Birthday boy

I am in Waikiki for my Birthday. I hit the beach and watched the canoe races, the sunset and the fireworks.

Then I wondered the streets to find some entertainment. Successfully! I found a strange convergence of tastes in Waikiki... Thanks go the crew of the HMCS Ottawa, the girls at Femme Nu, and that crazy Australian four piece ukulele band providing the music!

Lava is cool!

On top of the World

Yesterday, I went up to the summit of Mauna Kea. At 10000m from base to top, it's the biggest mountain on the planet. 4200meteres from sea level, it's an ideal location for an observatory. What a place for a nerdly tourist to visit...


The sky was clear, the view stunning. My pictures are in the gallery!
At this time of year, because we're so close to the Equator, you can see both the star Polaris and Sirius. Wow!

Sunset was awesome. (You can check it out in the gallery of course), but above, is my favourite picture of my whole trip. That's not another mountain on the horizon... it's the shadow of the mountain I am standing on, cast across the top of the clouds. Those are my legs and so my shadow is cast to the very edge of the world.

No Break for the Brakes

Getting to Hilo was fun. I flew from San Francisco to Honolulu, and embarked on a regional flight to Big Island. As we we taxiing up for takeoff, the brake warning light came on and we had to swap to a "better" plane.

They have a sense of humour here!

Aloha!

I am in Hawaii! I am staying on the outskirts of Hilo, on Big Island. It's a bit of a rest stop on my way home :)

This is where I went swimming this morning.


This is where I went swimming yesterday.

w00t!

Clean clothes

Years in the planning, months in the organising... I finally ate a meal with my dear friends Tanya and Dan at Thomas Keller's French Laundry.


This place has an intimidating reputation. A very good reputation. Many of their ingredients are grown on site:


Staff can bee seen scurrying from the kitchen, secuteurs in hand to harvest from the surrounding gardens. Slight Faux pas... I didn't bring a jacket. So they lent me one. lol.

Insisted on it. How cute.

OK. After that I wasn't going to make a fool of myself snapping away at every plate served up to our table during the 4 hours it took to have lunch. So I will summarise; we had around about 9 courses along with several rounds of amuse bouches, two bottles of wine and finished up with ports and other sweet stickys.

It was wonderfully good. So good in fact that I lost track of what I ate... But I know I have never eaten better.

To be completely honest, I have eaten almost as good elsewhere, at a much more affordable rate. However, as I was pondering this very weighty matter sometime after the 7^th course, it occurred to me that that's hardly the point and certainly not worth considering whilst in situ. Then dessert won me over. It's not that it was really good, which it really was. It's that it never seemed to end. Wave after wave of smaller and more instense servings turned an epic and ultimately indefensibly indulgent meal into something more.

It was symphonic.

Supper Club

After our gastrogasm at the Laundry, we all needed to rest...

Soon enough though, the food fairies were bewitching us and we followed their call to Bouchon for dinner. Unfortunately they were fully booked. Fortunately the hostess invited us to wait and sample some liquor libations from the well stocked bar...


We had Manhattans, Martinis, Juleps, Aviations and more, I'm sure.


Oh yeah, eventually had dinner too. A dozen mussels with vodka and some girly sandwich.

Hearty Breakfast

It all finished off with Breakfast at Ad Hoc. Today's brunch service was Roasted figs with goats cheese, toasted walnuts and a light salad with an aged balsamic reduction. That was course one..

Then came the eggs baked with cheese and marinated capsicum, finger potatoes and pork belly:


And honestly, what breakfast is complete without a dessert of apple fritters, vanilla ice-cream and a pomegranate and champagne cocktail?

So hungry, So thirsty

San Francisco has some real dining and drinking highlights. I have with Tanya and Dan's help, dined and drunk my way around a selection of venues, some outstanding, some not and some just plain fun.

The City Beer Store is one of the fun ones. It's a bottle shop selling only beer. Yeah, only several hundred different kinds... Oh and you can linger instore and drink your amber investments right there and then!

Sugar Cafe is a swanky Internet cafe/bar... Worst. Cappuccino. Ever.

Revolution Cafe is a live music venue. Filled with hipsters, it's very cool. Cheap but satisfying sangria.

Berettas is also aimed squarely at the way too cool. We arrived for supper and were immediately seated in the uncool section, out of sight of patrons, passers-by and the attractive staff. Luckily, I am cool about not being identified as cool. And they served very good food!

Bourbon and Branch is a recreation of a speakeasy. It's so cool that it does not publish or advertise its location. The sign out the front is for a completely different business and you need to know a password to get in. Cocktails are plentiful, delicious and reasonably priced! I don't remember how I got home that evening..


Brainwash is a combination laundromat and cafe. Go figure. No surprise all the fixies parked out front.

The cafe inside Google's San Francisco office is filled with the geek. The food is pretty good; the apple juice, the best ever.

Boulettes Larder has a table fancy table right in the kitchen, and a dog so hairy that you just cannot tell which end is which and outstanding carrot soup.

Bear Country

I have been told on more than one occasion this week, that I look like a cub.

Cycle of death

There are a lot of bicycles in SF. The people who ride them are even called "bikers"

Some of their rigs are quite pretty. There's a hip style called a "fixie"

Look closely..

In its ultimate incarnation, a fixie has no gears, no free-wheeling and no brakes.

Alcatraz!

I have never visited anywhere before that demonstrated so starkly, the brutality of confinement. Some pictures of a truly beautiful island.

The Streets of San Franciso

When I hit a town that I am not very familiar with, I walk the streets to see what's going on and smell the sights.

Our Lady of Tamale

My wonderful hosts took me to a wonderful birthday party. The Tamale Lady's.

The band, Rube Waddell was great. Best rendition of Beethoven's setting of An die Freude ever.

After wishing the Tamale Lady ¡feliz cumpleaños! we left to visit more and more bars*, rounding the evening off with some midnight Mexican.

*Nobody in this town had apple juice available for cocktails! :(

Ned Seagoon would be a better barrista

The last few mornings have begun with a coffee from the Blue Bottle Coffee Company Cafe. It's in a quiet corner behind the old Mint. They're very trendy but I kid you not, they have a policy against take-away espresso. Why? You can have a Grande Organic Single Source Latte With Extra Cinamon to go, but they will not give you an espresso to go anywhere, except instore.

I was first told that it's because the don't have the tiny annoying little paper espresso cups, (you know, just like you drbbleinto/drink from at the dentist) and so I said that I didn't mind a larger paper cup. "We don't do espressos to go" was the reply. I asked for a small cappuccino, ristretto and hold the milk.

No problem.

Yesterday, things came to a head when I asked for an espresso to go. "We have a policy..." So I repeated my request. "So you want to have it here in a demitasse?" was the nice man's response.
I told him NO and restated my very reasonable demand. "But we have a policy..."

So I agreed to have my coffee in. And asked for an empty paper cup on the side.

No problem.

The brother liked my hat

Took this streetcar down Market to Bagdad Cafe for Breakfast with Tanya. We got out on 16th and walked up to the lights and waited to cross the road. Seconds later, the same streetcar pulls up and the driver opens his front doors, leans over and asks "Where did you get your hat, Man?"

So I told him.

Gated.

My last expedition in Canada was to Hell's Gate.

Spectacular!

Put your lips together and blow

Took a drive up to Whistler for lunch...

Eh?

I'm now in Vancouver, visiting my sister Gabi and brother in law Lance.

They're very cute.

I find Vancouver itself, rather creepy.

Philadelphia Freedom

The Liberty Bell in front of Independence Hall

This where the Constitution of the United States of America was created debated and signed.

Healthy Living

While in Phil was in Philly, he visited Campo's Deli for Cheesesteak.


Later it was home to Virginia for dinner, southern style.

Pictures of fried, cheesy goodness!

Another freakin' Cathedral

On this circumnavigation, I have visited several ancient European cathedrals. Washington DC has its own WASP, errr Episcopalian Cathedral.

It's big and pretty, especially on a nice spring day.

It's not ancient, completed only in 1990 after
about a century of construction.

Like gothic and neogothic structures, it has gargoyles.

Recognise this one?

Constitutional

The National Archives. It holds originals of the Delcaration of Independence, The Constitution, Bill of Rights and other amendments. These truly are the treasures of The United States of America.


My Favourite? This working draft of the constitution. If you look closely you can see sentences crossed out, notes in the side bars and annotations. Don't you just love committees?

Frankly shapely

On the way from the National Archives, we took a shortcut through the National Gallery Sculpture Garden. Anyone like Pop Art? I took some pictures.

Infinity and Beyond!

Last time I was in town, I went to the Air & Space Museum, and it was really, really cool. But wait, there's more!

I kinda went to town. I averaged a picture every 25 seconds for almost 3 hours.

Sometimes, you just can't argue against quantity over quality.

But having both is best!

Hires highlights here.