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Uncle Markie out and about.

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Mon
9
Sep '19

Trip Report: Waikiki With The In-Laws

It feels “odd” to call them “My In-laws”, but there is no blood connection with them, just very strong bonds. Jen is my dead brother Karl’s widow. Kennan is her husband. Jameson and Julian, who you’ve read about in this blog are Kennan’s nephews. In many ways, when they married, we became a three-family unit.

Jen and Kennan got to Hawaii a few days before me to check out the North Shore in a VRBO (Vacation Rental By Owner). Sounds like they had a great time, but you’ll have to ask them about that.

Do you think I packed enough for four nights at the beach?

It’s the wine that adds a bit to the packing. Sadly, it being a box and a bag style that usually has tools – it was unloaded with the other boxes. You think I pack a lot? This is just about half of the crates from my flight:

The place wasn’t ready as I arrived at noon for a 4pm check-in –this particular Wyndham has a bad reputation for slow room turnover, even with a mandatory 10am check-out. I headed next door to Giovanni’s with a 10% off coupon from the activities desk:

Nice place, though it feels like it’s the end of its lifespan (as in, it’s ready for a refresh):

Here is a panoramic video from our massive deck:

Tuesday as our big day:

  • Kamaka Ukulele Factory Tour
  • Liliha Bakery Café
  • Salvation Army for Aloha Shirts
  • Waikiki Farmers Market
  • Dinner at the condo

I’ll save the Kamaka Ukulele Factory Tour since that one will have a lot of photos.

So, that takes us to the Liliha Bakery Café, where I really like the fried chicken, which seems to be battered in a fish and chips-style beer batter. We got there a little before noon, and still had to wait to even get a seat at the counter. I blame the table of 20 elderly islanders, probably on their once-a-month lunch outing.

And, in a shocking twist, they now serve wine and beer – though the staff has no idea what “brand” it is. I took a chance with the “red” – which apparently, they store in the refrigerator. Because of that, it wasn’t bad. I assume it was out of a box. Didn’t ask what beer, that, they might have had a clue about (certainly, not on tap).

My chicken. I paid an extra $1.25 for the fried rice, but it also came with corn and a potato/mac salad:

Jen and Kennan split the grilled Mahi Mahi, also with fried rice and corn, but with a green salad.

Next stop was the Salvation Army on Nimitz, which Tuesday is Senior Discount Day with a 25% discount. Trust me, we are all over 55!

Sadly, their selection of Aloha Shirts was a third of what I’ve seen in the past, but at least Kennan found one.

Uber makes it really easy to get around, but all the places we’ve visited are on bus routes for a $5.50-day pass. With three people, it was Uber.

Next was the Waikiki Farmers Market – we came home with cut fruit, chicken curry, jerky, salad stuff – add some leftover rice and corn.

Wednesday was Pearl Harbor for Jen and Kennan – my chore was to find a real grocery store since the one that I have relied on for a decade of visiting Waikiki has been torn down for a new condo. Contrary to the Front Desk, who said there was no grocery store left in Waikiki – the Food Pantry just moved!

Yep – it’s a decent sized grocery store that is MUCH cheaper than the ABC Store and Deli (LARGE for an ABC Store).

I had a late lunch at Tommy Bahama’s Bar (above their store which is a block from the condo):

Blue cheese stuffed olives for their $10 Grey Goose Happy Hour Martini:

And the $10 2 for $10 Mahi Mahi Tacos…

They even brought a breadbasket with cinnamon butter!

But what caught my eye was this promotion that they were running – add $5 to your tab and get a $20 gift card valid next month (when I happen to be returning). Sign me up! Great cause, feeding hungry kids.

But going back to the in-condo cooking, the Food Pantry has everything from rice (for our rice cooker):

To Spam, panko flakes (for our last night’s dinner), whiskey, wine, you name it.

The one thing Food Pantry doesn’t have is Trump Memorabilia, which the ABC Store has a huge section:

We made some great meals in the condo!

On our last day, I got Kennan and Jen to come back to Tommy Bahama with me for an afternoon Happy Hour dessert….

As you can tell, I drank my dessert, just like my mother!

Friday, and we were all headed home, me a little later, and with time to grab breakfast in the combination AA/JAL lounge:

Yes, ramen and miso soup for breakfast.

I really like the Honolulu Airport because of the outdoor garden in the center of it (outside), but there are also the performances:

And next to the lounge, a public bathroom tucked away with bidet seats!

And a shot of the new ANA A380 that is dedicated to the Tokyo/Honolulu route (it’s a double decker):

Got upgraded to First Class (though via Portland) for the way home which meant a nice dinner on the plane.

It was a great trip with great company.

[224.0]

For more blog entries, click here.

Thu
12
Oct '23

Trip Report: 7-Day Cruise From Seattle-Vancouver.

Up at the crack of something…

Onto the train to Vancouver for dinner with Will and Solus!

Somehow, I have no shots of Will, Solus, Jen, Jonathan, and I. But here I have one with Jen and poutine:

Wonderful meatloaf dinner tor fix and The Canadian.

And soon it time to make or way Food Pleasure Dome, oh, I mean boat:

5

Jonatjan is off to a massage at 2pm, but I have a makeover at 1PM(was supposed to be shave at one with Jen tags along to photograph.) And frankly, it felt so good I didn’t winch about the extra $100

After that it’s time to dress up for dinner!

 

And then more fancy dress for the format night – which means pictures!

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Cockails in hand, time for photos!

The boat docks early and we are off it. Showing up to the hotel lobby for a 4PM check in we hang in he business center. Better than the lobby! And very close to one of the best ABC stores on Waikiki.

[171.7

More tomorrow. For more blow posts, click here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tue
9
Oct '12

Let The Road Trip Begin… By Flying.

Many thanks to Swanda for picking me up at 5:15am and taking me to the airport – only he would I ask for that early a ride as I know he is already awake. In fact, he had another errand after me and before he headed to work.

Today’s journey is SEA-LAX-SAF (Seattle to Los Angeles to Santa Fe) and all the flights were thankfully on time – which is good because there is only ONE LAX-SAF flight a day.

At the LAX Board Room…. Bloody Mary and Bloody News. And my plane:

And the view:

Arriving in Santa Fe a little early – more time to kill. Jen will be picking me up at the same time that she picks up NJ who is flying in from the other direction: DFW (Dallas-Ft. Worth). Luckily there is a restaurant with comfy seating for most of my wait (they close at 4pm).

After NJ arrived and we collected her luggage it was off to El Castillo to see the parents, drop off NJ, and pick up the car for me. It was a nice visit, and luckily I’d had a snack at the airport since we didn’t get to Jen’splace until after 7 – me a little later as I stopped at Trader Joe’s to stock up of liquor since it’s cheaper than in Seattle.

And the final shot of the day – driving away in Mom’s Miata to sell in Seattle to get that off my father’s plate:

So, if you know anyone in need (well, does one REALLY need a sports car – yes) a 1999 Mazda Miata MX-5 with 83,000 miles (after the trip home) – British Racing Green with tan top and tan leather interior, Bose stereo, electric everything, cruise control, aerodynamic package, Nardi leather-wrapped steering wheel – all for the unbeatable price of $5600.

Hopefully my friend Glenn will buy it to upgrade from his current high-mileage Miata, but who knows.

[209.7]

Wed
12
Dec '12

Tonight I Sleep In My Dead Father’s Bed.

The downside of a train with not many people on it… fewer seatings in the Dining Car – tired of her nagging it was mid-way after seven when I stumbled down the hall after telling the Car Attendant NOT to make up the bed as I was planning on using it again.

Here is a shot from the Albuquerque train station:

Wow, those two look pretty good together, too bad I was shooting into the sun.

Jen was waiting for me at the train station in Lamy for the trip into town to see the parents… guess I need to start saying either parent or Mom. I’ll be staying in the condo with her, sleeping in Dad’s bed (they had separate bedrooms).

Jen stayed for a bit, which was good as after she left there were some teary moments. She surprised both of us by mentioning she was thinking about a train trip through the Canadian Rockies since she hadn’t done much of any travelling for the last ten years.

Beautiful sunset from the back windows of the condo:

Mom said she never sees the sunset as she’s usually in her bedroom watching TV or something and there is no direct line of site – but from the living room chai, a quite nice view.

I ordered dinner up from the Dining Hall, well, it was under mom’s name. She hasn’t been eating much in the last couple of weeks, but she did have half the Hungarian Apple soup with some crackers. She has her rustica toast in the morning and used to eat her big meal in the Dining Hall when dad was capable of getting down there. Emily (my niece) and I are taking her out for lunch tomorrow so maybe this will get her back in the practice of eating a little more.

By eight mom was in bed and I was faced with the choice of sleeping in Dad’s still unchanged sheets (maid service is tomorrow) or changing them. I opted for laziness.

A big thanks to someone in Portland who kept my mind off the day by chatting/texting into the night.

Must sent thank you.

We will see what tomorrow brings.

[? ? ?]

Thu
19
Jun '14

Trip Report: The Southwest Chief From Chicago To Los Angeles.

Another Amtrak Lounge, another comfortable chair to nap in.

Compared to the New Orleans location, this place is HUGE:

The reception desk to the right, carry-on luggage check room to the right – I just kept my small computer bag handy:

And several rooms worth of seating….

And unlimited soda…

And our own exit directly (though not close) to the tracks:

Around 10 I headed out to explore – found a CVS Pharmacy that sells Evan Williams, took some neighborhood shots:

The last shot is of old waiting hall – the new ones are located under sky scrapper next door complete with “food court” that actually had good food (well, they had a McDonalds as well, but this was my 10am snack:

Yep, a Chicago Style Brat from this place:

And when I went back out to score additional Evan Williams in case I need to share, also picked up one of the best pulled pork sandwiches (extra slaw instead of the fries) that I’ve ever had. Loved the egg-bun:

From these folks:

The wonderfully empty Metropolitan Lounge wasn’t so empty when I returned. When you have this many trains going out around the same time in the afternoon…

You end up with a scene like this:

And the other two rooms looked like this as well – not an open seat in the house.

Luckily it was a 2:15pm load time for our 3pm train, The Southwest Chief – but that was pushed back because there were three delayed trains that needed to get out of the room ahead of us. Controlled chaos was what is was… on the upside, I got to see a gaggle of Boy Scouts headed to the Philmont Scout Camp in Cimmaron (NM) boarding the train:

Philmont Scout Ranch, the Boy Scouts of America’s premier High Adventureâ„¢ base, challenges Scouts and Venturers with more than 214 square miles of rugged northern New Mexico wilderness. Backpacking treks, horseback cavalcades, and training and service programs offer young people many ways to experience this legendary country. Or so their website says – I understand that 2 weeks there is $1500 when you figure in transportation to get there. LINK TO FEES

To make matter more humorous, in Galesburg, IL another gaggle of Scouts got on in matching fluorescent t-shirts. And if you really want a chuckle – imagine the lounge car filled with testosterone laden teens mixed with a handful of Old Order Amish woman headed to San Diego. The basic jist of the Old Order Amish is according to Wikipedia: “The Old Order Amish is the concept many outsiders have when they think of ‘Amish'” right down to “rumsprina” a “rite of passage” for adolescents where often leave the community for a taste of the outside world before being baptized.

I would have gotten a picture but I didn’t want to be an ass.

The first meal on the train was dinner – hence the Pulled Pork sandwich at 1:30pm or so.

What’s for dinner you might ask – I had the steak again, to see the difference between routes. Tonight’s steak was much juicier that last nights, but I like the corn better than the green beans as the vegetable – presentation was hand-down better on the Southwest Chief.

The only goal remaining for tonight is to grab a couple of “Platform Memories” shots in both Kansas City (MO, not KS) and Lawrence (KS). First stop is Kansas City where Paul will be meeting me:

Though I would have like to get more of the train in there.

But onto Lawrence (KS) where I had to work with the conductor since only one car in coach was opening – and it was a QUICK two minute stop, enough for this shot of Byron, Phil and myself (right to left):

Turns out Conan was headed back from the movies and just saw the tail-lights of the Southwest Chief as they hit a crossing. Another 10 nights early and I could have waved.

Unfortunately I don’t think Flagstaff (AZ) is going to work out because Kyle work evenings. Hopefully I’ll get one or two from The Coast Starlight.

Just for the record, I’m in Car 0331 (second sleeper forward of the Dining Car) in Room(ette) 4 facing West and North. I’ve lucked out as this is one of the few Superliner II cars that still has a functioning ice drawer under the coffee urn:

Most of these have been abandoned after the health department raised hell for the scoop being in the drawer – use of the drawer now comes with rules from the car attendant – scoop must remain in paper bucket next to the coffee urn when not in use. The rest of the sleepers (including those on the City of New Orleans) that I’ve been on have had Styrofoam coolers to fetch your ice from.

And here is a little oddity that I noticed on the Southwest Chief schedules note:

So is “69” a reference to Arizonans? I thought Arizona was so conservative that sex wasn’t allowed.

Decided on the top bunk with both mattresses – tight but comfy though the morning came too soon and I didn’t hear the breakfast hours last night, so a bit of a panic, and then because of all the Boy Scouts, a half an hour wait to get a table. Damn do-gooders.

Got talked into the Omelet – not bad. Asparagus, onions, tomatoes, cheese was the filling. Yes, on the Southwest Chief they have menus items listed.

Headed back to the room(ette) after breakfast and basically napped until noon when I went downstairs for a shower – which did wonders for my mood.

Lunch was the Angus Cheeseburger with Bacon, always a winner – though I skipped the Kettle Chips.

The afternoon found me not reading but draining my tablet battery playing this mind-sucking Tri Peaks Solitaire which I got hooked on with my phone – and man can the game suck the juice out of the phone (and the tablet). By Albuquerque I finally put it down, but I did take breaks in Lamy (and Albuquerque) to step off and get pictures – it’s so weird to be at these two stations and not have any friends or family.

In Lamy it would have been my sister-in-law Jen, but she is interviewing job candidates today and the bro-in-law and niece are out of town – and mom is a El Castillo in downtown Santa Fe, so that’s out. There is a great “Platform Memory” – and probably what started this project – of my parents and I at the Lamy Station a couple of years before my father died.

Here is a link to the post that photo was in: LINK

And here is the station today:

The stop after Lamy (which is the stop for Santa Fe (NM)) is Albuquerque (NM) where in the past I’ve hooked up the Jen’s (sis-in-law) friend Michele to shoot the shit on the 45-minute layover – but alas, she has a doctor’s appointment at the same time, so, yet again, another link to a previous post of my last meet-up: LINK

And here is the station today:

Guess this means that I’ll have to include a photo of the Flagstaff station where I was hoping to meet Kyle:

Speaking of Flagstaff, we were delayed an hour because of a medical emergency. What’s that phrase? “It’s all good until the ambulance shows up.” One three ladies travelling together to Las Vegas had a couple of strokes – but to get her off the train as she was on the “hefty” side, they had to get her conscious since they couldn’t get a backboard up the narrow coach car stairs. They say it shouldn’t make us too late as there is padding in the schedule between Riverside and Los Angeles.

A later dinner seating tonight, 7:45pm, it was that or like 5:45pm which would have left me hungry at nine – no more 7pm seats but the time they got to my sleeper. They actually have reservations going til 9pm which is definitely too late for me.

Dinner tonight? Yes, another steak – luckily they were out of desert by the time they got to our table. Luckily I had some chocolate left over from the Snack Basket on the flight to New Orleans.

And a humor shot — the Jim Croce song: “If I Could Save Time In A Bottle,” mine would be more like “If I Could Measure Time In A Bottle.”:

Early to bed since if I want breakfast I need to be in the Dining Car at 5am as they stop serving at 5:45am, or San Bernardino whichever is later…as it turns out we are still an hour behind so I wouldn’t have had to rush that much.

As we pulled into Fullerton I saw the Amish ladies transferring to the Pacific Surfliner:

Ended up getting in 25 minutes late – time to hook up with Craig, but first, the Metropolitan Lounge.

And I close with my post with my favorite picture of the day – Arizona in the afternoon:

To be continued…

[? ? ?]

Wed
16
Nov '16

Trip Report: Santa Fe

Part one of my trip is getting to (and staying for a couple of days) Santa Fe.

I booked long enough in advance that I used an Alaska Gold MVP Guest Upgrade for a few more dollars – turns out it was a good idea as there were 34 people on the upgrade list (guessing I wouldn’t have gotten one). My favorite seat (1C):

Sadly, someone showed up for 1A – it was a TOTALLY packed flight. But there was food and drink:

I was a little shocked to see luggage coming down the carousel even though I was first off the plane and only stopped to be on the way to baggage claim. Sadly, the rental car counter was much more disappointing. One person behind the counter, five people in line behind a woman who wanted all her options. I even had time to leave my back in line and go to the next counter over to inquire if they had cars available and would match the rate. $150 a day for the cheapest car – I’ll continue standing in line for my $25 a day let them choose anything for me over a compact – it’s always amusing to see what I’ll be driving – one time I ended up in a Fiat 500 from the same airport. This time, if there is the exact opposite of a Fiat, it would be this:

Yep, Dodge Ram Crew Cab 1500 4×4 with tow package and 23,000 miles on it.

Don’t think about the gas mileage, the display said it was averaging 16mpg. Makes me wish I had somebody who needed something moved!

Santa Fe is a little over an hour north of Albuquerque, where I flew into. Add a stop at Albertsons for supplies (read that as Evan Williams and Vernors) I was at the condo a little after six – and checked into my little retreat:

And the “compact or bigger” looks great in front of the unit:

Even got the table set up for The Colonels who showed up with Blake’s Lotaburger Green Chile Cheeseburgers – welcome to Santa Fe!

Yep, the place even comes with a gas fireplace.

Wonderful easy meal, wonderful chatting, too long since I’ve them. It was an early night for everyone, even for me, took a sleeping pill and got ten hours of sleep to make up for the night before the flight.

Lunch Tuesday was my sis (technically, my ex-sister-in-law, former wife of my dead brother). She’s family – think she said we met in 1986 which would make it 30 years of family ties.

GREAT restaurant – Artisco Café & Bar (sister restaurant to Tomasita’s which ALWAYS has a line to get in) – that can even pull off a Manhattan in the land of Margaritas. I ordered a Manhattan in honor of my departed mother.

Jen’s comment was – “I haven’t smelled that smell since Eileen passed,” Guess it was a meal of memories as I ordered the Chile Rellenos (which my mother used to make growing up and she did like the ones at Atriscos):

That led to an afternoon nap which was interrupted repeatedly by workers ripping the roof off my unit, playing Banda music (OK, that wasn’t bad), giggling, and dropping pipes by my window. I did get a bit of a nap as they clocked out at 3:30.

A bit of texting back and forth, but dinner with The Colonels, Jen, Kennan, me was at La Choza– yet another restaurant I hadn’t tried. I started with the Smoke and Fire Margarita — you have to have at least one Margarita while in New Mexico, and you should make sure they squeeze their own limes rather than using mix. The fire part was Jalapeno, a little juice in the glass, slice on the rim. THAT, I forgot to get a picture of, but I did get a picture of my crisp tacos with a picture of the Margarita in the background:

This time I actually got a picture of the guests!

Too bad I didn’t get a picture of our waiter. Smokin’ Hot. I understand now that The Donald is headed to the White House it’s OK to objectify men as well.

Speaking of that, I’ll close this post with the book that I liberated from the laundry room of the complex on the take one/leave one pile:

A 1996 New York Bestseller called Dixie Rising. It will be interesting to compare the vision of Dixie Rising twenty years ago to the 2016 version of dixie risen.

Maybe I’ll have some time on the next leg of my journey home – or maybe I’ll add it to the top of the pile and plow through it.

[218.2]

 

Sun
15
Jul '07

Dog Sick….

Or is that sick as a dog…. naked on the couch at noon dealing with stomach cramps and diarrhea… guess those couple of small cramps before last nights dinner were more than I thought.

It being Sunday there are always people wanting to drop by — though I wasn’t expecting a call from Rachel (who has a boyfriend up the hill in White Center). Graf I was expecting (to pick up tools). And once again we started making Wii Mii’s and bowling. I think Graf will end up getting one of the boxes.

After company is was back to being horizontal in the ever increasing heat of the afternoon. I hate this heat. I’m almost ready to buy a fan.

Dinner was a slice of quiche that Jen made for the crew of TZ and dropped off yesterday. It didn’t help the cramping — but I’m guessing I need something in my stomach for strength. Needless to say, no Scotch before and after dinner or wine with.

Almost killed me to get Jen’s print job done since she has a show coming up in a couple of days. The joys of working for yourself….

Fri
19
Feb '16

Trip Report: Winter Break With Bliss – The Beginning

One of my self-serving pay-it-forward (can you actually do that?) is to put together trips for friends (and me) who are of more limited means – example – friends of mine who are teachers, lower level office workers, etc. This week’s trip is for my buddy, Bliss, who is on winter break from the school where he teaches IB (International Bachelorette) English to high school kids. Talk about a 12-hour-a-day job plus weekends grading all those college-level papers you’ve assigned.

He needs a break. And it doesn’t’ start well – his alarm didn’t go off. Luckily (for me) we are:

  1. Travelling separately to the airport
  2. On different record locator for our flights

Luckily I’d been texting him my progress through the morning and he finally got a clue it was time to get out of the house – and he’s a SLOW one in that regard. That said, I can chill in the Board Room. If he misses his flight, he can try for the Tuesday flight. Breakfast is served! Well, OK, it was self-serve with the exception of the Red Baron, which they have to make:

Followed by one of their world-famous Bloody Marys:

He finally made it with just enough time to slam down two drinks – which he’ll need since he’s in coach and I snagged an upgrade to my favorite seat (1C). Funny thing happened at the end of the boarding process – a customer from the shop (Madrona Wine Merchants) went flying down the aisle with her daughter in tow. Later I can to find out that her daughter noticed me and said to mom, “The think I just saw our wine guy sitting in First Class.” Bliss used miles (plus I think $5 or something like that for a ticketing/tax fee), I had a $138 one-way ticket – which when you end up in First Class for the non-stop Seattle to Albuquerque isn’t bad.

Nor was lunch:

It was only a two-hour flight, but it was nice to get a hot sandwich (and a couple of cocktails).

Landed, grabbed bags, grabbed the shuttle to the Rental Car Center (I hate those things – a giant time sink), got what they call an economy car (Nissan Altima with Bluetooth phone connection) and off to Santa Fe we head. With a stop at Albertsons where I picked up four half gallons of Evan Williams and two fifths of Swedka Vodka, a six-pack of Vernors, and a twelve-pack of Canada Dry Diet Ginger Ale – Bliss picked up six (count ’em six) bottle of Jose Cuervo Cinnamon Infused Tequila, which he likes, and was on closeout, and got an additional 10% for buying six (as did I).

To save on expenses we are staying with my sis-in-law who is married to my bro-in-law. How that works is that she is my dead brother’s widow, and Kennan is her husband. It’s amazing to me that this extended family likes each other, actually loves each other, warts and all – and enough to have me AND a friend stay over.

Tonight’s dinner is:

Minus the dressing step which makes me want a crock pot – guess I should forward this to Salamander and DancingBear, who do have crock pots.

Beautiful sunset before dinner:

Watched the Academy Awards and the Pruett/Souder/Girdner clan headed to their usual early bed.

Slept in, and then it was off for some sightseeing that included hiking (yes, I said HIKING)

I was surprised that on a Tuesday afternoon in the middle of February that the parking lot would be close to capacity!

Best fuel ourselves up with a Green Chile Cheeseburger at the gift/snack shop at Bandelier National Monument:

Messy but good! I feel a Trip Advisor review coming on.

As I do every couple of years I decided to purchase the yearly National Parks Pass which has some useless name like “The Inter-Agency Multiple Park Pass”. The real name is Interagency Annual Pass (aka The America The Beautiful Pass) – but here it hangs on my rear view mirror. It was $80, but the entrance fee to Bandelier was $20, so all I have to do is visit Rainier (where a car is $30) a couple of times and it will have paid for itself. I find it odd that the individual park entrance fees have gone up, but not the price of the pass. I try to buy my passes at the smaller national monuments because they get to keep a chunk of the pass money and they need all the help they can get.

Bad shot, but you get the idea – I put this on mostly for my buddy Sierra who is a park ranger. Speaking of which, he is at Denali this summer – might have to use the pass again up there!

I’ve been to Bandelier many times but this is a first for Bliss – a lovely day for a light hike:

It’s a pretty amazing place just an hour twenty minutes from Santa Fe, very close to Los Alamos if you want to combine a trip – no time for us this round.

Got back to the house in time for cocktail hour before Jen and Kennan got home from work to make Ginger Scented Shrimp (sorry, no recipe or picture). And then after dinner drinks:

I guess we know where my priorities lay…

Up earlier the second morning in Santa Fe – want to hit a museum or two before we leave for Albuquerque in the afternoon. But first, breakfast at Tia Sopia’s just off the plaza. Bliss had the Wednesday Breakfast Special (quesadilla) and I had the Green Chili Stew with flour tortilla:

Tia Sopia’s is just across the street from the Lensic Theatre where my mother often saw shows:

Bliss really wants to see and original Shakespeare
Folio at one of the museums – it takes us two museums to actually find it – both pretty much on the plaza of Santa Fe – and both members of the North American Reciprocal program which I got because of my Tacoma Art Museum membership (see blog post here on what I saw and why I joined).

The Folio itself was not terribly inspiring…

And the rest of the surrounding exhibition looked like an afterthought – they should have combined the two exhibits (there was peripheral materials at the New Mexico History Museum), but it was nice to spend some time downtown…

After the musems, it was time to return to Albuquerque, and because we had the time, stop by the Gruet Winery for some bubbles! Some of you will remember my post from December on the sparkling house the Gruet built. I didn’t even have business cards with me this trip but we managed to get the production manager to AGAIN give a tour – when I found out the disgorgement line was running I got super excited. This is the process where they freeze the necks of the bottles and blow out all the yeast before adding back a little wine and sugar to get the bubbles going.

And then onto popping the corks, refilling, and cork/wire/label:

So fun to see the process in action – and so fun to taste the results!

The unlabeled bottle is of a “no dosage” Rose sparkler – the advantages of being in the business is you get to sometimes taste “experiments”. I highly recommend stopping by for a visit if you are in Albuquerque.

They even have a little museum of old champagne equipment:

But we are on a schedule – next up is to find some distilled water for Bliss’ C-PAP machine, grab lunch (the Sonic Burger joint does a Green Chili Cheeseburger that is REALLY good), gas up the car and return it to the airport – did I mention gas is cheap in New Mexico?

Dropped the rental car and hailed an Uber for the trip to the train station with our many bags and boxes.

Next up, the train from Albuquerque to Seattle via Los Angeles.

[? ? ?]

Tue
28
Oct '14

Trip Report: Santa Fe To Visit Mom

My little “Board Room Ritual”—a Red Baron (also known as a Poinsettia) to start the travel day. That would be sparkling wine and cranberry juice. Kill the liver, cure the kidneys.

My good travel luck is holding – got assigned Seat 1C without even having to log in a move it. Maybe the computer finally knows what seat I like. Uneventful flight. So uneventful that I forgot to take a picture of my lunch which was a warm chicken thigh sandwich that was actually pretty good.

Albuquerque has one of those consolidated rental car centers that I despise and it didn’t help that the customers in front of me were playing twenty questions with the lone rental car agent. Even if I had status with Alamo it wouldn’t have been any quicker with just one agent.

Luckily right next to Alamo was their sister company, National, and that agent did my paperwork and I was out the door in a 4-door Nissan Sentra lickity split.

Here is my little “Leaving Albuquerque” video:

Got to Santa Fe, swung by the office at El Castillo to pick up a parking pass – something I’ll have to do daily as parking is at a premium with the construction of their new Alzheimer unit.

Here are a couple of shots of the building that my mother is in:

Before long, the in-laws start showing up, all in separate cars. Brother-in-law Kennan, sis-in-law Jen, niece Karen. Off to dinner we go, to Rio Chama and boy was the food good.

Starters of oysters – lots of them. Half a dozen for me, a dozen for Mom, and another half dozen split by the Pruett/Girdners (the in-laws).

Then for my main, there wasn’t much of a decision since rarely to you see Elk Tenderloin on the menu – with a little broccolini, on a bed of pancetta roasted new potatoes and quash.

Yum, yum, yum.

Mom was in bed by 8, me by 2…which meant not rolling out of bed in the morning until 10am.

Fed myself some leftovers and headed out on the errand run – working through the “honeydo” list.

  • Staples for pens, paper, and ink for Mom
  • Albertsons for soda and bourbon for both of us

As I was loading the trunk this guy came up to me and asked if he could talk to me about shopping bags. Turns out Santa Fe banned plastic bags in an effort to get people to bring their own. But since they didn’t put a fee on paper bags, needless to say it isn’t reducing waste and it’s costing the grocery stores more. He even took pictures.

Some of the results of my shopping – like mother, like son:

Cocktails at 4 with two other residents of El Castillo whose daughter also went to Evergreen. Martinis for Mom and I, white wine for The McCarthys. Mom loves good gin – and her favorite was the Tanqueray Malacca Gin which hadn’t been produced in a decade before last year when they came out with a limited release in liter bottles. That’s all gone, but she snagged a bottle of Tanqueray’s latest limited release of their Old Tom Gin. Damn tasty, hence the plug here:


Of course it isn’t cheap, but might have to pick up one on my next trip.

Dinner was take-out from Whole Hog BBQ. The food is good, but I’m always surprised that there aren’t many people in their – guessing they do a huge lunch business through:

Thursday was the big day for us, especially when one more item got added to the list. I got an email in the morning from Kristina Hagman asking if I was in Santa Fe, as was she. Turns out she found out about me being in town because I made the front page of the Santa Fe New Mexican – above the fold!

That would be me on the right. Guess there goes my 15 minutes of fame…

Here are the links to the newspaper article and the link to my picture: ARTICLE
PICTURE

So Kristina popped over for a bit, and posed for a “groupie”.

Then Mom and I went out to lunch at SantacaFé. I had the Rueben (with enough left over for dinner) and Mom had the onion rings to start and the Lobster Roll for her main, but didn’t eat much of it after filling up on the onion rings which really were good:

We ate outside which was a little chilly when the breeze kicked up but still nicer than being cooped up inside on a sunny fall day.

Next up was the bank to add me to the checking accounts. It was the final item financially that needed taking care of so that there won’t be anything going through probate. I’m on one, by brother is on another, and my sister-in-law is on the third with all of us being on the brokerage account. No houses, no cars, just some possessions and we aren’t the haggling kind of family.

When 4PM rolled around it was time to head next door to a building-wide cocktail party. Man those old people know how to drink! Lots of wine, and more importantly for me, Jameson’s Irish Whiskey. They next door neighbors last name is Jameson so it was quite appropriate. Helped myself twice before we headed back to Mom’s apartment.

And I wasn’t kidding about enough food leftover to make a nice dinner:

That is the Dill laced hot potato salad that came with the sandwich.

My last day in Santa Fe (Friday) had me up and out so I could have brunch with my buddy Aaron from Las Cruces that had driven 4+ hours to Santa Fe to see me. Luckily his sister lives in Santa Fe and he’s going to stay a couple of nights.

Bunch was at the Swiss Bakery. Yes, those would be mimosas. With Eggs Benedict on the way:

I passed on the potatoes.

Walking back to the car I spotted these two train cars…

A little digging around and I came up with pictures from the interiors…

Seems these are now part of the Santa Fe Southern Railway which runs tourist trains between Santa Fe and Lamy. The last time I was on them they only had an enclosed car and an open car. Funny that the train ran right by my parent’s old house.

And digging further, I seemed to remember something about an outfit that wanted to run a high-speed privately financed train between LA and Las Vegas. Turns out that X-Train are those folks. What two of their cars are doing in Santa Fe is a mystery to me…one worth digging into.

So… X Train Rail Holdings Corporation (Ticker Symbol: XTRN) is an odd little beast of a company offering upscale rail holidays, rail car financing and leaseback, and apparently a roll out plan to have 20+ cars by the end of 2015 judging from this slide I found on their site:

The whole PowerPoint Presentation is here: http://www.vegasxtrain.com/uploads/2/5/7/8/25787513/x_rail_asset_fund.ppt

The slide mentions Mid America Railcar which lists both of the cars that I saw in Santa Fe as being in their fleet…stranger and stranger (the Keystone Grill and the Mohave).

Enough digging and you find that they now own Santa Fe Southern Railroad, but oddly they have suspended service. It will be interesting to see if they do the Holiday Trains as they usually do.

And here is their description of what they do:

About X Train Holdings
The company Las Vegas Railway Express, Inc. DBA X Train Holdings Corp., has developed a robust infrastructure of call center, travel agency, logistics planning management, food & beverage and unique passenger rail cars of the purpose of acquiring or affiliating privately owned passenger rail companies under the X Train Holdings umbrella. Independently owned and operated passenger rail companies can enlist the services of X Train to grow market share, improve operating margins by consolidating costs, and providing access to capital for asset purchase, repair and improvement. X Train is a publicly traded company under the OTCQB: XTRN symbol. It is a fully reporting company and its auditors are BDO and its securities lawyers are Sichenzia Ross of New York. By consolidating either acquired companies and/or affiliated companies, X Train Holdings can create economies of scale for its array of member companies. This is much more difficult for small privately held companies where the principals frequently must guarantee personally capital purchases or loans. X Train Holdings relieves that burden and provides a path to liquidity should owners wish to sell.

And the link to Yahoo Finance with all their press releases, news, etc.: http://finance.yahoo.com/q?uhb=uh3_finance_vert&fr=&type=2button&s=XTRN

But I digress – I really did go down the internet rabbit hole…now where was I…

Time to get back to Albuquerque and catch my plane to Seattle-Taco – or at least that’s what they sign says:

Would a Seattle Taco feature Seahawk meat?

No lounge at Sunport (the name of the airport), but a nice observation area to watch all the New Mexican Air National Guard jets, helicopters and transport planes take off and land.

It’s upstairs and underutilized – guess most people don’t know it is there – and soon enough I’m settled back into Seat 1C.

I’m so happy that my Friday night plans fell through (dinner with Josh and moving a painting). Nice to just chill at home.

[222.4]

Wed
26
Dec '18

Trip Report: Santa Fe The Long Way

It used to be easy to get to Santa Fe…flight left in the morning, got into ABQ in the afternoon, plenty of time to drive/train to Santa Fe. Not anymore. A couple of months before my trip Alaska sent me a note saying that my flight that was supposed to get in at 1PM would, instead, be getting in at 10PM, and leaving on the return, butt early, in the morning.

Doesn’t work when you are an hour and a half from your final destination by the time you pick up your luggage.

Hello Portland along the way…

Started the trip with the usual trip to the Alaska Lounge

With a stop at Florette to hug Shua. It’s rare that his work schedule and my flight schedules align.

Bulkhead aisle to PDX…

Upgraded to First on the E175 flight from PDX to ABQ, which is 2-1 seating, with me in the 1:

So, aisle and window and the same time – and LOOK at the view!

This is why I call the Pacific Northwest home. And then, lunch was served.

On time into Albuquerque, off to the Rental Car Center, into the rental car, and headed north to Santa Fe, and checked into the WorldMark Santa Fe…Studio Handicapped Unit:

Because of getting in at 4PM, and not to Santa Fe until after 6PM, no hanging with the relatives, just grabbing food from across the street (Chopstix):

Popular, cheap, OK quality… perfect for taking back to the room, and she threw in a couple of wontons since I wasn’t willing to wait 20 minutes for the Bulgogi.

Lunch the next day (who is up for breakfast!) was at one of my favorites, a block away from the condo. Bumble Bee’s for Lamb Tacos. Love their drive through sign:

Dinner with my sis-in-law (might as well be sister at this point), and her husband, Uncle to Jameson and Julian, at Atrisco for their Chile Relleno.

Yes, this trip is about food – it is Santa Fe, after all!

Lunch at LottaBurger…a tradition with both The Colonels and I should mention that I was supposed to see The Colonels on this trip, but management messed up their 3-week reservation at their condo and turned it into a 2-week stay, so they headed back to Kentucky. I also missed them in New Orleans due to weather…I’ll see them in January in West Yellowstone.

Dinner with the family out in Eldorado (about 20 minutes from the condo):

The following afternoon Jen and I met up for lunch at Taco Fundacion – where Bert’s Burgers was for 30 years, but brought it back to the condo since it was only a block away, and they don’t really have warm seating:

I ordered the Roasted Pig, the Lamb, and the Goat (and then went back for dinner and ordered the Fried Oyster, Bison, and a side of chips). Damn good – worth a second trip.

My afternoon was spent on the computer, watching George H.W. Bush’s train ride home…

My final meal in Santa Fe was breakfast at another one of my favorites…The New York Deli:

The Eggs Benedict were $9.95 – a freakin’ bargain.

Got upgraded to my favorite seat on the E175, which is 1A – the combination aisle/window. And since it’s First Class, it comes with dinner:

And more mountain views….

Guess I’ve taken to photographing the wing tip for perspective. It works.

That’s my last flight trip for the year. Got a driving trip to Vancouver and Blaine coming up.

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Fri
6
Jun '14

Trip Report: Santa Fe, New Mexico – Visiting Mom.

This week’s adventure was to head to Santa Fe, NM to visit with mom and work through the “honeydoo” list.

Decent flight time out of Seattle, but that means a late arrival in Santa Fe. Late being 9:15pm, which by the time luggage came (took back wine and cherries for the family) it was 10pm by the time I got to El Castillo (The Castle) where mom lives.

The flight plan is Seattle to Los Angeles on this bird:

In an exit row seat, without the leg room of previous exit rows:

In Los Angeles, it’s a terminal change after a stop at the Board Room to get a little work done since I have a four hour layover…

The flight from Los Angeles to Santa Fe is also an exit row – with the seat next to me open:

Got the Road Runner Shuttle to El Castillo getting there around 10pm. Mom left the door to her condo open a bit — I’m sure my father is rolling in his urn over this – he was a tad security paranoid. Mom as asleep so it wasn’t unitl 10 in the morning that I got to see the “honeydoo” list over my morning coffee.

Here is what I accomplished:

  • Installed new cordless phone/answering machine
  • Unpacked all the boxes of geriatric gear
  • Set up spring-loaded lift assist for bedroom chair
  • Set up shower stall seat
  • Set up raised toilet seat
  • Made Deviled eggs

    I wanted to do eight eggs – Mom said that was too many – hopefully Jon and Norma will eat (or Devil) the rest of the eggs when they come next month.
  • Broke down all the boxes and got them to recycling
  • Ran to the store to restock all the bourbon, vermouth, soda, eggs (for me and the Devils)
  • Picked up the mail, droped off the mail
  • And probably lots of things I forgot but did anyway like going to the fridge and tossing past date leftovers.

We didn’t my name transferred onto one of the bank accounts (Jen is on one, Jon is on another) but I’ll be back in October if we can’t get this done through the post.

Dinner tonight was take-out from the Santa Fe Bite, formerly the Bobcat Bite which used to be out on the old highway headed to El Dorado where my parents used to live, and sis-in-law Jenn, bro-in-law Kennan, and niece Karen still live. The food was good the service from awful. Mom had the Bacon Cheeseburger and a Strawberry Shake (example of awful service, not only did the food take way too long to get out of the kitchen, I had to wait while they made a strawberry shake because they gave me a chocolate one) and I had the Rib Eye steak with slaw (a little too vinegary and dry for my taste) and sweet potato fries (a little soggy from waiting around for the proper shake). Yes, I know – ordering a rib-eye from take out, what was I thinking – but it was perfectly cooked.

More puttering around the condo on Wednesday – time to hang out with Mom, both of us in the living room, her reading, me catching up on work (updating the wine shop’s website, catching up on TripAdvisor reviews for the places I stayed, eaten, visited). In the afternoon I wandered into town to pick up a Hemmingway Short Story cigar for my niece who is on a Hemmingway kick. Of course the funny thing is that Hemmingway didn’t smoke – it’s just a line of cigars by Arturo Fuente. The cigar is going in a gift bag with two miniatures of Scotch –Dewar’s White Label (a blend) and Glen Livet (a single malt). Hemmingway did drink scotch.

Here are a couple of shots of the area around The Plaza in Santa Fe:

Above is the St. Francis Cathedral (Catholic).

Above is Loretto Chapel with its amazing carved spiral staircase (image on Wikipedia link). The couple that bought my church on Lopez Island got married in this church – for their honeymoon they toured Northern New Mexico to look at all the small churches in the region – apparently making them want to buy one of their own. If you click on the My Church link you can see the real estate video from 2011 when they sold it. Trust me, it didn’t look that nice when I owned it. They dumped a ton of money into the place and I’m sure they didn’t get it all back considering they bought it in 2008 in the middle of the real estate mess.

And The Plaza itself. The Palace of the Governors Museum is on the far side of The Plaza.

Big dinner out tonight with all five of us at SantacaFé just off The Plaza in Santa Fe.

From left to right: Bro-in-law Kennan, Mom, Karen, Jenn, Uncle Markie.

Great food (reminds me that I need to do a TripAdvisor review!) I had the Filet Mignon, Kennan and Jenn split a Rib Eye, Karen went for the Green Chili Cheeseburger, and Mom for the tempura soft shell crab special appetizer along with the special pasta for the night (most of which went home in a doggie bag for lunch).

Paired with a lovely 2011 Famille Perrin Vacqueyras “Les Christins”. Tasting Notes: Clean, fresh and juicy with black raspberry, cranberry and spice; smooth texture, meaty and bright; long and balanced. Syrah, Grenache.

And what a pretty dessert that Kennan and Karen shared:

I’ve totally forgotten that is was – I do remember eating the mint leaves off the top as my dessert.

The morning brought an early flight on not much sleep – and a rather large gentleman in the seat next to me on the commuter jet back to Los Angeles. Only a couple of hours in Los Angeles to change terminals and grab a drink and a snack in the Board Room before catching my flight to Portland on one of the newer Alaska Airlines plans with the Sky Interior and their new Recarro seats.

Odd since I thought they were also installing outlets and USB jacks at all the seats with these new airplanes. I had a little over an hour in Portland to grab some wine and cheese in the Board Room before my flight to Seattle on the UW-themed Horizon flight:

The only casualty of the trip was my Porter-Case when once again suffered some damage – this time a latch that was completely ripped off at the hinge:

They offered me $100 in flight credit or 4,000 miles on the spot – or the offer of possible repair. Looks like I’ll be going back to T.R. Carroll on Monday to see if they can fix it at the airlines expense. Porter-Case has bordering on bankruptcy so I’m not sure if there will be parts available. I’ll keep you all informed of the outcome. Friday, Saturday, Sunday work schedule for me this week.

[213.0]

Tue
2
Jul '13

Up In The Air Again.

Destination Denver

Out of the condo a little after nine, another lovely stay at the WorldMark. Off to RonneyMacs for a couple of breakfast burritos – yep, more carbs. Bad Uncle Markie. 52 carbs to be exact.

Hung out with Mom for a bit before Jen and Karen showed up to run me to the airport. Mom mentioned wanting to do an 31-day Eldershostel trip, now called Road Scholar, to Hawaii and Polynesia, etc. starting this December 15th. Looks like fun.

Itinerary Summary

Arrival San Diego, Calif., 1 night; embark ms Statendam, 30 nights (ports of call include Big Island of Hawaii, Maui, Oahu, Christmas Island (Kiribati), Bora Bora (French Polynesia), Raiatea, Tahiti, Moorea, Rangiroa, Nuku Hiva); disembark San Diego, departure.

More details here: http://www.roadscholar.org/n/program/summary.aspx?id=1%2D6FEQLJ

Got to the airport in plenty of time – and as they always do at the Santa Fe airport, they opened and swabbed EVERY checked bag. Can you say “too many TSA Agents, too few passengers”. Just in case they gave me grief about all the booze I’d printed out their regulations which say no more than 5 liters of hard liquor per bag – I had 4.70 liters.

After I checked in, walked over to this old Yugoslav jet parked on the tarmac (well, I was behind the fence). As you can tell from the Red Star it’s from the Tito communist era.

The other interesting aircraft, that was actually working was this baby:

Lots of aerial firefighting equipment in addition to this one.

Lisa met me at the airport – a little delayed because they parked us 3 feet from where we should have been – 20 minute delay, more reading for me – and the knowledge that my bags would be waiting for me on the carousel and they were.

Lovely dinner with Dan and Lisa:

Home-made carnitas, heirloom tomatoes and peas. Yum.

Late night (as usual) of gabbing away.

[? ? ?]

Sun
30
Jun '13

The “Celebration” Of My Father’s Life.

This is the day that I haven’t been looking forward to – my Father’s Memorial/Celebration – the final bookend that started with CaddyDaddy’s Memorial/Celebration on the first day of the month. Not liking June much these days.

Short and sweet, the service. Learned things about my father’s Armco career about what he actually did. One of the speaker’s was someone who he had hired 30+ years ago. Learned about my Aunt and my Father’s developing relationship over the years – they were 10 years apart (Aunt under). Learned that it’s really a GREAT idea to hire a Jazz Combo to play upbeat music (custom play list) after all the speeches. Thanks Jen (sis-in-law, dead brother’s widow). Homemade snacks and Jazz, not a bad combination:

                        

After most of the people cleared out, it was back to the “Saints” house (My sis-in-law) for yet around hanging out, drinking, eating, swapping stories, catching up. There is definitely a benefit to scheduling something 6 months after the dearly departed passed. Cheaper airfares, people out of school, the works.

Again, home late, with too many carbs in my tummy.

[???]

Sat
29
Jun '13

Pre-Celebration BBQ.

Slept in… and then lunch at the New York Deli a couple of blocks from the condo. HUGE servings. I got the Reuben:

 

I ate the bread, I didn’t eat the matchstick fries – should have gotten more cole slaw.

Next, Mike swung by for errand time:

Albertsons for:

  • (2) 1.75 of bourbon for mom
  • (4) 750mls of Evan Williams for me
  • (12) Diet Cokes for me
  • (1) Moscato – definitely not for me
  • (2) Limes
  • (6) Tonic

Trader Joes for:

  • (5) different salsas
  • (3) different chips
  • (2) tubs cookies for Mom’s book club
  • (2) lemonade for Mom’s book club
  • (1) jug premade Margarita’s for, you guessed it, Mom’s book club
  • (1) orchid – purple, to match the accent wall, for Mom’s book club

And then it was off to the Pre-Party Celebration at my sis-in-law’s place out in Eldorado. Trying to shuttle a dozen or so people in and out of town has been amusing. Thanks Jen (sis-in-law) for all the prep work.

Pre-made BBQ, salads, lots of good food. I didn’t drive so I worked on Bourbon, my aunt Gin, beer for some, wine for some.

Another late night…

[? ??] Who knows with all the carbs getting into my diet this trip.

Wed
23
Oct '19

Trip Report: Return To Waikiki

After the long trip to Vietnam and travelling with other people, it felt like a good idea to take off on a self-holiday. Time for a little pre-takeoff breakfast!

Got the upgrade after I’d already checked in so it was a window bulkhead seat rather than my preferred aisle, but an upgrade is an upgrade!

And it being a Hawaii flight – a POG Mimosa while we were still on the ground!

Once in the air, the food really started to flow…

Hard to tell, but that was the mushroom stuffed ravioli.

Might as well take advantage of the window seat!

Once landed, grabbed the city bus ($2.75) to Waikiki and walked the couple of blocks to the condo:

Here are daytime and nighttime videos of the condo:

If you don’t want to watch the video, here is a still photo from my balcony:

Even with the snack basket an hour out of Honolulu – I was in need of something more substantial in my stomach so walked over the Cheeseburger Prime (formerly Cheeseburger in Paradise).

Got the sliders which came with fries and a cocktail (West Side Smash) at happy hour prices.

I’ve liked their food in the past, but this time the fries obviously weren’t cooked to order.

Tuesday morning, I took a bride of 20,000 points (should have held out for 30,000) to attend an “update”. There goes an hour and a half – but it replaces most of the points I gave to Conan for the father/daughter trip to London and Paris. I covered their first two nights in London with a place in Hyde Park.

Next up was my usual Tuesday in Waikiki – lunch at Liliha Bakery, which was, as often happens, out of the fried chicken, so it was the grilled ahi sandwich:

My other Tuesday stops were strikeouts –Salvation Army for Aloha shirts, along with Ross which is across the street.

In my evening stroll, noticed that Dean and DeLuca now has an outpost – mostly a café:

And that a new Tiki Bar has opened up down the street – The Lava Tube, better email Joe from Indianapolis!

Wednesday started off with one of my Waikiki traditions – the 55+ IHOP breakfast…

But it’s time to check out some new stuff to do in Waikiki…like fabric from Fabric Mart:

And these are the goodies I picked up with the exception of the napkins, which came from the quilting store on the Beachwalk:

And in this new neighborhood (well, to me), I found both a major Korean Grocery Store (Palama):

And a big Japanese Grocery Store (Don Quijote) complete with outside food court:

Thought “Oriental” wasn’t and acceptable phrase anymore…well, it is here.

Afternoon snack time found me at the restaurant at Tommy Bahama:

In the photo above, you can see one of the two $20 off regular items cards I scored on my last trip for just making a $5 donation called Kids Don’t Go Hungry. It makes the blue crab lump salad below just $2.00 (and the drink was happy hour priced at $10.00

Score!

Afterwards, I made my final ABC store run – and had enough receipts to get another Hello Kitty shopping bag for free:

Dinner was eating up all the leftovers in the fridge – a common practice.

Following day found me poolside for a bit…but sitting in the shade reading:

Didn’t even bother to put on my suit and jump in, even with the hunky long-haired young dad in the pool. And speaking of hunky guys – look what I’m missing this weekend in Honolulu!

Afternoon found me back at Tommy Bahama to use my second $20 Off card. Today it was different cocktail (only $8 – a Classic Margarita) and the Panko Breaded Fish and Chips ($4 after my $20 off):

Forget what the local fish was, denser (and more filling) than Halibut – I would have been just as happy with two pieces.

Feeling bloated from a mid-afternoon lunch is no mood to hit the Waikiki Farmers Market which happens every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday in front of the Wells Fargo Bank. Jen, Kennan and I hit it when we were here a month ago. Thought about getting some food for later, but they didn’t open for half an hour, and I needed a nap. It will be cheese and crackers for dinner tonight!

Walking home I discovered that another of my favorite restaurants has closed. Probably didn’t help that they didn’t have a full liquor license. Last time I was here was with DancingBear and Rick Rodrigues – our mutual friend that dropped dead about a year ago (and was about five years younger than me). Farewell Rick and Agu Ramen.

Final morning in Waikiki I was greeting to this view from my bed.

How magical is that!

Took the bus back to the airport – another whopping $2.75, which beats the $30 Uber. From city bus, through security, and into the lounge in a little over an hour. Not bad.

My return flight takes me through Portland because I wanted a freebie upgrade to First Class from Premium, comes with plenty of food and drink:

Had to get to the other end of the Portland terminal for the last flight of the day…which was supposedly on time except we were on the ground for 40 minutes waiting for last minute passengers. Wish they’d served a cocktail on the ground to first, because we got nothing in the air because of turbulence. The downside of going through Portland.

Some people join gyms, I get my steps being a tourist:

For comparison, Sunday I was at work. Means I walk at least twice as much travelling. And speaking of travelling, with my return back to Seattle I hit Alaska MVP Gold 75K status. Milestone benefits are 4 more Gold Upgrade Certificates, and 50,000 bonus miles. Takes 75,000 miles of flying on Alaska, or 90,000 miles of flying on Alaska and their Partners – that’s PER YEAR.

Back in time to work the weekend. Whew.

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Wed
10
Oct '12

The Status Of The Parents.

With NJ (my father’s sister, a.k.a. my aunt) playing food cop for my father, hopefully she can get more food into him so he can get some of his strength back. With the removal of the last hormone therapy because of bad side effects, it’s the end of the medical end of his treatment. Now he moves onto hospice care (but at the apartment) and it’s about quality of life, which hasn’t been good for the last couple of weeks because of the nausea which means he doesn’t eat and loses strength.

In a quiet moment with just the two of us, his comment was “I been having lots of bad days and I don’t know if it’s just the nausea and not eating or whether it’s the cancer spreading through my body”. I’m thinking 3-6 months tops. I’ll be going back down in December for a couple of more days to use the return leg of my frequent flyer mileage round-trip ticket. Which reminds me, I need to book the flight to LA and the train to SAF.

When it came time to sign over the title it was painful to watch him struggle with the pen – maybe I should have had my mom sign it over since either of them could do it – the title shows that they licensed it with 23 miles on the odometer – definitely a one-owner little-old-lady (well, she ain’t that little), garaged all its life sports car – remember, it could be yours for $5600.

After lunch in the dining room (I had the petite sirloin and a salad) with NJ and mom (dad too weak to come down), NJ and I went running errands: Walgreens, CVS for Ensure (and Evan Williams for me), and a couple of more stops to find a flower basket for the table outside their unit to bring a little color to the deck. That and a car wash which it really needed.

My mother’s situation is a little better. One the way to the dining room she used to have to stop and rest by the elevator – but on our trip today she did it in one stretch so she is getting a little stronger because of the walking (which means she should do more!) Unfortunately with dad’s weakness she has been having plates sent up rather than going down to the dining room since everybody is always coming up and asking how my dad is doing.

I left about 5 to head to the sis-in-law’s place (that would be Jen) to do some prep work on the car. First order of business was to try and fix the electric antenna which got bent with mom backed into something. I didn’t get it completely fixed, but it looks and works much better than it used to… only 4 or 5 inches of the mast remains sticking out when the radio is off – was twice that. Also did a little detailing since this will be my home for the next couple of days.

Here are some shots (sorry for the quality – cellphone shots):

If I had a job, I’d probably just keep it for myself.

A lovely steak salad for dinner. This will be my last night in Santa Fe for tomorrow it’s time to hit the road.

[? ? ?]

Mon
8
Oct '12

Wine Tasting And Packing.

It must be fall – wine tastings every Monday, usually more than one.

Today’s two – Bianco Rosso (Italian and French) and VI (down in Tukwila).

I only made it to the Bianco Rosso tasting on Capital Hill – and even that one not for long. I got about half way through before I bailed to go home and pack. Jim was there probably for about three hours since he wasn’t going to the Tukwila one either – which I can understand since he doesn’t drive and it would be a hellish bus commute (if even possible).

Packing, packing, packing.

5 bottles of wine, and one of Pear Brandy for Jen and Kennan as a thank you for dealing with my parents. I’ll be staying out there and commute to the parents in my mother’s car. The plan is to drive the car back to Seattle on Thursday so I’ve got to pack clothes for the road, an inverter so I can use the laptop as a giant GPS unit, and try not to have too much checked luggage since I’m flying down and driving back.

Let the adventure begin.

Opps – forgot to show off my first cask – a gift from Jim for my birthday!

I’ll have to fill it on my return.

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Wed
22
Nov '06

On the eighth hole, Scottsdale

A lazy day at the former McCormick Ranch — McCormick for the farm implement manufacturer on one side and Rockefeller on the other.

Newspapers and coffee, computer work, toast for breakfast or wait for lunch. Wait for lunch. Mom has the plan. Delux Burgers. DAMN GOOD. I had the Ahi Fish Burger and mom had the DeLux Burger — we split both and shared. Dad had the Classic, we all split a “Fries ala Cart” — french fries and sweet potato fries in a bag in a mini shopping cart.

Shopped for dinner after lunch (breakfast for me) — met with the butcher (woman) to get a 3 or 4 bone standing rib roast with mixed fingerling potatoes for dinner — a serious Sunday roast at six pounds. Salad, bread, and three bottles of wine fill the cart. Savings of $43.00 on a final bill of $110 for dinner.

The afternoon is mail, work, email, and laying in the sun reading all the papers looking for blog ideas. Got to work on that tan. Not bad here on the eighth green. Photos below since we haven’t had any photos for a couple of days.

 The view off the unit at the Millenium.     View from the unit at the Millenium     My workspace at the Millenium.     My workspace at the Millenium

Well, at least until 3:30 when it’s time for the roast to go in. Potatoes an hour later. Salad prepped, and everything ready for when Kennan, Jen, Emily and Karen show up for unit 37.

Ah, family. The road folks are so happy to have a meal ready. And a good meal it is. First wine is a Peachy Canyon Incredible Red Zinfandel, followed by a Coppola Claret. Add in the Manhattans for my mother and the scotch for me.

Emily and Karen bolt from the table for the Disney Channel after dinner. The adults stay around.

 

Sun
1
Jul '12

Slow But Busy Sunday.

Slow day for customers at the shop but still plenty to do like run all the credit cards for the July Madrona Wines Monthly. One declined card, one expired card –both fixed by the end of the day. And then there was stickering our new paper bags – the city instituted a plastic bag ban starting today (luckily we can still use the ones that we have in stock).

Cute huh?

Last customer of the day was Jen from Green Fire Products who swung by to buy wine and drop off a dozen individually customized flasks:

They are part of an art piece/performance piece I’m planning for Breitenbush Hot Springs the summer. The twelve flasks are:

  1. Bourbon
  2. Dry Gin
  3. Vodka
  4. Flavored Vodka
  5. Dry Vermouth
  6. Sweet Vermouth
  7. Pirate Dark Rum
  8. Pirate Light Rum
  9. Grappa
  10. Tequila
  11. Scotch
  12. Brandy

Here is a shot of the belt the flasks will be held in, though it only has six spaces (it’s a dive weight belt) so I may have to make a bandoleer to hold the other six – and maybe some underarm holsters for mixers or glassware:

The flasks engraved with:

Bliss and I are going to give the belt a training run on the train trip to California tomorrow.

After work it was the Turkey Release Party – the latest bottling of Tres Dindons wines by Jim and crew – served with lots of roasted pig and a bunch of our wine distributor reps making appearances. I couldn’t stay long (shopping and packing still needed) but it was fun and filling while it lasted.

On a lark I stopped at Bartell’s to look for Alli® since everyone has been out of stock for months and I noticed that the price on Amazon had actually come down to expensive rather than astronomical. Nope, not at Bartell’s but across the street at Walgreens – YES. Perfect for the trip on the train with all the fat in the dining car. Whilst shopping I stumbled across this lovely children’s table and car set for The Colonels at Frog Hallow farm:

So very tempting.

And even got to bed at a decent hour.

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Sun
20
Nov '11

Feels Like A Real Job.

It must be a real job, it takes an alarm clock to get me up and running.

My work schedule on Sunday is 11-5pm. Normally Sunday’s are fairly light days, but as we head into the holiday season people are walking out the door with full and half cases of wine. So, number of people was down, but they were buying twice as much leaving me lots of down time to continue to work on the wine description cards. We are getting closer to at least having the vintage and pricing information on each of the wines. Still lots of them that need to be reprinted vertically, but guessing my Tuesday will be filled with that. Tuesday will be the first Tuesday we have been open, and we will continue to be open Tuesday through New Years and then re-evaluate whether it makes sense.

One of the last customers of the day was a fellow merchant on 34th. Seems she comes in at the end of her shop day and picked up a bottle of white wine. Add the owner of the restaurant next door that picked up three bottles in the middle of the afternoon, and you have a lot of business support for our store. Gives me a hopeful feeling about the future.

I’ve started playing with my new Kindle Fire — but realized I need to get a cable to transfer my music to it since I don’t want to pay $20 a year for music storage in the cloud. You’d think that would come with Prime Membership — and maybe it does but I’ve been focused on other stuff at the moment.

Thanks Swanda for the folding cover — I’d planned on either sewing one or having Jen from Greenfire make me a drilled out book cover for it (may still do that!).

Locked up the shop a little after 5 and headed to Jim’s place for an early Thanksgiving — ten of us around the table, and at least that many different bottles of wine. Actually made it out of there at 9, but was in bed and lights out before the news was over —put under by the turkey.

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