Tag Archives: travel

Mama’s Fish House

Upon our arrival on Maui, our first mission was to get lunch. Nancy had planned ahead and chosen a location not too far from the airport and with a beachfront location that was supposed to be very picturesque. It was called Mama’s Fish House. We got there a little ahead of the time of our reservation so parked the car and took a look around. This place is about as gorgeous as you could imagine a Hawaiian beach to be. There is a small cove with the waves washing by and making the whole thing look like it was created by a movie set designer.

We sat and enjoyed the place for a while until it was time to eat. When we did go inside, the welcome was warm and the table was by the windows so we couldn’t have been better off. One look at the menu tells you that this place is not cheap. My first instinct was to assume that we were paying for the location. However, when the food arrived, it was absolutely excellent. The combination of great food and and outstanding view meant the meal was worth every penny.

Waimea Canyon

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During our last trip to Kauai, I wrote about visiting Waimea Canyon, some of which you can find in the previous posts including here. This year we went back. We weren’t looking to do much hiking this time but instead just wanted to take in the lovely scenery. It is certainly a dramatic enough spot that you can get plenty of good stuff to see.

I did manage to get an aviation theme to this post though. We got to one of the overlook locations looking into the canyon and one of the tour helicopters was coming towards us. I grabbed a quick shot of the EC130 as it turned away. Plenty of other helicopters came by – a steady stream really – but they all took different routes. I guess it depends on your pilot as to what you get.

We got to the top of the canyon road and the overlook that gives views of the north coast of the island – normally. Not this day. The clouds were rolling in and obscuring the view to the north. Since we were right at the summit, the clouds bubbled up to the top and then dissipated almost immediately. You had cloud on one side and nothing on the other. Very cool!

Hawaii Time

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We recently got to take another great trip. Like last year, we were back in Hawaii and most of the time was spent on Kauai with a bit of time on Maui at the end. There is no disguising it – Hawaii is a great place to go. Whether it is the beautiful scenery, the activities to be done or the chance to just relax away from everything for a while, it is a great spot.

We did a bunch of stuff while we were there and this is going to drip feed into the blog in the coming weeks. So much to see and report you will be sick of it before too long. However, I will try and intersperse a few other bits into the stream so you don’t feel it is too one-sided. Besides, where are the planes?

Albert Einstein

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Just across from the Lincoln Memorial is the National Academy of Sciences. On the grounds in the front of the building is a sculpture of Albert Einstein. It is a great sculpture since it is quite sizable and impressive yet is in a style that is very relaxed. It gets a few visitors at a time but isn’t very busy so is a nice distraction from the business of the rest of the Mall. It is also just the right size to encourage you to sit in his lap. I include a picture of Chris doing just that so you can gauge the scale.

Korean War Memorial

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The Korean War Memorial opened around the time I lived in DC in the 90s. I thought it was really cool when I first saw it and I still think it is an impressive monument. It is particularly good to see in the rain since the outfits the soldiers are wearing in the sculpture are big ponchos and, on a dull and wet day, the image of the guys out on patrol is particularly evocative.

It was sunny this time so the effect wasn’t quite the same but the sculptures are still very impressive. I had not remembered the water features around the memorial as much as the sculptures so this was a bit of a discovery for me. The number of visitors was very high so it was hard to get the alone feeling that seems appropriate for the whole place but it is still a very interesting place to visit.

It was not long after Memorial Day when we were there so there were a lot of flowers around the memorial and many personal messages that people had placed. This always adds a personal feel to any memorial.

US Capitol

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The US Capitol topped and tailed our trip to DC. We came into Union Station when we entered the city and so the Capitol is just a short walk away. Chris went and shot some images there while I was in my meeting so I bypassed it when I was trying to catch up with him. This ended up working in my favor.

On our return leg, the weather had improved from the cloudy skies we had started out with and, more importantly, the sun was starting to go down so the light was getting a lot more friendly. Also, a third upside was that there weren’t too many people around any more. Therefore, while we were a bit bushed and also keeping an eye on the time of our train back to the airport, we stopped off and grabbed a few shots of the Capitol before heading home.