2016 Alaska Cruise - Day 1, 2, 3, 4 (Albany, OR)

Welcome to another summer adventure with Tim and Denise.  This trip will be a special one as we honor Dale and Julee's 50th Wedding Anniversary by traveling to Seattle to get on a cruise ship and cruise to Alaska.  It is going to be so fun.  But first......

Denise and I, rather than traveling stand by on United, decided to use our air mile points from previous trips on Delta to fly direct to Eugene Oregon.  As it turns out, we would not have been able to get on a flight out of SLC on United as most flights were over sold.  So we made a great decision there.  We arrived in Eugene at 12:15 and was met by our wonderful kids (Travis and Mackenzie) who are out here selling pest control services.  They live in Albany, Oregon which is about a 50 minute drive north of Eugene.

After loading our baggage into their nice, new to them, car, we headed off looking for some lunch.  Travis had looked up a Diner's, Drive-In's and Dive location that he thought sounded fun.  We arrived and drove around the block looking for this sandwich shop many times.  It turned out that it was a small trailer sitting in a small little area with some picnic tables out in front of it.  Yes...we found it finally. But it was worth the wait.  The sandwiches were really quite good...much more than we needed.

After our meal, we drove Travis to his area in Eugene where he is selling the services.  Timing was good because his whole team is in Eugene for the next few weeks selling.  So we had to drop him off there and leave him to go get some 'sales'.  They are lucky to get one sale a day...and two a day is pretty good.  Crazy work.  Anyway...we left him there and headed to Albany.

We arrived at their apartment here around 3 PM.  We kind of just hung out until we had to take Mackenzie (with Madison, my nephew's wife) to this little warehouse area where they work in a small office answering phones for the same company that these guys work for (Pointe Pest Control).  Pretty scary, isolated area, it is.  I hope they lock the doors when there.  Anyway, Denise and I returned to the apartment where I worked a bit online and Denise read some books.  Later, we picked up Mackenzie around 8:30 PM and came home and waited until Travis returned home...around 10 PM.

Our trip has begun.....

Day Two:

Day 2 was a work day for me.  So I started around 6 AM and worked until about 3:30 PM'ish.  When everyone was up, we went with Austin, Madison, Travis and Mackenzie to Elmer's...a breakfast house. The food was really good.  From there, we returned back to the apartment and Travis and Austin went off to work.  A bit later, Denise and Mackenzie went shopping for some material to make a quilt for Mackenzie.  I worked.  :-)  At about 3:45, we took Mackenzie and Madison to work again.  Then Denise and I went to visit Miranda to see their new baby.  Miranda is the wife of another nephew of mine here.  I have 3 nephews and a son of my cousins (Rachel) who are all working out here.  We had a nice visit with Miranda and their baby was sleeping...so we just got to view him...not hold him.  He is a beautiful baby boy!

After visiting a bit there, we headed off to go to the movies.  I'm always amazed how much more expensive a movie is outside the state of Utah.  Nonetheless, we saw the new Star Trek movie.  The theater, well, it is similar to the Bountiful theater (only you pay twice as much here).  And from what I can tell, it is the only theater in Albany (7 screens).  A fellow sitting just down from us thought the movie was a comedy!  He laughed through the whole darn thing...out loud.  Even in the most serious points, he'd start cracking up.  People were dying and he was laughing.  It caused us all to chuckle and look at him.  Anyway, I did not realize I was going to a comedy.

After watching the movie, I took their car to a car wash to shine it up for them as it had lots of bugs on it. I think this was Travis doing free pest control the past few weeks.  Anyway, the car shined up nicely.  After doing that, we headed back to pick up Mackenzie from work and headed back to the apartment. There, she had prepared some really good zucchini boat things that were soooo good.  I had not eaten anything since breakfast.  And by the time we ate...10 PM...I was starving.   But it is not good to eat that late...at least for me.  But these kids, due to their schedules, eat then always!  Bummer.

Day Three:

I am writing this waiting for everyone to get up and go.  I think we are headed up to Portland since none of us have been there before (other than in airports).  Travis decided to take his last vacation day today.  That was surprising...but we are glad to spend more time with him.  He is trying to get to 150 sales and he is at 130 with about 3 weeks left.  I hope he makes it.  

Portland was a lot of fun.  We weren't quite sure what we were going to do up there...but in the end, it was a full day.  We first headed to downtown Portland searching for a good doughnut...and found the famous VooDoo Dougnut shop.  It only took 45 minutes in line, one plate of nachos from a food truck while waiting to spend $28 on a dozen doughnuts.  I must say, they were all really yummy and they have lasted 3 days almost.  My favorite, actually was the boring old Buttermilk doughnut.  I did get one that was called 'The Champ'.  It had a lemon frosting on it and was filled with cherry filling.  They made it look like a baseball.  Anyway....all of them were so rich.  We did not need that many.

After getting the doughnuts, we walked through a street fair over to the river.  There we sat down and sampled the doughnuts we had just purchased.  It was fun to watch the people and see some of the shops.  After about 2 hours of doughnut waiting and consumption, we headed off to see the Portland Rose Gardens.  We easily found them but parking was an issue.  We eventually found a spot and then jumped on a bus that took you through the park making many stops along the way.  In addition to the Rose Gardens, the Japanese Gardens and the Oregon Zoo were also found in this park.  The park is actually on a hillside which made the travel interesting too.  Nonetheless, it was fun and relaxing.

After leaving the gardens, we headed to a deli called out by the Diners, Drive-ins and Dive show.  Unfortunately, traffic was crazy and our GPS was not real clear on where a split occurred at and we ended up missing the exit.  So we just continued on to the Portland Temple.  The temple sits right on I5, kind of like the San Diego Temple.  Boy is it pretty!  There were many bridal parties there.

After leaving the temple grounds, we headed down back to Albany.  The sales team was going to celebrate their good week by purchasing wings and pizza and going to a park to play some soccer.  There were some 30 people who showed up of the boys and their wives and friends who were out visiting.  It was a very nice evening visiting with all the kids.  The weather here in Albany is cool and pleasant.

Day Four:

Today was the Sabbath so we got up and attended our church meetings.  The ward was so friendly and nice.  It was a nice 3 hours.  Brings us comfort that Travis and Mackenzie are around really nice people.  After church, we relaxed a bit and then with Austin, Madison, Dalin, Miranda, Beau and Tyler we headed to Newport...an Oregon beach town.  We paid to get into a park where a lighthouse was called Yaquina Point.  As we were walking out to the lighthouse, we noticed a rock moving down in the water.  It was a gray WHALE!!  I saw my first whale in open water.  It was huge.  We watched that whale for quite awhile as we walked out to the lighthouse and back.  We also went down to a black sand beach to play around there.

After leaving Yaquina, we headed to a restaurant to get some food as most everyone was hungry.  We found a place on Nye Beach called the 'Chowder Bowl'.  We ended up getting a table for 10 and enjoyed some pretty good seafood and chowder.  Very yummy.  After that we headed down to Nye Beach where we played Bocci Ball and watched people fly their kites.  It was pretty cool and windy...but it felt good to be at the ocean again.  

After few hours on the beach, we headed back to Albany.  We arrived back around 9:00PM.  I had to pack my bags quickly.  Then after visiting with Austin, Madison, Travis and Mackenzie, we headed off to bed with our hearts and minds on Karlie and Dustin back in Utah and the life changing events taking place in their lives there.

Tomorrow, early, we get on an Amtrak train and head to Seattle.

Pictures:

Pointe Salesman off to do his work.....

Part of the sales crew after a game of knock out....

Lunch in Eugene....the Sandwich League.

Denise and Mackenzie at the food truck.....

Glad to see each other again.......

Our handsome son and his beautiful mother....

Baby Daniel (Dalin and Miranda's First Born).....

Our drive to Portland begins....

Nachos while waiting in line for Voodoo Doughnuts....

Our dougnut box....

The prized doughnut possessions....

Sampling a few.....

Travis and Mackenzie at the Rose Garden...

Denise in a field of yellow roses...

Check out the true photo bombers in the background....

Having a great time seeing the Portland area with those we love....

Portland Temple....so pretty.

Beau with his nephew (Daniel) at the soccer fields.....

Yaquina Lighthouse with Travis, Mackenzie, Denise and I....

Herb i.e. the gray whale!!!

Down on the beach with the whole crew....

The whole crew again...Tyler, Beau, Madison, Austin, Travis, Mackenzie, Denise and I....

Nye Beach...

Yummy clam chowder at the Chowder Bowl.....

The Yaquina Lighthouse from Nye Beach...

Ladder Ball at Nye Beach.....notice the stroller that has a line that is attached to a kite.  That's the way to fly a kite!

2016 - Oahu Hawaii - Day 4

Today was the beginning of our trip home or so we thought. We woke up early in the morning  at 6 AM to watch general conference. We really enjoyed the first session of conference. In between that session iand the next session we got showered and packed our bags so we could leave when the 2nd session ended.  We then watched the second session of conference out by the small swimming pool and garden that they have behind their own.  It is quite pretty back there.  So at noon, we loaded the car, and headed over to Honolulu.  But before I left, I asked if we could return if we did not get on a flight.  That proved to be prophetic.  

It took about 20 minutes to get to the other side of the island.  We remembered that they have a big flea market by Aloha Stadium.  So we thought, why not.  It cost two dollars to park the car.  We walked around just long enough to find a colorful poncho for Denise.  She bought it and she was done!  It was quite hot.  So off we went not knowing where to go.  I then suggested the old stand by...a movie.  Denise loved the idea...so,off we went to the closest theater.  We saw the movie where the little girl has a horrible des ease but after falling from a tree, is miraculously cured.  It was pretty good.  

After the movie, we headed to the airport in hopes of getting on a plane.  But...that was not happening.  There were 70+ standby passengers in queue for a plane that had no seats to Houston.  On a flight to Denver, we were # 1 & 2 in the queue.  We got excited when the gate agent said there were 2 seats.  But then she gave them to two fellows who had military orders. We were crushed.  We did learn, while waiting, that an LAX flight had been delayed 12 hours until the next day.  That turned out to be a blessing.  We went and got a rental car and returned to out Airbnb room.  While there, we mulled our options and went to bed.  At 3:30 AM, I woke up and checked the plane loads.  The LAX flight was the best. It had 150 seats open now.  It was to leave at 7:30 AM.  We got on that flight along with 130 other standby passengers.  It must have been spring break and tons of United employees and their families were trying to get home.  Once I knew I was making it to LAX, I looked at purchasing a flight from there to SLC because United only had one flight remaining to SLC and it had no seats.  The cost of flights home versus hotel plus United tax costs would be ability a wash..so we booked two seats on Alaska Air.  We were home by 10 PM.

It was a fun trip other than the stressful standby flying.  Hawaii is beautiful.  Some pictures....

The pool and me...watching conference on IPAD.....

ALOHA Stadium...

Me,after having waited an eternity, to get a snow cone.  Notice the photographer is away standing in the shade....

The photographer ended up,with the goods....

Coming home finally...lights out!

2016 - Oahu Hawaii - Day 3

Day 3 was a nice day.  We both got sunburns yesterday.  So you mix that with a messed up internal clock and warmer weather...sleeping has been tough.  So we were both up early again.  I once again logged into work and knocked a few emails out.  But I chose to not get on to meetings.  However, I was thinking that I would not blog but in the end chose to do it...right then.  That took longer than planned.  So we got a late start.  Our plan was to go to Laie and visit the LDS temple there.  We wanted to do the 10 AM session but arrived there at 9:55 AM....too late.  So we walked around the temple grounds, visited the visitor center and took pictures.  We then attended the 11 AM session.

Funny story...as we pulled out of Kaneohe towards Laie, Denise mentioned she forgot a wire to power our devices...should they need it.  I got all over her for that.  (She loves that about me...my patience with such omissions.). Anyway, while sitting in the temple, it occurred to me that I ran out of the place so fast hoping to get to Laie and into the 10 am session that I forgot my GoPro...which I wanted for my snorkeling adventures later on.  Now I knew that Denise would rip into me about this after I had done that to her.  So being the smart man that I am...I decided to tell her in the temple...what could she do there?  She would not interrupt the serene, peaceful spirit that we felt there...right?  So as we completed our session and coming down the stairs to change back into our street clothes...I whispered to her...'I forgot my GoPro!'.  She looked at me, wanting to kill me, then we both burst into a quiet giggle.  There was nothing she could do.  I know she wanted to slug me.  But a temple going person wouldn't do that...right?  It was so funny!

After the temple session, we changed into our beach attire and headed further north.  Along the way, we hit an area that had food trucks.  Most of them sold shrimp, as shrimp farms are all near by.  But, we chose a BBQ guy.  He was personable.  But his food ended up being a bit lacking...compared to the lunch we got our first day here.  So we were a little bummed.  

We returned to our car and drove to the Turtle Bay resort.  There is a cove there where the reef system is good and fish are plentiful.  It was nice.  A bit crowded though.  We found shade for Denise and I headed to the water.  The snorkeling was pretty good.  There were lots of fish to see and the coral colors were better than Hanauma Bay.  We stayed for a couple of hours there.  Very relaxing.

The drive back to Kaneohe took about an hour.  Most of the time the max speed is 35 mph.  You do get a few rare spots where 45 mph is the limit.  But the numerous 25 mph cancels that out.  It is a beautiful drive with gorgeous green mountains on one side and blue, blue ocean on the other.  Upon arriving, we showered and drove into Kailua Town to a Pub there.  The fish and chips were recommended and we were not disappointed.  I got a French Dip which was also awesome.  We split things up...yummy meal.

After dinner, we returned to our room to relax, enjoy the cool breeze,s and get ready for a travel day tomorrow.  I checked the loads on the planes and oh my goodness...every United employee from SFO and LAX are trying to get home.  Ques of people to those places are in the 70's with maybe 20 seats available or less.  Not good...it is not like Europe where you can jump on train and get to another airport.  We'll see how it goes.  Pray for this poor couple!  😄

Some pictures.....

Hawaii Laie Temple is beautiful....

Us in the visitors center....

Denise's island cook...whose food was not that good.

The meat...mostly bones.  Bummer....

Don't look at the cleavage.  This shot is here to show the sunburn...ouch!

Beautiful mountains....

...even  when it clouds up.

Pub food.  We also watched the Warriors lose at home for the first time since last year.  The place was going crazy over that.  My root beer did not have the same impact as their beers!  😄

2016 - Oahu Hawaii - Day 1 & 2

Aloha!  We made it back to Hawaii.  So nice to be back to Oahu as it has been many, many years (23 maybe?).

Our trip began on Dustin's birthday with the caveat that we WOULD BE home Sunday to be a part of the family gathering to celebrate his 31st bday.  The flights looked really good going and a little tight getting back.  So we went for it.  Plus, I had already put some money down for an AIRBNB place on the windward side of the island.

We easily got on our flight to SFO.  We arrived well in time to make the connection.  However, when arriving to the gate, the monitors showed only one seat available.  And get this....37 standby's listed.  We were 7 & 8 on the list.  It looked grim.  So my back up plan was San Luis Obisbo....lots of seats to there.  In the end, they gave 9 seats out and we got on.

It was a 5 + hour flight to Honolulu.  We arrived on time at 7:30 PM, got our rental car...$9 per day I might add...and arrived to our room at 8:30.  It took some time to walk and get the car.  The drive to Kaneohe was only 20 minutes.

Lesley, the owner, was there waiting to greet us.  The room is very nice with a nice little sitting area outside the room.  She has a little nook with supplies for a small breakfast.  The bathroom facilities are all right there.  Very nice choice I made....if I say so myself!

Right to bed and to sleep we went.

Day 2.....

I naturally woke up at 2:30 AM due to my body's clock.  I did fall back to sleep but was up working at 5:30 AM.  I had meetings and calls until 8:30 AM.  I logged off about 9 AM and started to get ready to hit some beaches!

The nice thing about people who host through AIRBNB at resort like places is that they usually provide all the beach things you need.  They have towels, beach bags, chairs, mats, snorkel gear....the whole deal.  So we gathered up what we needed and headed to Kailua Beach...about 10 minutes down the road.  

Kailua beach....

This beach is a beautiful beach that works well for families with young kids.  It is scarcely populated.  The sand is awesome.  The sand bar goes way out into the ocean.  So boogie boarding and body surfing is quite easy to do....and is really fun.  It was so easy that I convinced my dear wife to go out further into the ocean and to bob a little to catch a wave.  I think she loved it!  Great fun.  We did not stay too long at Kailua.  We became hungry.  So around 11 AM we decided to pack up and go find some lunch.  We ended up in a small Hawaiian BBQ place..  They all sell 'plates' at lunch time for about the same cost.  The food reminded me of Mobetah's back home.  Very good,

We then drove the southern eastern coastline trekking our way to Haunauma Bay.  I wanted to find my wedding ring that I lost there while swimming so many years ago!  We spent the rest of the afternoon there.  I snorkeled many times over the shallow coral reefs.  The fish life is abundant and fun to watch.  Denise made friends with a lady from Germany who had travelled here to be with her daughter who is attending San Diego State University.  They were struggling with the unplanned expenses that the resorts were throwing at them.  I felt good about the cheaper way I went using Advantage rental car and AIRBNB. I think they are converts now.

We returned to our room, showered, and then went off to find dinner.  We ended up in a Chinese place.  The food was good.  Our choice of the recommended Taro Duck was not the best.  We could have chosen better.  We then hit Foodland, a grocery store, to buy some breakfast stuff.  Naturally, we picked up some Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream to eat while we sat outside, watching the sun go down over Kaneohe Bay...and watching the end of the movie Creed that we had started on our first flight.  After the movie, we came in, tucked ourselves into bed and lights out!  Another day awaits us tomorrow.

Nice chairs at SFO.....

Our place at Kaneohe...

Prisoner.....

Kaneohe Bay from our room...

Kailua Beach...tough life.

Lunch....way too much!

My goal...snorkeling fun...Hanauma Bay.

Dinner....

2016 - Playa Del Carment - Day 6

Travel home day.....

Today is Sunday and I'm in the air traveling from Houston to Salt Lake City.  The trip home, even though it is standby, has gone well.   We woke up around 7 AM, showered, adjusted our suitcase packing and then went off to breakfast to meet our group at 8:30 AM.  It was fun to eat together and just discuss how good it was to be together down in Mexico.  After eating and giving everyone hugs, Denise and I were off to retrieve our bags and head to the lobby to check out.  We had planned to leave around 9:45 to catch a taxi to take us to the bus terminal where we would buy bus tickets to get us to the airport in Cancun.  We were targeting the 10:30 AM bus.  I tried to buy tickets last night online.  But I seem to have problems using VISA online when traveling international.  The cost per person is 162 pesos (~$9) when buying at the bus terminal.  But online, I could have bought them for 96 pesos (~$6).  Oh well.  To take a shuttle, it would have cost us $60 for both of us.  By taking a taxi and a bus, it cost us ~$25 for both.  Nice savings.  My kids laugh at me when I do stuff like this.  :-). But it is fun to try to do what the locals would do.  I asked the Taxi driver when the people go to church here in Mexico.  He said in the afternoon.  I had previously asked him about his family and asked what his children were doing while he was working right then.  He said...sleeping.  It was almost 10 AM.  I then asked the church question.  It has been fun speaking Spanish again.  I know I sound horrible...but who cares.

We were able to get on the 10:10 bus to the airport.  The trip made two stops...one in another location in Playa Del Carmen and another at Puerto Morales.   Both stops were extremely quick.  But there is a bus running about every 20 minutes.  It was a nice big bus and even had Ironman (in Spanish) playing on TV's.  It was fun.  We arrived at the airport not knowing which terminal to get off at.  Terminal 1 was obviously not the one.  But everyone got off at Terminal 2.  We wondered...so we got off too.  However, I began to ask and the guy unloading our bags thought that terminal 3 was the one we needed.  So we threw our bags back on and jumped back on the bus.  That was a good choice as terminal 3 was the correct stop.

Our flight to Houston left at 2:50 PM.  It was on time and not full.  We easily got on.  There were no surprises getting through the security checks there.  We arrived around 4 PM  at Houston and headed through customs.  Awhile ago, Denise and I spent a few dollars extra to get Global Entry authorization.  Boy does that make a big difference getting through customs.  We flew through!  Our next flight was not until 6 PM so we found some food (BBQ) and Denise and I shared a plate.  I'm still sweating.  I don't know why BBQ does that to me.

The SLC flight was on time.  But they were asking for people to come off the flight.  So it did not look good.  The United App showed two seats open...so we felt like we had hope.  They were asking people to possibly come off due to weight restrictions.  But slowly they added all the revenue paying customers back on.  At that point I went to the gate agent and asked if any standby's would get on.  He said 'no' due to weight restrictions.  So they closed the door and I thought it was over.  I even asked him to roll us over to the 9 PM flight.  But, I stood there watching the plane not go.  And they were not closing the plane's door.  Then over the microphone, I heard the pilot say they still had two seats.  The gate agent looked up for us and I said...yes...we are still here!  Let's go!  And off we went scrambling down the jetway.  I'm glad they did not weigh us as we had eaten a ton of food this past week!  I'm surprised the plane got off the ground!   You honestly never know, when flying standby, if you are going to get a seat or not.  More than not...you usually do.  Anyway...this is good.  Denise's parents won't have to stay up late to get us.  But one of us will go back to the airport at 11:30 PM to get Ashley and Brent.  And then...our trip will be officially over.  Travis, Mackenzie, Dustin and Kerri are all coming home on Tuesday.

One last note...while sitting at the airport, Travis texted and said that they had made it to Cancun where they are staying a few nights.  They hooked a ride with Michael, his uncle.  Michael made it a fun trip by being pulled over by the policia Mexicana.  He had to negotiate his ticket down to $40.  He said he was not speeding and that tons of cars were flying by him.  I do believe the Mexican authorities there target rental cars and non-Mexican looking people.  It's a shame that they do that.  I'm sure it will be a good memory for Travis and Mackenzie!

A few random pictures will be posted here once I"m home...

We did a TON of this while down there!  (Selfie Photos)

While on the airport, I learned how to create pictures from my GoPro video that was taken.  This is a shot of Travis and Mackenzie.  I thought I was back in Israel with that cloth on Travis' head!

This is how my wife travels.... :-)

It was a beautiful sky and ocean.  I hate to leave it....