We made it to Hawaii. We left the boat early. I planned to call the financial institution to get my account unlocked while we were waiting for the museum to open. As it happened, the grounds crew were making a terrific racket with their gas powered lawn tools. After we got inside, I got the account unlocked and all was well.

We decided to visit the Bishop’s Museum. They have the world’s largest collection of Polynesian artifacts. It was an impressive place to see. They wanted to build a new outrigger canoe with authentic materials. The problem is they didn’t have a large enough tree of the correct type. No problem, they teamed up with Native Americans in Alaska. Voila! New authenticate canoe.

For the first time ever, I attended a planetarium show and stayed awake for the entire show. They showed how to navigate with no modern navigation aids. A group called the Polynesian Voyaging Society built a dual canoe and sailed it from Hawaii to Tahiti and back using only traditional navigation techniques. They plan to sail around the world.

My favorite exhibit was the feather cape owned by King Kalani’opu’u. This was not a duplicate. It was the original cape, from the 1779.The king gave this cape to Captain Cook. In return, Cook made such an ass of himself that the Hawaiians killed him. You can read the story here. Death of James Cook. (No, they never thought James Cook was a god.)

Another fav was Kaneikokala. When the museum was renovated recently, the workmen couldn’t move the statue. They decided this god enjoyed being where he was. They carefully covered him and did the restoration around him.

I round up my top three with an ancient double canoe, which was restored. They pointed out that the lashings are considered sacred. That makes sense. The lashings are what holds everything together. Wood is strong, but the person doing the lashings better know what he is doing.

As usual, I will put a couple of pics in the web site. I hope all are doing well.

We had another day of very good weather. We thought that with the holiday over, Balboa Park wouldn’t be very crowded. How wrong we were. Not only is school still out, butthe first Tuesday of the month is free day. Every family within 100 miles with kids went to Balboa Park today. We spent out time at the Natural History museum. We broke early for lunch and managed to have a very short wait for some pretty decent food.

From the famous people files: You saw James Bond in the pool by himself (Skyfall – Shanghai). You saw Paul Newman in the pool by himself (The Color of Money). Now you can see Danita in the pool by herself (taken from our balcony). Pretty cool, huh?

One thing we don’t often get while on a cruise is good Tex-Mex food. So it’s tacos for us tonight. Tomorrow it’s supposed to rain. We’ll be boarding the ship around 11:00. Then it’s five days at sea to get to Hawaii.

I’ll add two more pics on the website. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

A shot of Balboa Park

A somewhat unnatural dinosaur at the Natural History Museum

We had a wonderful flight to San Diego. It was only 60% full. Danita took the isle, I took the window, and we had an empty seat between us. The only problem was, it was one of the first flights of the day. We set our alarm to 3:30 Eastern time and stayed awake until 8:00 Pacific time. The hotel was generous, offering us free breakfast before we could check in. It helped that most of their guests were hung over from whatever they did on New Year’s Eve, keeping their breakfast open unusually late.

We spent much of the day at Balboa park, visiting the car museum and the aerospace museum. It’s not far from our hotel as the crow flies, but we had to pick up to pedestrian bridges over I-5. WE walked about 3.5 miles, not counting the walking we did inside the museums.

For dinner, we had a Domino’s Pizza, located across across the street. I’ll put a few pics on the web site.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

An organ rehearsal entertained a small crowd.

Loui’s car traveled from CA to NY and back to CA without ever stopping. They refueled while traveling. They even changed tires without stopping.

Sitting in a DeLorean was every bit as bad as they say.

The big event of the week occurred Thursday. Danita paid the lawyer and closed Bud’s checking account. There wasn’t any doubt that she would be able to do it, but having done it brought a great sense of relief.

Our microwave died. It’s hard to believe how much we rely on it. Our response was unprecedented. W didn’t check with Consumer Reports. We didn’t read any reviews. We didn’t visit multiple stores. I didn’t try to fix the old one. We simply drove to Bray and Scarf and bought one. They installed the new one Tuesday and took the old one away. Our old microwave was manufactured in 2011. Who could ask more of a microwave? A couple of days later, I couldn’t resist a peak at Consumer Reports. I was disappointed in their report. They listed a half dozen “top” models. There was no detailed information. Several of the top models had a notation that the owners were not satisfied. How can a model with unhappy owners be listed as one of the best? As usual, “they” keep on changing things. What I like the most about our new microwave is that the controls are almost exactly the same as the old one. Our only “must have” feature was a button to “add 30 seconds”.

I hope everybody has a very merry Christmas.

We drove up for an overnighter at JAMMM’s. Guess who had a hard time keeping still while opening presents. Even Maia was active holding her head up and rolling over. Sunday was damp but good enough for some time at the park. We enjoyed a big lunch at Texas Roadhouse before heading back home. I’ll put some pictures on the website.

I hope everybody is enjoying the Christmas season.

Danita is almost through closing Bud’s estate. It’s funny, but what’s holding her back is that the lawyer is not allowed to invoice for his services yet. It will be another couple of weeks. After Danita gets the invoice, she can pay the lawyer and close the last bank account. Whew. Bud’s estate was set up to be very easy to settle. We never believed how much bureaucracy would be involved.

Ed and Lynne came down on Tuesday and took Dee to lunch. (They let me tag along). We had a great time. We went to Seasons 52. It’s a very nice upscale chain. The next day, Dee got sick. She had a headache, digestive issues, and general aches and pains. It lasted two days. Fortunately, she was better by Friday and we were able to go to the neighborhood party.

I was scheduled to count today. After that, I wanted to change a tire on my bike and pack for our cruise. Holland America invited us to use a luggage service that picks up at our door and delivers to our stateroom. That’s a great service, and the best thing is that it is included in our cruise. In other words, FREE!!! They will pick up our suitcases this Thursday. It’s not too early to pack, but it’s also not too late. That’s a good thing because counting took much longer than normal. We were off by one $20 check. We finally gave up. We’ll see what the bank says. Changing the tire was much harder than I expected it to be. I worked on it for well over an hour. It’s a good thing I have more time to pack, because I didn’t get any packing done today. Danita’s brave. She doesn’t plan to pack until Thursday morning.

That’s it for us. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Danita had wonderful news. She got all of the documents and approvals required too close Bud’s estate. She was ecstatic. It looks realistic that every last “i” will be dotted before we leave for our cruise.

We just got back from spending a weekend with the Reeds. The drive down and back were tiring but uneventful. We started our visit with a half-day family church retreat. We played a simple but fun game. We went to a multiplex that shows classic Christmas movies this time of year and saw “Elf”. It holds up well. It was a lot of fun. Here is a pic of Danita, Jul, and the kids solving a puzzle for their Advent Calendar.

Poor Danita. She finally got the ruling from GPO about Bud’s death benefit. She was so excited. Then she found out that she has weeks of more bureaucracy to deal with from the register of wills. Or is it the probate court? Whatever. She visited the lawyer last week and will visit again tomorrow. But she still doesn’t now when the estate will finally be settled. We’ll be happy if it happens this year.

We visited Tony and Donna Sochurek (friends from Marriage Encounter) at Oak Crest last week. Tony is in assisted living. He has been in and out of the hospital, but he’s out for now. His attitude is marvelous considering all he’s gone through medically. He’s one of the very few people who leaves assisted living to eat at the regular restaurants. His doctors recommend it, to let hem talk and interact with other people to keep is mind sharp. Donna is adjusting to living in independent living. Their good news was that their house is sold. They got an excellent price. The buyer offered a cash purchase and wanted access to the house quickly. The sale couldn’t have gone better.

We’re going to have a very small Thanksgiving this year. Danita and I will have dinner with Mom at Charlestown.

We’ve been talking about it. Now it looks like we will actually do it. We’re taking a 3-month cruise. The Holland America ship leaves from and returns to San Diego and cruises through the South Pacific. Highlights are a circumnavigation of Australia, several ports in New Zeeland, and of course many tropical islands. We’ll fly to San Diego on New Year’s day. At the end of the cruise, we’ll take a detour to Fort Worth to watch the total eclipse of the sun before coming home April 8. We have the visas. We have the shots. We have a packing list and a to-do list. Here’s hoping everything happens to plan. Whatever happens, it’s all part of the adventure.

As always, I hope this finds everybody doing well. Happy Thanksgiving!

We’ve been having an unusually rich and long fall foliage season. It will soon come to an and. But for now, Danita and I are enjoying the season’s last hurrah.

In the last week or two, we’ve had vaccines for Hep A, Hep B, flue, and Covid. Plus we will have one more Hep shot in the spring. Is that enough shots? Of course not. We both got the new RSV vaccine this week. We went to the CVS and jumped to the head of the line. That’s the advantage of making an appointment and following the check-in instructions. Yea.

Tuesday, Ed & Lynne and Rick & Suzy joined us for a sour beef dinner. Danita did her normal wonderful job of cooking. We enjoyed an evening of relaxed conversation. Plus Danita & I get an additional two sour beef dinners from the leftovers. One of the nice side effects of sour beef is having leftover ginger snaps. We always get some port wine cheese to have some very tasty snacks. Snacking is on hold because the ginger snaps were gone before the port wine cheese. We’ll solve that little problem by getting more ginger snaps.

Wednesday, we had a food truck dinner with the Jonses. Saturday Danita went to a neighborhood Veteran’s Day lunch while I was riding my bike. Somewhere between all of the above and the bike rides, I was able to clean the garage in wonderful 70 degree weather.

Every 4th Sunday, I go to our church as the 9:00 service is ending to help count the donations. I usually get home between Noon and 1. This time the bishop was talking during the 9:00, so the service got out late. Plus the Thanksgiving food boxes were due. That’s important because every box includes a $25.00 check, and we have to look up the parish registry number for each one of those checks. It’s a tedious job. I said I would be happy to do it. 30 seconds later I said, “Did you notice how effectively I lied?” That was good for a chuckle. At the end of the count, we were off by one $25 check. We look for but couldn’t find the error. At the end of the count, we were leaving after 2. We were all a little stressed.

That’s it for this week. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

It was a week of many appointments, from doctors to car maintenance. We have two more doctor’s appointments next week. After that, things should slow down a bit.

The big activity was a concert with snacks, deserts, and wine. A pianist played favorites from Broadway. It’s not my favorite music, but many people were having a really great time. It’s contagious.

Danita is still getting nothing from OPM. It’s frustrating that she can’t close Bud’s estate. She finally contacted Senator Sarbanes’s office to see if they could shake the tree. Unfortunately, she contacted the office just about the same time he announced he will not run for reelection. Even Danita is getting impatient.

We’ve had some wonderful weather. I’m taking advantage of the easy riding. Early this week I took a mostly-trail ride. There were so many leaves down that there were places where I had to guess where the trail goes. In one spot the leaves were so high that pieces got caught up in my chain. I reached an open area where the trail was clear, only to have the wind pick up while I was there. I was “treated” to a shower of leaves and pine needles. It’s all part of the adventure.

That’s it for this week. I hope this finds everybody doing well.