More Adventures in Transit

April 2015 Italy England & QM2, Everything, Vacation

We arrived at Newark Tuesday afternoon around 4 and had a lovely 24 hours in the Big Apple. We took the air train and the Path train to Penn Station and walked from there to our hotel, the Distrikt, which is on 40th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues. The walk was about 10 or 15 minutes through very busy rush hour streets, and I was having to conduct a business phone call at the same time. Mary enjoyed this walk very much as it made her feel like a real New Yorker.

We had a free night at The Distrikt, using Choice Privileges points, and they upgraded us to a King Grand View room. The view WAS grand, and the hotel very luxe, with robes chocolates AND chocolate brownies. They also had free hors d’oeuvres in the lounge and I had a few gyoza and edamame while waiting for Mary to come downstairs from the room.

We were only in the room about five minutes after we checked in to the hotel before we took off on foot to meet our friends Jennie and Inga at Scandinavia House for dinner. Mary and I shared Swedish Meatballs, a beet salad, and a burger and we all shared a waffle for dessert. It was fabulous as was hanging with Inga and The Rev (aka Jennie.)

We had tired feet so we took a cab back to the hotel and basically went straight to bed. We each slept about ten straight hours but were still so exhausted when we woke up at 9:30 am. We went downstairs and got breakfast and then I tried to figure out how we could spend the rest of the day lying about until our plane left at 9:30 pm. The hotel was able to give us a late checkout of 1 pm, but because of the Tribeca Film Festival there were no cheap hotels available nearby. Eventually I found that we could book the Holiday Inn Express JFK for $70 plus 15,000 ihg points. That bottomed out our points but I didn’t care.

Our friend Bob met us at the hotel at 1 and we walked down 9th Avenue looking for a place to eat. We decided on a place called Burgers and Cupcakes. I thought the burgers were so-so, but the lemon-poppy seed-blueberry cupcake Mary and I shared was divine, as was Bob’s company.

After lunch we headed back to the hotel where they were holding our luggage and then we walked with Bob to the subway where we said goodbye and Mary and I planned to catch the A train to the Howard Beach JFK station where we would then get a Uber car to the Holiday Inn Express. Bob told us we would need to get the Uptown train, which made perfect sense to us, Brooklyn being downtown, and Queens uptown. I didn’t bother to actually read the directions on my Google maps. We got an Express train, which was great, because before we were even on the train I realized I had a somewhat full bladder, and I had no intention using a subway station restroom, if such a thing even exists.

The situation was feeling more and more urgent and I knew it was about an hour’s ride to the station we needed. I wondered how many more stops we had. We weren’t near a map and I couldn’t get any signal on my phone in order to look at Google maps, but eventually I remembered I had a NY Subway app on my phone. I pulled up the app and found the stop we had just passed, 168th street. This is when I realized, to my dismay, that we were only four stops away from the end of the line, but we were going in the WRONG DIRECTION! The A line actually goes downtown and through Brooklyn before going back up to Queens.

So we got off the train at 181st street in Washington Heights and got on the A going the other direction. Now we had to get back to where we came from and then it would take close to an hour from there to get to the Howard Beach JFK stop. We weren’t in danger of missing our plane, but I was starting the question the wisdom of the hotel room plan. Mainly, though, I thought I might wet my pants on the train. I started writing this blog post in order to focus on other things, but that made me feel nauseous. So I settled in for the entertainment of the NYC subway.

The woman next to me was VERY tired and she kept falling asleep against me. People are so heavy when they are sleeping on you! It wasn’t so pleasant. Across from us was an adorable little boy in a stroller who, at every stop, once the doors were open, would say, “Waa Waa Waa. Doors are closing!” over and over again. He made most of the conscious people on the train smile. Shortly after we boarded the A train heading in the right direction, a woman came on and started loudly preaching to all of us. She had a lovely lilting accent, but eventually the preaching got old. At one point I noticed she had stopped and I looked around to see if she had gotten off the train. But it was only that her phone had rung and she then carried on a very loud phone conversation. Once she was done with her phone call she began to sing hymns, also loudly. This was contrasted by the man sitting across from her who shouted into his phone, “What do you mean what time am I getting there? I work for myself. I own my own business and I don’t have to answer to anybody. What? Yes, I want dinner…. oh, okay, I’ll be home at six.”

Finally we got to Howard Beach JFK and Mary tried to talk to me about something and I shouted at her, “I have to go to the bathroom!” Oh, what sweet relief that was when I finally found the restroom. Next, we attempted to use the Uber app to get a car to the Holiday Inn Express. I found a promotional code so that the ride was free but when I typed in the address where we should be picked up, which I figured out by just taking the address from a building across the street from us – 8 Coleman Square – the app seemed to change it to something Broadway. I was very confused and attempting to figure out whether Coleman Square was also called Broadway, when a young woman came up and said, “Are you trying to get to the airport?”

“No,” I told her. “We are trying to get to the Holiday Inn Express and I can’t figure out this Uber app. I told it to pick us up at 8 Coleman Square but it changed it to Broadway. Is this street Broadway?”

“No,” she said. “I don’t know where Broadway is.”

At this point I realized I could call our driver using the Uber app so I told her I was going to call the driver and thanked her for her help and she went wherever she was going. The driver was a little bit hard to understand – but basically he kept asking me where I was and I kept asking him where he was. Then he said, “Oh wait, I’ll ask the lady. She’s right here.” Then I heard him talking to someone and I heard her say, “Oh, I know who you’re looking for. They want to go to the Holiday Inn Express or something. I know exactly where they are. Take a right and then take a left.” Who says New Yorkers aren’t friendly and helpful?!

The driver got us to the Holiday Inn Express and we had a little less than two hours there before we went down to the lobby and got a shuttle to JFK. I thought it was a bit crazy to rent a hotel room for 2 hours, but Mary says it was money well spent just because she got to lie down on a bed for two hours.

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We made it! Or, here we are in Italy

April 2015 Italy England & QM2, Everything, Vacation
Santa Margherita
View from our balcony

Well, after several plane, train, and car rides, here we are in Santa Margherita! It is beautiful here. We are at the Grand Hotel Miramare for a 5 night stay with Lis’ dad and stepmom, with whom we had lunch today, and with whom we will walk in to town for dinner in about an hour.

Lis is working on some blog posts cataloging some of our transit misadventures, and I don’t have it in me after all of our traveling to do much but post this picture. I will say that one of my favorite things so far, is that we were able to converse a bit with the driver who brought us from the Genoa airport, and who spoke minimal English. This, because we’ve been diligently practicing our Italian, via the Pimsleur CD’s we checked out from the library, and our Duolingo Android app. So Lis was able to thank him for waiting for us (we needed to stop to get Euros), and he said something to the effect of “Oh, at the airport you always have to wait,” and I understood him! I couldn’t really say anything but “Ah, si” in response, but I understood. Later, when the traffic was heavy, I said “molte macchine” (many cars), and he said, “Si, multe, multe” and then talked about how bad the traffic is, especially on the weekends. He interspersed this with the occasional English word, so I was able to follow most of it, I think. Very cool.

Addendum: We just walked in to town (not for dinner, as said above, as dinner won’t be until 7:30pm, now that we’re in Europe), and conducted a transaction in a hardware store, where I asked “How much” in Italian, and, again, understood the answer! So exciting. But, the item I purchased, duct tape, wasn’t duct tape at all, which I didn’t know because I couldn’t read the Italian on the packaging. So, can’t win ’em all, I guess.

(The duct tape is to fix a tear in my AyeGear 23 pocket travel vest, which I still love with all my heart despite the great rent in the back panel)

Addendum #2: Some pics

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On our way to Europe – we hope

April 2015 Italy England & QM2, Everything, Vacation

Today is the start of the longest trip we’ve ever taken together. We were up at 2:30 am so we could get to the airport by 4:00 to catch a flight to Seattle at 5:05 am.  We have a flight to New York at 8:05 am.  However, it is now 5:49 am and we are still sitting on the tarmac, crammed into a tiny Horizon prop plane, with no projected leaving time.  Apparently there is a problem with a lightbulb. Also, someone keeps kicking the back of my seat and the person to my left keeps coughing and is surely going to get me sick.

I was already anxious – just normal pre-vacation anxiety accentuated by the fact that we are going to be gone for almost three weeks.  Now I’m more anxious.  It’s hot on this plane.

Anyway, here is our plan: we hope to arrive in New York at 4:30 this afternoon. We were planning to get breakfast in Seattle during our nice long layover and also get some lunch to carry on the plane.  Now we may be subsisting today on Kind bars and Trident gum.

In New York we are spending the night at the Distrikt Hotel near Times Square. We booked this hotel for free using Choice Privileges points.

Wednesday evening we fly Virgin Atlantic to Heathrow and when we arrive in London on Thursday we have a car scheduled to take us to Gatwick where we will spend the night at the Sofitel.

Friday morning we fly to Genoa, Italy where a car will meet us and take us to Santa Margherita where we will meet my father and stepmother.  We will spend five days in Santa Margherita with my Dad and Iris and then fly back to London where we will stay four nights at the Staybridge Suites Vauxhall. I am particularly excited about this hotel because they have a hotel labradoodle puppy named Waggers who gets excellent reviews on TripAdvisor for his friendliness.

Then on Sunday, May 3rd we board Cunard’s Queen Mary where we will spend seven nights, arriving in Brooklyn on Mother’s Day.  That evening we will fly home on Jet Blue.

At the moment we are still on the tarmac in Portland. We are told they are only waiting on paperwork now. I am so hungry.

Well, this is travel. Sometimes getting to where you’re going is a real pain in the ass.

Signing off at 6:12 am. Still on the tarmac.

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Why We Use a Travel Agent

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We are getting ready for a big trip to Europe, coming up in about a month, and we are VERY excited.  As we were planning this trip I got it into my head that I didn’t want to fly both ways.  I wanted to either go or come back on a cruise ship.  This was definitely possible – in fact we could have gotten there both ways on a ship for less than the cost of Premium Economy air if we could afford to take 2 months off.  But alas, we’re not retired yet.

Most transatlantic flights are more expensive one-way than round-trip and this was one of the first barriers in my planning.  We were quite happy with Virgin Atlantic’s Premium Economy but their one-way pricing was prohibitive.  Eventually I found that Norwegian Air had Premium Economy without prohibitive one-way pricing and I figured we could give them a try and could thus afford to come back to the U.S. on Cunard’s Queen Mary.

At this point, I called our travel agent extraordinaire, Sandra.  I should have called her sooner.  She booked us the inside stateroom we requested at a cost of $1238 per person. Because we were using Sandra and her travel agency, Plaza Travel, we also got $200 cruise credit and prepaid gratuities, things we would not have gotten if we had booked directly through Cunard.  But next Sandra asked if we wanted her to arrange air through Cunard, something I had never even thought of.  I said, “Sure, let’s see what they can do.”  Sandra is very patient and went back and forth with me and Cunard with various pricing options, but what we ultimately settled on was Premium Economy on Virgin Atlantic from New York to Heathrow for $782.61 per person.  This is amazing.  The lowest price for the same flight on Virgin Atlantic’s website was over $2200 per person!  Needless to say we booked it.  Once we had the flight and the cruise booked, the price to fly there Premium Economy and come back on the Queen Mary was only about $400 more total than flying Premium Economy both ways.

Now fast forward four months to February.  We had paid for our cruise and air in full when I saw an ad in the New York Times for Cunard’s 175th anniversary.  The prices they were quoting for our cruise were $999 per person for the lowest category stateroom rather than the $1238 per person we had paid.  I sent Sandra an email to ask if she could get us that price.  Even if they took away the gratuities and cruise credit, we would save money.  Sandra emailed back that she would see what she could do and within an hour she called.  “I’m on the phone with Cunard,” she said.  “They’re saying they can’t give you that price because you’ve paid in full, but I told them that’s not fair and they have to do something for you, so they’re offering to upgrade you to a balcony and throw in an additional $100 per person cruise credit.  Would that be okay?”

Would that be okay????  We LOVE a balcony.  We were trying to save $100 or so and instead Sandra got us upgraded to a room with a view that sells for $1598 per person AND we now have $400 of free play money once we get on board.  And Sandra is ALWAYS doing things like that for us.  That’s why we use a travel agent.

Now I will say we don’t use Sandra for everything.  If we want to get the least expensive room at the Motel 6 we don’t waste Sandra’s time.  For most of the rest of this trip we are using hotel points and airline miles to get us to and from Portland and New York and to stay in hotels in New York and London, and I didn’t involve Sandra in any of this.  But when we want to stay somewhere nice, Sandra never fails to make our trip very very special. Thank you, Sandra!

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Turtle, octopus, and goats

Everything, October 2014 Maui, Vacation

Yesterday we went snorkeling at Maluaka beach, which is another of our favorites. But, we were too nervous to enjoy it, for different reasons, both stemming from the fact that the swells were moderate. What made me nervous is that I didn’t want to be directly over the coral because I was afraid of being slammed in to it on a downdraft (probably not the right word). What made Lis nervous is that the swells kicked up sand and made the water murky, which are the conditions that are more conducive to shark attacks. Plus this beach is the site of a few shark attacks over the last several years, plus we learned that Makena Landing, just up the coast, is home to some reef sharks (no idea if these are the same sharks that did the attacking – probably not, as their presence seems to be a draw for divers). So I kept wanting to go farther out to avoid the coral, and Lis kept wanting to stay close in to avoid the sharks. Too bad, because on good days we’ve had some amazing snorkeling here. Ah, well.

It was a beautiful day, though, and standing in the water looking at the sea and other islands, I got the idea to do a picnic lunch at one of the easily accessible Kihei beaches so Mom could experience it, too. So we grabbed some burgers at Stewart’s Burgers, then sat at a picnic table at Kalama Beach Park and watched some surfers. It was a bit windy, but otherwise very pleasant, and the burgers were good.

After lunch we went back to the condo to rest up for the evening’s activity, which was the hula show in the lounge at the Four Seasons, which we try to get to whenever we’re on Maui. It is a very low key affair – just a single, modestly attired hula dancer, accompanied by a couple guys on guitar. They used to include a torch lighting ceremony as part of the hula show, but now it takes place separately, with even less fanfare than the hula show. I miss it being more featured.

We sat in the lounge and ordered pupus and drinks and enjoyed the show and the open air lounge. When the band took their first break, we headed home. It felt like we had been out late, but when we looked at the clock, it was only 7:30pm! We didn’t last much longer than that – I think we were all in bed by 10.

This morning we were all up early, and Lis and I hit the snorkel beach early. We went back to Ulua beach this time, as we figured we’d be less likely to freak out about sharks there. The surf was a little lower, so visibility was good, and soon after entering the water, Lis spotted an octopus. In getting my attention so she could show it to me, she lost sight of it. But soon thereafter, I spotted it, too. He looked just like the surrounding coral when he was on it. Then he would take off and swim, turning a deep reddish-purple. Then he would land on some coral and immediately assume the color and texture of his surroundings. Once I saw a YouTube video showing an octopus doing this and wondered if it was doctored, it was so unreal.

Then our sea turtle came by again, and he was moving slowly enough that we were able to swim with him for a long time – really one of the best things on earth, swimming (at a respectful distance, of course) with a sea turtle. Eventually, though, he started heading out to sea, and we decided we’d best not go with him, so we headed back to the coral and the fishies.

We’d noticed before, and noticed again today, that there were a ton of what seemed to be baby fish at this reef. At Ulua beach there is often a person from a local society whose aim is to protect the reefs, and we asked her about it. She said yes, there are a lot of juvenile fish here. (She also said the reef is having a small bleaching problem due to El Nino (or maybe La Nina? I forget), but it should bounce back when (if?) the weather goes back to normal.) When we were de-sanding at the beach’s showers, another woman there said that the vast numbers of juvenile butterfly fish (literally hundreds of them) only happens every 15 years. Who knows if this is true, but it’s a fun story and we decided to believe it.

For lunch today we went to Pita Paradise in Wailea. The owner is Greek/Sicilian, and a fisherman who in the morning personally catches the fish served that day in the restaurant. So there are Greek and Sicilian family recipes and incredibly fresh fish. It was super good and not too expensive – we might go back.

After lunch we went upcountry. We wanted to check out the Surfing Goat Dairy, and we wanted to check out some of the art galleries in Makawao, particularly the Jordanne Gallery, as we had bought some of the artist’s work on a previous trip to Maui and thought it would be fun to check in with her.

It was a pleasant drive up the mountain, and we went to the goat farm first. Lis had her heart set on taking the every-half-hour tour of the farm, where they let you pet goats and taste cheeses. Alas, they only do the tour if at least 2 people sign up, and no one had, and neither Mom nor I could be talked in to traipsing around a farm in the heat of the day (it was about 2pm and about 85 degrees). Poor Lis! She did manage to talk one of the guys there in to a mini tour where he took her over to a goat pen and she petted a goat. Mom and I ate passion fruit gelato in the shade while we waited.

Then on to Makawao, which is a cute little town. Our artist’s gallery was closed, though – we could only peer through the glass at some of her artwork. Plus the general store no longer had the vegan pineapple upside down cake we’ve gotten there before. We went home through Pa’ia, with the intention of stopping at Pa’ia Gelato – but traffic was jammed and we couldn’t find parking. All in all, then, except for the drive itself, which was scenic, upcountry was a bit of a bust.

We had leftovers from lunch, and some wine in the fridge, which made for a lovely dinner on the lanai. And so another great day in Maui comes to an end.

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Ulua Beach and Hawaiian Shave Ice

Everything, October 2014 Maui, Vacation

On Tuesday Lis and my mom and I arrived on Maui. Our friend Jane was supposed to be coming, too, but she had a bunch of stuff come up at the last minute and had to cancel. This made us all very sad, but it was still exciting to be headed to Hawai’i (Miss you, Jane!).

Mom was last in Hawai’i in 1972, and has been wanting to come back since then, so Lis and I are pleased to be taking her. She (Mom) is a little bit trepidatious (word?) about Maui, because when she was here before it was stormy and miserable, but it’s the island we’re most familiar with, so we thought it would be best to come here so we’d have a better idea of how things are laid out and which things might be more taxing, as Mom doesn’t get around as well as she used to. (Aside: she does have a walker, which I made her get and which she hates, and which we were going to make her bring so she’d have more options. But she sneakily refrained from reminding me about it when I picked her up, and I didn’t remember it until we were at the airport and it was too late, and she had a slight but unmistakably triumphant smile. So, Mom 1, Lis & Mary 0.)

The flight was pleasant, and soon enough we were on the ground in Maui. We were at the back of the plane, and as we were waiting to get off, Lis said “What’s that smell?” It was Maui – the doors were open and all the scents of all the flowers were wafting in. Gotta love it.

We are staying in a two bedroom condo in the Grand Champions in Wailea. It’s comfortable and well laid out, and includes all the local guides that you would expect, and also an English-Hawaiian dictionary, which is fun. Mom and I have been looking up all the Hawaiian place names. For instance – kama’ole means ‘childless’ or ‘barren’, and kaiwahine literally means ‘sea’ (kai) ‘woman’ (wahine) but idiomatically means a feminine or gentle sea. Gotta love that, too 🙂

Yesterday I got up early and came and sat on the lanai and listened to all the birds (which is what I’m doing right now, too), and also all the power mowers and leaf blowers from the adjacent tennis courts and golf course. But on the whole, the birds outnumber the grounds crew, so it is mostly great. Then we all got up and had some breakfast, and then Lis and I went snorkeling while Mom stayed in and caught up on the news.

We went to Ulua beach, which is my favorite. But the surf was up a little – nothing scary, but enough to stir up the sand and make for somewhat poor visibility. Still, it’s just so great to be in the water, and we did see lots of fish. I thought some of the coral looked white and wondered if it was sick, but when I Googled it back at the condo nothing came up, so I’ll hope that all is well.

We snorkeled for about an hour or so, and then decided to head back in. As we were heading back to shore, a huge male sea turtle came lazily by in the other direction. He swam directly under us, I’d say about 5 feet below. And, because of the limited visibility, we didn’t see him coming – it was normal, normal, then BOOM! sea turtle. So exciting! We followed him for a bit, then headed in. I’ve decided to think that having a sea turtle materialized before your very eyes on your first snorkel is a good sign.

Back at the condo, we got dressed and headed out for lunch. The previous evening, we had eaten at the Maui Coast Hotel’s Kama’ole Poolside Cafe and Bar. We chose this because Lis had called one of our favorite restaurants, Cafe O’Lai, and asked if they had a happy hour. They said no, but their sister restaurant at the hotel pool did. It was nice to be all tropical and poolside, plus the food was affordable and excellent – we definitely recommend it.

For lunch, we went to Maui Tacos in Kihei, which we read about in one of the condo guides. It was cheap but good, and in the same strip mall as Snorkel Bob’s, where I wanted to pick up some sun protection shorts if they had any (I forgot mine at home, dangit!), and as Hawaiian Moons Natural Foods, where we wanted to get some ezekial bread and almond butter. The natural foods store trip was a success, but I struck out at Snorkel Bob’s, so still on my quest for shorts.

Then we went off in search of Hawaiian Shave Ice. We had never tried this before, or even been tempted to, but our friend Louise (hey, Louise!) came back from a recent trip to Maui raving about it, so we decided we better try it. Lis’ research said the best shave ice was Ululani’s, so off we went. Lis and I each got a micro shave ice (which was still huge), with optional ice cream at the bottom – Lis chose coconut, I chose macadamia. Mom was dubious and just sampled ours. Lis LOVED her shave ice and can’t wait to go back. I liked mine, and Mom remained dubious.

Ululani’s is next to a bakery, which is next to an ABC store – trifecta! We got some banana bread at the bakery and some booze at the ABC store, and then, with our basic food groups covered, headed back to the condo, where Lis took a nap and Mom and I watched game 7. I was disappointed that KC couldn’t pull it out (sorry, Rosemary!), but it was fun watching a historic pitching performance.

For dinner we went to happy hour at Manoli’s Pizza in Wailea, which was also affordable and good. So far, we are doing very well with our cheap happy hours ways! We watched the end of the game there, which was fun, except for the one sad lady in the KC shirt, sitting right behind the cheering ladies in SF shirts. But soon after the game ended, they were all chatting and laughing together – so there was a happy ending after all.

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Four Seasons Scottsdale

Everything, July 2013 Scottsdale, Vacation

For years, we’ve had this plan – go to Scottsdale in the summer when it’s a zillion degrees, and get cheap rates at the Four Seasons. Then, just hole up in the air-conditioned resort. Last year, we finally did it, and it was great. And, we found that we didn’t even need to hole up all that much – the Four Seasons provides lots of shade and misters, so it’s quite comfortable to be outside even in the heat of the day. And the desert landscaping is beautiful and the food is great (though spendy) – our plan was a rousing success. We did wonder, though, if it would have been as successful if it had been more scorching hot. Only the first day or two was in the 100’s – the rest of the days were in the 90’s, and one day it only got up to about 87. What would it be like on those 112 degree days we’ve heard tell of?

This year, we were able to find out. As we flew in late on Saturday afternoon, the pilot announced that the temperature in Phoenix was 110 degrees. It was definitely hot, but as we were mostly moving from air-conditioned airport to air-conditioned rental car center to air-conditioned car, we were pretty comfortable. We stopped at a mall on the way to Scottsdale to get something to eat and a few things at a supermarket, but by then it was evening and, while definitely hot, there was no sun beating down from directly over head. (I guess being farther south affects this, too – by 7:30 pm it was full-on dusk – don’t usually see that in Portland until around 9pm.) We got to the hotel around 8pm and were comfortable ensconsed in our room by 8:30.

Sandra, our travel agent extraordinaire, had arranged for us to have a DYI sangria kit and chips and salsa awaiting for us on arrival, and it was all laid out in the room. It was a great little spread – they really pay attention to details here! But we weren’t hungry and decided to save it for later. We called down to the front desk and asked for a refrigerator for the room, which the poor maintenance guy had to lug up to us on his shoulder (we’re on the second floor of a building on a hill, so he had to climb lots of steps, plus it was still over 100 degrees out) – big tip for him! We plugged in the fridge and put away our sangria fixin’s for later.

So now to the heat part. Sunday and Monday were both 110-plus degree days, and we spent the bulk of both of them outside: meals on covered patios with misters going, and several hours of each day in a cabana by the pool. Both days were awesome, and the only time I felt really hot was in the walk from our room (which is at the edge of the property) to or from the lobby/restaurant area. But even then, the desert landscape is so gorgeous and so full of little critters (birds, lizards, even little bunnies) that you don’t care (or we don’t, anyway). It’s just so nice – I love it here so much that sometimes I even get a bit teary!

Sometimes I start to feel guilty about the misters, and the water being used. But, unlike other desert resorts, there isn’t much greenery here that requires watering – the vast majority of the landscaping is desert plants. So I figure they are probably using less water than comperable properties, and I’ve decided that that is going to be good enough for me 🙂

The pool area has a large upper pool, with a lower adult-only pool and a separate kids’ wading pool. I prefer the larger all-access pool to the smaller adult-only pool; the kids in the all-skate pool can be fun, while there are sometimes gross PDA’s in the adult pool. The best thing about the pool area is that it is ringed with cabanas. These are free of charge (except, I guess, the couple three that are really big and have ceiling fans and TV’s in them – thankfully, no one is ever watching the TV’s, or if they are, you can’t hear them) and even on Saturday, when the resort was at 80% occupancy, we were able to find one.

I’m not usually much of a hang-out-at-the-pool vacationer, but I really like hanging out at this pool. I think maybe it’s the cabana – makes it feel a bit like being in a tent; I can pretend I’m camping. Because it’s so hot, we have to get in the pool about every 20 minutes or so, but that is all it takes to be perfectly comfortable.

The staff at the pool are very attentive (more so at the upper pool – the lower adult pool I think is a little more out of the way and they don’t seem to make as many trips there) and regularly bring around complementary things like Otter pops and corn nuts. I feel for them, having to work in this heat, but there are misters all around the pool so hopefully they benefit from these, too.

When we arrived on Sunday afternoon, the attendant was taking Otter pops around, but stopped to help us get set up in a cabana with fresh towels and ice water. In so doing, of course, she had to set her bucket of Otter pops down, and they weren’t going to be long for this world in the heat, so Lis finished taking them around while the attendant helped us. The other patrons were amused by this, and the attendant was bemused by this. She said to me “I’ve never had anyone do that before”, but I couldn’t tell if she meant this in a “that’s so nice” way or in a “maybe she needs her medication adjusted” way.

Last night after our pool day, we came back to the room and had room service out on the balcony. We split a club sandwich and a salad, and broke out our sangria mix, and even though it was still over 100 degrees, we were in the shade and there was a breeze and the sun was going down and the sky was purple and the hills were pink-ish and it was awesome. No misters on the balcony, either, but still perfectly comfortable – I’m a little afraid that once we get back home I’m going to be cold for the rest of the summer, but Lis says she doesn’t think that will happen.

As we sat on the balcony sipping our Sangria, I heard a soft rustle and looked down just in time to see a bobcat walk by right below our balcony. Have I mentioned that I love it here?

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Manzanita for our anniversary

Everything

It’s our 14th anniversary (yay!) and we are at a lovely beach house in Manzanita, OR. Mostly lazy lying about and reading, or beach walks, so not much to say. But, I wanted to remember the two adorable birds that we saw out the window here, that I don’t see out my window at home.

First, an American Pipit. This was a cute little guy I heard singing in the shrubbery just outside the window. I located him and then watched him through the beach house binoculars. He would make two or three little chirps, and then throw his head back and his mouth open and do an extended trill, which vibrated his whole throat. It looked like the incarnation of joy to me. One of the online bird sites I saw when looking for a link described him as drab. Hmmph! The very idea!

Then I saw a White Crowned Sparrow. I was sitting on the window seat and he came walking down the path directly outside the window, like 2 feet from me. He looked just like an ordinary house sparrow but with a crazy grey-and-white-striped hat.

So, as long as I’m listing things, I’ll mention the 2 places we’ve eaten so far that we thought were really great:

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Mary's 50th Birthday

Everything

Last Saturday was my 50th birthday – huzzah!! We have a birthday trip scheduled for mid-January (The Lodge at Whitefish Lake – probably won’t blog that one as I intend to be completely lazy), but I didn’t want to just ignore my actual birthday, so we had a plan.

A while back I had seen an ad that Denny’s offers a free Grand Slam breakfast on your birthday. Lis said “Neat” in a totally unenthused manner – I knew her plan was to just agree and expect me to forget all about it. An effective plan under normal circumstances, but in this case I actually put it on the calendar, so we seemed good to go. Luckily for Lis, even though Denny’s was on the calendar, her humor-me-and-hope-I-forget plan still worked, because I forgot to actually check out the details until the evening before my birthday. Turns out you have to sign up for their dang rewards program (back in the day, you could just show up on your birthday and show them your driver’s license), and even though I did so, I didn’t receive the acknowlegement until 2 days later (stupid Denny’s). After I signed up but failed to receive anything in response, Lis very sweetly said “We can still go to Denny’s if you want, but what if we go downtown to the Heathman for brunch instead?” Diabolically effective, that girl is.

So we went to the Heathman for their brunch, which was quite delicious, and which put us in prime position for part 2 of our plan, a trip to the Portland Art Museum. The current exhibition is called “The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greece,” a collection of sculpture, vessels and jewelery on loan from the British Museum’s collection of Greek and Roman art, with a focus on the nude athletic form so popular among the Greeks (and, really, among us all – am I right, people?)

We had been seeing the posters for this show around town, and kept planning to go and not making it. The show closes in early January, so we were worried we wouldn’t get there, but then I said “Let’s go on my birthday,” and so it was. (Lis did make a couple unsuccessful efforts to reschedule to the Friday preceding, but I wouldn’t let her. It can be hard for my travel planner extraordinaire girlfriend to just let go and let me do my own planning ordinaire – she is always coming up with improvements and refinements. I finally had to make her just stop and let things play out as they would – it was difficult for her, but she did it – brave sweetie!!)

In the first room of the exhibit there was a lifesize marble statue of a completely nude young male athlete. A little girl of about 11 had her phone up to take a picture, and I was very impressed that someone that young was enjoying an art show enough to take pictures, until I wandered close enough to see that she had zoomed completely in on the peepee and was frantically snapping away. I’ll bet hordes of 11 year old girls are still shrieking and giggling over those pictures.

I really enjoy sculpture, and so really enjoyed this show. Lis said she got a little bored after a while, especially since there was less sculpture and more vessels and vases than she had been expecting. Still, it’s always fun to go to the art museum. While we were there we checked out the modern art section (hit and miss, in my opinion – some stuff is interesting, some just weird and/or boring) and an exhibition of black and white photography of the human form that was running in concert with the “Body Beautiful” exhibit. We both really liked the photography – Lis said she would have been happy to just do the photography exhibit.

Originally this was the extent of my birthday plan – we figured we would just go out to dinner after the museum. But after the shooting at Clackamas Town Center (an aside – I cannot believe all the shootings over the last month – CRAZY and tragic and sad), Lis saw on Twitter that Crystal Bowersox was going to do a benefit concert for the victims’ families at Duke’s Country Bar. For the uninitiated, Crystal Bowersox was a finalist on American Idol the only year we watched it, the year that Ellen Degeneres was a judge (we are such lesbians). We knew that she (Crystal, not Ellen) had moved to Portland, and were interested to see her and also to help the families, so we bought tickets.

Lis was very worried that we wouldn’t get a seat, and wanted to get there at 3pm, which is when she had read the music started. I knew that Crystal would be the headliner and didn’t want to be there for 5 hours (the benefit ended at 8pm). I really had to work to get my way on this one, and then had to work harder still to get Lis to stop fretting about it, but eventually she gave in to my refrain of “we’ll get in or we won’t, and either way we donated to a good cause” and agreed to do it my way and see what happened.

So we went home and fed the cats and rested for a bit, and then headed out to Duke’s Country Bar (SE Division and 140th) around 5:30pm.

When we arrived, the parking lot was full to overflowing (with more pickup trucks than I have seen in one place since I left Idaho – Duke’s Country Bar made me feel very nostalgic) and we figured we wouldn’t get in, but we thought we’d take a pass through the lot and the surrounding streets just in case, and ended up finding a spot on a side street a couple blocks away. Then we showed our tickets at the door and were asked to show ID, which I found totally delightful, even though it looked like it was a matter-of-course thing that they were doing to everybody. Still, I can now say that I was carded on my 50th birthday – I was liking this Duke’s Country Bar more and more!

Once inside, the place was a total madhouse, and I wondered again whether we would be able to stay, as there was no place to sit. After a couple circuits of the bar (which is very large, with several rooms plus a dance floor and a stage), we found a tall table in a back room at which we could stand. This was progress – at least we’d have a place to put food – but I wasn’t sure I wanted to stand for a couple hours. There were about 5 booths along one wall, most of which contained 1 couple and 2 extra seats, which I regarded covetously and even toyed with the idea of seeing if anyone would be willing to let us join them. Just then Lis noticed that one of the couples looked like they were getting ready to leave – she went over to claim their booth, and DID end up sitting with the guy while he waited for his wife to come back from the bathroom. I couldn’t get myself to join their awkward little tete a tete, and let Lis sit there holding our spot until they left (it WAS my birthday, after all…).

After taking possession of our booth, I said “maybe we should ask someone to join us” (the sting of my previous booth longing was still strong). Lis said “Sure, why don’t you ask those two lesbians there.” I saw who she was indicating, and also at that moment noticed that there was a LOT of family at Duke’s Country Bar – hmmm, said I to myself.

The two women we invited were very happy to join us, and we chatted pretty comfortably during our time together, which was good as they didn’t seem terribly outgoing and we often aren’t either. I asked if they had been here before and they said “Never.” “You just came out for Crystal Bowersox, then?” “Yes.” So, apparently Ms. Bowersox has a sizable lesbo following – who knew?

It was very busy, and it took us two hours to get our food, primarily because our very cute, very friendly, very trying-really-hard waitress was also very incompetent – we kept having to be rescued by another waitress who would wander by and notice that we still didn’t have any food, or any drink, or the wrong food, etc. But we did eventually eat, and the food was pretty good.

There were several other country acts preceding Crystal Bowersox, which we missed while we were eating but didn’t really care about anyway. Crystal was just coming on as we were finishing up, but we hadn’t gotten our check yet. We were in the back room, where we couldn’t see the stage. Our rescue waitress came along and said “Go ahead and go up front – you can settle up later, I’ll find you.” She was so awesome – we gave her a big tip (we gave our actual waitress a tip, too, as she was trying really hard and we are softies).

Note from Lis: one of my favorite parts of the evening was as we were sitting, starving, at the table waiting for our food, or water, or… anything, and listening to the music from the stage two rooms away. We had all just disclosed that none of us really knew country music. Then a woman started singing and Mary said, “Is that so and so?” (one of the acts opening the show) to which one of our new friends replied, “No, that’s Lady Antebellum.” To which I replied, “See, I told you. We REALLY don’t know country music.”

The show was short, which was fine as we were standing on the dance floor in front of the stage, rather than sitting. And it was good – Crystal Bowersox has a good voice and a great range, from soft to belting and back again. She did some of her own material, including a couple duets with her husband, Brian Somebody, who came up on stage and bantered weirdly with her for a while, and an excellent cover of a Jewell song and a truly awesome version of ‘Me and Bobby McGee’ to close the show. It was really great – I’m glad we went.

As we were making our way out of the bar, suddenly the national anthem started playing and everyone stopped what they were doing and faced the giant flag behind the stage. Lis whispered to me, “Why are we doing this?” I said, “I don’t know, because we’re at Duke’s Country Bar?” But we both stood at attention like good girls – our mamas raised us up right!

And then it was home and to bed with a totally awesome 50th birthday in the books 🙂

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Damn you, Bud Light field goal kick promotion

Everything, November 2012 Europe, Vacation

Yesterday (I think – my days are a little mixed up now) we woke up in a Holiday Inn Express in Hollywood, having flown in to LA the day before. Our flight to London wasn’t until 7pm, and so we were going to do a little sight seeing with Sandra, our travel agent extraordinaire and now our tour guide extraordinaire, as she lives in LA and had picked us up at the airport and was ferrying us around and showing us the sights (we love Sandra!).

We checked out of the motel around 11:30 am, but left Sandra’s car at the motel because we were only a few blocks from the Walk of Fame and Grauman’s Chinese Theater – we headed out on foot. Along the way, we came upon a Bud Light promotion – they had set up this big fake football field with fake goal posts, and people were lining up to attempt to kick a field goal. After some deliberation, we decided to line up, too – it looked like fun 🙂

Now, some of you may know that about a year ago I had a pretty severe sprain of my left ankle, and even though it’s basically healed up now, it’s still somewhat weak and so I still wear a brace on it. You’d think that would have given me pause, no? But no – I approached the football, planted my left foot, started the kick attempt, and then my plant foot buckled and I was on my arse, with a brand new ankle sprain to show for my efforts (Sandra also took a pretty good picture of me right before my ankle buckled, so I have that to show for my efforts, too, which is some comfort but not a lot). And I banged up my right thumb and palm – apparently that’s where I caught myself.

DANG!! I was very, very bummed, as was my girl. We were both like “What were we thinking?” But, it was a new sprain, not a re-injury of the old one, and it didn’t seem that bad, though it did leave me hobbling. Lis ran and got me some ice, and I sat and iced my ankle while Lis and Sandra checked out the Walk of Fame.

When they came back, I tried out my foot, and while the going was slow, I was also able to limp along the Walk of Fame a bit, too, which was fun.

Lis and Sandra told me that Lis had picked up a new boyfriend their first time out, and I was able to see Lis in action again – there were a bunch of young men trying to hand out “free” hip hop CD’s (with tip fairly adamantly expected), and they kept singling Lis out with all sorts of attention and sweet talk – she was very, very popular! We figured it was the fetching fanny pack she was sporting. Sandra also got her fair share of attention, but they left the large gimpy lady alone.

After our tour of the stars, we got lunch and then Sandra took us to the airport. Being an awesome travel agent, she said “You should ask for a wheelchair when you check in.” Which I never would have thought of, but which was a Godsend – I would have had real trouble with all the walking around 2 such large airports.

It was actually kind of awesome to be wheeled through the airports, plus when you are getting wheelchair assistance you don’t have to wait in any lines! They took us right to the front of the security line at LAX and and the customs line in Heathrow. Of course, I did have to have the full pat down in security (and I do mean FULL – I feel like she should have at least bought me dinner first…)

The flight was a 10 hour red eye, and I can’t sleep on planes, so I was up for the whole flight, but it wasn’t bad at all. My sweetie had gotten us Premium Economy seats, and they were very comfortable, plus Virgin Atlantic has a lot of in-flight movies to choose from. I watched Brave and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen – very much enjoyed them both. I started to watch The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, but the inflight movie screens could be a little hard to see (I think because of bad angles..??), so I stopped – figured I should wait until I could really see it, as it looked like the on-location India shots were probably quite beautiful.

They fed us both dinner and breakfast, which were all right, though I liked the food in Alaska first class better. Lis is lactose intolerant and so had to pre-order a special diet. She was going to do the vegan meal, but then she read somewhere that the best special meal is usually the kosher one, so she ordered that. Sadly, both her kosher meals were stale and nasty. We decided that we feel very sorry for our observant Jewish friends if this is what they have to deal with when traveling 🙁

In London Lis’s former host parent Ron picked us up at the airport and drove us to the Holiday Inn in Reading, where I am now writing this post, while Lis is procuring SIM cards for the phones and now swimming. We are both determined to stay up – as I write, it is 5pm London time, so 9am West Coast time, so we have been up for about 24 hours (though Lis did get about an hours sleep on the plane, and I took a tiny little 15 minute cat nap when Lis did her phone shopping). Our hope is that if we don’t nap, and then go to bed early, we’ll be on a decent schedule tomorrow.

Well, I think that’s all for now – cheerio, as we say in England 🙂

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