Scottrade, Inc. is the first company I’ve used for trading stocks.  I started using Scottrade when I lived in California and they had the local office assist me with any questions regarding my account.  As soon as I moved to San Antonio, I was welcomed, by letter, by the San Antonio branch.  Scottrade’s overall customer service has been really good and I feel very comfortable using their company to make trades.

The commissions are very reasonable.  At $7 a trade, it’s one of the lowest priced commissions and is kept simple without having stipulations like how many trades you get per month, or requiring you to make a number of trades per month.  There is no monthly charge and all you really pay is $7 a trade.  It’s as simple as that!

Their real-time tools are also very useful, easy to use, and have made trading stocks a breeze.

Absolutely the worst public transportation company in America.

Their buses are NEVER on time.  If you’re traveling long distances you’ll miss connecting bus routes all the time.  What should take 15 hours on the bus will take 25!  And, the workers don’t seem to care about the customers seemingly because the company doesn’t care about their employees.

Save your money and take a train or a flight!

★★ (2 Stars)

I went on this ghost hunting tour a few years ago during Halloween and it was, well. . .  read below.

I’m a skeptic to begin with and this tour offered nothing that made me think any different.  We met up downtown in front of the Alamo where the tour guide, Martin Leal, led us to the Emily Morgan and to various other buildings merely explaining why each of these places was thought to be haunted.  We didn’t actually do any kind of “ghost hunting” until the end where he let us play with EMF readers and laser guided thermal readers in front of the Alamo.  Again, nothing spectacular.  But, for $10, and being that we went during Halloween, it was somewhat entertaining.  I don’t know if I would go again or recommend it to anyone, though.

I researched Martin Leal, the tour guide and owner, and apparently there is some bickering between his company and Alamo City Ghost Tours’ website regarding the legitimacy of Martin Leal.  Both websites challenge each other in a he-said-she-said type of squabble; kind of annoying.   So, do your research before taking any ghost tour in San Antonio and just go with the one that feels right.

★★★ (3 Stars)

I don’t know about Mount Charleston’s lodging, but their restaurant was fairly decent.  The views down the mountain from here are spectacular.  It was nice to get away from the strip in Vegas and enjoy some snow and weather in the mid 50’s.

The restaurant itself is not what I expected.  I thought it would be the traditional -lets gouge people with our prices because we have beautiful views- type of restaurant.  It was nothing like that at all.  In fact, the ambiance and food were fairly plain and casual.  The prices were just like eating at your local, corporate, chain restaurant.  They had game hen, elk and buffalo burgers, among other game based options.  It was nice to have varying options, like these, among traditional restaurant meals.

I was also surprised that the beer here was very well priced.  I had a Sam Adams for $4.  What a relief from the $8 bottles of Corona on the strip!

★ (1 Star)

This is the worst hotel I’ve ever stayed at in Las Vegas.  I’d stayed here about a year ago and had the same feeling.  The reason I ended up back at Hooters Hotel is because we used Priceline.  Yeah, it’s a risk using Priceline, but in any case we ended up changing hotels after one night’s stay.

The hotel was obviously something else prior to being Hooters.  All Hooters did once they bought the place was splash orange everywhere and change the decor.  The rooms are old and were not renovated. And, forget winning money in the casino, you’ll be lucky if the air conditioning works!

The casino is small, the rooms are dingy, and customer service seems to be hit-or-miss.  They never seem to have enough employees working at the check-in counter.

★★★ (3 Stars)

VISTA is a very good Ventura County service offering transportation between Santa Barbara and Ventura, Ventura and Westlake, Ventura to Fillmore and more.

I am more familiar with the Coastal Express route that goes from Ventura to Santa Barbara.  VISTA has bus routes originating from various points in Ventura and Santa Barbara almost every hour, during the weekdays.  On the weekends, the only difference is that there are fewer bus stops.

I’ve used this service before originating from the Ventura Government Center and arriving at De La Guerra in Santa Barbara, a block or two east of State Street.  It’s an enjoyable ride and it’s cheaper than the price of the gas it would take to drive up to Santa Barbara and back.

These buses are really clean, have front facing seats with their own adjustable air conditioning vents, and are similar to Greyhound type buses.

★ (1 Star)

Maybe there aren’t enough people who are willing to ride the bus, or perhaps the public bus system is grossly underfunded, but Gold Coast Transit, formerly South Coast Area Transit (SCAT), is a poor excuse for public transportation.

While their bus fares seem to be average with the nation, everything else about Gold Coast Transit seems to be lacking.  The route schedules are far and few between.  Buses, according to their schedule, seem to only appear at stops once *every 50 minutes*, on average.  In other words, if you miss a bus, you’ll have to wait almost an hour, in most cases, to catch the next one.  Yikes!  This of course varies from route to route, and city to city.

The buses, on average, run to only about 9:30PM on weekdays and 8:00PM on weekends and routes start as early as 5:00AM.  Oxnard seems to have the earliest and latest bus routes.

Cities that are serviced by Gold Coast Transit include Ojai, Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Ventura and the county areas in between.

★★★ (3 Stars)

Dr. Perry is an excellent dentist.  He walks you through what he is doing as he is doing it and he is very assuring.  If you are looking for a dentist, I would highly recommend Dr. Perry.

Prior to Dr. Perry’s, I had never been to a dentist’s office that had multiple stations separated by just shelving.  There is a lot of privacy lost when the dentist stations aren’t separated by full-on walls, just like regular rooms. You can hear what the Dentist is telling his patient in the cubicle-like station next to the one you are in, and they can hear what he is telling you as well.  But given the strip mall this is located in, I suppose it would be an added cost to the dentist and there would probably be less stations if it was fully built out.

The staff is generally good.  Sometimes you can tell when they are having bad days.  They really shouldn’t let this show, but they do.  The billing is always weird.  It seems they don’t know exactly how much to charge me sometimes and I don’t know if that is them or if it has to do with my insurance.

★★★★ (4 Stars)

The Wine Edventures, winery tour, is how I got started to know and understand what wine really is. Before I took their tour, I could have had any wine and said, “these all taste the same.” But, the Wine Edventures tour gave me a better understanding of how to appreciate wine. I learned how wine was made, what to taste for, and various wine terminology.

We stopped at some of the best wineries in Santa Barbara County. The gentleman giving the tour never hesitated to answer the questions my friends and I had no matter how basic they were. It was a very pleasant experience and I would definitely take this tour again. To oenophiles and newbie wine tasters alike, I highly recommend Wine Edventures.

They pick up at various hotels around Santa Barbara which makes it really convenient.  You jump on their tour bus and don’t have to worry about drinking and driving.  The price of around $100 per person seemed somewhat steep at first, but considering you’re not driving, and you taste about 20 or more wines, it is well worth it.

I’ve been to various wineries after taking this tour, and the relationship that Wine Edventures has with the wineries makes their tour a better experience than any time I have visited these wineries on my own.  The staff at the wineries seem to be more apt to teaching about their wines and give out more information to the people on the tours.