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Uncle Markie out and about.

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Wed
17
Apr '13

Dinner With Surf Betty.

Work then swing by the shop to pick up some of the goodies I’ve ordered over the last couple of days.

With baking bread (and cleaning up) there isn’t really any time to play with the toys. And we didn’t seem to get a run going, though he did 12 bottles open for tomorrow. Didn’t even get my compost crock lid reglued – must have been having way too much fun – as this barbeque abuse photo shows:

Dinner was sort of Greek inspired – seasoned lamb, tzatziki, the salad was a raspberry feta vinaigrette. Now how I forgot to open the Retsina I’ll never know.

Guess I’ll be pouring the Retsina for SuperModel who arrives on Saturday on the direct flight from London.

Needless to say, it wasn’t an early night. Luckily SurfBetty is sleeping over on the office bed.

[207.6]

Thu
19
May '11

Uncle Markie Goes All Butch.

Early to bed, early to rise, it might be that three hour difference that my body is feeling.

Early text to Surf Betty, he left his list of measurements for my martini glasses and pilsners that he blew 20+ years ago, brought him by early before work.

Then deal with all the email, the news, the shower, in an effort to get the car to the tire shop before 10 so I can have it for the afternoon. The downside of having the South Park Bridge closed (one of MANY) is that I have to drive through the industrial area of south Seattle which are loaded with crap that falls off junk trucks, and gets stuck in my tires. Apparently Surf Betty and his ex-wife also suffered from the same issues when their studio was in Georgetown (north of South Park, across the Duwamish River see below).

The grey area at the bottom right hand side is Boeing Field on the East side of the river (the Duwamish). The grey area on the left of the river is the “sliver by the river” that Seattle refused to annex when it grabbed South Park because it didn’t want the South Park Bridge, a known decrepit bridge even 50 years ago. My house is just to the left of the left grey section near the top of the small diagonal street known as Dallas Avenue. Click on the map and you will be transported magically via the big interweb to the City of Seattle site describing all the Seattle neighborhoods. I find it cute that the map is truly up to date since it doesn’t show the South Park Bridge.

So what’s all this butch stuff about, it’s not like I changed that tire. No, but I did fix the lawn mower which died before my latest couple of trips. Took apart the safety switch on the handle (it’s electric). Nope. Damn. 12 screws to take off the cover over the electric motor. Look! A wire that had burnt out. That would be an important wire, one of the two that goes to the brushes. Time for the soldering iron and a really sloppy joint, but luckily there is a plastic plate that bolts over it to keep it in place.

Next up, since I’ve got it up on the deck and it’s sunny, time to sharpen the blade. And what better to sharpen a blade, my Kirby vacuum cleaner with its Handy Butler attachment which has a knife sharpener (too small) and a grinding wheel (perfect) in addition to a tap for a flexible shaft drill bit (which I reamed out the holes on all the stove burners during its rehabilitation).

I haven’t used this (ever, I think) as a vacuum, but it makes a great portable bench grinder. And CHEAP.

Scrambled eggs and DVD’s for Rich’s mother followed, then out the door to the apartment to check for packages, a stop for BBQ ribs at 26th and Cherry (1/2# for $7.50, which was 7 ribs for me, 3 saved for later), a tour of possible buildings for rent for another project, a business meeting with Jimmy at EVS held between visits from wine wholesalers… let’s see, two samples from number one, four samples from number two, two from number three, six from number four… maybe I should have been spitting. Then groceries and a swing back to the buildings for pictures and second impressions, finally ending up back at home feeling like I really need a nap. Oh well.

A quiet dinner tonight with me, myself, and I. Halibut over a bed of wilted spinach. Well, that was the thought until I started freezing stuff from the Safeway 30% off rack… I decided on the left over ribs sauted with a little bacon and red wine vinegar.

And an evening of packing for the next trip, well trying to, more like stacking things next to the suitcase. Crap. I needs sheets and a blanket.

No time in the morning since the Landscape Dude comes to tame the lawn with the newly fixed lawnmower.

[231.8]

Sat
8
Oct '16

Trip Report: Birthday Ramble 2016, Part Two – Canada Loop

Nothing like flying in, working for two days, and then leaving again. Hit town Sunday night, did a trade tasting Monday, followed by a private event at the shop Monday night (and baking bread in the afternoon for said event), and boxing wine club Tuesday before heading to Blaine for Tuesday night.

Seaside Boy flaked out, but Rache was in tow, and Surf Betty came up from Bellingham for dinner in the 3-bedroom, 3-bath Penthouse at the WorldMark Birch Bay.

Not a bad unit – and then there is the sunset!

And it comes with presents!

Oddly, no photos of dinner or Surf Betty – who slept over but was gone before dawn headed to Seattle for a work week.

In the morning we were off for CanadaLand, with not much of a wait at the border after hitting Duty Free – and we had a reservation, so no worries:

And it’s a comfortable 90-minute run to Swartz Bay…

With lots of WONDERFUL scenery along the way – this is one of the nicest ferry runs in the Northwest:

We were an hour early for check-in – but the place was ready, though being on the ground floor by the pool was a bit confined:

Especially with the new balcony furniture – the old stuff was better sized:

I had to chuck one of the chairs past the BBQ to be able to cook! But the views are great:

Made a run to the grocery store for dinner for four – all of my usual Victoria dining buddies couldn’t make it (dissertation, cabaret, on a plane to NYC) but one of them sent emissaries!

And we feasted well!

What a WONDERFUL way to turn the BIG 60 – old friend, new friends!

Birthday Ramble Part Two is just three single overnights – so we are one the road again in the morning – but first breakfast:

With a ManMosa (so they call it):

We tried to have a cocktail at the Bengal Lounge at The Empress – but alas, since my last trip, it’s no longer a bar, but a banquet facility. Bad Empress, no links!:

For the pictures of when it was actually a bar, with a WONDERFUL Chinese bartender, CLICK HERE. It’s a LONG post, one that Rache found VERY amusing for so how my nerves where frayed that visit. I miss the that lounge – even with the Curry Buffet that wafted through the space.

We opted to put the car in the ferry line and get a MUCH cheaper cocktail at the Days Inn across from the ferry terminal:

When we hit the lot to load – there was a SERIOULSY cool Land Cruiser-like vehicle – turns out it’s a Bandeirante – a Brazilian manufactured Toyota Land Cruiser.

 

Nice views from the harbor (harbour if you are Canadian):

And of our boat coming in:

We loaded, had some snacks, didn’t take any pictures and suddenly we are off the boat, through immigration, and checked into our final night on Discovery Bay – in a2-bedroom loft – spread across FIVE split-level floors with the master on the lowest floor with a Jacuzzi IN THE BEDROOM.https://www.worldmarkbywyndham.com/resorts/db/

It was nice:

And the views were good:

And we had a nice steak dinner off the grill:

Only a small hiccup on the way home – the Hood Canal Bridge was open and we were 1.5 miles in a backup. Towards the bridge:

Behind us:

And a pretty day for a boat ride….

Home safe and sound.

[214.4]

Wed
18
May '11

Edisto Island, Charlotte, Newark, Seattle.

Even though the flight isn’t until a little after 12pm, being a little over an hour from the airport makes for an early morning.

Charlotte to Newark = hour late leaving, hour late getting in, I originally had a 2.5 hour layover, so no problem.

Newark to Seattle = no upgrade, but the seat next to me open, forty minutes late leaving, twenty minutes early getting in, guess there was a spare hour (and a tail wind).

Interesting tidbit from the Newark/Seattle flight: a bunch of the members of the Mountlake Terrace High School Jazz Ban on their way back from the Essentially Ellington Competition in New York City over the weekend of the 14th. For more information, click on the banner I swiped from their site:

Two Seattle area high schools placed in the top three (Roosevelt High School at number two and Mountlake Terrance at number three) and two Florida schools taking First and Honorable Mention. Oddly (for me and Jill) Garfield High School didn’t seem to be entered, and they routinely run away with national honors including Ellington 1st Places in 2003, 2004 and 2009. It is an invitation festival so who knows. Garfield is participating in several other festivals (Lionel Hampton, Reno) this year.

Another interesting tidbit from that same flight — the flight attendant refused to let the wife of the guy int he middle bulkhead seat join him because “people in this row paid more to sit here” — because the plane was oversold he got split from his wife and put into the “premium” row. Personally, I was happy to have the center seat free when he moved to the window seat, but I did have some sympathy for him (told him it was a $60-80 upcharge).

The reasons for all the delays in flights today was nasty rain storms in the Northeast. When I checked in they asked if I wanted $300 in future travel for my seat. HELL YES, just get me home at some point. Unfortunately with weather, enough people missed their connections that it wasn’t needed. DAMN.

I got back to the house a little after 9pm to meet Surf Betty to look at his new glass blowing projects. He hasn’t blown glass in 23 years so his failure rate was higher than he’d like on the goblets he was making for a nieces wedding.

After that is was deal with the mail and worry about tomorrow. Time to fix the slow leak on the passenger side front tire, do some laundry, pack for the next trip, fix the lawn mower, find someone to push it since I have grass allergies, and basically try and put the house back together.

[? ? ?]

Fri
22
Jun '12

Damn, The Rain Is Back.

Up and out early today:

Yep, I’m off on a bus tour of the Port of Tacoma. Here is the link to their tour page: http://portoftacoma.com/tours

No good photos of the Port as it was grey and rainy, but it was an OK tour if you are a transportation geek like me.

Got home around noon and settled in for a quick nap – it was that getting up early.

The rest of the afternoon was hitting QFC and Safeway comparing liquor prices (Evan Williams cheaper at QFC) and gassing up the car for Monday’s road trip.

Had salmon thawing but ended up getting a marked down steak so back in the freezer the salmon goes. Reminds me that I need to cook up those crab legs as they are taking up a ton of room in the freezer.

Yum.

A quick visit from Surf Betty needing to borrow a thick screw driver bit and that was the evening.

[215.1]

Fri
8
Mar '13

Spring Cleaning.

Nothing like waking up to another invasion of sugar ants. Oh well, an excuse to do a little spring cleaning today.

Time to tackle the laundry room and pantry. Stuff has been collecting on the floor of both. Tons of cloth bags, coats, hats, appliances. Time to make them go away or at least organize them.

First to go to the curb was the wine cooler that only worked once in its months of being plugged in. Could never figure it out so the wine went into one of those cloth bags with dividers and the unit went to the curb with a free sign on it. Next up was to finally put the wine glasses Jill gave me into the cabinet with charms and recycle all the misc. glasses that are too big for the shop and too many for even Jim to handle. To the curb on top of the cooler – along with a couple of other things.

With the cooler gone I can actually put all the distilling equipment in one place – on the sewing machine trolley:

And speaking of sewing machines – time to make a case for my new phone out of some neoprene left over from the Boltage project. Here is the front:

And the back with the carbiner to go through my belt loop:

The nice thing about a sewing project is that you can also be working on some bread at the same time, assuming you are using the bread machine to mix the dough. This is one of the prettiest loaves I’ve made in a long time:

Dill rye was the style for tonight. It paired nicely with the marinated chicken with a salmon-goat cheese raspberry vinigrate spinach salad that I made for Surf Betty who was returning some glassware he borrowed to model his goblets on… and left with three different ones from the box out front. Too funny.

Stayed up way too late, but that’s what happens when you are emailing back and forth to Japan.

[212.8] Not bad considering all the carbs I’ve eaten this week.

Mon
22
Oct '18

Trip Report: The Texas Eagle

This will probably be the last of my train travel for the year – and this week I’m on The Texas Eagle:

But first I have to get there…in style, courtesy of an upgrade to First Class…

Definitely a red-eye flight…which means the food service is minimal, sadly:

So, when I hit Chicago, I headed to the Admiral’s Club (American) for a bagel, a newspaper, and a little nap:

My train didn’t leave until 1:45pm, so I had time to linger, then catch the train into town, which oddly didn’t charge me – I had a transit card from last week that apparently still had some dollars on it!

Checked into the Metropolitan Lounge in Chicago, which I have no pictures of for some reason. Dropped my bags and headed to the CVS across the street for booze and mixers for the train. Returned to the lounge to drop that, then went back upstairs in the station for a world-famous Chicago Dog. Eventually they put out some vegetable and cheese in the lounge – and a complimentary half glass of some way too sweet Asti Sparkling.

Was happy to get onto the train.

Thankfully they at least had the Amtrak Signature Steak – but like The Silver Meteor a couple of months ago, no Surf to go with the turf (they were actually out of both surf AND turf):

One of things about the long-distance trains is that they feed you three times a day as part of your Sleeper fare. My routine on the train is to eat breakfast and go back to bed. I’ve tried skipping it but lunch doesn’t come early enough.

Here are some random shots from the train that I liked:

In San Antonio, The Texas Eagle gets split apart and added to the end of The Sunset Limited from New Orleans. It used to come from Orlando, but Hurricane Katrina knocked a bunch of tracks out – it’s fixed, but the route has yet to be restored. The upside is that we got The Sunset Limited’s dining car, which did have the Surf to go with the Turf.

My last night of this 66-hour trip was connecting up with my buddy Joe from Tucson. This was truly the highlight of the trip – I don’t get to see him often enough.

He was kind enough to even track down some Diet Ginger Ale for me. And he brought me a bottle of whiskey produced in Tucson to top it off!

The downside of this route is that the train arrives into LA’s Union Station at 5:45am assuming it is on-time, which for once, it was.

I hiked up to the Metropolitan Lounge to hang out for a bit before taking FlyAway to LAX. While there, checked my seat for the flight, and ONCE AGAIN they had pulled me out of premium and stuck me in the back. I fixed the problem last night in Tucson when I went to check in and noticed it. 45-minutes on that call, and another 30-minutes to change to an earlier flight that had a premium seat, albeit, a middle one.

At least there is an Alaska Lounge at LAX!

Another week, another trip.

[226.2]

For more blog posts, click here.

Wed
2
Feb '11

Waikiki – Day Three.

North Shore Bound.

Very quickly settling into a routine here… SurfBetty gets up at 5:30am, get’s the coffee made, gets his breakfast in him and then is out the door as the light is starting to break over the horizon. It’s the quiet time on the water in terms of people, and closest to the low tide, so better waves are coming in. Today’s waves were at 0-1 feet, 1-2 feet expected in for tomorrow.

Full surf report weather conditions here: http://magicseaweed.com/Waikiki-Surf-Report/662/. It puts my long not updated Pacific Northwest Surf Report to shame (leftover from my time hanging about with Surfer Bryan).

Me, I sleep in, wake up to hot coffee, have my quiet time, work on the blog and basically putter until SurfBetty is back from the beach around 10 or so.

The Girlz, a.ka. Dos Lesbinas, have borrowed a car from their local friends – as we find out during the day of driving, a truly local “Hawaiian Jalopy”. Definition – a car that still runs, but many of the things on the car don’t work, but there are too many things wrong with it to justify the cost of fixing it. The list…

  • Power steering pump is shot – drives like a battleship
  • Speedometer intermittent
  • Owner filled it up with oil in front of the Girlz’ condo when dropping it off for them

But the radio and air conditioning work, unlike their other car they offered – and, all-in-all, don’t look a gift car in the mouth. If it gets dinged, no big deal – smashed, bigger deal, but not much.

First stop is Leonards for these Portuguese filled donut things called malasadas. I’m not much of a donut fan, but the are damn tasty – and always fresh out of the fryer.

Up the HI to the old North Shore highway (99) with a stop in Haleiwa for refreshments for some, and Hawaii license plates for myself and Julian (nice ones – state vehicle plates at 50% off).

Next stop was Pipeline – the famous North Shore surfing spot. We really lucked out here… easy parking for “The Battleship” and a shady spot on the beach to watch the surfing.

Jeanne and SurfBetty thought about trying out the boogie boards we had with us – I was making the argument that when there are two red flags flying (no swimming and serious rip tides) that it might be best left to the pros.

Next up it is shrimp truck time …. First up, Giovanni’s north end location (south end location just south of old Haleiwa town):

$13 for a plate of Shrimp Scampi with a side of hot dipping sauce, two scoops of rice and a wedge of lemon. Damn messy, damn tasty.

Back to Pipeline to see how the waves had changed in a couple of hours… the rest of the crew on the beach, me at a picnic table watching the White Rasta massage guy work over surfers.

With a quick stop at a fruit stand, we are off to the other famous (of many) shrimp trucks to try the deep fried coconut shrimp at Macky’s.

Ambiance wasn’t as good as Giovannis, but the coconut shrimp were very rich – we just got the shrimp, not the sides, so we each had two shrimp, which was perfect – I can’t imagine how I’d feel after eating an entire plate of shrimp that rich.

We take the direct route back to Honolulu (H2 to H1) to save a little time, but it still doesn’t stop us from getting caught in rush hour traffic on the way back to Kmart/Salvation Army on a supply run for the Girlz. They need glassware, a plunge blender (for smoothies) and a yoga mat… and I, of course, have to see if there are any new shirts or maybe even an electric griddle.

Jeanne snagged two glasses, I got a Hawaiian Airlines wine glass for my collection, and most importantly, I found a really cheap (because of one broken handle) electric skillet — $5.00! And it works – plugged it in and 5 second later the thing was getting toasty. Score! I guess that means tomorrow’s post will all be about kitchenette cooking.

After a further supply run to Safeway (with Jeanne parked for half an hour in the loading zone because of the steering) we were all frazzled and ready to part company after a long, lovely day.

SurfBetty and I ended up just having a poo-poo platter around 8 and calling it dinner, and then called it a night.

Pooped all around.

[? ? ?]

Wed
7
Sep '11

I Work While Señor Lobster Plays.

Mr. Lobster has his breakfast:

Then relaxes on the lanai (that’s white person for deck):

And then for cocktails on the deck in his new shirt and hat combo from the Food Pantry:

Before a surf and turf dinner (Mr. Lobster being the Surf!):

Meanwhile, I’m the one who spent most of the day hunched over a computer (well, except when I went out with Señor Lobster to get a Hawaiian shirt and hat for him).

And I almost forgot to give you the video of the room — which someone already commented on YouTube about my “puke video” camera work:

That video is for SurfBetty to see if the room is better than ours in February.

[? ? ?]

Fri
7
Dec '12

Final Day Of Hawaii…This Year.

Recounting a long day… up with a wakeup call at 7, rolling over until 7:30, coffee on, eggs reheated, out the door around 9, headed for the North Shore.

We did the slow trip up the east side. Most folks just go straight up the island, we did the circle route.

Apparently they decorate trees on the north end.

Here is a little video tour of our east coast of Oahu run:

And then it is on to Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck – Darcy turned me on to this two years ago on my trip with SurfBetty.

And then off to Bonsai Pipeline and other surf spots – no, we didn’t surf, I used the free chair I found (and fixed) on the beach to watch the surfers.

And then it was off to Honolulu for the Tin Man Mailman, a retro Hawaianna storef (Joe bought a Tiki Mug), then off to one of the oldest Tiki Bars in Honolulu located in the industrial districts – La Mariana Sailing Club )Joe bought a Tiki Mug):

Love the blowfish lanterns over the bar. Then off to a fabric store where Lisa bought fabric to recover Joe’s Tiki Bar chairs, and I bought 100% cotton fabric featuring space shuttles loaded with pineaples – I kid you knot. Sorry, no photo.

We didn’t make it to the Duke’s statue as Friday night traffic was hell getting into Waikiki, so we turned around and headed to the airport to drop me off.

Fun trip – 4 hours in the Delta Sky Club room next to the Japanese Garden behind security at the Honolulu International Airport (reminds me of Seoul, South Korea)… free drinks, free snacks, free wi-fi.

Plane leaves at 11:45pm, arrival 7:55am and I’m to work at 1:30pm for a bubbles tasting.

[? ? ? ]

Sun
30
Jan '11

Not The Day I Was Expecting.

It’s never a good day when it starts at 3:30am hurling your guts out and by the time everything is cleaned up you are back in bed at 4 to be up at six to catch the train.

And speaking of the train, it changed to a bus… mudslides north of Seattle. Oh joy.

And speaking of joy – nothing like hurling in the bathroom of a moving bus. That nailed it – yes, I’d managed to give myself food poisoning, and most likely Jill which, confirmed later via text, she kept hers down, but was seriously uncomfortable all night.

I arrived in Bellingham looking a bit “under the weather” – luckily Johnnie picked me up and put me to bed where I zonked out for the next two hours fully dressed (minus shoes) under the covers – park of that was that the heat in the bus wasn’t working for most of the trip, and Johnnie being the frugal guy he is, keeps his place a wee pit chillier than I keep mine.

I did manage to eat the other half of the sausage breakfast burrito (I left the first half on the bus, if you know what I mean) and some goats milk yogurt, sliced banana, a little honey and vanilla before the cab took us to the airport around 3:15.

Must say that the Bellingham Airport is a dinky little thing not nearly big enough to accommodate all the flights going in and out. Horizon, Alaska, and Allegiant fly out now – with Alaska and Allegiant flying full sized planes in – needless to say, the check-in and security area was a zoo, especially since Allegiant caters to the Canadian tourist headed to Las Vegas (which Alaska also serves with a big jet – it’s the other two flights that the Hawaii plane makes in a day) and all the Alaska travelers are on packages…. Basically, it was Johnnie and I in the MVP/1st Class line. I overheard one guy saying it had taken him an hour and forty-five minutes to get to the counter and through security. Ick.

And no, they didn’t take my coupons so I can call and try to upgrade my Chicago flight in early March. This was reinforced when in the waiting room they came on the intercom and started selling upgrades for $150 a person. Mid-way through the flight I asked “Tim”, our cabin boy about the numbers of Golds and MVPs on board – the Gold would be me, and a handful of MVPs that were travelling with other people who didn’t want to take the upgrade – he said after the 24 hour cut-off that they had 5 people in 1st out of 16 seats. Nice.

During the flight I took nibbles of the meal (which was really quite good) to put something in my stomach, and even had a little watered down scotch to kill the parasites in my stomach (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!) and watched the end of Willy Wonky and the Chocolate Factory (from the Boston trip when I didn’t get to finish it), some lame movie about adults and children, and some junk TV reruns – there goes any fresh material for the return trip next week!

With the Pepto Bismal caplets I’d been taking all day, everything seems to be staying in place.

The shuttle from the airport, while cheap ($15 round-trip) is not quick. Got to the hotel around 11pm and we were both hungry again… hello ABC Store, those ubiquitous convenience stores on every corner in Hawaii. We stocked up on large sandwiches (large enough to have the other half for breakfast) and soda, ate, and went to bed.

For tomorrow we have a 10:45 surf lesson from www.girlswhosurf.com – with the Japanese 2010 Long Board winner teaching Johnnie how to surf again after a thirty year absence.

[? ? ?]

Mon
20
Jan '14

Victoria Bound With Roxy In Tow.

This week’s midweek trip is to lovely Victoria BC with Roxy who spent the night so that there was one less stop to make in the morning.

Up at 5:30am, out of the house at 6:30am, checked into the ferry at 7:00am – only to find the waiting room packed with Canuck hung-over Seahawks fans in blazing Seahawks gear – boy was in a quite ride to BC.

Mimosas at 8am while still at the dock in Seattle.

Nap at 9am on the boat. Photo courtesy of Roxy:

Taken, he says in response to the picture I took of him last night crashed on the chez lounge.

As expected our rooms weren’t ready – it was 11am after all and check-in is at 4pm. So off to the Blue Crab located at the Coast Hotel next door, armed with a 15% off coupon… which I forgot to use. Damn. C couple of good pictures from lunch…

Roxy reading (GREAT picture of him)….

It seems the Monday drink special with $3.99 CAN for a highball… which is VERY CHEAP for Canadaland – bring them on.

And our lovely lunch…

Roxy had the seafood sandwich – lox, shrimp, avocado, tomato, greens, I went for the diet busting fish and chips – the single piece version… but it was one big piece of fish – and I was patient enough to wait to eat the fish until it cooled down. It’s as bad as pizza just out of the oven.

For our amusement there was a team of police scuba guys going through trailing – complete with a really wet RusaAnnie….

After lunch it was off shopping as I’m cooking for seven tonight:

  • CrowDog
  • RobinHood
  • Roxy
  • Me
  • Royce
  • Kyle
  • Elliot

On the menu is a surf and turf – turns out Tyler is a vegetarian, luckily there are lots of non-surf and turf items for him:

  • Pupu platter of cheese, crackers, smoked oysters, hummus
  • Mixed greens with baby carrots and mushrooms with a raspberry vinaigrette dressing
  • Maui style marinated boneless ribs
  • A kilo of salmon
  • Dessert courtesy of CrowDog and RobinHood (who also brought me 222’s, a Canadian aspirin, caffeine, codeine mix)

A wild meal with some of us hottubbing after dinner.

Final damage in the booze department:

  • 40 oz. of Bacardi Rum
  • 13 cans of Diet Ginger Ale as mixer
  • ½ a liter of Maker’s Mark
  • Almost 2 bottles of wine

For seven people – boy those Canucks can suck down the duty-free booze.

All and all, a wonderful evening with old friends and new friends. Was having too much fun to actually get any pictures. Sorry all.

[207.2]

 

Mon
2
Jun '14

Trip Report: Il Etait Une Fois L’Orient Express, Part Four – The Journey Home.

My morning flight was at a civilized hour – 10:30. Alarm at 7, but I was already up – and in the bathroom when the wake-up call came.

Checked email, had a little bad instant coffee, finished packing and headed back to the train station to catch the automated shuttle to Terminal One.

I’d forgotten how much Terminal One reminds me of a giant habitrail….

The sort of weird thing – you can tell the airport is from another era, not unlike the Kansas City Airport – built before the security conscious hijacking days. You go through passport control to get to lounges, restaurants, etc. but you don’t do security until you are actually headed to the gates which are in pod-like things linked to the main terminal by the world’s longest moving sidewalk – like a quarter mile of sidewalk with no breaks:

These pass under the runways… very odd.

I got to the airport with tons of time…mostly so that I could have breakfast in the United Club which is this two story affair with the entrance level being the First Class lounge with Business Class lounge downstairs – and, of course, the elevator is out of service. Seems to be a theme. Pretty deserted this early in the morning…

The quiet zone where I set up camp:

And part of the breakfast buffet:

Stuffed myself silly, got a little work done, read a couple of papers and headed to the gate. Not much of a line at security because the pods only have about six gates apiece. And the plane is waiting for me:

That would be a 767-300 for my Economy Plus seat from Paris to San Francisco. And since it’s an exit row center, they are serious about the “Plus”:

You could easily sleep in the amount of floor space – and there is still another foot of space in front of my stretched out feet:

Not business class but excellent for an Coach seat. Want seats like this for your next flight – use www.SeatGuru.com to check out seats by airline and jet model.

Definitely isn’t Business Class when it comes to meals:

And in case you are wondering what movie is playing… that would be All About Eve staring Betty Davis with a bit part by Marilyn Monroe. My favorite line was when they were talking about Marilyn’s character: “She went to the Copacabana School of Drama.”

Unlike on the trip east, on the trip west I had the sense to wash down an Ambien with some whiskey that I’d packed along with me. Actually got 5-6 hours of sleep, awaking momentarily to see that the “mid-flight snack” was ice cream – seems to be a standard practice. At the end of my extended nap it was time for a light meal before landing. Watched a handful of TV Reruns, not really enough time for another movie – but if I’ had time it would have been Young Frankenstein for the umpteenth time.

Got to San Francisco on time, which was good because I only had an hour and 50 minutes to get through Immigration and Customs (LOVE Global Entry), and then back through Security to get to my Seattle flight. With no checked baggage I flew through with enough time to have a couple of cocktails in the United Club and even pick up a sandwich from Klein’s Deli. I love their pastrami on rye. Totally worth the carb hit.

Last year United changed its policy on Award (Miles) Flights… domestically they will upgrade you to first if there is space available, even if you are flying on miles. Not that I was expecting it, but I welcomed it:

It’s always amusing to see who gets caught in the background of a selfie.

Routine flight which is always good. Back home around 6…working in the morning.

[215.0]

Wed
5
Dec '12

New Day, New Unit.

Here are some shots of the non-handicap units.

Still no burners – good thing I brought the hot plate!

Didn’t fire up the hot plate this morning – ate leftovers from last night. Think Chinese breakfast.

We were out of the units a little before 10 and headed to the Kanaka Ukulele factory tour. I’d done it before, but thought Joe and Lisa would enjoy it (which they did).

Next up was the Aloha Bowl Flea Market. Not as packed as it usually is according to the vendors. Cause: very muggy weather, but overcast so you don’t have all the heat from open sun.

After a couple of hours and only covering half of the flea market we set out for something air-conditioned: Hilo Hattie. Yes, more shopping – and here it the result from the flea market:

Fabric for something, maybe a shirt? ($10 for three yards)

And who couldn’t resist Christ nailed to a surf board – looks great draped in puca shells. ($15, down from $18)

Three new Hawaii shirts from Hilo Hatties. (1 @ $4.99, 2@ $9.99)

Joe and Lisa headed back to the windward side of the island while I had the remaining leftovers for dinner.

In for the night – my dogs are barking (my feet are killing me).

[???]

Mon
2
Jan '23

Trip Report: Panama Cruise – Part Seven, Galveston, Texas

Final leg (unless you count the flight home) of the epic Panama Canal Adventure…and you can tell you are off the Texas coast when you start seeing oil rigs…

And then the chaos of getting off the boat…

At least it is downtown, unlike our hotel…

Not that it was swimming weather! Look at the surf.

So off to IHOP for brunch it was…

Complete with adult beverages…

And eventually, food:

After the 80’s of the trip, Galveston was about 40 degrees with a blowing wind off the ocean, and we weren’t really near anything to see, unless you count this closed for renovation theme park restaurant…

A rather unclimactic end to the trip, but at least we were able to start getting our non-sea legs back, and the hotel food was really quite good!

Their smashed toast…guac, poached egg, bacon – and add a Red Baron for a festive touch!

That’s it for this adventure!

[202.2]

For more blog post, click here.

Mon
15
Apr '13

Freedom Monday

Odd To Say That On Tax Day.

Nothing like a little freedom – my one day off this week. Must be time to run some things through the still.

During the runs there was plenty of time to surf the web for a couple of things I need for the office:

Network card for my HP printers – the one I have is dead on the 4550 and on the 4100 it’s on its last leg. With shipping, $30 for two of them – tested and guaranteed.

Magenta toner cartridge for the 8550 – which are ridiculously expensive from HP, and we call remember the luck I had with the last “off-brand”, but ScottyDog says that the Xerox ones are high quality. Hope so, I don’t want another explosion of toner. $88 with free shipping. Much cheaper than the $240 of the HP cartridges, that said, they are good for 12,000 pages at 5% coverage.

Also worked on the announcement for my father’s memorial service. Not really looking forward to it – is anyone ever?

Quite evening around the house, just me and the gurgling still.

[208.2]

Thu
26
Nov '15

CouchSurfer Report: Ryan From Nantucket

There has to be a dirty limerick in their someplace – I’m taking suggestions!

Ryan actually booked early November THREE MONTHS AGO and it’s a good thing he did – every other week or so I’d email him, “still coming?” since there was always some good travel deal for that week.

He’s doing a leisurely not anything really scheduled West Coast ramble with an initial stop in Colorado before he headed to Seattle. I made an exception and I’m hosting him for more that my normal three day max – in the end it turned out to be five days (maybe a record).

First night he arrived – sent him this picture so he would know what house he was looking for:

Yep – my house, my car, my untrimmed front yard.

Nice guy – lives on Nantucket, works in his families wine/liquor store – hence the reason for the exception to stay limits. I think this was dinner the first night with my buddy Whippet:

Surf and turf with King Crab Legs – I wanted to show him how we grow crabs on the west coast.

He was excited that I had a pass to the Museum of Flight – trying to get the MOST use out of that pass before it expires at the end of the year – took him over there and checked us both in and gave him my tour of the Concorde that they have open to the public, plus they’ve added some new plane in anticipation of opening their new airplane display space that’s completely under a roof:

You can see it in the background even though it’s actually on the other side of East Marginal Way.

I left him to explore and on my way back to car, caught this great shot of 737 fuselages headed from Wichita, Kansas to Everett for final assembly:

Just add some wing and a few other parts…

He also made use of my “North American Reciprocal” pass (came with the Tacoma Art Museum membership I bought to support the AidsArtAmerica exhibition) to go back to the Experience Music Project ($22 the first time he visited) to go play the old video games – not worth $22, but totally worth it if it’s free. Most of his days were spent exploring the city and trying to decide whether he was headed north or south after my place.

I convinced him that since he was so close to Canada AND he had his passport that he should head north – dropped him off at the BoltBus on my way to work.

Thanks for the great visit Ryan, come back anytime.

Safe travels.

[216.4]

Tue
17
May '16

Trip Report: Oahu With DancingBear

Such a deal! $423.77 round-trip for BOTH of us Bellingham to Honolulu. And parking in front of the airport is just $12 a day, a mere 100 feet from car to counter.

A beautiful day to fly, especially when you get upgraded to First as a freebie:

And the meal that comes with that seat:

Alas – because of a last minute airplane swap, no DigiPlayer Tablets, just our own laptops which take up a TAD more room – almost pushing out the black cod with bok choy.

The first two nights we are staying at the Royal Kuhio, in a one-bedroom:

Our room is on the third floor over the garage in, oddly enough, room 911. Hard to forget what room you are in with that number.

The view by day:

The view by night:

The room:

And a really cool alarm/clock/outlet/USB port device on the nightstand:

Our first full day (we got in at 9:45pm on flight day), first stop is the Honolulu Salvation Army Thrift Store to hit the rack of Aloha Shirts. Tuesday is Senior Discount Day (25%), though half of what we found was 50% off since it had been on the racks for over a month. $55 for 6 shirts and a sweater – DancingBear made out better with 4 compared to my 3:

Several of those are Tommy Bahama shirts that usually run $70 and up. Here is DancingBear in one of his finds:

Next up is a walk to the Aloha Tower:

While waiting for the Waikiki Trolley (tip – buy your tickets online and save 25% during certain sales) we did a little fish watching:

Luckily the Trolley shows up fairly quickly considering that the Purple Line only runs every 50 minutes:

That’s the last shot you’ll see of me in my Mount Gay Rum Yacht Race hat – it blew off on the Trolley – made more ironic because I bought the hat at the Salvation Army on a previous trip to Honolulu.

And some scenery shots:

We swung back by the condo (very close to the Trolley Terminus) for a quick nap for DancingBear and a quick snack for me – can you say poke?

Clockwise from upper left, edamame, ahi, shrimp, octopus. Yum.

Speaking of food – my dinner:

I got the Polish, mild sauce, star fruit relish, and Hawaiian Guava Mustard on a purple bacon taro sweet bun.

Those metal spikes next to the dog roller are to toast the bun from the inside out.

Our final day in Waikiki we took Uber to the Dollar Rent-A-Car and picked up wheels for our island tour over the next two days – and it turns out we have a mutual friend in Honolulu – Rick – and he works in the governor’s office so we are off for lunch and a tour!

Burger and fries for Rick.

Lobster roll for me.

Chicken Cobb for DancingBear.

It was a great lunch at Café Julia, nestled inside a 1920’s YMCA building. And soon it was off for a personal tour of the Hawaii State Capital.

The Senate Chamber:

The Governor’s Formal Office (for bill signing, ceremonies, etc.):

And a great shot of us all, with a giant mangrove in the background (and me in one of my Sally Ann
Tommy Bahama finds):

After our tour, off we went on a circle tour of the island, starting headed south:

Thanks to Hawaii Activities for the image – and I’ve toured with them on previous trips. Since we were in a car, no commentator other than me! Please notice my back-up hat – my Hello Kitty hat that I bought a couple of months ago in a Maui thrift store.

We are staying at the Marriott Courtyard (founded by the Mormons) right next to the Polynesian Cultural Center (founded and run by the Mormons):

The place is only nine months old, and has some very good design elements like a huge lobby for hanging out with some workstations:

And a dedicated stand up “business center” for printing boarding passes:

But in the end, it’s really only about the room comfort:

I grimaced at the $200+ a night price (and that they charge for parking), but it really was a nice place to stay, and almost one only hotel on the North Shore.

Dinner tonight is takeout from these folks across the street – Kauula Korean BBQ:

Thursday brings more of the driving tour around Oahu:

That would be Sunset Beach – famous for surf contests.

Lunch down the road at The Beach House restaurant at Haleiwa:

DancingBear went for the Black Bean soup and he talked me into the Lobster Cobb Salad.

Seriously good food for a restaurant that’s only been open three weeks!

Stopped at an old sugar mill turned coffee roaster/souvenir place…

…on our way to the Dole Plantation for a Dole Whip and a train ride:

Time to return the car and return to Bellingham – but, I have lounge access in the American Airlines Admiral’s Club at Honolulu which they share with Japan Air Lines (soon to be a codeshare partner with Alaska Airlines):

Big, and they are expanding it. Spam Musubi anyone?

A great view from our workstations…

And because it’s shared with Japan Airlines, fancy bidet toilet seats in the bathrooms:

The Honolulu Airport was originally built in 1962 and still has some remnants:

Yes, that is a non-working mechanical flip-number clock – and some working (though I didn’t check) payphones – another dinosaur technology.

Time to board and take our favorite seats – though on both legs we’ve had to swap seats with other people in row 1 to sit together (note DancingBear’s
Sally Ann find):

Not much in the way of food on the return flight – I guess they expect you to sleep since it’s a red-eye! At least the DigiPlayer Tablets are on board this leg.

Thanks to DancingBear for this flight takeoff photo (and a couple of other photos in this post):

And my arrival photo…

Got to Bellingham around 7:30am, and I’ve decided (after sleeping the entire drive home) that I’m done with red-eye flights. Luckily, June 4th is the last of the BLI-HNL flight.

And a final thanks for DancingBear for driving home while a snored (and driving there as well).

[214.0]

Wed
5
Oct '16

Trip Report: Birthday Ramble 2016, Part One – Cabo San Lucas

The annual tradition continues – the multiple week Birthday Ramble. This year week one is in Cabo San Lucas. Total of three of us.

Salamander and I are travelling together with Roxy taking an earlier flight, but arriving in Cabo at the same time. Roxy misses out on The Board Room with his earlier flight, but with the size of Salamander’s machine-made pancake, maybe he isn’t missing anything:

That’s a lot of butter for that mini-pancake.

UncleMarkie’s breakfast on the other hand…(with Salamander’s in the background):

I got us upgrades on the way down, so we are comfortably in 1A (Salamander) and 1C (UncleMarkie):

And it doesn’t take Salamander long to look like this:

Maybe it was the cocktail – but he did wake up for breakfast number two:

A little too much starch and sugar in the encrusted waffle (maybe I shouldn’t have applied the corn syrup packet), but tasty.

Turns out we have a stop in San Diego, where there is no duty free shopping – good thing I put a “handle” of Evan Williams in my checked bag!

Back on the plane after the security pass – I had to snap this pic just before the door closed. Had we been in the back we would have had a TON of seats to ourselves:

And soon it was time for lunch…

Ah, the joys of travelling up front!

Roxy met us after immigration (quick) at baggage claim – he’s flying with just carry on, and we are out the front to find our driver – and before you know it, on the road with a pretty full van of other people headed to Coral Baja:

After a hellishly long check in process (made better my free watered down margaritas) we are off to the 3-bedroom penthouse, our home for the next two nights:

And then, there is the view… this doesn’t suck!

Dinner night one was room service from the on-site restaurant – we were all beat up from the early morning.

Did I mention that we had our own private hot tub…

And that you can order a full moon from room service?

The night hot tub view!

Terrible admission – there were no groceries in the unit so we headed out to the former MegaMart, now a LaComer after the hurricane a couple of years ago – but I was hungry – hungry for hot red head!

But shop we did…

Mixers, booze, refrigerator (we passed on that), eggs, fresh tortillas…. And next to the sex shop next to the market, a wine shop!

I did stop in, but I’m running with a cocktail crowd this week.

Hopefully we won’t end up like El Gordo (the fat one), who died between the store and the condo:

To be honest, it was 90+ degrees out and we had the A/C cranked, and were mostly running around in robes. Me, I have my Bernie doo on.

I’d been hoping to find the TackyT-ShirtPrincess a shirt from the market on the highway outside the condo:

This place used to have a ton of stuff – a deli, fresh pico de gaia, the works, since the hurricane, it’s now lame, though I did buy some Mexican Brandy the last night of the trip as we’d exhausted all booze in the condo. I was hoping to find a t-shirt in a women’s medium for her to match the one I bought years ago and had to dig up and take a photo of:

Alas – nothing close to it, and the shirts they had were $20USD. Sigh.

After two nights, we “downgraded” to the 2-bedroom penthouse, which I found larger and I loved the rooftop hot tub and tanning deck area – see what you think.

And then the spiral stairs to our private roof top deck:

If you want the walking tour of the place, here it is:

Did I mention the brand new looks like never used BBQ?

And we used it!

Rib eyes and onions on the grill!

And now just some random photos of how we spent our week doing nothing, I say NOTHING:

OK – we did a little more than lay around! There is drinking and tanning to do.

Why leave to penthouse when you can watch them releasing baby sea turtles into the high surf:

And eavesdropping on a wedding!

And there was eating as well….pupu platter…

Scratch-made chicken tortilla soup:

And because you need things you didn’t bring, you improvise. Hot chili sauce made from four packets of ketchup from the first nights room service, combined with the red chili flakes and some garlic powder in the spice rack:

Need breading for fried fish? Crunch up the crackers that came with my octopus ceviché afternoon snack (yes, we did eat out twice in the week):

Crumble those crackers! And no, we aren’t talking about the upcoming election.

Whip an egg, batter the fish, and fry!

I could blame it on the heat, but we didn’t do ANYTHING tourist related. No walk into San José del Cabo, no bus ride to check out Cabo San Lucas, we only did grocery store runs for more supplies – and in the end we were taking the cab (100 pesos, basically $5 USD each way) to the store.

I barely finished a book, Roxy only got one more chapter done in the book he started when we were at Whistler two summers ago. Yep, slugs.

Sunday we headed home on different shuttles – Salamander and I early, Roxy later.

Did spot the cool American Airlines Piedmont Airlines livery at the Cabo San Lucas airport – sorry the shot isn’t better:

Salamander and I managed (after a Wi-Fi call to the US – got to LOVE T-Mobile!) to get upgraded to First on the Cabo to Los Angeles leg, which included a chicken (never found it) and rice lunch:

No upgrade on the LAX-SEA leg, but we had lounge access for more free food and drink:

And before we knew it, Salamander had his bag and headed for Light Rail, I was waiting to see if my hard-side came out on the regular belt or the “oversize” (because it looks like an OtterCase filled with expensive equipment).

Stay tuned for Part Two of the Birthday Ramble, but first I have to work a couple of days.

[213.4]

Mon
16
Apr '18

Trip Report: Empire Builder

This week Rache and I are back in the air and on the rails, but first, it’s dinner at Loretta’s Northwesterner since we have a red-eye flight:

Sadly, it was a red-eye flight with no upgrade other than Premium Class:

We got the luck of the draw – empty middle seats – Rache drew an extra card with Montana Bear as his window seat.

Got in around 6:30am and transferred to the train to the city to grab the train back across the country. Good thing there is a lounge for the sleeping car passengers.

The Metropolitan Lounge is spread over two floors and is a GREAT improvement over the basement lounge of yore. Complete with minimal afternoon snacks and a “wine tasting”:

Got to see my “Sorta Sister”, which falls into the category of “Sorta Nephews” for a mid-day cocktail in the Station Bar, they don’t allow guests. No pic for some reason – apparently, we all were having too much fun. It was good to catch up, even with the short amount of time – her husband just got home from knee surgery, so I didn’t get to see him, but we did have a couple of rounds of midday cocktails (Bloody Mary, Manhattan, Old Fastioned).

Afterwards, we hit the CVS for booze, mixer, and snacks.

And onto the train, we go!

And soon enough, the bar is set up!

And the chocolates are ready to give to our room attendant. Don’t we look comfortable?

This is a view of the “Family Room” on Amtrak long track trains….

Had a lovely dinner in the dining car – we both had the “surf and turf”, steak and shrimp cakes (with salad):

Lots of interesting shots from stations along the way:

And soon it was bedtime:

The “Family Room” is the largest in the Amtrak Fleet, but sometimes cheaper (though not often) than the Bedroom unit which has its own in cabin shower/toilet. Ours our down the hall. This room has more “hang-out space” and has windows on both sides of the car since its on the lower level – which also means less rocking back and forth for sleeping at night. And it does have enough space to set up a work station (bring a power strip as there is only one outlet).

And the blue LED lights at night make for some interesting photos in the mirror on the back of the door…

We were two nights on the train, they fed us breakfast…

Lunch (I love the burger) and dinner as part of the fare for a sleeper. Wine selection sucks, wish they would institute a “corkage fee” so I could bring my own… but that’s another letter to Amtrak. I always get the dessert “to go” because the meals usually have too much food (and not enough presentation).

After two nights, the train arrived within a couple of minutes of scheduled time – rare for Amtrak, and apparently, the trains for the next two days have been cancelled because of blizzards coming to the northern plains…and the trains two days were cancelling due to 20 grain cars off the track.

Amtrak is always a crap shoot for running on time, but we were lucky.

It was fun, and I’d do it again.

[? ? ?]