Vacation, "East Coast"-style

We've returned from our trip to the Outer Banks (North Carolina). Got to visit Kitty Hawk, a couple of lighthouses, sampled the fine beers at the first wind-powered microbrewery, and saw lots of egrets, herons, and pelicans. But mostly, we just hung out at the beach. Lots of evening walks on the beach for everyone. There were 39 people in all (counting the kids) for the real event of the week, my aunt and uncle's 50th wedding anniversary.

We brought heaps of used aloha shirts to give to the men. We had fun shopping for them and even more fun giving them out via the "Aloha Shirt Lottery." The senior men got first dibs as part of the lottery, but we ended up having enough for the teenage cousins as well.

You can see (and even download) photos of the trip online. (Tip: Use 'N' key to go to next photo.)

Oh that's what Wii is...

My 'Mii' (my Wii avatar), waiting to bowl.


Sister's Mii hula hooping. (And that's my Mii on the left holding a hoop.)

At Sister and Tomster's house last week, I was introduced to the Wii (and Wii Fit). I could, I believe, have played this thing all day, every day. (Although a serious butt strain did eventually curtail my bowling.) I rocked the ski jump, didn't do too badly at golf, laughed so hard I nearly peed my pants trying to do the slalom, hit one out of every fifty serves in tennis, and generally found this all highly entertaining. And so, I must add, did my mom. I've never seen her so excited about a toy. That, alone, may have been worth the price of my plane ticket.

Visiting the Garden Island

We were recently "off island," as they say. We spent a lovely week on Kauai with Tips & Burp. We ate at a couple of great restaurants -- Lighthouse Bistro and Bar Acuda (I didn't get that until I said it out loud...and saw the fish on their sign...). And we went on a lovely boat ride around the Na Pali Coast (viewing many famous movie backdrops including the entrance to Jurassic Park) on Holo Holo Charters on their teeny, tiny sailing catamaran.

This may be my favorite picture of the trip. (Ok, my second favorite. See below the jump.) This is at the taro fields overlook near Princeville, Kauai.
We're looking forward to seeing T and B's photos as well. (Hey guys, I am so going to burn ours and mail them. Really, really soon.)



And this is my favorite photo from our trip.
Doesn't B look...I don't know...salty?

'Going viral' and spreading joie de vivre

If you haven't already seen this, I recommend it. And read the NYT article if you want to know more about the video and Matt.



TIP: If you double click on the video here, you'll go straight to YouTube where you can chose "watch in high quality" OR go to Matt's page with a vimeo version for higher quality.

SFO eatin' & drinkin'

Had a great time in SFO on my trip a couple of months ago (it took me a while to finish up this post, obviously). Learned a lot of relevant professional stuff at the conference I was attending (the International Studies Association annual meeting), but also had a lovely time eating and drinking with friends (some old, some new) at all kinds of establishments.

Alembic Bar - Went with a bunch of folks to this funky bar on Haight St. The food we had was fabulous -- I had bavette steak with chimichurri sauce (photo left). I had a couple of Belgian beers. Mmm. 1725 Haight St.

Cafe Prague - I had Hungarian Szeged Goulash with dumplings (great), the beers were great, and we thought our Czech waiter was adorable. Not a great vegetarian selection so my friend got fried cheese. Yelpers give it mixed reviews, but I'd probably go again. (We had intended to go back for the accordion party on Friday, but ended up doing something else.) 584 Pacific Ave.

Colibrí - a lovely Mexican restaurant. I had green mole and duck. And the guacamole we had with our margarita course was amazing. 438 Geary St.

Cafe Mason - Chosen for its proximity to my hotel because I needed to check out right after breakfast. As I picked it over other more popular options, I was relieved that it ended up being a pretty great little breakfast spot. I got some sort of crepe and fruit thing and it was fabulous. Coffee was good too. I think all of the waitresses were from the same Eastern European or former Soviet country. It was great.

Cafe Trieste (North Beach) - Very cool coffee shop with very good coffee and excellent pastries. 609 Vellejo Ave.

Hana Zen - We were very hungry and cold and the udon noodle soup with vegetable tempura hit the spot. So did the sake.

Hidden Vine - A real hole in the wall kind of place, but great. My friend and I learned not to assume we won't like a wine if it's from California (although I'll still say it'd be an exception if I really like it). If I'm remembering correctly, our eye-opening red wine was from Bighorn Cellars, but I no longer remember the varietal...

John's Grill - a meat-and-potatoes kind of place, touristy, but it seemed like it would be fun to go. It is a setting in The Maltese Falcon and is -- or, rather, was -- the home of one of signed publicity copies of the movie's falcon statue.

King of Thai - looking for a quick-ish lunch on a break and stumbled into this place. It was packed when we arrived, so we'd ordered 'to go,' but by the time our food was ready, there were plenty of seats so we ate in. (Which was good, as we really didn't have any place to go to eat our take-away!) We were quite happy with our meals and it was very reasonable. And I loved the green plates.

Queso relleno

I have been in Yucatán several times, but I recently had queso relleno and learned that it is a favorite of Yucatecans and considered very much to be a traditional specialty.

This is one of those meals that has a long lead-in, and the anticipation that builds on the way to the final product makes it even better.

It starts as a ball of Edam cheese (Dutch) to which you perform 'open brain surgery.' You then scoop small amounts every day or so and eat it with whatever (bread, tortillas, crackers, a spoon. The last was LK's favorite).

Over time, you end up with a hollow and a very sturdy, thick cheese ball. The next few steps are up for debate, but the essential idea is that you stuff the hollow cheese ball with ground beef, capers, raisins, and a few spices (sorry, ancient Mayan secret). You stick the whole thing in the oven, then cut open and serve.

My Yucatecan relative fondly remembers his mother scooping the cheese pieces, and his anticipation for the final product that fed the entire family (and then some) a very hearty and delicious meal (served with a white sauce).

We had this at the Restaurante El Príncipe Tutul-Xiu in Maní, Yucatán. This is one of their specialties in addition to Poc Chuc.

(Note: the Edam cheese sample photo is at the Dr.'s house. Eventually this will become a queso relleno. Too bad we had to leave before it was finish. We did try!).

On travel: Happy New Year

Happy New Year from Merida, Yucatan.

As always, our visit to Mexico is filled with all kinds of interesting sights, food, and fun with the Q-clan.

This photo was taken by B as we crossed the street across from the main plaza in downtown Merida.

On travel: Oregon, Part I

Oregon is cold and dark. But hey, they have great beer. They need to get their comfort from somewhere.

We did some last minute shopping in downtown Portland. Mostly, last minute shopping for ourselves! Had to stop at Powell's get my book for the next book club, which put us in the longest line I've ever been in (but also one of the fastest moving, so it wasn't so bad). Then we had a great time in REI -- got me a down vest so I'd survive my trips to the Mainland. Sister then dragged us through the rain for hours to get to Bridgeport brewery -- and we were well-rewarded with good beer (Sister and I chose "Ebenezer.") By the time we had our snacks and beers we'd dried out, the rain had all but stopped, and the walk back was miraculously short!

We are now in Merida, Yucatan and back in tropical climes. Warmer weather, worse beer. (ha ha)

One tired puppy

I just got back from beautiful Monterey, California, where I was attending a workshop on publishing on the web. There were over 100 participants in the course from all over, including some from Mexico, Finland, Australia, and Poland. It was an interesting bunch, and I learned all kinds of useful stuff. (And some less useful stuff too.)

Now, I'm just pooped.


Looking forward to getting a little rest this weekend.

Crowberry Tales

I've been meaning to write about our recent trip to Seattle and Bellingham in a nice, orderly fashion, but haven't yet had a chance. However, when the new posting from Jen and Bob at Crowberry Tales popped up in my reader this morning -- two new posts all about the birds -- I knew I just had to skip ahead a little and share it. Order, be damned!

On our return swing through Seattle, we visited some Q. cousins. We learned about Bob -- a second cousin, I believe -- who, along with his s.o. Jen, is house sitting on a tiny island at the beginning of the Aleutian chain. This is not like any house sitting I've ever done, that is for sure. It looks like quite an adventure. I know some Q-olin readers will be fascinated not only by the photos, but with their descriptions of their adventures. I do hope they keep posting regularly throughout their stay.

Boulder and Blue-tinis

We are in Colorado at LK's folks. We haven't been back in two years -- since right before we moved. The occasion for our visit this time is to witness LK's father's barbershop chorus, the Sound of the Rockies, compete at the 2007 international barbershop competition.

As soon as we had more or less recovered from our red-eye flight, my Dad introduced B to some fancy blue gin. B and Dad claimed it had all kinds of nuance to the flavor. Tasted like gin to me. I had a beer.

Good food, etc, addendum

B was having trouble loading photos (or fotos) yesterday so, on his request, I added some that he'd emailed me that seemed to be appropriate. Well, it turns out there were more coming. It turns out there are some food photos that are better than a partial bowl of chimichuri sauce. (Oh, but I still would have used that soup. That's a boiled quail egg there.) I was just munching on my own much less impressive lunch at my not-very-exotic desk and checked on what else he'd sent. He also sent a picture of what he was talking about how the photos of the famous people on the walls were "classier" than what he'd seen other places. (I get it now.)

Good food, good service, good prices

So here is a short visual tour of a comida I just had in the DF. This is an Argentinian food restaurant, but I understand that they will prepare just about any meal a customer asks for, even if its not in the menu. I believe it.

This is, after all, a restaurant that has 2 walls full of photographs of very famous people that have eaten there. Some I spotted quickly: Gabriel García Márquez, Carlos Fuentes, Carlos Monsivais... the list goes on. Oh, no silly photos like you might see in other restaurants that like to brag of similar fame. All are classy professional looking people and photos (many are world famous writers).

They will bring a coat rack to your table, take your coat or purse, bring you drinks, take your order and you just eat. Yeah, you just eat. No bothersome "hello-my-name-is-Perfecto-and-I-will-be-your-server-today-is- everything-OK" waiters. When you, the customer, fells that there is something missing, you just lift your eyes and there will be a waiter there actually looking out for you but not bothering you until your tequila, beer glass or plate are empty. Then the item disappears along with the waiter almost imperceptibly only to be replaced with the next course or a fresh drink if you give the proper nod.

And the food? Well it was simply fantastic.

Total cost for a 4 course meal with drinks for 5 people: about 2,000.00 pesos. You do the math.

Oh yeah. And about Chicago...

I hadn't blogged this yet because, hey, there was so much to say it was a bit daunting. But Chicago was great. I was there for work, as an exhibitor at the International Studies Association conference. I'd love to go back when I have a lot more time and maybe when the weather is a bit warmer...

I saw my first real live Frank Gehry structure (the Pritzker Pavillion in Millennium Park). Saw many beautiful buildings that I was only able to give passing attention to as I walked by -- amazing! Ran through the Art Institute of Chicago -- a collection so rich and extensive and completely mind-blowing, I can't even express it. I wouldn't know where to begin! That alone should have been given days, but I only had an hour and a half.

Food? Went to a Russian tea cafe (photo). I went to Frontera, Rick Bayliss's restaurant -- it was crowded, me and my new best friends sat at the bar for dinner. (And tequila.) I'd sworn I wouldn't get Asian food while in Chicago, but I did and it was great. Even went to the famous House of Blues for a beer and some live music. There were so many places I wanted to go, and so many things I wanted to do and I just couldn't go to even a fraction of them!

What I did get to do was go see the taping of Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me. What fun! Panelists were Roxanne Roberts, Roy Blount Jr., and Paula Poundstone. And after the show, the real geeks hang out and talk to the stars and get their autographs. Yes, I really talked to everyone -- even Carl -- and got their autographs on my program. (Note to self: Carry a Sharpie at all times.) They were pretty impressed that I came all the way from Hawaii to see the show. While waiting for the next authograph, I met two other people who were also in town attending the ISA conference. An added bonus to that was that then we all shared a cab back to the hotel. I found out the next day that another of my new best friends had been there as well. Many were jealous to hear that we had gone. I mean, you're talking about a whole crowd of smart, geeky people who care about current events. Of course they are fans of the show.

NM visitors - Maui conclusion.

NOTE: Photo links no longer work as I've shut down the Grafia site. -LKQ

Snorkeling. Snorkeling was the big activity of the vacation. We went most days that we were on Maui. Our first day of snorkeling (Tuesday, at Maui Prince) was moderate to poor visibility, so we didn’t stay in very long. But LK had her first up-close-and-personal encounter with a turtle! Very exciting. Also, being our first glimpse of the reefs, B and I were totally blown away by the colors of the reef. We’d seen colorful fish on Oahu, but never such healthy reef and so much color.

Our second snorkeling outing, on Wednesday, was just LK and B. (Our friends went on van/helicopter trip to Hana and back. You can see pictures of their tour to Hana here.) Visibility was a little better this day and the reef (at Ulua) was spectacular. The highlight of our sightings this day was a spotted eagle ray (think of the biology teacher in Finding Nemo). We went back to Ulua beach with all four of us on Saturday and the visibility was very good. We saw all kinds of fish, three different kinds of eels. So many different species we’ll never be able to identify them all. The snorkeling was so good that we actually went in twice on Saturday. We all had to get out and warm up in between! Saturday's snorkeling at Ulua would have been worth the trip.

On Thursday, we all went on a Pacific Whale Foundation snorkeling tour to Molokini. Molokini is a marine life park that is a crescent moon shaped island formed by a volcanic cinder cone, located between western Maui and the uninhabited island of Kahoolawe. The northern rim of the of the crater lies below sea level and creates this sheltered area. In my wildest imagination, I never would have thought the water could be so clear. The abundance and variety of fish was truly amazing. The abundance and variety of humans there was equally staggering. It’s a bit of a Disneyland with multiple tour boats all moored in this small area. We estimate that there probably was over 300 snorkelers (our boat alone had about 120). (Photo here) We also made another snorkeling stop which was not as great for visibility, but a lot less crowded. And there were turtles at the second stop as well. Then we all piled back on the boat for lunch and drinks. Ah…. Added bonus on this trip: dolphins and turtles seen from the boat.

Friday we drove up Haleakala. The summit of this volcano is over 10,000 feet. A pretty impressive vista--from 10,000 feet down to the ocean. It was worth the drive up. And they aren’t kidding that you really need warm clothes up there. It was cold and WINDY. Looking into the crater, the cinder cones are really stunning.

Kihei dining. One of the nice things about staying at the Maui Hill condo was that we had a kitchen and comfortable dining spaces (indoor and out) so we did do a little bit of grocery store dining—rotisserie chicken and bag salad, frozen pizza, breakfasts and snacks. But we did have some great food eating out. I already wrote about Sansei in a previous post and how great that was, but we had some other noteworthy epicurean outings. Our other outstanding dinner out was at Café Lei. Nice place, good service, excellent food. We also got pizza and drinks at the Tiki Lounge. This place was not user-friendly, but they had great pizza. And the drinks are in tiki mugs. One night we picked up takeaway at Pita Paradise—vaguely Mediterranean—and went back and ate it on the lanai at the condo. Lovely. Our best lunches were at Jawz and Da Kitchen. Jawz is a local fish taco place. Mostly fish tacos, but there are other choices as well. (This place just leaves Maui Tacos in the dust, by the way. No comparison.) We thought our Mainland friends needed to experience a true Hawaiian plate lunch place and we eventually found it at Da Kitchen. It was just what we were looking for and we had chicken katsu, teriyaki beef, moco loco, and kalua pork. All good. Generous servings at a good price--like a plate lunch ought to be. And no macaroni salad. On our last morning in Kihei, we dropped off our friends’ rented snorkel gear at Snorkel Bob’s and then went over to Stella Blues, with their Grateful Dead-inspired décor, for a big breakfast. A nice, roomy place with a good breakfast menu. I did not give this place the ultimate test though--I didn’t order their breakfast burrito.


Then back to Oahu and our friends left for home that same evening. A full week of good food, tropical drinks, lots of snorkeling, and good company.

You can see all the pictures of the trip, if you are so inclined, on the Q-pages.

NOTE: Sorry! Photo links no longer work as I've shut down the Grafia site. -LKQ

NM visitors - Maui, part one

On Sunday, July 30 we all flew to Maui. I was the lucky one—my bag went to Lihue (Kaui) instead of Kahului Airport (Maui). We were flying on the new Go airlines and apparently just two days later they would have their electronic baggage checking and tracking up and running. In the meantime, it seemed I was not alone in having a problem as there were quite a few other people in line filing their reports. Paranoid traveler that I am, I had the bare necessities, but by the time my bag arrived at the condo late morning the next day, I was getting a little tired of my outfit.

The most amazing thing about my luggage misadventure was that I’d (insanely) chosen to wear a white t-shirt to travel and…I made it 24 hours with nary a spill! The real nuisance was that we did have to wait until the next day to go snorkeling as all my gear was in my checked bag. That was all right though, as we had plenty to do finding the closest place to get a drink and dinner. We found a place with giant beers and decent “Mexican” food (Fred’s).
We watched the sunset from the patio (lanai!).
With our giant beers.
(I know, you want to see the giant beers, but we were faint with hunger and thirst and forgot our cameras for this outing.)

We stayed at a timeshare at Maui Hill in Kihei. Our friends have done this sort of thing before, but it was the first time for the Qs. It was amazing. We stayed for a whole week for what you could stay anywhere else for three nights. Two bedrooms, two baths, and a full kitchen. Our unit was spacious, nicely located so we could see the ocean from the lanai (that's the top photo), and very close to lots of very good restaurants and to a number of excellent beaches and snorkeling spots. The condos have a pool, which we did use, and a concierge service that books tours and whatnot. They had barbecues which we did not use (even though our friend, Burpy, is an accomplished grill-meister). The tennis courts were being resurfaced, but of course the Qs could not understand why anyone would play tennis if you are within spitting distance of the ocean (don’t ask how we know that) so it wasn’t too much of a letdown. There was shuffleboard as well, but there were no takers for this either.

The highlight of July 31 was that it was our friend’s birthday. He turned 36. We began the celebration by, you guessed it, going to the beach. (That is what you guessed, right?) Then, the resort had free mai tais at the pool (photo of B and LK with poolside mai tais above), and then we went tearing out to try to get in line at Sansei in time for the 50-percent-off dinners.

We’re talking sushi here (for everyone but barfy me), so half price is a big motivator. We got into a line that looked very long, but as we are all the optimistic sort, we thought we’d stick it out and see how it went. We wait and wait and the line is creeping toward the front door as folks get seated. A host comes out and says that the party in front of us is the last that will get seated. But, he tells us, there is a chance that seats will open up at the sushi bar, so we figure we might as well wait a little longer. I mean, 50 percent off! So, here we are, standing in line, expecting to get shined, and we get to the front of the line and here’s where our buddy’s birthday luck kicked in: We became the last table to be seated!! Dinner was ab fab, and we would have thought the same even if it wasn’t half off. Sansei in Kihei. We highly recommend it. Even my non-sushi veggie dinner was excellent. (Although I learned a valuable lesson—don’t eat fettuccine with chopsticks. It’s too heavy or something. And if you have a sauce it is kind of splashy when you drop the noodles...)

This seems like enough for one posting, I think. Maui, part two, coming soon.