UMTravels

Well, with all the other travel, and the Coho Ferry (Port Angeles – Victoria) being dry-docked longer, only one trip planned to Victoria this winter.

The trip didn’t start well – my Uber driver was stuck on 1 minute away for 15 minutes, killing any spare time I had to get to the boat – I ended up driving after finding out he a flat (which I didn’t find out for 20 minutes because he wouldn’t answer phone or text) – it, worrying that the car wouldn’t start when I returned from Victoria since the battery is weak and I’d had it on the charger all the previous night. Not the way I like to start a trip – stressed. You all know how I am about getting to airports/ship terminals/etc. in plenty of time.

This helped the stress:

This is Maia’s second trip with the boys to Victoria. Maia belongs to Seth. Maia likes my roller board and wants to help even though she has two bags of her own. Good Maia:

That would be Daddy Seth‘s foot to the right.

Miracle of miracles, our condo is ready – before noon! Usually, check-in time isn’t until 4pm. We have a 2-bedroom Penthouse unit on the second floor (yes, Penthouse doesn’t mean the top floor in this case, just the level of creature comforts – like our own personal hot tub):

And the view is good, even if it is the second (out of eight) floor:

You can sort of see our “pet”, Jonathan, in this shot – here is a better one:

And no – we don’t feed him – that’s against the rules.

Lunch out is at the Blue Heron Bistro, in the same complex as the grocery store. I start with a Caesar – which is a Bloody Mary made with Clamato. The Canadians are crazy about Clamato:

Lots of fun stuff on the specials menu –

I went with the Rabbit & Chorizo Poutine – that is French Fries, then a layer of cheese curds, then a Chorizo Rabbit Gravy over the top – others went for the duck curry:

Nap time for DancingBear and me – while Seth, MoSis (his BF), and Maia went out to explore the city.

But soon, it was time for dinner….and the couple of racks of ribs I brought up from the states.

Did I mention we bought a little duty-free booze? And here is the dinner, ribs on the upper right:

We do eat well on holidays. And we do relax well on holidays as well…

This is how DancingBear and I spent our time in Victoria, in bathrobes, cycling in/out of the hot tub, reading, playing Word With Friends, staring out at the planes landing on the Inner Harbour.

That and cooking:

Yes, Seth is having greens and sauerkraut with his eggs, babel and cream cheese (where is the salmon I brought?)

More relaxing for DB and I on Wednesday, with the rest of the kids out exploring (aka trying to run Maia out of energy) while we worked on dinner which included a vegan (it was supposed to include TWO vegans). Apparently we were having too much fun to get any pictures of the second night’s dinner which was olive tapenade stuffed portabellas for the vegan(s) and chicken cordon blu for the rest of us.

We were a little short on guest this visit at our favorites RobinHood and CrowDog are on the Sunshine Coast mourning the loss of a close friend – guess I should plan for next year in Victoria!

Before you know it the last afternoon is upon us – and a BIG shout out to DancingBear for renting a full-size car to get us around town and occupy us on the last day when checkout is at noon, and the boat is at five.

Final lunch was at Nautical Nellies – Seth’s suggestion and it was a good one.

I wanted light, so I went for the tempura green beans…

Fish Tacos for MoSis:

DancingBear went for the Cheddar and Crab sandwich – which I really should have taken some of:

And before you know it, we are back on the boat headed out of Victoria –

And eating again….

Cheese, crackers, Chicken Caesar wrap, leftover cranberry juice and vodka we packed for the trip…

The car started when I got back to the garage. Because of the discount from The Clipper, parking was $30 for the three days rather than the $61 that was on the ticket. In the end the price was probably cheaper than Uber to/from.

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Dinner last night with Robin Hood was glorious. Local mussels and clams from the seafood store around the corner steamed in a white wine shallot sauce (see Victoria Recipes to the left). Scotch before, then white wine, then red wine for a soak in the hot tub.

As for today — what a slug. Still haven’t put real clothes on, might as well do my laundry! Laying around reading, soaking, blogging. Talk about a lazy day.

Breakfast salmon scramble with the last scone and tonight’s meal is all the leftovers from the last four days. Main course will be a pork hash from all the left over roast and root vegetables from two nights ago, and a nice salad. And there is even a partial bottle of wine from last night (2004 Mas des Huppes Saint-Chinian).

Looks like I”ll be bring booze back to the states since Robin Hood brought a bottle of wine (above, and VERY good), and Chip/Linda left their scotch for me. Guess we didn’t REALLY need to each buy a bottle of scotch — thought they would be taking there’s back with them, but left it to me as a present. Means that I’ll finish the Glen Morangie Port Wood Finish scotch, leaving half bottles of the Famous Grouse Port Wood Finish and the Macallan 10-year-old Cask Strength to take back to the states, and probably the bottle of Jackson-Triggs Cabernet 2005 Okanagan Valley.

Here is the typical picture of me from today.

And now for my political commentary on the second big contest of the 2008 Presidential Contest. My thoughts on this are that the public as a whole is not ready to choose the top candidate yet — both the Asses and the Pachyderms have three people still alive after the New Hampshire primary. New Hampshire has continued the Iowa tradition of this election cycle — hundreds of hundreds new voters registered — on both sides. It’s about time Americans got off their butts and voted.

Asses:

• Clinton
• Edwards
• Obama

Pachyderms:

• Huckabee
• McCain
• Romney

Names are in alphabetical order, rather than my preference, which I don’t have yet.

Seems the good people of this country want to learn a bunch more about these six before they commit to a top choice.

Who would have thought I’d be up at 6am…guessing that it has to do with “early to bed”. Or maybe it was the fact we pulled anchor and are under way again.

Breakfast is at 7, we need to be off the boat at 8 for transfer to smaller boats to explore the Mekong Delta a little more. At least there is coffee ready for us:

And a beautiful sunrise:

Good Morning VIETNAM! R.I.P. Robin Williams. I loved that movie – and Apocalypse Now. Maybe I should re-watch those on my return to the states. We still have more time on the boat – but I’m already thinking I didn’t book enough boat time.

Pigletté is already at breakfast by the time we get there! No coffee for him, just juice.

They advertised a “continental breakfast”. I’m not sure what continent, but the options were English-style (beans, scrambled eggs, broiled tomato), American-style (omelet, bacon), European-style (breads, meats, cheeses), or Vietnamese-style (pho). When in Rome!

Yum!

When it’s time to off-load, it’s funny to watch the French people who each have one HUGE bag, and one roll-aboard – PER PERSON trying to get all that stuff into the boats. Here we are, headed away from our home of the last day…

One headed up one of the many tiny waterways of the Mekong Delta:

A word to the wise – a little mobility is required for this portion of the journey…think narrow ramps.

The poor lady from Singapore (on the English presented tour with us) was having some difficulties on this portion of the tour.

First stop was an open-air barn that they were roasting something…coal fires underneath, and pig pits above that guys with plastic shoveling moving product around – it didn’t look like a fun job:

Even the back channels of the Mekong Delta are crowded with boats as I discover on the way to our next stop:

Next up – Vietnam’s most pampered animals – Fighting Cocks!

They are kept in wire cages to keep them from fighting with each other before there is actually money on the ground.

Here is a chicken getting a bath and a massage…

As in the rest of Vietnam – scooters EVERYWHERE…

Even on the narrow village paths…

It surprised me that this one was concrete – the one yesterday was asphalt – but I guess in a country that has a monsoon season, paved is better than mud. My guess is that this village is doing OK judging by some of the houses:

Next up is a sugar cane processing “plant”:

Remember I mentioned that rice husks are used as fuel? Above, there is a sloping pile of husks that is used to feed the fire below. And the pile outside that feeds it.

Lots of sloshing around…

Before it gets poured in to plastic pots to cool and then be stacked and wrapped for shipment:

Apparently, it’s a family affair judging from the water bottle above, and this scene below:

Before you know it, we are headed to Cái Bè and their floating markets – you can tell what they are selling by what is on a bamboo pole sticking from their boat:

There is a lovely cathedral in Cái Bè – alas, it isn’t on our itinerary.

What is on our itinerary is a one-stop “folkloric” shopping opportunity – MUCH lower key than most. It features snakes soaked in rice liquor (I’m sure customs would LOVE that in Houston), and displays of candy making (using ingredients like we saw earlier), paper making, and rice popping (think rice krispies).

From there, we are off to meet up with our driver for the ride back to Saïgon – and here is a picture of our driver. Not much in the way of English skills, but Sean has some rudimentary Vietnamese.

Confession – the picture was taken in Cần ThÆ¡, but it just didn’t fit the narrative.

Got back to Sean’s apartment a little after noon – dropped bags and off to lunch – with this amusing photo-op on the way.

Everyone is gearing up for Tết (the New Year).

And lunch!

Did you need some hot peppers? Those were sitting on the table next to us.

I just let Sean order – it’s simpler, and I eat most anything. And I get to try all the local favorites.

One of my favorite things about third-world cities is the “amusing” wiring hanging off poles.

I’d hate to trace a wire in that jungle.

After lunch it’s nap time – something about travelling Vietnam highways/streets is exhausting, even if you aren’t the one driving. Then off to the store with a fistful of Dồng!

That 2000 note is worth 9 cents USD. The print bills up to a million Dồng– which is equal to $45 USD. The smallest note is 200 with a value of less than a penny USD. And look – you can buy casks of wine at the grocery store for about $30 USD.

Sean is cooking tonight, which turns out to be a rarity with the inexpensive nature of going out to eat.

And it’s tasty as well!

Time for a little work before bed…

Didn’t last that long before it was “hit the hay” time. Another big day planned for tomorrow.

Woke up to Robert banging on the tin can that I slept in (SOB).

Thank goodness Natalie’s parents had coffee going on the picnic table outside the dining room. There are two tents set up in the yard for guests. One for Natalie’s parents, the other for her brother. Grandpa is staying in the guest room. The other heard of relatives is staying in some rented house in Shelton, half an hour down the road.

Graduation is at 1pm — so I’m a little confused why we are leaving at 11am — good thing I had a little chicken friend rice in the fridge of SOB!

Overcast skies when we got there — with time to see the garden than Natalie oversaw the planning, planting, and signage for. It’s located just off the soccer field where magic mushrooms grow in the spring. Natalie’s garden will supplement that diet with all sorts of other fruits, berries, and edible sprouts.

By the time the ceremony starts the sun is out and baking EVERYTHING on Red Square. I opted not to sit with the family and finally wandered into one of the seminar halls that had a live feed, comfortable seating, and air conditioning. And probably the best view in the house.

The speakers were all amazingly good with the exception of the faculty speaker, who frankly, just sucked. Really sucked. My informal poll of the family afterwards yielded the same thought. It meandered and then ended. Basically it could be summed up by — “Well, here is the mess you have inherited”.

With over 1100 graduates it took a while to call the names. When I saw Jameson walk the stage (video feed) I high-tailled it to where the family was sittting. The prearranged plan was to exit immediately — which we did, though I was with Julian who parked off-campus a mile away at Jameson’s silly suggestion.

More bar-b-que back at the house — didn’t realize I’d be supplying all the meat for the two nights, but I had enough (and the freezer still looks stuffed).

Big fun — and a campfire after dinner with some cute guy on guitar.

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The list…

• Kmart for Hawaiian Shirts
• Maybe Costco, too (all my Hawaiian shirts were tattered and I’ve left them behind over the years)
• Discount Fabric Warehouse (multiple coupons)
• Haleakala National Park ($10 entrance, but I have “the card”… with Yellowstone at $25 and Craters of the Moon at $8, so far, recovered $43 out of the $80 fee). Oddly enough with my many trips to Maui, haven’t done this park yet. So much for laying out in the sun on this trip.
• Surfing Goat Dairy
• Home (well, to the condo).

This is not the day for someone who easily gets car sick – hair-pin after hair-pin turn.

This wasn’t taken at the top (click on the scroller bar at the end of the post for other pictures (like my improvised cooler – water frozen into the bottom of a sealable Pyrex bowl). Height at the top: 10,023 feet. It reminded me of Craters of the Moon which I visited on the Yellowstone trip, just add another 6,000 feet in altitude. One interesting fact I learned from the ranger manning the gift shop cash register… 80% of the entrance fee from my “park pass” stays in the park ($8 of the $10 entrance fee) – the other 20% goes to parks that don’t have entrance fees.

Once I was off the mountain, it was time for a little road-side lunch of shrimp stuffed avocados and onion tako poke. All kept on ice in the truck.

After the mountain it was off to the Goat Dairy. I arrived right at the moment a tour was about to become ready. $7.00, plus more if you wanted a bag of hay to feed the young kids (the goats, not the children on the tour. I’m not sure how much the hay cost – I’d rather BBQ the goat than feed it.

And the cheeses aren’t cheap…. $12-16 for an 8 ounce jar in oil. Ouch. Of course they do have one with 23K gold flakes in it for a 2 ounce jar… at least that one comes with a basket and a shark’s tooth necklace.

Tasty – but not as tasty (or as cheap) and our cheese man from Eastern Washington (http://quillisascut.com/) who occasionally comes to town with extra cheese that doesn’t get sold to Rover’s and that class of restaurant.

After a fruitless trip to WalMart (desperation)for aloha shirts, it was back to the fabric store… they have some really GREAT patterns and some good deals. Check out this one:

My thought was just make Hawaiian shirts to replace my dead ones since I couldn’t find any decent (and cheap) ones on my visit here. I even found a Aloha Shirt pattern – for a 2XL that would mean 3 yards of fabric ($5-7 a yard on sale, so that would be $15-21 a shirt – and I’d have to deal with the buttons). The flip side of that is that I haven’t sewn a shirt since I was a teenager, and the pain is still fresh. Maybe I’ll get to Costco on the way to the airport.

Got back to the condo a little after 3pm to do a little clean up, a little email, and a little mindless web-surfing.

Leg of lamb was the dinner tonight, along with a salad with some more of the bay shrimp, and the other half of the bottle of 2009 Budini Malbec (Mendoza region of Argentina).

Tomorrow’s flight is a reasonable 12:35 so that’s out of the condo 10ish after a breakfast very much like this mornings… 3 eggs sunny side up, bacon, toast, coffee. I guess that would 9:30ish if I want to stop by Costco so see if I can get some shirts. I did pick up Man Calendars at the ABC store across the street from the condo when I went for butter (and on-sale bacon) last night.

Wish I’d booked another day (or two) and skipped the Washington Coast on Saturday – but I did promise to go.

Oh, and here is the promised scroller bar:

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Sometimes, it’s easier to just up the hardware and fly to your software/hardware dude. Hence why I’m flying to Denver when the temperatures in Denver are in the single digits.

Let’s start with a really bad lounge full portrait…

But soon enough was up in the clouds (the Caesar helped)…

Got upgrade to First with enough time to order the Pho Plate – which was so good I got on the Alaska Listens app to tell them!

Did I mention it was going to be cold in Denver?

I brought my project to work on with Dan:

Now we just have to get the screen scaled correctly to make my dream World Clock.

Dan had his own project going with his 3D printer:

I’d been considering a 3D printer, but now that I’ve seen the hassle of getting it set up and dialed in, nope – will ask Dan to print anything I need.

With all the geek work and not leaving the apartment since it’s brutally cold, we started eating like dorm room teenagers…

Though, in all fairness, that was homemade Japanese Mile Bread.

When I said we didn’t leave the apartment, I even had booze delivered in to make Empress Gin Martinis!

That would be a little fancy for dorm room teens.

One we did make a bunch of progress on the World Clock…

In the blank space under the times will go a scrolling news feed and a scrolling stock/commodity feed.

But not this week.

It was a quick two nights, and the temperature was 5 degrees when we left for the airport. I do not miss that cold and/or snow, or the lack of humidity that dries out my nostrils. The sun is nice, however.

How nice they sent a gay plane to pick me up!

Return leg home was in mere Premium Class, but as an Alaska MVP Gold 100K, they shower you with “stuff”.

Home at a reasonable time, and I have tomorrow off. Whew.

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Met Marty and Eric for breakfast. Good to see them again. The breakfast buffet was nothing short of stunning. From raw fish, to Cheerios, to Dim Sum to pastries, to the standard make to order eggs. I really must take photos tomorrow morning. It’s spread across THREE rooms so it won’t fit in one photo.

Our “David” group seems pretty agile – no skelators on board. This mornings tour was of the Yuyuan Garden and Old Shanghai. The hotel is in new Shanghai – the area on the other side of the river that was farm land twenty years ago is now all high rises, condos, shopping malls – very Nuevo Urban. The gardens are something like 800 years old, and now in the middle of the city surrounded by the bazaar of shops and restaurants including all the favorites: McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Starbucks.

Next stop was a dangerous one for me…a silk rug factory. It only cost me $900 to get out of there. Ended up with a 3×5 pure silk rug knotted at 600 knots per square inch and an unusual old style pattern on it. Definitely not a new rug. Amazing imperial saffron coloring including the warp. Luckily it is small enough and light weight enough to go in my suitcase. It reminds me of when I was in Greece years ago to go sailing with Kevin, Claire, Rachel, Evan, and the woman’s name I can never remember. I got to Kos a day or two early and took the ferry to Turkey and ended up buying the Kilim that was in the living room of the Capital Hill house. Maybe this is a good omen – I bought that carpet at the beginning of a long trip and carried it the whole way – just like I’m about to do now.

Lunch was a dim sum style affair of Shanghai style Chinese cooking, complete with a can of the local beer. So far, the food has been excellent on this trip. Now if the heat would go back into the normal range that would help. Lots of showers in that lovely marble bathroom. If the rest of the trip is like this – the $5050 dollars I paid (includes air and single supplement) will be worth it.

Maybe I should have come to Shanghai a couple of days early…getting the feeling that there is much more to see and do – and not enough time. We have a couple of hours of free time this afternoon which I’m using for this journal, and a glass or two of scotch.

Odd things about this hotel. 1) For ice, you have to call housekeeping and they come and fill your little bucket. 2) The tap water isn’t drinkable. They provide you with three half bottles per day (which is handy for all the touring we are doing). Millions of dollars spent to build this place (and it is grand, definitely 5-star) and no water filtration system. Are they waiting for the infrastructure of Shanghai to catch up with them? I love Eric’s comment about Mexican hotels – they KNOW the infrastructure won’t catch up with them, so they just build the system in.

Eric and Marty are slated to drop by for a pre-dinner drink at 4:30 – since we have to be on the bus at 5:15. Not much time for relaxing on this schedule. Tonight is a welcome dinner and acrobat show. Later, my plan is to go out to hear a jazz combo that the drummer and the piano player are friends of my buddy Mark Pucci from Boston – jazz musician, teacher, second string bass player for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Luckily, they are playing at the Ritz-Carlton, which is right next to the place that we are seeing the acrobat show.

Even had time this afternoon to write a postcard to Steve, my prison buddy from Montana. Didn’t get time for a nap with all the writing and scotch. Just for a baseline, weighed myself – and the answer is 225 (about 30 pounds heavier than I should be to look good in my tuxedo).

In the picture to the right, our hotel is just to the right of the largest sphere you can see to the right of Marty. A close up is below. Twenty years ago – the area behind Marty and I was all rice paddies and farm land.

Dinner was another round robin of food, was just OK – many of the meat products had lots of bones in them, but the free beer was welcome. This time the beer was Tsing Tao – in a can.

The acrobat show started at 7:30 and ended at nine. They were great performers, but the music was a little choppy – sort of a Riverdance with Chinese acrobats – my friend Javier would have loved it since he has been working on the Mexican version of Riverdance. Personally it should have be called hotties in spandex costumes (which means Helene and my mother would have loved it). My problem was that it was right after dinner, and the theatre warmed up as the performance went along – making me want to sleep all the more. The other odd factor was that the seating assistants were more like seating Nazis – the theatre was half full, but they made people sit in their assigned seats – to the point of moving people around repeatedly. Bureaucracy dies hard I guess.

After the show we checked in with “David” and told him we were going to listen to jazz at the Ritz-Carlson and that we’d make our own way home. Met the piano player, who was nice – and talented. Wow, could he play. Marty and Eric had beers, I had a couple of gin and tonics — $34.50. Word to the wise – don’t drink in hotel bars.

On the flip side – the taxi home was cheap – something like $3.00. Got the tour of Marty and Eric’s room on the 25^th floor. Better view, same bathroom.

Early to bed for me, luggage has to be out by 7am – which is when I meet up with Marty and Eric for breakfast. Bus leaves at 8am for our two tours and meeting up with the boat.

Well, the question has been asked about why I like this place in Victoria so much when I mentioned I wouldn’t mind dying in this place…

If it is someplace you wouldn’t mind dying in does that mean there is something you can incorporate into your home to mirror the feeling? Or is it really the location?

As the real estate people say… location, location, location. The unit I’m in this time (and most are like this) is a corner unit with glass on two sides. This time I’m facing the bay and the city, other times I’ve been facing the bay and the inlet and mountains. Both views are stunning. Here is a typical one.

Here is a link to all the pictures — including the seals at Fisherman’s Wharf next door, the float planes and ferries, the whole shooting match: http://www.twango.com/channel/markso.victoria2008

Chip and Linda leave today on the 4pm ferry back to Port Angeles, and they are replaced by Robin Hood who is coming down from Salt Spring Island further up Vancouver Island. After viewing their camera mounted at their resort (Quillayute River Resort) and seeing snow falling, they are less than thrilled going back home.

Today’s plan calls for shopping for dinner. Seafood tonight as RH is a fisheterian. Two choices for fish shopping — next door at Fisherman’s Wharf, or around the corner at Finest At Sea’s Retail Store which is quite a find since they are a restaurant provider that has a little retail store. Think scallops, live in their shells, the size of salad plate.

I think FAS will be the winner. Probably need to get more wine too… unless we don’t drink the Pinot Noir (Calona Vineyards Artist Series 2006) with lunch.

Well — poker was fun, but not profitable. But Neil was as delicious as always — with his blond hair growing out, and his piercing blue eyes… ah, those straight boys — I’m a sucker for them always.

This mornings schedule (revised). Meet up with Ross, look at his house (remodel project), look at Cathy’s house, then head north to look at my house and the remodelling work done there. Then he’ll stay for dinner with Chris and Michael.

Gotta go — he’s due any minute.

First stop — Ross’ gutted rental house. Tossed out a couple of ideas — widen door from dining room into kitchen, swap out the fridge for a tall and skinny one, put a washer/dryer in the upstairs new bath, and add a wall heater for supplemental heat in the attic. Keep a large washer/dryer for all the other stuff in the house, but a small stack-able one in the upper  master bedroom.

Second stop — Cathy’s house to see the work in progress, even though we couldn’t get in. Wow! Massive water and poop work to get the house up to spec. She was right about needed to spend 30K almost instantly. Massive new septic system, remove the old well — but finally drove down to see the far end of of her 1.3 acre property. BIG! I’m imagining a 3′ tall green chain link fence keeping the neighbor kids out — but that’s me. It’s long and skinny — probably 50′ wide — but very deep, unfortunately bordering a road on two sides.

Third stop — Red Robin where Ross took me to lunch. Pulled pork (no bun), garlic fries, couple of glasses of pinot grigio.

Then onto the freeway — Ross coming north to see my remodel for more ideas. Actually managed to not lose each other for the hour plus drive. What amazed me was that there were no backups from the construction on I-5 – at least to where we got off just north of the airport.

Dinner tonight for four at 7pm. Swanda, Michael, Ross, and me…. surf and turf. Steaks and salmon, salad and bread, and oh, that red stuff as well.

Maybe it’s the weather that makes me sleep in on the East Coast. By the time I got up at 10:30, Jill was getting ready to shove off to visit friends and friends children leaving me with the late morning and early afternoon “at leisure” as they say in the travel brochures. Plenty of time to reprogram my spare MP3 player for Jill’s return trip (she forgot her Zune), figure out how to finally get my phone to sync with my Exchange server contacts/calendar, strip and remake the guest bed, put away the clean dishes, add the dirty ones, and get all the soiled linens into the laundry basket.

Pucci showed up at 3:30, just after Jill returned to the apartment – and off we went to Whole Paycheck and Cambridge Wine and Spirts. The 12-year-old Macallan was on sale for $39.95 which was all I was planning on buying, but then a bottle of Germain-Robin brandy caught my eye… damn, there goes another $23.99 (down from $29.99).

Cocktails at 5:30 with Pucci, his GF, me… before dinner at Netta’s place in Arlington. Lamb shanks over couscous, which was supposed to go with a Caesar salad – except Pucci forgot to make that in all the excitement over the lamb.

The large Le Creuset pot on the right side of the stove used to belong to Julia Child – sent from the company to Julia as a promotional item. Netta used to work as her archivist and found it in the basement of her house. Julia’s comment… “you want it, take it, the damn thing weighs a ton.” That French Oven held 10 lamb shanks and all the fennel and garbanzo beans, rosemary, the works.

What a meal, even without the salad. So much for greens today.

Pucci grabbed all the bones to make a lamb stock for tomorrows pork dinner which will include a whiskey reduction sauce.

Nightcaps, and then to bed.

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After a lovely breakfast of sourdough waffles and bacon — we started the process of gear checkout. Whitewater is a god-send. Means I won’t be doing this on the ramp at put in which wouldn’t make me very popular.

Here I am with everything for the three weeks, minus the pink river purse. That’s my borrowed PFD (personal floatation device) on the floor next to me. Thanks WW — and for the splash jacket (better than my windbreaker from the jazz fest in California).

Called Germain-Robin today to set up a tasting for tomorrow afternoon on the way to Nice (Trendwest Clear Lake). Might try and schedule a distillery tour as well, but for either Wednesday or Thursday. They make the most amazing small batch brandies — a favorite of Mr. Pucci and myself.

Dinner tonight will be a BBQ — which I need to go shopping for. Will pick up a bottle of wine (or two) as well.

Well — that is the phrase from WhiteWater about the Nice, Lucerne area of Clear Lake, California — the “White Trash Riviera”.

The day started with a quick breakfast of waffles and eggs and the last bit of packing. Out the door by 10:30 — and to the Germain-Robin “warehouse” for a tasting — ended up buying a bottle of their Poet Tawny Port for someone who just had a big event, and a bottle of their Hanger One Mandarin Vodka for another person at said event. Let’s hope it makes to trip home a month from now.

Did the shopping at the Sentry Market — found some “interesting” things for the raft trip. Got 6 liters of wine in aseptic boxes of 1 liter each on sale for $6.99 each — not as cheap as the five liter ones, but close, and it will be a nice variety. Must make a good impression!

Got to love California — picked up some things for my own beverage bags — limit, two cases (or in my case, two orange sacks — one large, one small). The score? 1.5 liters of premixed Bloody Marys, and (4) each Long Island Iced Tea and Margaritas (yes, with REAL booze in them).

Got to the WorldMark Clear Lake a little early — room was ready — as the two WorldMark folks I saw in the Sentry said it would be. They were shopping for guest — you can fill out a list and the groceries are waiting for you when you arrive in your unit. Too bad I don’t know what I’m cooking before I see what’s on sale, special, etc.

Pictures of the 2-bedroom condo here: http://www.twango.com/channel/markso.GrandCanyonTrip

Dinner was marinated pork on the grill and a big salad. After dinner is reading the paper and updating the two blogs. And postcards, and web revisions… which will get put off until tomorrow cause I’m out of steam — but the two day old headache is gone. Is it change of venue? aspirin? wearing sunglasses while driving today? fresh air? quite time on the lake? Who knows — we’ll see if it comes back tomorrow. If the “owner re-education” at 10:30 doesn’t do it ($50 in AMEX booze cards), it might actually be gone.

Can’t quite decide what to do tomorrow — probably should be billing some hours while I can — but touring wineries (like Steele) sounds tempting as well. Oh — maybe I could hit the wineries on the way to the bay area since it’s only a couple of hour drive.

Checked out a couple of minutes before eight. Used the last of my paper money ($5) to settle accounts before heading to the airport. The run from Ballarat to the Melbourne airport is 90 minutes with only a couple of morning congestion points. Need to put that in the revised directions for WorldMark as well. Rental car was a snap — held up the contract and she said I was good to go. And the International Terminal in Melbourne is right across the street from the rental cards.Surprisingly few people in the check in line — had the full two hours to try and spend my $3.45AUS… $1.20 for the paper, and the rest in the Salvation Army can.

What a day. Work at the house patching the floor where we shorted to wall to the bedrooms, then off to Olympia for a hot dog, some paint (robin egg blue) to hopefully match the ceiling in the living room, then off to the escrow company in Oly to sign papers selling the rental property.

Back to work on the house after having an epiphany while driving back north that the maple cabinets that I bought at the UW, that two of them would fit in the hallway (the other three are going in the pantry). Of course, the place they need to fit is 1/2″ two narrow so I have to take out the plaster — more mess and dust, just when I thought I was done making big messes!

Back to the apartment around 5:30 for cocktails before being taken out to the Brooklyn for a stunning dinner and an amazing conversation with Blair King, the executive chef (who treated us to a foie gras and scallop appetizer).

Needless to say it was straight to bed after that — way too many activities today.

Up (5:30am) and out (6:15am). Ick.

On the ferry at 8am, after a Bloody Mary (from that same jug of premix from Thanksgiving!

Nap in the parking lot.

Duty free and a nap on the boat.

Off the boat at 10am.

Stop by condo – not ready.

Shop the fish store (salmon for dinner).

Shop the Thrifty for the rest of the meal stuff.

Drive around town for a bit.

Get call from condo – it’s ready.

Check-in, unpack, get settled (11am).

Relax.

Fix four seafood salads (Swanda, Robin Hood, Crow Dog and myself).

Much good conversation over a bottle of white wine.

Boys leave at 4:30pm

Helene arrives a little after five for dinner.

Drink, chat, eventually start work on dinner at eight.

More chatting, more drinking.

Then sleep.

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But is wasn’t, not even close (to be close you have to be within a half hour drive, not 45 minutes). Got an email from the manager of the Palm Springs WorldMark at 3:43pm the DAY BEFORE we were to check in (we had already checked in for our flights). I spent my ground time in Sonoma trying to find us a room somewhere near Palm Springs – Indio was the only option. And not a good one considering the Downtown location is right on the Gay Pride Route for Sunday. Indio is 45 minutes away by car (which we hadn’t planned on renting so add $500 for the car and $100 for the gas).

So, if I get snarky in the post, you will know why, but here’s what we made of it:

Quick breakfast in the lounge, too early for the bar to be open, sigh.

Bigger protein breakfast on board:

And a layover in San Francisco for a few hours:

Before I was back on board…

Seth and Maia met me at the airport, and we were off to our exile in Indio, wedged between a couple of golf courses and the desert. ABSOLUTLY NOTHING to walk to for miles.

In our two-bedroom, two-bath:

And the view:

Typical breakfast:

Went out for lunch at a local Mexican place – my Chile Relleno:

We visited the Moorten Cactus Garden in Palm Springs:

And then we were off to Inka, a Peruvian restaurant on the strip in Palm Springs:

And an evening view from the balcony…

Next day we are off to the East Entrance to Joshua Tree – not expecting two trip to Joshua Tree in one year, but it was close (35 minutes):

And then off to a cactus walk:

Back at the complex, I checked out the mini-mart/sandwich/coffee place:

A liter of Jack will set you back $50. That is at least DOUBLE what you’d pay in town.

So, Canadians MUST come here because the V8 is small, and the Clamato large.

Shocked they have Vernors, sadly, not diet.

A few more shots of pool time where Seth and Maia spent a lot of time:

Another day we were off to a Date Farm so Seth cold have a Date Shake.

What we didn’t realize is the creepy religious cactus garden walk:

Lunch afterwards at SHERMANS! Love this Jewish deli. Sadly, just got a pic of my leftover half a pastrami:

And a couple of shots of the pastry case:

Before long, I was back on a plane home, at least it was direct this time:

Some good, some bad (like multiple calls to WorldMark to claw back some points because of the clusterfuck). At least Seth and Maia had fun – they even marched in the Gay Pride Parade on Sunday under the Alaska Airlines banner. And I got some swag out of it!

Here is a picture from me and the 2019 Parade:

With that, I sign out.

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A birthday in Barcelona, though not mine. Thank would be RayA. It was just an excuse to catch up with him as he turns 55. Ah, youth.

Used 120,000 United mile and less than a hundred dollars in fees to get Business Class tickets – with the exception of the Frankfort-Barcelona leg. Here is what the routing looks like:

Some might say that’s a lot of travel for just three nights. It’s doable if you are up front. FYI, it was 14,118 flight miles. And you start in the lounge. I get access to the United lounge when I’m on international itineraries with Star Alliance because of my lifetime Gold Premier status (United Million Miler).

Then to another comfortable seat….1D

This is an Air Canada flight, and look at the amazing Steve, my flight attendant!

He brought me a lovely meal after a round of drinks:

Had just enough time in Toronto (we were running a little late) to grab a bottle of Woodford Reserve from Duty Free and get to my gate for my Frankfurt flight…and the digs are MUCH nicer on this long haul:

Yep, a little more room on this 777-300ER. Sadly though, no Steve, but bubbles before we take off:

Followed by nuts and cocktails:

The salad course:

The main course:

The cheese course:

And finally, dessert:

Watched The Royal Tenenbaums on this flight (I watched Love Is Strange on the way to Toronto) and grabbed a couple of hours of sleep in the lay-flat bed, and awoke to this:

Looks suspiciously like my breakfast on the flight to Toronto, though in true Canadian fashion, added a Caesar (that’s a Bloody Mary made with Clamato), while keeping track of the flight:

Arrived in Frankfurt for a longer layover, and immediately headed to the lounge for a refreshing shower!

And the lounge was CROWDED with early morning fliers. Notice the Air Canada pin Steve gave me?

Arrived in after a leg in coach from Frankfurt to Barcelona, only to arrive at what is called a “Hard Stand”, which means you walk down stairs to the tarmac. Then into the terminal for a long snaking walk through the “shopping mall” to get to the far end of baggage claim to wait 45 minutes for your bags so you can catch the AeroBus which will take you to RayA’s place (next to last stop – 30 minutes).

Basically, 24 hours door (Seattle) to door (Barcelona) with only 2-hours of sleep the night before, and 3-4 hours during the rest of the trip. Time for a nap.

To be continued, my adventure in Barcelona.

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So, I have a friend…there are both jokes and snide comments possible with that start, BUT she has tasked me with managing (and paying the maintenance dues) for her 12,000-point WorldMark account so she just doesn’t have to thank about it anymore. It was a sore point between her and her partner.

So far, I’ve used her points to go to Anaheim to see The Mouse (but was too cheap to buy a park ticket), and now to Palm Springs for the combination of Halloween AND Gay Pride. Pride in Palm Springs is always the first full weekend of November…but his year with Halloween on Thursday, it was a two-fer!

Any now, the pictures you’ve been waiting for. Gone for a week, and need to bring wine:

Arrived a couple of hours before actual check-in. Opted for the 2-bedroom unit with twin beds in the second bedroom. Probably should have looked at a property map and chosen a better location since we were at the back of the property. It was quiet, but no balcony overlooking the parade route:

Over the last year, I’ve had several people relocate either part-time for full time to Palm Springs, so lots of people to visit, starting with Jack and Stevee for dinner at PF Changs hosted by DancingBear:

We’d done some shopping so when breakfast rolled around, we had fixin’s, complete with Caesars (which is a Bloody Mary made with Clamato).

For dinner, we invited Mags, the other transplant for dinner:

By the following breakfast, Craig had showed up from LA to join us for the week:

Craig is pondering the move as well, so for lunch it was DB and I at Sherman’s Delicatessen, a tradition in more ways than one:

I started with a Sparkling Greyhound:

Before my grilled Rueben…

And DB bought a Key Lime Pie to go.

Halloween night dinner was at the condo – we had a grill, but no BBQ tongs. Called the front desk and they sent some over:

He is 6’4″ WITHOUT the heels – and works the Front Desk. Welcome to Halloween in Palm Springs! Tonight’s dinner is street tacos with John and Stevee coming to a late dinner:

And what are street tacos without a couple of desserts – including the Key Lime pie from Sherman’s and a cake from the Italian bakery.

Another day, another fabulous breakfast…

There was “pool time” involved…

And hot tub time after the sun went over the mountains. But it’s sort of rude to take pictures in the hot tub after dark.

I’ll wrap up this post because the next one will have a TON of pictures of the Palm Springs Gay Pride Parade (and videos).

Stay tuned.

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So, last week I was in the low 80’s, this week I’m lucky if it gets UP to 20. One morning it was 14 below! Fortunately, I don’t live here, but have to fly in.

That’s a lot of stuff for three nights – but it includes New Year’s presents.

Might as well start off the day with a Caesar – that’s a Bloody Mary made with Clamato, a Canadian Favourite.

It’s a Q-400 from Seattle to Bozeman where Steve will be picking me up. He will be my chauffeur for the next four days. We’ll be staying at the WorldMark West Yellowstone, right next to The Colonels!

Yep, that’s a whole lot of snow – which they don’t completely scrap off so that the snow machines rubber tracks don’t get ground off – the whole town of West Yellowstone has groomed snow on the streets.

Nice little unit (2-bedroom). I was seeing if the fisheye lens I brought would work on the new phone…

And the view from the deck:

We did a grocery and liquor run, where the liquor store (turns out to not be the cheap one) is part of a casino…

Spent the evening with The Colonels killing off the Bourbon I brought…good thing Tuesday is a planned “relax from the journey” day with an UncleMarkie Sunday Roast over a bed of potatoes and onions.

Wednesday is the BIG day of the trip – when The Colonels and I do a snow coach tour of the Yellowstone Valley.

The snow coaches come in many varieties…

Lots of winter visitors to Yellowstone, even with it closed down – the concessioners are splitting the cost of grooming the roads. Ours was a bit of a tight fit.

Lots of photo ops:

Yes, that is a coyote in the upper picture. Seen today: Bison, Coyote, Swans, Ducks, and Wolves feasting on a Bison carcass that was too far off to get a phone camera picture.

Left at a little after 8am, got back to the condo about 4:30pm – a LONG DAY in an airport shuttle (which our snow coach was the size of).

Headed home Thursday (after a pizza dinner hosted by The Colonels) – and the snow was coming down:

Left the condo right at the noon checkout, but my flight wasn’t until 7pm so I went to the airport really early. This was at the check-in counter:

Since I was there hours early, I set up my office to do some work on the wine shop taxes…

Not a bad view – there are mountains out there when there aren’t clouds.

Got home around 11PM.

Guess I’d better start repacking for the next trip!

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Well, after a week of work around the house, it’s time to hit the road!

First, we have to get over the border:

Might as well play the license plate game on the way:

With a stop at Burger Master…

Sadly, Dan doesn’t have NEXUS, so, here we are in line…

First stop is the La Quinta in Richmond, near the Vancouver Airport:

With a rooftop deck, sadly, no tables, chairs, umbrellas:

And the tiniest pool/spa I’ve seen in a hotel:

From the roof I spied a good choice for dinner, Mr. Bro – a Korean restaurant. Richmond is FULL of Asian restaurant, you couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting one – but Mr. Bro it is!

When we got there, the place was packed – a good indication with so many restaurants within blocks.

Complete with sushi-like mark it yourself menu:

Food was GREAT!

I got the Bibimbap, Dan got the grilled cod.

An early night because an early morning flight, and needing to move to car to long-term parking:

Conveniently across from a light rail station to the airport – and the train is free.

Before long, I am back home (meaning an airport lounge):

Before our 8:20am flight…I used 77,000 Air Canada miles to get us to Saskatoon in Business Class:

Complete with a second breakfast. I had two servings of the lox and egg on an English muffin in the lounge:

Why yes, that is a Caesar. Air Canada has spicy Clamato on its planes.

Mostly on time into Saskatoon, grab luggage and off to an Uber to the hotel:

We are at the Ramada, and because I’m a Wyndham Diamond member, they upgraded our room if we were willing to take a King over Two Queens (there is a joke in there someplace). Top floor, but the oddest layout I’ve ever seen. Maybe they should add a foosball table like the WorldMark Austin (see post here):

And we are connected to the largest indoor full flight golf driving range in Saskatchewan.

Mid-afternoon found us at the bar downstairs, ordering something called Perogy Nachos:

Needless to say, a nap afterwards was needed.

And dinner was MUCH HEALTHIER:

Off to bed because tomorrow will be an exciting day!

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