Hawaii, day three

Hawaii, day the third.  I woke up and abandoned Marie to head out for a walk. 

Oh, so dramatic.  She was awake early, but she was disinclined to walk, so I set out on my own, past the convention center

and over to go along at least part of the Ala Wai Canal

before ducking more into Waikiki. 

Look, a rooster!

It promised to be another good and easy day.  Marie and I ended up at Liliha Bakery in Macy's for a breakfast, which - you guessed it - involved Spam. 

I joke about having Spam every day whilst in Hawaii, but this was the last of it I had.  Sadly.

From there, it was over to the Outrigger Canoe Club. 

Some beach time,

a close-ish encounter with an endangered monk seal

(signage helped to cordon off an area around it), mai tais

and poke

(each were a good price, neither was all that great), then back to the beach for a while

before finally getting in the water.  I know I was snoring at one point in those beach chairs, and I swear I read at least a few pages of my book.  Just easy and relaxing time for us both.

For dinner that night I booked us at Stage Restaurant in the design center. 

I'd been there once with Conrad, and my dim memories of it were fond.  Not so much now, perhaps.  Oh, not bad, but it wasn't the dinner I wanted, we wanted.  Just getting into the building was a weird adventure of walking up a drive into the building parking, and that in itself wasn't easy to find.  The restaurant was strangely quiet.  This was dinnertime on a Friday, and the whole time we were there, there was only one other table (a large one, celebrating a birthday or something) in the dining room and maybe four in the wine bar.  I always get nervous about places that have no customers, wondering what everyone else knows that I don't.

In any case, Marie and I

had a prime table, front a center in the windows overlooking the intersection. 

We sat in a, hmmm, bench?  Couch?  Not sure, but side by side.  The table was raised up to us, but because of where we sat in relation, I felt I was always hunching forward to get to my food and drink.  The service started out strongly, but at a certain point, we didn't see the original server any longer.  The martini was fine,

the wine flight was fine,

the amuse was good (though the bread was too large). 

I liked the dessert, which featured elderflower. 

I think the Caesar salad variation that Marie and I shared was the best dish, and that's not faint praise. 

It really was good.  My pork belly was fine. 

Marie's fish was overcooked, but she said nothing and soldiered through.  It was a goodly amount of food and drink, and I appreciated the bit of a walk back to the hotel.  But it wasn't a great meal, just some parts that we liked.  Odd.

To bed not long after that.  Another day of relaxation and such beckoned.... 

no, that's not me!

I'm rather paler than that.  But I can see how there would be confusion!

I kid.  A monk seal took up beach space yesterday, and we had to navigate around it at a defined distance to get to the water.  Another one was on the next section of beach.  Regulars, according to the beach attendant.  Cool to see it!

Italy recap: on to Lezzeno

I need to say this before anything else:  Conrad deserves so much thanks and appreciation for doing ALL of the driving when we were in Italy.  He drove in cities (Bologna) and on freeways and on those narrow roads clinging to the hills that surround Lake Como.  For that last one, he merits some sort of award.  He got us to our last two destinations (and partway back to Rome, from where we flew home).

And kudos, too, to Van.  I don't think it's giving away any confidences to share that Van, like many, can be prone to car sickness.  No reading in the car for him.  And the front seat is better.  So he sat up there beside Conrad and provided excellent navigation.

Me?  I stayed quiet so as not to rattle anyone, chiming in conversationally from time to time, but otherwise occupying a back seat and reading when the landscape wasn't captivating.  So I did my part, right?

It was a somewhat rainy morning when Conrad went with Van to pick up the rental car.  I got the (heavy) bags down to street, and once we were loaded in, we were off northward.  Our destination:  Lezzeno.

I'll be honest:  the scenery was not amazing for the early part of the drive.  A lot of it was kind of flat, agricultural.  Important to Italy, not a tourist attraction.  That's fine.  But then we neared Lecco, and things got more interesting.  As we passed that town, an arm of Lake Como came into view.  Despite the grey weather, we stopped to admire and take photos.

Lake Como is shaped like an inverted Y.  Imagine the triangle that is formed by the two prongs.  We came up the western shore of the eastern prong (still with me?), rounded the bend, and came partway down the eastern shore of the western prong.  Got it?  Good.  Lezzeno was the community we were headed to, and Filario was the hotel. 

We made it there late afternoon and checked in.

The hotel property includes what look to be residences that either the hotel owns and lets out or that individuals own and the hotel manages and lets out.  I'm not sure which.  Our room was really a two-bedroom, one-and-a -half bathroom townhouse that was on the other side of the pool

from the main hotel building. 

That gave us lots of space, not to mention balcony and patio overlooking the lake.

We could sit there (and I did at least once) watching hotel guests and ferries

and other boats on the lake going by.  We overlooked beach cabanas

that we might have used given some good weather.  Ah well.  A mixed weather bag on the trip, but we enjoyed it all.

Once unpacked, we had no real plans.  Once again, we had a nice dinner booked, but for our first night, we simply went to the beach bar and sat out by the lake, enjoying what was the best pizza I had on the trip

and cocktails all around,

including a Hugo for me. 

Evening closed in,

we grabbed a bottle of wine and returned to the room to relax and read and eventually go to bed.

appreciation for the city

Two nights in Vancouver, two morning walks, both of them without Conrad, who opted to stay in bed.  He's so cute.

I think I might have said this before, but I didn't like Vancouver when I was younger.  Too big, too much for a smalltown boy to deal with.  I knew very little of the city (and I won't pretend to know all that much all that well now).  It wasn't my favourite place despite it being my birthplace.  My, how things change.

I could see myself living in Vancouver one day.  Or Victoria.  Or the Sunshine Coast.  But Vancouver offers a lot.  On the Friday morning, I set off southeast-ish

then came along the False Creek waterfront and eventually back to the hotel.  I caught some photos,

but mostly walked and listened to music and felt great about being back in the city.  When I got back to the room, Conrad was up and around, and we wandered the the nearby Honolulu Coffee Company to start our day together.

Saturday morning I set out in the opposite-ish direction,

walking a bunch through the West End before coming along the water in English Bay

and back to the hotel.  I took almost no photos on that walk, but just enjoyed the sunny, cool weather and being out on foot.

I'm not dumb.  Vancouver is a city with the problems of a city.  Our condo when we owned it looked out on a lot of those problems.  It is a far from perfect place.  But then you walk about, see the bigger and smaller details, and you think how delightful the place really can be.