US

October 23, 2022

During the early part of my career, I spent three years travelling non-stop while installing property management systems in hotels.  Typically, I would spend anywhere from one week to several weeks at a property either teaching classes or supporting them after they cutover to the new system.  I got to see 35 different states and travelled to three other countries.   It might sound like a dream job but we worked long hours and not every project went well.

In 1988, I was part of the project team that had installed their property management system at the Royal Lahaina Hotel.  It was a project in a great place with a fun project team and the project went well.  I always looked back on the project with a lot of fond memories, and here was I was, almost 35 years later attending a HFWF event at that hotel.  It was a full circle moment.

We arrived a little bit early so that I could spend some time reminiscing.   We then headed to the area where the cocktail reception was being held.  My last few visits to Maui, I had been staying at the large resorts with perfectly landscaped gardens around the pools.  Although it was nice, there were people everywhere, we had to get to the pool early if we wanted to get a chair with shade.   The Royal Lahaina felt roomier, less landscaped, less people and more relaxing.  I thought we should probably look at staying there on a future visits.

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October 22, 2022

We headed over to the Sheraton Resort and Spa for our first Hawaii Food and Wine Festival of 2022.  We have been attending this event every year since 2014 until the pandemic hit and things came to a stop.   It felt good to be attending the event again and we weren’t disappointed.   As with previous events at the Sheraton, there were a couple dozen well known chefs creating all sorts of small plates.  There was plenty of wine and a several mixologists.

One of the first people we ran into at the festival was Aya who has always taken care of us.  Soon after we ran into Denise Yamaguchi who presented us with lei’s.  Soon after we ran into Roy.  It was good seeing everyone and hard to believe that three years had passed.

Chef Lee Anne Wong was there, we had eaten at her new restaurant in Lahaina the night before.  Fan favorite Shota Nakajima from Top Chef 18 was also there.  On Top Chef, he came off as being very laid back and very likeable.  In person, he was very nice and very easy to talk to. He has a couple of different restaurants in Portland, I would love to go up there again and check them out.

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October 21, 2022

I brought my drone to Hawaii in hopes of being able to fly it. Although I had the drone for a couple of years, I hadn’t flown it all that much.  Ideally, I wanted to familiarize myself with flying the drone without having to worry about losing it or crashing it into something and causing damage.  I knew that there was a big field next to the resort and headed over there just about every morning.

The first morning, I was told that I was in a restricted zone and I needed to get permission before I could fly.  It was back to the hotel room to read about how to get permission in order to unlock the map.   The following morning, I was able to take off but soon after, I received a message that it was very windy and that I should land as soon as possible.

Finally, I was able to fly and had fun doing so only to realize after the fact, I had not taken any video.  It was off to the field again in order to get at least one decent video!  I was pleased with the results but it is clear,  I am a beginner and there isn’t anything too exciting or dramatic in this footage!