Well, okay. They have names. But pronouncing every one of them sounds like an ostrich gargling glass shards. (I can only picture what they have to say about pronouncing "Mississippi.") My apologies to John, who's reading this blog and who speaks Dutch. I'm sure it's a lovely language once you get over the strep throat infection it takes to learn it. Kinda rainy on and off in a drown you instantly and then disappear just as fast kind of way. It's one of the ways that being accustomed to San Francisco weather helps. No matter where you go, cloudy skies [View Full Entry]

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Okay. So we spent a day flying and what have you to get to Amsterdam via Frankfurt. And what can you say about such a thing except that even with being in business class, that sort of thing still sucks. For the record, I want it known that I did not threaten to open the hatch and toss that screaming child out into the ether. I would not, however, have stopped anyone if they had made the attempt. Nor would his parents, I imagine, who somewhat miraculously managed to sleep through all of his wailing. If only the rest of [View Full Entry]

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Hula In The Rain. Snacks In The Gas Station. So off we go to the Old Lahaina Luau. Several people had told us that this one was top notch as far as these tourist events go. And from the outset, it seems like they're right. It's well organized, beautiful, and there's an open bar. We immediately try to make up for the $90 fee by stress testing the open bar concept. And we wind up corrupting the woman from Fresno (shout out to you, Diane!) sharing our table. I'm not going to say we were blotto ... but they may have [View Full Entry]

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Or, Pass The Sunscreen. My Napili is Burning. So it took us a few days to roll ourselves off the lounge chairs and do something, but we hit the ground running today and went snorkeling in Molokini. Molokini is a little crescent of rock off the coast of Maui that's actually the world's tallest mountain. Sadly for it, only about 100 feet of it poke above the water's surface, so it claims little of its stature, and only birds climb to the top of it. But if you go umpteen thousand feet under the water, it's really tall, people. So shout [View Full Entry]

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Sand. Surf. Rinse. Repeat. Ah. Maui. The condo rocks. And what a relief, because you never really know, ya know? It's not like they put up pictures on the website showing the water damage in the bathroom ceiling. So it's always a crapshoot. But we scored big time on this go 'round, thanks to Mr. Johnson's connections. And we kicked our first day off with a crazy schedule of ... well ... bobbing up and down in the ocean. That's pretty much it. And there were several rounds of discovering just how much passion fruit and guava juice to put in [View Full Entry]

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Last year it was New Zealand. This year? Hawaii. Maui, actually. And Napili Bay to be more precise. So why not dust off the travel blog since it was such a hit the last time? This year I cannot promise color commentary about dragging my mother through the outback, as the old girl is setting up her new homestead in Arizona. But it's a pretty safe bet that at some point over the next 10 days I'll be: * Drunk * Sunburned * Both Plus we're going with some friends, so you can always chart our progress from bosom buddies to [View Full Entry]

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The Mark Of A True Lady Is Knowing When To Get Off Stage I know, I know ... I said it was all over. But since our Auckland hotel has broadband access, I thought I'd post some pics from previous days that I didn't put on due to the slow dial up. These are mostly silly things. We're on a plane in less than 24 hours, so we'll see ya soon! Enjoy the photos. [View Full Entry]

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Winding Down and Heading Home We won't be leaving for a couple more days, but tomorrow night will be hectic getting ready, so this is going to be the last entry before you see us again. We went rafting through underground caves today (so physically demanding, we all came out the other end agreeing we'd loved it and hated it all at the same time), then made our way across the North Island to the Bay of Plenty ... aka the Pacific Ocean. Of course we can't see the Pacific Ocean without thinking of our home being stretched so far across [View Full Entry]

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Warm Water, Large Sphere, Grassy Knoll ... Rock & Roll! This is quite possibly the craziest thing I've ever done. And the most fun thing, too. So you here's the deal: You drive out to this field. The first clue that something is amiss is when they hand you clothes other than your own to change into. After you change and try to figure out what to do with your underwear, you drive to the top of a hill where a rather raffish figure, undoubtedly someone who couldn't get hired on at Sizzler, is squirting water into something that looks like [View Full Entry]

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In Which We Say So Long to the South, Hello to the North ... and It Turns Into Winter Spent several days leaving the South Island and getting positioned into the North Island where we could spend a couple of days to relax toward the end of the journey. Drove through the Alpine Pass, took the train up the coast and rode the ferry into Wellington. Not much excitement to be had, though it was nice to spend a day on the train and ferry instead of driving ourselves. Extremely choppy on the ferry. They said it was rough, though we'd [View Full Entry]

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