Today is a national holiday for the USA, but let me start with the Winter Olympics, and more specifically how our neighbor to the north is doing, Canada.   President Donald has certainly had his moments so far.   Here is a  status report from  Time  magazine . At one point they were near the bottom in medals earned. Both their women's and men's curling team were accused of cheating, which might be too strong a word for accidentally touching a stone. As of this afternoon, Canada has only 10 medals (one gold), putting them in 10th place. Mind you, when they hosted in Vancouver in 2010, they won 14 golds and topped the world with 26 medals. Their figure skating team has not done much. Their women's hockey team has already lost to the USA, 5-0.  However, there will almost surely be Canada vs U.S. gold medal games for both their men and women teams, so chances remain. And, oh, even with the curling accusations, the Canadian men's curling team is 4-1 in roun...

This is our our 33rd-day of our adventure.  We leave Vancouver in a few hours and will be back in Honolulu tonight.  Some thoughts about this very satisfying journey. My overriding concern was sleep.  Late last year during our two-month itinerary going east on the Norwegian Encore from Seattle to Southampton, followed by a Christmas River Cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest, I began to have difficulty sleeping during the final three weeks.  My worry was that this trip would result in the same because the Oceania cruise was to the east, where we had to make 8 one-hour time changes, shortening the day again. Well, my body remembered that ordeal, did not want a repeat, and kept me sleepy almost all the time.  Compared to not sleeping at all, this was fabulous. Episode 22 of the Kilauea eruption sequence in Halemaumau Crater resulted in 1000-foot fountains of lava.  However, that stopped after 10 hours, which is good, for a continuous eruption can bring volc...

In the  Vancouver Sun  yesterday was a  review of the restaurant we went to two days ago, Din Tai Fung .  A few surprises. It just opened last week. Is Canada's first Din Tai Fung. Can serve 312 customers at once. Raved about their Xiao Long Bao, or Shanghai soup dumplings. DTF XLBs feature Kurobuta pork, and each dumpling is 21 ounces with 18 folds.  Ten for 19.50 Canadian dollars, or divided by 1.39 to $14 U.S. dollars, or $1.40 each. Remember how Japanese wagyu beef was made famous by Kobe? Kurobuta  pork is a Japanese breed developed in Kagoshima of a Berkshire pig from the UK First given as a gift in the 1800s to the Emperor of Japan. There is a history, for in the 1640s, Oliver Cromwell's English soldiers were wintering the Shire of Berk and loved the taste of this unique black pig with white spots on tis legs, ears and snout. However, it was in 1930 that two of these pigs were brought to Kagoshima, and apparently all the "legal" Kurobuta ( meaning bl...