NEW YORK CITY TO SEATTLE TO HONOLULU

Well, the good news is that we're back in Honolulu, and all is well. Started off in New York City. Hotel said there was a set $70 cost of the taxi ride to JFK Airport. Well, when you add the toll charges and tip, it was up to $90. That in itself was okay. So we checked in for our 1PM departure time, which was ticketed more than three months ago. After we picked up our tickets, we went to the excellent Alaska Airline lounge and was beginning a leisurely breakfast when we found out that we needed to board the plane at 11:05, which was less than half an hour away. We never got any notice for this change. We came extra early to be safe, and it turned out that we only barely made this flight.

Some photos.

Bloody Mary and champagne in Alaska Air lounge.

Here is about when we learned we had only a few minutes rather than a couple of hours in the lounge. Our plane.

Goodbye Manhattan from air.

Then noticed the plane we were on was the Boeing 737 MAX 9, the one that lost a door in flight.

Oh well, must be okay now. Lunch was fine.

Watched the movie, Holdovers. Rotten Tomatoes score of 97/92, about as good as it can get. Got 5 Academy Award nominations, for Best Picture and Best Actor for Paul Giamatti. Da'Vine Joy Randolph won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

Mount Rainier.

Spent a couple of hours in the Alaska Air lounge. Then, our final leg, Seattle to Honolulu.

Acceptable meal with White Label Whiskey and red wine.

Watched The Notebook, with Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams. A few twists, and audiences liked it. Rotten Tomatoes scores of 54%/85%.

Saw a sunset.

And yes, another Boeing 737 MAX 9, but this time over 2678 miles of open ocean.

Arrived in Honolulu at 8:30PM.

Walked 7862 steps.

All our plants bloomed during our absence. Must be 50 calamansis to come.

Plumeria.

Orchid.

Anthurium.

Went to Marukai and bought a few items to enhance our 15Craigside meals.

Later today, our Mother's Day Dinner.

Last night Nemo Mettler of Switzerland, who identifies himself as non-binary, won the song contest.

Greta Thunberg, who is from Sweden, joined the pro-Palestine protestors and was arrested.

Comments

A NEXT COVID SUBVARIANT?

By now most know that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has become the dominant infectious agent, now accounting for more than 80% of all COVID-19 cases. Very few are aware that a new one, BA.4.6, is sneaking in and steadily rising, now accounting for 13% of sequenced samples . However, as BA.4.6 has emerged from BA.4, while there is uncertainty, the scientific sense is that the latest bivalent booster targeting BA.4 and BA.5 should also be effective for this next threat. One concern is that Evusheld--the only monoclonal antibody authorized for COVID prevention in immunocompromised individuals--is not effective against BA.4.6. Here is a reference as to what this means. A series of two injections is involved. Evusheld was developed by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, and is a t ixagevimab co-packaged with cilgavimab . More recently, Los Angeles County reported on subvariant BA.2.75.2 . which Tony Fauci termed suspicious and troublesome. This strain has also been spreading in

Part 3: OUR NEXT AROUND THE WORLD ODYSSEY

Before I get into my third, and final, part of this cruise series, let me start with some more newsworthy topics. Thursday was my pandemic day for years. Thus, every so often I return to bring you up to date on the latest developments. All these subvariants derived from that Omicron variant, and each quickly became dominant, with slightly different symptoms. One of these will shock you. There has been a significant decline in the lost of taste and smell. From two-thirds of early patients to now only 10-20% show these symptoms. JN.1, now the dominant subvariant, results in mostly mild symptoms. However, once JN.1 infects some, there seem to be longer-lasting symptoms. Clearly, the latest booster helps prevent contracting Covid. A competing subvariant, BA.2.86, also known as Pirola , a month ago made a run, but JN.1 prevailed. No variant in particular, but research has shown that some of you will begin to lose hair for several months. This is caused by stress more than anythi

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These are held every five years, and there have only been

Search This Blog