Copenhagen, beer festival

On May 2nd, Olivia and John went through a Warriors game at the Chase Center in San Francisco. It was the first game in the playoff series and, sadly, a prediction of things to come. The Warriors lost. Not by much, but still. It was fun to be in a sporting event at the arena. Olivia and John had only been there for concerts before.

Later that week, John went to Denmark with Chris, a good friend, and former Akamai colleague. John arrived Thursday morning, immediately visited his mom, and later had dinner with Gurli in Central Copenhagen. 

Chris arrived Friday morning, and after he had some breakfast and a shower, they went to central Copenhagen to walk around. Later that afternoon, they booked an architectural bike tour of the city and had four great hours with a local architect who showed both old and new architecture.

The main reason for visiting Denmark this time was the Mikkeler Copenhagen Beer Celebration event at Øksnehallen. It’s a two-day-long affair split up into four segments. For John and Chris, the fun started at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday. After paying a hefty entrance fee, you could walk around for four hours and taste beer from all over the world. Unfortunately, there were many rumors that this year’s event would be the last. However, it’s part of a ten-day beer week in Copenhagen, and if it survives, it’s definitely worth a visit. 

The Sunday was spent on a couple of rented bicycles, riding through much of Copenhagen and the surrounding areas. Weatherwise, the wind had finally died down, and it’s such a fun and safe way of getting around. The bike rental itself was a challenging experience, and threatened to put a kibosh on the whole thing, but it all worked out in the end.

The pool is still giving us trouble and driving us nuts. The latest is that the motherboard controlling the heater and pumps is faulty and needs to be replaced, luckily under warranty. Hopefully, that will cover the remaining issues and set us up for a fun summer. Sadly, we had another downed tree from what looks to be damage from the larger tree that fell in February. That case has still not been closed. The city is taking its sweet old time processing the claim. On a brighter note, we got the Pergola installed. We moved all our garden furniture under it, making it a nice place to sit when the sun is out.

This past Thursday brought a welcome reunion with many of John’s former Akamai colleagues. The San Francisco office on Market Street is shutting down, and everybody was invited for a last farewell. John has many fond memories from that office, and it was great to see people who he had interacted with daily. Earlier in the week, Fastly organized an evening at the AT&T ballpark. John took his cousin Nick to see the Giants beat the Phillies. Cold as always, but still a good time.

Pre-Formal Dance in the Rain

The weekend brought more wind and more rain. We have reached what we usually get for the entire year, but everybody reacts with “we need it” when it is brought up in conversation. And while we have had damage two times so far, we’re delighted California is getting soaked, and the reserves are full.

On Saturday, we had 30 teenagers and 15-20 parents over for a couple of hours before the party bus took them to the Notre Dame formal dance. Very lively but well-behaved. The weather, unfortunately, wasn’t cooperating, and only one photo was captured outside.

John And Adriana prepared a bunch of balloons on Friday evening. Little did they know that they would start popping in the middle of the night and set off the house alarm that has a built-in gunshot detector… Luckily they didn’t all pop ahead of time!

Balloons galore!

Visit from Denmark

Thursday brought the start of the mounting tiles around the waterline of the pool as well as the spa. As no plaster would be behind the tiles, the workers had to start by applying a waterproof seal on the gunite.

The tile we got is paperbacked, meaning that you can’t see anything until the base is dry, and the paper can be removed – after 24 hours. That includes any tiles that aren’t aligned. All the adjustments will happen Monday.

Still no word from our contractor was supposed to start the patio work last week. It’s beginning to wear on our patience.

We had Hans Ole, Trine, Matilde and Villads visiting over the weekend. Great to see them and catch up!

Danish Fun in Hawaii

John flew from San Francisco to Honolulu last Friday evening to see his childhood friend Hand Ole, his wife Trine and his two children Mathilde and Villads. John arrived in time to host them for sunset appetizers at the apartment while they enjoyed the Honolulu Yacht Club members showing off their beautiful sail boats on their way to Diamond Head and back. So great to see them and there was much talking until the Outrigger Club closed down and there were no more creme brûlée and s’mores left.

They met Saturday again and decided to head to Kualoa ranch to try to see many of the sites from the Jurassic Park trilogy. They drove straight there, but no tours were available until Tuesday.  They decided to head north but only after enjoying yummy burgers at Seven Brothers in Laie. In the end, Hans and his family ended up booking a tour the following Friday and love it.

Trine was excited to try the shrimp at Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck, but as it was only a mile or two from the burger shop, they decided to leave them for later. Next stop was Waimea Falls. A beautiful walk through a botanical garden that ended up in a plunge pool where loaner life vest was available.- entrance optional. After the walk up, the light rain was refreshing. 

By now there was a bit of room in the stomach, so they stopped at Ted’s Bakery in to taste the famous pies. Villads went the BBQ chicken route and enjoyed it fully. Slowly crawling back towards Honolulu they passed the shrimp truck again and couldn’t resist. Trine went for the shrimp, while the rest sunk their teeth into corn on the cob. Eventually, all had corn – some more than one, and all were stuffed to the point where they thought none of them would ever eat again.

On Sunday John picked up a rental bicycle and put it to good use throughout the week. The final number was more than 150 miles ridden in and around Diamond Head and Honolulu. 

John worked throughout the week, but the time difference allowed them to catch up in the afternoon.  Monday afternoon was spent at Bellows Beach followed by shaved ice at Island Snow in Kailua. John had a 02:30 call and got up in the middle of the night. Whether it was exhaustion or old age remains unknown, but the keys to the apartment were left in his pockets when he went in the ocean with a bodyboard and was (of course) nowhere to be found once they returned to the apartment at 9 in the evening.  To make matter worse, John lost his wedding band when he returned to the ocean a few days later. Not so fun!

Olivia came over Wednesday evening to join the five. She stayed until late Saturday, and she and Trine had lots to catch up on. The word “shopping” and phrases like “where do you think I can find…” were heard on a fairly regular basis. 

Thursday’s dinner was at Doraku Izakaya and Sushi. Delicious but the teriyaki chicken left a hole in the stomach big enough that Mathilde stood in line on Kalakaua Avenue for almost an hour to get shaved ice as dessert. 

John and Olivia picked up new Bodyboards on Friday after they had replacement keys made for those the ocean swallowed. It was late by the time they returned to Honolulu, and they decided to relax in the evening and watch a movie. As usual, Olivia had the best intentions of making it past the halfway mark, but at the time of writing, she’s still not sure how the movie ended. 

Saturday was mainly spent at the beach once John finished his bike ride. The new body boards were a lot of fun, and the waves kept coming. It was soon time for Olivia to leave, but Hans and Trine treated all to a delicious dinner at Restaurant Suntory, where the chefs prepare your food right in front of you. 

John left mid-day Sunday after a farewell lunch at the Outrigger Club. Hans, Trine, Villads, and Mathilde left Monday evening on a three-leg journey with a change of aircraft in San Francisco and Toronto. It was great to see them and John and Olivia are already looking forward to the 90-years (combined) birthday in March.

US Open 2015

 

Olivia flew to New York on Friday to meet John for a weekend getaway. They were lucky to have tickets to the women’s final at US Open and while it was a bit of a bummer that Serene Williams didn’t qualify, it was very exciting to be at the event and venue. 

The weekend started with an exclusive evening reception together with Stan Smith – him himself a former US Open champion. After the reception Olivia and John walked around the 9/11 memorial – close the Battery Park hotel. Friday marked the 14th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and other landmarks and the memorial was packed with people. Most were somber while other visitors took smiling selfies. The iconic blue lights were on all weekend as a great reminder of where the twin towers stood and what once was. 

Saturday Olivia and John were transported to the Arthur Ashe stadium early morning. Reports of upcoming rain had everybody looking towards the sky, but as it turned out the rain would only being after the final ceremonies of the day.

An early arrival brought an almost empty stadium which was quite a unique experience. The men’s double soon was underway and over, so there was time to have Stan Smith show them around the facilities. They bumped into Rodger Federer on the practice courts but overall most of the celebrities were in the stands. The women’s final was exciting and well-played and it was special to be there with Flavia Pennetta announcing her retirement. 

The evening brought Olivia and John to Gotham Bar & Grill. Lovely atmosphere and food followed by drinks with one of John’s colleagues and his girlfriend at the Flatiron Lounge. Good times!

Sunday morning the weekend was finished off with a (re)visit to the 9/11 Museum. It is very well done and one could spend hours upon hours there. Some of the exhibits are quite emotional but it’s a good reminder of just how significant an event it was for all and how it could happen in the first place.