back from travels

Howdy!

The travels of recent days are done.  We boarded a flight in Cincinnati

yesterday, connected through Denver, and made it home in time to unpack, unwind, get to bed.  I'll be posting in the days ahead, and my apologies for going so long without posting.  It was a very good trip, and I just didn't make time for blogging while enjoying Nashville and Cincinnati (well, Covington) with Conrad and Van.

So, more to come!  Stay tuned.   

spring break vacation, Day 8

All good vacations come to an end, alas.  It's not so bad, I guess - I often find that the bedding and pillows on hotel room beds are the worst part of any vacation, and it's a delightful relief to crawl into my own bed after I have returned home.  And as much as I love to dine out, I find that my system appreciates it when I eat at home and eat a little simpler.  The joys of getting older, right?

We did have a good half day in Boston before needing to head to the airport.  We duly got our walking gear on

and headed around the Seaport area (once we got our Starbucks to start the day!).  It was a beautiful spring morning once again,

which promised for an on-time and easy departure later.  We strolled, taking photos, then headed back to the hotel for a bite of breakfast and final packing.

We also had time for brunch before heading to Logan.  I steered us to Row 34 for a bite.  A Hugh-No Spritz (non-alcoholic) for me,

a few oysters to share,

a tasty but maybe a little too garlicky avocado and crab toast,

and we had suitable food in our bellies.  Nice place though it felt like we were sort of stranded in this weird family room and with a somewhat indifferent server.  Still, I'd go back to try it again.

On to the airport where we parked in the lounge a goodly while before boarding our first flight. 

A connection in Chicago,

and we were on the ground at LAX late that night.  Bed, when we crawled into it somewhere around 1 in the morning, felt really darn good. 

Hawaii, day seven

You will be not be surprised, I am sure, to find that day seven of the Hawaii trip started in much the same fashion as day six.  That is to say, a walk.  And a longer one than the day before - we weren't due to meet in the lobby until a half hour later than the previous day.  The morning walk included part of the park but part of Waikiki first. 

And yes, a few photos from the stroll. 

A good start to the morning!

Oh, and I wore a new shirt with a cool manta ray pattern on it.  Love it! 

The work at the college went easily that day.  The morning was busy, but by shortly after lunch, we had finished what we needed to do and were waiting for the mid-afternoon report-out.  That event happened quickly, and before too long, we had made our return to Honolulu.

I've done five of these teams now, and this one was the one that went the smoothest and easiest and quickest.  But that also made it the one where the team members bonded the least.  We had dinner together the night before, and we had two breakfasts and two lunches at the college, but as soon as we got back to the hotel on that last day in Hawaii, the team chair was out the door of the van, thanking us each sincerely, and then heading off to his room, not to be seen again.  The assistant chair (or whatever the title may have been) beat a similar path but lingering several minutes longer.  That left the four of us to head to Pint and Jigger for drinks.

I like that bar.  I don't like the sports bar aspect to it, but I like the bar.  Good drinks!  I asked for one called Mr. Fancy Pants,

and the server was very careful to make sure that I might like it.  Like, super cautious.  And I get it.  Cynar is weird, not everyone likes mezcal.  But it was, in essence, a mezcal negroni, and I do like those, and so I liked my cocktail. 

As we went for round two, one of my colleagues decided she liked it as well.  I'm sure the bar was a little gratified that we all did!

Drinks done, we went our separate ways.  I could have invited one of them to dinner with me, but no, I decided to have a last evening to myself.  I hemmed and hawed (I get weirdly anti-social in situations like this and sometimes would prefer to have delivery food or something and just watch television I've seen before) and eventually got myself over to the Halekulani for a light bite at House Without a Key.  And it was nice.  It rained lightly on us.  My cocktail - a mai tai

- was good but not as good as what I'd had three nights earlier at Orchids.  The food was fine - some loaded fries and a mildly bland tuna tataki.  I enjoyed the singing and hula - the current Miss Hawaii was the dancer (but she sang a bit as well). 

It was all very pleasant.  But I felt guilty that I was there without Conrad and Van.  Oh, we would have loved being there together.  Sigh.

I spent the rest of my evening packing.  I was at the airport

early the next day, which meant time in the United Club there,

one of the nicer ones in my experience.  And, lo!  The one seat available for upgrade on my flight was assigned to me.  1A for the ride home to California. 

Good work done, good time spent, good food and wine enjoyed - I'd call the trip a success.

I can't wait to go back to Hawaii....

getting there

We're into August, and so the title of this entry has a double meaning.  It's documenting the getting there on our recent vacation, but it's also a reflection of my Christmas-mania and how much I yearn for the holiday season (and to escape the heat of summer).  I'm playing Christmas-adjacent music this morning while I write this blog and cards and such to friends.  Sorry, not sorry.  It puts me in a nice mood.

Anyway, the getting there, vacationwise.  Let's tackle that.  I'll break up the vacation into a few entries, as is my usual wont.  Shall we get going?

Going back a week and a half, then, we found ourselves not at Burbank Airport, our now-preferred starting point, but at LAX. 

Ah well.  A direct flight to Vancouver is a good thing.  We had lounge time,

then boarded,

and it was a smooth flight north.  A window seat for me for a change, and so I caught the view from time to time and enjoyed picking out familiar landmarks and locales from above. 

It was a quick transit through customs, a long wait for our bags, and then upstairs in the airport to the Fairmont Hotel there.  Our room

had a nice view over the airport itself,

and the next day I spent a little time just peacefully watching planes landing.

The trip was a birthday trip for two of us.  A mini-milestone for me during the trip, and celebrating a larger milestone for Courtney to come later this month.  She and Robert were due to land later that evening, so Conrad, Van, and I hopped onto the Canada Line and headed into downtown Vancouver

to meet Marie at the Club for dinner. 

What a gorgeous evening for sitting out on the patio. 

So good.  Cocktails and a nice meal (a poke bowl for me),

and catching up. 

We would see Marie again a few days later, and the day after that, but it was nice to have her just to ourselves. 

I'll see a lot of her this year, happily.

Back at the hotel, Conrad and I let Van go to bed early and headed to the hotel bar to meet up with Courtney and Robert and enjoy a nightcap.  That nightcap turned out to be a BC red,

from a winery I did not know, but I've enjoyed the Similkameen reds in the past, so we took a chance.  And enjoyed it!  It would have been better with some food, I admit, but it was otherwise good.

Thursday morning we checked out, picked up the rental car (the convenience of staying at a hotel built into the airport!), and the five of us were on the road.  I have seen the route before, and I am a little bendier than Conrad, so he did the driving into the Okanagan, and I was crammed into the very back. 

That's ok - uninterrupted napping!  We stopped for lunch in Hope (no photos, sorry) and then kept on to Kamloops, passing through that city an continuing along the river to Monte Creek Winery.

I didn't want to make this whole trip about wine tasting, I swear, though that is a very easy thing to do in the Okanagan.  I couldn't resist us stopping here, though.  First off, the modern building

in the Thompson Valley setting is quite something, especially with blue summer skies. 

Second, it broke the trip into thirds, which was nice - two hours for each segment, which was manageable for all.  So we stopped, and Courtney, Robert, and I sipped some wines,

buying a few bottles among us.

And then back on the road, taking the old route from Kamloops to Vernon, skirting through the western side of that town, then up into the hills south of the city and between the lakes to our hotel:  Predator Ridge.  A golf resort, curiously enough, and I'll comment on that in a future post.  But we were here, our destination for three nights.  With great thanks to our lovely driver, Conrad.  We settled in,

and started on the Okanagan part of our vacation....