Kiwis Aren’t Keen on Tips–Fine with Us!
We joined Sarah Keenan and Melissa Prentice for dinner at the Jervois Steak House on Ponsonby Road last night. These two women are media reps for NZ Tourism and Auckland Tourism, and they told us about their lives here in Auckland, the battle over Marmite versus Vegemite, and what it […]
No Junk Mail, Please!
With no scheduled meetings or sites we have to see, we were free to explore Ponsonby Road and the California-like neighborhood where we are staying. There are many small bungalows and stately early 1900s era buildings, and cool cafes and shops along this main thoroughfare. Before we set out, Proprietor […]
Air New Zealand: A Luxurious Ride in the Sky
We took the long flight last night from LAX to Auckland. Air New Zealand did not disappoint, business class was just as much fun and as comfy as we had hoped for. My friend Johnny Jet told me on the phone before we left that he had one of the […]
Saturday on Venice Beach
Our day in Marina del Rey began with a walk. A marathon walk all around the marina, we basked in the bright sunlight that has eluded us so long in our New England home. We walked and walked, and talked about our idea to come out here in February and […]
The Crappy Van Should Have Tipped Us Off
We landed last night at LAX about 47 minutes ahead of schedule. That gave us time to call the hotel shuttle and wait about 30 minutes for the decrepid van festooned with signs about the LA Adventurer ‘All Suite’ hotel. Ugh. You can just tell what happened next. The beat-up […]
Even Though People are Talkin’ The Cafe Grows On
Last night as I was playing with little Nathan, I flipped the TV to the Deerfield channel. This is where you see people having televised meetings to govern the town. Imagine my surprise that just as I tuned in, they were talking about the cafe. Board member Steve, a familiar […]
Can Concrete Balls Stop a Volcano’s Mud Flow?
In last night’s Wall St. Journal a story was told about how a geophysicist in Indonesia is trying to stanch the flow of mud from an erupting volcano—by dropping concrete balls down into the crater. It’s a last ditch effort to keep the mud from destroying more houses, and factories […]
Al Gore is a Man You Can Tell Your Kids About
Richard Cohen writes a syndicated column for the Washington Post, and he wrote today about a true American hero: Al Gore. Like a billion others, I watched Al up there on the Oscar stage, and I agree with Cohen–Gore’s a winner, regardless of what happened back in 2000. “Now it […]