One great flight and two great (in their own way) hotels

by | Jul 4, 2025 | Air travel, Photography

I am thrilled to be able to tell you that our second flight (15 hours from Newark to Cape Town) was wonderful in comparison to our early morning flight from Seattle to Newark. As my brother Steve pointed out in the comments of my previous post, some airlines are subpar domestically but superb internationally. United seems to be one of those. Here are some iPhone pics of and from the plane. Don’t forget: if you click the first shot, you can scroll through it using your arrow keys or by swiping. Since I took these photos with my phone, feel free to view them on your phone.

Once we were aboard our 787 Dreamliner and seated in what turned out to be maybe the best business class seat we have flown in, we were welcomed by their purser, who was wonderful, as was her entire crew. They handled everyone beautifully and were very competent. One of the things I really wanted to make sure and snag was a mattress pad for both our seats. We had heard (and it proved true) that there were not enough mattress pads for every business class seat. When I asked our purser (also named Kathleen) if I could get two of them, she said, “They are right up there (in a compartment over the seat across from me), how good a thief are you?” So I got the two I wanted, and they eventually turned our lay-flat seats into two very comfortable beds.

Seeing we had been up since 2:30 am Pacific time, we really considered skipping dinner on the plane, especially with the quality of the food we had encountered on our SEA-EWR flight that morning. However, we knew we wouldn’t get another meal for a while, and by the time they could serve it (turbulence had kept them seated for about 90 minutes after takeoff), we were hungry. We had put in a preorder for the pasta dish. My dinner started with a small salad and smoked duck. Kathleen just had the salad. They were fine, but the pasta dish was so good, it passed the Steve Test. I would go someplace for the sauce on that pasta a whole bunch of times.

Editor’s note: For those unfamiliar with the Steve Test…

I call this the Steve Test because my brother Steve came up with it. I think it’s brilliant. If you eat at a restaurant while traveling and it’s near you once you get home, would you go there again? If it were in your hometown, would you eat there regularly?

Keep this test in mind as we proceed, because I use it to rate almost any restaurant we eat at while traveling. And this is probably the first time I’ve used it on a plane. I might also go back for their dessert specialty. In Polaris Business Class, they offer a special dessert: Tillamook Vanilla Ice Cream sundaes. They bring around a cart with a variety of toppings, letting you create your own however you want. I just told them to give me the works. They did, and it was a wonderful surprise to finish up a surprisingly excellent meal.

Then it was time for bed, and I actually had a bed that would fit me and was comfortable. Kathleen was already asleep when I put my mattress pad on and turned off my Kindle. I slept for about six hours and then dozed on and off for about two more. The best sleep I’ve ever had on a plane. We also had breakfast before we landed, but it wasn’t as good as dinner; however, it was still quite tasty.

United must have done a great job because Kathleen told me this morning that I could book them again for international flights. That says a lot because there are some airlines on our Never Again list (like Virgin Atlantic).

One more note about the seats. If you ever fly Polaris (Business) Class on UA and you are flying with a partner on a 787, you want the middle seats in any odd-number row. As you can see from my photo of my seat, Kathleen was right next to me. The row in front of us had seats that faced out, so you really couldn’t see the person next to you. That said, I would never want our seats next to someone I didn’t know. If I were alone, I would get a window seat in a minute. Our seats were 7D and 7F. See the chart at right. All seats had direct access to the aisles without stepping over anyone like some Delta planes we have been on.

One of the things we’ve been doing on our last couple of international flights is that I’ve been ordering a wheelchair for Kathleen. She can still walk, just not long distances. In fact, she can still walk long distances, but it kills her hips and knees so badly that she sometimes has to sit the next day to recover. Since all the airlines will provide free wheelchairs from the counter to the plane and back again, I order them in advance. This has been a real benefit for me as well, as we get met at the plane, she gets in, and we are off. I don’t have to figure out where to go. The person pushing her knows exactly where we need to be and by when.

When we landed in Cape Town, the plane had to park remotely, and everyone got off using stairs… except the people who required wheelchair assistance. A truck pulled up next to the plane, and an enclosed platform on the back of the truck rose to the opposite side door from where everyone else was disembarking. We then got onto the platform. They lowered us and drove us to where the buses with everyone else were going, just outside passport control.

Now comes the best part of using the wheelchair service. There was a line that looked like it was going to take about 45 minutes because it snaked about six to eight times across a very large room. But our wheelchair pusher (a wonderful and very friendly young lady) took us right to the front of the line, and we were out of there and into the airport within about five minutes. We were then taken to the luggage carousels and found our luggage.

I want to mention that I believe United has the best airline app I have used. Not only did it provide me with all the necessary information about the trip, both before and during, but it also allowed us to track our luggage in real-time, so we knew it was with us. That’s impressive.

As an exact opposite to the way we started the trip with Welcome Pickups, our driver had already texted me where to meet him in the Arrivals hall. Sure enough, as we were walking through, he was holding a screen with my name on it. He introduced himself, grabbed our luggage and led us out to his car. Our wonderful young lady with the wheelchair got Kathleen all the way to the car before sending us off with a big smile.

Another thing that we have learned in our now 20 hours in Cape Town—everyone we have met has been incredibly happy and incredibly helpful. I want to say that every one of them has been downright joyful. I can’t remember a place we’ve been where we’ve been treated so well and with so much common courtesy and happy smiles since we visited New Zealand about 15 years ago. In fact, they are even happier and friendlier than New Zealanders, and that’s saying a lot.

Our Welcome Pickups driver, Tom, was a great example. He gave us quite the tour on the way in from the airport. He is truly proud of his city, and it shows. He got us right to our hotel and then helped us in, making sure we were all taken care of. Exactly what we have experienced with Welcome Pickups, except for yesterday morning (see previous post).

A tale of two hotels

Some of you may have heard this story before, but others may not, so I will recount it here. We are doing most of this trip with AMAWaterways. They have us booked for the next three nights at a beautiful, luxury hotel—The Cape Grace. It is the Grand Dame of hotels in Cape Town. Since we had decided to fly the night before our AMA adventure started, we would need to book and pay for our own room for one night. Not really wanting to change hotels, I called the Cape Grace and asked if they could book us in for one additional night, and possibly keep the same room during our three-night stay that was part of our AMA tour. The very nice person I contacted said, “Yes, we would be happy to have you here. The cost for the room is $1275 US dollars.” I told her that no, we were only going to pay for the one night, and that the other three nights were part of our AMA tour. She said, “Yes, sir, that is just for one night.” After lifting my jaw off the floor, we decided to find somewhere else to sleep on our first night and then transfer to the Cape Grace.

Initially, we decided to book a room at a hotel near the Cape Town airport, as this would allow us to grab something to eat, rest, and then move to the Cape Grace in the morning. But then we met Dave and Janine (our new friends from Trilogy who live in Cape Town half the year), who told us that the area near the airport was not the nicest and that we really should consider staying somewhere near the waterfront, where the Cape Grace is. So thankfully we listened to them and I got us a reservation at the Radisson Red which is so close to the Cape Grace that I can look out our Cape Grace hotel room window (where I am typing this) I can see the Radisson. And it’s not far away. Since it was pouring rain this morning and we had luggage, we decided to take an Uber from there to here. I took the Uber XL to accommodate all our luggage, and the total amount (with tip) was less than $5 USD.

The Radisson Red is the exact opposite of the Cape Grace in terms of style and vibe. The Radisson checked us in with lots of loud and happy music playing, an offer of a complimentary gin and tonic, and some of the biggest smiles I have ever seen. The room was perfect, even though it was supposed to be a King-Size Bed and had two twin beds. We think that worked out better because we just wanted to crawl under the covers and sleep. Kathleen was out by 8:15, and I arrived at 8:30.

Speaking of the beds, they were very comfortable. The shower had an abundance of hot water and excellent water pressure. The breakfast in their restaurant was excellent. I even found two dishes I want to try making myself, and they were around $160 per night rather than $1,275. In fact, now that we have checked into the Cape Grace, I can see that the Red might be more my kind of hotel.

In the morning, after breakfast, I embarked on a quest to find Kathleen a hair-curling brush that she had found online and was supposed to be in stock at a drugstore less than 800 meters away from the hotel. I went there and sure enough, they had it. I got it, came right back, and tried to plug it in, but it didn’t fit any of the plugs in the room. It had an EU plug, and South Africa has its own three-prong plug. So back I went and returned it. They said that their other store nearby should have the one I needed, so I hiked a little further out to a very nice shopping area and found that they had it, but it still had a European plug. The manager said to grab an adapter and give it a try. He said that was what most people here did. We have tried hair dryers with our adapters before, with poor results. Hair dryers/stylers/etc. Draw so much power that they quickly heat up and then burn up adapters. However, the manager suggested that I give them a try, and if I have a problem, I should bring it back to them. I went back, tried it, and it worked.

We checked out of the Radisson at 11:30 and took that very short and cheap Uber ride to the Cape Grace, where we were checked in a very different way. Where the Radisson was all about happy-happy/joy-joy, the Cape Grace was all about being classy and sitting down to check in and whispering. The Radisson was more interested in getting us a drink, and the Cape Grace was more interested in taking care of us in an elegant way. I can take either one, but deep down, I have to say it was more fun checking into the Radisson Red.

Our room at the Cape Grace is GORGEOUS! I have lived in smaller apartments. Here are some pics that will show you what I am talking about.

Lastly–the weather is ghastly

So we are making the best of the beautiful Cape Town weather. Check out a few seconds of video I shot showing you the wonderful afternoon weather.

See what I mean. But as they say, tomorrow is another day. Let’s hope for a meteorological breakthrough.

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.  —Saint Augustine

 

Nine days and counting.

by | Jan 10, 2025 | Photography

Good day, all! I have BIG news coming tomorrow or Sunday, but today, I wanted to share my first nine photos for those of you who are not following my 365 Project. I plan to periodically include a quick slideshow of these in my blog posts. Comments are appreciated. If you aren’t sure what I am talking about when I say 365 Project, please read my last post (scroll down). Two quick notes. If you want to read the captions, you need to open the photos by clicking on one of them. Then, in the lower right, you will see two buttons. One is an info button. Click that to see the caption and camera info.

Photography is an immediate reaction, drawing is a meditation.  —Henri Cartier-Bresson

1 of 365

by | Jan 1, 2025 | 365

One of my biggest faults as a photographer is that I primarily shoot travel photos—(pretty decent travel photos, IMHO ?), but still, photos I took while traveling. Since we don’t travel every day of the year, I don’t use my camera for about three months a year. The rest of the time, my camera resides in my office cabinet.

Fifteen years ago, Kathleen told me, “You only take pictures when we are on trips or for holiday family shots.” I agreed, and in January of that year, I started my first 365-day project. I took one photo a day for the entire year and posted it. I have done three of these 365 projects since, the last in 2018. It’s time for another, so here we go.

This exercise is not just about taking the photo; it’s about learning more about my camera, my lenses, the features I don’t use and how I can use them. I realized the last time I did a 365, I was shooting a much older camera—I believe a Nikon 750. Since then, I have owned a Nikon D-810 and now have a Nikon Z7II. It’s time to learn my Z a little better.

When you are a travel photographer and go out to shoot about three times a year (when I shoot thousands of photos in a short amount of time), you forget things about your camera in between the trips. The simplest things to turn off and on can really mess you up when you start taking photos that you really want.

So, this project I am starting today is about two things: learning how to use my Z7 from top to bottom and finding new and different ways to shoot everyday life. I have seven months and one day from today until our next big trip to Southern Africa, so that gives me a chance to really get to know my camera and learn a little bit more about myself as a photographer.

Above is today’s shot. About two miles from here is this beautiful, small, private lake that is part of a very high-end and expensive development. I walk by this lake all the time, and as my friend Bob will tell you, I have sent him many photos I took with my phone while walking. Today is the first time I have photographed it with my Nikon. It does make a huge difference.

Now, I don’t want you to worry that you will get a notification every day. I would unsubscribe from that myself. But I am going to take the photo and post it on a new page called 365, which you can see in the menu bar above. Then, one day a week, I will post a quick slide show gallery of that week’s photos. If you want to see them sooner, you can check the 365 page anytime. I will also caption them on that page with exactly where I took them, why I took that particular photo and any technical stuff I might have done to it.

Photography is a way of feeling, touching, and loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever… it remembers little things long after you have forgotten everything.  —Aaron Siskind

Last Days in Southern California—Lights, Lights, Lights and more Lights

by | Dec 17, 2024 | Uncategorized

I am starting this post on the 16th of December as we head north tomorrow morning, flying out of John Wayne Airport at 10:45. When we get back to SEA, we will jump in our car and head south to Olympia (not home) because tomorrow night, our grandkids have their winter band concert. Both of them play clarinet, and this is our fifth-grade granddaughter’s first concert. And the really cool thing for me is that we will spend tomorrow night there, which means I will wake up on my birthday at their house on Wednesday morning.

In the meantime, since I last wrote about our visit here, we have done some more cool stuff. After our Christmas boat parade on Friday (see my post here), Saturday was about Christmas at the Mission. San Juan Capistrano is home to a California of the same name. It’s the one that the swallows come back to every year. And this year they were having a Christmas celebration. It was very nice, but we were all a little underwhelmed. Steve and I kept telling each other how they could improve the whole celebration with a lot more lights. But I did get some decent photos of the decorations, the performers and the lights. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

After the show, we went for another of the amazing meals we have had since we got here. I think Jamie and Steve have spent the 18 months since we were here the last time finding new and wonderful restaurants. We did the pizza place the day before, and tonight, after the Mission, we walked about three blocks to Rancho Capistrano Winery. Delicious food and amazing wines.

On Sunday, we had a family day. Jamie’s sister Pam, her husband David and their daughter Analee, as well as our niece Cassie and her beau Omar, all came for dinner. Steve made some delicious rotisserie chicken, and Jamie made some amazing appetizers, baked ziti, meatballs, and so much more. We again ate ourselves to bursting. January is going to be a very dry and lean month for us.

This morning, I went out and took my usual walk, and just to prove that I don’t always take great photos, I took at least 50 and only found three I liked. One was a shot I took walking over Interstate 5. I am always amazed that this highway, which is about eight blocks from my brother’s house, is also about 15 minutes from my daughter’s house and about 40 minutes from ours. Kathleen drove on this road every weekday for more than 15 years to commute to work. When I was in college, I used to drive a truck on it almost every day. When I lived in Eugene, Oregon, I spent many an hour driving up and down that part of it. When I lived in Rogue River, Oregon, I lived about a mile from it. It’s kind of been the road of my life. So I had to take a photo this morning.

This evening, we went for an amazing Greek meal at Greek Bistro in Laguna Hills. WOW! It might even be better than Chris’ Taverna (my favorite Greek restaurant in Florida—I love Greek food, and we have a hard time finding it in Redmond). Then, after, we were off to look at some of the most amazing Christmas light displays we have ever seen. In case you haven’t seen the photos my brother posted of their house, they are REALLY into decorating for holidays, and they do a super classic job of it. Here’s what their place looks like this year. All of these pics are ones that I stole from him. It is truly impressive. You will note that every window has a theme.

And these are the ones we saw last night on our Christmas light drive (a tradition that Kathleen and I do as well). We were in a very wealthy section of Laguna Hills that I can’t remember the name of. The lights there were amazing.

The last few of those are a couple of places back near their home that had a LOT of lights. Living proof that sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. ?

That about concludes our trip to Southern California. We had a super time, ate and drank way too much, and my sister-in-law Jamie was a great tour guide. I would use her as my Southern California travel agent every time we are here. Plus, free room and board is quite the incentive. I am finishing this up at 3:30 AM on the day we go to the airport to fly back to Seattle, then drive to Olympia to see the kids play in their winter (Christmas) concert tonight and then home to our place tomorrow. Thanks for reading along on this short journey. I hope my photos have gotten you deeply into the holiday spirit. If this hasn’t done it, then maybe this video Steve found last night will—click here.

Deck the halls and light the lights; it’s time for some festive delights!  —Santa Claus

 

Six Years…Thank You for Reading

by | Dec 16, 2024 | Uncategorized

I just had to mention (before I finish our visit to Southern California) that today is the sixth anniversary of my starting this blog. And, of course, I started it with a complaint (I guess I might really be Victor Mildrew–my Brit friends know what I am talking about)about how much I hate the word “blog.” Here’s that first post.

I want to thank both my loyal readers who comment on just about everything. You are the best, and just know that many times, as I am writing, I think of one of you and say something like (in my head), “Bob will appreciate this,” or “I bet Susan comments on this one.” I wanted you to know it is you who has kept me doing this for six years, and it’s you who I hope will let me do it for six more.

I also want to tell new and old readers who only read this when I am traveling that it’s OK to do that. The rest of my life can be kind of boring. It’s even OK if you only read when we are traveling somewhere amazing, as opposed to my family trips. But keep coming back and checking in, as our travels will continue (I hope). You, too, are appreciated.

Thanks to all for putting up with my “luxury motor coach” and my “Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please….,” and all my other repeated warnings and comments. I know I sound like a broken record sometimes but I really hate it when people look at my photos on a phone or cruise lines call a bus a “luxury motor coach.”

Lastly, a huge thanks to those of you who have commented on my photography. That’s the main reason I post here—my photos. Photography is my hobby, my passion and the best outlet for my creativity.

Watch this space in the future. More of all of it is still on the way.

OMG! I almost forgot this (shame on me). Thanks to my proofreader, my travel companion and the absolute love of my life. I write this blog for a lot of reasons but one of the biggest is to chronicle our life together. I love you, Kathleen. Thanks for putting up with all the time I have spent writing this.

Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous.   —Bill Moyers