The Adventures of Lorie and Brian Groth

Beijing, China

Weather: http://www.weather.com/activities/travel/businesstraveler/weather/tenday.html?locid=CHXX0008&from=36hr_fcst10DayLink_business

Lonely Planet Info: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/destinations/asia/china/beijing/

Wikipedia Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing

Tokyo, Japan

Dinner Saturday Night: Ninja –  http://gojapan.about.com/cs/tokyodining/p/restokakaninja.htm.

Weather: http://www.weather.com/activities/travel/businesstraveler/weather/tenday.html?locid=JAXX0085&from=36hr_fcst10DayLink_business

Lonely Planet Info: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/destinations/asia/japan/tokyo

Wikipedia Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo

Taipei, Taiwan

Weather: http://www.weather.com/activities/travel/businesstraveler/weather/tenday.html?locid=TWXX0021&from=36hr_fcst10DayLink_business

Lonely Planet Info: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/destinations/asia/taiwan/taipei

Wikipedia Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taipei  

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Surfing on Sand Dunes: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/destinations/middle-east/united-arab-emirates/dubai?v=images&a=5

Desert Safari, and then some: http://www.arabian-adventures.com/LeisureTravelVisitors/ToursSafaris/Dubai/Safaris/Index.asp

Weather: http://www.weather.com/activities/travel/businesstraveler/weather/tenday.html?locid=AEXX0004&from=36hr_fcst10DayLink_business

Lonely Planet Info: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/destinations/middle-east/united-arab-emirates/dubai

Wikipedia Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubai

Frankfurt, Germany and maybe Austria and Venice, Italy

Frankfurt Lonely Planet Info: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/destinations/europe/germany/frankfurt

Frankfurt Wikipedia Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt

Frankfurt Weather: http://www.weather.com/activities/travel/businesstraveler/weather/tenday.html?locid=GMXX0185&from=36hr_fcst10DayLink_business

Austria Lonely Planet Info:  http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/destinations/europe/austria

Austria Wikipedia Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austria

Austria (Vienna) Weather: http://www.weather.com/activities/travel/businesstraveler/weather/tenday.html?locid=AUXX0025&from=36hr_fcst10DayLink_business

Venice Lonely Planet Info: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/destinations/europe/italy/venice

Venice Wikipedia Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venice

Venice Weather: http://www.weather.com/activities/travel/businesstraveler/weather/tenday.html?locid=ITXX0085&from=36hr_fcst10DayLink_business

We did a lot of relaxing, but also walked around Lahina, the beaches near Black Rock, swam, and snorkled too. We were there for Lori & Alan Shen’s wedding, so we also hung out with a few different couples too: eating and drinking and eating some more. We rented a biodiesel VW Golf with some friends, and other friends had a convertable (Pontiac I think), which wsa nice to cruise around in, but the top of my head would get pretty hot. We tried to do the zip lines up in the mountains, but it took a lot longer to get there than we thought, so we missed out – have to try next time.

For our 5th anniversary, we got to experience a Boeing 777 flight simulator – a 777-200 to be specific. We had Captain Ray Roberts as our instructor, who used to land on aircraft carriers among many other things, which we thankfully didn’t have to (or maybe get to) try. But, here is what we did get to do:

1. Taxi & Takeoff: Lorie backed up from the gate and taxied around Portland, Oregon’s airport (KPDX), making us all a bit nauseous as she tried to follow the yellow line on the “ground”. Everything you see out the front window of the simulator is really a bunch of computer screens connected together, but after a while, you sort of forget that it’s all fake, even though the graphics aren’t that great. During this time, we got to program the flight plan using the different radio towers on our path, so we programmed in one for Battleground and another for Olympia. Of course, we didn’t end up following our flight plan, but at least we had one.
2. Flight: Soon enough, Lorie took off aiming right at Mt. Hood in the distance. It was a nice takeoff and we set our headings towards Seattle’s airport (KSEA, aka, Sea-Tac). Part way through this flight, I asked if we can jump ahead in time, so Captain Ray told me what buttons to hit and we moved at double speed (a computer trick, just like changing the weather) for a few minutes until we were getting close to Seattle. Unfortunatly, looking out the window at this time didn’t look like we were flying twice as fast, it’s just that Seattle appeared sooner than it would have. We did see the mountains though: Hood, St. Helens, Rainier, and I think I saw Adams in the distance once too. We also saw where our houseboat would be – there wasn’t enough detail for houses, but Lake Union and the Highway 99 bridge were there. The Space Needle looked a little funny.
3. Landing: Lorie’s approach to Sea-Tac was a little wobbly, but we did a nice touch-and-go. That means we landed, but as soon as our wheels hit, we went back up. We swung around and Lorie landed it at Boeing Field. During all of this, Captain Ray was teaching us about all of the controls, displays, and the computer systems. There are massive numbers of systems and subsystems and redundant backups of everything, and a few knobs and switches for all of them. And the 777 is the most modern and computerized of them all, which means that it’s probably the easiest to fly!
4. Emergencies: Then it was my turn. I took off from Boeing Field and after getting the hang of it, we simulated the left engine catching fire. No reason to simulate something minor! So we went through the process of putting out the fire, turning off the engine, and making sure everything else was OK. We did all of this while the auto-pilot was in control and we never really even noticed much change because the auto-pilot can compensate for just about anything. I then got to land back at Boeing Field with only the right engine, since the left one was obviously burnt to a crisp. I was pretty wobbly too, probably worse than Lorie, but I finally got it straightened out and made a great landing without any help from Captain Ray; other than flaps and who knows what buttons he was pressing during and after landing it.
5. Auto-Pilot: The captain then had Lorie press a few buttons on the simulator computer and we were instantly at 10000 feet flying above Seattle. We then got to see how the auto-pilot could compensate for a pilot not paying attention as we tried to force the plane to stall. So we made the plane almost stall, and watched as it tried to make sounds, shake the controls, flash some lights, and finally give up and self correct the problem. I don’t think it (the auto-pilot) called anyone for a replacement pilot, but I bet it could. There isn’t really just one auto-pilot (no inflatable guy that pops up or anything). There are different auto-things for different systems – not that we really figured them all out, but we sure had fun forcing some things to fail and seeing what would happen.  
6. Weather: Then with a few more clicks by Lorie at the simulator computer, we were instantly flying in the clouds, simulating bad weather. We then completely used the computer to enter the coordinates runway at the airport we were aiming for (KSEA) and a few other details that went over my head. Then, trusting the auto-pilot, we made a perfect landing. We couldn’t even see anything until we were almost touching down on the runway because of the clouds, so it was a good thing that the auto-pilot was in control. We’re pretty sure we’ve been passengers in a plane coming into Seattle in weather like that, so we’ve most likely had the auto-pilot land us before and just didn’t know about it.
7. Landing & Taxi: After the auto-pilot landing, I got to taxi to the gate. I’m as bad of a driver as Lorie on the ground, but I found it to be much more fun than Lorie. That’s probably because I don’t get motion sickness as easily as Lorie (no, she never got sick). I taxied over to gate N10 and parked it after some weaving around and a rather abrupt stop.

It was a great and very interesting experience, even if we did suffer from information overload since it was nonstop and fast paced learning for about two and a half hours. But, we got to sit in real pilot seats, use real controls (foot, steering, throttles, and a bunch of levers, switches, and buttons), read the different instrument displays, program the coordinates, practice take-offs, landings, flying, emergencies, and even turn on and off the fasten seatbelt sign. However, if you are ever a passenger when Lorie and I are flying, keep your seatbelts fastened tight and remember where those emergency exits are!

Photos are at: http://spaces.msn.com/members/grothadventures/PersonalSpace.aspx?_c01_photoalbum=showdefault&_c=photoalbum (it’s the “777 Flight Simulator” photo album)

Big list of places to try (some not too exciting): MSNBC – 40 Best bargain vacations

The entire MSN Spaces is in Spanish right now, since I am in Costa Rica typing on a Windows XP box that is running in Spanish (ES). So what have we done here so far?

Body surf, boogie board, snorkle, sail, swim, see monkeys, birds, and crocodiles, saw a leatherback turtle at about 1am while she laid eggs, zip lines through the jungle (twice) and took a tram ride near the Arenal volcano.

Click on Photos to see some of the highlights.  

I just added some of the photos from our Paris trip, so visit http://spaces.msn.com/members/grothadventures/ to see them.

We are trying to figure out where to keep our online photo album: here in MSN Spaces, or in our MSN Group at http://groups.msn.com/BrianandLorieGroth.   

Brian’s trip to a wine cellar and some great French wine and food is at: http://blogs.msdn.com/bgroth/archive/2004/12/02/273655.aspx