Otis "NOT thinking - just blabbing" M.'s Profile

If you're reading this, take a look at the reviews for Calico Basin Red Spring. That's what everybody is talking about. Calico Basin is the broader area which includes several residential areas that are not open for recreational use. If you want to park, picnic, go for a hike you're looking for Calico Basin Red Spring.

Four stars for the value and the quality of ingredients, but only three stars for the flavor... then my leftovers tasted better than when they were served so I'm able to bump it up to 4 stars net.

2 of us had the "3 items for $18.88" ($3 more after 5 pm) which comes with soup and rice. We ate our fill and there was enough for another hungry diner easily (which later on was me having the leftovers the next day). We had tofu clay pot, fried squid with peppers and braised mustard greens. All were fresh but just very light on the seasoning side. The soup, tofu and fungus in some chicken stock, was really bland. Even the jalapenos with the squid weren't spicy.

We had wanted a Chinese lunch special but didn't see one on the menu, hence our choices. But then saw a "$7.95 lunch special" on the wall so should have pressed the point. In fact there are also some very appealing big color pictures of items on the wall and I will look at them more closely on my next visit.

Bottom line, I like T&T and just wish they would use more seasoning. But I plan to return and explore the menu further.

Absolutely as good as it gets. There is so much to see and do at the Adirondack Museum that you need to get there early and allow a full day. Then pick and choose like your first trip through the buffet line--get tastes of all the attractions, then go back and gorge on one the ones that interest you.

Because I make rustic furniture, I never get tired of the restored and furnished "Great Camp" on the top of the hill. (And if that's your thing, don't miss the rustic furniture fair in September.) Second favorite is probably the great hall that has everything from a fully restored 19th century blacksmith shop to an entire train. The main building has changing exhibits about the history, nature or art of the Adirondacks. There is an old schoolhouse off to the side with 19th century kids activities. Logging! Guide Boats! A fire tower to climb! And I'm just scratching the surface...

The Adirondack Museum is only open from black-fly season to leaf-peeping time, except for occasional "cabin fever" events during the winter. It's in a beautiful location overlooking the lake dotted with islands, and you should plan a break to have a snack in the cafe while you gaze out at the view.

Definitely go online and check the activity calendar as you plan your trip. There are special events throughout the summer, mostly kid-oriented. And definitely consider a family membership if you are anywhere within driving distance... you will make it up with extra discounts on the special member days in the gift shop and get your Christmas shopping done in one fell swoop.

I want to love the Wild Center, but I can't. The much-hyped water exhibits are like being inside a Disney cartoon. There is too much cuteness and not enough real discovery to get kids involved with nature.

The ironic thing is, of course, that nature is all around you. Go on one of the interpretative nature walks... excellent. See if you can get somebody to explain the living roof to you. Then go pick up your kids at the gift shop where they have purchased stuffed animals you could buy anywhere and try to have an educational discussion on the long drive home.

When we first moved to the area and discovered there was a tech museum in downtown Schenectady, we bought a family membership immediately. It came with a ticket to the planetarium so we hustled off to see the show. This was a couple years back, but I recall being unimpressed. The narrative was something about identify the constellations and man's relationship with the stars over the ages, not the educational discovery you get with a good planetarium show. The room itself was a bit shabby and you could see the seams in the ceiling.

Outside, we noticed this was really the General Electric Museum. All the displays are related to technology developed at GE or otherwise electricity-focused. Not enough are interactive and many of the interactive ones weren't working. We didn't go back and allowed the goodie from our expensive family membership to lapse.

I've returned a few times over the years with youth groups and have been disappointed each time. The exhibits don't change very much at all. They have various special attractions from time to time that seem tacked-on; right now there's a big model train in the lobby. The last time we went I took two boys down for an amateur radio day when were we supposed to be able to talk to other kids around the world. It turned out to be open house at the ham radio room downstairs and we waited in line to talk to an old fart in Albany pretending to be a kid.

I may sound like a sourpuss--museums are a good thing, right? But they charge a good buck for admission and you don't get your educational or entertainment dollar's worth. GE should be supporting this place hugely; right now it's a negative on their reputation instead of a plus.

Maybe your experience will be different. There's a low-risk way to check it out: right now admission is free from 11 to noon on Sundays. (Call before you go to be sure this offer is still in effect.) If you like what you see, you can buy your own family membership.

I almost passed on Weera, ironically, because it was offering a Yelp Deal. I assumed any business promoting itself so enthusiastically can't be that great. But then I drove past and saw that it serves Issan food and I though hmm, got to check it out.

As a lone diner I had just two dishes, the Issan green papaya salad (on the Issan menu, not to be confused with the "regular" papaya salad; the difference is extra fish sauce and an additional level of heat) and the Ped Nom Tak (duck.)  I asked for 4 of 5 on the spiciness scale and the chile in the papaya had me acting like a rat in a lab experiment, shocking myself again and again because I was so desperate for another bite. It was also a great value at $6.95 and I finished every last sliver.

The duck was the opposite, thank god, unctuous fork size bits of breast in a mysterious brown gravy. There was mint and garlic and what looked like ground rice but must have been crack, it was that good. Again, this lone diner finished the whole thing. Both the salad and the duck had a stack of squares of cabbage leaf in the corner of the plate, I assumed to use as a serving implement, but I needed something to soak up the heat and sop up the duck gravy so I ordered the sticky rice, a nice accompaniment.

This is a simple but pleasantly decorated restaurant with tablecloths under glass like a hundred other mom-and-pop Asian places you have visited. The service was attentive and friendly (though they had some trouble with the Yelp coupon, so pay attention to the bill). I was lucky enough to talk to the owner afterward and told him how happy he had made me. He was interested that I was in town for CES and hoped to get some more show-goers down his way. Since this was the last night of this year's show, he will have to wait for another day. I thought about those folks waiting 2 hours for a table down the street at Lotus. Their loss.

UPDATE: Yelp contacted me asking me to specifically write about my experience with the Yelp deal. It was okay. I have the Yelp app on my Droid X and was able to access the deal there and show it to the server. She copied down the code number and asked me to mark the deal as "used" while she was watching which I did. Then the $20 discount initially did not show up on my tab and they had to rerun it which they did... simple miscommunication at the cash register. Bottom line, I think the Yelp deal worked fine and I'd happily use one again.

If you are in Vegas for a convention and you have a car, do yourself a favor: Put on your comfortable shoes, grab a sandwich and a bottle of water, and head east on Charleston. After about 10 miles you'll pass over I-215; another couple miles and you'll finally be out of the city. In maybe 3 more miles turn right onto Calico Basin. Wind your way up the hill and turn into the Red Spring parking lot in a mile or so.

This is a beautiful peaceful place to explore the desert nestled in the shadows of spectacular multicolored sandstone formations. There's a boardwalk semi-loop of about a half mile that takes you past aquifers and petroglyphs and there are also numerous trails for a quick scramble up a ridge or a more ambitious climb into the boulders.

A little more than two hours after leaving the strip you can be back again--your head cleared of last night's hangover, your lungs free of secondhand smoke, ready to resume the rat race.

After two days of reception food at CES, my body craved the restorative properties of a bowl of pho. I drove past Da Lat and had to double back--I assumed it was in Chinatown but it's much closer to the Strip, right past the budget casinos. That's good news if you should happen to be in a cab.

I asked for extra jalapenos as usual but didn't need them--the broth was plenty spicy and kicked my butt. Some greens and sliced scallions were floating in there, nice quality meat if a bit stingy. Only real complaint was, unusual for a pho place, not enough broth! But that's ok, I lived through it and will return next time I am in Vegas and need pho.

There is only one reason to stay in this place, which is that it is a five minute walk from the LVCC. It's a massive concrete bunker in the Soviet brutalist style that is designed to sap your spirits, and you will be further depressed by the torn-up neighborhood in which everything is obviously slated for demolition as soon as the local economy improves.

But come on in, it's actually not that bad. The rooms are simple but clean and have updated fixtures. The wireless works most of the time. (It will melt down around 8 am and 5 pm, the times people are checking their email before and after heading for CES or other show.) There's a waffle iron and coffee for breakfast. The net score, a-ok.

But we then apply an automatic deduction for the policy of charging for an in-room safe, whether you use it or not. You can only have the charge removed from your bill by protesting it when you check out. I am not going to wait in line in the morning to do that, but I am going to remove a star.

I wasn't aware Perreca's is closed on Sunday and I had two pizza-demanding boys in the car, so a visit to More Perreca's next door was in order.

The old-fashioned diner look of the place and a few of the dishes coming out of the small kitchen set my expectations high, but those expectations were soon to be dashed. What to order was a no-brainer: the eggplant parm "mega panini" served on a half round of Perreca's bread. But the sandwich was lukewarm, the cheese stingy, the tomato sauce unexceptional, and the eggplant tasteless and with the consistency of cardboard. This was partially redeemed by the zuppa di pesce which came with the sandwich ($8.99 for both, a real value). The boys' pizzas were okay but nothing special.

It is frustrating to taste mediocrity when perfection is dished up one wall away, and I wish I had been able to dash over and buy a slice of their tomato pie to compare the toppings and the doughs. (Actually I could have, in effect, because MP also serves a non-mega panini which is some meat between two slices of the pie.) But I will wager my last wedge of pecorino that the red sauce is completely different from the sweet, smoky magic served on those pies. The dough is possibly same, but it's a lot thicker in the pizzas which them more like bread with topping.

There are lots of cooks and servers in this place. Almost everybody had somebody else looking over their shoulder and kibitzing... partially because it was a change in shifts I think and the lunch people were explaining to the dinner people what was on the menu. I don't think any such explaining is needed next door. MP doesn't have that big a menu and most of the dishes are Italian-American classics. With so much going for them, I wish they would get it right.