Salad Days at Sehome Road

After being on the road (or on the sea or in the air) for upwards of two months, soup and salad are on the menu for awhile.

Those Dismal Express Terminals

Even the generally attractive Portland terminal manages to have the ambience of a bus depot - too many people crammed into one space with lots of announcements...

Ah well, home soon!

PDX Layover

Views of a quiet Potland Airport from the Alaska Airlines Board Room - those passes we got in our welcome package come in handy.

Icelandair is across the way and guys riding delivery trikes ( how Portlandia!) are in the foreground.

Departing HNL

Tokyo Sunset - Honolulu Sunshine

Oz Fest 12 Memories

Auckland Air New Zealand Koru Lounge Barista

The best part of the barista service here is that you tap out your order on a screen and then wait for the barista to produce it.

Once you've finished your order, the screen announces the estimated delivery time.

It's almost as good as those Japanese beer machines - in fact, better at this hour of the morning.

New Zealand: Pizza in Paihia

With a friendly bunch of Flyertalkers...

Auckland Harbour Bridge Barrier Movers

We didn't take the photo (Wikipedia) but saw this amazing machine in action sliding the cement barriers from one lane to another as we drove over the bridge.

What a way to adjust the number of lanes in each direction for the morning and evening rush hours!

Look up "barrier transfer machines" or "zipper machines." We learned to our surprise that they are also in use in Montreal, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, among other world cities.

Hilton Auckland: From Our Balcony

Hilton Auckland

A magnificent corner room with a large balcony that we'll explore in the morning, weather permitting...

Fiji: One Last Walk in the Beach

Last night's walk was a lot more relaxing than today's schedule turned out to be.

Fiji Airways Has Problem - But We Make a Flight

Fiji Airways has one of their A330s in for repairs after it was damaged on the tarmac.

To make a long story short, we're at Nadi Airport waiting to board a flight at 3:00 pm that should get us to Auckland an hour earlier than originally planned.

All this is after a number of phone calls, a hasty check out, and a rather intense 2 1/2 hour drive to return our rental car before being driven to the airport.

We promised a short story so...

All's well that ends well.

Fiji: Raiwata Village Preschool

Darn, but these little kids are cute as they belt out welcome and farewell songs to us.

Fiji: Visiting Raiwata Village

The portion allocated for visiting tourists has the breathtaking name of Koromakawa Village.