Houston. Here are a few pictures of the stadium.

The outside is very beautiful looking and it has a roof closed during the hot, humid midwest summer. They can close the roof and pump the A/C during the game.











Here is a picture looking out to right field. This was our view for the first game, and then we sat in the first row in right field for the second game. It was fabulous and as usual my father likes to talk with everyone around us. During the second game he did some friendly trash talking with the lesbian couple behind us; however, we never really went through the proper introductions, and the couple called him Padre throughout the course of the game.

Now on to the food at the ballpark. My father good BBQ Brisket Nachos, and they were DELICIOUS! They were the best nachos that both my father and I have had at a baseball stadium. It had corn, salsa, sour cream, guacamole, and of course cheese. It was fantastic.

I got gourmet sliders. They were pretty solid for a hamburger. I have had better, but I have also had worse. 

Houston we have a problem and I that is all for this post.

Pictures of Fiji

For those who don't know....I worked for about three weeks in Fiji during the month of June. It was terrifically awesome! Meet some amazing people, had a life changing time, worked hard, and got more mosquito/spider bites than I had gotten in my entire life up to that point.

Anywho, here are some pictures.....

this is a picture of the resort that we stayed at for the first three days on the island of Waya Leilei. This island is about a 1 and half hour boat ride from Latoka (a city on the main island)

the huts that we slept in

on the morning of the last day we hiked to the top of this rock and had an amazing 360 view of the beautifully blue Pacific Ocean.

Our bus got stuck in the village that we were building toilets

here is a group working on a toilet. The Fijian in the forefront with the blue shirt is named Billy. He was a preacher at the local methodist church.

here is a tie that a good friend from Italy gave me. I wanted to give her a thank you shout out!