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August 2021 Trip to LA & Denver
Cliff and I went on our first trip together on standby. He worked for United Airlines for 43 years starting part-time during college and retired in 2015. His last job was in Operations. Before we fly, he checks which flights have many open seats for us to have a better chance of getting on. All his adult life, he has flown standby and before covid, he traveled about 17 times a year, sometimes going to Japan twice a month. This was my first time flying standby, so I learned not to expect anything but to make it on the flights we chose.
Due to the pandemic, my daughter Yvette and her family, who live in NYC, had not traveled for almost 2 years. They decided to visit her hubby Erik’s parents in Manhattan Beach in LA for a few weeks in August. I asked Cliff if we could visit her while they were in LA. He agreed and we made plans to go. We rented a car from Turo and found a motel in Manhattan Beach. We also made plans to fly from LA to Denver to visit my sister Christine in Boulder.
We took a red-eye flight to LA and our friend, Elbert picked us up with his fancy Tesla and took us to breakfast in El Segundo. He dropped us off at the Aronesty’s home in Manhattan Beach and we got to see Yvette, Erik, Noakai & Marlowe along with Joe & Diane Aronesty, Erik’s parents. That night our whole gang went to FishBar for dinner.
The next day, Cliff drove me around LA to show me his old stomping grounds of when he lived in LA from the mid-seventies to mid-eighties. We drove to his friend Beverly McAllister’s home for Mexican lunch in her back yard. She is a wonderful gardener and a baker of cookies. She sent some cookies home with us. We had pizza & kale salad for take-out dinner at the Aronesty’s. The next day we all went to breakfast at Two Guns, where we sat outside to eat. We took the kids to Seaside Lagoon at Redondo Beach where they swam. We walked to the Manhattan Beach pier and checked out the small aquarium at the end of the pier. For dinner, Cliff and I took Noakai to Sushi Bei, which was Cliff’s hangout when he lived in LA.
Erik took us to the airport & we flew to Denver and took a bus from DIA to Boulder and Chris picked us up at the bus terminal. Chris cooked dinner for us and Desmonne, Brian & Coen joined us.
Chris drove us to Westminster Denver to take Shirley Stokoe for lunch at Cava where we enjoyed Mediterranean bowls. Back in Boulder, we shopped at Trader Joe’s. We met Tom & Tyke Wortman, who drove in from Ft Collins for dinner at Chez Thuy. After dinner, Chris drove us up to Flagstaff for the view of Boulder from the mountain.
The next day, Chris drove us to Red Rock. We hung out at the amphitheater and had lunch at Golden Diner. Back at home, we walked down to Boulder Creek from their house and watched all the picnickers and swimmers floating downriver. That evening, Chris cooked a delicious dinner and Desmonne, Brian & Coen joined us before we left the next morning.
On our non-stop flight back home to Honolulu, we were lucky to be upgraded to Polaris first class seats! Yay! It was a wonderful trip and I was glad that Cliff got to meet my mainland families and they all got to meet him.
2020 Holiday Greetings from Lari
Who knew? That we would be stuck at home for months? We are living in unprecedented times and will never go back to the old “normal”. Hopefully, the “new normal” will be much better. I love how Mother Earth has been rejuvenated since we all stayed home… we need to keep caring for Her with less abuse. Traffic has been so easy. We have many blessings during this pandemic.
Who knew? That I would cancel 4 trips: to Australia with Madi in March during spring break, to Myanmar to visit friends in April, to Fukuoka with 3 girlfriends in May and to Switzerland with 3 Pohakea teacher friends in June. Side benefit: saving money!
Who knew? That I would find a new romance in this pandemic? Cliff Kimura and I met on Match in September and are in a happy and loving relationship. We both enjoy travel, wine, jazz, photography and more. In fact, he is an avid photographer with a big camera and belongs to 3 photo clubs. We go on photo expeditions to Kewalos, Sandy Beach, Diamond Head, Pipeline and more for surfing & sunset photos. He gets some nice sunset photos from my lanai. Because we are not traveling, we are spending most of our days and nights together, meeting each other’s families/friends and watching Netflix and Prime Video. His son Jordan has a daughter Easton and his daughter Dayna is married to Cayce.
Who knew? That my new boyfriend would cook for me? And because Cliff retired from United Airlines, that he would share his flying privileges with me? We can’t wait to travel together! We walk to Kaimana beach from his home in Kapahulu, so we get our exercise and enjoy the ocean getting some vitamin sea.
I invited 7 grandkids to sleep over for 5 days for Grandma Lari’s Spring camp during spring break in March. The “Bigs” are 3 high school girls, the 3 “Littles” are girls in elementary school and 1 boy in middle school. We had many fun activities: daily play in my condo pool, playing in Makiki District park across the street, board games & movie nights in the evenings. I taught them to sew their own pillowcases on my sewing machine. They wrote in their journals each evening.
In July, I had them over again for Grandma Lari’s Summer Camp for 5 days in July. More fun activities and this time, they each sewed their own masks. They loved it so much, they requested a Winter Camp in December. End of July, Kazu & Claudine invited me to a camping trip at Malaekahana for the weekend. The 7 kids spent all day in the ocean, we ate delicious food cooked by Kazu and Claudine, crab hunts at night and slept in tents.
I miss my daughter Yvette’s family in New York/New Jersey. They are fine and doing well there. Noakai is a Junior in NY and Marlowe is a 1st grader.
Both Cliff’s family and my family are safe and healthy. We are thankful for our many blessings. Here’s wishing you a wonderful holiday season filled with love!
Love and aloha,
Lari
Slide show has many photos including many friends, families, visitors and activities during the past year.
Every other year, TCA (Taiko Community Alliance) holds a North American Taiko Conference. I went to UNLV in 2015, to UCSD in 2017 and this year to Portland State University in downtown Portland. The workshops and performances are amazing. Mary and I were roommates at a nearby hotel and we just walked over to the workshops at PSU. We’d walk by food trucks with amazing food and had deliciousness at the Saturday Farmer’s Market right next to the campus during our break. We took a trip to The famous International Rose Test Garden, where we enjoyed thousands of varieties of lovely scented roses!
Mary at the International Rose Test Garden
We loved the fresh, juicy peaches and delicious lunch here!
Taiko legend from Sado Island, Chieko Kojima.
Our Odaiko sensei, Isamu Kageyama doing a demo on the Odaiko (large standing drum)
Before the conference, I went a couple days early and spent time with old friends from Hawaii now living in Beaverton, Pam Ferreira and her sister Debby Higa. They took me to Willamette Falls and to lunch.
After the conference, I drove over the state line to Vancouver, WA, to stay with cousins, Jonathan & Heather Steinmann. Actually Jon is the son of my Kimura cousin, Kathy Steinmann, who also lives nearby with her other daughter, Tiffany. I got to meet 3 of cousin Kathy’s children and their families. One son live in Michigan. One night we went to dinner at Kathy’s daughter, Sarah Sherland’s lovely home, with a river and pond in their yard, that Sarah’s hubby, Will designed. I had so much fun meeting all my relatives in the southern WA area.
Jon & Heather have a menagerie at home!
Heather has 4 chickens and a trained cat.
Family dinner at Sarah & Wills home.
Yummy lunch with Kathy & Ron
Faith slept over with me at Heather’s and her sisters visited one day. They are Tiffany’s kids.
We visited the Columbia River, separating WA from OR.
I taught Kathy & Jon Hanafuda
Osso Buco for lunch at Swiss Hibiscus with Kathy and Tiffany.
Martin Wyss was in the kitchen helping Jennie at her Swiss Hibiscus restaurant.
lariyasui 