The Adventures of Jeff and Jen

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Caribbean Cruise & Miami

For our 2nd wedding anniversary and Jeff's 31st birthday, we did a 7 day cruise around the Eastern Caribbean, and spent 1.5 days in Miami (South Beach).

The Caribbean is absolutely lovely.
The ocean is so clear, and the water is so pleasantly warm. It is also very very warm, humid, and sunny.
We were actually lucky because just 1 week prior, there was a hurricane (hurricane Irene) that terrorized the entire Atlantic coast, but our cruise was unaffected by the hurricane.

Sadly, the cruise ship itself did not live up to my standards.
(My standards were based on my prior cruise on Royal Caribbean. We booked the Carnival cruise ship this time).
Food service was terrible (the staff barely spoke any English, and do not appear to be trained in waiting tables). The food also tasted and looked terrible.
The housekeeping did not do the best job either (we are provided beach towels that we cannot take home; if we do, we will be charged for the beach towels. Housekeeping removed the beach towels from our room, almost risking us getting charged! Luckily, I noticed the missing towels before we were billed or accused of stealing).
I also was sea sick the entire week because the dang boat was swaying so much. I did not get sea sick on my last cruise!
Also, the ship simply did not have as many amenities as Royal Caribbean, but that was not a big deal to me.

After our 7 day cruise was over (dry land! woohoo!), we stayed in South Beach, Miami for 1.5 days. The water in Miami is WAY warmer than the waters in the Caribbean, but the water was very dark, dirty, and murky in comparison.
The neighborhood of South Beach was lovely. I loved that I was able to get anywhere either on foot, or by taking the local shuttle for 25 cents.
The best part of South Beach is that everyone is super toned (the rumors are true!). Almost every girl I saw had a 6-pack. I felt so inadequate.

Our flight back to Los Angeles was on the evening of September 11. We did not realize at the time that we booked the airfare, that we were flying back on the 10-year anniversary of 9/11.
Oops.
Oh well. I figured that since our flight was at night, if there were any terrorist attacks, they would be during the daytime, so I was safe.
You should be happy to know I flew back safely. =)
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The following are the photos from all our destinations! Enjoy:

Half Moon Cay, Bahamas - September 4, 2011

Half Moon Cay is a small island in the Bahamas that is entirely owned by Carnival, so all the visitors on the islands were all Carnival patrons. All the food and drinks served on the island were all imported from the Carnival cruise ships.

I think this island was my favorite port on the entire cruise. The waters were super clear, and the sand is so fine (almost like baby powder). Unfortunately, Jeff and I got terribly sun burned.

Half Moon Cay

From Half Moon Cay - Bahamas

We also did a shore excursion, where we snorkeled with STING rays, and got to feed them. They are super cute! Sadly, hurricane Irene blew away 5 of 9 sting rays.

From Half Moon Cay - Bahamas

Sting ray. So cute!

From Half Moon Cay - Bahamas

To view the complete Half Moon Cay photos, go here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/jenandjeffyang/HalfMoonCayBahamas

St. Thomas, U.S Virgin Islands - September 6, 2011

The next port we visited was the island of St. Thomas, which is one of the islands in the U.S Virgin Islands.
I thought it was amazing that this island is so small and so secluded, yet, it felt like I never left the states when I set foot on this island. Everyone spoke fluent English (with no accent!) (this is unlike Puerto Rico), people drive cars on this tiny island, the U.S Dollar is accepted, and there were regular shops, diners, and bars.

We also did a shore excursion on St. Thomas, to the beach called "Magens Bay". This was on the opposite side of the island from the port, so we had to take a bus there.
I loved that the beach was very small and quiet. I actually was reminded of Hawaii when I was at Magens Bay.

View of Magens Bay

From St Thomas - USVI

Magens Bay

From St Thomas - USVI

Wild iguanas roam free in St Thomas

From St Thomas - USVI

Port of St Thomas

From St Thomas - USVI

View all the pictures here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/jenandjeffyang/StThomasUSVI

San Juan, Puerto Rico - September 7, 2001

We did not visit any beaches in Puerto Rico. The only thing walking distance from the port was the town of Old San Juan. I am proud of myself that I walked through the entire town despite the unbearable heat and humidity. I did it by frequently stopping into stores for shade and a/c.
It was great to see familiar shops in Puerto Rico like CVS, Walgreens, Payless Shoe Source and Starbucks. It was like I never left home!

Old Town San Juan

From San Juan - Puerto Rico

Colon Plaza

From San Juan - Puerto Rico

Castillo de San Cristóbal

From San Juan - Puerto Rico

See the entire album here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/jenandjeffyang/SanJuanPuertoRico

Grand Turk Island, Turks and Caicos Islands - September 8, 2011

The Grand Turk island is a very tiny island, surrounded by crystal clear waters, and lots of rocks under the water! We were able to walk from the ship to the beach, so that was nice. I hate having to take a tender or a bus. Sadly, we brought our snorkel, but there was nothing worth seeing in the water, except for rocks and sand.

Breathtaking View

From Grand Turk Island - Turks and Caicos Islands

I couldn't find the conch.
Missing conch = hurricane!

From Grand Turk Island - Turks and Caicos Islands

Crystal clear

From Grand Turk Island - Turks and Caicos Islands

See the full album here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/jenandjeffyang/GrandTurkIslandTurksAndCaicosIslands

South Beach, Miami Beach, Florida - September 10-11, 2011

Lincoln Park - the premier shopping area in South Beach.

From South Beach - Miami, Florida

The moon over the ocean during dusk

From South Beach - Miami, Florida

The view of Fisher Park from South Point Park

From South Beach - Miami, Florida

View of the Miami skyline from South Point Park

From South Beach - Miami, Florida

Coconut trees

From South Beach - Miami, Florida

Friday, September 2, 2011

Yellowstone National Park

Before we head out on our next trip, I wanted to quickly write about my trip to Yellowstone National Park 2 weekends ago.

The intent of the trip was to visit my friend Lucy in Idaho and hang out with her family, but at the same time, visit Yellowstone since it's a 1.5 hour drive from her house.

After I learned that Mt Rushmore was *not* at Yellowstone, I had no idea what there was to see there.
Apparently, geysers, paint pots and hot springs are there, including the "famous" Old Faithful.

Here is a little explanation of "paint pots" since you will see several pics below:
A mudpot, mud pool or paint pot is a sort of hot spring or fumarole consisting of a pool of usually bubbling mud. The mud is generally of white to greyish color, but is sometimes stained with reddish or pink spots from iron compounds. When the slurry is particularly colorful, the feature is then called a paint pot.
Mudpots form in high-temperature geothermal areas where water is in short supply. The little water that is available rises to the surface at a spot where the soil is rich in volcanic ash, clay and other fine particulates. The thickness of the mud usually changes along with seasonal changes in the water table.
The mud takes the form of a viscous, often bubbling, slurry.

There are 2 parts of Yellowstone: West Yellowstone and East Yellowstone.
To see the landscape/sight-seeing part of Yellowstone to see Old Faithful and the hot springs, that is on the West Yellowstone side. This is what we did since we came from Idaho.
If you care about camping, fishing, and water sports, then that is on East Yellowstone side.

When we went, the weather was warm (mid 80s) and the view was lovely. I even got a tan.
It was a pretty nice day trip. We were able to see all we wanted to see in half a day and make back home in the afternoon.

Below are a few samples of the pictures I took. Please check out the entire web album (link below).

Buffalo! Up close!

From Yellowstone, WY

Yay, its us in front of a hot spring

From Yellowstone, WY

Lucy and Janie at Beryl Spring

From Yellowstone, WY

Janie Loves Her Giraffe! Giraffe came to Yellowstone with us.

From Yellowstone, WY

Gibbon Falls

From Yellowstone, WY

The view of Artists Paintpots

From Yellowstone, WY

Bubbling mudpot at the Artist Paintpot

From Yellowstone, WY

Very blue hot spring, at Artist Paintpots

From Yellowstone, WY

Lucifer at Lower Geyser Basin, Fountain Paint Pot

From Yellowstone, WY

Firehole River at Midway Geyser Basin

From Yellowstone, WY

Colorful hot spring at Midway Geyser Basin

From Yellowstone, WY

The famous Grand Prismatic Spring.
The largest hot spring in the United States, and the third largest in the world.

From Yellowstone, WY

The Grand Prismatic Spring is soooo beautiful.
The vivid colors in the spring are the result of pigmented bacteria in the microbial mats that grow around the edges of the mineral-rich water

From Yellowstone, WY

Sapphire Pool (but its hot!) at Biscuit Basin
The deep blue color of the water in the center of the pool results from the intrinsic blue color of water, itself the result of water's selective absorption of red wavelengths of visible light.

From Yellowstone, WY

Another colorful hot spring at Biscuit Basin

From Yellowstone, WY

Old Faithful! It's very predictable

From Yellowstone, WY

See the full album here: https://picasaweb.google.com/103260624714096898586/YellowstoneWY

Thursday, August 25, 2011

I'm famous!!

ok... so I'm not a celebrity.
But at least my name and my face made it on the CNET website!

This is for the HUDmobile product I worked on at Fonality.

View the website here: http://download.cnet.com/Fonality-HUD-Mobile/3000-2064_4-75531704.html

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Local Adventures

We've been to quite a few places these last few weekends.
I think this upcoming weekend will be the first weekend in several weeks where we won't be venturing too far.

Want to know what we've been up to?

Salt Creek Beach, Dana Point - July 10

breathtaking

Santa Barbara - July 17

Jeff "steering" the surrey bike. (only the left side actually steers).

why does Jeff's finger always get in the picture when he takes it?

OC Great Park, Irvine - July 23

hot air balloon, and carousel (on the right)

Jeff on the hot air balloon

I rode the panda on the carousel

Major League Gaming Pro Circuit, Anaheim - July 30-31

These guys signing autographs are supposedly "famous"
The guy on the left, I think his name is "Day9". What kind of name is that?
He looks like he lives out of his mom's basement

There were so many people that there were not enough seats.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Refrigerator Resolved! (almost)

Done and done!

After speaking to the Director of eCommerce at Sears Outlet, and the store manager at Sears Outlet - Corona, here is the outcome of my refrigerator woes:

Brand new refrigerator will be delivered to me (same model).
This refrigerator is from regular Sears, not Sears Outlet, so there should be no dents or scratches.
Delivery of the fridge and haul-away of the old fridge is free
The 1 year warranty is reset. So the 1 year warranty of the new fridge starts today
The 90 day refund/exchange policy is reset and starts today. So if I still have problems with the new fridge, I can simply get a refund and buy a different fridge.

The new fridge is scheduled to be delivered on August 13

This is our fridge, in case you were curious. But ours is white, not stainless steel.

When everything is set up and working properly, I plan on contacting both, the Director of eCommerce and the store manager at Sears Outlet - Corona, and give them a big "Thank You" for all their help.

They got done in 2 days what their Customer Service line couldn't do in 5 months.

Then I will send a follow-up to The Consumerist about the happy ending.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Consumerist published my Sears Outlet story -- got the attention of Sears Outlet within a few mins

I'm famous!

Remember my last post, Avoid Sears Outlet?

I initially submitted my story to Consumerist.com, and then copied and pasted the text into my blog.
This morning, Consumerist published my story on their website!

View it here:
http://consumerist.com/2011/08/sears-cant-repair-my-fridge-wont-declare-it-unrepairable.html
(btw, they changed my name from "Jennifer" to "Jill" to keep it anonymous).

I am impressed at how quickly Consumerist reviewed my submission, edited it, and published it on their website the following morning. I know Consumerist gets a ton of submissions a day, so thumbs up to them for giving priority to my story.

Within a few minutes after my story was published on the Consumerist website, the Director of eCommerce at Sears Outlet, reached out to Consumerist, wanting to get in contact with me. Consumerist has forwarded his contact info to me.

I sent an email to the Sears Outlet Director, asking to set up an appointment time. (I don't have reception at work, so I need to set up a time where I can leave the office to talk on the phone).
Still waiting for his response.
I will call him shortly before the EOD if I don't hear from him.

My story on Consumerist also garnered over 40 comments from Consumerist readers within the first 2 hours that my story was published. Many people offered suggestions such as: charge back, small claims court, and always demanding for an exchange/refund (instead of a repair) if you are within the 90 day window.

I hope to get this resolved soon!
Wish me luck!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Avoid Sears Outlet

In March of this year, I purchased a refrigerator from the Sears Outlet website (searsoutlet.com).
Shortly after the purchase, the ice maker stopped working.

On the Sears Outlet website, it says to call 1-800-4-my-home for repairs (we get free repairs from their 1 year warranty).
A couple weeks later, the repair man comes, tinkers with the ice maker for a few minutes, then leaves, thinking that he fixed the ice maker.
The ice maker *does* make ice, but it breaks again after 2 weeks!
We call 1-800-4-my-home and they sent out repair man #2 who poked around the ice maker then left.
Same thing -- the ice maker worked for another 1-2 weeks then broke again.
We called 1-800-4-my-home a third time, and they sent out repair man #3, who replaced the entire ice maker with brand new parts.
The ice maker worked for about 3 weeks, then it broke again!

Fed up, I called 1-800-4-my-home demanding them to send me a new refrigerator rather than a repair man. The call center agent said they can only set up with repair appointment, thus they cannot issue me refunds/exchanges.
I had the agent forward me to their "Customer Solutions" phone line.
After speaking to the Customer Solutions agent, telling them the story about the 3 repair men and demanding an exchange, the agent agreed to let me exchange the refrigerator, but I would have to pay a 15% re-stock fee, because I am outside of their 90-day returns/exchanges window (This was in July, which is 4 months after the purchase). I explained to the agent that I took so long to ask for an exchange because we spent so much back-and-forth with the repair men.
The agent was very understanding and offered to waive the15% re-stock fee and the delivery fee of the new refrigerator. I happily agreed to continue with the paperwork to process an exchange.
After waiting on hold for 15 minutes while the agent wrote up the paperwork, the agent came back and told me that she was a "Sears" representative, and not a "Sears Outlet" representative, and issuing exchanges was outside of her jurisdiction.
Her suggestion: Go to a Sears Outlet store front and talk to the store manager.

Remember I purchased my refrigerator from SearsOutlet.com?
I did not know which SearsOutlet store my refrigerator was shipped from, so I went to the local SearsOutlet store and talked to the store manager there.
That store manager was very helpful and helped us locate the store that our refrigerator was shipped from (which is the Sears Outlet store that is located 60 miles away from my home!).
We called the Sears Outlet that shipped our refrigerator and explained to them our story (3 failed repair attempts). That store manager said that he will be able to issue us a refrigerator exchange if we can get a repair man to look at the ice maker and declare the ice maker as "unrepairable". Then we need to bring the "unrepairable" note to the Sears Outlet store in-person. At that time, an exchange will be issued and all we have to pay is an additional delivery fee to deliver the new refrigerator and remove the old one.

We made an appointment with repair man #4 to come declare our ice maker as "unrepairable".
Repair man #4 was actually the same guy as repair man #3! He remembered changing our entire ice maker, however, he said that he *cannot* declare the ice maker as "unrepairable" because he would be fired.
No repair man will be able to declare as our ice maker as "unrepairable".

Great... now what.

I am tired of being sent in circles trying to get a working ice maker
All I want is a working ice maker!

Saturday, June 25, 2011

SF

Two weeks ago, Jeff, Marbles, Ruby, and myself all packed into our car and drove up to San Francisco (its about 5.5 hours each way).
We got to visit our cousin's new condo, eat yummy food, and walk across the Golden Gate Bridge.
My piggies are such great travelers: they were so well behaved during the car ride up and down the state!

Now onto my touristy photos!
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The famous/touristy Fishermans Wharf