holiday spirit

I maintain that there are no ugly holiday sweaters, merely holiday sweaters.  To be worn and celebrated!

Thus...

Not my only Christmas outfit of the week, I promise! 

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....

Britpop cocktails

A break from the Hawaii posts for a moment and catching you up on the recent goings-on at home instead.  Yes, it's monthly online happy hour time!

In honour of the recent Oasis and Pulp concert-going, and because it's Allison's birthday month, the group went with a BritPop theme for the drinks.  Now, I have to say, this was a tricky one for some people.  Allison and I are such big fans of BritPop that it needs no explanation for us.  We can just go with it and have fun.  Chris came through nicely with an Elastica allusion in one cocktail.  Marie or maybe Rachel or Van or Conrad had previously asked if Elton John was BritPop, though, and... oh dear.  Ah well.  We always encourage a lot of creative thinking in relation to the cocktail theme, so whatever worked for folks worked.

First things first, though:  I came attired. 

I pulled out a tshirt

that still fit me (barely) from when Conrad and I saw Suede and Manic Street Preachers co-headlining a show in LA two or three years ago.  Dressed for drinks, I made up several to try.

I posted these on Instagram, and a friend asked me - agog and worried, I think - if I had drunk them all.  No.  I tasted them all, but I had two cocktails in the end.  It was not a hyper-boozy Sunday!

So here they were, with an appropriate backdrop in place for the photos.  Ranked from least favourite to the winner:

The Modern Life.  Sad to say, it was kind of rubbish.  Sorry, the joke had to be made.

The Country House.  Vodka, cranberry, tonic water.  Just a bit plain.

The Morning Glory.  A highball, and drinkable but bland.

The Wonderwall, version 1.  This was an oddball one.  I didn't mind it, but it was just odd.

The Park Life Fizzle.  I liked this, but I would dial back on the bitters next time.

The Wonderwall, version 2.  Pretty good.  Light and fresh and clean.

The Oasis.  A spin on a margarita using pear liqueur and basil.

A fun time was had by all, or so I always hope.  We'll meet again in a few weeks, and we'll see what comes of the drinks exploration for that one! 

mantas

So... I did some shopping while here.  Shirts, souvenirs, the usual.  It doesn't hurt that I'm essentially staying at one end of a mall, after all.  I'm smitten with this, a print that looks abstract but is actually meant to be manta rays.

My last short post from Hawaii.  I fly home in the morning (I'm yawning here, and I still have to pack!), back in time for dinner and a night of sleep in my own bed.  I'll post likely a few longer things after I return.  Aloha!

a Saturday (most of it) in Cleveland

Have I really been home from Ohio almost a week?  I guess so.  I'll be off again out of town in a little under two weeks, so I had better get the blogging about the Ohio trip underway!

I'm going to divide the trip into two entries, one on Cleveland and one on Cuyahoga Valley National Park.  There's a lot of photos, and I think it makes sense thematically as well.  So then, Cleveland first.  Ready?  Let's go!

Not unexpectedly, Van stayed in bed as long as possible on the Saturday morning we were in Cleveland, and I took advantage of that and the better weather I could see from the hotel

to get outside early and out and about on foot.  I rather suspected that Cleveland would not be busy with traffic early on a Saturday, and I was right.  I walked all over with little need to pause other than to take photos.  And oh, I took photos.  Buildings and fountains. 

The public library. 

A cathedral. 

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame from both sides. 

The Lake Erie waterfront. 

The stadium. 

Me! 

And then I got over by the Cuyahoga River,

and for Conrad's sake, I started capturing shots of bridges. 

Lots of bridges. 

I think I made it past five miles that morning,

and that included a welcome Starbucks stop.

Eventually Van got up, and we started our day.  We had to check out of the Hilton, but we weren't due at the Hall of Fame for our entry time for a couple of hours.  I reached back into my memory and directed us over to the West Side Market, a place I am pretty certain we visited years back. 

It was fun to see the market, and it made me long for one that was a little more accessible to us than Grand Central Market (I also think that the variety on offer at West Side was better than Grand Central, but the dining options were not as good).  Not finding some place that appealed to us for lunch, we headed down the block and happened upon Soho Chicken + Whiskey. 

A cocktail

and a good brunch later (fried green tomato eggs Benedict for me),

and Van

and I

were ready to see the Hall of Fame.

We were told we needed a lot of time in the Hall, but I think that's really only true if you are interested in and adept at some of the interactive displays wherein you play an instrument or create a beat.  We didn't do that.  We also weren't interested in the special Bon Jovi exhibit that was mounted on the top floor.  My takeaways?  It's a terrific museum, it has a lot, it has too much, it has scope creep.  Why does a hall of fame have an exhibit on Saturday Night Live?  Why are there so many items from people who are not honoured as inductees in the Hall?  Why are there so many things in the display cases?  Why can't the font be bigger or the lights turned up?  Why is the layout so confusing?  But aren't all those costumes really cool?  Billie Eilish. 

Deborah Harry.

Devo. 

Annie Lennox. 

Earth, Wind, and Fire. 

Sarah McLachlan. 

Joan Jett. 

Bjork. 

Really cool to see.  Not all of those acts are (yet) inducted into the Hall, though.  Ah well.  I quibble.  We enjoyed it.

Later in the afternoon, we hopped into the car and headed along the lake, then south through the city and suburbs and to the national park.  A fine day in the city, and now we were ready for something a little more rustic.