So another highlight of the recent Hawaii trip last week was a visit to the Foster Botanical Garden in downtown Honolulu. While unfortunately all the pics I took were way overexposed if not just garbage (memo to me: read the camera manual next time or just use the stupid ‘smart’ phone) – the garden has a lot of HUGE, exotic trees from all over the world, besides just some big native examples. And the outdoor butterfly garden is cool, although I only saw a couple. I saw a couple parrots in a tree near the end too, which was also exciting.

here’s some sites that give you an idea of what it’s like – DEFINITELY worth a visit, takes at least an hour or more to walk the grounds and see everything.

Map of the garden

Yelp reviews of FBG

To-Hawaii.com‘s FBG site with pics

Recent walk-around videos of FBG from YouTube

candybowl

So we were lucky enough to go to Oahu, Hawai’i this past week, related to a kerewin work trip. On Friday, I was able to visit the Foster Botanical Gardens (post forthcoming) and Diamond Head State Monument.

So I had seen a bit of Oahu recently via Marvel’s Inhumans (the show has since been cancelled) and I think at least some of the Jurassic Park movie(s) have been filmed on Oahu, too – but all of that is showbiz. But there was a scene in Inhumans where they show Diamond Head from the air, and that you can drive into it via a tunnel – pretty cool – and hike to the top of one of the rim(s), also cool.

So I took the bus to a nearby stop Friday afternoon the 15th, and started walking. You can walk all the way in, pay your $1 (cars, buses and taxis pay more) and pretty much start hiking, which is largely what I did. I would equate the hike to about 2-3x the hike up the back side of Smith Rock in central Oregon, which we’ve done a couple times in the past when visiting relatives over there, near Madras.

There are a couple good staircases, but most of it is switchbacks. Also near the top, as I hate heights for the most part, I didn’t do the very tippy top exposed staircases, but I was still pleased with the hike nonetheless, got up to almost the top in about 20 min.

the video linked here below gives you an idea of the hike – enjoy! Very cool, beautiful views and scenery, and an inexpensive way to get some exercise, to be sure.

candybowl

muy pronto, vamos a ver Zanates!

candybowl

had a great week in Montreal, Canada last week. First time there, lots to see and even more to *eat*. Some highlights:

1) Old Montreal – very cool, very euro, and the weather made seeing it all very easy (sunny and warm). Plus the huge Notre Dame cathedral in the middle was pretty impressive, too.

2) Mount Royal – huge wooded park in the northern part of the city, literally a ‘mountain’ rising up from surrounding neighborhoods. We walked all over that thing, amid some rain but still very pretty and you can see for miles once up there (even though not really a ‘mountain’ by Western standards :). the park was originally designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, whose son John Charles was the lead designer of Seattle’s own Washington Park Arboretum – nice local connection…!

3) Eating:

Brasserie T (kerewin found out about this place because Anthony Bourdain had been there a few times before);

Schwartz’s Deli – amazing smoked meat sandwiches, we should have gone twice!

Bagels – I was the only one to get to eat these (kerewin can’t do gluten) but mmmm…….! Also it’s worth noting that Montreal-style bagels have a taste and technique all their own.

Les Enfants Terribles – amazing food and great service.

4) Just plain fun. Everywhere we went it was interesting to explore, my only slight regret is that Billy Connolly was coming to town Oct 23, so we missed him – that would have capped off a great second week!

Merci beaucoup, Montreal….au revoir. Here’s some pics….

candybowl

just got back from vacation in Puerto Vallarta – enjoyed watching these crazy ‘zanates’ (otherwise known as a grackle) zip around and make weird noises all day – Zanate!

candybowl

Jason Weisberger from BoingBoing has been headed to Baja in his Westy since late Feb. I just got caught up on his journey – follow along! One of these days I hope we can do something similar, but the Syncro needs to be ‘bulletproofed’ (or we just go with a lot of other tech-head Vanagon guys) to avoid disaster. I also want to drive the Al-Can one of these days in it….!

candybowl

most recent:

Baja in my Westy — Grey Whales in San Ignacio Lagoon

from the start:

Baja in my Westy: driving to Mexico in an ’87 Volkswagen bus

Baja in my Westy: ready to leave LA

Baja in my Westy: Side tracked by Disneyland

Baja in my Westy: San Ignacio, Day 4 in MX