Archive for the ‘Denver’ Tag
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.
2017 Sept. Denver
Sept 25 to Oct 2, 2017
My sister Christine is a new grandma, so I had to visit them in Boulder to see this golden child. Brian and Desmonne Bennett named their son Coen who was born in Dec 2016. So he wasn’t a year old when I first saw him. I took the bus from Denver Airport to Boulder, where Desmonne picked me up. It was very cheap and an easy one-hour ride. I stayed with Desmonne and Brian because Christine and Phil had not returned from their trip to Italy. First things first: I had to eat at Riff’s. The next day, I drove to Westminster to visit Shirley at home. We had a lovely visit before I drove back to Boulder. Christine’s 2 besties, Debra and Leslyn came over for dinner. We had a great time chatting. And of course, Coen was the center of attention!
Grandma Lari meets Coen for the first time!
The Bennetts at their Pearl Street front door.
Debra, Brian and Leslyn: 2 Aunties visit!
On Thursday, I drove to Fort Collins to visit Lynda at her friend’s home and we had breakfast and caught up with each other. Then I drove to Wortman’s and stayed with Tom and Tyke. Their daughter, Lori and her family all came for dinner. We had Tom’s famous meat loaf and Tyke made baked butternut squash –yummers!
Brian and Tom in back. Lori, Tyke and Lari in the middle Audrey and Marshall in front
I visited Robbie Stokoe at his bioengineering lab.
After breakfast on Friday, Tyke and I took their dog Kennadie to the Vet hospital to be checked. Then I drove over to visit Robby Stokoe at his bioengineering lab at CSU. Shirley’s grandson is a grad student there! I knew him since he was a baby! Then I drove back to Boulder.
Coen in Roger’s silk kimono
The whole gang at the Boulder Farmer’s Market on Saturday: Lari, Brian, Desmonne w/Coen, Christine and Phil.
On Saturday, Chris and Phil picked me up and we went to the Boulder Farmer’s Market. Desmonne, Brian walked over with Coen in his stroller. We relaxed in the afternoon. The next day, we had lunch at Riffs then we went shopping.
Monday morning, I caught the bus to Denver Airport to go home.
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Roger & Lari’s Three Winter Trips
We took a trip to Vancouver in November, to Durham in February and to Denver in March. All were off-season with cheap fares to visit friends and family. Roger says why go on so many “little” trips? Why not go on one “big” one? My idea is to rack up miles on cheap fares so we can use our miles on long and expensive trips, like going to Europe and Africa in September, our next “big” trip.
It was rather relaxing to travel this way… no big plans, no “must sees” or touring around. We just go to visit friends and family to hang out, so I didn’t have to do much research. And even Roger claims that it was relaxing for him, not having to drive long distances or visit museums, cathedrals or other touristy things.
Autumn in Stanley Park
We’d been to Vancouver a few times before, and love the city. We stayed at Maple House B&B in Kitsilano, which was very conveniently located. We went to Encore! an improve theater show in Granville Island and to Science World, a fun museum. In Stanley Park, we enjoyed the fall colors and Vancouver Aquarium. We took the ferry to Victoria and enjoyed the Royal Museum and the Parliament, before driving north to Chemainus, a town filled with murals on many of their buildings. We ended up in Nanaimo, where we visited Bill & Diane and Bev & Jan, whom we had met on our Galapagos trip. Bev is the only one of the four who is not working, so she showed us around town and nearby sites.
In Durham, we stayed at Taki Scoville’s home. She has a huge collection of Japanese kimonos, dishes and artifacts. And her back yard has vegetable gardens, fruit trees and chickens. We visited Noaka’s school where he shared us and where I taught the hukilau hula to his classmates. Yvette took us to Nasher Art museum to see Alex Calder’s work, to NC Botanical Garden, to Duke Lemur Center, to the Durham Farmers’ Market and to the Roller Derby in Raleigh. We had so much fun hanging out with Noakai.
Then we drove to Laurel, Maryland to visit cousin Gary and Sally. They are both retired now, so we spent time just hanging out with them and got to see their daughter Kat& her hubby Billy.
After being home for a week, we flew off to Denver to visit my sister Christine in Boulder. We had to check out their new restaurant, Riffs, and it was divine. We ate there 3 times! Everything is delicious! Again, since we had no special plans or things to do we mostly hung out. We did check out the Boulder History Museum, shopped at thrift stores and went to Kirkland Museum in Denver. It was restaurant week in Denver and Boulder, so we got 2 three-course meals for $52.80.
We drove to Ft Collins to visit Tom&Tyke, whom we met on our Croatia tour. Again, we just hung out. But they did take us downtown for lunch and to the Art Museum to see Chihuly blown glass exhibit, which was exquisite. They also took us to Estes Park for an afternoon drive into the mountains.
Our last stop was to stay with Shirley Stokoe in Denver. We mostly stayed home and talked stories with her. We drove downtown one morning to meet Amy Ogawa for breakfast. She is a pharmacist for Walgreens in Denver. On our last night, we had dinner at Shirley’s son Rick & Jeanne’s lovely home in Northglenn. Sarah and Robbie are both in high school and all grown up from when I last saw them.
lariyasui 