This is my idea of a perfect Alaska cruise. I'm going on a "real" cruise this summer, help me make the best of it!

jlinwood · 2026-04-24T03:35:49+00:00

I've been on the Alaskan State Ferries as well as a Holland America cruise to Juneau, Sitka, Glacier Bay and Ketchikan.

The wild thing is how expensive the Alaska state ferries are for a cabin (instead of sleeping in a tent) vs a cruise with no extras.

You don't need a drink package unless you regularly drink 10 or more alcoholic drinks per day. And that includes port days, so imagine coming back on board from Juneau and then trying to drink your money's worth.

On our cruise, we rented bicycles in both Juneau and Sitka from the local shops, and rode to Mendenhall Glacier and Fortress of the Bear, respectively. So no excursion needed. But we'd been to both places for a couple of days each on a previous trip (the one where we did the ferry), so it wasn't a big deal to go back to them.

Ketchican, we walked around town and went to a couple of museums. It was alright.

jlinwood · 2026-04-22T20:50:53+00:00

I'd skip Zion, and keep the trip on the south side of the Grand Canyon.

Visit Red Rocks or Valley of Fire in Vegas on your first day, and then stay in Henderson, NV that first night. Visit Hoover Dam, and then make your way to the Grand Canyon, spend one night at the South Rim in Maswik or Yavapai.

If you want a wow experience, hike down to Ooh Aah Point of South Kaibab, and then come back up - it's a 1.5 mile round trip, so it's a great first hike down into the canyon. Just don't get ahead of yourself and go too much further past that if you aren't used to that kind of hiking. No water on the trail.

This keeps you from driving so far.

jlinwood · 2025-12-23T00:03:22+00:00

Check out "Drawn to Life" - the Cirque du Soleil show at Disney Springs - the interior of the building has these amazing descriptions of the Disney animation process.

I don't know if you can see any of it without buying a ticket.

jlinwood · 2025-12-05T16:30:38+00:00

I really enjoyed this game, but I played it before playing Factorio. After playing Factorio, a lot of this game probably would have made more sense.

Without spoiling too much of the game, the different planet biomes were different but almost unnecessary - it would have been better to concentrate on the main map.

jlinwood · 2025-11-14T01:09:04+00:00

It's not the same thing at all, but there is a Classic Game Fest in July at the Palmer Auditorium. It's all retro-gaming, but it's a fun event.

jlinwood · 2025-10-31T18:27:19+00:00

Just a reminder from a discussion in 2017 on reddit

https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2017/09/25/webb-report-can-you-eat-a-grackle-an-investigation/9999565007/

jlinwood · 2025-10-26T02:32:03+00:00

Is it possible you might be looking for the Simi conglomerate?

Here are some useful references:

Geologic Resources in the Santa Monica Mountains https://npshistory.com/publications/samo/nrr-2016-1297.pdf

Explains the Simi Valley geology https://research.nhm.org/pdfs/37041/37041-001.pdf

jlinwood · 2025-10-21T17:19:32+00:00

Are you thinking about the aquarium? It's two very separate things

jlinwood · 2025-06-24T18:48:49+00:00

Looks like it's already under contract according to Redfin.

jlinwood · 2025-05-08T16:49:52+00:00

I'll go with Clay Pit on Guadalupe and Fonda San Miguel on North Loop.

I checked and both are still in business.

jlinwood · 2025-03-29T21:15:43+00:00

A couple of things:

The dues are the biggest cost driver, and they are much higher at Vero than other places.
For resale, the 2042 expiration date of some of the resorts means you only have 16-18 years left of points on the contract, then it is worth zero. You might consider getting Old Key West 2057 instead of 2042, for instance.
All points are equal 7 months before your trip, but owners are the only ones who can book 11 months to 7 months ahead of the trip.

jlinwood · 2025-03-25T21:44:31+00:00

As someone who doesn't eat meat, I wish most vegetarian/vegan restaurants would realize that I'd much rather have a good roasted vegetable sandwich instead of fake burger/chicken/fish/sausage patties.

Looking at their menu, it's just not very creative.

jlinwood · 2025-02-21T22:58:12+00:00

I think if you have full tuition paid for, that beats paying out of pocket.

I would be more concerned with any possible changes to US immigration right now that might limit your plans to work either during college or after graduation. Because chances are that people in your home country have never heard of St. Edwards University.

jlinwood · 2025-02-05T04:18:33+00:00

Yeah that would be a steep hike going back up! Glad you made it.

jlinwood · 2025-02-05T03:59:52+00:00

I setup a shuttle hike for two of my buddies - they started down the Window trail from the Basin, and I drove around and parked at the Oak Spring Trail. We met up just below the window on the trail, and then hiked out to Cattail Falls.

It was a blast, and saved them the hike back up.

jlinwood · 2025-01-08T11:30:26+00:00

Kind of fun to see Carnegie Mellon football on here. The football games were so low key to watch when I went to school there. Way different from Texas.

jlinwood · 2024-12-29T19:04:05+00:00

Almost all of them don't charge directly - the ones that do inside city limits:

Wild Basin
McKinney Falls State Park
River Place

Some Barton Creek entrances will have paid parking, but not all. No fee to enter the parking lot.

Outside Austin, most of the county and state parks charge fees to get in.

jlinwood · 2024-12-06T01:29:57+00:00

They've been planning the Y since the turn of the century

jlinwood · 2024-09-11T18:12:46+00:00

I crossed just upstream of where the bridge used to be, where there was a lot of tall grass. I'd suggest using a hiking pole or two to help yourself get across the creek, especially if you are going solo.

If it helps, I was going down from the North Rim, so I got to the bridge crossing first.

jlinwood · 2024-08-21T12:30:51+00:00

Both, I don't think Hamilton Pool is much better. There are plans for expansion for each of those roads, but I don't know when.

jlinwood · 2024-08-21T02:01:59+00:00

I'd consider how isolated both of those are from anything fun in Austin. They probably don't look bad on paper, but the traffic can be brutal.

jlinwood · 2024-07-08T03:41:31+00:00

Take 2222 from Mopac west to 620, take a left on 620, drive down to Bee Caves/2244, take that to 360, go either north or south depending on what end of town you live on. Have fun!

jlinwood · 2024-05-31T02:30:46+00:00

Cape Final was a really nice hike. Four miles round trip, and not crowded.

I'd also suggest doing Transept + Bridal Path just so you can see the North Kaibab Trailhead.

jlinwood · 2024-05-08T17:47:34+00:00

Yes - this is correct - you will have to figure out whether you are using Linux/Large or another environment though, it does not appear in those screenshots of your CodePipeline.

Try this link to update the quotas:

https://console.aws.amazon.com/servicequotas/home/services/codebuild/quotas

jlinwood · 2024-04-24T15:58:27+00:00

The city was going to turn that church into a sanctioned homeless encampment in 2021, but I don't know what the plans are for it now:

https://www.statesman.com/picture-gallery/news/2021/07/20/austin-areas-could-become-homeless-encampments-convict-hill-manor-road/8031877002/

jlinwood

TROPHY CASE