Tag: travel

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Copenhagen and back – via Paris

Everybody made it back safe from their travels, and it was quickly back to reality for most. That includes Duke, who had to give up his roasted chicken diet in lieu of the raw food his mommy seems to prefer feeding him.

For the last few days, John’s been off on one of his whirlwind trips to Denmark. Mostly to pick up a long-sought-after lens. He had been on a waitlist for this particular lens model for two years before getting kicked off, citing unavailability and uncertainty. The lens was, however, in stock at a dealer in Copenhagen, and by saving the VAT, he even saved a few dollars.

It was also a welcome chance to see his mom and later catch up with an old friend. As it happened, Eli’s Danish citizenship papers came through and were waiting in Copenhagen, so those were also picked up. Great to have that behind us, and Eli is a Danish citizen for the rest of her life.

The return was through Paris, where John was lucky to see the final stage of the Tour de France. With a Dane winning for the second year in a row, it’s extra special, although it doesn’t quite hit last year’s highs with the tour starting in Denmark and an unexpected win over Pogacar. Overall, it brought back memories of a 1996 trip to Paris to celebrate another Dane winning “the tour” (Bjarne Riis). Back then, John was joined by two friends – Hans and Lars – and his dad. Fun memories all around, even though we never really got to see much of the fast-moving riders

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Weekend in Hawaii

On Friday, John and Olivia went to Hawaii for the weekend. While it was partly to relax and enjoy the island, two other action items were on the agenda. One was to inspect the condo for water damage from a recent storm. The other reason we will get to a little later.

It was great to be back on the island of Oahu and visit the local restaurants – some new, some old. The weather is typically very nice and comfortable in June, which was also the case this time. John still managed to catch a cold lingering by the time this is published.

Adriana wrapped the school year at the end of last week. She’s busy with Cheer, art projects, and working above the local hospital and Dizzy Lizzy’s Baked Goods. Up next is Pia…

Our garden is looking great. John and Olivia went to find some pincushions at a very nice nursery in Berkeley. They only bloom once a year, and we might have missed it this time, but hopefully, they will look great next spring.

As mentioned above, there was one more reason that John and Olivia went to Hawaii. The flight from San Francisco to Honolulu brought John past 3,000,000 flown miles with United Airlines. That’s a lot of flying, and it was a bit anti-climactic to receive a pen at the gate together with a thank you. Anyway, it’s done, and it remains to be seen if John will ever board a flight again 😉

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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.

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Weekends with Adele

On March 25, John and Olivia were lucky to see Adele perform on the last evening of her “Weekend with Adele” show in Las Vegas. It was great, well-planned, and almost exclusively built around her well-known songs. She seemed to master the stage quite well, so it was hard to follow her when discussing her stage fright and anxiety. Nevertheless, it was great to experience Adele live, and it was great to get away for 36 hours.

Weather-wise, it seems that the storms are over. So we took full advantage and (finally) got the gazebo/pergola installed at the pool’s far end. John lost unreasonable hair trying to understand the assembly instruction that combined English and Italian fairly randomly. But eventually, it was all put together, and we are delighted with how it ties the far end together. We also fixed the remaining items from the fallen tree and even cleaned the area behind the fence. We submitted the paperwork today and hope the City of Hillsborough will cover our expenses.

The pool is in great shape. However, we are looking forward to adding salt, which can older happen when the water is a bit warmer. The water is clear, and the hot tub is heating relatively fast now that the start temperature is above 40.

John spent most of the week in Las Vegas at the National Association for Broadcasters trade show – a.k.a. “the NAB show”. There were 65,000 attendees – slightly more than half of what was there before COVID. It was great to see customers and existing and former colleagues.

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First Car for Adriana

Last weekend John and Olivia went to pick up a new car for Adriana. Olivia kept it hidden for a few days, but it was too much of a secret once Wednesday came around and sat in the garage when Adriana came home from school in the afternoon. Like with her sisters, this will undoubtedly free up Olivia’s time, and Adriana is already a self-proclaimed “great driver.”

John spent the weekend in Denmark while chasing that 3MM award with United. He spent time with his mom and saw great friends on Friday and Saturday. Unfortunately, Denmark had some of the worst winds in six years while he was there, and it was sometimes hard to walk outside when not protected by buildings. Still very cold there, but lovely to be out after 15+ hours on planes.

The winds have also been strong at home. We cleaned the yard more than once and are still looking for an excellent leaf vacuum for all the oak leaves that lands on the turf. Unfortunately, the pool sage continued, and we had to write a stern letter to get the acid wash of the plaster scheduled. We will have an update next time. The hot tub is also giving us trouble, and we can’t wait to get is all fixed. The pool cover is also acting up. “Aicham!” to quote Mr. Kim from Kim’s Convenience.

20230219: View from 8F – Copenhagen to Frankfurt
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Weekend in London

John spent the last few days of last week at the Fastly office in London. Hoping to escape the Bay Area rain, he quickly realized it had followed him to Europe. There were even hints of snow on the first day.

Thursday evening, John met with Penny’s sister Olivia, her husband George, their daughter Alice and Alice’s husband Dickie. Alice and Dickie had just opened a cocktail bar – Maremmano – in London in addition to their restaurant. A super lovely place built on the tapas concept but for Italian food. After drinks, John, Alice, and Dickie went to the restaurant – Maremma – and enjoyed Tuscan food until only one server was left in the whole restaurant. Lovely food – even better to catch up!

Friday afternoon was spent visiting Shackleton to discuss gear for John’s upcoming trip to Antarctica. It was followed up with afternoon tea at the Mandarin Oriental – an absolute must when in London. The evening entertainment was delivered by The 1975 at the 02 arena. Fantastic band and show provided by a band celebrating their 20th year together. 

John spent Saturday in Paris after a quick train ride across the channel. It felt good to revisit the riverside where John and Isabella spread Lyne’s ashes. But other than that, Paris was a cold and wet affaire this time, and John returned to London once his clothes were soaked, although not until he made it to the Eiffel Tower.

After packing Sunday morning, John went to see the “Slough House” building featured in Apple TV’s Slow Horses. Fun to see and great to be out on what turned out to be the only day with a blue sky and sun.

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Antarctica – So Close And Yet So Far

Last year John and Olivia signed up with Crystal Cruises to go see the emperor penguins in Antarctica. A longtime goal of john’s and being able to get there on a small and brand new ship while being treated to Crystal’s world-renowned service was almost too good to be true.

There were rumbling in the press over the holidays followed by the news that their German shipyard defaulted on a hefty payment. On January 19th it was all over, and while there’s a slimmer of hope the company will be back, significant investments would be needed to get the ships back sailing.

It’s all a direct result of where the world and COVID are right now. The cruise industry has been as hard hit as any, and truth be told, the thought of being in tight quarters with 300 other guests, were at times not appealing.

Anyway, we are crossing our fingers that the trip will still happen, or that we find something similar. Being at the bottom of the earth together with unique wildlife and more ice than what we can currently imagine, would certainly be a unique experience.

The Crystal Endeavour\

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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.

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Singita – Place of Miracles

Our scheduled departure time was at noon, so we managed to get in one last morning drive. We didn’t see a whole lot of game, but it was a good time to sit in the open-air vehicles and reflect on the past two and a half weeks and what an incredible trip it has been.

As for our last camp: Singitia Lebombo was wonderful. The word ‘Singitia’ means “Place of Miracles” and while Singita owns several lodges, we selfishly feel that our lodge should be the one the saying refers to. The staff – from housekeepers to rangers and everything in between, all made sure that our visit was something we will treasure for years, but also a place we look forward to revisit.

Now we’re back on Federal Air, who so often have transported us within smaller airports in Africa. They are flying us from Singita Lebombo’s airport to Johannesburg. From here Adrian and Penny will fly to Durban to spend a few days with Penny’s sister Patty and her husband Bernard. The rest of the group is leaving Johannesburg for Dubai and later San Francisco at seven o’clock tonight.

Our trip has been fantastic, and it’s always with a combination of happiness and sadness that we leave Africa. We are very lucky to have seen such extraordinary places and that we as a family can travel so well together. 

Good dish!

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Last night in Africa

The morning drive on July 5 gave sight to a beautiful rhino. We have found such respect for this animal over the years, and feel incredibly sad that to this day it is being hunted for its horn. On average 1.5 rhinos are killed a day, and it’s a constant game of cat and mouse to try to secure them from poachers. What seems to be most effective is to move them to hard to reach areas, which are far away from Kruger. With Mozambique so close to Kruger, these animals are high on the danger list and several are gone already. It’s a complex problem and there are high sums of money driving the risk the poachers take.

Most of what we saw on the morning and afternoon drive were things we had already been lucky to encounter, but we did come across a pack of five lions including an eight-months old cub. They were very lazy and were enjoying dozing off in the sun. We let them sleep before their yawns became contagious.

Some of the downtime was used to teach our ranger about the word “dish”. It was very successful and we worry about the next group he is taking out, as he is likely to say “there’s some dish over there” or “good dish” when leaving a great viewing spot. We know… it would take a lot of time to explain and it’s a terrible inside joke started by John.

During the afternoon drive the kids went to the local school and did art projects, but later joined everyone else for sundowner in their own vehicle. John had brought a bit of lighting equipment from California and shot family portraits in the sunset. Maybe the Christmas card photo is already secured…? If the pictures don’t turn out alright, it’s certainly not because of the setting.

We tried to forget that it was our last night together – and at this beautiful location. Some also tried to forget that we had not seen the elusive leopard despite setting out to find one, often crossing long distances. It therefore almost felt ironic that a leopard was spotted close to camp in the early evening. We all drove straight home hoping to get a glimpse. All got to see it and could not believe how big of a fellow he was. At the time we saw it, the sky was pitch black, but Mr. leopard didn’t seem to mind that the tracker used a flashlight to light up the grassy area where it was resting. It was great to see leopard for more than the one second some of the group got to see in Zimbabwe.

Dinner took place outside and we enjoyed having the rangers join us. It happens at some lodges, and it’s nice to relax with them and talk about something other than wildlife and nature.  During dinner Sarah, Olivia and Chris got up to thank Adrian and Penny for their incredible generosity – obviously on behalf of all of us. The staff surprised them with birthday cakes – one each – accompanied by the local singing and dancing around the open fire pit. As usual the dancers in the family couldn’t resist joining and tried to follow both steps and words.