Sacramento, briefly

I flew out yesterday,

and I fly back today.  I hope!  Some delay so far.  So yes, a very short trip to Sacramento.  Meetings at the Embassy Suites

where I also stayed the night and had a… view.

 Ha!  Ah well, I got into the room

early, and for that, I didn’t care what I was looking out on.

The meetings/mini-conference went well, though!  I have a lot of things jotted down to follow up on back at work next week, which is good.  I also got to have dinner last night with Matt (and only Matt - Peter is out of town).  

Hooray for that!  And I got a nice shot or two of the handsome yellow bridge right next to the hotel.

 A Sacramento icon I always like to see.  No walk this morning, alas - too wet out,

and I didn’t want damp gear sitting in my roll aboard all day.

And now I sit and wait for my first flight.  Sigh.

Heading out of the country

Canada doesn’t count.  I mean, of course I love my homeland, and it technically is outside of the US, but it doesn’t feel like foreign travel going there.  In any case, there has only been the one visit there in three years, far too little.

It’s Sunday morning, and we’re not in Canada or the US.  Last Thursday we got on a plane to Houston,

connecting through there onto a flight south:  Santiago.  Chile.  The first time in South America for either of us.  But oh, those 8-9 hours in an airplane seat.  My poor butt by the end of it!  The darn thing is, we thought neither of us was going to get an upgrade.  So close on the list, so far.  

And then, there I was, seated before takeoff, watching a movie on my iPad,  an agent came to me and held out a boarding pass that would have put me in a pod seat.  Real food, lie flat.

Husband of the year that I am, I gave it to Conrad.  One spot behind me on the list.  So close, so far.  He had been, well (sorry, Bunny), kind of whiny about the upgrades not coming through.  So there he was, up front.  Oh, he came to check on me.  With, like, 25 minutes left in the flight.  Ah well.  I barely slept on that overnight flight, thanks in part to the woman behind me who kept digging her feet or knees into the back of my seat.  It was like the world’s slowest and most irritating massage chair.  I said nothing to her, though:  I at least had the room afforded me in an exit row and no one beside me.  She was far more crammed in.

So we flew and made it here.  

A nice little boutique hotel

near the river and park and the tallest building in South America.  I napped a lot that day of arrival, and not just in the hotel!

chestnuts needed, marshmallows in a pinch

Almost 2 AM in Chicago as I write this but not quite 9:00 here on Lana'i. I'm tired. I'll post this sometime in the AM (Hawai'i time) and get my well-fed self to bed. A good evening of sitting on the lanai with three types of poke from the local poke place plus a delicious bottle of Heron's Flight 2005 Sangiovese. Well worth carting from the mainland over!

Conrad and I just took a short stroll on the grounds and in the main lodge, and two very un-Hawaiian (well, stereotype Hawaiian things struck us):

1. it's cool out. As in temperature. I have on jeans and a long-sleeve t-shirt over another t-shirt, and I wouldn't mind a sweater or my favourite Gap hoodie.
2. the fireplaces in the main lodge are oh-so-inviting.





We sat by one of the large fireplaces (there are two) and luxuriated in the warmth. I suppose it's not very green of me to admit that I really like the wood smoke smell we can catch sometimes outside. Ah well. At this elevation, high above the coast (1700 feet up), we're relishing the cooler temperatures, and if that means the incongruous (for Hawai'i, we think) notion of a big fireplace, so be it. This is still the most gorgeous hotel we've ever stayed in and a superb idea for a getaway.

dining alone

Last night, if you'd read my Facebook status (I know, I know - you have to be my FB friend in the first place), you'd know that the women sitting at the table behind mine in the hotel lounge were far louder and more obnoxious than they had any right to be. The desk clerk and I had a chuckle over the whole thing this evening before dinner. Good food last night, but I couldn't wait to get back to my room.

I should clarify something here - I'm not on vacation in BC. I'm at a lovely hotel on the BC coast, and the whole area is rather special to me, but there's a non-vacation reason for it all, and it's not a topic for this blog. Still, I have to eat, and I have down time to myself. Posts like this are the result.

The first time I ate at the Rockwater Secret Cove Resort, it was Easter, and I was not really thrilled. Silly me, to judge a place by the tail end of an Easter brunch buffet. How could that be good indication? I stayed here last October, then, and in the course of that visit, I needed a night in the room to myself. Room service. Wow. Good food. I was actually a little crushed that one of the items I had that night, a beef carpaccio with a truffle oil mayonnaise, was not on the menu when Conrad and I came up here in December. The December trip was wonky in other ways, thanks to the weather. Funny times.

I really like this place, though. The location suits me very very well. The room is lovely and comfortable, and I'll soon go hop in the HUGE soaker tub. The wine list has some nice BC options. The chef knows his or her stuff. And guess what/ The carpaccio is back!

Yum!

More yum was to follow. I had the pork last night. Dad laughs at how often I eat pork, I think, but it's such good meat. The chop I had last night was very good. Curiously, though, it was the starchy side that drew me back to it tonight. I'll be good and forego carbs after this trip, but I had to have the pork again because I really wanted the gnocchi? Do they make it here? If the restaurant was quiet tonight, I would have poked my head in the kitchen to ask. Alas, they had a big birthday party in another room. The gnocchi melted, though. I'm a little floored by it.

I read my book, Bury the Chains, through dinner, then I brought the remains of my second glass of wine (a Tinhorn Creek Merlot) back to the room. No dessert tonight, though a three-course dinner would only have cost me $29. I'm full, satisfied. I'll be sure to swim in the morning, too.

Mid-March I'm back here again, and perhaps my sister will be in tow. If so, we'll have a good dinner together, and perhaps share a bottle of something. No, it really isn't a vacation, but I know that will be hard to believe. But hey, a guy DOES have to eat!

always got time for...

In case Christine - whom we're delighted to be able to visit with on this trip - sees this, she may be tickled to see us shilling for that iconic chain her sister is a part of. And come to think of it, Jeph will be pleased, too, that we're eating CARBS and such wicked ones at that (oh wait - I know Tim Ho's has stores in Columbus, but have they made it to your part of Ohio, Jeph?). Oh yes, my friends, after lunch today, Conrad and I...

...SPLIT A DOUGHNUT!!!



Sour cream glazed, to be precise. As doughnuts go, they kick serious posterior.

Nice to get downtown on a quietish, sunny Sunday in Vancouver. In among weeding through the sale racks at The Bay (nothing of worth to be found) and shopping at Roots (why am I so crazy for Roots now that I no longer live in Canada?), I snapped a shot or two from around the Art Gallery and Hotel Vancouver.

No, I really don't know what that baby thing is, sorry...

"home"

Let's think of this as lemonade - when life hands you and all that sort of thing, you know....

We've taken up temporary residence at the Hampton Inn and Suites downtown. Good as it is to know we can rely on our many friends, it's also good not to impose on them. So it's like a little vacation in Chicago, except that we're going to work all week.

I haven't stayed in a hotel in the city since June 2000 when I interviewed for my first position here. How funny.





A pleasant little one-bedroom suite (bigger than at least two apartments I've rented at earlier times in my life) with some views new to us. Those corncobs poking up?Marina City. The shiny building going up?The new Trump tower, whatever its proper name may be. Down below?The backsides of surrounding buildings and an alley.

I think it will be an early bedtime tonight....

Lounging at the Pan Pacific

Way back in 1986 when the World's Fair was being held in Vancouver, the Pan Pacific was THE big new luxurious hotel. 20 years later, it still has a certain cachet, as well as the the advantage of being close to the cruise ship traffic.

Curiously, until last night, I'd never been in there to the best of my recollection. After dinner last night (Earl's at a mall in Richmond - not bad, in fact, but we didn't bother taking photos), Conrad and I went over there for some wine to wind down the evening. The sun was setting beyond Stanley Park, and the neighbouring Fairmont Pacific Rim construction site looked like the skeleton of a wave in the twilight. A half liter of a Quail's Gate Pinot Noir went down quite nicely....

A few more shots from Austin

It's late-ish. I haven't managed to get done a fraction of the things I wanted to do tonight. Too occupied with swimming, cooking dinner, booking ferries on Easter Sunday and brunch with the family. Blah blah blah. My difficult life.

Uh huh.

Anyway, I thought I'd get a few more Austin shots up before I turn in for the night. More to come, including some food. Oh, and speaking of which, no shots tonight of dinner, but I made an interesting side dish. I based it on a Georgian (as in, the former Soviet republic) recipe for a salad of red beans and walnuts. It was strongly flavoured: coriander seed, a bunch of garlic, some onion, a whole bunch of walnuts (I'm on a HUGE walnut kick these days), vinegar, and chile flakes all added some potency to the puree. Yummy with the chicken breast, though, and so bold that we were able to pair the dinner with a nice little half bottle of Qupe Syrah. And then we opened a bottle of a different Syrah to continue sipping while family and Easter were aggravating the heck out of me.

:-P

On to photos:

Cows in Chicago a few years back, guitars in Austin. This was near a place on South Congress (SoCo) where we ate breakfast. The art is from the cover of the Los Lobos album La Pistola y El Corazon, a CD I haven't listened to a great deal lately but do like immensely. We shopped in a neat little store tucked in the strip behind me as well.

The view north on Congress. I have more photos of the Capitol to pull off the camera chip still.


Two views from our room at the Omni, which was a rare case (in my experience) of windows facing an internal space and yet somehow still making for an attractive room. Alas, those are offices right across from us in the same building, and Conrad and I ran the risk of providing free shows had we not kept the drapes pulled whenever we dashed into the shower.

14th NZ Post: short shrift (sorry) given to Auckland

I'm giving short shrift to Auckland with this posting, I know. Worse, I'm not even including all that much of the visit with Dion and Minna, and visiting them was a definite highlight of the trip. Instead, I sit here watching last night's ANTM and uploading a batch of photos from the last few days of our trip.

I lie: one more post to come - I have to go back and relocate photos from our second day in Auckland including our terrific dinner at French Cafe. I hope I haven't lost them!

To be fair, we didn't do a lot of sightseeing in Auckland. The weather was ideal for it, but having abstained from shopping through much of the trip up until Wellington, we had it in mind to hit more stores.

So, on a gorgeously sunny day, we left Wellington. Gosh but we liked that city.

Added bonus: our very considerate cab driver took us up a hilltop across the harbour from where we'd been. Amazing views of the harbour (and busloads of German tourists!).






And nearby, serendipitously, was a hillside pathway that had been used in Lord of the Rings for a scene. Conrad really should see that film one day.


Allison met up with us in Auckland - the start of her two weeks in New Zealand. She too, stayed at the Hilton and joined us for Barbecue at Dion and Minna's house. It was so cool to see somewhere other than Chicago or Toronto. She's home from her trip now, and it was an excellent jaunt for her as well.



Dion and I have known each other since, oh, late 1979, I believe. I hadn't seen him since he showed up for our high school reunion (I wasn't interested in going, but as I still lived in my hometown, I was able to see a number of people anyway). A New Zealander by birth, he returned there for college and has since settled down to a very successful corporate life and to married life with his beautiful wife, Minna. Minna prepared lamb for us, and the five of us enjoyed a healthy amount of NZ Pinot Noir and a pavlova for dessert. Love the framed basketball jersey from our junior high, Dion!





One other thing we loved: the funky light fixtures that came with their house and that they've kept through the renovations. Classics!





So let's jump ahead a day for now, until I find the missing photos. A very warm day in Auckland. We got off to a good start with a swim at the Tepid Baths, then breakfast and a stop in a store to arrange the shipment of more wine back to the US. From there we walked on up into the Ponsonby neighbourhood (with some great views back toward downtown). A late lunch ended our walk - tired and overheated.






Back to the hotel with us. We overlooked the parking/drive, but that makes it sound like we had a view of a vast expanse of asphalt. In fact, we could see the water easily from our deck, and the pool was just below us in the other direction. The heat of the day demanded a dip before dinner.



It was a short stroll along the water to the restaurant, housed in the attractive old Ferry Building. Harbourside was where we dined, and the less said the better. The Seresin wine was the only good thing I can say, and I recommend that anyone travelling to NZ try somewhere else after the shoddy service we received there.






Auckland did not end badly, despite that last dinner. We had a lovely breakfast the next morning at Mink with Dion and Minna. And that, sadly, was the last we saw of them. They had to work, and we wandered about a bit through the University of Auckland campus before eventually making our way to the airport and our return home. To winter. I'm still bitter about that.