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  • Day 3: Whistler Mountain. And bears.

    Day 3: Whistler Mountain. And bears.

    The morning started as the prior did, with me up first and getting the blog up over coffee. Mark had spent the night with other friends. Greg and Ash were up about 6:30 probably. We made our way out a little after 8am to get to a 9am meeting at the convention.

    Our condo is 1.2 miles from the convention center, so we have enjoyed some nice walks to and from. This fountain is just across the street from the main plaza but somehow I hadn’t noticed it before because on prior walks we had approached from a different angle.

    We made it to the 9am meeting in time to get decent seats. Mark met us there, and we connected with our friend Greg (yes, another one) from San Francisco, who hung out with us the rest of the day. The meeting ended a little after 10am, and the next one we wanted to attend wasn’t until 11:30 so we decided to go visit the GALAA hospitality suite that was at the Fairmont.

    The globe on the right is over the lobby when you enter but I didn’t notice it when we walked in. The sessions today were in the “new” building – there are essentially two convention centers here, and on Thursday we’d been in the other one. There wasn’t much going on at the Fairmont so we made our way back, picking up some coffee along the way.

    We got there by 11:05. For an 11:30 meeting. And the doors were already closed and they were closely monitoring how many more they would let in. Oh, and I should mention this was one of the few gay sessions that were on the regular conference agenda. We did manage to get in and lucked out getting a table in the back for all 5 of us. It was a good session, but we left about 12:15 because we had other plans.

    This whale looks pretty smooth from a distance but it’s so not when you get close up to it. On the right, just looking back at downtown from the far west side of the convention center.

    This photo is actually from the day before. Ash and I were on the tour of the Marine Building. I’d wandered into a coffee shop on the right of the lobby and encountered these two. They had stopped here for coffee in between convention sessions. We were all so surprised to see each other. One of the ladies in our tour group offered to take the photo. And, while she wasn’t wearing a convention badge, we knew she was one of us when she said “smile and say Bill W” as she took the photo, which is what we were laughing about.

    Greg #1 didn’t join us for the remainder of the day, but we made our way back to the condo and stopped for lunch at a sushi place along the way.

    We made our way to Whistler Mountain, a 2-hour drive north. We stopped at Shannon Falls along the way.

    Shannon Falls was less an hour into the trip. It made for a nice stop. There were quite a few people about, and some beautiful trails that went much higher than we had time for, but we got some nice photos while we were there.

    Vancouver hosted the 2010 Olympics and Whistler Mountain is where all the skiing happened. It has a significant village which is still thriving today. We were actually surprised at how large and diverse it was, and it was bustling with people.

    We took the gondola up to the top of the mountain and encountered this black bear mama and her cub just beneath us. There were mountain bikers speeding past on a trail above which had caught the cubs attention. Mark’s video below captures it perfectly. So cute.

    We enjoyed stunning views of the mountains on the gondola, which was about a 30-minute ride all the way to the top.

    Those mountain bike trails started at the very top. No way.

    We had time to grab a few photos before our 5:30pm dinner reservations. The Roadhouse on the summit featured an extensive buffet, which we all enjoyed. We had somehow managed to be 2nd in line – before about 60 students thankfully – and got a nice table next to a window.

    There was a viewing deck that also had a bar and pretty much a 360 view of the surrounding area. On the right – a nice shot of the mountains behind Greg and Mark on our way back down.

    We made it back to our condo about 9:30pm. It was a beautiful drive with lots of this in both directions.

    Today is the closing meeting of the convention at 9am. It remains to be seen if we will make it there. Beyond that, we have no other specific plans. Come back tomorrow to see how it all turned out.

  • Day 2: Walking tour downtown, Opening Meeting of the convention

    Day 2: Walking tour downtown, Opening Meeting of the convention

    I was the first one up about 5:45am. I sat on the little balcony drinking coffee and getting the first blog entry up. By the time that was done about 7:15am, everyone else was up.

    Mark and Greg left about 8:30 to do things at the convention. Ash and I had a little breakfast first.

    We made our way out about 9am, stopping at My Honey’s Buns for coffee along our way.

    It was a cute shop on the first floor of an office building, which we would be in again later in the day (although we didn’t know that then).

    We were heading to a walking tour Ash had signed us up for, which met right in front of the convention center where we had been the day before. We were to look for the red umbrella but there was none to be seen when we got there at 9:50am for a 10am tour. Others had started to gather for the same tour and we found them, and the guide finally showed up right at 10am. There was about 12 people on the tour, more than half of us with the convention.

    One of the first things we learned is that the blue sculpture across the way on the left is called The Drop. Some think it’s for tear drop, but it represents rain. One of Vancouver’s nicknames is Raincouver because it rains on average 120 days per year here. Greg and Mark came across this on their own that morning, on the right.

    After some basic history and orientation, the first big stop on the tour was the Marine Building. Completed in 1930, it’s considered one of the best examples of the art deco period in the world, and was the tallest building in Vancouver until 1939. It’s been used in TV and movies, including being the setting for The Daily Planet in Smallville.

    The stained glass windows at each end of the lobby represent sunrise and sunset. The closeup on the right is looking back at the entrance, which is the sunrise version.

    The floor design was in the middle of the lobby. There were about 5 elevators, each of them different on the inside, with beautiful and complicated walls made from 12 different kinds of wood. There’s a 2nd floor balcony which overlooks the lobby and provides a nice view of the ceiling.

    There are a lot of glass buildings downtown on purpose to add elements of beauty and interest to the overall look. The one on the right captures the reflection of the Marine Building on the left.

    On the left is the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. Completed in 1939, this is the building that knocked the Marine Building out of first place as the tallest and held that spot until 1972. It’s a luxury hotel built by CPR – Canadian Pacific Railroad. Many resorts were built along the railroad across the country from Vancouver to Montreal to encourage travel.  The horse in the art behind reception is Trigger – yes of Roy Rogers fame. This was a gathering place for many celebrities back in the day.

    This is the public library. The tour stopped here about 2 hours in for a 20 minute break. It had a beautiful lobby. We got a coffee and nuts after using the restroom but decided to move on and not finish the rest, which had another 40 minutes or so. We were glad we did it but were full of information and kinda done.

    The library had a balcony on the 9th floor which provided a nice view, including BC Place – the white roof with the points – which is where we would be in the evening. On the right: Bread and Butter Cafe where we met Greg and Mark for lunch, in the same building we’d been in earlier. We had various soups, salads, and sandwiches, but I forgot photos.

    After lunch we went back to the room and everyone went down for a nap. We were, for me at least, disproportionately tired for what we had done so far. But I was down about 1.5 hours, and Greg had gotten up just before me. Mark left to meet up with other friends. We made our way out again for dinner about 5pm.

    Yaletown is a district of revitalized warehouses which we walked through on our way to the stadium for the big opening meeting of the convention. We stopped at Brix and Mortar for dinner. There was a table of probably 20 people seated in that atrium on the left as we walked in. In that group was Todd, a friend of Ash’s he’d met in India many years ago who now lives in Portland.

    The happy hour menu was still in play so we took advantage of that. Ash had tuna tartare, Greg and I both got fish and chips. We shared buffalo cauliflower and roasted Brussel sprouts.

    I had declared myself “over” the architecture in this city – there’s just so much of it that’s beautiful and interesting it would take up too much energy and space to capture it all! But I thought this was a worthwhile exception on our way to the stadium.

    It is estimated that there are 37,000 people at AA Convention. We thought we were being proactive by getting there at 6:45pm for an 8pm meeting but the crowds to get in were ridiculous. It took us probably 20 minutes to get in and find seats. GALAA had designated a section for the gay community so we made our way there. and managed to find people we knew. Lots of them actually. If anything has surprised me, it’s how many people we’ve run into that we know – if you’re Ash from literally all over the world.

    The photos above attempt to capture the crowd and energy. The stadium is designed for 54,400 people so the top section was closed off. The cropping is funny in my attempt to respect the principle of anonymity but it gives you an idea.

    The monitor started a countdown to the beginning of the meeting at the 2 minute mark. The flag ceremony included 89 countries represented here at the convention. Appearing in alphabetical order, the crowd went wild for Mexico, and Ukraine got a standing ovation. Canada and the USA were presented together at the end.

    There were 3 speakers, which didn’t even start until 9:00pm. Ash and I left shortly after the 3rd one started, which was about 10pm.

    And why not have a chandelier under a freeway?

    We stopped at the market to get some more coffee pods for the room. I finished getting the photos uploaded, which I’d started in the afternoon, and was in bed again by about 11:45pm.

    Today we plan to do a couple of convention sessions in the morning, then head to Whistler Mountain for the afternoon and evening.

  • 2025 Vancouver: Day 1 – Arrival, AA International Convention

    2025 Vancouver: Day 1 – Arrival, AA International Convention

    Thursday morning, July 2, we headed to Vancouver, BC, Canada, for the AA International Convention that happens every 5 years. And since 2020’s was cancelled for obvious reasons, this is the first in 10 years. I’ve never been and neither had Ash. We’re not really big conference people however neither of us had been to Vancouver in a long time and it seemed like a good excuse to get there.

    We had an 8:15am flight out of Sacramento to Seattle.

    Our friend Mark joined for this trip so you’ll be seeing a lot of him and Greg, who got to Vancouver on Sunday and will connect with us when we get there.

    We had Alaska Airlines lounge access which we made good use of on our 1.5-hour layover. Ash always loves watching the planes take off.

    And we learned Mark does, too.

    Ash knows a lot about planes – can tell from looking at it if it’s a Boeing or Airbus, the model, how big it is, all kinds of details I’m frankly not interested in. Will it get me there safely? I’m good. But Mark got into it with him, and it was fun to watch them be so excited about what they were watching.

    The flight to Vancouver from Seattle is just about 45 minutes – we were delayed on the tarmac about that long it seemed  – but got there safely. We grabbed bags and got a rental and made our way downtown to a condo Ash had managed to snag literally as we were boarding. Long story short: the host of our original booking gave it to someone else, we learned as we were getting ready to board. Ash magically found something – we learned later the guest who was booked pushed their stay out to 7/8 some minutes before – so we would have a place to go when we landed after all. Greg was already waiting to get into the other place so we sent him the info and he was already there when we got there.

    Greg, Mark, and Ash in the dining/kitchen area.

    The living room, AKA Mark’s room.

    Our room.

    Greg’s room.

    And on the right a lovely little balcony. I might just go out there in a bit and see if it feels as small as it looks.

    We pretty much just dropped our bags and talked about our approach to the rest of the day. We parked the car in the condo garage – an adventure in itself – and made our way out. The left photo is us taking the elevator back up to street level. On the right. Ash and Mark in front of a fun Indian place that had a beautiful outdoor area.

    Davie Village is the “gayborhood” here and we are close to it, more a happy accident than anything given the last minute booking. You can see the rainbow flag hanging above Mark in the photo on the right. And it was pretty much on our way to the Convention Center where we were headed.

    We’d decided to stop for coffee and a snack somewhere and Greg led the way. It was helpful having someone who’d come in advance and figured a bunch of stuff out already! We stopped at Fresco.

    It was a cute place and the staff was fun.

    This is Ash’s cortado, a marshmallow latte for Mark, and pistachio cake that we all shared.

    I had a honey jasmine ginger latte, Greg a macchiato, and we all shared a couple of cookies.

    From there we took a right and it was a straight walk through downtown to the water with the Convention Center a bit on our right once we got there.

    Everything here is gorgeous. The architecture is fun and interesting, the city is super clean, everyone is very friendly. Lots of interesting shops and eateries and extremely diverse. We can easily see spending a couple of months here at some point.

    Mark and I at the top of steps heading down to the water. This photo does not do the view behind us justice.

    We came across this Convention sign and just as we were having a photo taken by a random stranger, our friend Tom, also from Sacramento, happened by so we asked him to join us!

    We had all managed to remember to bring the badges that were mailed to our homes, and our goal was to get the lanyards to wear them. Done!

    We were headed to the opening meeting of GALAA – Gays and Lesbians of Alcoholics Anonymous. This is a group like any group, associated with the General Service Office in NYC, which supports the global community in a variety of ways. They planned their own agenda which runs alongside the Convention schedule which gives the community alternatives in a wide variety of social things, mostly which we are going to pass on. But we wanted to go to the opening meeting which served as both a welcome and was also conducted as a regular AA meeting with 4 speakers – all terrific.

    This was a totem pole on the first floor of the convention center. Greg said it’s now the 8th one he’s seen since he’s been here. There is great respect paid to the native tribes, including an acknowledgement read at the beginning of the meeting which is a custom of the city at public events.

    The meeting was on the 2nd floor and there was a balcony which provided these views on the left and right.

    We got there just after 5pm for a 6pm start and are So Glad we did. We managed to snag front row seats and that was beneficial. Although it was a huge room, the people kept coming. Due to the principle of anonymity photos are discouraged and we respected that. But I do wish I could’ve gotten a couple of photos to capture the gathering. After, we estimated there was some 1200-1500 folks at that meeting. Standing room only doesn’t begin to cut it. Ash said he counted 72 people sitting on the floor in front of us. The energy was incredible, and it was a great start to the weekend.

    And we ran into lots of people we knew, especially Ash, which of course happens to him everywhere it goes it seems. But we might as well of been in the Castro. I bet he introduced me to 20 people that I hadn’t met before, so along with the ones we all knew it was a good 30-40 folks – and there are still some we know are here who we haven’t seen yet. So that’s fun (and exhausting if you’re me…).

    But afterwards, we were done. There was a convention block party happening right outside the convention center after the meeting, but we were already ready to get away from all the people! Greg navigated us back to a place he’d already been to twice which happened to be close to our condo.

    Samurai Japanese restaurant.

    Greg and Mark got mixed sushi combos.

    Ash and I got teriyaki and sushi combos.

    The waiter on the far left offered to take our photo after I had gotten up to take one of us. He started with a landscape shot before switching to portrait, which led to comments about going both ways, which fit right into the tone of the day as I’ll let you imagine. But that’s what we’re laughing about in the 2nd pic.

    We are fascinated with this building and you’ll probably see it again. When we were first coming into town, from an angle on the other side it’s a severe optical illusion and it’s hard to understand how it’s even standing because it looks so top heavy. I will try to capture that some other time.

    Random leftover photos of the city. It’s such a beautiful place, we are looking forward to our time here.

    We stopped for groceries on our way back home and called it a night. I uploaded the photos for this and was in bed about 11:45pm, long after everyone else.

    Today is a walking tour in the morning and the big opening meeting of the convention in the evening – 30k+ people in a stadium. Should be interesting!

  • Day 9: The last day; my traditional Final Thoughts

    Day 9: The last day; my traditional Final Thoughts

    We really slept in Tuesday morning, both getting up just before 5am. Well, that’s sleeping in for me, anyway, almost 8 hours of much needed rest.

    I had pretty much done the blog the prior day so just did some final proofing over coffee and got it posted. Like the prior 2 mornings, Ash got coffee for us from Starbucks since they opened at 4:30am.

    We got a bite to eat when the bakery opened at 6am then made our way over to Twelve Coconuts again. The secretary was handing out boxes of chocolate covered macadamia nuts to visitors for reasons unclear, but we certainly didn’t refuse.

    And I was reminded of something I meant to post the day before: at this meeting, ALOHA means A Lot Of Happy Alcoholics. Gotta love that.

    Just a pretty flower on the way to breakfast.

    There was no waiting to sit at the bar so we just did that. I had an acai bowl, Ash had bagel and lox which was beautifully done.

    Vasco was on his own again for the day, so after breakfast we went to Leonard’s, a well-known and loved Portuguese bakery. You can see how many people are hanging about at almost 11am on a Tuesday morning on the left.

    We got a 6-pack of the malasadas puffs and gave them to the flight attendants on the first long leg of our flight home. They were very appreciative! One of them said to me “and here I’d promised myself I wasn’t going to eat on this flight!”

    From there we went back to the room and got ready to go. Since this entry will also include my “Final Thoughts”, I’ll do one of them here:

    Both this hotel and the Sheraton in Kauai had their room keys on these waterproof wristbands. The earlier ones were made differently but same concept and I thought it was super smart. I’d never seen that before. But then, this might be the first time I’ve ever stayed at a beach resort before, too, so that could have something to do with it!

    We’d been hoping to get our checkout extended to 4pm but the best they could do was 1pm. We got out on time and decided to get some lunch.

    On our way to lunch, we decided it was a perfect time to see a movie since we had the entire afternoon to kill. We went back to the food court from the night before and got $2 off chips and salsa and 3 tacos for $10 on this bar’s happy hour menu. We went to a movie theater a couple of miles away and saw “A Complete Unknown,” a biopic about Bob Dylan with Timothy Chalamet in the lead. We both enjoyed it a lot.

    After the movie, we made our way back up to Kailua on the north side of the island, but took the long way around up the east coast. Lots of beautiful stuff. Just a couple of photos here from the couple of stops we made along the way.

    Dinner was a Kalapawai Cafe & Deli, #2 in Kailua on TripAdvisor. Turned out to be Italian despite it’s very Hawaiin sounding name. Which was OK by us. They’d sat us outside initially, but it started raining and we moved indoors and sat at the bar since all the other tables were taken at that point. Seemed to be our place on this day!

    Vasco had coffee encrusted filet mignon; Ash had ahi with risotto; I had a Bolognese which was excellent. The portions were good sized, we passed on dessert, assuming we’d get something on the plane. Which we did.

    From there we went to the airport, turned the car in after filling it up with gas, and relaxed in the American lounge for a couple of hours before we had to board for our 10:30pm flight home.

    Ash and I had been booked in first class from the beginning, wanting the lie-down seats for the overnight flight. His status got Vasco upgraded for free, so he had his first taste of flying in style as well and enjoyed it, of course. We weren’t sure we’d get a full dinner on the plane that late, but we did. Both Ash and Vasco had full meals. I was still full so just had the sundae for dessert. It was yummy.

    We had a connection in Phoenix, with enough time to get some decent coffee in the lounge and use the restroom before got on the last leg. We made it to our house by about 10am on New Year’s Day. And boy, were we glad to be home, as always.

    TieTimTime for my traditional Final Thoughts:

    It’s interesting that Hawaii has only been loosely on our list as a travel destination, mostly coming up in jokes about where we could go spend time where I could also work from so we could travel more than we do now. We did that once for a week in New York and while it mostly worked, I didn’t like the weirdness of being 3 hours ahead. But being 2-3 hours behind, which Hawaii is depending on the time of year, would work great. So that’s always been my response when Ash asks where I’d be willing to spend a week or more working without taking vacation time. (I, of course, also need to see what my work says about all that!)

    But in early August when Vasco said “Hawaii” to our question of where to spend his time off of school for the holidays, neither of us hesitated. We’ve both really enjoyed this, and it ignited our interest in doing more here. We’re already planning on returning. If nothing else, there’s a bridge tournament here that Ash wants to play at in January of 2026, so that’s a good excuse to come and try out me working there for a week. I’ll work while he plays bridge and then we can do stuff late in the day and on the weekends. And once I finally retire (tentatively Spring of 2028), we figured this would be a good place to spend a couple of winter months.

    So, we will definitely be back. What else?

    1. Hitting 3 different islands gave us a great overview. I’d only been to Oahu before, Ash had been to all of them but hadn’t spent much time as those trips were related to the Paradise AIDS Ride back in the day. I think Oahu ended up being everyone’s favorite of the 3 – we’re all city boys at heart and love that vibe with the options for other stuff readily available.
    2. Maui will always be special to Vasco since that’s where he swam with turtles – twice – which was The Thing he was hoping to be able to do.
    3. We ran into people that we knew, and met new folks, all recovery related, and that’s always a treat.
    4. We are definitely not water people. Vasco was, but Ash and I not so much. We knew that going in. Still, we love being BY the water or ON the water, just not necessarily IN the water.
    5. We had amazing weather the entire time. Coming back to 44 degrees was a bigger shock than I anticipated. Getting away during the winter could definitely become a thing.

    That’s probably about it. It’s New Year’s Day, Wednesday; I don’t have to go back to work until Monday. We have little planned and have been looking forward to the next few days of “not much.”

    What’s next? NYC for my birthday weekend in March to see Audra McDonald in Gypsy. And then lots of stuff coming up after Vasco goes home in June, including Vancouver, Botswana again, and an Amazon River cruise next year at Christmas. We look forward to having you join us then!

  • Day 8: A lazy day in Waikiki

    Day 8: A lazy day in Waikiki

    I was up about 3:30am on Monday, after about 5.5 hours of sleep which is sadly normal for me. And mostly enough. I went downstairs to sit on the lanai to work on the blog. Ash texted at 4:50 to say he was up and where was I? He came to join me then left a bit later to get us some coffees when Starbucks opened at 5:30am.

    Then he went and got me another when, after being pretty much done with the blog, the platform crashed and I thought I’d lost everything. While he was gone, I had figured out how to restore a previously saved version and boy did that make me happy.

    When the bakery opened at 6am, we got a bite to eat and then made our way over to an AA meeting that started at 7am. If you’re in recovery and have been to Waikiki, you’re probably familiar with Twelve Coconuts: a meeting that occurs in the middle of a coconut grove. We found it easily and met a friend of Ash’s there, who also happened to be the speaker. I’d been to this meeting once in 1993 and it was fun to be back – such a great spot for the meeting, looking out over the water and I could even see our hotel from across the beach where I was sitting. It was good to be there and we may go back on Tuesday morning.

    Speaking of our hotel, you can easily see where we are staying from anywhere in Waikiki – The Royal Hawaiian is that pink building towards the end of the beach, hence the nickname The Pink Palace. I remember thinking in 1993 it must be a trip to stay there, and this has been on Ash’s bucket list for a long time, so we have been pretty happy with this stay.

    This is the back lawn of the hotel, which you can get to from the Royal Hawaiian Center (mall), and has made a nice short cut when we’ve been returning from Kalakaua Ave.

    By the time we got back to the hotel, Vasco had put us on the list for breakfast, but it was going to be at least 20 minutes before we got a table, so I went back to the room to get some things and took the time to take some more photos of the hotel.

    If you look through the middle of this photo, you can see pink umbrellas and lounges on the other side of the pink wall – these are reserved for guests and of course have to be rented. Vasco had also managed to secure the last one for the day. We figured while we are here, might as well go all out.

    A couple of other photos of the common areas, still beautifully decorated for Christmas.

    Once we got our table, it was a prime location right next to the beach. Ash got an omelet, I got the pink pancakes again, and Vasco got the short rib benedict.

    Vasco stayed on the beach after breakfast and never came back to the room as far as we know until it was time for dinner. We attempted to go to Diamond Head but made a rookie mistake. Not only did it require a reservation – which none were to be had for the remainder of our stay – but we hadn’t even checked into that beforehand so learned that when we got there. Not the first time that’s happened on this trip! We’ve been so busy and were kinda looking forward to not doing much we sort of blew off the planning part. Still, we’ve managed to pack some stuff in, still, right?

    We got back to the hotel and went back up to change, get some water, etc., and joined Vasco down at our reserved chairs on the beach. We then went for a nice walk along the water.

    We came across this interesting sight: a Hawaiian monk seal had made its way to the beach for a nap, which is their normal sleeping place. As soon as a lifeguard or any good citizen that knows the rules spots one, they call the wildlife people who set up protection around them since they are an endangered species. Pretty cool, huh?

    It was close to 1pm when we got back from our walk, and we were ready for a little lunch. Vasco had no interest so we went on our own. After a couple of false attempts near the hotel with long wait times, we went across the street to the International Market Place. This is a huge somewhat-open-air mall that spans the entire block between Kalakaua and Kuhio. This photo is actually the Kuhio entrance. But we encountered lots of great shops and a food hall where we planned to go for dinner with Vasco.

    We settled on Shore Fyre, which was pretty empty so no wait. We split an oriental chicken salad and salmon nachos.

    We did a little more shopping after lunch then made our way back to the room where we just relaxed the rest of the afternoon. (Or, if you’re me, worked on the blog.) We both managed to get little naps in which was nice.

    About 5pm we started to hear the sounds of the luau set up just below us. It looks awfully pink from up here even, doesn’t it?

    If I leaned really close to our window, I could just catch the sunset.

    Vasco got back to the room about 5:45. We left for dinner around 7pm. We went back to the food court, or Food Hall here, of the International Market Place across the street. As predicted, Vasco picked Banzai Burger from the array of choices. Vasco left after dinner for a night on his own, Ash and I walked a bit of Kuhio Ave and then decided we were done.

    The hotel hasn’t confirmed our request for a late check-out today, Tuesday, so we’re not sure if we have to be out by Noon or by 4pm – preferably the latter since our flight isn’t until 10:30pm. We fly to Phoenix then arrive home about 9:30am on Wednesday, New Year’s Day. Due to all that we made zero plans for today except for dinner reservations this evening in Kailua.

    I will do one more entry to share my traditional Final Thoughts if nothing else.

    Happy New Year, everyone!

  • Hawai’i videos REDUX

    Hawai’i videos REDUX

    Let’s try this again. Apologies to subscribers who received notification of the first one but nothing was working. I’ve been having challenges with videos this whole trip but hoping this approach will work.

    Here we go…

    We went to watch the sea turtles come to shore at sunset on PoiPu Beach on Kauai.

    Swimming with a turtle was a big goal for Vasco on this trip. Mission accomplished in Kaanapali on Maui.

    The north shore on Oahu is known for big beautiful waves, so this was my attempt to capture some of that.

    Tree tunnel: exactly what it sounds like. Although not all that unlike our neighborhood in Sacramento!

    Hanalei Bay was a beautiful stop on the north shore of Kauai and I wanted to remember it.

  • Day 7: Oahu beaches, Waimea Falls & Botanical Gardens

    Day 7: Oahu beaches, Waimea Falls & Botanical Gardens

    I slept in a bit for me on Saturday, not up until about 4:20am. Although we had great coffee in the room, I didn’t want to wake anyone up so I took a bottle of water and went downstairs to the lanai to work on the blog.

    I got it up before 6am and went back upstairs to drop off the computer and collect Ash for breakfast.

    This is the bakery and coffee shop that’s also on the lanai. When we checked in we were given a card to come here and get a treat but we didn’t know what it was. Turns out it was 3 pastries – probably because there are 3 of us. So, we picked a coconut strudel, a raspberry creme filled something, and a guava bundt cake. And you’ll have to trust me that they were beautiful because I forgot to take a photo.

    We also got a complimentary continental breakfast for each of us at the restaurant for each morning, so we made our way there. We got a great table just where we like to be – under a roof but on the edge of being outside. It was raining most of the morning so we avoided the wet although the folks sitting under the umbrellas didn’t seem to mind. I took several shots of our view to mark the sunrise as we sat there.

    Ash got the continental breakfast to see what it was, which wasn’t much. So he later ordered a side of eggs.

    If you didn’t want to continental breakfast, there were menu items you could order for a $20 reduction in price. Always willing to do the “when in Rome” thing, I got the pink pancakes. They were actually very good. The pink comes from beet powder, which added an interesting texture and natural sweetness. I would get them again.

    Vasco joined us about 7:30am but he wasn’t very hungry so just had some coffee and some of the pastries that we’d gotten from the bakery. We finalized our plan for the day which was to go up to Kailua then head over to Waimea Falls and then come back. It would give him a good sense of the island which, at 227 miles around, changes a lot in terrain and can take a long time to do the whole thing.

    For this entire trip, pretty much any time something was marked as “Lookout” we stopped to check it out. This was the first one of the day, a little after 9:30am. It was OK but you can see the terrain changed quite a bit from Waikiki beach.

    We stopped at Kailua Beach next but I didn’t include photos. We made a LOT of stops this day and took lots of photos, so I got picky about what to include in the blog. We were here a good 30 minutes or more. Ash was on the phone most of the time (mine, because he’d left his in the room!) and I took photos of Vasco in the water.

    Tropical Farms Macadamia Nut Outlet. Vasco and I gave Ash a hard time about this stop but it turned out to be a great one. They had samples of nearly everything. We bought nuts, butters and coffee, for ourselves and for gifts.

    Vasco got his coconut, which he has almost every time we’ve come across one of these. And they cut it open for him and scraped out the meat when he was done drinking the water. They had condiments for it even – we chose coconut condensed milk and guava powder.

    I thought this view coming out of the place was definitely photo worthy.

    GPS tagged this location as Kaneohe-Kualoa 2. It was a tiny beach just next to the road. The two photos above and below were taken here. Vasco really wanted to use that tree for some photos of him and we had to wait quite a while for this couple that was sitting by it to leave. It was clear they were going to, just took forever to clean sand off their feet, etc.

    GPS simple tagged these 2 above and below as Oahu. I looked at the map again and couldn’t tell you which beach it was, but it was along Kaneohe Bay somewhere.

    We had seen signs for this Shrimp Shack along the way and initially didn’t stop but, like that other place, Ash really wanted to so we went back. And again, it was a great stop. They’ve been showcased on the Food Network and the line got incredibly long after we placed our order so our timing was good.

    There were tables along the front of a market it was next to, and the beach is just across the highway from us.

    Vasco had mozzarella cheese sticks and calamari across the top. I had coconut shrimp bottom right, and Ash had grilled shrimp and mahi. All terrific.

    This was Sunset Point Beach Park, just on the downside of that northern peak of the island to be on the north shore. And you could tell by the changes in the waves. I took a nice video here but have been struggling with videos on this trip for some reason, so will find a way to add them later. At any rate, big, beautiful waves here.

    By 2:30pm, we’d made it to Waimea Falls and Botanical Gardens. Really stunning place, the photos won’t really do it justice. And, like the falls the day before, the water flow not very impressive. But it was still a great stop.

    We made it back to the hotel just before 5pm. Vasco when downstairs to catch some beach time before the sun set. Ash had forgotten his phone here so he got caught up on messages and I worked on culling the many photos we’d taken throughout the day. All with a beautiful view.

    We left again about 7pm for dinner. This display is in the Royal Hawaiian Center, a mall that the hotel connects to in various ways.

    Duke’s is a very popular restaurant and bar with some beach seating that had been recommended to us. We tried to make reservations but they weren’t accepting any for the nights we were here – apparently you have to make them pretty far in advance. But the website says to come by anyway, so we did the day before, and learned that they have walk-in seating available every night, you just have to wait.

    Tonight’s wait was going to be 2 hours to order off the main menu. Or, you could sit in the bar now and order off the more casual menu. Sold.

    We were literally at the first table in the bar. The 2nd photo is a shot of the regular dining room I took when I went wandering. This place is HUGE. That’s maybe 20% of it. The dish is mine – Korean steak tacos. Most impressive was the 2nd one still held together after I ate the first one – usually the tortilla falls apart by then.

    Vasco got a mango bacon BBQ burger, Ash had a fried chicken BLT with a Cesar salad.

    We went for a walk up Kalakaua after dinner, all the way to end of Waikiki Beach then turned around. The view on the way back with all the hotels lit up along the beach was beautiful.

    Kaui

    Maui

    Oahu

    A little bit of a geeky thing to do, but that’s not going to stop me: I love the way iPhone shows the map of the world in Photos and you can see where all of your photos were taken. These screen shots give a fun perspective on how much of each island we covered on this trip.

    I told Ash yesterday I would be fine if we didn’t get in a car today. We’ve done a ton of driving on this trip. We will probably go to Diamondhead which isn’t too far, but otherwise we plan on taking advantage of the hotel amenities. Vasco is committed to a full day at the beach. So we’ll see how it all goes.

  • Day 6: On to Oahu – The Royal Hawaiian, Manoa Falls

    Day 6: On to Oahu – The Royal Hawaiian, Manoa Falls

    Saturday morning, I was up at my normal 4am or so and worked on the blog. Ash was up not too far behind me. Once that was up, we did the final packing we needed to do which wasn’t much since we’d only been here 2 nights. We made sure Vasco was up by 7:30 and we were out the door by 8am to stop for gas, breakfast, and then head to the airport.

    After getting gas, we stopped at Tobi’s for food and coffee. Ash and I shared an acai bowl and Vasco had one for himself. A tasty, light start to the day.

    We had a 10:36am flight to Honolulu. It’s a very short flight. Everything went according to plan with bags and rental car, and we were leaving the Honolulu airport by about Noon.

    Ash and I were pretty excited about where we were staying. If you’ve ever been to Waikiki, you’ve probably seen it: The Royal Hawaiian, aka “the pink palace.” Below is a shot of the main entrance. It’s a Marriott property and Ash was able to use his status to get us a sweet upgrade for free. That’s Ash and Vasco walking ahead of me.

    This was built in 1927 on prior palace grounds of King Kamehameha I.

    It’s a very nice room with a great view of the water and Diamondhead. Not too shabby.

    We did a little unpacking and made our way out for a bite to eat and our first activity. We decided to just stop at a Subway that was on the way but when we walked in we realized there was no place to sit. Oh well. We got our sandwiches anyway and ate them on the drive inland to Manoa Falls, about 25 minutes away from the hotel.

    Manoa Falls is in a rain forest and, not surprisingly, it rained a little on the way in and a little more while we were there. It was interesting how unbothered everyone was about it. There were a lot of people out here and I only noticed 2 wearing raincoats. The girl at entry said it was about a 45-minute hike to the falls and that’s about what it took us.

    The scenery was just gorgeous and gave Vasco lots of photo opportunities.

    My attempt to show how steep it was towards the end.

    There wasn’t much water running by the time we got to the destination. This was the definition of anti-climactic. But, like the Road to Hana, it’s about the journey!

    We rested a little bit before we made our way back down. It was interesting to see how the changes in where the sun was shining on the way down changed the look of things.

    This photo blows my mind. As did the scene when I first came upon it. The sun was a bit lower than on our walk up and it was hitting this passage through trees directly onto this tall tree that was sort of alone and it was positively lit up from the right side as we’re looking at it. Everything around it had a glow to it. And you can see from the people there taking photos how huge this was, with the mountains in the background making it very majestic. It took my breath away when I walked upon it and will every time I see this photo.

    This is that same tree from a different angle, and with that same glowy effect in the background and the sun hitting the green mountains. I do love the green mountains here, on all the islands we’ve been on.

    Same spot still just a different angle. Photo courtesy of Vasco.

    We made our way back. Our hotel is connected to the Sheraton Waikiki, also a Marriott property, and they share a parking garage where we left the car. We encountered this amazing sand structure on our walk from the garage.

    Vasco went to the beach while Ash and I went for a walk. This is a walkway that lines the interior courtyard of the hotel. Take a right at the end to get to the pool area.

    Are you tired of pink yet? Pool area on the right. On the left is the hotel from the beach. That middle window on the top floor? That’s our room.

    Waikiki Beach and Diamondhead.

    We made our way to Kalakaua Ave, the main drag in Waikiki. Lots of restaurants and high-end shopping. And a completely different vibe than the rest of the islands, including this one.  I took a photo looking each way as we crossed Kalakaua. One of the few things I remembered about being here in 1993 was they have “all walks” which I love. This means all of the pedestrians cross at the same time, regardless of the direction they are going. Even diagonally. Which we did. It makes so much more sense to me, I don’t know why every city doesn’t do this.

    We stopped at an ABC store to pick up a few things before making our way back to the hotel to rest a bit before dinner. If you’re not familiar with ABC, it’s another thing I love about Hawaii. Think super convenience store. Pretty much anything you need you can find.

    We went to Roy’s, by a chef named Roy Yamaguchi, less than a 10-minute walk away from the hotel. They sat us on the sidewalk which was great. We’d had a light breakfast and dinner and made up for it here. I thought we ordered too many appetizers, but it was all gone: salmon on pita bread, Brussel sprouts, and a sampler of spring rolls, kim chi, a spicy tuna roll, and shrimp.

    Ash had the butterfish.

    Vasco got a sushi roll.

    I had the Waikiki combo which was honey mustard short ribs and macadamia nut encrusted mahi mahi.

    For me at any rate, this was the best meal of the trip. Every bite was amazing. And it wasn’t nearly as expensive as those other two we had, and miles better than the first one on Christmas Eve.

    The front courtyard of the hotel lights up the amazing banyan trees there in pink lights. What else?

    And that was our first day in Oahu. I literally have no idea what we are doing today. We talked about a number of options at dinner but don’t remember what we landed on. Come back tomorrow and find out!

  • Day 5: More beaches; The Road to Hana

    Day 5: More beaches; The Road to Hana

    On Friday, Ash and I were both up about 4:30am. We made coffee and he watched a movie on Netflix (“Carry-On”) while I worked on the blog, which was done about 6am. Vasco was up by 6:30am. We got organized around laundry which we’re able to do here and waited for the load to be done in the wash so we could put it in the dryer before we headed out.

    We got on the road about 8:30am, made it to Lahaina before stopping for (more) coffee and a bite at Starbucks (our one accepted exception to the “don’t eat anywhere you can eat at home” rule). Long story short: we had some false starts on finding a place for Vasco to snorkel and decided to move on, but not before he was able to snap this beauty of us.

    We then went back to the same place we were at the day before in the Kaanapali area and stayed there for about an hour. Ash and I literally just sat on the beach – under the shade of a big tree – while Vasco was out in the water. It might have been the most relaxing hour of the trip so far.

    When he returned, we went out in search of lunch. We’d noticed on the way in a curbside area with a farmer’s market and food trucks which would be on the way back to Kihei, so we stopped there.

    We got tacos from the food truck for lunch. Vasco got a fresh coconut water from the market. When he was done, another customer parked next to us got out his machete and cut it open for him so he could eat the meat!

    We made our way back to Kihei and stopped at the first beach that was listed on Boss Frog’s snorkel report, Kameohe.

    It had been cloudy all day and now was even more so. Vasco was talking to friends in Portugal and Ash and I went for a walk. At the end of this beach was a rocky area where a kid had built a sandcastle. He later came up to me and handed me two rocks and said I could place them on it if I wanted. Well or course I had to then.

    Ash was inviting me to sit on the rocks by the water to get a photo. I’m pointing out how wet the rocks are and how big the waves are, but he insisted. It made for a great photo, right before a big wave came and got us from the waist down before we could get away. He twisted his calf in the attempt to move quickly so was moving pretty slowly the rest of the day.

    This is my first time to Maui, and the only thing I’d known about it was The Road to Hana. And I hadn’t learned about that from a tourist or travel source, but from a self-help or management talk I heard or book I read – I don’t remember the details. I just remember this guy’s story about how for him, The Road to Hana was his life lesson in: it’s about the journey, not the destination.

    We’d had our fill of the beach after 2 days of not much else and made out way in that direction. Our Airbnb is one block off of Hana Highway, which is literally the other side of the island from where we were. It took an hour to get from the beach to our first stop (after stopping to drop off the snorkel equipment).

    We made our way to the first waterfalls we saw on the map, which seem to be located on a private farm which allows visitors. And plenty of other people had the same idea. The parking lot was full, with cars waiting to get in. We chanced it and parked on the road just outside of the lot. We came across the first waterfall pretty quickly. The terrain here had changed completely, and it was more jungle-like, lush and beautiful.

    The sign says: WARNING. Rugged Hazardous Trail. You could fall and be seriously injured or killed.

    Ash and I were just in flip-flops. We passed. Yes, that’s Vasco you see half-way down the trail behind the sign. The treat at the end was another waterfall, with a smaller one behind that.

    We walked a ways more and got to the major attraction of the whole thing, this larger falls at the end of the stream. Ash and I stayed back but that’s Vasco there in the pool at the end, on the right with his camera out. He had walked ahead of us because we were walking pretty slowly with Ash’s calf still hurting.

    Closeups of a couple of flowers on our way back to the car. I’d never seen a peace lily in the wild before.

    We continued along the Hana Highway to make one more stop before it got too dark. This isn’t a road you want to drive at night. The lanes are narrow and often just one of them, and lots of curves and sharp turns. These are Eucalyptus Rainbow Trees. Appropriately named, don’t ya think?

    Vasco asked to stop at this spot marked as a lookout on our way back. He was focused on taking photos of flowers by the road. I went down to the lookout area and came across picnic tables, restrooms, and a spot where someone had been selling bananas and other things. But it was a good stop. If you look closely in the middle of the photo on the right you’ll see the ocean.

    We made our way back to the house. We returned the beach chairs they’d let us borrow, and Ash and Vasco took showers before we made our way out for dinner. We went into the town of Paia, a few miles down the road. We decided on Flatbread Company for dinner, #2 of 27 on TripAdvisor. There was a ton of people waiting, so were surprised to learn the wait time was only 30-45 minutes; we’d been expecting 90.

    At the end of the block was a little place you could buy a picnic lunch for your Road to Hana journey. They also had gelato. Under the premise of “life is uncertain, eat dessert first” we of course stopped for a treat.

    We got a large pizza which was primarily for Vasco. Ash and I each has one slice but primarily ate salads. We also shared a cheesecake amongst the three of us. All terrific.

    And that was our day. We leave in a few hours for Honolulu where we will stay through Tuesday afternoon.

  • Day 4: Three beaches in Maui; dinner at The Plantation House

    Day 4: Three beaches in Maui; dinner at The Plantation House

    Thursday morning started just like the prior two – me up early, downstairs just after 4am to work on the blog, Ash joining around 5:30 for coffee, breakfast at 6. But once we were done, we got moving to pack to leave for the airport by 8:30. We had a 10:30 flight to Maui and while the airport was only about 15 minutes away, we wanted to give ourselves lots of time.

    Everything went the way you want it to when you’re flying, and we arrived on time about 11:15am. We are staying at an Airbnb and check-in wasn’t until 2pm, so after we collected bags and our rental, we headed south to Kihei for lunch and some beach exploring.

    I went to TripAdvisor for some lunch ideas and decided on Nalu’s South Shore Grill, which was rated #1 of 102 in the area.

    And it turned out to be a pretty good option. We started with Volcano Fries as an appetizer – with sriracha aioli and sesame seeds, very tasty. I had a Korean bulgogi burger with homemade potato chips.

    Ash and Vasco both got the poke bowl, and we split an acai bowl for dessert. Everything was great!

    After lunch we went to Boss Frog’s to rent snorkeling equipment for Vasco. We ended up getting some for all 3 of us; we’ll see if Ash and I ever use it!

    Our first stop was at Malauka Beach.

    Vasco went into the water and Ash and I went for a walk.

    The land mass in the distance is the far west side of Maui, where we would be later in the day.

    There wasn’t much to see from a snorkeling perspective, so we moved on once Ash and I returned from our walk. Our next stop was Makena Beach a little further south. We went our separate ways again – Vasco in the water, us on a walk. That land in the distance we think is an island called Kaho’olawe.

    When we returned from our walk, Vasco was way out in the water. He returned very excited to have seen a turtle. This was the first thing he would say when you asked him what he was excited about for this trip: swimming with turtles. So he was thrilled that happened the 2nd time out.

    Our next stop was Kaanapali Beach, up along the far west side of the island. A friend of Vasco’s had been there before – when she was here a couple of years ago on an exchange program – and told him that she had swam with turtles there. And we had to go that direction anyway since it just so happened to be on the way to the dinner reservations we had. And mission accomplished again – he came across a turtle this time, too, and pretty sure he saw an octopus as well. And I caught a cool silhouette of him with the sun setting.

    For dinner we went to The Plantation House, up along the far northwest corner of the island. It was very nice, and we were glad that we’d changed clothes at the last stop. For a minute there we were afraid we were the only guys in shorts but turned out we were not alone. My goal is to not wear pants or socks on this whole trip. So far, so good.

    They gave us arguably the best seat in the house in the corner. We had a lovely view until the sun set completely.

    The map on the right gives you an idea of the ground we covered today. The far-left corner spot is this restaurant. The next spot across the top is the airport; to the right of that is the Airbnb where we ended up. And the first two beaches we went to were in that area circled at the bottom. We had no idea this island was this big – 2nd in size after Hawaii, with Oahu in 3rd and Kauai in 4th.

    For starters, Ash and I both had the scallops. Ash did his “two appetizers” thing again and also got the Brussel sprouts. All excellent. Vasco had friend calamari but I didn’t get a photo of that. The last photo is Ash’s main, seared ahi.

    Vasco and I both had the beef wellington, which was a much better version than the one we had on Christmas Eve. He had “island cheesecake” for dessert and I had pineapple upside down cake with coconut ice cream. Overall, this was a significantly better experience than the other night, at roughly the same price. Thanks, Greg Wine, for the suggestion!

    And that was our day. It took over an hour to get to our Airbnb which is in a town called Haiku. We got settled in and Ash went straight to bed. I showered and worked on the blog a bit, just to get everything started.

    Today, well, we have no real plans. So we’ll see what we come up with for our one full day here. We leave tomorrow morning for Honolulu.