1) the start of the Grind

The Grouse Grind is a 2.9km (1.6 mile) trail that goes straight up Grouse Mountain, climbing 853m (2,800 ft) from the parking lot at the end of Capilano Road and the gondola base to the Theatre in the Sky some 1127m (3,700 ft) up. Like being 'screeched in' in Newfoundland which officially makes you a real Newfie, to call yourself a Vancouverite, officially, you have to make this trek and earn the respect of the mountain and prove you are in fact, a westener and real Vancouverite. 

Now G and I are reasonably fit, we're both Ironman triathletes having completed Ironman USA, we run regularly and are currently training for the XXXXXXX half-marathon in the Fall, we dragonboat and adventure race, and kayak, and hike, and cycle. Often when we research a hike/climb and read that the route is 'challenging' we nod and smile with bravado and secretly think, sure, sure, whatever. That said, the reviews of the Grind are very accurate and I can't imagine a layperson managing the trek up. It is - pardon the pun - grinding to say the least and the only thing that maybe close to it is the CN Tower Stair Climb - all up; all stairs, all the time. But, the CN Tower climb takes me 17-odd minutes. The Grouse Grind took an hour and thirty minutes. On the other hand, unlike the CN Tower Climb, the Grind is oh-so-beautiful.

It is also interesting that out east, people will say when peeved with you - 'go take a hik'e or 'go climb a mountain'. It is said derogatorily and meant to be a slight. Here in the west, when you say this to folks, it's meant literally and with no derogatory tone. It is a good thing .... as it should be.

Thousands and thousands of people do the grind each weekend and unconfirmed urban legends have it that there are diehards who do it every day! You can even purchase a "Grind Timer" - a little chip that you wear on a lanyard that you use to check yourself in at the base and out at the top which automatically records your time. The best time up currently is a truly unbelievable 25:01. Get to the base early - certainly before 8AM if you want to have a decent climb with less traffic.

2) you have to read the waiver but not sign it; 3) G starts up

4 & 5) the views amid the old growth forest are stunning

6) half way up ... yay!; 7) the Grind teases you at this point as it actually gets VERY steep

8) high enough now that we get some sunlight; 9) G pauses to enjoy the view

10) single file needed at the three quarters mark; 11) other parts have sheer drops protected by cargo netting

12) like ants on an ant hill; 13) G nears the top

14) looking back way down the steep hill; 15) right at the top it becomes a wall with switchback trails to use

16) here's the end where you pop out in front of Theatre in the Sky; 17) sign noting the Grind's short season

18) the view is beautiful even on a hazy morning - that's Stanley Park and Lion's Gate Bridge and downtown Vanouver to its left; 19) you cannot hike down the Grind but must take the gondola

20) here's our ride

21) the Grind Timer station at the top; 22) moi at the top - worth the hike for sure!

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1) Whistler is beautiful even in rain

Friends warned us about the rain.

We know friends who moved to Vancouver and returned east because of the rain, and then warned us again. Vancouverites complain ceaselessly about the rain. And, to be sure, it does rain here. A lot. I flew home last week from Toronto to be on hand as G was honoured by the Architectural Institute of BC; it rained that night. We're just back from a short holiday at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler where our planned golf weekend was a wash-up due to rain. And it rained today as we walked down Cordova Street past Canada Place to catch the bus.

... yet, despite it, or because of it ... (take your pick) .... I don't mind the rain whatsoever.

I remain rather dumbstruck by Vancouverites who prattle on about the rain but maybe because I'm all too familiar with how dreadfully hot and humid (on the one hand) and how bitterly cold (on the other) living east of Saskatchewan can be.  Or maybe it's the English in me? Or maybe it's the sort of rain here? Rain in Vancouver is rarely teeming. More often it is a misty rain, gentle and fog-like, as though the clouds tired of fighting their way up the coastal mountain ranges have given up and descended on the city to rest awhile. Invariably, on any given day when it is 'raining' it clears by noon or 2pm and often you're left awed by sunset that rain had existed at all - for there is no place more perfect and beautiful on earth than Vancouver on a sunny day. 

2) looking out from the Chateau - where's the mountains?; 3) the lower runs are empty but up at the top, skiers still ski - even in late June

4 &5) G crosses to the Lower Village

 6) you'd almost think the place was deserted! Maybe we had it emptied out; 7) even the hotel - no one about

8) dessert!; 9) Happy Canada Day!

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1) Riverside - planters on the sill

I dashed back to London Friday to spend the weekend once again with the family and to be on-hand when my beautiful niece, P, graduated. It was great to be there and well worth the short jaunt before returning to Toronto to be on hand for some of my Toronto team's training.

While there has been altogether too much travel this trip and I must admit a certain fatigue, it was still worth it to visit family and friends.

2) visiting Lady Kay, my grandmother, who will be turing 101 later this year; 3) at Riverside there is always time for card games in the recroom; (sigh) that's our dear Pekingeses - Dodi and T'ang - sadly gone, framed in the background. For the record, I did not win!

4) Niece P looking breathtaking; she really out just model permanently and skip schooling! Oops, sorry sis, I didn't say that. Get to college P!

On Saturday, at Riverside, I opted to get micro and see the gardens from a closer vantage point. Something you often miss when taking in the sweep on a grander scale. Here's some pictures from that sojourn.

5 & 6) in the gardens

7 & 8) in the gardens

9 & 10) in the gardens

11) dinner? 12) in the gardens

13) mom attends to one of the feeders

14) mom prepares a fish duo (Norwegian salmon and arctic char) - butter sauce was courtesy moi; 15) pre dessert is a cheese tray

16) with the cheese comes good Portuguese port

Back in Toronto, I met Blee and Cousin Richard for dinner at Hawker Bar, a self-styled Singaporean-style restaurant on Ossington. It was very good - and ambiance aside which is wholly uncharacteristic of any hawker market experience I had in Singapore - was very good. The wings and chili salt tofu particularly so.

17) the menu; 18) its a tiny hole in the way place

19) Blee with a Tiger beer, but of course; 20) the cucumber salad

21) Singaporean chicken wings with sweet chili soy sauce; 22) chili salt tofu

23) laksa (lovely and spicy); 24) whole fried Branzino with banana blossom salad

Onwards now, next stop Whistler!

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... and then just like that, here I am in Toronto eating my way about the city and wandering the old neighbourhood. The condo and its community all seem the same after a year's absence.  Which is so very odd. Last night I dined at Earl's with the great crew of Lady Sarah and her husband Philip; Mimi and her husband Jim; Blee; Cousin Richard and Laura. WIth thanks to Cousin Richard for the photos!

 

1) Mimi and moi last night

2) Jim & Cousin Richard; 3) Laura and moi

4) Lady Sarah, Philip, Laura, moi and Blee

Meanwhile, back in London the gardens at Riverside were beautiful as ever; Papa does such a good job with them.

5 & 6) the statutes

7 & 8) Papa at work

9 & 10) I fondle the new Canadian $100 bill, go on, try ripping it! ... in addition to being transparent, it's plastic. That's former prime minster Sir Robert Borden on the front

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1) G scavenges on the beach in Point Roberts, Washingston

Currently resident in London at Riverside to support my sis who is undergoing surgery; nice to be home as always despite the circumstances.

Meanwhile, G and I visited Point Roberts last Sunday morning. Point Roberts is a geopolitical oddity created by the division of Canada and the United States along the 49th parallel. It is part of the mainland United States but is not physically connected to it, making it a pene-exclave of the U.S. It is located on the southernmost tip of the Tsawwassen Peninsula and is part of Washington State.

It is some 4.8sq miles total and has a population of some 1,300 souls. Water, fire and telephone services are all provided by Canada via the City of Delta. Really, Canada oughta just take over the place using the rationale Americans use when touting their antics internationally: we'll just assume Americans want to be Canadians and that the Canadian way is the best way. Course, then we'll have to also act with utter contempt and disbelief when the Point Robertians tell us they don't hold this view and actually don't want to be Canadians ... but we'll just ignore them and then take them over regardless. 

 

2 & 3) welcome to Point Roberts

4) visiting Lighthouse Marine Park; 5) a drift wood shelter on the beach

6) at the marina

I woke up on Friday last week with a bubas obsession. I don't know why or how this came upon me suffice to say, it did and I needed to take action. So, Friday night had be starting the long long - though not overly laborious process - making these delightful French cakes.

7) babas goodness!

8) initial rise is yeast and flour; 9) second rise add in butter, raisins, more flour, salt, baking power

10) for the rum syrup combine: sugar, water, lemon rind, and vanilla; 11) just let this all boil down and then strain

12 & 13) after the second rise, roll, cut and stuff into the popover pan

14) bake and then pour rum syrup over warm babas - they soak gobs of it up; 15) plate and enjoy with ice cream and a coffee or tea

Also, spur of the moment, we decided at 4:30PM Sunday to have a tapas-inspired dinner.

16) the batter for the croquettes; 17) preparing the shrimp croquettes

18) before; and, 19) after deep frying

20) the potato and egg frittata; 21) the meatballs are readied

22) the Marcona almonds; 23) in lieu of manchego we opted for Parmesan, ham and olives

24) the frittata and the omg delicious pork/beef mini meatballs

When I returned from Winnipeg a fortnight ago, I met G at the Westin Wall Centre, Richmond for a night out (or in actually). We did venture over to Aberdeen Centre to see the display of bonsais that they were hosting. It was stunning.

25) G admires the view looking north the Vancouver

26 & 27) our suite at the Westin

28) the Aberdeen Centre; 29) Japanese maple hybrid bonsai

30 & 31) the bonsais

32) do you see the little cranes in this one?; 33) stunning!

34) another plane comes in to land (with Richmond Night Market in foreground); 35)  the marina

36 ) the marina at Wall Centre; 37) the sun sets in the west

38) going ... 39) gone - good night!

On Saturday we also headed to "The Drive" (aka Commercial Drive), which is the heart of the Italian community in Vancouver to try a new Neapolitan pizza place that just opened, called "Famoso". They use an imported 900°F oven here that cooks the pizza in about 60 seconds. It was outstanding!

40 & 41) inside the restaurant

42) the results - a classic margarita; 43) and a prosciutto and arugula

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1) the famous totem pole collection at Stanley Park in Vancouver

There is only one actual boat in this posting, and, in fact, it is a ship - the cruise liner Radiance of the Seas - which we noticed about 2 weeks ago pulling out of Canada Place Pier only to stop mid-way in the Burrard Inlet, deploy its tenders and limp into dry-dock in North Vancouver. It's been there since getting fixed or cleaned or painted or whatever. On Monday past, as I was preparing to fly here to Winnipeg, it finally left the dry-dock and presumably out to sea for trials. I think it's next voyage is supposed to leave Vancouver today. 

2) there's the Radiance in drydock taken from Stanley Park with my super zoom lens

The boat I'm speaking about is my metaphysical one related to the amount of travel I'm doing, and, in a manner of speaking, gosh, I need off this boat. I mean I know I travel a ton for work and pleasure sure but boy I'll be happy to see Canada Day. Since my last post I've been to Whistler and back; Calgary (one of my most least favourite places on earth, where I was enconsed in a dreary hotel near the airport for two days while I presented on XXXXXXXXXX and XXXXXXXXX) and back; across to Nanaimo and Ladysmith (on Vancouver Island where I presented on XXXXXXXXX) and back. I actually had my annual performance review on the ferry going over which was good fun - last year D and I completed it on the floor in a meeting room at the Sheraton in Toronto, go figure. I've suggested to her Europe next year as I am speaking in Germany. Through the weekend I'm in beautiful Winnipeg before heading home for a bit only to fly east east east again through to Canada Day. Air Canada loves me and the woman at the Maple Leaf Lounge here actually knows me by name as do the hotel staff. But Winnipegers are good that way.

So, our friends Dr. Rob and Maria arrived in Vancouver on Saturday of the Victoria Day weekend. We met them at YVR, did a quick tour of the city and headed north to Whistler for the long weekend and a stay at the Westin Spa & Resort. The drive to Whistler - along the famously scenic Sea-to-Sky Highway usually takes about 2 hours, but due to an accident south of Whistler, it took us four! Wowza crazy!

 

3) more totem poles; 4) the Lions Gate Bridge taken from Crab Beach where G and I often run

5) detail of totem - the BC Anthropology Museum at UBC is probably the best place to visit to fully understand the richness of BC's coastal people's history; 6) a crane with downtown Vancouver in background

7) the flags at Brockton Point at Stanley Park; 8) a float plane heads out

9) here comes another; 10) loading sulphur piles at North Vancouver ... the bulk of the sulfur heads to China

10) the Brockton Point Lighthouse with Lion's Gate in the background

We had a great stay at the Westin as always. Weather on Saturday was brilliant; Sunday, less so. It didn't matter as we went to chill and eat. Saturday we dined at the Westin's own in-house restaurant - the Aubergine Grill, while on Sunday we ate at the famed Araxi, which was actually having a $35 prix fee dinner of 6 courses in honour of its 35th anniversary year. What a deal!

11) The Westin Whistler; 12) the view of a cloudy mountain

13 & 14) our suite at the Westin

15 & 16) more of the suite

17) pretty flower at Aubergine Grill table; 18) G's appetizer - a seafood trio

19) black cod as a main; 20) Dr. Rob's beef tartare

21) G's quail main with truffled mac & cheese; 22) my oyster starter - I could eat oysters all day everyday and be completely happy

23) our complimentary breakfast was good; 24) folks were still lining up to by ski tickets ... at the end of May!

25) many runs are still open; 26) and despite the weather loads of people headed up to ski or bord

27 & 28) lunch one day was Avalanche pizza sampler

29) Araxi in the Village; 30) BC Oysters ‘Five Ways’-chilled on the half shell with ponzu pearls, dungeness crab with chives and lemon
trout caviar and creme fraiche, raspberry mignonette and cucumber salsayes,

31) G opted for the Foie gras; 32) we all had an amuse of Smoked Roma Tomato Soup - goat cheese crostini, gem tomatoes, olive oil and baby basil

33) Green Asparagus Salad - grilled asparagus with crispy pork belly, shaved parmiggiano-reggiano grainy mustard and olive oil vinaigrette; 34) barley risotto

35) mains where all seafood based, of course - mine, crispy salmon with carrot sauce

36) Peanut Butter Ice Cream Bars - dark chocolate dipped with a chocolate brownie crust, salted caramel banana sauce

On Thursday night, Air Canada was kind enough to get me back to Vancouver from Calgary in time to join Dr. Rob, Maria and G for dinner at Blue Water Cafe & Raw Bar in Yaletown.

 37) Maria at Blue Water; 38) our Dungeness Crab Roll - fresh crab meat and avocado in a egg roll

39) chef's slection of sushi; 40) chef's selection of sashimi

The next day found me lined up at Horseshoe Bay waiting the ferry to the island and a night in Nanaimo. D and I stayed at the Best Western Dorchester right on the water and I would recommend it. Saturday we presented and caught the dinner ferry back to the mainland as D was flying out early Sunday for Toronto.

41) hanging out at Horseshoe Bay; 42) on our way with Vancouver a wee speck in the background

43) D works on the iPad on route; 44) up top on the sun deck

45) beautiful ... leaving the lower mainland behind

46) from the car deck; 47) arriving into Departure Bay and Nanaimo

48 & 49) the harbour at Nanaimo

50) a gift for G of course; 51) more waiting for the return ferry from Departure Bay

52) the Holland America Zuiderdam heads north to Alaska

53) a beautiful evening to be top deck

54) D enjoying the view heading in; 55) we're car number two getting off the ferry

And then here I am in Winnipeg this week, taking my usual stroke around the Forks to see how construction is coming on the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Despite the controversay that surrounded placing the museum in Winnipeg, this city is perfectly situated for the honour. Geographically Winnipeg and Manitoba are in the middle of the country, more or less equi-distance from the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic Oceans, but more importantly, of all the provinces, Manitoba is the most progressive when it comes to human rights, caregiver support and recognition, minority, language and disability rights, and healthy aging. In fact, Portage-la-Prairie, MB is the recognized centre of age-friendly initiatives and supports in the world by the International Federation on Ageing, and policy makers and bureaucrats come from around the global to study its best practices. Who'd have thunk that?!

56) Canadian Museum for Human Rights

57) the Provencher Bridge that straddles the Red River and connects Winnipeg with St. Boniface; 58) the Red River Market

58) Red River Market; 59) the Inn on the Forks where I dined last night

60) amuse was prawn ceviche with watermelon; 61) a decent Bibb salad

62) house made bread with fabulous mango=curry butter; 63) Lamb two ways - croquette and loin wih "Manitoba risotto" (barley and oats and roasted veggies)

64) Brooklynn's Bistro - tried this for dinner tonight (famous for its chef, Darryl Crumb, participated on Top Chef Canada); 65) the restaurant is in the Exchange District 

66) I order a orange supremes and candied walnut salad for appetizer; 67) pulled duck rigatoni with 4 cheeses for the main - amazing!

68) G shared this great photo when I was in Calgary of a beautiful rainbow outside our Vancouver condo

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1) the Canadian Museum of Human Rights continues to take shape

I spent a week in Winnipeg a couple weeks ago giving my perspective to the provincial government on a couple issues of which I am very involved with, and am back there for yet another week in "The Peg" in a week. I love Winnipeg. It often is the butt of many Canadian jokes, which is unfortunate as the people are great, it's hands down one of the friendliest places in Canada, and the arts & culture scene is great (witness the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and the funky Exchange District). And how can you not love the place that uber star Keanu Reeves calls home! I'm there so often that G and I have half-jokingly thought of buying a place.

The week I was there the weather was stunning! Early May and temperatures near 30C each day (but very windy). I ran a couple times down by the Forks which was lovely.

2 & 3) at the Forks

Meanwhile, back in Vancouver G and I attended a macaroon class at VCC last weekend which was tons of fun (and taught by pastry chef extraordinaire, Leanne Bentley, who was pastry chef at the Pacific Rim Fairmont Hotel and is currently on route to hold that same post at the Fairmont St. Andrews, Scotland). We'll be using this connection down the road for sure as I've both free golf lessons and free rounds of golf as gifts as part of my Fairmont Platinum membership this year.

4) raspberry macaroon; 5) chocolate ganache macaroon

In other news, I scored a Le Creuset grill pan at the Bay a week ago for, get this, CAD$81 (tax included!) ... regularly these go for well over CAD$200 ... I love a deal. G and I ventured over to North Vancouver's Lonsdale Quay Market on Seabus to buy a steak that was delicious. Locals head to Lonsdale Quay; tourist to Granville Island Market (prices rise accordingly). We rarely eat beef so this was a real treat even if our tummies thought otherwise!

6 & 7) the new pan and steak

8) inside Seabus crossing to North Van; 9) the city looks so tiny from over here!

10) G heads into Lonsdale; 11) using the zone to get a better view ... our Vancouver condo is the tall one to the far left in this shot

We've enjoyed watching things grow through March at Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Park. It's but nanoseconds from our condo here and we regular cross through it on our way to Chinatown and dim sum on Sundays.

12 & 13) Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Park and flowers

14) it's so pretty in the park even when it's overcast

15) shot this from my office last week ... not sure what was happening over by one of Vancouver's iconic condos - the Erickson (architect Arthur Erickson) - on False Creek; 16) yes, I'm now a fan of Instagram (even though the evil empire, Facebook, owns it; neither G nor I 'do' Facebook). This is G one morning as the sun spilled into our bedroom

Finally, and most importantly, a shout-out to the most beautiful young woman in the world - my neice P. Here she is a couple weeks ago in London trying on her graduation dress. She graduates from high school in June (omg, is that possible that my wee neice is now model-stunning and heading to college?!)

17) breathtakingly stunning eh! Damn, we've got great genes ... and she's near tall as me and I'm 1.90m

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After returning on the red-eye from Hawaii I was immediately heading north to Squamish to volunteer at a camp for folks recovering from neuromotor disorders of various ilks. I was lucky during my down time to walk the early mornings along the Squamish River near Brackendale (famous as the stopping ground for eagles making their way north and south) but only saw one.

1) accommodations in Squamish were just a tad different than what I had at the St Regis in Kaua'i; 2) wandering along the Squamish early on Easter Sunday morning

3) more the the river walk; 4) moi decked out on Easter morning for the easter parade

This weekend saw us in Kits for Don & Sand's "Diaper Party" - Sand's having twins! We busied ourselves by making a diaper cake. Yes a diaper cake! We also made a batch of double chocolate cupcakes with rosewater buttercream icing.

5) D&S stunning dog, Yoshi; 6) our cake

7) Sand is SO pregnant!; 8) the cupcakes!

9) these terracotta warriors started appearing on the streets of Vancouver on Wednesday. There are 34 in total out there - each one unique - and all will be auctioned off for charity .... to buy or not is the question!?

In other news, this year's cruise season starts on Tuesday and we'll again be inundated by 1000s of new neighbours wandering our Gastown streets.

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1) the famous pink umbrellas at the Royal Hawaiian looking out to Diamond Head

Post Kaua'i we found ourselves holed up in the Nani Pumehana Suite in the oh-so-1930s Pink Palace otherwise known as the Royal Hawaiian Hotel on Waikiki and promptly recommitted ourselves to a diet of sushi, sushi, sushi ... in between surfing Waikiki and shopping.  Loved it!

2) the back of the hotel; 3) I got leid for this picture!

4) the wonderful rockers that look onto the courtyard - I loved sitting here; 5) G wanders the hallways

6) our room even had a name; 7) the toiletries

8 & 9) our suite

10) the main lobby; 11) on the way to Morimoto's by the Hilton

12) each of the doors in the Royal Hawaiian have been hand-carved with the Hawaii State seal

13) G's martini at the MaiTai Bar; 14) my maitai

15) our one concession one day - a pizza at the MaiTai Bar; 16) more of the lobby

17) the main entrance; 18) me relaxing in the rockers

19) the hallways are oh-so-lovely

For sushi we walked to the Modern Hotel at the far end of Waikiki and spent two meals completely ensconced in the wonderful world of Ironchef Morimoto's Waikiki outpost, called simply enough, Morimoto. The first time we dinned, we sat at a table and put ourselves over to Morimoto's US$120/pp omakase tasting menu. Our second venture we sat at the sushi bar, ordered a la carte and left sushi selections to the chef. Both were outstanding meals and we would certainly recommend the place.

20) the quiet kitchen; 21) lunchtime crowd is sparse

22) the kitchen is hopping at dinner; 23) looking across to the bar at dinner

24) first course is hamachi and toro tartare; 25) whitefish carpaccio

26 & 27) bagna cauda (we've made this one at home several times and I thought ours was better! .... take that Ironchef

28) I forget! (must ask G to remind me - blame the Chardonnay); 29) seaweed tea as a palette cleanser

30) Morimoto's sushi selection; 31) the final course is a hodgepodge of everything - wagyu beef, tartare, black cod

32) dessert is ... underwhelming ... I'm sorry but asian desserts regularly disappoint but I suspect that's my palette at play not the fault of chef

33) Morimoto tempura; 34) chef's $40 sushi/maki combination

35) so much fish; so little time!

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1) the famed Na'Poli Coast from a lookout along the Kalalau Trail

2) the sunsets on Kaua'i at Hanalei Bay are amazing each and every night

After a spell in Honolulu we flew up to Kaua'i, rented a car, and took up residence for a week at the stunning St. Regis Princeville which overlooks Hanalei Bay (probably best known as the home of Puff the Magic Dragon). If you surf Hanalei Bay, which we did lots of, you can see the outline of Puffy from the Bay.

3) Hawaiian Airlines gets us there; 4) the view from our room at the St. Regis

5 & 6) our room

7) greetings and chocolate from the Hotel GM; 8) our room even has a hook to hold the leis we received upon arrival - classy!

9) the St. Regis Lobby Bar; 10) the lobby

11) the pool; 12) each morning we had all manner of birds greeting us (actually hoping for some crumbs more likely)

13) I spent a lot of time lying right here with this view!

14) down by the beach; 15) I spent a lot of time lying here too

16) looking across Hanalei Bay; 17) greens everywhere

18) even when threatening a brief shower; it's beautiful

19) the pool at night from our room

We did a whole lot of nothing while at the St. Regis. We ate (of course) - trying the hotel's John George Vongerichten restaurant, Kaua'i Grill (which was disappointing - good food served in a cavernous, busy, noisy room with hurried [if professional] service), the Makena Terrace (which was infinitely better Kaua'i Grill [take note John Georges!] and spent Thursday evening with most of the hotel's guests in the lobby bar when the entire island suffered a complete blackout, conveniently enough just as the champagne was being sabred (a St Regis tradition that we've enjoyed both in Singapore and Washington) and the sun set.

20) dinner was best on the Makena Terrace - this was our view one night with a splendid bottle of California chardonnay

21) sunset that same night

22) we ordered sushi to finish one meal; 23) the view first thing in the morning with lots of volcano 'mist' in the air

24) moi, sur la plage avec MaiTai; 25) wanna surf?! ... we did ... lots

26 & 27) ahi tuna sliders and pizza at the beach one afternoon

28) me in my rash guard heading out to surf the day; 29) our uber good surfing guide, Eli, assists some young surfers as we depart

30) the dock at Hanalei Bay; 31) paddleboarders and surfers head out

32) sunset one night from my room with the telephoto lens

We spent a few days exploring Kaua'i and headed south then west to the island's famed Waimea Canyon (known as the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific" and which was utterly breath-taking) and drove from there up to Koke'e State Park and the lookout at Kalalau Valley where you can gaze out onto the splendour that is Kaua'i's Na'Poli Coast (I cannot more highly recommend this should you visit - pack a light jacket as it is cold up on top).

33) lunch at the Shrimp Station where we had, 34) fish tacos

35) and coconut shrimp; 36) Chicken in a Barrel BBQ another day where we had ...

37) their combo platter - the chicken, amazing! the beef rib, less so; 38) at the beach at Kapa'a

39 & 40) on the Kokee Road up to Waimea Canyon and Kalalau Lookout

41) looking back south to the Waimea; 42) Captain Cook of course

43) looking West to the island of Ni''ihau (which is privately owned by descendants of the Scottish Robertson Family, who bought it from the Kingdom of Hawai'i back in 1864

44) heading into the canyon

45) arriving in Waimea Canyon

46) a Hawaiian stilt; 47) rice or poi field?

48) on the way up to hike the Kalalau Trail; 49) G dwarfed in Wet Cave

50) the famed Lumaha'i Beach from South Pacific; 51) looking across Hanalei Bay from Lumahai' Beach to our resort

52) G on Lumaha'i Beach

53) the Kalalau Lookout

54) the Kalalau Lookout

55) the Kalalau Lookout - worth the drive for sure

56) Kapa'a beach; 57) Waimea Falls (aka Fantasy Island falls)

58 & 59) me just outside Princeville looking into the valley

60) the Kilauea Lighthouse

61) the Kilauea Lighthouse

62) G hiking the Kalalau Trail (this is far steeper than it appears here let me tell you; 63) looking down onto Ke'e Beach (where we started hiking)

Kaua'i has a population of some 67,000 souls and it is Hawai'i as it was before rampant tourism consumed all (witness: Mau'i). We also spent a day hiking the Kalalau Trail that winds itself from Ke'e Beach along the Na'Poli Coast to several lookouts and Kalalau Beach. As an aside, Kaua'i is home to one of the rainiest places on earth - the summit of Kaua'i main mountain, called Mount Wai'ale'ale. It seem to be always covered in mist and fog whilst we were there and I'm still not convinced it has a top!

Kaua'i is famous for the movies that have been filmed on its shores including "The Descendants" (right in Hanalei Bay); "South Pacific" (again featuring Hanalei Bay - the house where George Clooney first meets his wife's lover is right on the beach there); "Blue Hawaii" (at the now, sadly, hurricane swept Coconut Grove Hotel); "Jurassic Park",  and is even home to the (in person underwhelming) double waterfall from "Fantasy Island".

Suffice to say that G and I adored - utterly, simply and completely adored Kaua'i. This is saying a lot as, since the first day I breathed air, I have had no desire whatsoever to visit Hawai'i. So, go figure. After a week of complete indulgence, we flew back down to Honolulu to complete our holiday with some surfing on Waikiki Beach and a stay at the iconic grand old lady of Oahu hotels - the Luxury Collection's Royal Hawaiian Hotel (aka, the Pink Palace).

64) aloha till we return to catch the waves again!

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