Final Days in Hawaii

Well, I skipped a day on this blog for the first time on this vacation, mostly because we did not do very much on a super relaxing Saturday.  We had hoped to rent a car today, but none were available until Sunday.  So we headed for the pool and lounged this morning, enjoying a nice game of Words with Friends.

Lunch is back to the Hilton's casual restaurant, Tropics, where we both have the grilled Mahi Mahi sandwich.  In the afternoon, we head for the beach where we rent two chairs and an umbrella.  The weather today is perfect, sunny and in the seventies.  The ocean water temperature is a little cool, but we do take a couple of swims.

Dinner tonight is at Chef Chai's, a relatively new restaurant on Kapiolani Boulevard in Honolulu, which means that we will need to take a taxi there.  The menu looks interesting, but the food is disappointing.  I order what is called New Zealand King Salmon -- what's that?  Never heard of this type of salmon before.  Eating is makes me think that this is really Atlantic salmon with a lot of barbecue sauce on it ... I'm suspicious.  Rob orders halibut, which seems to be of the frozen variety.  Where are all the tasty Hawaiian fish on the menu?  We don't recommend this place, although the ambience seems nice.  Hard to tell for sure since we were denied a table inside, even though there were some clearly available the entire time we were there.  We had a very nice day, though, but we are looking forward to a little more activity on Sunday.

Sunday starts with a long wait in the line to rent a car, but that's okay -- we have our car by 9am. We set out to drive around the island of Oahu.  Uh oh, seems like we are not the only ones to have this idea.  Similar to Saturday, the weather today is just gorgeous, so not only are all the tourists out and about, but the locals want to have a nice day on the beach today, too, I think.  Traffic is bumper to bumper, and many of the spots where one would want to pull over and admire the view are totally full, but we are able to pull over a few times.  One stop, unfortunately, is a beach which appears to be an unofficial campground for homeless people -- creepy!

We continue on, but there is so much traffic!  Two stops were fun, however.  First, on the north shore, we stopped at Sunset Beach, known for big waves and surfers.  Even though this is a very popular location (tour buses are pulling over here), the beach is beautiful, and the waves and surfers are fun to watch.  There is plenty of room for everyone.  Rob buys a t-shirt.

The next stop that we enjoy is Waimea Valley and Falls.  Although it costs a little money to enter, it is a pleasant 1.5 mile round trip walk through a beautiful botanic garden with the waterfalls at the end.

Guests may swim in the pool at the base of the falls, but we pass.  Lots of really interesting vegetation; the best is the Monkey Pod tree -- very large tree with an enormous canopy.  Rob takes lots of pictures.

Dinner tonight is at probably the best restaurant that we will go to here in Hawaii:  Alan Wong's.  It is also in Honolulu, so we take another taxi ride to get there.  This food does not disappoint.  We start with seafood cakes, made from crab, shrimp, and  lobster:  very light and delicious.  We each then have a salad.  For our main entrees, Rob has the Opakapaka (pink snapper), and I have the Onaga (red snapper).  We do a little sharing, and we both enjoy our meals very much.  Now here is some great Hawaiian fish on the menu!   Alan Wong's is very memorable to me in that they have an extensive Hawaiian coffee menu.  I pass this time, but years ago when we ate here I remember that it was the most delicious coffe that I have ever had.  I did take a picture of the menu:

Well, that's it.  We fly home tomorrow.  What a trip it has been!

Friday in Waikiki

This will be a very short blog post, as the Hawaiian spirit overtook us and not much happened that bears elaboration.  We woke up very late -- 9am -- we really needed that sleep.  After a breakfast of Starbucks coffee and fruit, we head down to the Hilton's casual restaurant on the beach called Tropics.  It is already lunchtime, and I have the grilled Mahi Mahi sandwich and Rob has the Mahi Mahi soft tacos.  Our plan consists of nothing more than walking up the beach and returning, so that is what we do.  

Back at the Hilton, we spend the rest of the afternoon lounging by the pool in the Ali'i Tower.  That's it!

Dinner tonight is at Roy's Waikiki.  It is fabulous.  We start with sushi rolls that I wish I could detail out the ingredients, but I really don't remember.  Just really good.  We each then have a green salad.  Rob finishes with a half portion of the butterfish, and I have the half portion of the ahi island tuna.  When I see the lady who is the manager walk by at the end of the meal, I wave her over because I remember her from when we ate at Roy's many years ago.  It turns out she is the person I remember, and she is very pleased to be remembered.  We have a nice conversation with her -- she is named Dina.  We all  laugh when she asks me my name, and I reply "Roy."  She says, "Hold on," and leaves for a minute, returning with a Roy's bag and a giant stack of Roy's coasters.  Perfect for me, obviously!

We walk back and turn in.  That was our day!

The Longest Thursday of My Life!

We wake today in Sydney, our last day in Australia.  Our plane is scheduled to depart today (Thursday) at 9:20pm for our return to Hawaii.  We have a leisurely morning then check out of our apartment, leaving our bags with the front desk.  Our plan today is to go the Sydney Aquarium at Darling Harbour.  The aquarium does not disappoint us!  You follow a winding path through the facility and see all sorts of sea creatures.  I especially like the seahorses.  Then you come to the larger tanks.  The first one has the underwater tunnels that many aquariums have (I wouldn't know from first hand experience -- I honestly can't recall ever having been to an aquarium before!).  The tunnels are pretty cool.  We see small sharks and other beautiful fish.  I really didn't make an effort to learn the names of the fish, since it would be unlikely I would remember them anyway.  In the second large tank, there is a creature that looks like a manatee, but is called a Dugong.  There are two, very playful and large!  The final exhibit is the best, and it is a super large tank (no tunnel for this one, but lots of viewing points) that contain all of the gorgeous tropical fish from Australia's Great Barrier Reef.  You could stay here and watch these amazing fish for hours.  The aquarium was expensive, but worth it.  You could save a lot of money by combining the ticket with other Sydney attractions, but today we are only interested in the aquarium.  There are several restaurants along the water in Darling Harbour, but they are all kind of tourist traps.

We really have not other plans for the remainder of this day, so we decide to do a little shopping, but first we have lunch at the Queen Victoria Building (QVB).  We eat at Cellini's on the top floor, both of us getting grilled chicken sandwiches, which the Australians call chicken burgers.  It seems that if the sandwich is cold, it is a sandwich; if it is hot, it is a burger.  We walk around the QVB and then stroll over to the giant Westfields shopping center.  I buy a small backpack at the department store, Myer, to augment what we can carry on the plane later today.  Other than that, we check out the men's clothing.  We both try on pants that seem to be a trend in Australia that we have not seen before: khaki type pants that are gathered at the ankle with elastic, like sweat pants.  Rob says that he liked them except that he needs to be about 30 years younger to pull it off.  We both just feel ridiculous in these pants.  With a little more time to kill, we relax in the lobby of the Hilton across the street and log into their wifi.  One final thought on Australia regarding men's restrooms:  although urinal troughs are not seen very often in the USA, they are the norm down under -- yuk.  Here is one example of the many encountered here:

We return to our apartment building to collect our bags and take a taxi to the airport.  Our bags are too big to try to use the train service.  At the airport, we are allowed to use the Air New Zealand lounge since we are flying business class to Honolulu.  It is surprisingly nice with a large buffet with pretty good food and wine for us to enjoy.

We board the plane and get ready for our 10+ hour flight.  After dinner, we each pop an Ambien sleeping pill, which usually has no effect on me, but tonight was completely different.  I am out like a light, and the next thing I know we are two hours short of landing -- wow!  The downside of this is that the pill has left me very groggy, so I am really out of it.  How odd that the most I have ever slept on a plane has at the same time left me so exhausted!  Landing occurs at 10:30am -- and it is still Thursday!  Will this day never end?  Darn that international dateline!

We take a taxi to our hotel, the Hilton Hawaiian Village, and check into our room in the Ali'i Tower -- very nice ocean view room on Waikiki Beach -- who can complain?  Our day consists of lunch and lounging at the pool, and a very nice nap in the hotel room afterwards.  The nap ends when I hear a pigeon making its pigeon sound.  Yikes, we had left our balcony sliding glass door open a few inches and a big fat pigeon is not walking around in our hotel room!  Fortunately, when he sees me, he reverses course and walks back out.  Crisis averted

Dinner tonight is at a restaurant called Orchids in the Halekulani Hotel, a ten minute walk down the beach.  The staff here had recommended it, and we enjoyed it very much.  The restaurant is like old time Waikiki, with waiters in white coats and a dress code: no t-shirts or shorts.  We both order the same food: a grilled romaine salad with japanese cucumber and feta cheese.  Our main dish is the specialty of the restaurant:  steamed onaga (Hawaiian red snapper) with Asian vegetables and steamed rice.  It is a simple preparation, but really delicious, just exactly what we wanted.  We are really happy with this restaurant choice.

Time to go to bed for a good night's sleep.  The 45 hour Thursday will finally come to an end.  Here is a photo of the sunset from our room:

Art Museum Day in Sydney

As our time in Sydney comes to a close, we are embarking today to visit two of Sydney's art museums: the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Museum of Contemporary Art.  The Art Gallery of New South Wales is the in park known as the Domain, which lies between the Botanic Gardens to the north and Hyde Park to the southwest, and that is our first destination.  In passing through Hyde Park, though, we must stop to admire a landmark that we had only seen from a distance.  At the corner of Elizabeth and Bathurst Streets stands a lovely obelisk.  We are curious as to what it commemorates.  When we arrive there, there is no sign to tell us.  Carved into the obelisk is the year it was erected (1857) and the name of Sydney's mayor at the time (Peter Thornton).  Is this a monument to him?   I'll have to check this out later with the help of Google.

Our next detour is to look at Rob's cousin Arthur Sherman's bronze sculpture one more time.  While we examine it, Rob notices a detail that we had not noticed before.  At the base of the sculpture is what appears to be the artist's signature.  The letters have faded, but you can definitely make out the A for Arthur and can kind of make out the whole Arthur as well.  There is no other spot that contains anything that looks like the signature, so this must be it.  Glad we came!

Now, we head towards the museum, passing in Hyde Park what must be Australia's fanciest water fountain, a gift from a mayor:

Then we pass another monument that appears to be a gift from a former mayor:

This seems to be a trend!  How nice of these mayors to erect these monuments (to themselves!).  Peter Thornton, however, does not appear to be one of them.  Googling the obelisk, we learn that it is not a monument to the former mayor, but was erected to allow sewer gasses to escape from the sewer below and up through the obelisk, escaping from the top.  A little bit gross, but looks nice!

At the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the main exhibition is called "Pop to Popism."

You can see from the signage in front of the museum that the exhibit features several works by Andy Warhol.  I particularly like the Warhol films at the entrance which show Lou Reed and Edy Sedgewick.

It is a wonderful and large exhibit with artists from the US, England, and Australia.  Rob enjoys the works by Roy Liechtenstein.  We also enjoy the permanent exhibits, which include some amazing aboriginal art.  We end our visit with paninis for lunch in the museum cafe.

We walked back to our apartment so that we could do some laundry before departing Sydney tomorrow.  At 3:30pm, we departed and walked back to the Rocks area, which is the location of the Museum of Contemporary Art.  The special exhibit there is a review of American artist Chuck Close's printmaking.  His art features portraits of people, some famous, that Chuck Close calls "heads."  The portraits are achieved in a variety of ways, including woven into tapestries, some painted and some in prints (that don't look like prints).  The techniques employed are not easily understandable by me, but the end results are beautiful.  See the museum's web site to see a large selection of the work:

www.mca.com/au.

Dinner reservations for tonight takes us back to Sailor's Thai, also in the Rocks area, where we had earlier dinner with Connie Pinder Barr.  The food here is outstanding.  Coincidentally, we also ate here twice in 2006.  It is still a little to early for dinner, so we enjoy some wine at Buckley's on the wharf, where we can watch the people walk by.

Dinner starts with Tod Mun fish cakes with quail eggs and a Banana Leaf Salad with prawns and chicken.  Our mains are spicy wagyu beef and red curry with chicken  The food here is flavored perfectly (unlike Longrain from the night before) and is perfectly paired with a reisling from Te Whare Ra,  Marlborough, New Zealand.  Time to turn in early!

 

Bondi Beach

Today seems like a nice day to visit Bondi Beach.  Bondi is not easily accessible from Central Sydney:  it is too far east to walk to, so your options are either to ride a bus all the way there, which could take a while, or ride the train to a station called Bondi Junction, which is still about two miles from the beach.  Most people switch to bus at that point and ride it to the beach.  Well, we like to walk, so our plan is to ride the train and walk the two miles to the beach.  We walk to the Town Hall station here in central Sydney, which is only about a few blocks from our apartment.  From there, the train ride is only about ten minutes or so to travel four stations to Bondi Junction.  We had never ridden the train system here in Sydney before, and the trains are really nice, very comfortable.

At Bondi Junction, there is a modern shopping mall, which is modern and very nice.  We are turned around a bit and unsure which way is east to get to the beach, but with a little help from a few locals we are soon on the Bondi Road heading to the beach.  When we originally planned our trip to Australia, we had thought an apartment in Bondi might be a nice option, but now that we are on the ground, we realize that it is a little too remote.  The neighborhood is as you might expect from any beach town, nice but a little run down.  Lots of places to get cheap food.  We pass two businesses that advertise "Panel Beating."  What would that be?  Well, it turns out that is the Australian term for an automobile body shop.  Panel Beating is what one does to remove dents from a car.  We walk the two miles to the beach, and it is not a difficult walk since it is a gentle downhill almost the whole way to the beach.

When we arrive at the beach, the sky is a little cloudy, which is not a bad thing -- helps to keep us from overheating.  Our first stop is for lunch, so we go to a restaurant called Bondi Trattoria, which has a nice view of the beach.  It is about 11:45am, and they are only serving their breakfast menu until noon, so Rob has a frittata, and I get the breakfast pizza (regular pizza with a fried egg on top).  It is very good.

We now begin our beach walk in earnest.  We walk north along the beach sideway and then look south at the beach.  Here is our view:

Then we turn around and head south, but not before stopping at a shop to buy some Bondi t-shirts.  South of Bondi Beach is a great paved walkway along the ocean that connects Bondi to beaches to the south:  Tamarama and Bronte.  The walk has amazing weather sandstone rock formations.  This photo shows that path with the rocks, which has nice houses overlooking it:

The path from Bondi to Bronte is about a four mile walk, round trip.  It is very beautiful.  As we walk, the sky clears, which makes the water turn an amazing blue color.  This next photo is a view to the south with Bronte Beach in the distance:

Lots of walking today, but when we return to Bondi Beach, we take a cab back to Bondi Junction.  It costs a little money, but we have walked enough for one day and can't get motivated to walk two miles more -- all uphill.  A quick train ride and we are back to central Sydney and our apartment.  What a lovely day!

We have dinner reservations at a Thai restaurant in Sydney that is very well known, called Longrain.  We are able to walk the short distance and arrive at our designated time of 7pm.  The menu us very interesting, different from the normal Thai restaurant, so we are going to be adventurous.  For starters we have Green Papaya Salad -- not an unusual choice, but very spice to our palates.  We also have a salad of Eggnet and Pork.  What is Eggnet?  Egg prepared in some sort of way to look like a net -- I wish I could explain it better.  It sat atop the salad, which was delicious and not too spicy.  Our mains were Green Jungle Curry with Baramundi -- good, but didn't really taste like a curry -- and we had a side of Green Vegetables with Oyster Sauce, my favorite part of the meal actually.  Rob comments that all of the dishes had the flavor of too much raw garlic, not necessarily a good thing.  The meal was a little disappointing actually.  Our wine was a pinot noit from Ashton Hills Vineyard.  This winery is in the Adelaide Hills area of South Australia.  It was very good, but did not pair well at all with this food.  We should have order a white, like a reisling, instead.  Oh well, time for bed!

Cruising the Sydney Harbor

After a cloudy start, the weather today turns fine, so we decide today is the day that we will undertake a Sydney Harbor cruise.  We had done this in 2006, but it is always a good idea to see the great views from the water.

We walk to Circular Quay, passing several pubs that are very lively for a Monday morning, and there is a good reason.  Back home, it is Super Bowl Sunday!  The game here is broadcast live at 10am.  I would have thought that the appeal of the game was mostly for Americans, but I think there is quite a bit of Australian interest as well.  As we watch the news later in the day, there is much news coverage of the big event, including Katy Perry's over the top halftime show!  

Arriving at Circular Quay, we book our trip with the Captain Cook cruises,  They offer a "hop on hop off" harbor cruise, and our boat departs at 12 noon.  The first stop is at Fort Denison, a small island that is a former military fort in the middle of the harbor.  There is a museum and restaurant there, but we elect not to get off.  The boat continues on the the wharf at Taronga Zoo.  The commentary provided is interesting.  We learn that Russell Crowe has a penthouse at the finger wharf that extends from Wooloomooloo!  The next stop is Watsons Bay, which the guide definitely recommends as a place to stop and tour.  There is a short 5 minute walk to the ocean.  The wharf also features a famous restaurant, Doyle's on the Beach, for seafood.  We depart the boat and explore.

The guide is correct in that the ocean can be reached very quickly by crossing a small park.  The views are unexpectedly great!  We can see a very rocky shore with a view to North Head in the distance:

We are able to take a short walk north to see more views from higher up on the cliff.  We return to the bay shore to await another Captain Cook boat and enjoy a beer at the "Beach Club."

The cruise continues and returns to the zoo and Fort Denison, then makes a quick stop at the steps at Circular Quary before continuing on to Luna Park and finally to Darling Harbor where we make our final departure.

We walk through Darling Harbor, but it is not really our scene.  It is really reminiscent of San Francisco's Fishermans Wharf -- very touristy and crowded.  The aquarium is here, which is highly recommended, but we plan to go there on another day.  We walk through the area.  Note:  there is a lot of construction going on around here, including a new convention center, so it is also extremely noisy!

Our destination is actually off the beaten path to a very interesting building that we have been admiring from our apartment's balcony.  We're not really sure how to find it, but we muddle our way there.  The building looks like a Gaudi building in Barcelona with its odd shape and a "melting" look to its architecture.  We find it but it is blocked off from the public, although a guard indicates we can walk near to it.  Apparently there is some type of reception shceduled for this evening at this building that staff is preparing for.  Must be some VIPs attending with all of this security.  The building is even more amazing up close with it brickwork and glass.  Here is a picture I found of it online (Rob took several as well):

We are told it is the new home of the business school at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).  Later on, as we watch the evening news, we learn that the building's grand opening is actually today (coincidentally) and that the building is the first in Australia by renowned architect Frank Gehry.  In the dedication, Australia's governor-general called it "the most beautiful squashed paper bag I've ever seen."  This immediately provided a name for this new iconic structure:  the paper bag building.

We walk back to our apartment and our path takes us through Sydney's China Town, which is interesting and, as it turns out, adjacent to the area where our apartment building is.  Back at the apartment, we relax and call for a dinner reservation at a restaurant called Flying Fish, where we had enjoyed a wonderful meal in 2006.

Dinner requires a cab ride, as Flying Fish is at the end of a wharf in the Pyrmont neighborhood, just a little too far to walk.  There is a great view of the harbor bridge.  We enjoy starters of a leaf salad and a fennel citrus salad.  For mains, Rob has baramundi with yellow curry, and I have John Dory, very well prepared and delicious.  We also share a side of carrots with harissa and cardomom -- really good.  Our wine is a chardonnay from the Margaret River area of Western Australia from a winery called Evoi.  A quick cab ride home completes our evening.

A Fine Sunday Walk

We bid a sad goodbye to Connie Pinder Barr as she heads for the airport at 10am to catch her return flight to the USA.  Rob and I are on our own today.  The weather is still warm with some cloud cover, so we head out for a long walk.  Our objective is to walk around more residential neighborhoods to get a feel for Sydney away from the tourist areas.

We walk out along Oxford Street and pass many gay clubs -- everything is still a little sleepy here on a Sunday morning.  We keep walking along.  Oxford Street is a major east/west thoroughfare that goes through Sydney and may even go as far as Bondi Beach.  Signs definitely point to the destination of Bondi Junction.  After a ways, we come upon an area identified as the Victoria Barracks and then we are in the area known as Paddington.  The shopping here looks very nice -- again, not so much traffic on a Sunday morning.  There is an area called the Paddington Market, where it appears a Saturday market takes place.  At this point, we decide turn back and explore the northern areas of Kings Cross and Potts Point.

We turn north on an interesting looking residential street called Liverpool, which, coincidentally is the same Liverpool street that passes our apartment building downtown!  This residential street is really pretty.  The townhouses are older and almost all of them feature beautiful wrought iron railings on both the main floor and a balcony on the second floor -- very Victorian looking and very charming.  We continue through this neighborhood until we reach Victoria Street which runs north/south.  It is about lunchtime, so we stop in a nice looking cafe/restaurant called Tigerbakers.  Rob enjoys a sobe noodle salad with chicken and I have a green salad with feta, tomatoes, cucumber, and also chicken.  The food is very nice.

We continue north on Victoria Street until it crosses Darlington Street which continues into Kings Cross.  Kings Cross sounds like it would be a nice neighborhood, but in fact it is quite squalid!  The street is lined with strip clubs!  Wouldn't want to be here at night!  But just as quickly as the neighborhood turned bad, it then turns nice again as we continue north on Macleay Street.  This area has nice shops and restaurants combined with lovely apartment buildings.  This area is now considered Potts Point, rather than Kings Cross, I think.  We walk as far north on this little peninsula as we can.  The northern part of this is occupied by a naval base, so it is obviously not walkable for the general public.  We turn south along the Cowper Wharf Road and continue along the water of Woolloomooloo Bay.  At the base of the bay is a long wharf extending into the bay containing condos and several large restaurants that are doing good business.  We follow the waterfront back to the north and head for Mrs. Macquarie's Point.  We are surprised to pass a modern swimming pool club built into a wharf.  At the point, of course we stop and Rob sits on Mrs. Macquarie's chair, a seat carved into the rocks.

From here we enjoy a walk through the Botanic Gardens until we reach the Sydney Opera House.  Then we head back to our apartment -- we've done a lot of walking today, easily over ten miles.  Our path takes us up Pitt Street, which has great central business district shopping, including the historic Strand arcade, which stop to admire and get a cookie.

Dinner tonight will take us back to the Oxford Street neighborhood (Darlinghurst) to the restaurant Baccomatto Osteria,  This had been recommended to us by the waiter at Berta, but is also well reviewed by Yelp.  We have a very delicious dinner.  We start with cod and potato croquettes with a leaf salad.  Then Rob has saffron pasta with clams and sea urchin, while I have stracci pasta (pasta sheet cut into squares) with a tomato beef sauce -- we both really enjoy this.  We also enjoy a nice conversation with our waiter, who is "over Sydney."  Then back to the apartment to watch the men's championship of the Australian Open, which lasts too late, so neither of sees the end of the match (Novak Djokovic wins over Andy Murray).