UMTravels

Up at 10. So much for my plan of cheap Bloody Mary’s in the cabin followed by a morning Rosh Hashanah service with Rabbi Heyman. But what the hell, the sun is out.

It was more like up at ten, eat at 10:30, lounge around in the sun until 1:30, eat again, go back to the cabin for a nap, read some more, shower, dress for cocktails with the boys (Friends of Dorothy), go see the crew show at 7:30 and watch them “water” themselves in the production of “fountains” that I’ve seen on every NCL ship, go to the Steak House at 9pm for our final dinner and stay up until midnight to watch is go under the Golden Gate Bridge.

The original schedule for the boat was that we would see that about 6am in the fog, but wait – there is another medical emergency so all four engines are cranking us along at about 25-27mph to get use there by midnight. This will be medical emergency two on the ship – the first one delayed our departure from Vancouver Harbor while the tender boat removed an old woman on a stretcher… you will find a picture of that in the scroller bar from a couple of days ago.

Interesting side note: got a text message from United… I’ve been upgraded to first class for my flight back to Seattle tomorrow. Jonathan traded me a couple of his minutes on the ships wi-fi signal for a glass of Asti – his birthday drink for some reason – I’m nicely booked into seat 1C.

Also in a couple of days you will see photos and video from the fountains show… which they keep calling a “world premiere” but I’ve seen it three times now.

Dinner after the show in the Steak House, but both Jonathan and I are so exhausted that we don’t make a very good stab at dinner.

At midnight we are out of the front deck for the view as we go under the Golden Gate Bridge — again, more pictures, but once I’m home and can upload them.

A very late night for us since we hadn’t packed yet before heading up see the bridge. Gonna be a rough morning for us.

[? ? ?]

Talk about a late morning…. I was out of bed at 10:30, Jonathan at 11! Just enough time to get to the Friends of Dorothy lunch at the Seven Seas which got 10 of the guys to show up at. Not bad. I’m figuring the gay men on board at something like 20+.

After breakfast – oh, I mean lunch – I stopped by the reservations desk to book Le Bistro, the French restaurant with the reasonable up-charge, for tonight and the steak place for our final night.

Here is where we were at 2:30 this afternoon:

A lazy afternoon of reading before the standard 6pm Havana Club rendezvous. It isn’t even in the printed schedule for today, but we passed the word around. Getting to be a habit to start the cocktail hour then.

On the way to dinner we ran into our favorite photo lady – and she got us to pose for her in some “fun” and “daring” shots  — much to the amusement of many other couples in the lobby. Can’t wait to see how those turn out!

Dinner tonight was back at Le Bistro – which was good as always – I know this restaurant was on the Pride of America on the Hawaii route, and I believe that it was on the Pearl that Swanda and I were on last December.

After dinner I’m dead in the cabin and Jonathan is off helping the boys with internet access, then off to the White Party – I’m just hoping he brings me a twink for dessert.

[? ? ?]

Talk about lazy daze at sea. Up late, lounge around all day, look out at the grey roiling mass of the sea. I guess without the rocking of the boat, Cabo would have been like this had we gone. Lots of cabin time, lots of reading time.

Jonathan was a sweetheart and brought me breakfast in bed this morning – which was good because I forgot to put the card out last night to have it delivered. On Norwegian it’s a continental breakfast that you can have delivered, on Holland America you can get a full breakfast. Oh well.
Lunch today was in the sushi bar. For a $15 up-charge you can pig out on all the sushi you can stomach, and we stomached a lot of sushi.

Today’s picture:

At Le Bistro the other night I was looking at a magnum of the 1996 Tattinger Rose Cometes de champagne that at $260 a magnum was the same price as the regular bottle. This peaked my interest… and the head wine steward was summoned…. After several days of discussion which went from $260 for one, $180 each for two, $145 each for three… we finally ended up at $140 each for two and if I want more he will try and knock the price down to $120 each and write a new ticket. Of course, add the mandatory 15% on top of that.

We opened one of the magnums at the Friends of Dorothy meeting down in the Havana Bar – why it’s named the Havana Bar when you can’t smoke in there is a mystery, but you CAN buy Cuban cigars and smoke them outside.
We’re getting good crowds at the nightly gatherings – sometimes over a dozen guys showing up (and a few more lingering along the side too shy to join in.

Dinner tonight was more like snacks with a bottle of wine with two of the FOD boys (well, men, since they were both 60 plus) up in the Tapas Bar… not the best implementation of a tapas bar – no table service, no napkins or silver, and worse, a really small selection of tapas.

After dinner we went off to a comedy/magic show, which was surprisingly good, though I’m waiting for the crew show which I believe is on Saturday night.

With the light dinner, it was room service after the show and then to bed. Time change tonight back to PST.

[? ? ?]

Greetings from Juneau!

Unlike when I was here with Ross in early May, we are docked at the far end of town and it is definitely drippy weather. The question is whether I want to try and meet up with Monica on this trip. Jonathan is planning on going into town — I will just stay and work.

Another reason for staying and working rather than having coffee with Monica? FIVE cruise ships in the harbor and that means traffic will be a mess downtown which is between where Monica lives and where the boat it docked.

Who is in town?

• Norwegian Sun — last trip of the Alaska season, next stop San Francisco
• Holland America Statendam — my boat from hell from May, back to Vancouver and then a 19-day Panama Canal repositioning.
• Holland America Westerdam — one more round-trip from Seattle and then a 21-day repositioning Panama Canal cruise.
• Silver Seas Silver Shadow — next stop Los Angeles on the 24th to start the Mexican Riviera season with 9-day all suite cruises starting at $3400 a person.
• Princess Cruise Sapphire Princess — next stop Vancouver for a 4-day sampler tour, followed by a three day sampler cruise to Los Angeles and then onto the Mexican Riviera like lots of other boats.

Got to get back to work while I still have a connection, but I’ll leave you with the scroller bar which will be updated with more photos as they load:

Probably no new posts until Sunday the 20th from San Francisco.

[? ? ?]

We woke up this morning in Ketchikan, Alaska. Day three of our seven day cruise and the first time I’ve had free access to the Internet so far this trip.

How? My new cell phone tethered to my computer boosted by a 3watt signal amplifier. What?

The big black spot on the window is the antenna for the booster, the smaller silver one is the GPS receiver so we know where in Alaska we are, the amplifier is on the floor, the phone is leaning against the coffee cups, and I’m working away.

Lunch today is going to be sit-down rather than buffet. Maybe we’ll even have a glass or two of wine.

Short entry today since we leave port (and cell-phone signal) at 1:30 and Jonathan still have to book a flight to Utah.

[? ? ?]

First, a recap of yesterday’s events that didn’t get on the blog….

• Jonathan not feeling good, running two hours late to pick me up because he was fighting off nausea
• His car starts seeping transmission fluid half way to Canada
• The beer belly wouldn’t hold the scotch and started dribbling (what is it with leaking fluids!)

But we were on the boat a little after 2pm. Here is a picture from our balcony:

And now for today.

It was a day at sea. Room service continental breakfast in the morning, late breakfast, late lunch, and a martini tasting at 4pm.

At 6pm it was the second installment of the Friends of Dorothy. For those of you who don’t know — it’s a standard event on cruise ships these days — just like the Friends of Bill W. for the AA/NA (Alcoholics Anonymous/Narcotics Anonymous). Friends of Dorothy is for all the gay and lesbian travellers — though on this ship the attendees tend to be all gay men (though I’ve seen a couple of couples that I thought were lesbians).

Tonight was “Formal If You Feel Like It” night so Jonathan and I dressed up for dinner in the Seven Seas restaurant for lobster tails, beef wellington, and nice Carmenare from Argentina.

It was an early to bed evening for me, even with the double espresso with Cointreau after dinner. No post midnight room service for us tonight (like very early this morning).

[? ? ?] or should I just add the 7 pounds now.

Well, today is the big day — off to Vancouver to get on the big boat. That would be the Norwegian Sun (does that mean it’s dark a third of the year?)

And here is what our balcony suite should look like:

We are on deck eleven at the far end from the pool, with food in the middle. Now all we have to do is get over the border and smuggle the booze aboard.

Limited email and blog posts for the next week…

[220.5]

Woke up this morning on Rich’s couch with my neck in an odd position, luckily not life threatening…

Next up was a visit to Jameson and Natalie for their yard sale — luckily I wasn’t in the mood for shopping, but it was good to see them if even briefly.

Lunch — I finally had BBQ at the Ranch House BBQ which as been flooded out, burnt down, and one more disaster — but is rebuilt again. Good grub.

Back to the house to bind the last 42 catalogs for The Great Art Party, and then it was nap time.

Jonathan showed a little before six for a cocktail before heading off the the Party itself… and what a party it was. Great food — heavy appetizers — enough to make a meal out of, and I got both of my top two picks — an amazing stroke of luck. I only had one ticket, but Helene (who was late and I had to pick an item for her, which was my number one pick) gave me hers as a birthday gift, and when my number came up I was able to score my number two pick.

Here is what I got:

And my second choice:

And for dessert, the rent boy at midnight.

[? ? ?]

Worked a little during the day, got mostly packed for the trip on Sunday. Headed down to Olympia at a little after one to beat the traffic. Tried to find the exit for Cabella’s and couldn’t — it must be half way between two exits. Sung by Safeway to use my PowerPump rewards before the program expires tomorrow. Was hoping to hook up with Jameson, but that didn’t happen.

Got to Rich’s place a little before 3 and set up my laptop on the poker table to check the connection speed at his place. With just one bar of signal strength I was getting almost 1mbps in download speeds. I like my new phone.

Dinner before the game was with Rich, Ross, and myself — marinated flank steak that I brought with me. Rich added bread, asparagus and salad. My two bottles of red wine made the feast complete.

Dinner was good, poker was not so good. Between the rent boy and my poker playing I’m running low on quarters. And it’s not about who wins or loses, it is the spirit and the camaraderie of the game.

Right.

[220.5]

Yes, I replaced my perfectly good cell phone with a newer one… one that runs on T-Mobile’s 3G network which they are rolling out nationwide. The dark burgundy area is 3G around Seattle:

So — how well does it work? Well, I went to the SpeakEasy Speed Test page and used my TinyToyComputer as the test bed with my phone tethered via USB (I suppose I could have used bluetooth, but havent’ figured out how to do that yet).

The results? Amazing!

• Laptop with 2G tethered connection: 133 kps download, 41 kps upload (really slow)
• Laptop with #G tethered connection: 1776 kps download, 360 kps upload (smokin’)
• Office computer with ClearWire Wi-Max connection: 1497 kps download, 199 upload (damn)

So — the 3G connection is faster than my home connection. That’s a shocker. And here is what the phone looks like — a little thinner and lighter than my old phone, but with a slightly different interface:

Speaking of computers, Joannie’s is now out of the hospital (my dining table) and in return I get a fish platter a month or two from now. It only took three days to purge her computer of the devil.

Quiet dinner at home tonight, with occasional runs to the garage to bind catalogs for the Great Art Party. Did you know you can buy tickets to the Great Art Party online via PayPal? Here is the link — check it out.

[221.6 — gotta cut back on the steaks]

Shameless promotion of one of my non-profit clients…

The Great Art Party!

It’s this Saturday, and I’m going. Guest tickets are $25, for $100 you get a piece of art valued usually more than twice that amount, and if you are flush, there is the $300 Topaz Ticket which means you could walk away with a Calder (Alexander) or a Chilhuly (the PT Barnum of blown glass)!

How do you get a ticket? Click on this line.

Want to see the catalog? Click on this line.

So — now back to me. Work, work, work, today — didn’t leave the house juggling removing fax machines, reconfiguring printers, dealing with dying laptops, and sampling the marinated flank steak for Friday’s dinner.

Nothing like dealing with cranky machines and cranky coworkers all day.

And I have a silly picture from last night… you figure it out:

[219.6]

Nothing like rushing around finishing things up so you can get out the door and get to a meeting on time.

Just as I was leaving Joannie dropped by her computer for a tune-up… in the hospital again.

Meeting ran long, and the office was closed when I went by to check mail… another delay, though I did get lunch downstairs.

Clean the bills and the overdue letter off the desk, keep email up-to-date, get some flank steaks marinating, get the bread going.

Back to the house for a quick nap before BBHa shows up to pick up his printing job, and have a Gin and Tonic. He wasn’t out the door fifteen minutes when Jonathan came by for drinks and dinner — and to bemoan his taking unpaid leave until early November (health related).

A couple of beautiful steaks for dinner — even fired up the grill. A couple of baguettes of rosemary challah (one for tonight and one for Jonathan to take home). A salad. Wine. Good conversation.

What more can you ask for.

[220.6]

Since I seem to be wrapping stuff up (hence, yesterday’s vacation wrap-up) I thought I’d take a minute to review my dating history this summer.

The cast of characters (in order of appearance):

• RB (Rent Boy)
• AF (Abercrombie-Fitch Boy)
• TB (Tattooed Boy)
• BH (Bangladeshi Hottie)
• UB (Utah Boy)

And where are they today?

RB was here last night for a sleep-over. Long term potential? I have the feeling he’ll be around for a long time since we enjoy each other’s company on an occasional basis. No way could we live with each other. His being 90% straight might have something to do with that.

AF was a one-night stand that included dinner here at the house. Nice guy, but I think we want different things. Still have the very occasional note going each way.

TB I had the hots for and probably still do. He has found someone better in his quest for a partner — something about my work/travel schedule that may have nixed that possibility. We text occasionally and I’m still hoping for a new hair color from him.

BH I saw Saturday night in the South Bay. Who knows what this would turn into if I lived closer. We enjoy each other’s company and the sex is great.

UB I never did get to meet in person since I cancelled my Utah trip (which I regretted a day afterwards). We email still, but his schedule is too hectic to travel with work and school, and mine isn’t open until October at the earliest.

Final tally? Some hits, some misses. Now, if I could only figure out what I want out of all of this. THAT is the big question.

Maybe I’ll ask Jonathan at dinner tomorrow night, since at one point I was ready to marry him. In the meantime I’ll just have a steak (again) and salad.

[219.5]

Left BH (Bangladeshi Hottie) a little before nine and I was sitting in the Board Room at SFO after getting gas and turning in the car, and security a little before ten. Wow! I guess that makes his place in Hayward convenient. Not sure I could have done that from the boys house to OAK.

Flight was delayed by half and hour or so, but still managed to be back at home by 3pm for a nap. Something about sleep-overs doesn’t lend itself to much sleep.

So — final thoughts on Cabo San Lucas turned Wine Country. It’s always easier to do the “grass is greener” thing, but I guess what I miss about not going to Cabo was not doing anything other than reading and swimming for five days — not leaving the resort for anything other than groceries. Instead we were moving doing this and that everyday. Reading was put on the back burner — and reading is why I go on these little holidaze since I don’t have the chunks of time to do that at home (or don’t make them). And the final picture from the trip…

This evening it is back into the routine. As usual when the RB (Rent Boy) comes for dinner and more, he is running late. If it’s Sunday that means he’s been working on either his truck or someone elses car. Which also means that he needs a shower. At least he’s staying over. Yes, I’ll need a nap again tomorrow.

Believe it or not we are both so whipped from the day that we are in bed and no, not in that way, by 10:30. Might as well be on the farm.

[? ? ?]

Out of the condo a little before 11am…traffic fine until right before the Golden Gate Bridge where we stopped to have a little snack before heading into San Francisco.

Jill is off to the Hilton, I’m off to Hayward to meet up with the BH (Bangladeshi Hottie).

All is well getting Jill to the Hilton until I’m six blocks away and notice her phone sitting on the front seat. Luckily I was headed in the wrong direction and that gave me a chance to start over.

According to Jill later, the front desk call to say “her taxi driver dropped off the phone you left in his cab”…. I’d like to think I’m more than a taxi driver at this point in my life — though I was one in my college days.

Here is the picture bar for the wine country portion of the trip before I put all the equipment away:

I got to BH’s place about 3:30 and fell almost instantly into bed. Being apart for a week makes one amorous.

Dinner was Bangladeshi food — a curry chicken dish, a picante cauliflower, jasmine rice and a little salad — there was enough for four people, but it was just the two of us.

After dinner it was a movie whose name I forget, but it was basically two domestic partners hoping to adopt a baby get two pre-teens instead — and their mother. Amusing but not high drama.

Back to bed after that as I’ve got a flight in the morning.

[? ? ?]

First, the most humorous picture from our time here at the Windsor WorldMark:

Yes, that is four people and three laptops.

We got out of the condo right at noon and headed off to visit Garry Ferrell Winery which Jill’s mother used to have a subscription to their wine program — great wine, pushy pouring person (join the club, join the club, join the club).

Then it was time for averted disaster number one. Two missing credit cards. Last seen on the couch at the condo. Back to WorldMark we go.

Next stop is at the Dry Creek General Store which is a great place for lunch — I realized I’d been there with Drew MANY years ago on another wine tour. Jill and I split a reuben, a dalmati, and a little corn salad.

We arrived at our next stop just in time for averted disaster number two. Jill left her purse on the porch of the General Store. Back we go.

Ridge was our last winery (or so we thought) of the day. Damn their stuff is good. We had a GREAT pourer person who was a former Seattleite… and poured things that weren’t on the regular tasting menu, like the Monte Bello (their uber expensive wine) and a bottle of 1983 that they had just discovered and opened so see how it was holding up. Yum, Yum, Yum.

Tonight is the WorldMark Clear Lake — and Clear Lake is just as I’d remembered it… the white-trash vacation capital of California. The units are nice enough but the folks at the grocery store looked a little in-bred.

And, of course, we arrive right in the middle of a wine tasting from Tulip Hill which is just down the road.

Steaks and onions off the grill, salad, and an after dinner movie: Milk, which neither of us had seen.

Earlier to bed tonight.

[? ? ?]

Honey, I don’t think we are in Cabo — way too many fields of grapes.

Started the morning with Owner ReEducation for $75. One of the worst I’ve ever been to. Why? The laid off 6,000 salespeople and only kept the sharks — really aggressive sales people. Bad Rockie (my sales guy), Bad.

By the time we got rolling out of the unit it was around 1pm and I was starting to get food cranky — luckily Jill made me find food before wine.

We started our wine tour at LynMar Estate which features some really expensive Chardonnays — $70 a bottle, and some equally expensive Pinot Noirs (we are in the Russian River Valley after all). Jill has a connection to this winery through her parents — which meant the $20 per person tasting fee was waived. We ended up getting a couple of bottles of their Rose of Pinot Noir — reasonable (compared to the rest) at $20 a bottle.

Next up (recommended by LynMar — a great system since you figure they know the best close by wineries) was Merry Edwards Winery. They mostly do Pinot Noir as well — but did also have a Sauvingnon  Blanc. Two splits and $44 later we were out the door.

Bubbles anyone? Iron Horse Vineyard had a $10 champagne tasting with six samples. We ended up with the 2004 Reserve for $33 and an Estate Pinot Noir for $45. Beautiful view from their place.

Good thing we saved a bunch of money on the difference in air fare between San Francisco and Cabo — though it does screw up my plans for Alaska MVP Gold. Guess I’ll have to fly back to the Bay Area one more time unless Alaska matches American and United who are back to offering double elite qualifying miles for flights this fall.

Got back to the hot-tub-less penthouse at 5, and the boys (Mark and Onyx) arrived around 6 with poo-poo platter materials in hand — the poo-poo’s went nicely with the sparkling wine.

After the bubbles, it was Merry Edwards Sauvingnon Blanc and then onto the Estate Pinot when we got to the ribs and grilled vegetables.

A long fun night was had by all.

[? ? ?]

Yikes, these are the days that are hard — seems like non-stop.

• Work until 9:30
• Board Room for breakfast at 10:00
• Board flight at 11:30
• Arrive SFO at 2:15
• Out of airport with rental car at 3:00
• Drive north to Sonoma Valley and find a Trader Joe’s for groceries and booze
• WorldMark Windsor at 5pm
• Swim at 6:30 after the news
• Dinner at 7:30
• Movie (The Namesake — Indian, quite good) at 8:30
• Bed at midnight.

Today’s picture…. dinner on the deck:

[? ? ?]

Damn weather.

What should have been a get up, drink coffee, go to a marketing meeting, pack for a trip day turned into a roller coaster day.

I was up at 6:30 — a wee bit early for me. Discussions in the morning with Jill led to cancelling the Cabo San Lucas trip. Thankfully we were in First so we could change it easily — though other folks could as well, we could have even gotten a refund if we’d just cancelled, which in retrospect might have been easier.

The new scheme:

So, here is the weather in Napa:

Flight 312 SEA-SFO

Compact Rental Car from Enterprise using my AARP discount (yes, I’m that old)

Two nights WorldMark Windsor in a 3-bedroom penthouse which should have its own hot-tub and grill – should I pack a bunch of steaks?

That would be Wednesday night and Thursday night

Friday we drive further north to Clear Lake for a 2-bedroom at WorldMark Clear Lake, considered northern wine country.

Saturday is up in the air, I have a message into BH to see if we can get together.

Joan for dinner and computer stuff tonight — steaks and slaw. Wine for me, water for Joan.

Hella exhausted. Must go to bed.

[219.2] 

An uneventful morning, and an uneventful flight in seat 1C — that was only 10-15 minutes late getting it which wasn’t too bad. My worry is for my flight on Wednesday for which Jill and I are hoping to dodge a bullet (or more precisely, a hurricane).

Cabo San Lucas in in the red hurricane warning zone, but out of the rain and wind. I praying for a change in direction tonight or tomorrow or that we will be just delayed a bit as we fly around the storm. Wish us luck.

Got home around 3pm and immediately started sending out more trademark cease and desist emails, making work notes for tomorrow meeting, and generally cleaning up the mess of mail.

Pushed off a computer appointment tomorrow so I could chill out… and then I get email that one of my clients has dropped me as of September 1st. I guess this is just as well since my September is a mess.

This evening better improve. It’s freaking 7pm and I need a steak.

And a steak it was and some mixed vegetables, a little wine, a little TV and it’s the end of the day.

[220.9 — but LATE in the day, so that’s good]