Nuuanu Pali and Honolulu

After some great and productive work visits today I did a little shopping. I may have bought some new sunglasses at COACH that I didn't exactly, "need" per se, but I'll never tell. I headed out to stroll around Waikele and then stopped for a snack. Can you guess? Shaved ice! I found the cutest spot in Kaneohe and it was a close second to Matsumotos.

I stopped at The Pali Lookout on my drive back to the hotel.

Nu'uanu Pali is frequented by visitors to Oahu. The panoramic views of the windward side of the island were pretty awesome. From the lookout you see the 985 foot cliffs of the Koolau Mountain Range. It was super windy! The trade winds flow through the valley from the mountains on both sides. It creates a tunnel with some pretty significant gusts!

I made a pit stop at The Kyoto Gardens of Honolulu Memorial Park. My friend Olivia and I visited the Kyoto temples in 2007 on a visit to Osaka. They resemble what we saw and were impressive.

I ended the day by visiting my first Buddhist Temple ~ Honpa Hongwanji Buddhist Temple and study center.

Tomorrow I head to The Big Island. I have to do the pack/check-out/return rental car/check in for flight shuffle that usually leaves me a bit frazzled. But not before stopping for some local Saimin ~ noodle soup native to Hawaii. It's glorified top ramen... but when in Rome... :O)

Island Girl! Oahu Visit

This summer I have been a travelin' fool! And I'm not complaining one bit!!!! My work schedule has had me traveling most of August with only a few days at home. When I said that I needed to get out of dodge I didn't realize that I'd be logging many hours behind a steering wheel or crammed into an airplane seat like cattle. I have loved the change of scenery!

I scheduled work visits in Hawaii for the last week of August. Conveniently, my brother will be getting married in Maui next week. All of my siblings and several cousins and family friends will make the trip. I'm really looking forward to the reunion. They only seem to happen when there is a marriage!

Today, I visited locals in Waikiki and Honolulu. I headed out to The North Shore in the late afternoon to see the sights and eat dinner.

My first stop was at Matsumoto's for some shaved ice. I passed many shaved ice shops on my way to Haleiwa but pressed on to see if Matsumoto could live up to its reputation. Matsumoto serves up over 1,000 shaved ice a day. Now that's a lot of ice!

In line I surveyed the crowd to ask what everyone was ordering. This was my first *real deal* Hawaiian shaved ice and I wanted to do it right.

Inside is pretty old school. And after waiting in a line that wound around the building it felt good to be inside a (relatively) cool building.

The repeat customers all recommended that I have sweet condensed milk on top. It looked a bit odd and was hard to imagine, but I went for it!

Here I am, the dorky tourist, about to taste my creation of sour apple, cherry, and grape with condensed milk on top. And yes, I even bought a T-shirt as a souvenir from the North Shore.

I must say it hit the spot. AND the crash in blood sugar didn't occur until I was just about half way back to Waikiki. That's a bonus.

I watched folks in the bay paddling about (somehow I don't quite think I have the balance to stay upright) and swimming in the ocean.

A bunch of kids invited me to join them to jump off the bridge with them. I declined saying that I don't jump off bridges but would cheer from my nice shady spot on the sand.

There was much Japanese conversation eaves dropping. I even uttered an "Oishii," (Delicious!) a time or two. They looked at me like I had two heads. And that ended my attempt to practice my selective Japanese vocabulary.

I like to call these Hawaiian Christmas trees.

On my way out of town I stopped at the Dole Pineapple Plantation.

I needed some more sugar, you know.

My drive home was delightful until I hit The Honolulu Gridlock. Oh. My. Goodness. I've sat in traffic with the best of them, but Honolulu IS NOT designed for all of the congestion. My nerves were pretty frazzled by the time I rolled into my hotel in Waikiki.

I'm staying in Waikiki. It's pretty noisy, touristy and packed with people. BUT I've got an air conditioned room and a swimming pool a few steps away. And I'm a happy girl.

Tomorrow I'm headed to Kailua. And to find some more shaved ice. God, that stuff is good.

Chicago ~ Day 3

Nothing says Good Morning like a morning brunch at Portillo's! Yep. Our last breakfast in Chicago included a hot dog. Power food for our day of power walking and preparing our minds to soak up the field trip excursions ahead.

What an amazing beautiful day in the Windy City! There wasn't a cloud to be found and the weather was near perfect! We spent the day at Museum Campus and crammed in as much as we could at The Shedd Aquarium, The Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum, The Fields Museum.

The snapping turtle was one ugly looking dude who could use a little toe nail clipping!

The otters showed off their stuff...

and the penguins were fun to watch!

Baby Beluga was pretty cool. And yes, he did "swim so fast and swim so freeeeee!"

And the Jelly fish glowed so pretty. The Shedd is awesome and I will definitely be making a return trip!

Next was the Planetarium ~ Tommy's request. I was a bit confused when I couldn't find all of the plants. Yep. I'm a bit slow at times. I thought that the PLANeTarium was full of PLANTS. Learning more about astronomy was cool. I took Astronomy in college but am pretty sure I only attended the class long enough to obtain the syllabus. Pass/Fail science give meaning to taking the easy way out.

Celestial Sphere. I like big words.

Glistening... but no complaints about the sun shining!

On to The Field Museum.

We toured the Soil Lab after walking through a "shrinking lab" and becoming 1/100 of our size!

Then it was off to meet Sue. "Sue" is the largest preserved Tyrannosaurus Rex ever discovered.

Sue stands 13 feet high and 42 feet long from head to toe!

We passed on the Pirate Exhibit as we weren't too excited to dole out more cash... but still took some time to chill with the mateys!

We walked to The Buckingham Fountain ~ one of Chicago's famous landmarks to do some people watching and rest our feet.

I was ready for my Sunday afternoon snooze right about now. But we still had a bus / subway ride to Oakbrook ahead of us.

One last stop at Millennium Park to gaze at the architecture and then we said Au Revoir to downtown Chicago and I headed to my work retreat in Oakbrook! What a fantabulous weekend!!!

Chicago ~ Day 2

We started the day off with a walking tour along the river. It was our own version of the Architecture Tour minus the narrator!

The Chicago Tribune

The Trump Tower


The Willis (formerly known as the Sears) Tower



When you look all the way to the top of the tower the clouds make it look like the building is swaying. Creepy! We were going to go to the tippy top, but the line was crazy long so we decided to try back later.

We rode the subway all over town.

While waiting for our train to arrive and seeing the other lines arrive and depart several times I realized that we might be waiting for a "weekday only" train. Yep. Wrong side of the tracks!

Lunch was at Portillo's. My brother-in-law Mark highly recommended it and it's one of Tommy's favorite places too! I had the classic Chicago hot dog. Tomatoes and Peppers? And after I did a google search I saw that there are Portillo's in Buena Park and Moreno Valley, CA! Uh oh.

That was some hot dog! I tried the Hacker-Pschorr beer ~ Tommy's most favorite German beer. Not quite froofy enough for me! :O)

After lunch we took a breather at the hotel and got, "all gussied up," for dinner at... wait for it... Morton's, per Tommy's request. (Are you seeing a theme here?) It's all about the fine dining experiences. From hot dogs to the steakhouse by which all others are measured. Perfectly logical.

I love my NikonD60!

We stopped at the Willis Tower on the way to dinner. Claustrophobic or those afraid of heights should probably stay in the lobby. Tourists are jammed belly to back for 103 flights. There is no, "I think I'd like to get out now, please."

The magnificent Windy City

Tommy wasn't so sure about stepping out on the glass. If you look down you'll see the street from 1353 feet. That's a long way down!

SO I went first (because you know I'm a leader and all) and then he joined me.

We ran across town to make our reservation to Morton's. And let me tell you that is a whole lot of fun in heels! Where are your flip flops when you need them?

Dinner was amazing. Lobster bisque soup, succulent fillet Mignon, baked macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes and key lime pie. (And a few (dozen) libations of mojitos, baileys and cream and bourbon (for the gentleman) ... "Go big or go home!:)

An after dinner drink and dessert and a full belly. Ah, Chicago Saturday nights.

Tomorrow we will cram in more tourist attractions than we should and I hear we'll be heading back to Portillo's. Oh joy.