2017-06-13 - Tuesday - Honolulu

Tuesday we flew to Honolulu. It reminds me of Atlanta with palm trees. Lots of traffic and lots of tourists.

We stayed at a huge hotel that is part of a famous chain. It consists of 7 towers and a whole village.

We arrived at 10:30 am and were asked if we wanted an upgrade to a king bed instead of a full so we said, "Sure." Unfortunately it took us 7 hours to get our room. Check-in was supposed to be at 3:00 pm, but that time came and went. We had to hang around the lobby and various lounges. Most places like lobbies and even the airport are "open air" so we were sitting in 80+ degree weather while waiting.

Finally, at about 4:00 pm we asked the "manager on duty" what our status was and he said that they could not get the previous guests to leave the room. I said, "So you mean to tell me that there are 3400 rooms in this hotel, but only 4 king size beds?"

He offered us coupons for free ice cream.

We checked back at 5:00 pm and nothing had changed.

At 5:30 pm we were told they were going to give us another room since they couldn't get our room ready in time. Maybe Keith Richards was staying there.

When we finally got our room it was a corner unit in the Rainbow Tower with 2 balconies --one looking out over Waikiki Beach and the other looking at the other towers.

While it took us 7 hours to get our room, Karen's 2 associates showed up and both got upgraded to a king size bed, and were in their room in the Rainbow Tower within 15 minutes of arriving. Go figure.

The rest of our stay was good after securing a room.

That evening we went to The Yard House where I had another coconut porter and this:

KUROBUTA PORK BURGER

spicy candied bacon, white american cheese, arugula, blueberry ketchup, fries.

Yes, blueberry ketchup. I always work on trying new things. It was good, but not a favorite. It was either that or the Vampire Tacos.

Waikiki Beach.

Two balconies.

Pigeons everywhere.

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2016-06-07 - Tuesday - High Museum

Tuesday, I had a nice breakfast with Karen in the hotel, did some work in the room, and then walked the four blocks to the High Museum of Art. I checked out the permanent collection and then spent a long time in the Vik Muniz exhibit.

Mark Rothko

Peter Voulkos

Peter Voulkos

Deborah Butterfield

...and then it was time to get lost in the Vik Muniz exhibit for a while. The breadth of his creativity is amazing. He does portraits in black beans, caviar, peanut butter and jelly, junk, powdered pigments, magazine photos, dirt, sugar, and on, and on.

He's done huge arrangements of junk and photographed it from two or three stories up. He worked with an MIT pioneer to use a laser to engrave sand castles on single grains of sand and then photographed them with a microscope. From there he used bulldozers on a plain to make huge sketches and took aerial photographs of them.

What scale. What an inventive mind without boundaries.

Using plastic army men.

Full piece.

Detail 1

Detail 2

Placard

Frank's caviar

Placard

Dracula's caviar

Placard

Monas

Placard

Out in the courtyard...

House III by Roy Lichtenstein
This sculpture changes perspective as you walk past it.

On my walk back to the hotel I couldn't resist grabbing some snapshots of midtown. It's very photogenic.

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2016-06-06 - Monday - Atlanta

Karen had a conference in Atlanta on Tuesday so we drove down on Monday afternoon. Unfortunately, due to some last minute work phone calls we ended up in Midtown Atlanta at 5:02 pm. It was complete gridlock and it took us way longer than it should have to get to the hotel, but we made it.

Monday evening we went to Lure for some seafood. I love scallops and I wasn't disappointed with my choice. Seared scallops placed around rice porridge, slivered asparagus, and lemon emulsion, topped with arugula. It would be an understatement to say I enjoyed it.

I topped it off with a Wild Heaven Ode to Mercy Imperial Brown Ale. It was recommended by our waitress and it turned out to be a wonderful choice.

We stayed on the 21st floor.

 

Yum.

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