North Shore

On Monday we hit the highway and drove around the island - or at least as far as one can drive around the island. North out of Honolulu through kind of wet and blustery weather, to the North Shore, past Sunset Beach where the sun was shining, and to Waimea Valley. Full disclosure: I don't admit this lightly, but before we got to Waimea Valley, we stopped for some "loco moco" at a little hole-in-the-wall joint in a small strip mall. What, you might ask... is...?? You probably don't want to know but I will tell you - in this case, it was rice, scrambled eggs, and a grilled hamburger steak covered in greasy, thick, brown, horrifyingly delicious gravy. Sometimes loco moco has everything from Spam to bacon to macaroni salad so ours was a relatively simple version and we could not stop eating from the giant trough we ordered.

Don't judge me.

Once we'd slurped up all the gravy we could handle, we made our way to the botanical gardens at Waimea Valley and on to the falls at the end of the path; the water was unfortunately quite muddy with all the recent rain, but it was a pleasant walk anyway.

Diamondhead

Being three hours ahead of Pacific time is awesome. It means you get up early even though it's "late" back home. We made breakfast (full kitchen in our swanky room) and were out by 8:15 and on our way to what ended up being a 6+ mile walk around Diamondhead. Our walk started along Waikiki, past the banyan tree, along the beach, views of the mountain, up the highway, through the neighborhoods with their flowering gardens, and back down to the beach.

We stopped near the end for some iced coffee and a snack, watched some beach volleyball while we ate, and then went back to the hotel for some relaxing by the hotel pool. Unfortunately, the pool was crawling with little kids (there were probably 4 but it seemed like 40). It had also started to rain lightly but there were lovely little furnished, covered cabana areas on the pool deck and we stretched out on a long couch and read for a while before the immense need to nap took over. We finally got up when the rain started dripping through the canvas cover into the cabana, and decided to conclude the nap in our room. The evening was spent eating bad (but perfectly delicious) happy-hour-tourist food, doing a little shopping (Gary didn't own any flip-flops. Who comes to Hawaii without flip-flops??) and then had another early night.

Aloha Waikiki

Once again, a place I never thought I'd find myself, but when a handsome gentleman invites you to Hawaii, one does not quibble about specific locations. I've been to Maui a few times, Kauai a few times, I've been to the Big Island, and even to Molokai, but I hadn't been to Oahu since I was 12 years old and came here with my parents. Oahu and certainly Honolulu never held much interest for me, but here we are having a fantastic time.

That's right, "we." Gary (Sedona --> Vegas --> Myrtle Beach --> Birmingham) and I now find ourselves on Waikiki Beach on a true vacation. No working during the day in hotel rooms, no looking wistfully out the windows in the glare of computer screens, this week is pure fun and sun, relaxing and recreation. We arrived on Saturday, rented a car, and drove to a Hilton hotel which was about a block from the beach; lovely room, not much of a view, so we unpacked and headed out to explore. Waikiki is full of shops and cafes catering to typical tourists and somewhat specifically, Japanese visitors. There was a P.F. Chang's right across the street and a Cheesecake Factory nearby along with a lot of very high-end clothing stores. Since we didn't want or need any jalapeno poppers or Prada purses, we ended up getting some Vietnamese fast-food, taking it out to the beach, and plopping ourselves in the sand. That constituted our first dinner and the evening's entertainment. It couldn't have been a nicer day.

SXSE

For reasons I'm not going to go into but which aren't a huge mystery, I find myself in the Deep South. Birmingham, Alabama, to be precise. This is not a place I thought I'd ever find myself on purpose, yet here I am. I blame the vortex.

Landed on Wednesday the 5th, went out to dinner in a hipster area which could have been in Portland or Seattle or Brooklyn. Well, maybe not Brooklyn, but when I asked where the cupcake bakery was, since there had to be a cupcake bakery nearby, my date for the evening pointed down the street. On Thursday, we drove to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The Atlantic is beautiful, there's no doubt about that, but Myrtle beach is a town full of strip malls and miniature golf. Seriously, I have never seen so many miniature golf courses in proximity to one another. The 7-hour drive from Birmingham to Myrtle Beach was as nondescript as could be (but the company was delightful). I wish I'd counted the number of Waffle Houses on the way; I'm guessing 25 but it could have been 100.

Myrtle Beach

Friday was spent working all day in a very nice hotel room with a view of the white sand and surf through the sliding door, but on Saturday there was a long and lovely walk on the beach. The spring breakers hadn't yet arrived in full force and the water was still way too chilly for swimming - I'm assuming... I didn't actually dip a toe in, but only a brave few kids were paddling in the surf and digging in the sand while plenty of adults were out sunning themselves. We went to dinner at a restaurant called Vintage 12 to celebrate a variety of things (vacations, the vortex...) and had a lovely meal.

crab cakes

rib eye

grunt fish (huh?) on a bed of grits (who knew I'd like grits?)

bread pudding with chocolate, caramel sauce, and ice cream

Sunday it rained relentlessly which totally foiled my plan to have a few cocktails and hit the mini-links.

Long stretch of Myrtle Beach, and a guest appearance by someone from a previous post.
http://www.placestogo-manomi.blogspot.com/2013/12/seeking-vortex.html

So that was all a couple weeks ago.

I've spent this week in the suburbs of Birmingham. I don't think we actually made it into Birmingham proper (except for a on a little driving tour) but the suburbs - Vestavia, Mountain Brook, Hoover, and other surrounding neighborhoods were a lot less... je nais sais quoi (but whatever it was, it wasn't good) than I expected. In fact, aside from the proliferation of southeastern strip malls, the neighborhoods were perfectly nice. There was another long walk through a very cool stream-side woodland park (complete with resident owls) which ended with a stroll through an extremely swanky neighborhood which showcased some spectacular mid-century architecture, along with cute shops and nice restaurants a-plenty. So yeah, Birmingham.

 a trail in Jemison Park

Chez Lulu

cinnamon rolls from the Continental Bakery; I think they're deep fried; look out cronuts.

I liked the white-modern decor at Flip Burger

One of my new friends in Alabama; he ordered the Krispy Kreme milkshake (right);
it was dreadful.
The vanilla with Whoppers (left) was much better.

Seriously, I'm not at Liberty to Say

fake Eiffel Tower at Paris Las Vegas Hotel 

Photo courtesy of Gary

I went back to Vegas to give the vortex another chance to come through for me; this time, it totally did.

Chihully ceiling at the Bellagio

Photo courtesy of Gary

It's Staying in Vegas So Don't Even Ask

A strict code of silence set by the City of Las Vegas keeps me from elaborating on the events of the last few days. Let's just say, the vortex giveth, and the vortex taketh away.

This one is an inside joke...

Orcas Island

It was clear skies yesterday when Cheryl and I drove to Anacortes and caught the ferry to Orcas, but the fog rolled in overnight and today the island was shrouded in a haze that only made this lovely place seem even more magical.

We started our day at the Doe Bay Cafe for a leisurely brunch, then drove to the top of Mt. Constitution where we were above the clouds and the views of Mt. Baker were spectacular. From the top we took a trail through the woods and, well, technically, we got a little lost, but after conferring with some mountain bikers we met on the trail, who were also technically a little lost, Cheryl and I decided to backtrack instead of forging on, and five miles later we were back at my car. We drove into Eastsound to get snacks from the grocery store and ran into the bikers; we all congratulated each other on making it off the mountain (we were all using that term loosely; Mt. Constitution is 2,399 ft. and there's a parking lot at the top. There was very little danger of any of us ending up in a Donner Party-style situation.)

Got back to the resort for massages at 6, and now we're back in our room watching the last Harry Potter movie on TV and feeling quite content.


View from our room

cinnamon French toast stuffed with goat cheese, berries, pecans, and maple syrup.

at Doe Bay

Mt. Baker