Our cab was at 6:30 and we got up at 5:45 for a pretty leisurely morning ritual. The cab driver insisted on speaking at the top of his lungs until I finally persuaded him that our neighbors would appreciate a little quiet. Sheesh. It's bad enough we didn't get their permission to even go on vacation, let alone take a cab somewhere. The driver of the minivan told me that his hatchback handle had come off in the Halloween fracas, so loading the car was quite a hassle. 1 Bike case, 2 golf boxes, and one large suitcase, as well as the limit of two personal items. At drop off we realized we were over the weight limit for our 1 bag, so another $25 was needed. I need to go back and see if two bags would have been cheaper, but so be it.

Check-in and security were dead simple. We spent less than 10 minutes with the sky cap and were at breakfast by 7:15. Kelly went to the magazine shop afterwards, and we hustled to the gate too late, but no harm done, as we took up our excellent exit row seats. The plane was a brand new 737-800, which only deepened my love of Alaska. I rented a Digi player and watched two awesomely ridiculous movies. Shout out for _Taken_ and that chase scene in the rock quarry "near Paris" which was adorned in fifty gallon barrels with open lids; half with gasoline, the other half with bonfires. Even watching Liam Neeson run around the Quai's of the Seine in four munched-together clips while sweating profusely wasn't as funny as that. Then I watched the opening season of Top Gear, which by the way is going to be awesome. Then touch down. I am skipping over the small excitement--a woman passed out two rows behind us and we had some theatre around giving first aid. Oddly no one from the medical profession stood up to help, if they were in fact aboard. Let's say 35 rows at 6 people each and 16 in First Class for a total of 226 people and none worked in the medical field? I am personally going to say that 3MM people are EMTs, nurses, doctors, or qualified first aid givers, based on 755k doctors in the US. Where were that lady's 2.3 people to help her? Another funny outcome of her not-so-funny episode was that the flight attendants forgot to give everyone their complimentary mai-tai in time, so when they were hastily handed out, the purser then came on the PA one minute later asking people to please gun their rum drink. Oh, and then we all went to the rental car counter. Yikes.

We got a Nissan Murano, which was a pretty nice SUV, actually, but for two key problems. The throw on the accelerator is hella fast and extreme, and the doors are low enough that Kelly has twice brained herself getting in. And she's short. We headed south and made our way to the Kona Wine Market. I have to say, that place is great. Nice woman from Queen Anne sold us wine from a poor assortment (the grocery store near the Mauna Lani is better), but we still walked out with Valkenberg Kabinett from '06, Billecart-Salmon NV Brut, their Rosé, a nice $14 all Sauv Blanc white bordeaux (AOC Bordeaux), and Bredif Vouvray. Not too shabby. Their cheese section was poorly stocked, alas, but we had a nice time anyway. She recommended the KTA super store in Hilo for our groceries, and she wasn't wrong. More on that in a minute.

The drive south was awesome. Light traffic, beautiful vistas, as we made good time. We stopped off near South Point to get a snack (ice cream for me, kit kat for Kelly) and to replenish our water. Now a bit of gastro-intestinal information. Don't worry--it is G-rated. Kelly couldn't stop burping after our flight, and neither could I. The woman behind us passed out and there was a baby that was going crazy during the flight. I posit that the cabin was over-pressurized, which was hard on everyone and stunning to one. What does this have to do with our snack? That is just when I had my revelation.

The weather was glorious and evening was coming on. When we got to the KTA in Hilo, I started to regress into endless shopping and browsing during our nesting of our rental house. Kelly's precison, efficiency, and "when are we leaving" were the right foil. We decided on ingredients for just one big dinner, thinking leftovers and a walk into town would be the right blend. It was hard to know what to buy until we saw sashimi-grade, caught-that-day, Ahi Tuna for $6.99/lb. We bought a 1.5 lb piece and returned last night for another. Yum! We made our way to the Reed's Island house, which was as amazing as I remembered it. We snacked on Diamond Baking soda crackers from Honolulu and hummus, plus the pink champers. Dinner was nicoise à la 'ilo, with egg, carrot, cucumber, and fresh ahi. I also made sushi rice and poured red leaf shiso flakes on it for a kind of furikake thingie on the side. It was delicious, too. The scraps from that dinner made two ahi chirashi for the following night and served us well. Tonight is just a repeat of that meal down to the very detail, save the eggs which we had as omelette this morning with Puna goat ricotta, that I can HIGHLY recommend.

By day, we were pretty lazy the first day. AM yoga wasn't interesting, so we just went into town for breakfast at the Ohana Grill, which is the scene of me getting drunk with the Canan clan and Laurel pronouncing me a frisky drunk. It's true, I'm afraid, so guard yer daughters. Breakfast was funny, with excellent coffee, an insane amount of staffing, the owner opening the door on me in the bathroom to "make sure someone was in there", a credit card machine that broke, and my Paniolo omelette that was actually two fried eggs on top of basically a cheese enchilada. I think they should serve them every Jan 1.

We spent the morning reading and photographing the grounds and then took a dip in the soaking tubs. Then we went to Sombat's for truly excellent Thai. Can't recommend it enough, except to say that Medium is already nicely spicy and Hot is absolutely that. The green papaya salad was really fresh and delicious. Then off to the airport for a motley crew of fellow helicopter passengers. God Be Praised the two year old passenger went on a different copter, as that could have been unpleasant, and we wound up with this nice gay couple from London ("I'm a designer and I take a helicopter to work, you know...") and Anne from Boston who inexplicably flew to Hawaii for two weeks. Six hours to LAX and five here. Wow. She could have gone to the Seychelles in about the same time. Kelly went from being a doubter to an addict, as we looped over the Pu'u O'o vent, spotted a fresh flow, found a skylight (Kelly saw it first) and then raced to the ocean entry to watch terra becoming firma. Very thrilling, and topped off by two or three rainbows, one double. Coming home was kinda anti-climactic, except we had dinner pre-made and settled in to read and, for me, listen to my Patrick O'Brien audio book.

We headed out this morning with gusto. Kelly and I drove to Mountain View on our way to Volcanoes National Park. She dropped me off with my bike and I started climbing. I told her if I wasn't there in 2 hours to be freaking out, because it was only 12 miles, after all. Oh, and by the way, it was 2600 ft. to the top. Doh! I kept at it and made it in 1:38, so all was well. There was a light rain the whole way, which was Nature's best A/C unit and whenever it did cease to rain for a minute, the heat was pretty quick to overpower. At one point, the wind shifted to come off of the Kalapana coast and the salt air smell was just heavenly. I had a quick dog moment, and some weird passing car stuff, but all in all, a great climb. We did the Kiluaea Iki trail counter-clockwise and took many pictures of that hellish and stunning place. It made for a long day, but the pizza margherita and lamb sandwich we shared at Kiawe Kitchen was enough to hold us.

Home to dinner and our other bottle of champagne, and to witness an absolute humbling downpour. I've finished my blog installment and will be in the hot tub pretty soon. Love to all and Mahalo to us; may we continue to dwell in this heavenly place.

House needs: This place needs a few things. Dry Measures to start with. That's a big oversight, I think. A rice cooker would be nice, since many of the entrants in the guest book are from Japan and Southeast Asia. The KTA is also hugely Japanese and Korean in its selection. The handsoap is quite smelly, too, but that is an individual thing.

Regrets/For Next Time: We should have sprung for the helicopter ride that goes up to the Waipio Valley if I had had an inkling that Kelly would like it so much. Tonight would have been an awesome star party, but it would also have been a lot of time in the car, so mild regret. More champagne, of course. The Barack O Blend is good marketing, but poor coffee. It's not that 1/3 each of Kenya, Hawaiian (Kona), and Sumatran can't work, I believe, but that this version doesn't. Should have tried the Puna Feta on our hummus appetizer.

Yes, it's hard to make. I appreciated that anew when my friend Ian came over for a ballgame and some paella tonight. I had chicken, pork chops, and leftover ham from Easter in the fridge. Ian brought cannelini beans, limas, and frozen cut green beans. I had onion. I had lots of saffron. I had smoked Spanish paprika. I had garlic. Ok. Let's get started.

You can't cut stock enough, in my view. Even homemade, but the commercial stuff has way too much sodium, so I started at 4:1 water to stock. I put in one bay leaf (love 'em, totally not necessary) and put in a triple shot of saffron. No one has ever commented on the subtle taste of saffron. It's a waste of $10 to put in one "serving" of saffron. Go for three to four. [Ian, I still have your ten bucks, btw.] Also, tomatoes need alcohol, so put in 1/3 cup dry white wine or white port. Or good sherry, if you have it, which I didn't.

OK. I liked the idea of adding grape tomatoes to the onions, putting in a little garlic, quartered, for a subtle flavor. We sweated those for 30 minutes. Half way through I added about 1 tsp. of Chili de Arbol, for just a little heat. Next time I might double it. It was really subtle.

Off comes the lid and cubed meat goes in with the stock (less the bay) and is brought to a boil for 10 minutes. I grilled all my meat for extra smoke, then added a 1/2 tsp. of smoked paprika. Basically, it's a sin. I can't keep my hands off that stuff. Still, I think a little is a good addition. After the caramelization of the meats has been liquified by a boil of broth, add the beans and then the rice. I forgot to salt at this point, which is actually a huge error. Be sure to remember. You can cheat like I did with a garnish of Fleur de Sel after, if you mess up.

We also added oil cured kalamata olives, but I wish I had had oil-cured black olives. Throw in a tbsp. of chopped, fresh rosemary, too. Stir in the rosemary and olives both, is my recommendation. Don't skimp on the olives.

Then I set the whole thing to stew. Once the rice is in, so goes the wisdom, don't stir again. We had about 1.5 cups of residual liquid and at medium heat, it was mostly gone in 20 minutes. My error here was that I forgot to account for the thermal capacity of the pan. I would say that after about 10 minutes, or when you are down to a 1/3 cup of liquid, switch off the heat (under electric, the a 15 for gas). After 15 more minutes, remove the pan from the burner. If you burn the bottom, as I did, use a teaspoon to test and once you determine your error, scrape gently while serving. I avoided the worst of it in this way.

The olives and the rosemary make this dish a natural match for the wines of the Northern Rhone. I picked the 1999 Alain Voge Les Vielles Vignes, which is mostly subdued now and doesn't have much of its original sauvage left. Still, a beautifully constructed wine and one well worth drinking. I think I'll hit that magnum of the Vielles Fontaines soon, as well. Maybe on another Paella run. Or that Chave Hermitage. Who can say?

Excelsior!!

I just spent that last weekend in Mazama at a fantastic ski clinic put on by the Methow Valley Nordic Ski Association.
It was fantastic stuff, with one day of classic lessons and drills and skating drills and lessons the next. I learned a ton and really only improved. Clearly there is a lot to work on and I'll be back next year for sure.

The weather was super dry and cold. Laurel and I came in from skiing Jack's Trail to the Cassal Cuttoff. When we got back to the car, it was -2F. Brrr.

Turns out, of course, that I came home to more of the same. We are snowed in the house today, which means work, calorie counting, and doing laundry all at once. Hell, my office might even get cleaned.
Some joker skied by this morning, which is funny, but hardly appropriate as jack-knifing buses and traffic accidents notwithstanding, we're fully able to walk around. Judge for yourself.

Lori and Julie built an amazingly beautiful fence around their backyard and the guy who built it was looking for new work, so we had him stop by. His name is Blake and he does all kinds of handy work, which is really nice.

Blake and his buddy Jim were able to place all of the posts on a Saturday. It sure was nice to see the project take root.

Sometimes, though, you need to hire some day labor to augment the crew.

And the person the city sent out was super familiar, too. ;-)

The Sunday that weekend was the Kitsap Color Classic, which we rode. When we came home, we talked through some design questions and then Blake spent the next weekend finishing it out.

We have a new fence.

With Copper Caps.

With Mission-style lattice.

And two matching gates!

The roofers promise a Monday start date. Stay tuned!

Taking up that motto, I set out last week with Laurel and our road bikes for the San Juans. We were based out of Lopez, where Hitch was good enough to let us hang out. The ferry ride was easy and beautiful. Baker was out in force, too.

Hitch's spread is very quiet and very close to Nature. It's hard to distinguish from camping, especially in good weather, which we had endless amounts of (save for foggy mornings).

Our first day was full of us riding all of Lopez. And I mean all of Lopez. We missed maybe 3 miles of road down the center, but went out to every bluff and every shoreline road. It's a cool island, very laid back and easy to navigate. The locals were plenty unfriendly, but hey, it's the end of summer and they're probably tired. It's like we used to say on Catalina, "F* off and come back soon!" You need their money, but it can get to be too much.

We also made a good survey of the two campgrounds on the Island, Odlin County Park and Spencer Spit (WA State). Spencer Spit is peaceful and well positioned, but it is far more of an RV site than you might like. Many sites did not have tent beds, presumably because there is no demand. Odlin, on the other hand, is fantastic. The primitive sites on the other hand are absolutely idealic. Views of the islands and the straits; hidden, but not far from the main camp area or toilets.

The ride was a whopping 39.1 miles and we found our way back easily, thanks to Laurel's excellent sense of navigation. I decided that it was a good idea for me to bash my leg.

Lots of ice and an overlong happy hour in front of the sunset over Mt. Baker did a lot to heal me, though.

The next day it was time for Island hopping. We debated the merits of San Juan (larger, less familiar) and Orcas (gorgeous, well-known, and hilly) and in the end, the ferry scheduled decided it for San Juan. We left a little early and stopped in at Lopez Village. It's very sleepy. After walking for 10 minutes, Laurel announces, "If I lived here, I'd blow my f*ing brains out!" It's probably true. Kinda slow -- it takes a special kind of fella.

We cruised down to the ferry and we dressed, pulled the bikes off the rack, and set sail. Ferries, by the way, are both free between islands and, much easier to board without a car. I highly recommend it.

San Juan was great. We had awesome weather, there were constant, constant rollers and though the mid-point of the island was kind of "same-y", the north end and in particular Westside Dr. (southbound) is stunning. We cruised along, watching the sun beat down on the endless golden water and visited Lime Kiln (itself a stunner of a campsite) and English Camp. After stopping at English Camp, Laurel noted he had another National Park under his belt. I was asking him to list the others when a wasp stung him, giving birth to a splendid cursing streak and an additional installment in Lola's pantheon of Bee Sting Stories.

Lots of nice way-finding and an unexpectedly nice cross-island road and then we even had time to stop at the Brewpub just in front of the ferry. I attribute our good luck there again to being able to board the ferry without ticket or hassle.

We made it home, and had a longer night of hanging out that the previous night when Laurel fell asleep at 9:30. I observe that Papa work is hard work.

Just before Laurel went to bed, I tried to cajole him into finishing off the Scotch with me, but he wouldn't. He told me I could get my $10 loss at backgammon the night before back if I finished on my own. I sat there and tried for another hour, but then decided it would be a bad idea to finish it entirely. So, I cleaned out a used beer bottle and put the remainder of the Scotch into it, leaving the empty bottle and empty glass on the table for him to find the following morning. It worked like a charm: he woke up with ever deepening surprise (and suspicion) that anyone could drink that much whiskey without suffering more than I was. I did, however, take advantage of him enough to get him to excuse my debt. Good sport.

We cleaned up as best we could, did some towels, and then drove to the ferry terminal to wait through two ferries before embarking for home. It's slow getting off of Lopez, even!!

We had lunch in Mt. Vernon [thanks to Laurel for the correction] and a (for me) brief ride before turning back. Laurel rode home, out of water, and spent, but behind some curious dude turning out 19 mph, so he was at least dragged and bedraggled.

What a great trip! Can't wait to repeat it.

Not only did I get a great deal done around the house and in our personal sphere, but I also had some real fun. I'll post some of those items here, so you can live vicariously or, what may be more important, I can when I return to work tomorrow.

Working backwards, Kelly and I went to Vancouver Island this weekend, to Brentwood Bay Lodge and Spa near Sidney, BC.

It's an undeniably pretty building and wonderful setting. Check out these photos:

And it had great room service potential! ;-)

The road biking does look awesome, with lots os striping and lots of dedicated trails. I think a trip to Victoria or to explore further afield would have been nice. We'll be back to Vancouver Island, for sure. And, despite the 6 hour commute home (2 hours at the Peace Arch), we feel pretty rested and relaxed. Plus, we're home and able to make banana bread and blog. Good old America! ]]> tag:www.nateg.com,2006://1.14 2006-08-21T00:17:49Z 2006-10-09T19:56:59Z

Otherwise, what a cool thing to have a new blog. I'm doing home projects, working for Cascade Bicycle Club on their IT project for a bit, and then spending time on my bike. And, of course, there will be camping and Mazama.

Stay tuned for more.