Yesterday was a pretty quiet day – we had breakfast and went to Marshall’s Home Goods, as Lis mentioned in the previous post about the James, and then Cathy and Claudia went home and we went back to bed.
Round about 2pm we decided that we might be needing some lunch, but we didn’t want much – especially since we had decided on an early dinner to avoid the hipster late diners. Cathy had told us that we needed to have an authentic Chicago-style hot dog at least once during our stay, so we went out in search of that. My sweetie Yelped, and found Portillo’s, only a few blocks away – and so there we went and had our dog (eagle-eyed readers will note that it is a Portillo’s dog pictured in the Wikipedia link re: Chicago-styled hot dogs).
We were charmed by the Portillo’s building – sort of a funky food court with lots of Chicago memorabilia and oddities on the walls and ceiling. The hot dogs were really good (and, Cathy, you will be pleased to know that I had all the fixings except the peppers).
Across the street was this huge McDonald’s I had seen a couple times before – old fashioned golden arches and huge (3 or 4 stories) with cantilevered glass and bronze statues of Ronald McDonald and such. We wandered over and took our pictures with Ronald and then went inside – definitely the coolest McDonald’s I’ve ever been in. The entire second floor was a coffee shop and McDonald’s museum of sorts. Very fun.
Back to the hotel, and back to lounging in bed until dinner. For dinner, we walked around the corner to Roy’s, one of our favorite places since Lis’ dad took us to lunch there in Carmel a few years back. Rather than bread, they put down a big bowl of edamame, which we were able to eat properly, thanks to the edamame eating lesson we’d received from Cathy on Saturday (thanks, cuz!!). Then we had salads and desserts, which were very yummy.
I will go out of my way to avoid anything hip, cool, or happening. I am not, and have never been, hip. So it was fairly alarming to find, immediately upon entering The James Hotel, that, despite the gazillion TripAdvisor reviews I had read, it had somehow escaped me that I had chosen a hip hotel for our stay in Chicago.
The lobby was teeming with Beautiful People, some of whom gave us a bit of a cold once over. The front desk people, however, were very lovely. They gave us a complimentary upgrade to a “Loft Suite”, which runs for something like $600 a night!! (Thank you, extradordinary Sandra at Plaza Travel!) Since our rooms weren’t ready, they stored our luggage for us and called me on my cell phone as soon as the room was ready. Then they asked us whether we needed help with our luggage, rather than whisking it away, requiring us to tip the bellman when we would have been perfectly happy to deal with it ourselves.
Anyway, when we walked into the room, we were wowed. Later I compared this to the first time we walked into our room at a Four Seasons and were definitely underwowed. It seemed like just an ordinary hotel room. It took about 24 hours for us to realize how spectacular the Four Seasons is. In this case it was somewhat the opposite. It took us less than 24 hours to realize that the James is all about form over function – something that always leads to me grousing and complaining.
The room is VERY large and set up a bit like a railroad flat, which might be why they call it a loft. The queen size bed is up on a platform at one end of the room with some very cool silver beads hanging down on one side to separate the bed from the living area. Both of us were quite delighted with the little cozy bed nook until bed time. That is when we noticed that there were not two separate lights on either side of the bed. Instead there was one very cool-looking, heat-producing horizontal light above the bed. As we read before bed, it became warmer and warmer, and when I was ready to go to sleep but Mary wasn’t quite ready, I still had a hot light blaring above me.
Mary complained about the light – I was annoyed but only slightly. But when my girlfriend said, “I hope this window doesn’t break because I keep falling into it,” I became a bit concerned. We are on the 14th floor after all, and I so don’t want to lose her. There is very little room on either side of the bed, but on her side, the floor actually has a sudden slope towards the window – hence the falling. Then there is the tv hanging from the wall at the end of the nook. Perfect viewing angle, but she must contort her body a bit to get past it. Finally there is the step up into the nook from the rest of the room. We both tripped over it, oh, I’d say about 5 times each, before we trained ourselves to remember it was there. Thankfully, no middle of the night falls.
There are two bedside tables, but neither has a drawer, and they are both very tiny, so they are both piled with our crap – well mine is – Mary is quite neat and tidy no matter the constraints of her bedside table.
The bed is VERY comfortable – absolutely no complaints there. The biggest issue for me is that all through the night of our first night, I kept hearing thumping noises, as if someone was slamming their door shut. It kept me from sleeping. Though there was a wedding party staying here, I could not imagine that anyone could be opening and closing their door that often. There was a thump once or twice a minute, but the thumps didn’t seem to follow any regular pattern. I was VERY tired in the morning. I could hear the thumps in every part of our suite, and I was a bit unhappy. I must say that Mary did not notice it, and neither did Cathy and Claudia who were in a loft suite exactly 6 floors beneath us. So, more on this later. Back to the room.
The main living area includes a large flat-screen tv, a fully-stocked honor bar (full-size bottles of booze, plus the regular mini-bar stuff, including a “Mile High Kit” which Claudia found particularly interesting and scandalizing), a little seating area with a small table and two chairs, and a sitting area with very modern, hip (read fairly uncomfortable) furniture. There is also a large seventies shag rug in the sitting area, which feels just heavenly on the feet after a long day of museum-going.
The piece de resistance is the “private media room” at the far end of the loft. It is a small room which is taken up entirely by a very comfortable platform bed. There is a bose player with surround sound speakers and a projector so you can watch your “media” on the wall. All very cool. I was very excited about watching tv on the wall and hooking up my iPad to the projector to watch Cagney and Lacey (Netflix) on the wall. There were no instructions on how to use any of it. When I called to ask, they sent a technician up to our room who told me that the only thing you can do is watch a DVD in there. Still cool, but you’d think they’d hook it up to a tv, and allow you to connect your own electronics to it.
We have discovered that the “private media room” is very lovely at certain times of the day when the sun comes in and shines on the bed. We both have spent some time there reading and sunbathing. I actually worried about getting a sunburn yesterday!
The bathroom has a separate shower and tub. I love that. But the shower is just a little smaller than a separate shower usually is, and when I opened the shower door after my shower, water got all over the floor.
One other form over function detail that bothered me is that there is a safe, but it is so high up in the closet that I have to stand on my tip-toes to reach it and I can’t see into it at all.
Anyway… Sandra extraordinaire also procured us a free breakfast every morning, and when on Sunday morning we went to catch the elevator down to breakfast I discovered the source of the thumping. The elevator thumps constantly as it travels. This was actually a relief to discover as it meant there was a possible solution. That solution would mean switching rooms. I can tell you that Mary was not at all pleased with that possibility as she had already unpacked and made herself quite at home. We temporarily tabled the discussion.
Our free breakfast was quite hearty. We were told that we could order the “James Classic breakfast” – no substitutions. The James Classic is two eggs, choice of meat, toast, juice and coffee. I am lactose-intolerant so I asked the waitress if my eggs could be cooked in oil, rather than butter, and I asked if the potatoes were cooked in butter. She said yes to the former, and that she thought the potatoes were cooked in oil. I asked her to make sure and she said she would.
A different person brought our plates and he handed them out as if they were all the same. I asked, “Are these eggs cooked in oil?” and he said yes. He didn’t speak very good English so I didn’t ask about the potatoes. A third person came to ask how everything was. I asked, “Are the potatoes cooked in oil or butter?” He said, “Oh, oil I’m pretty sure.” I still wasn’t very confident. A few minutes later he came back and said, “If it’s a lactose issue, I talked to the chef, and everything is cooked in clarified butter and clarified butter has no lactose, so you should be fine.”
I said, “You mean these eggs are also cooked in butter?” He said yes. I was not thrilled that it took me asking three different people to finally ascertain that my eggs were cooked in butter, not in oil, like I had requested. I also didn’t believe that clarified butter has no lactose. However, my darling girlfriend looked it up on the internet (and we all know the internet does not lie) and confirmed what I had been told. And, in fact, that is a very cool thing I have learned, because indeed I had no trouble with the clarified butter. But I should not have had to work that hard to find out whether or not my breakfast was going to make me sick. And what if I had been actually allergic to dairy and it was not a lactose issue?
After breakfast, we decided to head to the grand opening of Marshalls Home Goods a few doors down from the hotel. I wanted to put my newspaper away, so Mary, Cathy, and Claudia went on ahead and I ran up to the room. Coming down in the elevator it occured to me that if we were going to change rooms, I should let them know before they cleaned our current room. I explained the problem at the front desk, where they were VERY nice. There was only one other room available, on the top floor at the end of the hall away from the elevator, but next to the service elevator, which, I was told, rarely goes to the top floor. This was an ordinary sized room with two double beds – no separate sitting area, no private media room. It looked out onto the street rather than the “courtyard” ours looks out on. The deskman said he thought that noise from the street could be fairly loud also. He said I could make up my mind “whenever” and even wait until the next day if I needed to. Very nice and accomodating.
I headed on to Marshalls Home Goods where I laid out my dilemma. I really didn’t care about a smaller room or even separate beds, as long as I could sleep. But would the street noise be worse than the thumping noise? Claudia said that she thought she would prefer street noise. It’s not constant, and it can be kind of soothing. I totally agreed with that. Then Cathy pointed out that she had her fan on all night and didn’t hear anything. The air conditioning here is VERY LOUD, and I realized that ours cycled on and off all night long and when it was on, I could barely hear the thumping. I didn’t realize that you could run the fan continuously. Once Cathy pointed out that you could, she SAVED OUR MARRIAGE! I decided to give it another night with the fan on all night, and I am happy to report that I slept much better last night and we will stay in our huge loft suite with private media center.
All in all, I don’t think I would choose this hotel again. We both prefer staid luxury to hipster luxury, and there are so many inconveniences here in the service of being cool. But I’m happy for now.
Up early and on our way to Chicago. But, ere we leave the Quad Cities, let me talk up a few of its sites: We had lunch at Cafe Fresh in Moline, which was really good, plus they have this cream cheese pickle thing, which is a dill pickle smothered in cream cheese and wrapped in a slice of deli meat (ham, I think) – seriously yummy. And afterwards, we had dessert at Lagomarcino’s, an old-fashioned ice cream parlor, and the best ice cream sundae I’ve ever had (very sad to read that Mr. Lagomarcino passed away the very day after we enjoyed his wonderful establishment).
I must also give a shout out to Lis’ kin – her Uncle Frank, Aunt Carol, cousin Cathy, and nieces (actually first cousins once removed, but whatever) Caroline and Claudia. They showed us a great time, plus Carol, Frank and Cathy have the best stripper names ever (Freckles Jackson, Briar Roxbury and Muffy Vielstrassa, respectively).
Note from Lis: I’m not sure my very well-mannered aunt and uncle would appreciate their stripper names being published in a blog. Just so you know, we helped them figure out their stripper names after Mary told them our cats’ most excellent stripper names (BonBon LeChocolat, Ginger Darlington, Tabby Gaston, and Lulu Petunia). My aunt seemed a little alarmed, so Mary explained the whole idea of stripper names and that is when we found out that theirs are the most fabulous ever (unlike my worst ever Roanoke 9th Avenue.) (Mary: I’ve always been pleased with my stripper name of Midnight Adams, but I think it pales in comparison to Muffy Vielstrassa…)
And now, on to Chicago. Cathy and Claudia drove us back to Chicago, and we got to The James around 12:30pm – too early to check in, so we left our bags with the bellman and went out in search of sustenance. Claudia had been wanting to eat at the Grand Lux Cafe, because of their Beignets, and it turned out to be one block away from the hotel – a sign from God, clearly. We ordered a bunch of appetizers and a couple salads and ate family style, then had the aforementioned beignets for dessert – they were divine. Claudia had picked out Lagomarcino’s for dessert yesterday as well – that girl knows her desserts!
We wanted to go to the Shedd Aquarium, but turned out they were closing early on that particular Saturday (bastards), so we went to the Adler Planetarium instead and saw one of their shows. Cathy and Claudia report being somewhat disappointed in the show, but Lis and I really liked it.
Afterwards we took a bus to Millenium Park to look at “The Bean” and some of the other sites. It was pretty cool, on many levels – the sites were neato, and the temperature was about 57 plus wind chill.
We walked back to the hotel along Michigan Avenue (AKA The Magnificent Mile), people- and building-watching along the way. I didn’t have my real camera with me, only my iPhone, but snapped pics anyway, and some of them turned out pretty well, particularly some of the shots of the Bean – I’ve posted them here.
We got back to the hotel around 6pm, retrieved our bags and went up to our rooms (we’d been upgraded to a loft – more about the room in another post, maybe). The plan was to stow our stuff and then figure out where to eat, but once in the room, my body made an announcement – “You are not leaving this room again tonight, Missy.” So, room service burger for me. Lis wasn’t sure what she wanted to do – by now it was nearing 8pm – but ultimately she stayed in, too, and had a burger as well. Cathy and Claudia ate at Lawry’s, across the street, which they said was quite good, plus had a funky 70’s ambience – I’d like to try it later in the week.
We are in Rock Island, Illinois, right now, fixin’ to head to Chicago in the morning. And how did this come to pass, you might ask?
Well, Lis has been wanting to visit Chicago for a while now. We actually had a trip planned for last year – the annual Square Dance convention was in Chicago, and we had a sleeper car booked on Amtrak, and were signed up for the fun badge tour, and it was going to be awesome!! But, alas, Lis’ mom got sick, and we had to cancel.
So here we are, one year later, minus the square dancing and the train, on our way to the Windy City. But first, we stopped off for a couple days to visit Lis’ aunt, uncle, cousin and nieces in the Quad Cities.
On Wednesday we flew from Portland to Chicago, on Southwest. Lis has about a million Southwest free drink coupons, so we evolved a plan. We packed an empty plastic screw top bottle in our carry on. Then I ordered 2 drinks (orange juice and rum), and when the flight attendants weren’t looking, poured the rum in to the flask (we are classy broads in that way). Lis was supposed to get drinks, too, but she wanted apple juice and wasn’t sure she could be believable ordering apple juice and rum. But, anyway, we have some booze for the fancy hotel 🙂
Our flight got in too late for the 3 hour continuation to the Quad Cities, so we stayed in Chicago. Originally, we were just going to stay in some chain motel by the airport, but then my Travel Planner Extraordinaire girlfriend scored us a room at the Sutton Place downtown.
We took a cab from the airport, and at first the cabbie ignored us completely – I figured “Oh, well – big city.” Then he fished around in this little cooler in the passenger seat, pulled out a couple waters and handed them to us, still without a word.
And then, all of a sudden, he turned in to our cheerful tour guide, pointing out the tourist sites, laughing at our jokes, getting in the correct lane so we could better see things, etc. He was very sweet. He also took a wrong turn right at our hotel, said “Oh, you would be there by now,” and TURNED OFF THE METER!
The Sutton Place was nice, but didn’t have free wi-fi and didn’t have coffee in the room, and I slept past the free coffee in the lobby, so that was a bummer.
Plus, the lack of wi-fi in the room meant I had to go down to the lobby to deal with a work issue (there is wi-fi in the lobby and hotel bar), and so inadvertently found myself in the middle of someone else’s job interview – these two guys in suits were conducting an interview with another guy in a suit. I was very bummed – it’s one thing to have to be exposed to a bullshit meeting, but a job interview is about a thousand times worse. And, I couldn’t leave until my own business was finished, because I needed the wi-fi. Very sad story indeed.
We checked out of the hotel, took a cab to Union Station (this cabbie ignored us completely until the end when, for a change of pace, he gave us a dirty look when we paid with a credit card), and took the California Zephyr to Princeton, IL, where Lis’ cousin and niece picked us up.
The train station was crowded and our train was delayed, but once aboard we had a lovely ride, and I was in an unusual (hormonal?) space where the heartland scenery kept moving me to tears.
We’ve had a lovely visit with Lis’ family, including two rousing games of Celebrity, and tomorrow will head back to Chicago, where we will spend the remaining 5 days of our trip at The James Hotel. Lis’ cousin Cathy and niece Claudia will accompany us for the first day – we have extensive plans to paint the town!! (In between our naps, of course).
And so dawns our final day on Lana’i. Not much to report, though – our last day was a lazy one. We did play the putting course again this afternoon – Lis beat me on the front nine (which I handled most graciously), but I won the back nine and the overall tally.
I’m looking forward to going home tomorrow – I love to go away on vacation, and I love to come back home. Plus, our swanky Four Seasons destination has been great, but there have been some service problems, and while we chose it in part because of its isolation, I am now ready to be done being isolated.
It has been pretty awesome, all told. And, after our first few days, the dolphins haven’t been back, so I feel especially blessed to have been able to swim with them and get as close as we did. But home will feel really nice, and I do miss my kittens.
Thanks to all who followed along and made comments here and there – it’s always fun to share our trips with you:)
Yesterday I didn’t feel well (hence no blog post), and I was afraid that I wouldn’t feel well today, which would be a shame, because today was the last possibility of snorkeling – the surf is supposed to be really high for a few days starting tomorrow (the day we were snorkeling in rough surf, the surf was 2-3 feet; tomorrow it is supposed to be 4-6 feet, though one report we saw said 5-7 feet – anyway, we don’t want to be snorkeling in it). But I woke up feeling OK, or at least OK enough to snorkel.
As you know, we have been having a complimentary buffet breakfast every morning. What you don’t know (though some of you who know us well might have guessed) is that we often take a little tote bag to breakfast with us, and stash a couple bagels or hard boiled eggs to take back to the room for later. We had been doing this pretty regularly at first, but hadn’t done it the last couple days, so that today when I took a bag down, we were out of practice – we filled our bag with a bagel, a hard boiled egg and a chocolate croissant, but then forgot it and left it under the table.
(Lis: I wish to take issue with “some of you who know us well might have guessed.” Or else I’m just defensive. The reason we have been having to purloin food is that the food here is OUTRAGEOUSLY overpriced and we need something to snack on mid-morning, Okay, that’s a crappy defense. I guess we’re just tacky food-stealers.)
We were all the way back to the room before we realized we didn’t have our bag. We hurried back to the dining room, hoping to get there before the staff found our stash – but too late; there was my little Snorkel Bob’sSave the Yellow Tang bag sitting on a table behind the hostess desk. Luckily, there were no staff at the hostess desk, so we didn’t have to face anyone – we just grabbed the bag and skee-daddled. I realize that taking the bag without telling anyone probably compounds the faux pas, but I don’t care – I didn’t want to have to claim my ill-gotten-gain-filled bag from an actual person. Tomorrow, our plan is to pretend nothing happened.
On one of our rides in the shuttle bus up to The Lodge, a passenger had told us about a good snorkel spot – he said the visibility was better there, because it was out past where the swells crest. We went out there today, and sure enough, the visibility was very good and the snorkeling was really great. We saw tons of interesting fish, many that we hadn’t seen before, including a little school of sargeant majors – I’d missed them! At one point, we were floating above a school of fish (mostly convict tangs, but a bunch of other brightly colored fish as well) – they were letting the surf move them from place to place, and because we were floating, we were moving with them, and sort of became a part of the school. I started just looking at the colors of the fish and how the school moved with the surf, and then it was later and I started back to awareness – I had become completely absorbed in the movement and the colors, and my mind had turned off for a while. It was very meditative and zen – I was at one with the ocean! Lis had a similar experience, though hers was a little sadder because she’d started to think/feel about her mom. Still, it was really great for both of us.
We had lunch with Roger and Iris on their lanai, and then headed back to our room to just hang out for the afternoon. First, though, we wanted to stop in the lobby, where a painter whom we really liked, Jordanne, was selling her wares until 3pm. We had looked at her stuff a couple times before (she’s there every Tuesday and Friday), and had decided that we were going to buy something today, but we weren’t sure what. She had some small packs of notecards, which we knew we were going to get, but beyond that, we weren’t sure. Our options were traditional prints on paper, or something with a French name that I can’t remember which is a print on canvas (looked really cool), or an original (small).
Lis was nervous about spending money on anything more than a $30 print; I was less so, and enamored of the idea of buying an original piece of art from someone with whom we’d sort of established a relationship (we spent a good deal of time chatting with her each time we looked at her stuff). I’ve been thinking for a while that it would be fun to buy art, but was held back by the fact that I don’t know anything about art – what if we bought the wrong stuff?
When we were looking at this artist’s work, though, I realized that it didn’t matter – we should just buy things that we like. We’re not buying as an investment – we just want to have things that we think are pretty, and it would be fun to buy an original piece.
We hemmed and hawed for quite some time, trying the artist’s patience a little, I think (though she was very kind). In the course of our million questions, she let us know that she could paint us a small version of a larger piece that we liked, and she would do it on the spot while we watched. That sold me – an original piece that we watched being painted? I’m in. Lis was nervous but acquiesed, and we are now the proud owners of an Impressionist-style landscape of Pu’upehe Rock. I feel like such a grown up – now maybe we’ll put pictures on our walls:)
Lis: Mary totally tricked me. She said to me before we walked over there, “Let’s just take the original off the table and assume we’re going to buy a print.” I said okay. Then Jordanne, the artist, started talking about the originals and how much they would cost us and Mary nodded and looked very interested…so much for taking the original off the table. But it was very cool watching a painting be painted for us, and I think we will probably love it.
Last night we finally got to eat in the main dining room, and it was quite good. It is Italian themed, and has a fixed price format. There are three menu sections (antipasti, first course and second course), and three options; two courses and dessert, three courses, or three courses and dessert. We went the two courses and dessert route, and it was really good – my dessert in particular, something called a bittersweet chocolate mousse, may have been the best dessert I’ve ever had. So I’ve been steadily upgrading my opinion of the food here – it’s really quite good once you back out the Red Robin quality of the pool grill lunches. We haven’t had pool grill dinner yet – I’ll be curious to see how that is.
Yesterday Lis’ father and stepmother (Roger and Iris) arrived in Lana’i – they will be staying 8 nights, and overlapping with us for our final 5 nights. We really like traveling with them, because we enjoy a lot of the same things, and because they need just as much alone time as we do. We met up with them at breakfast (our breakfast policy is “we’ll see you there if we see you there” so we don’t have to do a bunch of coordinating) and had a nice meal. Then they went off on a big ol’ walk, and we went back to our room with the intention of heading down to the beach, but actually ended up napping in bed (Lis) and reading on the lanai (Mary). I must say, this lanai is really very, very awesome – you could spend the whole vacation just reading and napping on the lanai and be perfectly content.
We met up with Roger and Iris at the golf course for lunch – they had been walking the whole time that we had been lazing. After lunch they were planning to head down to the beach to read, so we said we’d join them there. We tried to do some snorkeling, but the surf was kind of rough, which made snorkeling less than ideal because the sand was stirred up and the water cloudy. We gave it the old college try for a while, but eventually also ran in to these creepy little jellyfish-like things, which spooked me (jellyfish freak me out) and even made my sweetie a little nervous, so we gave up.
The rough surf made getting out of the water a little challenging, and Lis began to panic a little, as she was afraid of a repeat of a previous Hawaiian adventure in which she went ass over teakettle. However, earlier I had noticed some people getting out backwards, facing the ocean so they could gauge the swells, and I told Lis about this method and talked her through it, and we both got out without mishap, and I felt very rescue-y and pleased with myself and all warm and fuzzy toward my girl as well 🙂
We went back to our chairs and hung out on the beach until it was time to get ready for dinner. On the way back we saw a flock of wild turkeys walking along the path and I snapped a couple pics.
Even though we only had an hour to get ready, we still stopped at the poolside bar on our way back to the room for our happy hour lava flows; got them to go this time. We are girls with our priorities in order.
For dinner we went back to the Lana’i City Grill, which is probably our favorite restaurant so far, though Lis really likes The Terrace up at The Lodge, and I really like the Italian main dining room here. As we were driving through Lana’i City on the way to the restaurant, I saw this kid wearing a weird outfit – “Why is that kid dressed like a soccer ball? He must really like soccer…” – I was pretty confused. Then we saw a bunch more kids dressed funny, and finally someone on the bus said “Oh, yeah, it’s Halloween!”
Dinner was divine, as usual, and when we left, the hostess had us trick or treat out of a big tub of candy, and I scored some Tootsie Rolls, which are my fave – so a Happy Halloween was had by all!
As I mentioned in a previous post, the air here is not agreeing with my head – I think it’s too damp, due to the waterfall outside the lanai and the humidity in general. You’d think humidity would be good for one’s sinuses, but I’ve been stuffy and post nasal drippy all trip – which has led to some gargantuan snoring. Being tired and eating too much hasn’t helped any, though I haven’t had any booze – my lava flows have been virgin (I actually think I like them better that way).
We’ve tried a variety of solutions (including one where I sleep on the lanai), but last night Lis asked if they would bring us a rollaway bed, which we set up as far from the regular bed as possible (my head is actually in the little hallway next to the door). This, plus the white noise of the waterfall outside, and the white noise from our iPhone White Noise app (crickets), and we both got a good night’s sleep last night – yay! Lis: Amen!
We headed to breakfast fairly early, as we wanted to be down at the water in time for the triathlon. Breakfast is a buffet affair in the main dining room, and is complimentary with our room, so we make sure we don’t miss it. It’s overpriced, of course, but it’s also pretty good, and I’ve developed a 3 course breakfast that I’ve been enjoying very much.
First course: scrambled eggs, bacon and potatoes. I have to be careful in this course, because if I load up too much here, then it impedes the later courses – I try to take just enough to take the edge off. I also get some juice at this point – guava mixed with whatever else they’re offering (usually pineapple or pineapple-orange).
Second course: papaya and pineapple, and whatever other fruit is out that day. Everyone else uses the appropriate fruit bowls for this, but we use the little kids’ fish plates, cuz they’re so damn cute.
Third course: this course is basically dessert – cheese blintzes or fruit-filled crepes, depending on what they are offering, and a pastry (on a second fish plate). I just grab whichever pastry looks good – a couple days in a row I scored pastries with chocolate inside. I also have some decaf coffee with my breakfast dessert.
It really is a lovely little routine – I am going to miss it (though my waistline won’t – I’ll have to do some serious food discipline when I get home 🙁 )
We got down to the beach just as the athletes were preparing to start. It was really fun – we talked with some relatives of people in the race, and watched the racers. Our normal shady spot on the beach was near where the swimmers come out of the water, so we sat and cheered as each swimmer came out, cheering especially hard for the stragglers, as we are always the stragglers in the itty-bitty tris that we do, and it’s nice to be cheered for.
After the swimming was over, the excitement moved off to the bike and run portions, and we got our beach back. It was kind of nice – we were able to swim and snorkel, but when we were sitting in our chairs on the beach, we could hear the race results over the loudspeaker, and hear the crowd cheer when people came in, so we got to experience the triathlon in a peripheral way but not have it interfere with our beach day.
Lis was feeling particularly burly today (she is a former cross-country runner, and these things get her competitive juices flowing), and decided to get to the snorkel area by swimming around the bouys that were still out from the swim portion of the race. I was feeling particulary NOT burly today (see: air not agreeing with head), and decided to meander over to the snorkel area. This got us both there at about the same time, and we snorkeled for about an hour. I love snorkeling – it’s as close as I get to those awesome dreams where I can fly. Plus there are lots of neat fish here.
After snorkeling, we went to our beach chairs and hung out for a while – Lis read and I listened to music. I made a point of not bringing a camera or an iPhone, as I had been a little too involved with both yesterday. It was nice to just sit still and listen to music.
We ordered burgers for lunch, and they brought them to us at the beach. We hung out for a little bit after lunch, then back to the room for our afternoon naps 🙂 For dinner we are going to the main dining room that I have been trying (unsuccessfully until now) to get my sweetie to try.
And now, let me close with a romantic little interaction between yours truly and her beloved, that took place during the writing of this very post:
Lis: “Do you want some light?”
Mary: “Um…sure.”
Lis: “I wasn’t going to give it to you – I was just suggesting that you turn on your light.”
Today we spent the day wandering the grounds of both resorts. After breakfast, we walked around the 5 named gardens in the Manele Bay compound, me taking photos like mad and Lis becoming increasingly over it. For lunch, we went up to The Lodge – the food, service and presentation all seem to be significantly better up there. After lunch, we walked around the grounds, me again taking photos like mad, and Lis only a little over it this time, owing to her nap after breakfast 🙂
As we wandered around, we came across the 18 hole putting course. Lis went back to the lodge to get putters and balls, and we played the course. I won, but only because of Lis’ unfortunate sand trap misadventure – she pulled off some beautiful putts, whereas mine kept threatening to be beautiful but then rimming out and rolling away 🙁
There is a triathlon here tomorrow, and when we got back in the late afternoon, many of the triathletes were here registering. Lis is feeling grumpy about all the people (there is also a Sunquest Circle of Excellence gathering here right now), but I like the big influx of riff raff – makes me feel better. The triathlon kicks off with the swim at 9:30am tomorrow – we’re going to try to go down and watch it.
And for those of you who are interested in endless photos of landscapes (with a couple golf pics thrown in), here are the links for my photographic efforts of the day:
Yesterday I had been marveling that we had the energy to do all the things we’d been doing, and to enjoy them as much as we had – I had thought we were going to get here and just collapse.
Well, today we had that day – unmotivated and out of sorts, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that the Lana’i air is not agreeing with my head, making me stuffy and snoring like a tank, which in turn makes my fair one a little cranky…
We didn’t feel like doing much, so lay about for a bit before breakfast and after breakfast, but eventually making it back down to the beach to snorkel and swim.
But, like yesterday and the double-lounger, you just can’t go back – we didn’t snorkel for long because we were tired and Lis kept having trouble with her mask, and we didn’t swim for long because we were tired and the dolphins, while there, never got very close.
I think the lesson here is, enjoy your transcendent experience, but don’t come back the next day and try to do it again, because it probably won’t work.
We did sit on the beach for a while and listen to our iPods, which was nice.
After lunch, we went back to our room and just stayed there until dinner, reading and napping. Sometimes, ya just gotta veg in the room.
For dinner we went to a place in Lana’i City called The Lana’i City Grill, which was really good, and much closer to being reasonably priced.
About halfway through, Lis said to me “Uh, oh – did you bring a credit card?” I stared at her – the question didn’t even make sense to me. Then I got it – “Oh, because we’re not at the resort – we can’t charge it to the room…” No, I didn’t have anything but my room key and my camera.
Luckily, the manager is used to this sort of thing – apparently it happens a lot – and let us go back to the hotel and call her with our credit card info. I guess we have pretty thoroughly adjusted to life at the resort 🙂
In the course of our million questions, she let us know that she could paint us a small version of a larger piece that we liked, and she would do it on the spot while we watched. That sold me – an original piece that we watched being painted? I’m in. Lis was nervous but acquiesed, and we are now the proud owners of an Impressionist-style landscape of 
Then Jordanne, the artist, started talking about the originals and how much they would cost us and Mary nodded and looked very interested…so much for taking the original off the table. But it was very cool watching a painting be painted for us, and I think we will probably love it.
We went back to our chairs and hung out on the beach until it was time to get ready for dinner. On the way back we saw a flock of wild turkeys walking along the path and I snapped a couple pics.
Everyone else uses the appropriate fruit bowls for this, but we use the little kids’ fish plates, cuz they’re so damn cute.