Hawaii part 2: more Waikiki

Started the next day off with the McDonald's Deluxe breakfast-- SPAM, eggs, and rice plus Portugese Sausage. The sausage wasn't that great... would have preferred more SPAM instead!

Since Alice was still working, I had another day to explore Waikiki by myself. Went to the Honolulu Zoo, which was ok, but pretty much your typical zoo. There were a few things I had never seen before, like a Komodo Dragon:

and the endangered Hawaiian Nene, which may or may not be related to the SuperDuck:

After the zoo it was the beach, then some shopping, then some soba noodles from an ABC Store, then more beach. Overall, plenty of relaxing time on the beach, but not a very exciting day, so here's a pic of a nautilus I took at the aquarium the previous day:


We met up with Alice's coworker Jen for dinner at Roy's. Now that's what Hawaiian seafood is all about... I ordered the Roy's Classic Trio of blackened ahi with spicy soy mustard butter sauce, hibachi grilled salmon with Japanese citrus ponzu sauce, and Hawaiian style misoyaki butterfish with a sizzling soy vinaigrette. Amazing. I expected to be the least impressed by the ahi, I mean, come on, it's blackened tuna, right? But it was cooked perfectly (i.e., almost not at all) and the sauce was unlike anything I had ever tasted. A chocolate souffle and a glass of wine later, and I was ready to turn in.

Hawaii part 1: Aloha!

Actual IM conversation, June 23, around 9:30 AM:

Brian: so Alice is in hawaii for work, and I didn't go.
Tom: bonehead.

So it took me about a day to realize I was an idiot, but with some help from friends like Tom, the realization finally occurred and I bought a ticket to Honolulu.

Here was the view from our hotel on Waikiki beach:
And here's me with my smuggest "I'm in Hawaii and you're not" pose:

Alice was working, so I began the first day by myself. What better way to start the day than with the traditional Hawaiian breakfast from McDonald's:

That's right, SPAM, eggs, and rice! Hawaiians love their SPAM for some reason.

Fully nourished, I hiked to and then up Diamond Head, an extinct volcano on Oahu. It's not a long hike, but it's steep, and I kept up a pace that left me pretty exhausted at the summit. Here are some views from the top:



Went to the Waikiki Aquarium after the hike. Got to see some endangered monk seals and learn about several reef critters whose identification would surely come in handy later on in the trip. Had a sushi lunch after the aquarium and then just chilled out on the beach for the rest of the day. When Alice came home from work, we had fish tacos, tropical drinks, and ice cream pie at Duke's Canoe Club before going back to the hotel and passing out.

San Francisco, part 3

We got a car on the third day, and headed out for Napa Valley. The plan was to stop at the Cheeseboard Collective in Berkeley (thanks Scott for the recommendation), buy a variety of cheeses, and then picnic at a vineyard when we got to the valley. Well, part one of the plan went great, as we sampled maybe two dozen cheeses at the Collective before buying four or five of them for our picnic (yeah, I guess we were hungry!) But by the time we checked in at Napa, it was late afternoon on a holiday weekend, and all the vineyards were closing soon. So we drove into town and found Copia, the American Center for Wine, Food, and the Arts.

Copia was cool. There was a sauvignon blanc food festival going on which we jumped into. Picture an expo with maybe 60 or so tables, with each table either offering a variety of either sauvignon blancs or some super tasty food. Damn, I'm starting to salivate as I recall this. There were brick oven pizzas, Mexican wraps, barbecued ribs, seafood, and sandwiches of all kinds. Ironically, what I remember best of all, other than the wine, was a "New England" style clam chowder, which was perfect-- seasoned just right with some herbs I can't identify, creamy and loaded with clams and potatoes, better than any chowder I've had back home in New England.

We toured the Copia gardens for a while, and then I bought a bottle of red for later, but by the time we got back to the hotel, we were exhausted.

San Francisco, part 2

We had a little more of an agenda on the second day: see sea lions, see Golden Gate Park, and walk the Golden Gate Bridge. All this stuff appeared to be on the western end of the city, and since we were staying on the eastern side, we decided to start the morning with a long ride on the bus. After some somewhat unsettling moments sitting across from a woman wearing a gas mask and then a person with several trash bags full of something (actual conversation- Brian: "I wonder what that man had in all those trash bags." Alice: "That wasn't a man.") we made it to the westernmost point of the city, Sutro Heights Park. We walked around the park a bit before heading toward Seal Rock, near the Cliff House Inn. Unfortunately, there were no seals or sea lions, but the views were nice:


We then walked to Golden Gate Park. After seeing some bison in the northwest area of the park, we took a bus to the Japanese Tea Garden and the arboretum, where we spent some time looking at plants before hopping back on the bus to the Golden Gate Bridge.

We walked all the way across the bridge and back (round trip about 4 miles). It's really an amazing structure, and thanks to the beautiful weather, we had fantastic views of Alcatraz and the cities across the bay.



Back on the bus, we were still determined to see sea lions, so we headed for Fisherman's Wharf. We stopped at Fort Mason, where we saw a weird statue, and then Alice found a place where, it being happy hour, we could eat really cheap food as long as we ordered really expensive beer.

We finally got to Fisherman's Wharf (a gigantic gaudy tourist trap if there ever was one) and finally got to see our sea lions. True, they mostly just sat there like giant tired slugs, but sometimes they would bark at one another and occasionally duke it out, as only noisy giant slug-like creatures with no arms can.


We took a cable car back to the hotel. You might not think that a 9 mph ride up and over the ridiculous hills of San Fran would be that exciting, but you'd be wrong. It's not exactly a roller coaster, but you do get that feeling when you crest the top of a hill and begin the downward plunge. (It only lasts a few seconds of course since the thing stays at a constant speed).

Dinner that night was at Fleur de Lys. Yes, for you Top Chef fans, this was the site of the first episode, and those famous words "You have to leave the line." I had veal sweetbreads with lobster and caviar, pan roasted halibut, noisettes of venison, and chocolate mousse. She had asparagus salad, Hawaiian prawns, Colorado lamb loin, and the FleurBurger: a "lightly spiced dark chocolate ganache, home made Biegnet Cherry milkshake, and frozen fennel-flavored ice cream 'pommes frites'."

San Francisco, part 1

Better late than never? We actually went to San Francisco before the APC, but I never got around to blogging it. Fortunately, I sort of sub-blogged it while we were there, so I have some notes to help fill the ever-widening gaps in my memory.

The first cool thing that happened was actually at Logan Airport in Boston. At the long term parking lot, there were Hybrid-Only parking spots at the front of the lot! HA! In your face, you SUV driving earth-haters.

But then we got on the plane and reality sunk in and our overbooked flight was delayed on the runway for a while. We ended up in San Francisco later than expected, but no big deal, we didn't really have anything planned for the first day. We took the BART into downtown and found our free Marriott, and then had a surprisingly spiffy sushi lunch at Sanraku, which was located in a movie theater/shopping mall.

We walked to Chinatown for some sightseeing, and then went to the Cable Car Museum, where we saw the machinery that drives the underground network of 9 mph cables onto which the cable cars latch for locomotion. From there we walked to Japantown, an area of town that I could have stayed in all week, going from shop to shop and eating at a different restaurant every day...

That night, we had dinner at Jardiniere, where we had the daily 7-course tasting menu. Wow. We came to San Fran for the food, and the first place certainly set the bar high! Kampachi and veal, striped bass, duck breast with foie gras, filet with truffles, to name a few highlights.

Walked partway back to the hotel before giving in to the cold and hopping on the BART. Here's San Fran City Hall at night:

Congratulations, Jeff!

Congratulations to Jeff Peek, the new Autocracy Poker Champion! Jeff outplayed and outlasted a tough final table including two former APC Champions plus two former APC money winners.

Here are the final table results:

7th place: Dan
6th place: Erin
5th place: Rob
4th place: Alice
3rd place: Paul (wins $70)
2nd place: Brian D. (wins $100)
1st place: Jeff (wins $190)

Jeff's win, his first cash at an APC event, puts him in the illustrious company of previous champions Dan and Erin, as well as Lisa, Tom, Paul, and myself as money winners in the short but storied history of the APC.

Thanks to all who participated! And thanks to those who took pictures. I hope everyone had a great time. Hope to see you all at APC4 next year!

Here are some more pics:




I love this pic because it looks like I'm yelling at Steve:






The final table:

And a couple of Guitar Heroes round out the festivities:

Third Annual Autocracy Poker Challenge

It's almost time for the Third Annual Autocracy Poker Challenge! Here are the tournament details:

The structure remains the same as in previous years, with the single exception that this year, there will be unlimited rebuys allowed during the first four rounds (i.e., until the first break.) For those of you who haven't been to the previous Autocracy Poker Challenges (APCs for short), or need a refresher, here is how it works:

• $10 gets you 1,000 in tournament chips.
• Rounds are 20 minutes long, and blinds increase at the end of each round.
• After every four rounds, there is a break.
• The first break is the food break, at which time you will be fed.
• If you bust out at any time before the food break, you may rebuy. Another $10 gets you another 1,000 chips.
  
• During the food break, you may add-on another 1,000 chips for $10, whether you re-bought or not. This is the final opportunity to buy in for more chips.

General Rules:

• Rule #1: Play nice and have fun. Yes, there are a few bucks to be won, but in the grand scheme of things, it's not an anything worth fighting over. Let your cards and your chips do the fighting.
• Rule #2: Jeez, I really don't feel like writing up a bunch of rules, and I know you don't want to read them anyway. All disputes will be settled autocratically by the host.
  

Blind Structure

(small blind - big blind)

1. 10 - 20
2. 15 - 30
3. 20 - 40
4. 25 - 50

Food break - final add-ons/rebuys

5. 50 - 100
6. 75 - 150
7. 100 - 200
8. 150 - 300

Break

9. 200 - 400
10. 300 - 600
11. 400 - 800
12. 500 - 1000

Break

13. 1000 - 2000
14. 1500 - 3000
15. 2000 - 4000
16. 2500 - 5000

Break - blinds will double every 15 minutes after this round.

History of the APC
"Action" Dan Furlani won the inaugural Autocracy Poker Challenge, winning the heads-up battle vs. Tom "42" Chalker. Dan tore through the competition with a calculated mixture of bluffing and aggression to take home the title.

The winner of APC 2, and current Autocracy Poker Champion is "The Princess of Poker" Erin McMurray, who also defeated Tom "42" Chalker in a stressful heads-up finale. Erin grabbed the lead early and never looked back as she kept knocking out opponents with her tight-aggressive style of play.


Who will be the next Autocracy Poker Champion? Find out on March 29th! Maybe it will be YOU!