But first:  MOSCOW/WASHINGTON/KYIV >> President Donald Trump said today that Russia and Ukraine “will immediately start negotiations” toward a ceasefire and an end to their three-year-old war, speaking after he held a call with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. Photos and a video about our departure from Vancouver on Air Canada. Air Canada Lounge cuisine of soup with beer, Bloody Mary, Johnny Walker Black Label on rocks and sparkling rosé. Our plane, showing snow still on Vancouver mountain on May 18. Airline meal. Final view of Canada. This is a weird photo of our plane right over Diamond Head. Returned home at 9:15PM.  Walked 3641 steps. Great night sleep.  So anyway, our 33-day trip was wonderful. We went to the Osaka Expo twice.   Amazingly enough, we won the lottery on both days, for we got to use their motor scooter each day.  FREE!!!  Four for four.  The odds of this happening had to be 100 to one for this to occur.   We st...

When I first left Honolulu for California in 1958, our state population was 650,000.   Metro Las Vegas only had 75,000 people.  Today, Hawaii has 1.43 million people and Greater Las Vegas is twice our size, soon to hit 3 million people.   While Hawaii will soon top out at 10 million visitors/year, Las Vegas has historically received 40 million annual tourists. The city of Las Vegas has a population of 660,00, while Henderson, 16 miles away ( and part of greater Las Vegas ), has 330,000, making it the second largest city in the state.  Reno, not part of Greater Las Vegas, has 269,000 people and is #3. Some history: People began living in this general area from over 10,000 years ago, with Paiutes coming around 700 AD. Mexican scout  Rafel Rivera  in 1829 was the first non-native American visitor, and soon thereafter, this site was named Las Vegas, Spanish for meadows. The Battle of the Alamo for Texas independence from Mexico occurred in 1836, leading to our ...