where we are

Hey, it’s me, checking off another state visited.  Number 33:  Rhode Island.  

We flew from Chicago to Providence earlier this afternoon, and we have settled into our hotel downtown.

 It’s a grey, damp day, but ah well.  It’s a nice break from the SoCAL heat.

More blogging to come in days ahead!

Hawaii, day one

I'm back from Hawaii and settled in at home.  Next week will actually be a full week of work at work (well, maybe Friday will be remote).  Bizarre!  There is plenty to catch up on, and I thought I would take Hawaii day by day since there are many photos, and a decent amount of narrative.  Ready?  Let's go!

Hawaii, day one, is really the tale of getting there.  And the tale is not an arduous one, I promise.  Heck, I didn't even have to get up early for my flight!  I got the airport late morning and parked in the lounge to do a little bit of work there. 

The flight was scheduled for about 1:00 in the afternoon, and I was in business class on the way there

(cute little amenities kit!). 

I got on the plane, had lunch in the air,

dozed a bunch, watched some things on my iPad (The Gentlemen on Netflix, a few episodes, funny stuff), and read a little as well (Underland by Robert McFarlane).  The flight took us over the Channel Islands on the continent side of things,

and then after a long while, the Big Island came into view. 

I was happy to have the window seat!  We flew past Honolulu and approached the airport from the west, coming in over the suburban communities there.

The trip was scheduled for a work matter that I'll get to in a later post.  I took advantage of that to enjoy a few days in Honolulu and invite Marie to join me.  She wouldn't arrive until much later that evening, though, so I had a handful of hours to myself.  I booked us a suite at the same hotel where I was told to stay for the work, and the suite proved to be a nice one.  It was roomy - I gave Marie the bedroom

and took the pull-out sofa for myself

- and the view of Manoa and the convention center and the canal and even a glimpse of the water was welcome. 

Yes, you did have to crane your neck a little for that water view,

but not badly so, especially out on the balcony.

I got myself unpacked, and then it was to the mall.  Oh yes.  We were staying at the Ala Moana Hotel, and that meant we were right at the one end of the Ala Moana Shopping Center.  Now, I'm NOT a mall person, generally speaking, but Ala Moana is really something else.  Super high-end designer stores, inexpensive souvenir shops.  Multiple department stores.  Groceries.  It's a big complex, and just going end to end helps the step count.  Marie and I would visit it several times, but on that first day last Wednesday, I had one thing in mind:  musubi.

I think it's funny that so many people disparage Spam.  Yes, it's processed, full of fat, sodium, and sugar.  But it also uses up animal parts, and I appreciate that.  Besides, since when do we not like fat, sodium, or sugar?  The people who make a fuss to me when I post about Spam are the true food snobs, a label that has been leveled at me many more times than I find amusing.  But no, there I am, eating as much Spam as possible on the trip, starting with that delicious treat.  I picked it up at Foodland along with some snacks, water, and wine for the room, and I didn't really eat much more than that for my dinner that night.

Sunset,

and then, as it does in Honolulu, the sky grew dark quickly. 

I hung out, waiting for Marie.  Not long after she arrived, it was time to crash - at this time of year, Honolulu is 3 hours behind us in SoCal, so it was past 1AM for me in reality.  Marie and I had a few days together to enjoy, and we wouldn't miss out by getting a night of sleep.

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....

we made it home!

Lots of BC blogging to come in days ahead - fun! - but for now, a hello and a reassurance that we made it home.  See?  That there is Pasadena at the foot of the mountains there.

See you all soon!