Text 23720, 64 rader
Skriven 2012-04-14 10:07:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: feb trip report 541
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Nawiliwili Park, on the south side of Lihue, is a nice place
to watch the sunset and get rid of one's liquids before going
to the airport. It's actually an ugly concrete breakwater in
the port area, but the views out over the mountains and the
harbor are nice enough that people congregate here in the
evening. We spent an hour watching the tourist and school
boats, marveling at the amount of energy teenagers have.

We were draining the last of our wine when a couple came by with
a case of water. Of course, they'd overbought for their trip and
couldn't of course take it back in their carryons, so they gave
bottles to all and sundry. We offered them a glass of ours and
took a couple of theirs for hydration's sake.

Somehow, at the car rental we had managed to screw up by two hours
and had to leave the car behind early with no place to go. After
passing security in the usual jiffy wed discovered that there is an
acceptable airport concession (a bit expensive, but there's that
over a barrel thing going), where I had a reasonable bowl of
fairly spicy chili (a very shallow bowl, and lots of beans,
though), and a beer for only 25% more than it would have cost
stateside and only 25% additional more than it would have cost
outside an airport.

UA 676 LIH LAX 2139 0454 752 2EF

The delicious offering was a cheese and cold cut plate. Thank
goodness for that airport concession. Courvoisier and blessed sleep.
I believe Lilli had Bourbon, either there or on the next flight.

Lots of time to explore the wonders of the ex-President's Club,
which were, in this order, whiskey and wine.

UA 950 LAX IAD 0752 1535 777 8HJ

Breakfast involved a pretty decent though overcooked omelet,
the usual mystery meat sausage, and a blob of soggy but
cumin-and-paprika-spiced potato cubes. I had a Courvoisier,
which made an already pleasant flight even more so.

I saw Lilli off at her place at the Westin Washington City
Center, where as a platinum elite she got a beautiful corner
room with an eye-popping view; I was very sorry to go home,
but I had laundry to do, plus couldn't justify the expense.

Next morning I showed up on her doorstep first thing and
accompanied her to breakfast at the famed Ben's Chili Bowl,
where you have to go once in your life if only to experience
the scene and some of the most massive hype of your life. It's
diner food, not cheap, excessively salty and incessively spiced.
Not bad, just not good, and certainly not one of the (what it
was referred to as shortly after the Obama visit there) top
100 restaurants in the US. Lilli had a chili dog, which was
fine, a standard beef frank topped with a goodly scoop of
salty but otherwise underseasoned chili. I had just a bowl
of the chili, for which the solution to unfiery is a thing of
Tabasco down the way, and the solution to salty is a couple
packets of saltines, which actually brought down the average
level of sodium. I'd brought some bottled water and, as almost
never happens, drank it over the course of the day.

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