Our blog is no longer needed to update our family now that we are home (though some would argue they knew more about what we were doing from our prolific travel updates then they do today). It is still a nice way to preserve our memories of this time in our lives.
We have been home in Vancouver from our little big trip for 7 months now. Exactly one year after our nervous arrival into Colombia we decided to celebrate with a little get away to Las Vegas. While I have been there a number of times over the years, this was only Leanne’s and my second visit to sin city together. We saw Jerry Seinfeld (comedic genius) perform stand-up comedy at Ceasar’s Palace, watched another magnificent Cirque-de-Soleil performance, made some money at the sports books, and enjoyed the broad selection of exceptional dining around the strip. We also rented Leanne’s favorite vehicle, a mini-cooper-s, for a drive in the desert.
For Leanne’s birthday we flew to Hawaii and stayed on both Maui and Oahu. We had many highlights during our visit. Driving an open-top jeep through and above the clouds to the top of the volcano crater in Maui. Venturing out to a remote beach in Oahu where much of the show LOST was filmed to discover dozens of enormous sea turtles basking on the sand. And my favorite moment was when we walked the ocean trail at sunset in Kapalua. It was a romantic evening and we had the boardwalk over the lush vegetation, the path over volcanic rocks, and the beaches all to ourselves. We arrived at Merriman’s and had drinks at the ocean’s edge before going in for a great meal and some fantastic live music.
A few weeks ago we spent five days around Los Angeles and had fun being typical tourists. We spent a full day at Universal Studios on a VIP tour where we wandered through tv and movie sets and had front of the line access to all the rides and shows. It was a great way to visit. We stayed near Beverly Hills and drove out to Malibu, and Santa Barbara. I had a ticket for game 7 of the NBA Western Conference Finals between LA and Phoenix, but it didn’t materialize as LA finished the series in 6 games. That afternoon we decided to go to Disneyland. We arrived at 5PM on a Monday night and stayed until it closed at midnight. For two adults this is the way to do it. We didn’t wait more than 5 minutes for any ride and had a blast being big kids and remembering our trips here when we were young.
In Vancouver we have been making a deliberate effort to take advantage of living downtown in the entertainment district. We have been to a number of amazing concerts. Some enjoyable nights at the Commodore Ballroom and some bigger shows including David Gray, and Sting’s opening night tour with the Philharmonic Orchestra. Last weekend we went to the season finale for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. It takes us no more than five minutes to go from our apartment to our seats in the Orpheum. We have been enjoying the Vancouver seawall and I’ve been out on my motorcycle a few times. Life is going well. Here’s hoping Vancouver has good weather this summer.