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Category Archives: Travel and Transportation

ZENN Test Drive



ZENN (Zero Emission, No Noise) Car, originally uploaded by Aaron Landry.

Ed and I went down to the Linden Hills Co-op, where Twin Cities ZENN is located to test drive a ZENN.

The ZENN is a fully electric car that’s powered solely on batteries and charged with a normal power outlet. They’re manufactured in Québec and sold all over the United States and the world but they’re illegal for use on most roads in Canada for the time being. (British Columbia just recently created law to allow them.)

Even though I had seen a video of a ZENN before driving it, when I turned the key I felt like the car hadn’t turned on yet and I cranked on the key an extra time. When it’s not moving it’s completely silent. When driving, I’m not sure if I’d say it’s a “zero noise” vehicle as it sounds like a small golf cart. Comparatively very quiet though.

It’s governed to a maximum of 25 M.P.H. to fit as a neighborhood electric vehicle. It’s meant for city driving. There is a law going through that if passed would change the limit to 35 M.P.H. The ZENN can run 35 M.P.H. with a software change.

I thought the speed would be very limiting but our trip had no problems. I was surprised that it had no problems accelerating as well. The only issue was being slower than other drivers on Lake Street near Uptown but it wasn’t a problem for me. Something I could get used to pretty quickly. It’s faster than most bikers who sometimes slow up that right lane of traffic too.

Ed posted a video of a stretch of Lake Street where I was going 25 M.P.H.:

We had a fun trip going around Minneapolis where I honked frequently. The horn seemed to be significantly louder than most car horns. Contrasting that with the fact the car barely made any noise seemed to take a lot of people off guard. That is, the people that weren’t already staring at us already — it turned a lot of heads.

Ed and I said that if we didn’t work in the suburbs it’d be a smart choice. They’re priced well and there’s barely any regular maintenance. No oil changes and no gasoline to buy. Just a battery replacement every few years or so and paying for the minimal costs of electricity to charge it. The ZENN takes about 8 hours for a full charge and 4 hours for an 80% charge. The range of the ZENN is about 35 miles on a full charge, plenty for a in city commute.

We had a fun time and took a bunch of photos. If your normal commute is within the city, I think it’s definitely worth taking one of these for a test drive.

Twin Cities ZENN
2813 W 43rd St
Minneapolis, MN 55410
612-279-2467

More photos on Flickr.

Posted 05 April 2008 § Minneapolis ‡ Comments (5) ° Tagged: , ,

Flying Around



Minneapolis, originally uploaded by Aaron Landry.

My old pal Seth who was stationed overseas for a few years in Kosovo and Iraq came home with the drive to learn how to fly. After instruction with Will Outlaw, a great local flight instructor whom I’ve flown with before, Seth is now a full private pilot.

Now that the weather is starting to pull out of winter, we took a quick trip from Crystal Airport down to Winona. Glad to have someone else to fly with and it’s good to get back up in the air again. I hadn’t flown in a few months.

Got a couple shots including Red Wing, Afton Alps and Minneapolis. See my slideshow or the individual photos on Flickr.

Posted 13 March 2008 § Minneapolis § Miscellaneous ‡ Comments (2) ° Tagged: , , , ,

Pizza in Louisville, Kentucky



Za’s Pizza Pub, Louisville, Kentucky, originally uploaded by Aaron Landry.

I took a pizza tour of Louisville with my friend Sarah. You’re probably thinking that Louisville isn’t a place you’d go to find great pizza. Well, you’re probably right. But even with that being said, there are a few good nooks and a couple local chains that will do well if you’re in the Louisville area.

First off, I should mention that the Papa John’s franchise is based in Louisville and the first Papa John’s started in part of a pub on the other side of the river in Jeffersonville, IN. As well, Yum! Brands, which Pizza Hut is a subsidiary of is also based out of Louisville. There is no shortage of those two chains in the area. I didn’t visit either of them. I did take a 5-day, 5-pizza trip around that seemed to progress rather well to some of the best pizza I’ve eaten in Louisville.

Our first pizza was at The Bodega at Felice. They’re not a pizza place but a “market, delicatessen and coffee bar.” Pizza was on the menu though as a speciality and I couldn’t resist getting their Artichoke and Feta Pizza. It came unexpectedly without mozzarella and was just warm enough, but not hot. A light lunch-time treat but not a pizza I’d go out and seek regularly. Satisfying and the ingredients tasted fresh. Again, The Bodega is geared to be a coffee bar and market and doesn’t specialize in pizza. I almost picked up some Ale-8-One at their market on my way out and Sarah got a very nice free refill of her iced coffee for the road. Great service.

The Bodega at Felice
829 E Market Street
Suite D
Louisville, KY 40206
502-569-4100

The second pizza was at Bearno’s Pizza. A local chain of about fifteen locations, we visited their location in Fern Creek. Service was friendly and fast once our waitress saw that we snuck in. We ordered water and I haven’t seen water served in such large cups with two lemon slices. We saw their pizza buffet and decided to pass on it and get our own. Our pizza was filling and what you’d expect for an inexpensive and campy pizza parlor. Not much to report honestly other than the pizza worked out well and I’d go back.

Bearno’s Pizza
6101 Bardstown Rd
Louisville, KY 40291
502-231-2222

Our third pizza was at another local chain, Tony Boombozz. Their Highlands location on the corner of Bardstown and Eastern was geared mostly for delivery but had a few tables to sit for the starving. That applied to us. The menu at Boombozz was a bit unexpected: not very traditional and more of a Californian style. Our plates were simply small pizza pans and our eating utensils were in a plastic bag with a napkin and a packet of sugar and salt, reminding me that they are really geared for take-out and delivery at that location. When our Feta and Artichoke Pizza (yes, again) arrived, it seemed perfect! There was a perfection to it’s roundness and thickness to its crust that was pretty surprising. Even the evenness of the ingredients seemed calculated and the slices seemed to be cut perfectly. Despite it being served on a piece of corrugate, Boombozz was the best pizza I had had in Louisville so far. A fantastic balance of ingredients and flavors. Great crust too. Even though we were full after eating most of it, we were both tempted to finish the pizza off because it was quite good. We played smart and took our extra two slices home and they reheated quite well.

Tony Boombozz
1448 Bardstown Rd
Louisville, KY 40204
502-458-8889

Our forth pizza, on New Year’s Eve, was at Za’s Pizza Pub. First off, Za’s has by far the best beer selection that I could have imagined in Louisville. A number of great beers on tap and a comparatively long list of bottles. They recently replaced their Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter tap (seriously, it was in their menu, in print!) with Köstritzer Schwarzbier (holy shit, as I found out, even better!). I’ll have that, thanks. Sarah and I had their Six Cheese ZA, just to see what would happen. Well, we got a pizza with an obnoxious amount of cheese. It was good, but I guess we got what we asked for: too much cheese. Granted, the parmesan was there to “turn five into six” as Sarah joked, but even then it was cheese overload. I’m a hack pizza turophile though so I didn’t have any problem with it. Atmosphere in Za’s was very comfortable and a place I’d go simply to drink at the bar. I really enjoyed the pizza a lot but they win the drink menu prize for sure.

Za’s Pizza Pub
1573 Bardstown Road
Louisville, KY 40205
502-434-4344

We ended up on my last day at Wick’s Pizza Parlor. They have four locations in the area and we visited their Highlands location. They have large murals on the walls showing a scene from Churchill Downs and Thunder over Louisville, a local fireworks and air display. Some of the staff had tie-dye shirts with the Wick’s logo on the back. People coming in and out seemed to know each other more often than not. We got their Pepperoni Pizza and it was tasty but a tad bit heavy on the cheese. I realized that it must be the style around here! (I didn’t mind, but if you grew up in Chicago I don’t think Louisville would be your place to dine out for pizza.) We ordered hard ciders and without specifying a size they came in really large glasses. Satisfying and very tasty. Service was very fast.

Wick’s Pizza
975 Baxter Avenue
Louisville, KY 40204
502-458-1828

One place that I am aware of that I missed is Chubby Ray’s, but I’m generally not a big sports bar fan anyway. Overall a great pizza tour and it worked out as a great compliment to touring around area distilleries, downtown Louisville, cafés and other sights on my trip.

Posted 02 January 2008 § Pizza ‡ Comments (3) ° Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Heaven Hill Distilleries



Barrels at Heaven Hill Distilleries, originally uploaded by Aaron Landry.

I’m wandering around Kentucky for a few days. Yesterday morning visited the Bourbon Heritage Center at Heaven Hill Distilleries. Got to visit barrels and taste a few bourbons. Great way to start off the day.

A couple hours later we visited The Colonel.

Posted 30 December 2007 § ‡ Comments (1) ° Tagged: , , ,

Google Street View Twin Cities

Google Street View

As Julio Ojeda-Zapata posted last night and wrote in today’s Pioneer Press, Google Street View launches today in the Twin Cities. If you’re not familiar, you can now look at an address from the street. For example, here’s my house. Notice my poor lawn care but my lawn gnome is hanging out!

This lead me to wonder, when were all these photos taken? The State Theater is advertising shows for very early August 2007, right after the 35W bridge collapse on August 1st. You can drive under the 35W Bridge and you can actually drive on it too, seeing some of the construction equipment. Here’s a shot of the skyline from the bridge with a portable toilet in the foreground. This is probably only days before it collapsed. Rows of news vans line Main Street SE after the collapse.

You can drive through the Lowry Tunnel and you can see storm damage in Acacia Park Cemetery. Take a stroll up US52 over the Lafayette Bridge into Saint Paul. If you keep clicking the NW arrow you can chase a light rail train in reverse. There’s some workers rebuilding East Lake Street.

For more in Saint Paul, check out the state capitol but you can’t see the forbidden-to-photograph oven at Punch Pizza.

Surprisingly, a lot of Highland Park isn’t available for Street View as well as White Bear Lake. But you can visit St. Olaf College down in Northfield. Here’s a guy that looks like he just left Sex World. Heh.

They have my office to see too. One of the owners parked his Mazda 6 out front and my manager’s VW Bug is in the lot. Who knows where my car is!

Find anything interesting strolling around Street View in the Twin Cities? Please comment! Remember when linking Google Maps, click on the “Link to this page” link to get the proper URL.

Posted 11 December 2007 § Media, Blogging and Technology § Minneapolis § Saint Paul ‡ Comments (27) ° Tagged: , ,

Ella’s Pizza, Washington, DC



Quattro Formaggi at Ella’s Pizza, originally uploaded by Aaron Landry.

The last stop on my Washington, DC pizza tour was Ella’s Pizza with Kim. A couple blocks from Matchbox and right near the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery that I visited a couple days previous.

Their menu are mostly Neapolitan-style and specialty individual pizzas. I decided to try their Quattro Formaggi and it was fantastic. Crust was a bit enough but just crispy enough and burnt just the right amount. Wood fired pizza many times can be victim to too much burnt crust and my pizza at Ella’s was just perfect in that regard.

The cheeses were tasty and just the right amount for a cheese pizza. A bit gooey, but that’s what you get in Quattro Formaggi. Kim got their Bosco Pizza which she enjoyed.

The space was nice, just roomy enough and our service was friendly. I bet this place gets really packed if there’s an event at the Verizon Center though. Their dessert menu was great but we didn’t partake, deciding to get tea at Teaism a couple blocks away instead.

I’ll definitely be back. If I was in Penn Quarter and had to choose between Ella’s and Matchbox, I’d pick Ella’s hands down. It was oh so tasty — one of my favorite pizzas in DC.

Ella’s Pizza
901 F Street NW
Washington, DC 20004
202-638-3434

Posted 03 December 2007 § Pizza ‡ Comments (1) ° Tagged: ,

The Feral Cats of Oakton



Dakota, originally uploaded by Aaron Landry.

I generally strive to find the unique and off-the-beaten trail when I’m on holiday. Through a connection of a friend I was able to visit a a 60-cat colony of ferals while I was in the DC area. These cats were living in the wild in an area that was about to be developed upon. The woman that houses these cats trapped them all individually and brought them to her town home a few miles west of the Capital Beltway.

About ten of them live on the top floor and are separated from the rest due to a variety of medical issues. One is diabetic, for instance. The rest are in a small basement behind a door with a printed sign that reads “In Case of FIRE Please release cats from basement (behind this door) ! ! Also, in the room itself, UNLATCH door to large wire enclosure to let those cats out.”

The air quality of the basement forces my friend to wear a face mask. She visits the cats on a regular but infrequent basis to help clean out litter boxes and feed them. An email she received from an organization let her know about these cats and that they needed help with being fed. She volunteers and it’s close to where she works.

Even before I walked into the basement I was reminded of the video of the Russian woman with over a hundred cats. The feeling was similar but not as dramatic or colorful. One side of the room had a row of about six deep litter boxes and on the other side of the room was a large cage with equipment for the cats to climb in. The top of the cage had large piece of carpet upon it where about a third of the cats sat near the ceiling of the room. Inside the room were various old chairs, a recliner, cat carriers and old “cat condo”-like furnishings, most of which are very worn out.

Almost all the cats were very friendly and they all seemed to live in harmony. Fighting was not common while I was there and most of them had spots where they hung out. A couple of them played with a toy I was teasing them with but most were unamused. A few that were on top of the large cage hissed at me when I approached them with my camera. Some asked to be pet after sniffing my fingers.

The woman that lives here used to feed the cats before she moved them into her home. She could tell me names for every single one and short histories about them and almost did. They all have personalities and she treats them all as individuals. She wore two pins on her collar: one an American flag and the other a Rod of Asclepius with a cat in front of it with a halo over its head. She opened the patio door in the back to get some fresh air in but it didn’t seem to make much difference. A few times between taking photos I snuck over to the screen door and put my nose on it to take a few deep fresh breaths.

While we talked a lot about the cats, she also brought up some surrounding issues that I won’t get into that involved naming relatives and the words “custody,” “lawyers” and “think I’m crazy.” She also asked me where I was during the 35W bridge collapse and brought up how she felt about 9/11 and a short bit about when she was in New York.

I asked what the neighbors thought about the cats and I don’t think she thought they had much of a problem with it. It’s clear that these cats do not have enough space, though. She is in the process of moving to a home in a more rural area of Virginia where the cats will have significantly more space. The cats were in the forefront of her mind when she was picking a new place to live and wanted to make sure the cats will be happy. We joked briefly about the process of moving 60 cats and she was fairly confident she’ll pull it off. Either way, this is a fantastic thing that these cats will have more room to roam and they should be a lot happier.

As all of these cats are about the same age, they are now starting to get to the point where some are dying. She says she doesn’t plan on taking on more cats. “After this, I’m done.” Although she does now have a younger cat in the mix that wasn’t originally part of the colony.

On our way out, she showed my friend and I photos of the cats from when they used to live in the wild including a juxtaposition of two photos combined on one card where on each side two cats were brushing up against each other. Cute, seeing them in such a different habitat and so happy, but quite sad seeing that this woman saw that she was faced with the decision of letting these cats and their habitat be destroyed or having them relocated to her home. While I won’t judge her choice I can agree that the situation is tragic.

After we got in our car she walked down to my window and asked that I let everyone know back at home that during the 35W bridge collapse she and the country were glued to the televisions and praying. The families of the victims are in everyone’s thoughts.

On Flickr, see more photos of the Feral Cats of Oakton.

Posted 02 December 2007 § Cats ‡ Comments (2) ° Tagged: , ,

Matchbox Vintage Pizza Bistro



Matchbox Pepperoni Pizza, originally uploaded by Aaron Landry.

As I continue my Washington, DC pizza tour, Mike, Donika and I stopped at Matchbox. Showing up at 7:00 on a Thursday without a reservation was a bad idea. Fortunately the weather was nice for waiting outside and Donika was running late anyway. We got seated almost exactly one hour after I put our name on the list.

Matchbox is on three levels and we got seated in the far back corner of the top level. Lots of room for us and it wasn’t as cramped as other parts of Matchbox.

The hype around this place seemed to range from “great pizza” to “best pizza in Washington” so my expectations were high. A few people independently told me to “get the mini burgers” but I’m not much of a burger guy. You can get 3, 6, or 9 of them and some of the staff were wearing black shirts that simply read “3.6.9″ implying your snack options. They looked fun as wait staff shuffled around serving them as appetizers.

I got the Double Pepperoni which tasted good but didn’t live up to the hype. The pizza was really quite sloppy to eat, very greasy and the crust was mushy. The pepperoni pieces were tasty and spicy though but almost literally covered the entire pizza. A bit overboard for me. Donika and Mike seemed to enjoy their pizzas a lot more than I did so I’m hoping to come back the next time I’m in town and try a different pizza to turn around my mediocre opinion.

I finished with cinnamon ice cream which came as a large scoop in a low martini-like glass. Surprisingly and pleasingly strong. Yum.

Less than a block from the Chinatown Metro.

Matchbox Vintage Pizza Bistro
713 H St NW
Washington, DC 20001
202-289-4441

Posted 30 November 2007 § Pizza ‡ Comments (2) ° Tagged: ,

My First Experience With an XO Laptop



XO Laptop, originally uploaded by Aaron Landry.

I met up with Mike Lee in Washington to test out his development XO Laptop.

If you’re not familiar with the XO Laptop or the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program, from laptopgiving.org:

The mission of One Laptop per Child (OLPC) is to empower the children of developing countries to learn by providing one connected laptop to every school-age child. In order to accomplish our goal, we need people who believe in what we’re doing and want to help make education for the world’s children a priority, not a privilege.

Mike has been testing with a development unit for awhile. The first thing I noticed is that it is very small and confusing to open the first time. Once I knew that the WiFi antennas, or “ears,” pop up first (they act as a lock) it opens quite easily.

It boots fairly quickly with 256mb of RAM and opens to a screen where I have what feels like an OS X Dock at the bottom to choose applications. After about 10 minutes I felt really comfortable getting around it and everything worked in a rather simple manner.

Browsing was about as fast as the iPhone on WiFi and there were a few music creation applications that I didn’t spend the time to figure out. I tested out the RSS reader on it as well and it was pretty swift.

One of the most interesting things about the XO Laptop to me is in the collaboration features. It creates mesh networks on its own with other XO Laptops and will share a common internet connection, which is very useful in remote areas. In the absence of internet connectivity, it will share resources with the other laptops. Teachers can share information to other laptops live and students can then take them home and share the information and pages with their families and others.

They’ll also take a wide and dirty range of power to charge it. You can use things such as a solar panel, a foot pump or hand crank in addition to using a normal power adapter.

I ordered one through the Give One, Get One program a week and a half ago. You order two. One gets shipped to you and one gets donated. I can’t wait to play around with it more. UPDATE: On 15 Dec 07 I got my own OLPC XO Laptop.

See more photos from my Washingtontrip as well as Mike’sphotos from when we met up.

Posted 30 November 2007 § Media, Blogging and Technology ‡ Comments (1) ° Tagged: , ,

2 Amys Neapolitan Pizzeria



2 Amys Neapolitan Pizzeria, originally uploaded by Aaron Landry.

I’m in Washington, DC for a few days and I’m going around on a pizza tour. Visited 2 Amys Neapolitan Pizzeria with Sara last night and was quite pleased.

From their website:

In 1998 the Italian government formally recognized Neapolitan pizza as a traditional food worthy of preservation and granted it D.O.C (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) status, which specifies the legally permitted ingredients and methods of preparation necessary to produce authentic Neapolitan Pizza.

Although D.O.C. is primarily used for wines, there is quite a list of things under D.O.C. and 2 Amys has three pizzas apparently abiding by this label: Margherita, Marinara and Margherita Extra. While they have a lot of other pizzas on their menu, we ordered only from those selections and we were quite pleased. Felt to be just a bit better balanced than Pizzeria Paradiso less oily than what I’m used to at Punch Pizza or Pizza Nea at home in Minneapolis. The crust was soft, chewy and just crispy enough around the edges. Just the right amount of cheese too — it wasn’t overloaded like a lot of Americanized forms of the Margherita. So yummy.

If you’re taking the Metro, the website says to go to Tenleytown-AU but if you don’t mind walking through a residential area the Cleveland Park stop seemed to be closer.

2 Amys Neapolitan Pizzeria
3715 Macomb St NW
Washington, DC 20016
202-885-5700

Posted 29 November 2007 § Pizza ‡ Comments (1) ° Tagged: ,