Halloween 2018 in DC

October 27th trip to Delaware to see family.
Mom needed to go shopping and she needed my attention for a bit. We had dinner Sunday night at William and Merry in Hockessin. Such a nice little place.
Tuesday we went shopping and to the spa. Then dinner at La fia in Wilmington. Another good place and Tom was welcomed by the staff. He knows them all.

On the 31st I took the Amtrak to DC to visit a dear friend who lives there. We both got damaged that evening while kids were knocking on the door for candy. She dropped a ladder on her toe, and I tripped on a step outside her kitchen and crashed to the floor! We had to laugh! Lovely dinner at home.

The next morning, we went to the urgent care so she could get an x ray of her foot. I found a great shop across the street and did some xmas shopping while she was treated. Then a fun lunch at Clydes in Chevy Chase. Tonight we will dine at home and I will head back to my home tomorrow.

March 2018 SAN FRANCISCO AND HAWAII WITH MY DAUGHTER

My daughter, Julie and I planned this trip when I was visiting her in San Francisco at Thanksgiving.
Julie is a student and this week is her Spring Break. What a great concept! A mother  daughter tropical vacation.
I wisely planned to spend a few days in San Francisco To enjoy the city, people there, and adjust to the time difference. And I did all that! I arrived in the City on Monday night, March 5th.
It was late, so hit the sack. Tuesday the 6th Julie had classes with a break at noontime, so I joined her for lunch at a Thai place in her neighborhood that she had never tried.  ME AND TASTYwas a tiny place with Thai / Asian fusion food. The  red curry was yummy. I took a historic streetcar to the foot of Market street and visited the food market at the Ferry building in the afternoon and had dinner at my hotel as Julie was in class till 10pm.

Wednesday Julie needed to study. I went to Marin to meet up with a friend there during the day and it was great to get over the bridge and out of the city on a gorgeous sunny day! Dinner that evening was with Craig and Bridget an Julie at WATERBAR restaurant right along the Embarcadero. Fabulous food and views of the Bay bridge at night. WE had a really great evening.

Thursday I had lunch again with Julie between classes, and the evening was my visit to more friends in Marin. Friends near our old Kentfield home, and dinner with Valerie at THE SPINNAKER in Sausalito...... Delicious Sole Dore and great Bay views again!

Hawaii Here we come! Friday was departure day. We flew from SFO to Lihui airport on the Garden Island of Kauai. We arrive around 9 pm, so driving to the hotel, we couldn't see anything around us.

Saturday morning was a beautiful surprise! We are at the St. Regis Hotel on the beach at Hanelai Bay
on the North end of the island. Swimming pool, outdoor bar, hot tub, restaurants, lobby lounge with music every night..... and fabulous views of the sea and the mountains around the bay. It is great here.
This island is mostly rainforest, so they get lots of rain and clouds here. So far it has not poured on us.

Hanelai Bay from the hotel

First impression of the views from the hotel

Sunday we took our first drive around the Island.

Monday we took a 5 mile walk on a plantation loop trail. The Wai Koa Loop trail.
We walked and chatted for over 2 hours and it was super pleasant until it rained on us!
But we kept going.

When we got back to the hotel, we needed lunch by the pool.

Our first Pina Colodas by the pool.  Life is good!

Tuesday and Wednesday it rained ALL DAY! We had spa time on Tuesday and hung around the hotel
and Wednesday we went to the town of Kapaa to shop. I wanted a rain jacket! We stumbled around in the rain and had fun
trying to stay dry ( ish) and Julie found a fun place to eat lunch there. Raw vegan food prepared to order and delicious. 

By Thursday it cleared up and we were so happy to see the sun we went out by the pool and got a little sunburn, but nothing serious. We had some good dinners on Kauai. Very good Restaurants at the hotel and some good local ones too. The Bistro, Piazza, and others.

Friday afternoon , March 16th, we took a Golf Cart tour of the hotel golf course that overlooked the bay and the open sea. A guy from the club started us off and told us a lot about the local Birds and what we could expect to see. We rode around and had a lot of fun for almost 2 hours. There were others in the group and we followed each other around.

Julie was hoping to take a 6 hour hike into the hills of the Napali Coast, ending at Hanakapi'ai
Falls, but that didn't happen due to all the rain. But on Saturday, our last day, we did drive to the base of the trail and checked it out for future reference. Then we drove all around the island and went to the Waimea Canyon from the town of Waimea on the south side. We drove up the canyon road and got all the way to the viewing spot just as heavy clouds rolled in. They totally obstructed the view of the canyon and we could not see a thing from up there. but it didn't rain!!

We stopped at a bar in Kalapaki Bay to celebrate St Patricks Day before heading to the Lihu'e
airport to head home. We flew to San Francisco together, and Julie was home. I got a connecting flight to Boston and made it home by Sunday night. A long way from home! It will take me almost a week to adjust to the 6 hour time difference. 
The big highlight of this trip for me was all the time I got to spend with my lovely daughter. She is a great conversationalist and we had a lot of interesting talks, and just great bonding time!
ALOHA!!

FEB 2018 ..... SOUTH FLORIDA and NEW YORK THEATER TRIP

Cynfull Living is traveling solo now. This is my first post since my divorce from Ray, the guy who took the photographs for the blog until now. I will now take on the challenge of learning how to upload my own photos onto my posts. How hard can it be, right?

I took a very restorative trip to Florida from Feb 6 to 13th. My almost 93 year old dad passed away in Delaware on Feb. 2nd. We were all with him in his final days and hours. Losing a loved one is always very tough and this was no different. We were all totally depleted after his passing, and I just happened to have planned a trip South to visit friends quite some time prior. Getting from my dads deathbed home to pack for Florida was completely exhausting, but out of sheer stubbornness and determination, I managed to get myself to the Miami airport on the afternoon of the 6th and did the drive to Key Largo and the Ocean Reef Club to visit my good friends, Terry and Patricia, who spend their Winter there.
But Oh My, I really needed that time in the warm and the sunshine to restore my body, mind, and spirit. It was very healing to be with my good friends and play golf, dine outdoors and sing songs
at the piano bar with my girlfriend. WE attended a play and a lecture at the Ocean Reef Cultural Center. It was all great! And did I mention the spa? That is always a major source of therapy for me.

After several days at the Inn at Ocean Reef, I took my rental car and drove up to Vero Beach to stay at the Costa d'Este Beach Hotel Resort...... a wonderful spot right on the beach. I was there to visit my other good friends , Alki and Shannon, who live in Fort Pierce, about 30 minutes due South.
We had dinner at the restaurant at the hotel which was really good. I would go here again !! Very nice place. We also visited The McKee Botanical Garden near Ft. Pierce and loved it!

The Feature at the McKee Garden was life size sculptures of African birds and animals created by African artists.
The shots here and below are just of few of the many animal sculptures around the park. We all really enjoyed it there.
Its a great place to take kids!

 I had dinner Sunday evening with other friends who Winter in Vero Beach. It's a nice town.  Not too packed with snow birds and vacationers.........

I flew home on Tuesday, Feb 13th.  Just in time to spend one day taking care of business in my hometown, then off to Delaware to be with my family for my father's memorial service. He had passed away on the 2nd at almost 93 yrs. May you rest in peace dad!

Then on the 21st, I took the AMTRAK Acela train to New York to stay at the PALACE HOTEL at Madison and 50th St. and meet my friends for theater. I had dinner that evening at TOSCANA 49 ..... at 143 E 49th Street. A very cozy neighborhood Italian place. I sat at the bar and watched the Olympics while I dined. Perfect.

Wednesday the 22nd was a double show day. I had a lovely lunch at COOKSHOP at 10th Ave and 20th St. It was a Springlike day in the 70s in NYC, and so good for a stroll in the Chelsea area.

Cookshop in Chelsea

Cookshop Bar......... my lunch spot.

We saw the play "Hangmen" by Martin McDonagh at the Atlantic Theater Company on W20th Street. It was absolutely riveting! This show came to NYC from London's West End. We are so lucky to have it. Very well staged, acted, and a gripping story.
That evening was "Farinelli and the King" at the Belasco Theater.  It stars Mark Rylance as the king and was written by Claire Van Kampen, who happens to be Rylance's wife. A historical piece about King Phillipe V of Spain and takes place in the late 18th Century.  I love Rylance in anything he does and he did not disappoint. Before the show we had a beautiful dinner at RESTAURANT GABRIEL KREUTHER. An elegant 3 course pre theater menu. I would go back there in a heartbeat.

First course at Gabriel Kreuther

Yummy dessert

Thursday morning, 2/22, I had breakfast at the hotel with my good friends, then went to the spa for the rest of the morning.  My friend Janet  joined me for a few more days of theater..... we did lunch that day at FRESCA BY SCOTTO  at 34 E 52nd St............ Delicious. That evening, we saw a  great play, "Dear Evan Hansen" at the Music Box Theater. This musical movingly explores universal themes of love, loneliness, grief, and the search for connection in a world of social media and isolation. A story about 2 struggling families and a misplaced letter became a wildly popular show. We really enjoyed it, and came out hungry. Dinner at a favorite theater standby, LA MASSERIA, was just perfect. By the way, I had a cold in NYC after all the running around I had been doing. My hotel had a lovely SPA which I used to help restore my health and the steam room was very key to cold recovery.

Friday Janet went to the Met for the David Hockney show and I rested up from all my life events and travels. I had lunch at FIG & OLIVE on E 52nd St. Delicious. And they sell their beautiful oil too.
Friday evening was "Come From Away" at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater. This is a play put to music about the people in the town of Gander, Newfoundland who opened their homes and public buildings to thousands of passengers from planes diverted to their airport after the 9/11 attacks.  The music
and some of the scenes were very lively, but I found it tedious and was not really a big fan. We were both disappointed because we thought we would love this one. Another lesson in managing expectations........ Oh, and dinner was pre show at a wonderful seafood restaurant called OCEANA
at 120 W. 49th. An actor friend joined us and it was great to see him.

Saturday, the 24th was another 2 show day..... I know. We are really overindulging on Theater.
Janet wanted to see "Farinelli and the King", so I went a second time to see it with her. I'm SO glad I did! We had seats in the 2nd row, and were so close to the stage, it felt like a different show!
I could hear every word this time, and see Mark Rylance up close! It was divine. And the Countertenor who sang Farinelli was superb!!!!
Dinner that evening was at a really fun place called THAI VILLA at 5 E 18th St. the place was full at 5:45 so we sat at the bar and got great service. I had tapioca dumplings and a cornish hen dish and Janet had a mango salad and Sea Bass in a coconut milk sauce. Both excellent!
The show that evening, our last one, was really more performance art than theater. "In and Of Itself"
at the Daryl Roth theater.... written and performed by Derek Delgaudio...... it was an amazing blend of magic, storytelling, and mind reading ( or something that felt like it). The house was full and people got their minds blown by what he could do. Very gifted guy. I recommend it.

We both traveled home on Sunday...... Just before boarding the Dartmouth Coach to come home, I stopped in a Starbucks. Liked the art on the board there.

I had to kiss NYC goodbye in that Starbucks....

very glad to be back in my nest! Love NYC but not for long
stays. This was perfect.